“Yeah…a very big change, to be honest. But I don’t see me going anywhere.” If Grace only knew. Willow’s status as a shifter meant she was now obliged to a life in the Kingdom. “Plan all the vacations you want!”
“That’s reassuring. Samuel was so picky, I began to despair of him ever hiring another vet to join the practice!” Grace laughed a little again and patted Willow’s arm. “Anyway, I’m very glad you’re here now. Samuel can’t say enough good things about you.”
“He’s a great boss, George is a great colleague, and I really like most of our clients.” Willow made a little face to let Grace know that she was kidding.
“Wait, let me guess…you’ve met Mrs. Rose and her obese basset hound and Gordon Masters with the ill-tempered Spitz.”
“How’d you know?”
Grace rolled her eyes. “Samuel has complained about those two for years.”
Laughing as they walked back to the front of the clinic, Grace added, “While we’re out of town, please come by and pick as much as you can out of the garden. No sense things going to waste because we’re not around.”
“Thank you so much. I’ll be sure to do that.”
Her eyes sparkling, Grace made one last comment, “I—I can’t tell you how excited I am to have a little vacation! It’ll be wonderful to see Lake Champlain again…and rekindle a little romance with my husband! Without you here, it simply wouldn’t be possible.”
“Enjoy your trip. We’ll plan a time to get together after you get back.”
Grace gave a happy little wave as she exited, and for one fleeting moment, Willow thought that she saw the white flash of a feathered wing.
***
“My money is on a Canadian Lynx,” Katie said. “You suckers can bet on a bobcat or a cougar.”
Willow stood behind her friend with her hands on her hips. “What? You guys have a betting pool on my maker?” She shook her head sadly. “When the cat’s away…”
Katie, Gretchen, Michael and Nicholas looked up at her a little guiltily. Katie had music blaring in the closed diner, and Willow had slipped in without them hearing.
“No, don’t let me stop you.” Willow put her hands on the end of the table, leaning in with a serious look. “What are the odds for Maine Coon Cat?”
Nicholas pursed his lips a little, looked at the ceiling with a contemplative stare. “Now that’s one cat we haven’t considered.”
“You’re not mad at us, are you?” Gretchen asked.
“Mad at you? No…but you are acting like a bunch of…animals.” Unable to contain herself any longer, Willow grinned.
The group gave a collective groan as Willow pushed Nicholas and Gretchen over so she could squeeze into the booth. Michael gave Willow an indulgent smile. “I’ve never heard that one before.”
“Cut me some slack. I’ve only been doing shifter humor for a couple of weeks.”
Katie gave Willow a devilish smile. “Just remember, there’s more than one way…to skin a cat.”
“Ouch. Point made. I’ll give it a rest. What’s the plan for this evening?”
Nicholas put a chummy arm around Willow’s shoulders. “You’re going out with me tonight.”
Willow punched him a little. “You mean going out with you, not…you know….going out with you.”
Nicholas looked at the group innocently. “Is insanity a common side effect for first-time feline shifters?”
Katie shook her head seriously. “No, just with Willow.”
A snigger ran through the friends.
“Wow, you guys are tough on a little cat.” Willow pouted a little.
Trying to sooth Willow’s ruffled fur, Katie said, “We’re giving you a hard time because we still have two nights to go and you’re ready for full moon. You’re going to do great.”
“Do you mean that?” Willow sniffed.
“We do.” Michael looked at Nicholas. “We think tonight should be kind of a practice run, then tomorrow night, you just need to rest.”
“Practice run? How can we have a practice run if I can’t shift yet?” Willow was puzzled.
Nicholas jumped in. “But we can. You need to see what all of us are like fully shifted, and we need to get used to each other. Then I’m going to show you a safe route to take, one that the locals here know will keep you out of harm’s way. If it seems familiar, then it’ll be easier for you to stay on track when your cat brain is running hot.”
“Okay, that makes sense.” Willow started to relax a little. “Should we go?”
The group piled into Katie’s SUV, and she started a winding drive out into the countryside. The roads gradually grew more narrow, going from paved, to hard pack, to eventually, just dirt. Finally, she eased the car to a stop.
“We walk from here.” Katie directed them to a trailhead hidden by huge ferns. They climbed silently for some time, finally coming into a clearing on top of the hill. The shifters collected, and Katie unfolded a topographical map. “Okay, it depends a little on what kind of cat you end up being, but probably you’re going to want to run around and roam for a good chunk of the night, hunt around dawn, feed, and hole up for a nap during the day. At dusk you’ll come back out, and you may want to hunt again, or you might be ready to shift back.”
Willow nodded. She knew all this from her training, although she still wasn’t so sure about the hunting and feeding part.
Nicholas picked up where Katie left off, tracing a route with his finger on the map. “We’ll follow the natural contours of the landscape, give you lots of room to go, then take you someplace where there should be a lot of rabbits available for breakfast, and some nice rocky ledges you can hide in for a nap.”
“I’ll be watching you while you’re sleeping,” Michael added. “Normally people shift back to sleep as humans because it’s safer, but that won’t be an option this first time.”
“So what’s going to keep me on course?” Willow asked.
“You’re going to chase me,” Nicholas said, rather nonchalantly.
“Chase you?”
“I’m going to smell a lot like dinner. But even if you turn into one gigantic cougar, I’m afraid you’d never be able to get the best of me.” He fanned his hands out on either side of his head to make antlers. “Wait till you see my rack!”
Willow punched him. “Now who’s making dumb shifter jokes?”
“I think the human part of your brain will know its Nicholas anyway,” Gretchen explained.
Willow threw her hands up. “You guys are the experts.”
Katie began to strip off her clothes, folding them up as she did. The others quickly followed suit.
“Umm, wait a second…” Their lack of modesty suddenly made Willow uncomfortable.
“You…strip!” Katie pointed at Willow. “You need to practice the clothes routine.”
“I’m supposed to run around the woods all night in my human birthday suit?”
“Okay, you have a point. Keep your tennis shoes on,” Katie said matter-of-factly.
A screech and a flapping sound caught Willow off guard as a wave of energy almost pushed her off her feet. Michael had shifted and was perched overhead. He screeched again and fanned his feathers out.
Katie waved at him. “Go have a snack. We’ll see you in while.”
The eagle took off into the dusky gloom. Then a nude Gretchen started to shimmer, the energy causing Willow’s hair to blow back. An instant later, a red fox shook herself, trotted around Willow, and then tugged at Willow’s pants leg with her teeth.
“Gretchen says it’s time to peel,” Katie laughed. She twisted a little and closed her eyes, but this time Willow was ready to absorb the force of Katie’s change. A beautiful gray wolf materialized in front of her. She scratched behind one ear with a hind leg, then sat and stared at Willow.
“Okay, okay.” Gingerly, Willow undid her cargo pants, sliding them off over her tennis shoes. Katie woofed at her, and then Willow reluctantly pulled her T-shirt over her head, all of a sudden fe
eling terribly embarrassed to be standing in the middle of the woods wearing nothing but a lacy lilac bra and matching panties…with running shoes.
“Nice!”
Willow jumped six inches straight up. She had completely forgotten that Nicholas was standing behind her. Spinning around, she couldn’t help but gasp a little. Nicholas had an incredibly sculpted and powerful body, not to mention that he was…hung like a moose.
“Why is it…that you’re always so jumpy? Is that a cat thing?” Nicholas tilted his head in a playful look. Waiting a moment to let Willow have an eyeful, he flexed his shoulders and stretched his neck a little. His energy aura rolled out, and this time, Willow did hit the ground from its force. The next thing she knew, a massive bull moose with the largest antlers she’d ever seen was nudging her to her feet with a velvety muzzle under her butt.
“Hey there!” She tapped Nicholas on the end of his nose with a finger. “No liberties just because you’re a moose.”
He shook his head and pawed at the ground a little, then raised his head and let out the strangest sound that Willow had ever heard as she scrambled to her feet. She remembered the calls that started the wedding of Nicholas’ cousin. Her eyes narrowed. “That’s not some kind of…mating call, is it?”
Nicholas stood still, gazing into Willow’s face, and then, he winked one big brown eye at her.
“You herbivores all think you’re so cute.” She tried to sound sarcastic, but she couldn’t really be peeved with Nicholas. His gorgeous brown eyes and thick lashes were pretty irresistible. She turned, and Katie and Gretchen were sitting there patiently, tongues lolling. “Alright, alright, you guys win.”
As she started to undo her bra clasp, Willow looked over her shoulder at Nicholas. “I thought I’m supposed to be following you…so march!”
Nicholas snorted a little, but turned and began walking at a relaxed but steady pace.
The underwear off, Willow found a hollow log to hide their clothes in, and then the three girls followed behind Nicholas. Ever so often, Nicholas would pause and turn his head to check on their progress, at which Willow would remind him, “Eyes forward!”
As dark descended, Willow noted how much her physical body had changed. She was more or less the same size and shape, but hard muscles now rippled where there had once been softness. All of her senses were heightened—especially sight and smell—and her sense of balance was astoundingly acute. She didn’t feel like she was hiking through the woods as much as she was flowing—another force of nature running in parallel with everything around her. She could feel confidence welling up in her, and the constant chatter in her mind about Mace and Chris and her mysterious maker began to calm. The more she tuned into her own body and the environment around her, the more the stream of thought in her head seemed to slow down. This, she knew from her shifter lessons, was her animal mind. The trick, her mentors told her, was to enjoy the respite from the mundane world without letting the animal completely take over.
Katie and Gretchen trotted along on either side of her, sometimes surging ahead to check out a sound, or falling behind to investigate a scent. All in all, Willow realized they were keeping a pace that few normal humans could have managed, and doing it with no light but that from the waxing moon overhead. A shadow passed over and when Willow tilted her head back, she caught a glimpse of Michael lazily flapping his wings, then soaring on ahead.
Time passed, and Willow noticed that she had little sense of marking the hours until the sky seemed to lighten and her stomach rumbled. Then she saw the area with the rocky ledges Nicholas had pointed out on the map with the promise that there were plenty of rabbits nearby. Michael reappeared, grasping something in his talons, and then a hare dropped at her feet. For an instant she felt pity for the small furry being, but she knew this was the reality of the cycle of life.
Nicholas disappeared into a thicket of trees ahead, and Willow picked up the rabbit. Eating raw hamburger and steak was one thing, but an entire rabbit with fur and entrails was entirely another. Her human mind balked. Willow’s hands began to shake, and she dropped it.
Katie gently picked up the rabbit in her powerful jaws and in one quick motion, snapped the head off at the neck. Then she placed it on the ground, using her teeth and claws to skin and gut it with a kind of precision that no normal animal could have executed. She looked up at Willow with a whine, and then nudged Gretchen. The two canines loped off to give Willow her privacy and to find their own breakfast.
The hunger inside Willow was throbbing and insistent; the cat inside her demanded to be fed. She sniffed, and the smell of the bloody carcass made her stomach growl even more. Without another moment’s hesitation, she tore into the rabbit—biting, tearing, gulping. Then the sound of a bone cracking called back her human mind. She tried to rationalize her craving; it wasn’t Willow squatting naked in the woods with blood smeared on her face, it was the cat…the cat that someone had forced inside her. A vision of hundreds of small, bloody animals, dead and dying, danced in front of Willow’s eyes. That was her life now, her life from now until the day she herself died. She dropped the remains of the rabbit, retched into the grass, and then found a sheltered overhang in the rocks where she curled up in misery, her back to the world.
“Shhh, shhh, it’s okay,” a soft baritone voice whispered in her ear. Willow felt a very human Nicholas press the warmth of his naked body against her back, spooning her as he wrapped his arms around her. All she could think about, though, was the metallic tang of blood in her mouth, a sharp angry spike driven through the center of her soul. She angrily wiped at her lips with a fist, struggling at the same time to push Nicholas away. It was impossible for her to bear the thought of anyone witnessing either her anguish or her degradation.
Nicholas only tightened the circle of his arms, and when Willow finally stopped thrashing, he caressed her hair with a gentle hand. Over and over, he silently stroked her head as he nuzzled his face against her back in an effort to sooth both the cat and the woman.
As the sky lightened, it was first pink, and then golden, a new day dawning as Willow’s labored breathing quieted. Somewhere in the Kingdom, a huge stag snorted and a pacing catamount roared, but Willow was oblivious, asleep as she was in the moose prince’s arms.
***
Willow blinked awake. A soft westerly breeze fanned her face. The sugary fragrance of honeysuckle drifted to her nostrils. And in the distance, a crow commented irately on something unseen. She started to roll over, but a heavy arm was slung across her hips. Her senses extended like fingers as she tuned to another pair of lungs and a strong heart keeping rhythm with her own. The powerful body next to her stirred with her movement, and then she became aware of Nicholas’ manhood waking up. His cock grew hard against her backside, her gentle squirming enflaming him.
“Good morning,” he whispered in her ear.
Nicholas didn’t move, neither retreating from his hard-on, nor trying to advance his position. Willow lay there, breathing in his smell, along with all the other rich offerings her senses detected. The moose prince smelled of pine and earth and something musky. It was, she decided, the smell of safety and, more importantly, the smell of understanding. She reached for his hand, and brought it to her lips, knowing no other way to express her gratitude for his unassuming presence.
Cuddling her, Nicholas let Willow take the lead, to show him what—if anything—she wanted from him. In a world where things felt so out of control because her life had been involuntarily and irrevocably changed, it was the perfect gesture. Willow rolled to face him.
“Good morning.” A gentle smile lit up her face. It was her genuine smile; the one that came not from silliness, nor superficial satisfaction, but from deep in her soul.
“How are you feeling?” Nicholas ran a finger across her brow.
“Not so much like a ‘fraidy cat.”
“That’s good.” He played with a piece of Willow’s hair, looping it around a finger. “You’re over the hump now. Friday n
ight will be a piece of cake.”
Willow sighed in a deep breath. “You smell good.”
“Good as in you want to bed me, or good as in you want to eat me?” He smiled with his eyes.
Stretching a little, Willow’s pupils grew dark as they expanded with desire. “What if I did want to eat you?”
“I’d be forced to restrain you. As an herbivore, it’s my only option. Well, that, or stomping you into the mud, but that might be rather hard to do to such a beautiful cat.”
Rolling to her back, Willow looked up at the rock over their heads. “I’m…feeling a little hungry.”
In one quick move, Nicholas was poised over Willow, supporting his weight on his knees and one hand. He pinned her wrists over her head with his other hand. “Funny, I’m hungry, too.” Leaning down, Nicholas’ mouth brushed Willow’s, his lips soft as silk as he barely touched her.
“Mmmm. Tasty.” Willow’s eyes were half closed. “Come closer.”
“Is that the cat or the woman talking?”
“The woman, definitely the woman.” Willow shimmied a little, trying to get her hands free of Nicholas’ grasp.
“I don’t know…that was definitely a cat-like move.” He lowered his head and kissed her again, this time his mouth eager and searching.
When his lips released her, Willow added breathily, “You don't have anything to worry about, you’re like…catnip.”
“Must be all those greens I eat,” he said with a little laugh. Releasing her hands, Nicholas flipped to his back, pulling Willow astride him. Her lower lips parted as she rubbed against Nicholas, his cock now hard and completely erect. A purr rolled up from her throat.
“Like that, do you?” Nicholas looked up into Willow’s face; her passion coloring her cheeks as she softly bit her lower lip. His hands held her by the waist and he bucked against her, holding her tight against him. Willow could feel the blood rushing into her cleft, every sensitive nerve ending throbbing. Reaching up, he cupped one of her full breasts in his huge hand, his thumb swimming over her nipple. A kitten-like yowl escaped from her lips as he teased her nipple with little pinches.
Willow Run: Boxed Set (Books 1-6) Page 15
