“I should have explained more to you. The shiftin’. How it’s done. It’s just that every time I get near you I can’t resist havin’ you.”

She moistened suddenly dry lips, slowly lifting her head from Remy’s shoulder to look into his eyes. They glowed a piercing green, much like a cat’s in the dark. Her vision was strange, banded with color, as if she was seeing through heat binoculars. “What do you mean, your leopard is crazy for mine? You’re with me because you think your leopard wants mine?”

Her heart pounded hard in her chest. Of course it was all too good to be true. Remy didn’t love her. He barely knew her. What had she been thinking? The fairy tale? Happily ever after? He was talking about pure sex, not love. She was an adult and she knew better.

“Of course,” Remy said. He frowned as she slowly dropped her legs so that her feet touched the ground. He grinned at her, holding her to him by her buttocks. “The added bonus is the crazy sex.”

She couldn’t even blame the whole thing on him. She’d been a willing participant. More, she’d practically torn her clothes off and then his. She would have done anything at all for him and to have him. She stepped away from him, allowing him to slip out of her. He was still hard, leaving her feeling empty and lost.

Before she could say anything more, her belly cramped and she doubled over, clutching her stomach. Sweat poured out of her skin. She scented something wild and feral. Deep inside something came alive, moving under her skin like a parasite. She gasped and dropped to her knees, her body nearly convulsing.

“Don’ fight, Blue. Let her take you over. You’ll still be there, just let go.”

Dimly she heard Remy talking to her, but what he was saying made no sense, unless he really was telling the truth. An impossibility, but her face contorted. Her teeth felt sharp and too full for her mouth. She wanted to scream. What kind of monster was she?

“Breathe, chere. Breathe deep and try to relax. This is an amazing moment. Not all females emerge.” Remy sounded hoarse, but eager. “Your cycle has to coincide with hers, and some females wait a lifetime for that.”

What was he saying? That she could get pregnant? Carry a leopard? Every horror movie she’d ever watched played through her mind. She tried to wipe the beads of sweat dripping down her face off, only to find that her hands were no longer human. She stared at the misshapen, fur-covered claws, the long curved nails springing from them. It couldn’t be happening, not for real. What kind of monster had her mother been? She knew her father was one, but all this time she’d clung to the idea that she could be like her mother. Terrified, she twisted away from Remy when he reached to touch her, in an attempt to reassure her.

Those other men in her club, had they been leopards? All waiting for her to emerge, and then what? What was expected of her? Was she supposed to accept all of them? Did leopards have more than one mate? She didn’t even know the answer. A sob escaped, but it came out a strange mewing sound. None of this was about her at all. Remy wasn’t attracted to her and neither were those men. It was about whatever was inside her struggling to come out.

Her body contorted again, joints popping and cracking. Pain burst through her. Out of self-preservation she tried to listen to Remy’s distant voice. Her lungs burned, and her body felt as if it was turning inside out. The itching was horrendous, as fur began to burst through her skin. Her jaw lengthened.

She tried to crawl away, a silly, desperate move, trying to flee, to get away from her own body. Most of all, she wanted away from Remy. She didn’t want him witnessing what was happening to her, and worse, she didn’t want her leopard, if that was what she was, to mate with his. She felt like she was living a nightmare, a horror movie and there was no way out.

“Blue.” Remy’s voice penetrated the roaring in her ears and the sheer terror of her body becoming something else. “Look at me. See me. I can get you through this. You’re afraid and it’s my fault. Instead of havin’ sex with you every time I saw you, I should have been preparin’ you for this. Please, chere, just let me do this for you.”

Her body twisted, rolled, so that she came up on her hands and knees, only they weren’t her hands or her knees any longer. She turned her head slowly, anger burning through her belly and raging in her heart. She swiped at him.

Remy leapt back. It was only his leopard’s reflexes that saved him from a nasty rake across his face. His lady was really, really angry with him. There was something in her eyes that alarmed him. She was definitely distancing herself from him, and that was terribly dangerous, especially now.

One more roll and a silent scream and Blue was fully leopard. She came to her feet gingerly, regarding him warily, wild and feral and all female. Before he could move, she whirled around and sprinted toward the swamp. He changed on the run, using more speed than he ever had. He wasn’t going to lose her, not now, not when he was so close to making her his.

His leopard charged after Bijou, leaping over a fallen log and easily following her scent. The swamp closed around him, giving him the sense of freedom and wild he craved. This was his real world, one he understood and needed. That was part of the danger of being leopard, especially in shifting for the first time. There was no real way to explain to someone else the absolute freedom of being cat, and the temptation to stay in that form was always present.

Bijou was frightened and he’d clearly handled things wrong with her, so the lure of staying in the large cat’s form would be doubly so. He tried to stay rational, to use logic as he followed her trail, reasoning when his brain wanted to go feral on him. Usually, the first hour or so, when he ran free, he didn’t allow his human side to feel anything at all. He stayed fully animal, but he couldn’t afford to make any mistakes.