Chapter Two

 

 

Ystella finished putting on her dress and fluffing up her hair. Tonight was the night that the herds got together and the single stallions went looking for mates. Ystella had promised her mother that she would attend.

When her deadly heels were in place, she strode down the hall and out into the common space of their huge ranch house. Her mother was waiting to make sure that Ystella was making an effort to be presentable.

Her mom was speaking softly to her dad when she entered the room. Her voice went silent as Ystella stood in the centre of the space to let her get a nice long look.

“Well, Ystella, you went all out.” Elantha smiled at her. “Thank you. Now, promise me that you will dance with anyone that asks you.”

Ystella sighed and nodded. “I will.”

Her father gave her a wink but didn’t say a thing. He rarely did. She nodded to both of them, grabbed her purse, and headed out.

She got into the farm truck and checked the gas gauge. Damn. There was plenty to get her into the next county and back again.

She fired up the engine and buckled up. It was time to go to a dance. She hoped her forehead makeup would hold. The skin was currently hot pink and humming slightly. It served her right for choosing to buzz it off that morning.

She drove down the mile-long drive to the main road and took a right. It was better to get the dance over with, and then, she could go back to trying to figure a way out of her situation.

Every six months all of the mares from local shifter herds got together and had a dance, inviting any single stallion who would answer the invitation. It was matchmaking at its most basic. The women showed how well they could move, and the men took the bait.

Ystella hated the dances. That was no secret in her family and the families around hers. She was not one for socializing, despite being born into a family of horses. It was her father’s fault. His alter ego as a bobcat was a definite factor in her personality. Her parents had met and mated at the Crossroads, and their families had to accept it. Ystella sometimes dreamed of finding her own mate there, but with so many stallions looking for healthy wives, she had no excuse to leave the farm and go looking elsewhere.

If she could hold out for two more years, her father’s family would send her to the Crossroads as a spinster gift. Her grandfather disapproved of the horse methods of finding a mate. He felt the Ystella should stalk her mate in the tradition of her father’s line.

Ystella put on some classical music and drove the hour to the Abert Herd community centre, aka, the barn.

She parked the truck next to others and ran her hands over her beaded outfit. She was dressed in a flapper-style dress that covered her from upper thigh to knee in a fringe of swinging beads.

Her hair was up and twisted in a graceful bun, and the beaded headband concealed the plate where her horn grew. It was a safeguard against her makeup slipping.

She walked as briskly as she could over the sliding gravel. The music and light were streaming into the night. Great. Nothing like a bunch of horny horses to make her night.

She quirked her lips as she entered the barn. A horny horse was exactly what she was.

 

* * * *

 

Magnus felt that this party was the best chance he had to listen to local gossip and observe the shifters in their natural habitats.

The formulaic dancing of the horses boggled his mind. They kept one foot on the ground at all times while they moved in their human shapes. For Magnus, it was hilarious.

He watched the dancing while he chatted with a few locals. The stallions were there to find mates, and the lesser males were taking the ladies through their initial paces.

Magnus was amused that the stallions preferred to watch, but he didn’t say anything. He watched the men and women around him and looked for anything that stood out. The moment that the woman walked through the door, he knew that he had something extraordinary to look into. To hell with the mystery shifter, this was far more interesting.

He made his way toward the entrance where she had just been standing, and he looked around. “What the hell?”

She was gone.

 

* * * *

 

Ystella moved into the shadows and breathed shallowly. She was having to conceal herself and her sparkly outfit, and the strain was intense. The stallions were still in their ogling frame of mind, which meant that her mom had tampered with her clock. Normally, she was able to time it so that she arrived just after they had left, or at least after they had picked their bedmates for the night.

She had promised her mother that she would dance with anyone who asked. Not being seen was a great way to make sure of it.

She hid in the shadows near a post and bale of hay. Without her horn, maintaining her invisibility was going to be tricky, but she wasn’t hooking up with a horny stallion. She had other plans for her life, she just didn’t know what they were yet.

 

An hour after she arrived, she was nearing panic. Not only were her shoes trying to kill her, but there was a stranger sniffing around, and he was drawing near to her hiding spot.

She watched him. He wasn’t sniffing, precisely. He was walking, pausing, and stepping toward her again. At times, it seemed he was moving slowly, and then, there would be a moment when she blinked, and he was ten feet closer.

The stallions were slowly leaving with their chosen partners for the night, but Ystella couldn’t join the ladies on the dance floor. She was a few feet away from a man who wasn’t a horse shifter and moved with a lazy elegance that she found hypnotic. It was as if he carefully planned out his steps before he took them.

“You know, I have never run into that particular brand of magic before.” He smiled, and his gaze was near her but not at her. She took in his brown hair, tanned skin, and hazel eyes, combined with a shirt that was so dark green it was nearly black, dark jeans, and boots. He looked like he could go on a date or start flinging hay.

There was a scar on his face that ran from his left cheek, down his neck. It had faded with age, but she could still make it out.

Ystella carefully moved back a step, away from his path. The slight movement was a miscalculation. His head turned toward her, and his long and slightly hooked nose focused in on her. He smelled like a shifter but no shifter she had ever met before.

“Ah, there you are. I didn’t hear you until you moved and that is quite a trick in that dress.” He leaned against the post and looked right at her.

She blinked and took a slow step to one side. His head tracked her motion. “Damn.”

He grinned. “You have a lovely voice. Will you do me the honour of this dance?”

The pounding beat wasn’t going to allow for much contact, and she did promise her mother that she would dance if asked.

“Fine.” She stepped forward and let the wrap of shadows drop.

He blinked and straightened. “I only caught a glimpse of you when you came in. The still picture looks far more amazing than the distant shot.”

She smiled. “Thank you. It took considerable effort.”

He held out a hand, and she took it, letting him walk her around to the dance floor.

“Are you up to breaking the rules?” He raised his dark brows and waggled them.

“I think the evening calls for it.”

She held his hand lightly, but his skin was dry and warm, she really wanted a better grip.

The dancers had thinned considerably, which gave them plenty of room to face off as the music shifted into some upbeat techno violin.

“This is going to be trickier than I thought.” Ystella faced him, and his stance was that of a tango.

He just smiled and said, “Just let me lead.”

She looked into his dark hazel eyes, and she nodded. “Better make it good.”

The gleam in his eyes indicated challenge accepted, and they started to move.

 

The gathered mares looked on as Ystella and her new companion twisted, hopped, and flew around the room.

Nothing that she wanted to do was off limits. He extended his arm and kept it rock steady while he twirled her around, and she paused on her toes to change direction. He wrapped his arm around her torso and lifted her up to drape back over his shoulder before sliding down his body and into his arms.

The music continued to spin them around, but when they stopped, she was plastered against him and stroking his cheek, tracing the scar with her finger.

Once silence fell around them, Ystella straightened and smiled. “Thanks for the dance.”

He was stunned and aroused, and it showed on his face, but he gave her a little bow.

She inclined her head and saw some of the other ladies leaving. As quickly as she could, she joined the women leaving the party. She tried not to look back, but the sudden exodus had left her dance partner buffeted by women. It wasn’t a horrible place to be, so she made her way to her truck and got in, getting out of the parking lot before any of the chattier ladies could block her path.

The whole way home, her body could feel every part of her that had been touched. She had been touched a lot.

She caught herself smiling several times on the way home, and there was still the mark of the surprisingly good time on her lips when she took off her shoes and tiptoed through the living room. Playing hide and seek with the stranger had been fun, but the exhilaration of the dancing when her feet left the floor had not only been risqué but adorable. It wasn’t a feeling she would be able to repeat; however, it had been fun while it lasted.

The light clicked on, and she paused with her shoes dangling from her fingers.

Her grandfather was sitting in the easy chair, and he looked at her expectantly. “Well?”

She sighed and walked over to the sofa nearest the chair. “Well, what?”

“Did you dance?”

She could feel the heat rushing to her cheeks. “I did.”

“Oh, ho! That is quite the expression. So, when do we meet him?”

Ystella shook her head. “You won’t. I don’t even know who he is. He’s not local and not even a horse.”

Her grandfather paused and then grinned. “Your grandmother is going to go ballistic.”

“I know.” She rubbed at her temple, making the headband rock against her skin.

Her grandfather flexed his fingers, and she could almost see the claws that were just above the arms of the recliner.

“Do you want him?”

She cocked her head. “I am not sure.”

“Did anyone notice the glow you have around you lately?”

Ystella stared at him. “Grandpa, I am not pregnant!”

“Not that, moron. I mean the extra shifter magic you are putting out lately. Flowers bloom behind you when you walk around in either form.”

If she hadn’t been sitting down, she would have fallen on her ass. “You know?”

“Of course. Well, the feline side of your family anyway. We could tell when you stopped smelling like prey and started to smell like spring.”

She blinked away the tears that threatened to ruin her makeup.

He leaned forward and took her hand. “So, what are you?”

She learned forward and whispered it in his ear. The booming cackle of his laughter shook the house.