“You will not call the police.” Teri had never spoken to her mother in such a commanding voice, and she almost startled herself with it. Her mother was certainly startled; she took a step back, her mouth open in a wide O.
Inside of Teri, her snow leopard growled in satisfaction.
“You will not call the police,” Teri repeated. “You will respect my choices. You will allow me to leave your house with the man I’ve chosen to live with. And I will never ask you for anything again.”
The shock was slowly fading from her mother’s face, to be replaced by fury. “You arrogant little—” She started forward, reaching for Teri.
Before Teri could even process what was happening, Zach was there. He interposed himself smoothly between Teri and her mother, a solid wall of muscle that no human, let alone a not-very-fit older woman, could hope to dislodge.
“Don’t touch her,” he said. His voice was cold.
“Or what?” Her mother’s voice trembled, but she lifted her chin and said defiantly, “You’ll assault me?”
“No,” said Zach. “I’m just not going to let you touch her.”
Teri took advantage of her mother’s complete bogglement at a person she couldn’t control in any way, and darted back into the den. Zach had worked quickly; her suitcase was almost packed. She threw in the last few things, grabbed her messenger bag and ran to the bathroom to dump all of her toiletries in it, and came back into the hallway to hear her mother shouting, “—filthy violent animal!”
Teri felt a hot blush spreading over her face at the fact that Zach was hearing her own family yell insults about his kind. “He’s not an animal,” she snapped, coming up beside him. “He’s a person like you or me, and name-calling isn’t going to change that.”
Abstractly, she registered Lillian in the background, watching the scene with one hand over her mouth. It was strange, Teri thought. She was talking to her mother as though she was the child and Teri was the adult, rather than the other way around. No wonder Lillian was shocked. Neither of them ever talked to their mom like this.
She’s acting like a child, Teri reminded herself. Throwing a tantrum when she doesn’t get her own way. And all Teri was doing was stating the truth.
“You don’t understand, Teri.” Her mother had calmed down again, but her face was adamant. “You’re putting yourself in danger by being with him. He’s obviously done something to you already, or you wouldn’t be moving in so quickly. He’s a savage! He’ll bite you, he’ll do unspeakable things—”
What was funny, Teri thought, was that a lot of that was true. Zach had done something to her just by meeting her. He had bitten her, and she guessed they’d done a few ‘unspeakable things’ over the last couple of nights. She stifled a grin.
“This isn’t funny!” her mother shrieked. “You’re throwing yourself into the power of a vicious animal! I will not have it in my house any longer!”
At the it, Teri’s blood went cold. “Well,” she heard herself say, “I guess I’ll be leaving too, then. Since you don’t want vicious animals in your house.”
Behind her mother, she saw Lillian’s face change as she realized what Teri was saying. Her mother didn’t get it right away, th
ough. “What’s that supposed to mean? Teri, you’re still welcome here, you can come back any time!”
“No, I don’t think I can.” Teri handed her bags to Zach, and went past her mother into the more open area of the living room, then turned back to face her.
Then she changed.
It felt like coming home, which was ironic, because she was supposed to be standing in her home. But this house wasn’t home any longer, if it ever really had been.
This form, her snow leopard, Zach’s mate—this was her home. And it was better than anything else could’ve been, because she carried it with her always.
When she settled into her leopard self, all four legs on the floor, and looked up, her mother was wearing an expression of unspeakable horror.
Then she turned to Zach. “You! What did you do to my daughter?”
Teri didn’t want to change back. She felt safer and more secure as a leopard, especially here with her mother screaming. But she made herself shift to human again and she said, “This is what I want, Mom. This is who I am. I think it’s who I’ve always been.”
“No.” Her mother shook her head. “I know this isn’t you. You’re my sweet baby girl, Teri, not this disgusting thing.”
Teri looked at Zach. “We’re leaving.”
Zach nodded and hefted her bag and her suitcase, walking past her mother, who was fortunately too shocked to try and physically assault him or something. Teri opened the door for him and then turned to her mom. “Goodbye, Mom,” she said. “I would love to see you again, but I won’t unless you can get past your prejudices and be kind and polite to both me and Zach.”
“Teri, get back here.” Her mother’s voice was like a whipcrack. There was a time when she would’ve hunched her shoulders and hurried to obey, but that time was over. Teri walked out the door and followed Zach to the car.
Just as she was letting out a shaky breath, the door opened and closed again. Teri felt her shoulders tense up in preparation for one last confrontation, but the voice that called out wasn’t her mother’s.