Read with BonusRead with Bonus

Three. I Need to Change Back into a Human Without Flashing Anyone

“Hey kitty.” Those are the first words spoken to me by the love of my life. I tell myself I most definitely need to shift back into human, but then I’d be left sitting in this tree just as naked as he is, and that thought is just way too embarrassing.

I’m… alright, okay? I have some curves, and I do my time at the gym to combat the free pastries from work, but I am certainly no Aphrodite to his Adonis and I don’t want our first introduction to be him seeing me bare breasted in the light of full day.

He’s certainly not making any move to cover up though. He’s walking right up to my tree, holding out his hand and cooing, because of course all he sees of me now is an ordinary house cat. “It’s okay. I won’t hurt you. But did you see a girl out here? Is she your owner, huh?” he asks with eyes flickering side to side in scan of the surrounding area. “I heard her screaming, and I’m afraid she might be hurt.”

Now I’m thinking he might be some kind of werewolf animal mage who can communicate with me even in cat form, so I try to tell him I am that girl, which comes out as a most heart-melting “Mew.” Then I enforce that he needs to turn around and find me something to cover up with before I transform back to human, which sounds a much sterner “Rowr.”

“Maybe she’s not your owner?” the boy just kept up his monologue, understanding not one bit of my most clear message. “It’s not like taking your cat for a walk in the woods is a normal fall activity. But I don’t see how you would have made it all the way out here on your own, kitty. There’s wolves out here, and--”

Right on cue, the lynx dropped down from the oak tree across from me with the clear intent of snacking on my boy while his back is turned. His eyes snap over to fix on the wild cat, and the predator stops dead in her tracks with body tensing. His lip curls up just the barest inch, and a rumbling growl starts rising up through his chest.

The lynx took off in an instant, full sprint into the trees. All menace vanishes from his stance, and he turns back to me - still cowering in my tree. “Sorry if that scared you, kitty, but you can come down now. You can trust me, I promise, and I really do need to get you down from there. Your owner will be missing you.”

I decide it is indeed time to come down and reveal myself as not a true ‘kitty’. I will live with the embarrassment of flashing him, and we can have an actual conversation as we start our nude hike back to the highway before his psycho brother wakes up.

I jump down from my tree branch and land just as silently and gracefully as the lynx did. Then I close my eyes and call up an image of my human self. I will be Cassandra Banks once more, not an adorable little kitten.

I am Cassi Banks.

Only… nothing’s shifting. I’m just standing there with my eyes squeezed shut and claws curling angrily into the carpet of moldering leaves.

Werewolf boy has come over to pet me now. He seems to have a love of cats and a desperate impulse to cuddle them, despite being, you know – a wolf. “You are such a cute wittle girl, yes you are.”

I’m a little miffed he’s using that baby voice and talking down to me like that, scratching my head without permission. My tail starts flicking back and forth, but he ignores the warning sign, working his fingers along my back. “So soft too. Someone gets daily brushings on that beautiful black coat of hers, now doesn’t she? Still, there’s no collar…”

I nip at his hand, and he stops his spine tingling scratches along my back and cheeks. “Geez. Sorry. I’ll stop. Gotta get to finding your owner now, right?” His eyes shift back to the sunlit woods around us and he cocks his head, listening. “No sound since that initial set of screams. I can’t even smell her.”

I try once again to shift back into my regular body. I focused so hard I thought it might cause an aneurysm. Still, absolutely nothing happened. So I try to grow into a lynx again, or dissolve away into mist. Nothing freaking changed. Maybe sunlight was anathema to magic shape-shifting powers. Still, this boy had managed to shift back into human somehow while standing directly in a sunbeam. Psycho Mike even reverted back to human while unconscious, so why was it only me stuck trapped in a prison of furry flesh? “Rowr!”

“Shh. It’s okay.” That hand went right back to stroking my side, and that did feel nice… Damn it, stop purring. It is going to be insanely awkward when that hand shifts from stroking cat fur to cupping a set of human cheeks.

Though… that never happened. Hard as I tried, I could not make anything happen, and my overwhelming kitty instinct was to start rubbing against this boy’s leg, seeking comfort.

“That lynx had blood on her claws,” he was rambling on in somber reflection. “Don’t tell me that girl’s already…” Such a pained expression. He is so compassionate and kind, trying so hard to rescue an absolute stranger. I find myself rubbing against him and purring again.

“Liam and Felix wouldn’t eat human intentionally. They’re not savages like Mike, but they can’t keep their heads under moonlight, and a girl already wounded and bleeding walking right across their path…” He sighed, clenching a hand to his forehead. Then he looked back down at the assumed to be dumb and defenseless small house pet. “Let’s get you out of here before Mike wakes up at least,” he resolved, scooping me up into his arms.

I let him carry me back through the woods, wondering if he had a stash of clothes somewhere nearby or if his transformations ripped right through such attire and left him embracing the ways of an exhibitionist until we reach wherever it is he hangs his hat.

He has a car as it turns out, a crappy old sedan parked at the side of a dirt road only a mile away from that clearing where we met. He set me down in the backseat and lifted out a duffle bag. “I guess you like me enough not to run away, huh?” he remarks, though he still closed me up in that car so I couldn’t attempt said escape while he’s busy dressing himself.

How is he failing to see that I am no ordinary cat? I most clearly have human patience and intelligence and I need his help to understand this shape shifting power and get back in my human skin. Maybe I could write him a note with my claws or something once we are back in civilization, because I am certainly not going to stay trapped forever living as his new pet.

Even though being cradled against his chest and stroked so lovingly… That was more affection than I’d had in years. I find myself more than prepared now to come back into my true skin and lie sprawled out naked on his upholstery. That might cause a car crash, the second he catches sight of the real me in the rear-view mirror. We’d have to spin some story for the cops to explain his distracted driving, though the source of said distraction would be apparent at a glance with a naked girl in his backseat.

We’d already be assumed to have made it past third base, and I don’t even know his name yet.

Previous Chapter
Next Chapter