CHAPTER FOUR
Shadow
I thought my months of watching Kayla from afar, stalking her movements around town, and bumping into her as much as possible had been torture.
I was wrong. Very, very wrong.
Attempting to sleep while she’s only fifteen feet away is the very definition of torture.
I lie awake for hours at first, watching Kayla through the open doorway, the faint amount of moonlight slipping around the edges of her curtains easily bright enough for my keen fae vision.
She’s awake at first, but eventually drops off to sleep, becoming even more alluring. The guarded expression eases from her face, leaving it soft and lovely. Her breaths grow deep, punctuated by tiny gasps as a dream takes her.
The soft noises tease me until my cock aches. Goddess, I want to know what she dreams about that makes her sound like that! Is it me?
It better be me.
A huff of laughter escapes me. Who’d have thought? The great warrior who could have any cat sith female he wants reduced to trembling on the edge due to the faintest of sounds from a human witch.
Yet that’s one of the reasons I’m on Earth—I never found a mate among my people. Regaining the ability to shift opened up so many new possibilities. I could mate a shadow fae or one of the other types of shifters. Or any human on Earth, for that matter.
But from the moment I first scented her, I’ve wanted only one. Kayla, my witchy beauty.
She lets out another of those soft moans, and before I realize it, I have a hand wrapped around my straining cock.
Interesting things, hands. The opposable thumbs alone make them worth shapeshifting for, let alone all the other things they can do.
Having spent my life in my panther form, I still have a lot to learn, but touching myself comes instinctively.
I give one good squeeze, fighting back a grunt of pleasure, and let go. My slow stalk of Kayla made leaps forward today, but I’m hunter enough to know not to press it any further. To win the courtship game, I need to lure my prey, not spook her.
Besides, the hands I want on me are not mine. Goddess, Kayla’s touch on my forearm almost undid me. I never realized my skin could be so sensitive. What will it be like to have her touch me everywhere?
Trying to get comfortable, I roll onto my stomach and bury my face in my pillow.
I’m tempted to shift into my panther form and curl into a ball, purring myself to sleep.
Yet it’s oddly lonely to do so on Earth without the harmonizing purrs of my pack mates surrounding me.
And constantly reverting to a panther won’t help with my new task.
I will be famous. I will be the cat sith who braved going to the human realm to learn all the ways of living as a man.
The Moon Goddess hid my people in Alarria for three hundred years to protect them from the Dark God, but we were never meant to be closed off from walking the realms, never meant to live without the ability to shift.
Cats are magnificent creatures, as anyone can see.
Yet cat sith are fae, never meant to be limited to only our panther form.
I will bring back everything my people have lost.
If doing so also allows me to find my mate? As the humans say, it’s a win-win.
And I always play to win.
A couple of hours past dawn, the sun finally shifts enough that brilliant morning sunlight slices across my eyelids, and birdsong fills the air with piercing notes of brightness.
Human houses are nice, and I especially like hot showers and soft beds, but they lack the quiet of a morning tucked into the deep cave of my home den. Cat sith aren’t exactly morning people.
And neither, it seems, is my wife.
An alarm blares from Kayla’s room, and one long arm gropes blindly across the top of the nightstand before slapping her phone screen and turning it off. Kayla mutters, accompanied by the rustle of sheets.
I crack open my eyes and sit up to find she’s pulled the pillow over her head. Curious about what she’ll do next, I wait and watch, a patient hunter, learning my prey.
After several minutes, the alarm chimes, and she once again wakes only enough to turn it off before going back to sleep.
This appears to be something of a ritual for her. How many times does she repeat the practice before finally waking? Something to discover another day. This morning I’ll use the time to do a little research.
After slipping from bed, I dress quickly in a comfortable pair of jeans and a T-shirt, or at least as comfortable as human clothing can be for someone happy to be naked.
Downstairs in the foyer, I exchange morning greetings with Victoria. “If Kayla wakes before I’m back, tell her I’ll return soon.”
Magic swirls in my chest as I call upon my special awareness of the shadow roads and step sideways into a place of gray mist. I think of my destination, and the darker path of the road to Ferndale Falls forms before me as I run, wisps of fog obscuring all other views.
In only a minute, an innate sense of location makes me stop.
Carefully controlling my magic, I slide halfway between the shadow roads and the real world, which allows me to look and hear what’s happening without being seen.
If we’d ever desired it, the cat sith could have been far more than the messengers of Faerie—we could have been its premier spies and assassins.
Yet why would we squander one of our greatest gifts for others?
We’ve instead kept the ability as shrouded in secrecy as possible, saving it for our own benefit.
And if I’ve used it to stalk Kayla? Well, that’s definitely to my benefit.
As soon as there’s a break in pedestrian traffic, I step back into a world of sunlight and color right in front of Grounds for Celebration.
The protection spell cast over Ferndale Falls keeps non-magical humans from seeing anything untoward, and the other fae are used to my ability to appear out of thin air, but I still check to make sure my path is clear.
Inside the coffee shop, sunlight streams through the front windows, and golden globes add additional light to the wooden interior stained a rich brown.
People fill the numerous small tables and chairs with the buzz of multiple conversations, punctuated by the loud rasp of milk being frothed.
The scent of coffee, earthy and rich, pulls me forward.
Back in Faerie in my panther form, I never understood why humans were so infatuated with the bitter brew, but I do now.
Caffeine is downright delightful.
“Davina, my lovely.” I grin at the barista, a pretty human with tan skin and long, straight black hair, who wears gorgeously colored outfits. “What do you recommend for me today?”
“My Iced Dirty Chai is amazing.” She points to a blackboard with the name written in colorful chalk. “It’s the perfect blend of espresso and concentrated chai tea with just enough milk to smooth the flavors together.”
“Perfect. I’ll take two.”
Coffees in hand, I stroll down the sidewalk, the Town Hall’s clock tower rising ahead.
To my left, a group of tulips races across the town green, filling me with pride.
Not even Faerie has walking flowers—this is human magic.
And now that I’ve met Victoria, I’m certain the tulips were created by Kayla. My wife.
Goddess, I like the sound of that. If I’m going to make this temporary marriage permanent, I need to seduce her. She’s attracted to me—how could she not be?—but she’s too strong-willed for that to be enough. No, I’m going to have to work for it, which only makes me want to win her more.
The scent of leather and paper surrounds me as I step into I Touch My Shelf.
“Shadow!” Naomi says, voice full of happiness, as she bustles out from behind the bookshop’s wooden counter to meet me.
Short and full-figured, my friend has beautiful brown skin and a wealth of dark hair that surrounds her face in a mass of curls.
She wears the linen tunic and leather pants of orc clothing, a little touch of Faerie here on Earth.
“I come bearing gifts.” Grinning, I weave my way through tables piled high with books and hold out one of the coffees. “It’s an Iced Dirty Chai.”
“I’ve been meaning to try these.” She snags the paper cup and takes a drink, humming with happiness. Then she eyes me. “You don’t usually bring me coffee, so what are you up to?”
“Can’t I do something nice for my oldest friend on Earth?
” I first met her a couple of years ago, when the Moon Goddess took Naomi to Faerie to match her with her orc husband and set her on a quest to reopen the doors of Faerie.
Still in my panther form, I was one of the fae who helped her do so, and we fought side by side, saving each other’s lives. Those kinds of bonds run deep.
Since she’s a witch who can teleport, she lives in an orc village in Faerie but still works at the family bookstore here in Ferndale Falls. Naomi’s been great about helping me adjust to this new world.
“Sure, but you still want something.” She points at me. “Your grin is extra grinny.”
“Is that even a word?” I tease.
“Yep.” She leads me past several sets of bookshelves to one of the comfortable velvet sofas that make up the shop’s reading area. Sitting, she pats the cushion next to her. “Spill.”
So I do, telling her all about Victoria and the marriage contract binding Kayla and me together.
“Oh, my god, Shadow!” Naomi bumps my shoulder with hers, chuckling and shaking her head. “Only you could get caught up in something like this.”
“It’s pretty wild, even by fae standards.” My grin fades. “I don’t want this marriage to be temporary. I want to win Kayla over, and that starts with me keeping my word. I told her I’d fix the door that’s supposed to go between our bedrooms, but…” I spread my hands wide and shrug.
“Phone.” She gestures for me to hand it over. As soon as I do, she taps the screen. “Tell me what’s wrong with it, and we’ll find you some YouTube videos to watch.”
“Paint’s peeling off it in big strips. They really have videos about that?”
“Trust me. If you need to DIY anything, someone’s made a video of it. It’s like the non-sexy Rule 34 of the internet.”
“What’s the sexy one?” I smirk.
“Focus!” She bats me on the arm.
“I can multitask!”
Naomi rolls her eyes in amusement, then shows me how to search for videos.
Which is how I find myself a couple of hours later in Victoria’s backyard, the door held up by two sawhorses while I sand it. I’m also shirtless and covered in the exact amount of sweat several videos assure me will act as the perfect thirst trap.
Kayla’s soft gasp of shocked appreciation echoes from the back door, and I grin and flex my shoulder muscles.
I really can multitask.
“Why are you naked again?”
I spin and slowly drag the back of one forearm across my forehead, showing off my chest muscles.
Her eyes track the movement, transfixed, her teeth nibbling on her lower lip.
“I’m not naked, but I could be if you want.” I smirk and drop a hand to the waist of my jeans. Is it too soon to do the thing where I pour water all over myself? I’ve got a water bottle handy for exactly that purpose.
“What?” Kayla’s flustered gaze meets mine. Then her eyes narrow, and her hand slashes through the air. “No, of course not! There will be no more naked.”
Victoria slams the back door in contradiction, and I smirk harder. The house is on my side. She helped me find all of the woodworking equipment and even suggested I work in the open of the backyard instead of inside the cramped garden shed.
“Look. This is hot, sweaty work.” I drag my forearm over my forehead again for good measure. “I’m fine not having a door between our bedrooms, so say the word, and I’ll stop.”
Kayla’s lips purse as she chews it over, giving me a moment to take her in. She looks beautiful with the sun gleaming off her purple hair and highlighting the words on her shirt: Stop staring at my tits.
I, of course, can’t tear my eyes away.
With a huff, she throws up her hands. “Fine. You win. Finish the door.” She stomps back into the house.
When I catch her peeking out of her office window an hour later, I grab the water bottle. She probably thinks she’s invisible inside the house since it’s so bright outside, but my fae shifter eyesight is so keen I can see her.
As the cold liquid splashes over my face and chest, my wife watches, mouth hanging open, pure want burning in her eyes.