CatOutoftheBag (5 page)

Sofia snorted, grabbed her suitcase and attempted to pull it
out of the wardrobe. It took some work—every muscle in her body ached, as if
she just finished mountain climbing with her bare hands. “Born? I’ve never in
my life experienced anything like
that
before yesterday.”

“Let me get that for you,” Nathan said. He reached into the
wardrobe, grabbed her purse and suitcase and carried them to where she’d been
sitting. “You’re what we call a Late Bloomer. Most of us learn we’re shifters
right around puberty when we accidentally shift for the first time. I was
fourteen. ‘Wet dreams’ took on a whole new level of complexity and
embarrassment, let me tell you.” He laughed and as she imagined what that might
be like, she couldn’t help wanting to chuckle as well. But she had some serious
questions.

“Yeah, well I’m thirty-three years old, and I went through a
pretty normal puberty quite some time ago. Why is this just now happening to
me?”

“It’s hard to say for sure, since we’ve encountered so few
Late Bloomers, but the going story seems to hold true for you. Being subjected
to the pheromones of other shifters at the same time you are in heat triggers
it. Now the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak.”

She quirked one brow up high. “In heat?”

“You know what I mean—ready to mate. Horny.” He grinned.
“You’re especially horny.”

She scoffed at his presumptuousness. “Maybe on the plane I
was especially turned on, but right now I’m—”

“Still ovulating,” he interrupted her with an odd smile on
his face. “And still just as attracted to me as I am to you.”

“And you know this because?”

“I can smell your pheromones.”

Sofia turned away, her cheeks burning hot, and went to sit
next to her bag. All of this would certainly explain a lot. Even her
animal-like magnetism to him on the plane. When she pushed aside her
embarrassment and allowed herself to examine her newly enhanced senses, she
could smell that his pheromones were also on high. He was horny. Just as horny
as the others out there fornicating with each other.

“Is this why you guys meet up once a quarter? To have one
big monster-cat orgy?” She unzipped her suitcase and dug through it, grabbing
underwear and clothes.

He chuckled and moved to sit next to her again. “In a way
yes, but it’s more than that. The purpose of the retreat is to spend time with
our kind, free to be who we are, to run wild with nature. The nightly Mating
Ritual is just one aspect of it.”

“And you do this for two weeks every quarter?”

“It’s only two weeks for the second and fourth quarters. For
the odd quarters, we only do one week.”

“That’s still, like, six weeks of vacation a year. Where the
hell do all of you guys work that you get that much time off?”

He snickered. “Unlike who you work for, there are companies
that believe in a work-life balance. I’m telling you, look up my company,
DodgeTech, sometime. I know one of the human resource managers pretty well. I
could hook something up for you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said as she shuffled aimlessly
through her belongings. It was hard to maintain her focus while she was so
aware
of him. Of his scent. Of his need. “So why aren’t you out there with them?”

“I went to go get your stuff for you, so you’d be more
comfortable here.” He reached into his pocket, pulled out a red switchblade
that she recognized as hers and dropped it into her bag as he continued. “You
woke up earlier than I expected—they said you’d probably sleep through the
night. I wanted to be here when you came to, so that you wouldn’t be alone when
you shifted for the first time, but apparently I was a little late. I’m sorry.”

Holding the blanket up by her armpits, she picked up a pair
of blue lace panties and bent forward, sliding them over her feet and up her
legs.

“You might not want to bother with getting dressed,” he
said. “The first few transformations are involuntary, until you learn to
control it. Would hate to see you ruin more of your clothes.”

“So what am I supposed to do, just hang out around here
naked?”

“Only until you master shifting. No one here would care, you
know. In case you haven’t noticed, everyone out there is naked right now.”

She glared at him. “I am
not
about to sit around all
day buck-ass naked under a dirty blanket.”

Nathan laughed heartily at this, his eyes gleaming with
play. “Okay, the truth is, there’s a dress hanging up in the wardrobe with
snaps all the way down on both sides, especially made for transforming in. So
the worst you’d have to do is go commando. Unless you’d
rather
go naked,
which would be fine with me.”

She scoffed and dropped her undies back into the bag before
heading to the wardrobe again. “I don’t understand. How could this have
happened to me? To you? All of you?”

“Nothing
happened
,so to speak, as far as we
know. It’s just who—or what—we are.”

“But why us? What do we have in common?”

“The only thing the majority of us have in common is that we
were born under the zodiac sign Leo. But even then, there are some exceptions.
Like you, for instance.”

Sofia did the math in her head. She was born two weeks
prematurely, on July fourteenth. She was supposed to be born a Leo although she
was actually a Cancer. Fascinating.

“And you already knew I was one when we were on the plane?”

He shook his head. “No. I suspected, but I wasn’t completely
sure. Even before I, um, touched you, you slightly had the scent. It got
stronger after your orgasm, but I’d thought I was imagining it. At the time,
you had me rather…distracted.” He licked his lips and Sofia felt a little
flutter in her tummy at the mention of their sky-high adventure. “All I knew at
that time was that you were beautiful, and that I was instantly drawn to you.”

Growing warm all over, she smiled softly and brushed her
hair back. She spotted the brown cotton dress in the closet that he spoke of.
It was short-sleeved and would stop above her knees. It wasn’t exactly
glamorous and it would be a little chilly if she went outdoors in it, but it
would be better than going naked or risking destroying more clothes. She
removed it from the hanger. “So why did Justin attack me?”

“I guess by the time you came to the mountain to meet me,
you’d already been triggered and you were fully
on
. In your current
state you’re like a living Perfume De Sex for a Tom. Justin got a whiff and
somehow got the idea you were intentionally enticing him, and that you liked it
rough.”

“A ‘Tom’?”

“It’s just a term for an adult male Werecat who’s ready for
sex.”

She smacked her lips. “That’s all it takes for one of you to
decide to sleep with someone? You like how they smell?”

Nathan laughed. “Yes, for some of us, some of the time.” He
sat upright and locked his eyes dead-on with hers. “But the list of reasons why
I
want to sleep with you is far longer than that.”

Sofia lowered her gaze from his piercing green eyes and
found herself ogling his defined chest. His pectorals were lightly dusted with
fine, dark hair, and a narrow trail traced the center of his torso from the top
all the way down past his loosely fitting pants. Every fiber of her being
wanted to rip off those pants, lose her blanket and crush her breasts against
that chest while she straddled him.

But what was she thinking? It was crazy to want him, crazy
to be wanting anything sexual right now. He was a freaking Werecat, and
apparently she either really was one too or she was being taken for a walk down
to looneyville. Either way, it was all insane.

She sighed heavily. Using the open door of the wardrobe for
cover, she dropped the blanket and slipped the thin garment over her head. Once
she was dressed, she closed the wardrobe and glowered at Nathan. “I did
not
come
here to engage in some strange human-beast orgy in a dark cave, Nathan.”

He drew back and furrowed his brows. “I’m not suggesting you
participate. Honestly, I’d rather not see you involved with anyone here who
isn’t me.”

“Rather not?”

“Well, as much as I’d like to, I can’t exactly stop you from
sexing anyone else if you wanted to. It’s always the female’s choice. If a
queen wants multiple lovers, the men are expected to cooperate and share.” But
even as he said this, his fists clutched tightly and his eyes narrowed with a
carefully restrained rage.

“What’s a ‘queen’?”

“It’s what we call female Werecats who are of fertile age.”

“You seem angry.”

“Sorry, it’s just that… I don’t really like the idea of
sharing. I’ve shared before, I mean, but—I’d really rather not with you.”

Sofia leaned against the wall, studying Nathan carefully.
“But what if I don’t want to have sex with you?”

He looked hurt. “You want to choose someone else other than
me?”

“I mean—what if I choose no one? What if I just want to
leave here and go back about my business?”

“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Sofia, I
need you to understand that, please. You don’t even have to stay. You are not a
prisoner here. But you are a recently triggered Late Bloomer, and the
adventure’s just getting started—you might want someone who knows what you’re
going through nearby to guide you right now. And I’d really like you to stay
with me.”

Sofia closed her eyes and tilted her head upward as she
leaned back against the cold stone wall. Staying with Nathan sounded good. She
could get more explanations about what was happening to her, find out what this
was all about, get to know him better. Her body and heart were telling her that
everything would be okay, that she wasn’t alone with this affliction and there
were others who could help her through it. But logically it was all too
incredible. It was hard to wrap her mind around the idea that she was suddenly
a shape-shifter, that all of them were. Perhaps it’d be wiser to get out of
there and head straight for a hospital and ask for a brain scan. She stood
there without responding, conflicted about whether to stay or flee.

He interrupted her deliberation. “What are you thinking?”

“That I shouldn’t be even be on this mountain.”

“So why
did
you come to the mountain?”

She blushed. “For more of you, of course. You piqued my
curiosity, and no one’s done that in a long, long time.” Their eyes met briefly
and she quickly added, “But I’m not so sure whether or not that is a good idea
anymore,” before he got his hopes up too high.

“Why not? Because we’re Weres?”

“Because I still don’t know even one lick about you. Or
myself, apparently.”

“Just say the word and I’ll gladly give you licks to get to
know. No need to stop at just one, though.”

The way he was looking at her, Sofia believed he would. And
she believed she would enjoy every second of it. There was no denying the
chemistry between them. But this just didn’t seem like the right time. She
still had so many questions about her newfound condition, about him, about the
others. “I’m not quite comfortable with any of this yet. How about for tonight
we just sit here and talk, okay?”

“Yeah. Let’s do that,” he said, nodding. “Tomorrow, I’ll
introduce you to everyone and we’ll get you started on learning the basics.”

Sofia winced. “Can it be just the two of us? Someplace
private and, like, not here? I would
really
prefer not to have anything
to do with any of the others just yet.”

His brows furrowed together briefly, but then he gave her a
sympathetic smile. “Okay. In the morning we’ll go out and put a little bit of
distance between ourselves andthis
cave for a few days, just you and me, and work on getting you used to shifting
and stuff.” He removed the bracer from his arm and rubbed the skin underneath.

Noticing the feline teeth impressions, Sofia winced. “I’m
sorry I bit you.”

He quirked a smile at her. “It’s nothing, just stings a
little.”

“Should we call the doctor to take a look at it?”

“Nah, didn’t even break the skin. A superficial wound like
this will heal easily the next time I shift to Cat and give it a few licks,” he
said. “Come on, sit down and eat. You’ve got to be hungry.”

He sat at the table and patted the ground next to him.

Sofia was absolutely starving. The sight and smell of the
tuna sandwich, fruit and glass of water were positively tempting. Letting her
stomach call the shots, she sat beside him, shaking slightly.

She took a swallow of the water and a big bite of the
sandwich when she noticed Nathan sitting there with his eyes closed tight and
brows furrowed, as if concentrating hard. He looked hungry.

“Do you want some?”

He nodded but didn’t open his eyes. “Oh god, yes I do. But
not unless you’re willing and ready to give it. You go ahead and eat, get your
strength back up first. Don’t worry about me, I can calm myself in the meantime.”

“Calm yourself?”

“From being tempted to just reach over and take it from you.
I’d never do that, but damn—it looks, smells, so good. And I can’t stop
thinking about what it would feel like on my tongue. What it must taste like.”

She looked down at her plate then back over at him. “Can’t
you go out there and get some?”

“What I want isn’t out there,” he said softly. “We can just
sit here and talk for now. It’ll help me tune out the sounds of them doing it,
which isn’t helping me to keep my mind from going places.”

Sofia blinked a few times, feeling her body go tingly as she
realized the true source of his stress. “You’re not really talking about being
hungry, are you?”

He opened his eyes and grinned at her, the spark of play on
his face again. His voice was deep and husky when he responded. “I am hungry.
Just not for food.”