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We.Amazing how that sounded. Maybe he and his old frenemy had never been destined to be a pair themselves, but only the men in this amazing woman’s life? Maybe that—
“Umm,” the woman in question said. “I’ve known you for a few hours and, while I appreciate the sentiment, I don’t think I’m ready to hand over my life to you guys forever.”
Of course not! “We didn’t mean—”
Thunder hushed him. “You know you’re ours, right?”
Her reaction to his words sent them both tumbling back. She shifted to a spitting, clawing jaguar, fighting her way out of their arms. Before they could react, except to bleed some, she’d landed on the floor. Surrounded by the shreds of her pretty clothes. She crouched on the deep-pile rug, by the ruins of the coffee table she’d glanced off getting away from them, its dark-wood top raked by her claws.
“I’m not sure she liked what you said,” he muttered, from the corner of the leather, now shredded leather, sofa where he’d landed.
“Maybe not.” Thunder was sitting on the floor, legs akimbo. “Independent women, huh?”
“Yeah.” But now that they’d upset her enough to change, how did they get her back to calm and human? “We could shift, too, but I don’t know if that would improve the situation. Her cat might not like us.”
Rising to his knees, Thunder tilted his head. “From the purring all evening, I’d say she does, at least in this form. Gina…may we approach your cat?”
She was an amazing, shiny black jaguar, who, if she weren’t in complete snarl mode, ready to attack, he’d want to coax to his side, to bury his fingers in that incredible fur and let her know how beautiful he thought her. “You’re magnificent. Are you protecting Gina?”
“Yowl.”Bared fangs. Not promising.
“Please, baby. We want to meet your cat,” Thunder murmured in a soothing tone, creeping closer by inches. “Okay?”
When she lunged, Sky grabbed his collar and hauled him back. “She might need a few minutes to get used to us.”
“Ya think?” Thunder held up his arm, the claw marks only shallow because of his retreat. “Well, what are we going to do? We can’t take her outside like this. We’re in the middle of San Francisco, and even though the hotel gardens are shifter friendly, I’m not sure of her temperament.”
“Think she might eat a rabbit or something?”
Thunder shrugged. “No idea. But maybe if we just sit on the floor here for a while and don’t do anything threatening—like breathe too loud—she’ll settle down, maybe shift back so we can talk.”
Sky considered. “If we shift, we can talk to her mind to mind.” But as they both lifted their heads, the cat rose and took a step toward them.
“I don’t think we should do anything, just now.” Thunder kept his focus on the cat, as he sat hip to hip with Sky, their fingers linked in a gesture of solidarity. “The ceiling is pretty low, anyway. We’d bang our heads and wing-tips.”
She prowled closer, fangs bared, eyes gleaming in the low light of the room. They’d never be able to shift before she got to them, and it seemed likely an attempt would have a bad result. They were never so vulnerable as in mid-shift. Even if they were able to fit, size-wise.
Sky tightened his grip on Thunder’s hand. “We’re either going to meet the cat, now…”
“Or she’s going to eat us.”
Thunder held onto Sky’s hand as the only tether to reality in his world. He’d dated a lot of shifters, but by mutual consent they’d always either stayed in human form together or shifted together. And he’d never felt a strong connection. Recreational dating, only. Also by mutual consent.
This time, he was clutching the fingers of the man he had once thought might be his soul mate and now believed to be at least the third part of their triad. And the big, strong, muscular cat padding toward them was definitely both their mate. He felt it to the depths of his soul. She was so close, they could feel her panting breath on their faces, or at least he could. Since their faces were inches apart, he assumed Sky could as well. She approached from the side, silent, warm, furry, and stepped over his legs until she spanned both their laps. What was she going to do?
From his angle, he was looking at her side, the fur as glossy as if she brushed it every hour. But her face was by Sky, so if she was going to eat anyone, it would be him. He should do something.
But what?
With shifting out of the question, he had to rely on his human strength, and though he was more muscular and powerful than the average man, he was still limited by what that body would do. Still, he tensed, ready to wrap his arms around her and wrestle her away if she attacked. He didn’t want to hurt either of them.
The room was silent but for her breathing, awhuffinghe’d never heard before. The tension rose until every muscle in his body twisted with it. He didn’t want to speak, didn’t want to do anything to set her off. So he sat as still as possible, hyper aware of the man next to him and the cat standing over him.
Please don’t let her hurt him. Or do something where I have to fight her. I don’t want any of us harmed. We just found each other.So true, in a way. He’d known Sky almost all his life, but things had changed now. It remained to be seen how, but he wanted to live to experience it. Wanted it for himself, for Sky…for Gina.
She flexed her paws and dropped over their laps, rolled onto her back and bared her belly, purring with a deep, sensual rumble. Dropping his palm into the soft fur, Thunder stifled a laugh of relief. “I guess we don’t need an explanation of this, do we?”
“No.” Sky caressed her throat and the short, rounded ears. “She may have gone off, but she’s apparently forgiven us.”
“For now.”
“Until we screw up again.” He continued to pet the female who’d just shown them a trust she’d indicated came hard. “Which I am sure we’ll do.”
“Doubtless.”
But for the moment, Thunder felt complete in a way he never had before. Sky at his side, Gina over both their laps, expressing such loud approval of them. If he died now, he could die happy. Screw that. If he died now, it would suck.
And as he thought that, she shifted, right on their laps, into the golden goddess of the bathtub but without the bubbles hiding any of the interesting parts.
The very, very interesting parts.
