CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Kayla
When our next date night comes around, Shadow sends me upstairs with orders to put on jeans, a long-sleeved tee, and my sturdiest sneakers.
By the time I come back downstairs, he’s in the kitchen chopping up a selection of fruit for Dewdrop.
He finishes dicing a mango and drops it into a bowl already full of blackberries and guava.
We’ve been working our way through the fruit selection at the grocery store and haven’t found a single one Dewdrop doesn’t like.
“Here you go.” Shadow slides the bowl over. “You’re certain you’ll be okay here on your own?”
“Finn’s coming over to play later,” the dragonet chirps. “He goes all over Ferndale Falls by himself.”
Finn’s also a wild animal raised here on Earth with a ton of survival skills my familiar doesn’t have. So I say, “But you’ll stay in the yard, right?”
“Of course.” My familiar reaches the end of his restraint and dives headfirst into the fruit bowl.
“I’ll watch over him,” Victoria writes.
“So we’re going out for our date?” I ask Shadow.
He smiles at me. “You could say that.”
“Well, I don’t like it. Dates should be here, in me, where I can see what you’re doing.”
“Now, Victoria, as someone determined to make us abide by the fine print when it suits you, I must insist you extend the same courtesy to us.” His smile turns into a smirk. “You didn’t stipulate that the dates must take place here, so we’re going out.”
A door bangs upstairs, but she can’t say he’s wrong.
He extends a hand toward me. “Shall we?”
The moment his fingers wrap around mine, he steps sideways, pulling me onto the shadow roads. We run for less than a minute, and when we come out right in front of Crystal Rock, excitement shoots through me.
“We’re going to Faerie! Where?”
His grin stretches wide. “It’s a surprise.”
We step through the door, and my stomach drops like I’m on a rollercoaster.
I’m expecting the sensation this time, so I also notice something else: the sudden lack of a feeling of presence.
I rub my chest. It’s a small awareness that’s been growing stronger, and I think it’s my connection to Victoria.
Is this what she meant when she said she couldn’t feel me during our last trip to Faerie?
Then Shadow’s hand grips mine, and we run the shadow roads again instead of going through one of the other doors of Faerie.
“So we’re staying in this realm?” I ask. “This is where you’re from, right? The same place as the orcs?”
“Yes, this is Alarria.” He interlaces our fingers more tightly and pulls me along. “It’s not the original realm of the cat sith, but it’s where my pack has lived for three hundred years.”
When I get a bit winded, he slows us to a stop just long enough to scoop me up into a bridal carry. Then he takes off again, running at least twice as fast as my top speed.
I throw my arms around his neck and enjoy the smooth power of his movements, the effortless way he sprints while carrying me. The show of strength does dangerous things to my girl parts, which are already happy to be this close to him.
It’s too bad we can’t do something about that.
Or can we?
Skye’s idea echoes through my mind. If we have sex here where Victoria can’t feel me, would she even know?
Before I can bring it up with Shadow, we burst out into the real world, color and smells and sounds and the pulsing thrum of magic surrounding me in a dizzying rush.
We move through a heavy forest of deep-green evergreens and beautiful blue birches.
The rich scent of pine and loam fills the air.
Instead of birdsong, a deeper sound comes from ahead, almost like…
“Are those cats purring?”
Shadow grins and slides to a stop in a clearing dominated by a large rock face.
A zigzagging crack runs down its center, widening into a large triangular cave entrance at the bottom.
Soft green moss covers the open ground, painted with diagonal gold bars of slanted evening sunlight filtering through the surrounding trees.
There’s no one else in sight, but the purring gets even louder. One by one, smiles appear, hanging in midair, followed by the rest of the panthers. Because that’s what they are—full-sized panthers, with long, silver-tipped black fur.
One strides out of the cave with slow dignity, a sprinkling more silver dusting their snout. “Shadow, you have returned,” says a lovely deep alto voice.
“Mother, I thank you,” he says, his tone formal. He sets me on my feet. “This is Kayla. Kayla, this is Moonlight, alpha of our pack, and my mother.”
His mother! An icy spurt of anxiety goes through me, and my heart starts to race. Why didn’t he tell me I’d meet the parents? I would have worn something nicer. I tug at the bottom of my T-shirt, which says: I’m not always sassy. Sometimes I sleep. At least it’s not the tits one.
“Welcome, human witch.” Her green eyes turn to Shadow. “Son of mine, we welcome you with the harmonizing.”
Shadow yanks his shirt over his head. His boots and jeans quickly follow, and he’s naked for a split second before magic ripples through the air, and he shifts into a panther.
He’s a good four feet tall and six feet long, not counting his tail. Shadow must weigh almost two-hundred pounds, which makes him far larger than any Earth panther. He’s an apex predator in his prime, easily one of the largest cats here.
I should be terrified.
But I’m not.
Those green eyes of his look at me with familiar warmth.
Then he dips his head to his mother. “It’s good to be back.”
She walks forward and rubs cheeks with him, and when she steps back, it’s as if a dam breaks. All the other panthers come forward to greet him the same way, never stopping their purrs.
Shadow joins them, a deep rumbling purr pouring from him. I want to bury my hands in his fur and lean my head against his side to hear that comforting sound reverberate through me.
When they’re done, he sits with his long-haired tail wrapped around his feet and leans against my legs. It’s only a fraction of his weight, but it almost knocks me over, so I drop to the moss-covered ground, leaning into him, feeling his purr vibrate through me.
The deep hum of their combined purrs throws me into a peaceful, transcendent state that calms the last of my anxiety. Maybe this is what meditation is like? Only I wouldn’t know, because this girl has never been able to meditate, no matter how often a therapist suggested it.
Caught in this magical moment, I’m not sure how much time passes before the sound fades away.
Three tiny black balls of floof barrel out of the cave, darting straight toward us.
“Uncle Shadow!” “Uncle Shadow!” “You’re home!”
They careen into him, and he lets out a theatrical “oof” and flops onto his side. “You got me.”
“Of course we did!” “We’re almost hunters now!” “Rawr!”
The kittens clamber all over him, and he scoops them up one by one with a paw as big as they are and brings them to his face to lick each little one’s head.
I laugh—I can’t help it. He’s so adorable with them!
“Who’s that?” “It’s a human!” “It’s not Naomi!”
“I’m Kayla.”
The smallest launches onto my lap and climbs my chest until a little kitten face hangs right below mine. Huge green eyes blink up at me, and a little girl’s voice says, “I’m Wisp!”
The other two follow, competing for space.
Cats normally make me uncomfortable. I get flustered that I don’t know how to pet them right. But these wiggling balls of floof are so clearly people I figure they’ll tell me if I do it wrong. It takes the pressure off.
“My name’s Slate! I’m oldest.”
The one with fur that shades the brightest silver says, “I’m Dawn.”
Slate tries to knock Wisp off to take her place, but she bats him on the nose. “My human.”
“No, she’s mine,” Shadow says, his voice a growl. Then he shifts into his werepanther form and plucks up two of them in his fur-covered hands. “Rawr!”
They squeal with delight as he stands to his seven-foot height and spins with his arms extended so they move through the air like kids on their own personal carnival ride. When he sets them down, Wisp leaps onto him, demanding her turn, so he does it again, her giddy shrieks filling the clearing.
Four new panthers return, carrying pheasants and dragging a deer.
“Who wants to help me build a fire?” Shadow asks.
Wisp says, “What do we need a fire for?”
“So we can cook for Kayla.”
The kittens chorus: “Ohhh!”
“Who can shift?” Shadow shifts into his fae form and pulls on his jeans and T-shirt so quickly I only get a fast flash of that glorious ass. Then he shifts into a werepanther, then back, flickering between the two forms, his magic a constant buzz in the air.
Watching him shift back and forth like that makes me realize his jeans must be enchanted, because they form a slit for his tail each time he’s a werepanther. That’s such a great idea—I totally need to work it into a game.
Shadow finally settles on his werepanther form. “Who can shift into their dual form and help me?”
“I can!” Slate stands and screws up his eyes, straining.
Wisp leaps to her feet. “No, me!”
Dawn hunkers low to the ground, ears flat and miserable.
I point to her and shoot Shadow a questioning glance.
“Shifting can be really hard.” He runs a hand down her back. “Especially when you’re not used to seeing anyone do it.”
I glance around, only now realizing he’s right—no one else is in their werepanther or fae forms.
“But it’s worth it.” He grins, his tone jovial as he starts to scratch under her chin. “Hands are amazing.”
Her little head lifts, her eyes closing to slits. “That feels good.”
None of the kittens are able to shift, but a couple of the adults turn into werepanthers to help Shadow gather wood.
While he’s gone, another of the adults shifts into a werepanther and starts clearing the ground in front of me to make a fire pit. “I’m Mist, Shadow’s cousin. Are you a witch like Taylor and Naomi?”
“I am.” I haven’t met Taylor, but Naomi’s mentioned her a few times as one of the other human witches brought to Faerie.
Mist picks up a small rock from beside the cave entrance. When Shadow drops off the kindling, she strikes the stone, and magic ripples through the air as the twigs around it catch fire. “This is an orc fire stone. I live part-time in an orc village and have learned the bipedal ways.”
Shadow sets down an armful of logs. “Mist knows almost as much about humans as I do.”
“Hah.” She bats at him. “I befriended one of the first humans in Alarria, and don’t you forget it.”
“Yes, well, I’m the one who lives on Earth,” he teases. “I’ve surpassed you, so I win.”
She narrows her green eyes, then grins.
When he disappears for another batch of wood, she leans close. “He’s a good one, but make sure you lead him on a good chase. Make him work for it.”
“Chase?”
“It’s a cat sith mating ritual. You run from the male to get him to chase you down and mount you.”
I let out a choked sound of surprise as I imagine Shadow chasing me through the woods. My thighs clench as my girl parts cheer with approval, like I’ve been coated with his aphrodisiac seed.
“You do this as panthers?”
“We can do it in any form, but the instincts are strongest when we’re panthers or werepanthers.”
The knowledge echoes around my brain as Shadow cleans and cooks a couple of drumsticks, his large, claw-tipped, fur-covered hands just as agile as those of the man. What would it feel like to be touched with those? I shiver.
While the others eat at the far end of the clearing, I nibble on my drumstick happily, the pheasant tasting like rich and meaty chicken.
Shadow settles onto the ground, all three of the kittens clinging to him and watching him avidly as he tells them all about living as a man in the human realm. He ends by saying, “I live with Kayla in a big house that can talk.”
“What’s a house?” Wisp asks.
I pull up pictures on my phone to show everyone Victoria.
“It’s the fanciest den I’ve ever seen.”
“What’s that?” A tiny paw taps at the screen.
“It’s a couch,” Shadow says. “It’s very soft, softer than any sleep spot in the den.”
Their little eyes go wide as saucers. “I want a couch!” “Me too!” “And me!”
“You’ve done it now,” Moonlight says, her tone dry.
Shadow grins, completely unrepentant.
“You’ll have to come visit,” I say impulsively, smiling when his mother nods at me in approval.
As the kittens shriek with excitement and run over to their parents to beg permission, the smile Shadow turns on me becomes incandescent, lighting me up inside.
“Thank you, my wife,” he murmurs. “It means a lot to me that you invited them.” Then he turns to catch Wisp right as she leaps toward him with full faith he’ll never let her fall.
I share that exact same faith. He won’t let her fall, not ever.
Being here, seeing how much he loves his huge extended family untangles one of my fears. Shadow’s surface is cocky and self-assured and brazen, a consummate game player determined to win. It’s all I could see for the longest time. But underneath, he’s caring and loyal to those he loves.
I want that, want to be more than a game to him. I want to be someone he loves.
I want to know he’ll catch me if I fall.
Because I’m already falling for him.