Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Hurt.
All over.
Strange smell.
Not clan.
Danger?
Smell.
Clan. Alpha. Safe.
Strange smell. Danger?
Protect alpha!
Open eyes. No alpha? Up. Sore. Alpha danger? Snarl.
“Sam?”
Big danger. Protect alpha smell.
“Sam, it’s me.”
Snarl.
“Stay in that chair, Gideon. He’s all cat right now.”
Snarl. Protect.
“Sam.”
Hurt. Whine.
“Sam!”
My awareness snaps back. What the fuck? What…
Whoa.
Like… whoa.
I think… I think I shifted.
I’m achy all over. I feel… different. My vision is… weird. And either I’m sitting on the floor, or I’m a cat.
I look down.
Paws.
Yep. Safe to assume I shifted.
I look back up and allow my weird vision to focus on the others in the room. Aidan is just a foot away, watching me intently. Percy is standing near Dr. Sims and the nurse. Gideon is leaning forward in his chair, his gaze fixed on me.
“Sam?” Aidan asks, and I open my mouth to answer, but only a rumbling sound comes out. Relief crosses his face. “He’s back,” he says, then sits on the floor right beside me and opens his arms. “How’re you feeling?”
I practically crawl into his lap. There’s something in me that just wants to snuggle up to him and be safe.
“You’re okay,” he assures me. “I’ve got you. Do me a favor—blink twice if you can understand me clearly.”
I blink twice, and his smile breaks out as he scratches the back of my neck.
“Great. You’ve shifted into an adult cat, which is great, and there doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. The human smell is completely gone—you’re absolutely, one hundred percent shifter.”
I rub my head against his chest. I don’t know why. This is just… surreal.
“I want to see how your coordination is. Could you walk across to Gideon, please?”
Part of me hates the idea of leaving the safety of Aidan’s touch, and I whine… then movement catches my attention, and I look over at Gideon again.
Without consciously deciding, I wiggle out of Aidan’s lap and take a step toward Gideon—
—and stumble sideways.
Frowning, I stabilize, shake myself out, and try again.
This time, I trip and actually fall.
Aidan laughs. “Looks like you’re a full-grown adult with the coordination of a first-time shift.”
“Is that bad?” Gideon asks.
“Only in the sense that he’ll need to get used to his cat. All shifters go through this—but usually we’re teenagers.”
I put my head down on my paws. I have to learn how to walk? How fucking annoying.
“Come on, Sam—it’s not that bad. Let your cat do the work. You’re trying to walk like a human, and that won’t work with four legs.”
Sighing, I push myself back up to my feet, which feels different from usual, and try to take a step without thinking about taking a step.
It doesn’t work, and this time I collide with the coffee table. My snarl of pain is actually pretty cool to hear, and I try to do it again.
“If I may?” Percy asks Aidan, who nods. “Sam, focus on your inner energy.”
I give it a try—it feels exactly the same as when I was human, only… tinglier.
I take a step.
And then another.
Hey, this isn’t so hard after all!
On the next step, I stumble. Okay. Maybe don’t get cocky just yet. Still, I manage to make it across to Gideon and rub my cheek against his thigh, mostly because I want to know if it’s as muscled as I think it is.
It is.
He puts a hand on me and bends forward. “You’re beautiful, Sam.”
There’s a sharp knock at the door, and I whip around, fall on my ass, scramble back to my feet, and snarl.
“Relax, Sam,” Aidan says, letting a bit of the alpha seep into his voice, and the panicky feeling— danger! Danger! —recedes a little. “Those are your friends, remember?”
Oh. Right. Wow, those cat instincts sure are sharp.
“Percy, could you ask them to come in one at a time? Hellhounds last. He’s still very reactive, and I don’t want there to be any incidents.”
Percy goes over to the door and lets himself out of the room. I back up until I’m touching Gideon’s legs, then sit.
“Uh, Sam,” he murmurs, and there’s a thread of laughter in his voice. “Could you move over just a few inches? You’re a beautiful cat, but just a bit too big to sit on my feet.”
I chuff and glare at him over my shoulder. In response, he wriggles his feet out from underneath me.
The door opens, and I whip my head back around. Percy comes in and moves to stand beside the doorway. Lily follows him, and then he closes the door.
Her eyes land on me, and a huge smile lights up her face. I suddenly realize that I can smell her—not just her , but her species. I can clearly tell that she’s a succubus. I don’t know how or why, but I just can.
I inhale deeply, and it sinks in that I can smell everyone in the room. Gideon, behind me—demon.
Percy—felid shifter. Lucifer. That has a smell of its own.
Dr. Sims—sorcerer. The nurse—demon.
Aidan—felid shifter. Alpha. Leader.
Briefly, I ponder the difference in scent between Percy and Aidan. It’s subtle, but there. I wonder if me learning to be a cat will include explanations on reading scents and what they mean.
“Sam? Look at you!” Lily steps closer, then looks to Aidan. “Can I go to him?”
He’s studying me. “Yeah, but keep it slow. No sudden movements. His protective instincts are very close to the surface.”
Lily comes slowly across the room—so slowly that I get bored waiting for her and get up to go meet her. She gets down on her knees and opens her arms. “Can I have a hug?”
I’m still snuggled up to her when Percy opens the door and David slips in.
And then Andrew.
And then Tall and Eyebrows. They all exclaim in excitement when they see me, and my cat stays calm, mostly just intrigued by all the new scents.
But now I want Alistair. I go over to the door and nudge Percy. He glances at Aidan.
“Okay, Sam, but come over here first.”
Chuffing my impatience, I obey. If he wants me close in case I go gonzo, I really can’t argue with that.
Percy sticks his head out into the anteroom, and a moment later, the door swings wide and Alistair and Elinor cautiously enter. My best friend’s gaze flits around the room before it locks on me.
“Wow. You really are a cat,” he murmurs, and then a huge grin breaks over his face. “Your fur is standing up on your head like a cub’s,” he teases.
Really? Oh, fuck me! Why didn’t anyone say? I try to use my paw to smooth it down, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work.
Alistair comes toward me, moving carefully but not that slowly, and sinks down to sit beside me.
“All good, Sammy?” He offers a hand for me to sniff, but I’ve already clocked his and Elinor’s scents.
They’re shifter, but different from Percy and Aidan and me.
Part of me wants to wrinkle my nose and swipe at him because of it, but mostly it’s just different and he’s my best friend.
I knock his hand aside and swipe my rough tongue over his cheek.
“Hey! Eeew!”
Once the laughter tapers off into chuckles, Aidan says, “I think it’s time for you to shift back, Sam. You need to practice shifting back and forth, and I imagine you all have a lot to do today.”
Oh.
He’s right, of course, but I kind of like being a cat. Plus, if I can’t talk, I can kind of hide from everything that’s still unanswered. And I’ve gotten tons of hugs. The hugs are nice.
And Gideon called me beautiful and I got to feel him up. Sort of.
I growl.
Aidan raises a brow, but Alistair slaps me lightly across the muzzle.
“Show some respect,” he chides. “You don’t talk back to the leader like that.”
I stare at him incredulously, and he shrugs.
“Shifter etiquette is consistent across all subspecies. You might still be young in shifter years, but that’s no excuse for bad behavior.”
Okay, now I have to shift back just so I can laugh in his face. Is this the same Alistair who thinks “behaving” is for other people?
My look must communicate what I’m thinking, because he sighs. “It’s different with the leader. Trust me. Now come on, it’s time to shift back.”
Huffing, I turn my back on him and look up at Aidan.
“He’s right,” my alpha tells me. “But you get a pass this time because you’ve never been taught the rules. What you need to do now is focus on your inner energy. Let it build in you until it feels as though it’s going to explode out. Then visualize your human self and let the energy go.”
He makes it sound so easy, but what if I fuck it up?
Am I going to be some kind of weird half cat, half human?
Or… how detailed does the visualization of my human self need to be?
If I don’t imagine my toenails, am I going to lose them?
And then will I get them back next time I shift, or will I be forever doomed to walk the world as a toenail-less freak?
“Relax,” Aidan chides, as though he can tell what I’m thinking. “This is natural for you. You can’t fuck it up.”
I’m not sure I entirely believe him, but it’s worth a shot.
I focus on my inner energy, and it swirls forth faster than ever before.
The tingling feeling is stronger, vibrating under my skin, making my fur stand on end.
I close my eyes and picture my human self—with my hair neatly styled, thank you very much—wait until the tingling is so strong I feel like my skin is going to split, and then just…
let it split? It’s a weird sensation that I can’t fully describe, but my energy bursts out of me, and I can actually feel myself changing.
It’s not the most pleasant experience. Not as painful as before, but still uncomfortable.
And then it’s over.
Panting a little, I blink and look down at myself. Back to human.
“Wow.” I sway a little bit. Every muscle in my body aches.
“Time to sit down,” Alistair declares, taking my arm and pushing me down onto the couch. I cling to his hand.
“How do you feel?” Aidan asks, coming to sit on my other side.
“Fine. Tired. That was… surreal.”
“Since you never expected to be able to shift, I’m sure it was. You did very well.”
“Really?” My insecurities swarm to the surface.