Chapter 15
Chapter
Fifteen
Liv
At first, I’m so worried I’ve scared the shit out of Austin.
But as I run, the human part of me quiets, and the wild thing takes over.
Everything is fine when I’m in cougar form. Everything is okay when I’m like this. Nothing to worry about but being wild and free.
My paws hit the ground hard, my claws digging into the earth so I can run faster.
When I’m a cougar, I don’t think about Steven breaking my heart or our marriage. I don’t think of all the dreams I had that I never followed. I don’t think about being older than Austin, or being forty, or what that number even means and why it means anything at all.
When I’m in cougar form, I’m free from it all.
When I’m exhausted from running up and down and all around the mountain, I know I need rest, but I don’t want to sleep in the cave tonight. Something’s pulling me back home.
I pad back down the mountain, and as the sun slowly begins to rise, I shift back into human form.
Okay, so shifting into a cougar feels like freedom, but shifting back isn’t so comfortable.
My bones crack and my body aches. I didn’t take @rawrgrrl’s advice and leave clothes out, and now I’m staring at my back porch completely naked, twigs and leaves in my hair, feeling very human and vulnerable.
How am I going to explain this to Austin?
If he’s even still here.
If he didn’t wake up in the night and call the police because I was missing.
Because he thinks I was taken by a wild animal.
Or worse, if he didn’t realize I was the wild animal and get back to the hotel as soon as possible.
But he’s still here, dozing on the rocking chair on the back porch with a blanket on his lap.
I step onto the porch, and his eyes spring open. “Liv!”
Suddenly, he’s up and wrapping me in the blanket, holding me tight.
Being a cougar is so damn freeing. Being wild feels like throwing off a costume, releasing this human form that’s so fucked up and complicated.
But there are good things about this human form too. A lot of them.
And Austin, with his huge pro-football arms around me, pulling me close into him, is one of them.
He doesn’t ask what happened or where I was. He just says, “I’m so glad you came back to me.”
“Austin,” I say, looking up into his stormy blue eyes. “I’m?—”
He just nods. “I know. I saw. I knew it was you.”
“It only just started happening a few nights ago. I don’t understand any of it.” Suddenly I’m shaking in his arms and he’s pulling me in tighter. “I don’t know what this is. I don’t know what I am!”
“You’re a cougar, gorgeous,” he says with a chuckle.
“I would never hurt you, Austin.”
“I know. I saw it in your eyes last night. You just needed to run, to be free.” He kisses the top of my head. “What does it feel like? To run like that?”
“It feels like... like I’m one with the wind and the earth. It feels… so right.” I snuggle into his arms. “But being here with you, Austin. This feels so right, too.”
“I’m all in with you, Liv. With all of you. Every part of you.”
“Austin,” I say, blinking back the tears. “I’m falling for you. So hard.”
“Falling? Gorgeous, I’ve already fallen.” He pulls a twig out of my hair. “I’m already in love with you.”
I sigh with relief. “Good, because I love you too.”
He pulls me in a little tighter, and I moan at how happy and safe I feel in his arms.
“Now, how about we get you cleaned up?”
I grin up at him and nod.
He pulls me to his side, his arm still wrapped around me and guides me back into the house.
“Can I ask you something?” he asks.
“Anything.”
“Does being a cougar shifter make you… kind of horny?”
“It makes me fucking insatiable for cock,” I tell him with a groan. “But only yours, Austin. Only ever yours.”
He gives me a grin as big as the moon.
I love being a cougar. I love that I get to shift at night and run and be completely free, answering to no one.
But the rest of the time, whenever I’m in human form, I’m all fucking his.
Thank you for reading In Too Deep with the Hot Cougar! I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it!