Chapter Seven
Chloe stared into the leopard’s eyes, pleading with it to have mercy and leave her be.
Where is Aaron?
He was her last chance. Her only hope.
But it was too late. The creature was right in front of her now.
It sprang back onto its rear legs and rose upward, stretching its body to a standing position. It placed its paws, each as big as her head, on the cliff wall on either side of her face.
Its wet nose almost touched hers. Its eyes, so beautiful and flecked with gold, stared at her.
What is it doing?
She was sure it was playing with her. Toying with the human it had found.
She dropped the gun. Trembling so much, she was unable to hold it.
She prayed it would be quick.
But as she stared at the leopard’s face, it began to change. The nose retracted, the eyes became smaller, and in place of a fur-covered brow, human skin and blond tousled hair.
The wide animal shoulders turned to broad male shoulders, and a near hairless torso was revealed. The arms, in her peripheral vision, also lost their fur, and flesh thick with muscle and tendon appeared.
“Don’t be scared,” the creature said.
But it wasn’t a creature, it was Aaron.
She shook. A full body shake that started in her core and traveled outward.
What the hell is happening? I’m seeing things.
She shut her eyes and opened them again, fully expecting to see the leopard still standing in front of her. Her mind was surely playing tricks on her at the moment of her death.
But it was Aaron staring back at her with the exact same eyes the leopard had.
“It’s me,” he said, studying her intently. “I won’t hurt you. You’re safe. I promised you always would be.”
“I … I don’t understand.”
“I’m a shifter. I move between two bodies. Snow leopard and human.”
She hadn’t heard him right. She was dreaming. It was the only explanation.
“Chloe.” He frowned.
“But that’s not real.” Shifter? It was the stuff of teen movies, fiction … wasn’t it?
“Do I feel real?” He took her hand and pressed it over his chest. “Tell me. Do I feel real?”
Beneath the warm flesh his heart beat rapidly.
“Yes, yes, you feel real.” He did. God, he did. As real as when he’d been making love to her.
“Shh…” he said. “Calm yourself. It’s okay. It will all be okay.”
“I don’t understand. How can it be?” She pressed her other hand to his chest, absorbing his heat. Glancing down, she saw he was naked.
“It’s the way I was born.”
“But…”
“I am destined to mate for life with a human woman, and that’s you.” He paused. “If I have human children, they will be with you. Only you. There is only you now, for me.”
“Aaron.” She went to move away, trying to gather her thoughts. But he kept her trapped against the cliff edge with his body.
“You have to understand, Chloe.”
“I don’t know if I can.” She shook her head. “It’s all too much. I just watched a man fall to his death, shot another, and then believed I was about to be eaten alive.” She suppressed a sob. “And now you … you’re a … snow leopard.”
“Come here.” He tugged her close.
She allowed him to wrap her in his arms. Her thoughts were muddled. Common sense and logic at battle with what she’d seen with her own eyes. But still, his embrace was welcome and comforting, as were his scent and the way he rubbed a soothing circle on her back.
“My beautiful mate,” he murmured. “Calm yourself. No need for tears. You know the truth now. From here we can move forward.”
“Forward,” she repeated.
“Yes. I can show you everything. Tell you everything.”
“What else is there to show me?” She pulled back. “No, don’t tell me, you can turn into an eagle as well.”
“No.” He huffed. “I only have one alternative body.”
“Of course, silly me.”
With a frown, he held her at arm’s length and stooped a little to look into her face. “I want to show you my home. So you can see what I will provide you with, forever.”
“Forever is a long time.”
“It is the perfect amount of time to love someone the way I love you.”
So there it was, the ‘L’ word. Sure she’d toyed with it herself. Aaron was one hell of a man and lover. But now … could she love a shifter?
She stared at him. He was still Aaron. Nothing had changed about him from when they’d stood in the mountains the day before, he stark naked and kissing her like he’d never stop.
I have a shifter for a lover?
“Wait here,” he said, releasing her. “Then I will take you down the mountain and as we go, you must settle your thoughts.”
She didn’t answer, instead she waited as he went out of sight for a moment and then came back dressed in his usual boots, dark pants, and black sweater.
He took her hand, and, in silence, they began to navigate their way down the mountain.
She stared at the back of his head, his unusual hair, she now realized, matched a snow leopard’s markings. Her gaze drifted down his body. No wonder he was so strong and lean. And heat always poured off him, his lack of needing a coat, it was all explained now. His DNA was clearly nothing science had seen before. And the footprints from the tent, the hairs where he’d slept…
She hadn’t dreamed of being snuggled up with a leopard that night on the mountain. She really had been, and he’d walked out of the tent on four feet, or rather, on four paws.
“Are there many of you?” she asked suddenly. “Shifters, I mean. Up here?”
“I am the only male snow leopard shifter in this territory. It is my territory.”
“How can it be?”
“I fought for it and the females within it.” He tapped his butt, indicating his claw mark scars through his pants. “Many fights over the years.”
“The females.” She tugged his hand. “So you … you mate with them, when you’re in your leopard body.”
He stopped and turned. “Don’t be so shocked. It is the instinct of animals to procreate, and we are an endangered species.” He paused and stroked the back of his thumb down her cold cheek. His voice softened. “But that’s all it is, instinct, an urge, nothing like when we make love, then it is desire and passion and love. My human body is very different when it comes to the erotic. I’m sure you discovered that last night when you took me in your mouth and left me giddy with ecstasy.”
Will I ever get used to this? I have to try.
“I think I understand.” She paused. “So those cubs, the ones we filmed. They’re in your territory?”
“Yes, they will be mine.” He shrugged. “She is a good mother, which is just as well because I never have anything to do with my animal offspring.”
“But you would your children … our children.”
He smiled as though enjoying her saying ‘our children’. “Of course. I am a man who wishes to be a father. A father to your children.”
He turned and carried on walking.
Well, at least I know what I’m getting now.
Soon the village came into view. Chloe tried to imagine leaving now. Should she make a quick exit and run from such an unusual relationship with such an unusual guy? Or should she go with her instinct, the one telling her he was the best she’d ever come across or was likely to, and stay here in Nepal?
She didn’t know, but as the air became richer with oxygen, she found her nerves settling and her jumbled emotions beginning to untangle.
She had deep, profound feelings for Aaron—she had for a while. And now he’d shown her what he really was, it had brought them closer … hadn’t it?
He led her to the south of the village and then up a steep slope littered with rocks and away from the other homes. A yak scrabbled to avoid them.
“You live up here?”
“I prefer to be slightly out of the way of the villagers.”
“Does anyone else know what you are?”
“The elders do.”
“And they’re okay with you being half man, half snow leopard?”
“Chloe, I’m all man, or hadn’t you noticed?” He turned and raised his eyebrows.
“Well, yes … but you know what I mean.” A heated flush traveled over her chest and up her neck. Damn, he certainly was all man.
“Shifters are as ancient as the mountains themselves,” he said, continuing to lead her up the track. “It is the way of the land for the elders to be trusted with that knowledge, and it is how I live here, in harmony, doing my work.”
She shook her head. It was a lot to take in.
“They all know and support me,” Aaron went on. “My protection of the leopards is important to them, mainly for superstitious reasons, but it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s important. Plus, as this is scented as my territory. It keeps other leopards away from livestock, most of the time, at least. So I’m doing the locals a favor and acting as a caretaker and contributor to my species.”
She was quiet for a moment, and then said, “So they’ll know, me with you … that you and I are … that I’m with a shifter?”
“Yes, and they’ll accept you as my one and only mate.”
“Aaron, I don’t understand. You’re what, nearly thirty? How come you’ve never been with a woman?” She hesitated. “At least I’m guessing that’s the case from what you’ve said.”
“I’m twenty-five, and shifters, well, in our human form, we wait for the right one to come along so we can give with all of our heart and soul. The opposite as when we mate as animals which is purely for procreation and without emotion.” He paused in front of a large wooden house, much bigger than the others in the village. “And you have, finally. Come along, that is.” He wrapped his arm around her waist. “Welcome home, mate.”