Chapter Fourteen
Laramie’s hands were shaking.
She clenched them at her side and forced herself to keep walking.
The ground was uneven here, and thick tree roots stretched across the thin deer trail that wound through these unfamiliar woods.
Stellan had told her to keep walking, and that she would know when to stop.
She had no concept of time right now. Had she been walking for minutes or hours?
The sunlight trickled through the thick leaves above her and cast speckles of yellow across the forest floor.
It was quiet now. All the birds had stopped chirping in the canopy, and the only sound was the soft rustle of leaves in the breeze.
The trees thinned here and the sound of the woods changed. There was a creek nearby and the soft shush, shush of running water tickled her senses.
Up ahead, she could see a drop off, and when she came to a stop in front of it, a small stream wound this way and that, at a three-foot drop in front of her. She caught her reflection in the clear water, and then a soft noise froze her in place.
She could tell he was there before she saw him.
Laramie looked up, across the stream, and there sat a tiger. He looked different than a wild one. He was orange, but his stripes were thick and close together, making him much darker than any she’d seen in a zoo or in a picture. His gold eyes burned into her soul.
He was enormous, much larger than she would’ve ever imagined a tiger could be.
He sat there in stillness, as if he was studying her, relaxed and unphased by her in his woods.
Laramie didn’t know what to do.
She’d heard him when he’d told her he was a Cat, and sure, she had read books about werewolves, but thinking she understood, and standing face to face with the animal were two completely different things.
Don’t run. That’s what he’d said the one rule was. Whatever she did, she shouldn’t run from him.
When he stood and bunched his muscles and leapt easily over the stream though, her heart rate kicked up even faster, and her hands shook harder.
The adrenaline dump to her system was making it hard to stand still.
His paws were huge and sank into the soft mud as he approached. Laramie blew out a shaking breath, but there was this little whimper at the end, and as he squared up to her, she closed her eyes tightly.
But…nothing happened. She eased one eye open and Stellan’s tiger had sat down again, just inches from her. He wasn’t looking at her anymore. Instead, he was staring at the stream in front of them.
She blew out another steady breath and reached out, brushing her fingertips against his fur. It was coarser than she’d expected it to be. He didn’t move, so she ran her fingertips down his fur again.
He twitched his head and perked up his ears, and the sudden movement startled her, so she flinched back.
He wasn’t looking at her though. He was staring deep into the woods, not moving a muscle.
Stellan stood smoothly and hunched down, moving so fluidly as he stalked down the stream. His ears stayed pointed directly ahead.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
And she didn’t know why she had looked up onto that specific tree branch, but she locked her eyes on something terrifying. Sitting on a mid-level limb was a panther.
A panther.
A mother-freaking panther. It was crouched on that branch, gold eyes trained on Stellan. Its coat was almost black, with a faint pattern of spots in the sunlight.
His brothers were Cats, but they were tigers. This was clearly not a tiger.
A chuffing sound filled the woods, and something was crashing through the brush now. Stellan jumped over the stream and charged right for the tree with the panther in it but turned at the last moment and clashed with something enormous.
It took her mind a second to register that there was a white tiger here.
The two tigers locked onto each other like they wanted to kill each other.
“Stellan!” Laramie screamed, terrified.
The orange tiger pulled off the fight and trotted back toward her a few steps and then rounded as the white tiger pursued him. He was right under the panther now, and the animal hissed down at the tigers.
Stellan flattened his ears and roared at the white tiger, whose muzzle was tinted pink from bleeding Stellan. The big cat’s side had big claw marks down it and was oozing.
Oh, these boys were dangerous in ways she hadn’t realized. They’d both injured each other horrifically so fast.
Stellan backed toward Laramie, and the white tiger with the blue eyes—Mars?—stayed right under the panther’s tree branch.
And then something that made no sense to her eyes happened. Stellan’s tiger turned and, with eyes full of fury, he exploded.
Just…exploded.
He was this huge, lithe, aggressive tiger, and then he was…Stellan. It had happened so fast, her mind couldn’t keep up…couldn’t understand.
He was on all fours, and then he was upright, human, naked, bleeding from the side of his neck.
Eyes the color of gold fire, he didn’t even break his stride as he approached and grabbed her hand. “I need to get you out of here,” he said in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a monster.
Every muscle in his body was tensed, and he looked even bigger right now. His grip was firm on hers as he led her through the woods. Adrenaline coursing through her veins, she jogged to keep up and focused on the rough terrain so she wouldn’t fall.
“Stellan!” someone called from behind them.
“Fuck you, Mars!” Stellan barked over his shoulder without slowing his pace.
“I’m sorry!”
Stellan jerked his head, shaking it and pushed them faster.
“What just happened?” she asked.
“My brother’s a fuckin’ secret keeper,” was all Stellan said.
The trip back to the RV went way faster than her hike out into these woods, because Stellan was pushing their pace.
At the edge of the woods, huffing and puffing, Laramie admitted, “My legs are burning.”
Stellan turned and picked her up, threw her over his shoulder while he barely broke his stride.
She looked down at his back, and gasped. The claw mark back there was already almost sealed up, and the edges looked like they were scarred already. It wasn’t even bleeding anymore.
“You heal fast?” she asked.
“Yes,” he answered gruffly.
“Stellan, put me down!” she demanded.
He settled her on her feet in front of the RV. “Inside,” he gritted out.
“Why?”
“Because I have all of these feelings inside of me right now, Laramie! I want to kill my brother. I want to kill him. He was too close to you.” He dragged a deep breath in, and paced away from her, then back.
There was this helpless look in his eyes.
“I can’t have you around other Cats yet.
Not when they’re Changed. It’s too dangerous and I want to… I want to…”
“Stellan!” Mars was jogging out of the tree line, pulling a T-shirt on over jeans.
“Mars, it’s bad fucking timing right now,” Stellan snarled. “I need a minute.”
Ren came running from the tree line, tugging a tank top over a black bra and cut off jean shorts. Her eyes were wide as saucers as she trailed Mars.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Mars crooned, slowing as he approached, his hands held out. “I swear we didn’t know you were going to be out in the woods.”
“It was her first time seeing me, man!” Stellan barked out. “I just needed five fucking minutes of peace.” He closed the distance between him and Mars so fast and shoved his brother hard. “Why didn’t you tell me?” His voice echoed through the clearing.
“We wanted to,” Ren said, huffing breath. “We had plans for the reveal. I was practicing so I wouldn’t be awful at Changing when I showed you.” Her eyes were full of some deep emotion Laramie didn’t understand.
Stellan twisted his head from side to side, cracking his neck, and then disappeared inside of the RV.
“What’s happening?” Laramie whispered, confused.
Mars gestured to Ren. “Ren is a Half-Cat. Her animal was stuck inside of her for her entire life. She couldn’t Change, but I Turned her.”
Ren’s eyes were filling with moisture now. “He woke up my animal.”
“Oh my gosh,” Laramie whispered. “Can I hug you? Is it too soon? Does your skin hurt or anything?”
Ren laughed thickly and tears fell to her cheeks as she closed the distance between them. “A hug would be nice.”
Laramie hugged her up tightly, trying to imagine how it must’ve been to live with a stuck animal. She had so many questions, but the door to the RV creaked open, and Stellan came out in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt that was already staining with blood on his ribs.
He didn’t say a word. He just picked both Laramie and Ren up in a hug until their legs dangled from the ground.
“Fuck, Ren. You should’ve told me. Our animals weren’t supposed to meet like that.”
“I wanted to surprise you,” she whispered brokenly.
Stellan squeezed them again and set them down. Ren laughed thickly and released Laramie from her hug, then wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Well, Laramie, you got to meet half the Ambush in one go. And also, what the hell, Stellan?” Ren shoved him hard in the arm. “Were you going to attack me?”
“I don’t know! Maybe!” Well, at least he was honest. He jammed a finger at Mars. “And you! You were twenty yards off of her, and she’s a new Changer. What if it hadn’t been me?” Stellan barked out. “She could’ve gotten hurt!”
“First off,” Mars said, “Ren is a panther. She has claws and teeth the same as you and me. She’s not fragile. And second off, we were just chilling out there, two hours into a Change. I had let my guard down. I was…distracted.”
“I swear to everything, if you say you were chasing a chipmunk, I’m going to punch you in the dick.”
Mars pursed his lips and didn’t say anything.
“Seriously?” Stellan griped.
“They’re fast, man! It’s a challenge.”
“Oh my God, I can’t talk to you right now.”
Mars rested his hands on his hips, mirroring Stellan’s stance now. Geez, they looked so similar, it was crazy.
“There’s beer in the barn,” Mars muttered.
“I’m aware, dipshit,” Stellan responded. “I’m the one who stocks the beer fridge.”