Page 86 of Beasts of Mine

I'd been right about that too. Every time I'd thought they were having some private conversation I couldn't hear, I'd been right.

“Oh my God,” I whispered to Cat, staring into the golden-brown eyes I'd trusted for days as he remained completely still.

Then he changed. Unlike Menace's accidental transformation, Cat did it deliberately. He stayed several yards away and shifted slowly enough that there was no possibility of me convincing myself I'd misunderstood the first one. His large leopard body rose and changed, rosetted fur disappearing as powerful limbs lengthened and rearranged themselves until the animal standing on the path became a man.

Naturally, he was huge. He stood several inches taller than Menace, broad through the shoulders and heavily muscled, with warm medium-brown skin and thick black hair that was slightly longer on top. Dark scruff covered his jaw, and old scars marked parts of his body. One newer scar along his side caught my attention immediately.

I knew that one.

I'd cleaned the wound beneath it, bandaged it, and checked it every day until it healed. My gaze moved from the scar to his face, and there they were again—the same golden-brown eyes that had watched me beneath the roots, beside the creek, and outside my camp every night.

“Oh,” I said to Cat, because that was apparently all I had. Cat crossed to another recessed section of stone and pulled free clothing that had been hidden there. He dressed quickly, dragging on loose trousers and then a dark shirt as I made a determined effort not to notice the body disappearing beneath the fabric.

I failed.

That seemed wildly inappropriate considering I'd just watched two leopards turn into men and still hadn't figured out what to do with that information. Somehow, part of me had enough room left to notice that Cat was extremely attractive. The controlled stillness he'd always carried as a leopard hadn't changed at all, but seeing it attached to a human man made me aware of him in an entirely different way.

“You've been a person this whole time,” I told Cat, pointing toward him as embarrassment began forcing its way through the shock.

“I have,” Cat answered, remaining several yards away as his low human voice fit him far too well.

“I really hate this,” I muttered to Cat, dragging one hand over my forehead as movement appeared to my left. Gentleman stepped through the ruins in leopard form. I immediately pointed toward him.

“No,” I told Gentleman, staring as he stopped near the edge of the courtyard and looked from me to the other two. His green-gold gaze returned to mine. I already knew what was coming.

“Don't you dare,” I warned Gentleman, keeping my finger aimed at him despite how ridiculous the sentence sounded.

Gentleman shifted anyway. By the third transformation, I'd run out of useful reactions. The darker leopard became a man slightly shorter than the other two, although still tall, with warm golden-brown skin and long dark hair falling around his shoulders. His build was leaner than Cat's but clearly strong, and small scars marked one forearm above capable, callused hands. His green-gold eyes hadn't changed.

Gentleman retrieved clothing from another hidden section of the ruins and dressed as I tried to reconcile the three men standing around me with the animals that had slept outside my camp the night before.

“So—” Menace began, shifting his weight as he lifted one hand.

“No,” I told Menace, pointing toward him before he could get any farther. He shut his mouth, but Gentleman's lips pressed together as though he was holding something back.

“Don't,” I warned Gentleman, turning toward him before whatever he was thinking could become words.

“I didn't say anything,” Gentleman replied, his human voice warmer than I'd expected but still unmistakably his.

“That is somehow worse,” I told Gentleman, watching his eyebrows rise before I turned toward Cat.

Cat remained silent. At least one of them understood self-preservation. Then the memories started arriving. Cat beneath the roots while I cleaned his wound and lectured him about infection. Me bringing him raw chicken. Sitting beside him for hours because talking to an animal had felt easy in a way talking to another person rarely did. I'd told him about work, Mara, my mother, pack expectations, my apartment, and the fact that I never stayed anywhere long enough for anywhere to feel much like home.

Except I'd said all of that while looking at a leopard. I'd never had to think about how much I was telling him because there hadn't been any reason to feel self-conscious about it. Cat already understood me. I'd known that. What I hadn't known was that the leopard listening to everything could stand up, turn into a man, and remember every personal thing I'd said to him.

“Oh my God,” I whispered to Cat, staring at his human face as heat started creeping into mine.

“What?” Cat asked me, his brow drawing together slightly as he waited for me to explain.

“I told you everything,” I told Cat, waving one hand between us as one conversation after another came back with an entirely different context. “My mother. The pack stuff. My job. All of it.”

“You did,” Cat answered, keeping his voice quiet as he watched me.

“Because you were a leopard,” I told Cat, pressing my fingertips against my forehead. “I mean, obviously you could understand me. We were having conversations. But there wasn't supposed to be a human man sitting there remembering all of it later.”

Cat's expression softened.

“I wasn't going to repeat any of it,” Cat told me, remaining where he was instead of coming closer.