Like a Cat in Heat

Like a Cat in Heat

by Lilith T. Bell

***

“
Are you sure you want to stay
out here? It's awful dangerous for a woman by herself, with this big
storm coming and all.”

I snatched the key out of the old man's hands and resisted the urge
to yell at him. He was fussing and trying to be helpful, but between
his good-intentioned sexism and the hormones screaming through my
bloodstream, I was fairly certain he wouldn't survive if he stuck
around any longer.

“
Yes, I'm sure. Thank you.”
I flashed him a tight smile and just about bodily shoved him out the
cabin door before I shut and locked it.

Alone at last, I sank down to the floor and just laid on the wood
there for a moment, my eyes closed, breathing a bit unsteady. I'd
been traveling through Oregon when I'd felt the first stirrings of
the season come upon me. Usually, it came closer to February. A
Christmas heat was unexpected and annoying. If I got pregnant, I knew
I'd have some relief during the pregnancy and while lactating, but
all of the male werecats I'd known were assholes and I had no desire
to raise their children. Being a solitary species, us cats didn't
have the benefits of a pack structure influencing our breeding like
with wolves. Once in winter and then a milder heat in summer had been
hitting me year after year since I'd turned eighteen.

A cabin out on Mount Hood during a sudden snow storm was perfect. No
one could get to me and I couldn't get to anyone else. I'd be in
agony, but it was safer this way. Both for me and for any stupid
human male that crossed my path. Feline shifter females were violent
when aroused and it only became worse when we were in heat. To ensure
I didn't go tearing anyone's throat out when fucking, I'd had to
insist on all my past lovers tying me up.

They thought I was submissive. They really had no idea.

The sound of a wolf howling in the distance pulled me back to the
world around me. They'd been reintroduced in Idaho from Canada a few
years back and their population had been growing as they spread to
neighboring states. Unlike the feline or rodent shifters who
preferred to live close to humanity, the lycanthropes tended to stick
close to their wild relatives. When real wolves were almost wiped out
by humans, so were the wolf shifters. It was possible their
population was growing alongside their animal counterparts, though.

I got up from the floor and picked up my bags of groceries to take
them into the kitchen. I put the carton of milk and salmon away
first, then made myself a sandwich before I put the rest away. If the
storm was as bad as everyone was predicting, the food would have to
keep me for the next eight days, until I was sure my heat was over.
In my animal form, I could hunt and feed myself just fine during
summer, but most of my prey would be harder to get in the middle of a
snow storm.

The cabin had propane heat, but the fireplace looked particularly
inviting. The idea of curling up on the bearskin rug in front of it
was really appealing. Once I had the fire going, I stretched out on
the rug, squirming and arching my back. I felt cooped up after
driving all day and groaned as I felt joints pop. Using my feet, I
kicked off both of my boots and then pulled my socks off with my
toes. My leather jacket was feeling uncomfortably warm next to the
fire, so I unzipped that and slid it off as well.

My hands immediately smoothed down the front of my body, cupping my
breasts through my shirt. Masturbation wouldn't satisfy me during my
season, but it could take some of the edge off, at least. My thumbs
caught my nipples, pinching them between my thumbs and the sides of
my hands. I took a shaky breath as I teased myself. The longer I drew
it out, the calmer I could get after I came. A quick orgasm would
only leave me in a frenzy and I'd have to masturbate for hours just
to get a little peace.

One hand slid down my body to rub myself through my pants slowly, my
hips gyrating up to my own touch. Just as my other hand was moving
under my shirt, I heard a howl again. Close this time. Very close.

And it didn't come from a wolf's throat.

I picked my head up to look toward the window beside the door. The
snow had started to drift down slowly in big, fat flakes, but the
storm hadn't picked up much steam yet. On my back on the floor, I
couldn't see much more than the tree line and sky, so got up into a
crouch, then rose to my feet. As soon as I was standing, my eyes
locked with those of the man outside. He was walking up the narrow
drive to the cabin and currently alongside my car.

His hair was golden brown and cut fairly short, but not quite short
enough to tame it entirely. It stuck up in damp spikes as though he'd
dragged his fingers through it to push away the snow. Worn jeans
hugged muscular thighs, but his upper body was difficult to judge. I
could see he was wearing a dark green t-shirt with an open flannel
shirt over it and then a brown leather bomber jacket over that. Slung
over one shoulder, he was carrying what looked like a duffel bag.
Despite the fact that he was dressed like someone who lived almost
entirely outdoors, his skin was unweathered. His face boyishly
handsome—in a dangerous sort of way—though I'd guess he
was around thirty. His lips looked full and soft, his nose finely
chiseled. His square jaw added age and power to his face, tapering to
a sculpted chin with an almost imperceptible dimple in it. From this
distance, only a cat's eyes could make out such a small detail. It
was his eyes that really caught me, though. They were large and
soulful, fringed by thick lashes a shade darker than his hair, with a
hunger in them that made me ache to satisfy it.

They were also amber. An alpha wolf's eyes.

I dropped down to a crouch again to break eye contact, my heart
thundering in my ears. Shit. That hadn't been a real wolf calling out
to his pack. It was a shifter warning me that I'd stumbled into his
territory.

There was a knock at the door. Restrained. Polite. The feline in me
wanted to dash out a window and escape, but then I'd be outside
during the storm and naked when I finally shifted back. There would
be nothing stopping him from hunting me down either.

So I forced myself to get to my feet and pull open the door. The wolf
stood there with a cocky grin that begged to be slapped off his face.
The casual arrogance that surrounded him like an aura was far more
offensive than bared teeth and snarls. All I had to do was look at
him and see he didn't consider me a real threat.

The scent of him was muted because of the cold, but that didn't mask
it entirely. The stench of dog should have disgusted me, but at the
moment all that mattered was the male musk that made me weak in the
knees. One of my hands curled around the edge of the door to give me
something to grip. My nails bit into the wood as I leaned into it.

“
I'm not hunting on your
territory. I just needed somewhere to stay.” My words were said
low and fast, gritted out through clenched teeth.

“
I don't think that's all you
need, sweetheart.” His voice was deep and there was a faint
drawl to it that seemed out of place in Oregon. If the wolves were
only just coming back to the area, though, who knew where they might
be coming from? The look he was giving me made it clear that his nose
had picked up my “need.”

“
Fuck off.”

I didn't care if it was his territory any longer. I flung the door to
slam it shut. Instead of hearing the satisfying crack of wood
striking wood, there was only a muffled thump. He'd stuck his hand in
to catch the door and pushed it back open again before stepping
inside, as casually as if he lived there. I took a step back from
him, hissing a warning.

“
Easy, kitten. I picked up
your scent back at the grocery store.”

He shut the door behind him and set down the duffel bag before he
continued walking toward me. For every step forward he took, I was
taking another one backwards. He had shown no inclination toward
violence, so I wasn't worried about that. What did have me worried
was exactly how badly I wanted him. Even in heat, I had some control
over myself. The old man I had rented the cabin from hadn't tempted
me. The trouble was that even if it was a wolf standing in front of
me, all that mattered to my body was that he was the most gorgeous
shifter I'd ever seen.

“
I wasn't leaving my scent
there to pick up a fuck buddy. I was getting groceries.”

The wolf took another step forward and I tried to continue backing
up, but I'd moved all the way to the opposite wall. His teeth flashed
in a predator's grin as he closed the distance between us. The feel
of his body pressed to mine, pinning me to the wall, sent a shudder
of hunger through me and I had to bite my bottom lip to keep from
moaning. I could feel the heat of him against my hip and desperately
wanted to feel him inside of me instead.

He ducked down, his lips brushing against my throat. When he spoke,
there was the vibrato of a growl to it. “So consider me a
bonus.”

I closed my eyes, hissing inward when I felt his teeth at my throat.
He'd begun to nibble with skilled little scrapes of his teeth, hard
enough to hurt for just a moment without leaving my skin stinging. My
hands automatically went to his shoulders to grip him through his
jacket, my hips shifting and rolling to press against him. He needed
no cologne or aftershave. Just the basic male essence of his scent
was enough to nearly shut down my brain.

Nearly.

“
I don't fuck dogs,” I
spat at him, using my grip on his shoulders to shove him away.

As far as I knew, there had never been any breeding between cat and
wolf shifters. What little contact there had been before the wolves
became so rare was usually hostile. Predators didn't typically enjoy
sharing range.

The mouse and ratkin bred together freely, but they were different
from the cats or wolves. They were closer to humans and had an easier
time breeding. There had been a few matings between feline and rodent
shifters, though. The offspring had ended up being equally split
between which parent they took after. Most attempted breedings
between the feline shifters and humans didn't take, or the
pregnancies ended so early they weren't noticed. Of the ones that
lasted, half ended in miscarriage. If the mother was human, those
miscarriages would often be fatal. The half that did make it to term
would always take after the mother. No exceptions.

In theory, I could get pregnant by a werewolf. I was assuming that it
would be like any other cross-shifter breeding and the offspring
would have a fifty/fifty chance of taking after either one of us.
That was what I was afraid of.

He stumbled back from me from the shove and cocked his head to the
side with a look of canine confusion. “You want me,” he
pointed out as he came closer again. My lips pulled back and I bared
my teeth at him, but that didn't dissuade him. He stopped just before
our bodies touched, close enough for the heat of him to radiate onto
my skin. “I can smell it.”

“
I'm in heat. I'd get wet over
a loaf of French bread,” I snapped. “I might want you,
but I don't want your pups.”

“
I've never met a female
shifter who wasn't my mother or sister,” he commented, as if he
hadn't heard me at all. He reached out to let his fingers slide under
my shirt, brushing my stomach. His fingertips still had a faint chill
to them from being outside and it made my body clench in pained
hunger. “In the old days, there'd be complex courtship between
a male and female leading up to her heat, so they'd already be bonded
by the time they mated. Then they'd start their pack from there.”

My eyelids fluttered, struggling to stay open as he stroked my belly
with feather-soft touches. “Cats don't court. We don't usually
keep mates, either.”

“
You just breed and abandon
one another?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“
Usually. We only really bond
with our mothers and, occasionally, our siblings. I didn't.”

His fingers were moving upward, drawing light circles as they went.
When they reached the underside of one breast, teasing it through my
bra, I finally gave in and shut my eyes with a shuddering sigh.

“
Usually means 'not always',”
he whispered. He had leaned in close enough that I could feel his
breath teasing against my throat. One of his thumbs was dragging back
and forth over my nipple through the silky fabric of my bra. My teeth
were gritted to fight back all the pleasured sounds struggling to
escape my throat. “If you did have my pup, I'd care for you
both. I'd hunt for you. Protect you. Provide for you.”

From a human, it probably would have been a line. From a wolf, I knew
it was the truth. It's what every male lived for. To find a mate and
provide for her and their pups. They would literally rather die than
fail to care for their mates and offspring. From all I'd been told,
they were obnoxiously devoted once they gave their loyalty.