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  “You’re not… scared? I thought you’d be.” These people were acting like she’d said she had something normal like tennis elbow or a touch of psoriasis.

  “No, but I can tell you are. It’s okay. My first shifter encounter threw me as well. But luckily I was too drunk to be scared.” Ellie laughed and it was a bright, bell-like sound. Leesa relaxed.

  “There are more… shifters?”

  Both Arthur and Ellie looked accusingly at Vol. “Hey,” he said. “I’m not good at breaking news. I’m the chef, remember?”

  “What news?” Leesa’s voice was starting to tremble and it jumped an octave. She winced. Her career had taught her to be cool in any situation, and she’d embraced that. But her training didn’t extend to how to deal with magical shape shifting. She twined her fingers together in her lap to stop their trembling.

  “Okay, fine. This is going to be an information overload for you,” Arthur said. “Your change may have been brought on by magic, a curse of some kind, you said. I deal with and come across a lot of magic in my field, so I may be able to help narrow down what happened to you. And yes, there are shifters -- plenty of them who were born to the change. Vol is one of those.” He shrugged, and tugged on his moustache.

  “I’ll help you with this,” Vol started.

  “No! You… you could have told me this earlier. What are you?”

  “A bear. Grizzly to be specific.” He looked at her closely to gauge her reaction.

  He got one. “This is crazy!” She stood up and pointed at the diner owner. “There’s no way that you can just change into a bear, for God’s sake. It’s not possible.” She felt the skin on her back prickling with heat and a fierce itch spread over her. Leesa stiffened as a heavy pressure pressed down on her from all sides.

  “Easy,” Vol crooned, his voice soft and soothing. He got up slowly from his chair and put his arms around the frightened woman. “Try to relax into it. Fighting it only makes it hurt.”

  Leesa’s breath came in fits and gasps. She could feel the tufts of fur emerging from her skin and she opened her mouth to scream, just as twin needlelike fangs slid from her gums. She took in the rest of the table, but the other two just sat and allowed Vol to attempt to soothe her.

  “Breathe deep,” he said, his scent enveloping her. Now that she was in the change, instinct had hold of her and he smelled of man, and fierce strength and fiery heat. “Acknowledge the change, but tell it not now. Another time, you will let the beast free.”

  She felt herself shrinking. Go away, go away… Leesa wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to the feline inside of her. It was scared and wanted to flee. Vol’s big hand pressed down on her back, holding her tightly to his hard, muscular body.

  After what seemed like hours, the urge to run abated. The cat inside was calmed and no longer agitated. Vol released her and she sank back into the chair. Ellie passed her a glass of rich, dark, red wine, and she drank gratefully.

  Arthur had his fingers steepled and was looking at Leesa, the expression on his face one of curiosity mixed with concern. “Leesa,” he said quietly, “Now that I’ve witnessed what happens to you, I have some good and bad news for you.”

  “Please give me the good news first.”

  “It is magic-induced. A spell, or a curse, I don’t know yet.”

  “What’s the difference?” Ellie asked, as Leesa was too overwhelmed with questions to let one get out of her mouth.

  “A spell means that anyone with the skill level and the right combination of ingredients and incantations can reverse it. If it were a curse, you’d have to find the person responsible and convince them to undo it.”

  That news unstuck her tongue. “And the bad news?”

  “You’ll need to stay here until we can figure out what that reversion spell would be.”

  “No! Hell, no!” Leesa flung her hands up. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized she’d been holding Vol’s hand. She stomped off to the bedroom, then changed her mind and turned back to the table. “I have a life, you know. A job and a family. Well… a job anyway. Speaking of my job, I need to get to a computer and write up this story and send in the pictures of this cult or whatever that cursed me. Only thing that will get me fired faster than not having a headline story is not showing up for work.”

  “You can’t control your change right now, and you can’t just go out in public. Not everyone is going to understand if you morph into an animal mid-sentence. And I’ll be honest with you: I don’t know if it can be reversed. The best place for you is here, where it’s safe and I can help you control the change.” Vol’s deep bass voice held urgency and a hint of worry. “Believe me, it won’t bode well if any non-shifter sees you change.”

  Leesa knew he was right, but she still didn’t want to accept it. Vol was attractive, yes, but the last thing she needed right now was to get into a situation which might make her be in close quarters with a man who could see her naked at any point in her change. She turned to Ellie. “Why can’t you help me?”

  Ellie shook her head, making her fluffy mop of coils shake. “I’m not a shifter. One of these two can hopefully help you with that. What I can do, is help you keep your job.” She pulled out a slim laptop from her bag. “This is one I was going to get rid of. I suggest logging in and checking all of your e-mail, then getting time off approved. Maybe the promise of the biggest story you’ve ever sent in would be an incentive?” She motioned to her boyfriend and they both got up to leave.

  Maybe. It depended on her boss’s mood. She took the laptop and booted it up. “What about my things? My keys, my car, my camera?”

  “Best to leave them for now. Until daylight,” Vol said. To the departing Ellie and Arthur, he said, “Thanks.”

  Leesa nodded at the couple as they left, but she was lost in her thoughts of how she would have to be a recluse until they found a cure. She didn’t want to think about the alternative.

  Leesa looked up at Vol, acceptance of her circumstances weighting heavily on her. “So what do we do now?”

  Chapter Three

  Ellie and Arthur walked back to the Carnival, hand in hand. After a few minutes of quiet, Ellie asked, “So… what did you think of that?”

  Her normally upbeat boyfriend was pensive. He bit his full lower lip and Ellie suppressed the urge to kiss him. “It was strange. Never heard a story like that before, but I… I want to help, but I don’t know if I can. Not really the sort of magic I do.”

  Arthur was the head magician at the carnival where he was part owner and the lead illusion creator for several magic houses all over the Eastern Seaboard. It was at one of his shows, where he’d taken her on their first date, when she realized she’d found her match.

  “Someone has to know how. I feel sorry for her.”

  “Yeah, but notice she didn’t tell us everything. Why was she out there? Did she know who this cult -- or whatever -- was? They’re obviously powerful. Will they come after us if we help her?” He shook his head and ran his free hand through his thick inky hair. Ellie smoothed one of the locks back into place.

  “We can’t do nothing.”

  “No,” he agreed. “Because if we don’t help, Vol will, and he’s --”

  “A hothead at times. I know.” Ellie grinned. “And he likes her.”

  Arthur didn’t disagree. His girlfriend had a knack for observing behavior. “Mmm,” he said. “When we get back to The Show, we can ask around to see if anyone knows anything.”

  Ellie looked concerned. “It might not be a good idea to ask too many people. We don’t want anything getting out.”

  “Don’t worry, I know who to ask. True carney folk are really closed mouthed about what goes on behind the scenes.” He didn’t tell Ellie that his bigger worry was that Vol was already in too deep.

  * * *

  Two days into training and Leesa was bone weary. While Vol was a great teacher -- patient and understanding -- he was also relentless. He caught her off guard several times, seeming to ap
pear out of nowhere, saying things to make her angry. Star Wars was not better than Star Trek and she would never change her mind about that. But she was getting better at controlling her change, due in part to the reduced stress after getting a ten-day vacation from the job. Staying with her job, however, was dependent on her returning with a headline story.

  Job worries were far from her mind at the moment. Her priority was dealing with this curse or spell or whatever it was. The change was no longer painful, but she didn’t have full control yet. Every so often, she would reach up under her braids and find a triangular, pointed ear or she’d find a thin layer of her silky black fur on the front of her belly while she was in human form.

  “Okay, once more,” Vol said as she sat in his entertainment room one evening before the dinner rush.

  “No,” Leesa said, panting. “No more today.” She had forced her change into feline form a total of five times that day, a new record for her. Now she was hot, and achy, her muscles burning like she’d been in Olympic trials.

  “You need this, Leesa.” He’d been saying that for two days now. That she needed to get control over her shift, no matter how temporary it might be.

  She turned to the big man kneeling in front of her. His T-shirt was snug, outlining the definition in his arms and torso and her skin tingled. Not with her shift this time, but with want. Her cat had begun to recognize him, his voice, and his scent, and responded to his tightly reined desire for her.

  The past two days had been fraught with tension between them. Vol’s hands on her were so hot, they’d felt as though an imprint was left on her. Where he’d pressed between her shoulder blades to show her how to tuck her body to suppress an oncoming change. Her lower back where he’d held her tightly through a gut-wrenching muscle spasm, soothing her with whispered words as she cried in frustration.

  Mostly though, he’d avoided touching her outside of those times. It was as if he didn’t trust himself to restrain his need. Leesa could sense his need now, likely a product of her cat’s instincts becoming part of her, and she wanted him to make a move. Her mother’s reprimand echoed each time she opened her mouth to say that she wanted him too. No man wants a fast woman. Always let him make the first move.

  And she had. Shaun had been the one to approach her and ask her out for coffee that first time on Trident Tech’s campus. She’d been flattered and pleased by the attention and had grudgingly admitted her mother had been right about this one. After what he’d considered a suitable amount of time dating, he’d proposed and stated they would marry right after graduation. When Leesa asked why they should wait, he’d said that he didn’t want a wife without a degree. So she’d been understandably shocked when he put off their marriage for a few years, citing the need to build up his career. Six years into the marriage, he stated that she’d gotten too caught up in her career and wasn’t being a wife to him. Leesa had been stunned into silence. Seconds later, she’d found her tongue and let go of all her frustrations in one long diatribe, complete with finger pointing and the obligatory neck roll.

  “That’s not what I need,” she said, keeping her voice calm despite the trembling in her stomach. She’d never made the first move, suppose she’d read the signs wrong and he was just being nice? Maybe the shifter community was like that, all helping hands, and free shape-changing courses.

  The spark of interest perking up Vol’s features told her differently. His body language had changed from the relaxed, coaxing posture he’d been using to encourage her. It became tighter, a bracing of the arms, and shoulders, a pushing out of his already impressive chest. All of his senses were on alert, and his gaze on her turned keen, and focused, searching her eyes.

  “What do you need, then?” he asked, flexing his fingers where they rested on his powerful thighs. His deep voice vibrated through her, leaving her thighs quivering, and damp. When he dragged his tongue over his bottom lip, she almost moaned.

  This was her moment to decide. In just a few short days, she knew Vol wouldn’t force the issue -- not force a decision on her part nor hold her to an answer -- but it was putting her hard won self-pride on the line. Not to mention going against several decades of instilled Southern propriety. Damn, she was thirty-nine years old, a heartbeat away from forty, and she should be past those long held beliefs. Leesa forced the experience of her ex-husband out of her mind, instead opting for a proverb that had served her well in her career -- If you never ask, you never get.

  “I want you,” she whispered.

  Leesa heard his sharp intake of breath and she was sure that he’d been holding his attraction back for her benefit. “Are you sure, Leesa?”

  Self-doubt gripped her again. It had been so long since she’d been with anyone, and she bit her lip, thinking she might have misread the signs. She stammered as she frantically tried to backtrack, hating that she’d misinterpreted the admittedly unusual situation. She’d kept away from relationships since her divorce for exactly that reason. “I-I… understand. You… well… It’s probably --”

  Vol took her face in both of his large, warm hands, effectively cutting off her speech. Before Leesa could take another full breath, his lips were on hers, sending rushes of desire straight through to her core. Breathing ceased to be a worry as she drank in his taste, of salted chocolate, and juicy red wine. He crushed his lips to hers, tasting, and teasing her tongue until Leesa’s world shrank to nothing except the kiss.

  When he pulled reluctantly away from her, Leesa sagged in his arms before recovering her senses to begin to pull away. Vol held her fast, and pressed his forehead against hers, inhaling her labored breaths. “That was so there’s no mistake. I want you, Leesa. I just need to know that you want this for the right reasons. You’ve had a crazy few days and I --”

  Leesa pressed her fingers to his lips, trembling when he sucked a fingertip. “I’m sure,” she replied. Even if this isn’t forever, it’s what I need now.

  Vol brought his mouth down again, skating from her parted lips to her neck as Leesa’s head fell back. He took his time to unveil her, slowly peeling away the tank top from her skin and allowing his gaze to roam. Growing darkness outside intensified the LED lights Vol used indoors, making Leesa’s body seem almost outlined in a pale blue aura. She arched toward his hand and pushed the button of her jeans open. Her sex ached now, pulsing with readiness.

  “Okay, darlin’,” he soothed, his touch gentle and seeking. When Leesa grabbed his hand and pushed it toward the new opening, he got the message and stripped off the snug jeans, leaving her clad in only her white panties. But as Leesa moved to shimmy out of those as well, Vol stopped her. “Let’s ease into this.”

  His kisses returned, fierce desire reined in and she clung to him and her world spiraled out of control. He was her port in this storm and her grasp moved from his bunched biceps to the waistband of his jeans to the button fly. Deftly, she loosened all of the buttons and went to reach for him to slip him inside her hungry center.

  He pulled her hands free and pushed them up above her head, pinning her to the floor. His eyes met hers and silent conversation passed between them. He knew she was desperate to forget herself in this moment and he pushed his denim-clad thigh up between her legs high, and hard. Leesa moaned at the pressure against her throbbing pussy and ground herself down on his thigh, rubbing her aching clit against it.

  She knew she was riding him -- humping him actually -- but she couldn’t help herself. The pressure, the friction, felt good, his body was so hot, he was like a generator pumping out heat. She could scent her own arousal and her juices soaked through the thin panties and onto his jeans. Vol leaned down and took a puckered nipple between his lips and tugged. With a cry, Leesa arched her back to push more of the sensitive peak into his mouth. “More,” she wailed, her body pushing her for more contact.

  Vol pulled away and Leesa gasped at the loss. He soothed her with words she didn’t fully hear, her blood was pumping so fast in her head. Leesa’s back came up off the floor as Vol wo
rked two of his fingers under the barrier of her panties and plunged into her twitching pussy, then pulled her panties from her lifted hips.

  He brushed his fingers against her silky inner thighs where they were wet from her own essence, lifted them to his mouth and tasted her.

  Leesa groaned, needing to feel those fingers, that tongue on her flesh. She parted her legs wide, sending out a cloud of aroused female scent. Vol’s growl was almost pained.

  His fingers found her slippery and steamy and he dove into her heat, twisting his wrist with each plunge. Leesa’s body rose and fell with each of his movements as she worked herself on his hand. She felt her orgasm building with each downward dive, his knuckle grazed her blossoming clit, bringing her closer to her peak.

  Another stroke and he pulled his hand from her. Naked and breathless, Leesa stared at him, chest heaving and mouth parted with desire for him. Legs splayed, she watched him lick his lips before leaning down and giving her a long slow lick from pussy to clit. She whimpered.

  Vol shrugged out of his jeans, his impressive cock straining against his black boxer briefs. Without thought, Leesa reached up and rubbed the bulge where it tented his underwear. He looked down into her eyes and seemed to find what he was looking for. When she pulled at the waistband of his underwear, he helped her and lifted out his heavily aroused cock. It bobbed up toward his flat stomach and Leesa took it in both hands and guided it to her mouth. Vol watched, eyes hooded, as she licked up the length of his proud shaft, circling the tip with her pink tongue. She then closed her mouth over the head and sucked.

  “Fuck!” The expletive burst from Vol’s mouth and he leaned into her, letting her movements set the pace for the blowjob. She was enthusiastic, wrapping her furnace hot mouth over him until he had to pull away or risk coming too soon.

  She looked up at him, confused at his abrupt withdrawal, until he lowered his large body back to her spread thighs. Vol saw the dewdrops of her arousal clinging to the wispy curls covering the entrance to her heat. Gently, he flicked at them, catching them on his tongue before parting her folds with questing fingers. He looked at his revealed treasure and swallowed hard at the sight of her opened like a rare orchid, coral center ringed with ebony, glistening wet below the jutting nub. He laved the petals of her sex, sucking and tugging on each lip until she quivered before moving to the slick pearl begging for his attention. This too, he lapped, then flicked until her fingers clutched at his shoulders and head.