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As quickly as the maelstrom had reached its crescendo, it fell away, revealing a gorgeous snow leopard that stared at her with Carson’s eyes.
CHAPTER11
CARSON
There was no way to prove to her what he was saying without shifting. Amelia was taking this much better than he thought she might. He wasn’t sure that she really understood he had taken her humanity without even asking. He imagined once she did, she would be none too happy with him. Or she might realize he’d really had no choice.
He removed himself from the table and from being in close proximity to her and removed his jeans. He had to admit it was a boon to his ego to see the look that came over her face when her eyes came to rest on his cock. It wasn’t, so much, that he thought he had a gorgeous cock, but he knew he was endowed, and more than that, her look said she’d experienced great pleasure from it.
Deciding to let his ego and lust take a rest, he called forth his snow leopard and felt the familiar tingle of the shift as it began, and he was surrounded by the swirling mist. That never got old. There was something ancient and magical about being able to shift and experience the vortex of power that surrounded him as he felt his humanity slip away, and the feral beast with whom he shared a soul come forward.
Very deliberately, staring into his eyes, Amelia reached down, picked up the wine glass and drained what was left in it. Setting it down, she took a step back and lifted the chair, brandishing it at him.
“Stay away from me,” she said in a firm voice. “Who the hell am I talking to?”
Carson chuffed at her softly before purring to her and trying to send reassuring thoughts down the link to her.
“Stop that. I know that’s you,” she said, threatening him with the chair.
Didn’t she realize that if he meant to harm her, he’d have already done it, and in any event the chair wasn’t much of a deterrent? He watched her shoot a somewhat panicked look towards the front door, then the kitchen door, then the pantry. Three viable means of escape, unless your pursuer was a snow leopard that could reach you before you could make it to any of them.
He increased the strength of the purr; Amelia shook her head as if banishing him from her thoughts. She pointed the legs of the chair at him again. “Nice kitty. Stay, kitty.”
‘Stay kitty?’ What the hell did she think he was? A well-trained Saint Bernard?
Amelia threw the chair at him with both deliberation and good aim. Carson had to leap to the side to avoid being hit. Without thinking and in response to the threat, he snarled, only to realize Amelia had the good sense not to wait to see if she’d managed to hit him. Instead, she had sprinted to the closest door and had run out into the snow. Where she thought she was going in this weather dressed only in one of his sweaters was beyond him. She’d freeze to death within the hour.
As he charged through the door, Carson realized the snow had finally stopped falling, but it was deep. He spied Amelia struggling to run, but sinking and falling into the drifts, flailing her arms as she did so. He couldn’t decide which feeling was more prevalent: fear for her, impatience, frustration, or anger. He thought about going back inside, shifting and dressing as a human for the weather so he could get her out of the cold.
There were two problems with that thought: the first was he could very well lose sight of her, and she could die. The second, and far more impactful problem was that he could see the snow rising up in a swirling cloud accompanied by thunder, lightning, and shards of icy colors. Her panic and fear had caused her snow leopard to assert itself and come to the fore in order to protect her human host.
As the cloud fell away, Amelia’s snow leopard emerged, bounding through the snow clumsily, but quickly finding her feet and her balance. The female snow leopard yowled her annoyance into the wilderness—galloping back and forth in a straight line in a show of defiance and anger. There was no more fear. The great beast had taken over and was in no mood to be told what to do.
The snow leopard might be in control, but she had failed to realize Amelia was now terrified. He could hear her thoughts galloping down the link, crashing into his own. Terror became confusion, then outrage and anger. But behind all of it came a kind of curiosity and wonder. Carson sat back. Amelia was in awe—of her snow leopard, of the possibilities, of him. Her thoughts came rolling down the link with no filter and not a clue that she could turn them, if not off, at least slow them down.
Amelia ceased her restless pacing, sitting down in a classic feline pose—on her haunches, her front legs extended in front of her like two Greek columns. Her tail was wrapped around her body, the end of it flicking. Her posture said she was comfortable, was not feeling threatened, but she was irritated. The level of vehemence with which she regarded him made it easy to tell with whom she was annoyed.
She glanced down as if only now realizing the differences in her human and snow leopard forms. She lifted a paw, regarded it, and then deliberately extended it, turning it this way and that so she could examine it. Amelia brought it up to her face so she could sniff it and then licked it—her entire body shivering as if it had tickled. She did the same thing with her tail—watched it flick for a minute or two while she changed speeds and how much of it flicked, then brought it up to her nose and again licked it. It seemed to be it only tickled when she examined her paw.
Curling her tail back around her, she began the rhythmic flicking and brought her eyes back up to him, growling softly and not in a friendly way. He approached her cautiously, chuffing and purring to her to try to ease her fear and annoyance as she was experiencing both in spades. Coming alongside of her, he rubbed his cheek against hers and then wove his body around hers, coming back to rub her cheek again. That seemed to soothe some of her ire as her tail flicking slowed perceptively. Then she growled low, and the tip of her tail moved back to show her irritation.
Carson tried again, tamping down his own frustration and impatience. The human part of his brain knew she needed to accept her new circumstances and it also could well imagine how difficult that was. The beast, however, thought it better to simply dominate his mate, preferably sexually, but then his beast had been wanting to do that from the moment he’d pulled her ashore on the lake.
Coming around to her other side, he sat beside her, facing the house and doing nothing but purring and occasionally rubbing his head against hers. She had to fight to maintain her anger, as little by little it ebbed away and she leaned into him, looking for comfort and reassurance. He stood and nudged her, nodding toward the cabin. Once she was standing beside him, he started back to the cabin, moving hesitantly until he was sure she was following.
Once inside, he shifted quickly, grabbing the towel that was hanging on a peg just inside the door, drying his hair before pulling on his jeans. He closed the door behind her.
“I know you’re a little freaked out, but you need to know you are in complete control. The only reason, and let me stress, theonlyreason your snow leopard came forward like that was because you were terrified, and she meant to protect you. It doesn’t matter that I was never a threat. All she knew was that you felt I was. All you need to do is ask her to give you back control and she should. If she doesn’t, command her to, but my guess is that if you’re feeling a bit calmer, she’ll be happy to relinquish primary control.” He stroked her head. “It’ll be all right, Amelia. I told you, I’m not going anywhere.”
Gradually, he could feel her relax, and could feel her acceptance of his words and the solace he was offering. Carson could feel the moment her snow leopard relinquished control and then stepped away so the mist-shifting storm could more easily work its magic and change her from snow leopard to human once again. He grabbed a soft blanket and as the cloud dissipated, he stepped forward and wrapped it around her.
Clasping the blanket around her, she turned and stepped away from him, ensuring she kept the blanket.
“What happened to my clothes?” she asked without turning to face him.
“They disappear during the shift. No one has ever really figured that out. They just don’t survive the shifting process. So whenever possible, you try to plan to have something to change into when you shift back.”
“Can you get me another sweater I can just pull on?” she requested in a voice devoid of any emotion. She also seemed to have figured out how to shut down her end of the link. His mate was a quick study.
