That warm, happy smile spread over Grey’s face. “I love you, Alethia.”
She kissed him, and he wrapped his warm arms around her. Love filled her to bursting, and she held him as hard as she could.
“Are you really going to bring me with you to Montana?” she whispered.
He nodded. “I really am. And I hope you’ll stay with me wherever I go, for the rest of my life.”
“I will,” she promised. “Although I might have a hard time following you out into the mountains or the wilderness. Unless I was a snow leopard too.”
She threw that last line out as though it were a casual joke, but as she said it, her heart started to pound.
If they were mates, and they were going to be together forever anyway, could her old dream become a reality?
He pulled back enough to look her in the eyes. “Unless you were a snow leopard too,” he repeated slowly, as though he’d heard the seriousness behind the line. “Is that something you’d want?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “More than anything. I’ve wished I was a shifter for years. And when I saw you as a leopard the other night, I knew that that was what I wanted. I didn’t think I’d ever have a chance to get it, though. Could you do it? It’s not against the rules?”
“Not for mates. It’s actually better for your mate to be able to run with you and hunt with you. It makes it more likely that your children will be shifters, too.”
Children. That sent a shiver of wistful desire through her, something she’d hardly ever felt before.
“My father was a shifter, but my mother wasn’t,” she said to distract herself. “I don’t think they were mates. He left when I was just a little girl.”
Grey’s mouth hardened. “You deserve better than what you’ve gotten, Alethia.”
“I have better.” She kissed him. "And I want you to change me."
His smile was starting again, tugging at the corners of his mouth. "All right."
"Now?"
"If that's what you want."
"I don't want to go another day without being able to run in the forest with you," she told him, as serious as she'd ever been in your life.
"All right, then." He stretched and got up. "Come on."
They got dressed and went outside. Ali shivered a little in the crisp air, but excitement quickly overran the cold.
"I can't wait to shift with you," Grey said. He kissed her once. And then again, like he couldn't stop himself. Then he stepped back and shifted to his leopard form.
Ali watched him
as he came up to her. She reached out to put her hand on his head and scratch his ears like she had once before.
That's going to be me, she thought. That fur. Those claws. That long, heavy tail. That grace and power.
He sat down next to her, and she held out her arm.
He nipped her delicately just above the elbow. It stung, but the pain was quickly overwhelmed by a feeling of warmth sweeping through her, of rightness.
She was changing, but it wasn't into something else.
She was becoming herself. Her true self. Alethia.
She knew when it had taken. She felt like she'd settled into her skin. She could feel the feline presence inside of her, and when she focused on it, when she thought about being a snow leopard, about hunting and leaping across rocks and curling up in a hollow in the forest to sleep...
She changed.