This one is a little hotter. When this all started to come out I was totally caught off guard but it felt so right and I just ran with it. I mean my characters told me that’s how it was! It gets hotter shortly but this is a PG-13 max site so gotta stop 🙁

Excerpt:

He carried the two mugs to the narrow table and put one in front of Zyl, now settled on one of the two stools. “Different? How do you mean? What do you mean?”

“They’re all like me. Shapeshifters, beast kin, Were-kind. You sensed it. I could tell, but you were afraid or unwilling to believe. They recognized you as kin. I told you there’s a cat inside you. Not sure what kind, but definitely a feline.”

Carl sat down before he collapsed. It made perfect sense, even though it went against everything he’d always believed. All he’d told himself and clung to for some tie to reality, to sanity. “I-I-I don’t know what to say, what to think. I want to deny it as I always have, but it’s getting harder.”

He clenched his hands around the mug, letting the heat leach into his flesh and drive out part of the sudden icy chill that threatened to absorb him. It was too much to take in, yet Zyl spoke in such a calm, matter-of-fact way that it started to sound like truth.

Zyl reached across the table and covered Carl’s clenched hands with his. “I know. It’s a lot to take in, forces you to make a sharp and sudden turn in your beliefs. I understand, even though I’ve always known who and what I am. Somehow, you’ve suppressed it or it’s been suppressed by some outside force. You should’ve shifted by puberty, but I realize you never did. That trapped cat is fighting to get out. The allergies are its revenge. Maybe I can help you through it.”

Carl looked up and met Zyl’s green gaze, sharp but also somehow gentle, almost tender. “Can you? Will you? Help me, I mean? It’s going to be hard, going to be scary and I bet it’ll hurt like crazy, too. Tell me, how does it happen? How does someone become Were-kind or are they all born that way?”

Zyl hesitated, as if marshalling his thoughts or trying to simplify his explanation. “There are three ways, really. Some are born that way. It’s carried on a recessive gene so requires one have it from both parents to manifest. Neither of them may ever display it if they only carry one. There’s a separate gene also, one that’s dominant, that can suppress the shifter genes. We’re still trying to understand and unravel all this. Anyway, trueborn Were-kind are not too common. Then there’s a virus that a regular human can be infected with. Most often it’s through a bite, but sometimes an exchange of bodily fluids is enough, especially if the human carries one of the recessives already.”

Almost scientific, Carl thought. Okay, maybe he could accept it as at least something possible. Not exactly pertinent to him yet but … “That’s kind of two-and-a-half ways,” he said, recovering a bit of humor. “So then what?”

“We need to work on getting you through the first shift.”

* * * *

Zyl saw the shock on Carl’s face as the impact of his calm statement soaked in.

“You mentioned exchange of bodily fluids as a possible trigger. Does that imply what I think it does? I mean do you think we should…” The other man stumbled to a halt, a wash of color sweeping over his face.

Restraining a laugh because he knew Carl did not find anything about this situation humorous, Zyl nodded. “That’s not the only way, but we could. I mean a blood transfusion is one method…things like that, as well as sex. I won’t insist and certainly not force anything on you that doesn’t feel good to you, seem right or…well, you know. I mean no rape or anything! I’d never do that. Yes, I find you attractive and have from the first. Maybe you didn’t know.”

Carl still blushed. “I– Well, I thought maybe and I was definitely attracted to you. The cheetah part. You are that mysterious male, aren’t you? And you as a human are beautiful, unique, magnetic.”

Good, he’s beginning to accept that Were-kind are real and that animal and human can coexist in a single body with each emerging at different times. Progress. Still, he could be scared into retreat, into a shell of denial very easily. Gotta go slow here.

Zyl reached again and took Carl’s hands in his. “Close your eyes a minute and just feel. Let your intuition and your inner senses respond.” He felt subtle tension quiver along the other man’s nerves, tighten his muscles and dance goose bumps over his skin.

Although Zyl usually shunned the use of the mind control power all Were-kind had to some degree, he sent the thinnest trickle of warmth and care through the junction of their clasped hands. Within a few heartbeats, he felt the slow relaxing that slipped over Carl’s body. The hands he held softened, fingers losing their stiffness. Then the least trace of a returning current of responsive energies began to flow back to him.

The connection begun, they both stood and moved to the side, coming closer as the table’s barrier no longer separated them. Carl still had his eyes shut. He moved almost as if in a trance. An instant’s icy panic touched Zyl. Had he exerted more control than he intended, perhaps too much, so he had taken over the other man’s mind?

No, even when he shut off the delicate exchange, Carl’s reaction did not vary.

“You can open your eyes now if you want to.”

Carl’s lids snapped up and his dusty blue gaze fixed on Zyl’s face. He smiled, an expression so bright and unexpected that Zly’s heartbeat stuttered.

“I want this…well, something. I’m not real experienced, but I’ve known for years I was gay. If you are, too–and it seems like that’s the case–I’d love to do whatever you want. I’m maybe not a real sub, but lean that way. I want my partners to take charge. And if it makes me become a shifter, maybe that’s what needs to happen.”

The tingling current flowing between their clasped hands seemed to grow stronger, hotter, more insistent. Zly let it lead him. He took a step and then a half step more until they were standing just a few hairbreadths apart. He released Carl’s hands and lifted his own to settle on the other man’s shoulders. Carl reached as well and put his hands at Zyl’s waist. They both angled their heads so noses did not bump and there was no hesitation as they kissed, the first powerful expression of a union yet to come.

Carl tasted like coffee, yet also a subtle flavor that seemed unique to him. Zyl knew his beast senses, even when he was in human form, were much stronger and more sensitive than those of most humans. Scents and tastes were especially keen, powerful and significant. He’d now know Carl anywhere, any time and under any circumstances. Just a hint of his scent would be enough.

Their arms tightened around each other as the kiss went on. Tongues dueled and fenced, breaths gasped as their mouths moved, turning and shaping different connections.