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The lioness waited for us, unwavering in her gaze. We landed beside her, but she gave no sign of fear. I gently reached out, butting her with my head. A tabby gesture, but one that most cats responded to, big or small.
“What’s wrong?” The words weren’t in English, or Fae, but she understood them perfectly.
“My cub—she’s trapped, and I can’t get her out.” A flicker of pain raced through the mother’s eyes, and I recognized the fear that filled her softly spoken vocalizations.
“Lead the way,” Zach said. “We’re here to help.”
The puma led us back along the ledge to a den. We followed her inside, and I could hear the mewing of a kit. Another kitten sat in the corner, looking confused and hungry. My instinct was to run over and pick it up, but one look at Mama Puma told me that wasn’t the best idea. We wound through a small tunnel until we came to the back wall. There was a narrow fissure near the edge, a foot wide and a good four or five feet deep. The mewing came from within the crack.
I leaned my head down, and in the dark, could make out the other kitten. Somehow, she’d gotten herself down into the crack, and there wasn’t room enough for Mama to reach in and pull the baby out. The cougar would get stuck if she tried to rescue her baby. Unless we helped, the kit would starve to death.
Glancing back at the lioness, I said, “I need to change into my two-legged form. Please don’t worry. I won’t hurt your baby. But it’s the only way I can pull her out.”
She gave me a bob of the head, as if she were nodding. “My mother was a Were,” she said. “I’ve seen the change happen before.”
With her approval, I moved away and focused on shifting back. After a moment, my body began to twist and shift, and within seconds, I was Delilah again, standing on two legs. I cast a quick look at the mother puma, but she seemed good to her word, so I knelt down beside the fissure and leaned in. I scrambled to reach the kitten, who was leaning up against the wall, reaching for me with her paws, but I couldn’t quite reach that far down.
Zach sensed my difficulty, and he, too, shifted back into human form. Silently, he caught my legs and lowered me so that I was hanging over the edge of the fissure. The kitten struggled to reach my hands, and then I managed to catch hold of her under the forepaws, and while I held on for dear life, Zach dragged me back out of the crack. The kitten came with me, and as soon as I let go, waddled over to its mother and began searching for a teat to suckle on. The kits were still in that confused, awkward stage: terribly cute and terribly vulnerable.
I looked around for loose stones to fill the fissure, but there weren’t enough.
As the mother puma anxiously groomed her baby, I crept forward, slowly, wondering if she’d accept me near her when I was in human form, too. She huffed slightly, but then her eyes met mine, and we were no longer big cat and human, or big cat and Were, but two souls, bound by all things feline, gazing into each other’s heart.
“She’s beautiful,” I whispered in cat. “May I pet her? May I touch you?”
With another soft huff, the mother moved ever so slightly, opening the way for me to reach the baby. I gently laid one hand on the kit’s side and shivered as the soft fur ruffled under my fingers. A low trill told me the girl was purring, and I bit my lip, leaning forward to gently kiss the side of the kitten. The mother let out an anxious mew, and I moved my hand to her side, resting my fingers lightly against her fur for a moment as we connected, our auras blending for a brief moment.
Then I backed away.
“We should go,” Zach said. “The others will be worried.”
Nodding, I slowly backed away, my eyes never leaving the mother’s face. She dipped her head again and—carrying her kit by the scruff of the neck—followed us to the front of the cavern.
“You should find another place to stay, Mama,” I said softly in cat. “I couldn’t make the crack in the ground safe for you. So you’d best find another den that won’t swallow your babies.”
She blinked, and I knew she’d gotten my message. As we left the cave, I heard her grunt, then settle down as the cubs set to nursing. I glanced at Zach, and he beamed.
“You want one, don’t you?” he said.
“Want one what?”
“A kit—a baby.” He laughed when he said it, but the look in his eyes told me he wasn’t joking.
I stared at him, thinking he was out of his mind, but once it took hold, the idea wouldn’t go away. It was true. Seeing the mother with her kittens had resonated inside. I wanted a family. But I didn’t just want a baby, I wanted Were babies. Kittens who would understand my feline nature as well as my half-human, half-Fae side. And that was bound to be a problem. Because half-Fae Weres were sterile, as far as producing Were children. I could have a baby, all right, but there was no guarantee that she—or he—would have any chance of coming out Were except by a random roll of the dice.
I let out a soft sigh as we emerged from the cave and began cautiously lowering ourselves down the cliff face to the path below, where the others now waited. I didn’t have time to think about this. Not now.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” I said to Zach as we joined the others. “Children—of any kind—are going to have to wait. Don’t tell the others, please. My sisters don’t need to know that my biological clock is ticking. They’d just worry themselves sick for no reason. It’s not like I can get pregnant, anyway. We had long-term treatments before we left home, and the antidote is only found in Otherworld. For now, the baby-making factory is closed.”
Zach just nodded, but a bright light flickered in his eyes, and he gave me a soft smile. As we began to tell the others what had happened, I wondered what the hell he was thinking.
CHAPTER 15
Vanzir acted impatient as we explained the situation. I tugged on the hem of my jacket. While the dream chaser was doing his best to fit in, the fact that he was out-and-out demon shone through in a lot of ways and made me uncomfortable. And for once, I wasn’t alone.
Before we’d gotten in the car, Camille had confided that the heroin-chic rocker look-alike gave her the creeps, even though he was bound to our side. But we needed all the help we could get, and beggars couldn’t be choosy. Especially with Shadow Wing on the rampage. Vanzir knew too much about our operations to set him free. We kept him in the dark about a lot, but he was bound to pick up information from hanging around so much.
I tried to shake off my unease and focus on our goal.
