Page 43 of Remy & the Wildcat

Her hands were shaking as she tugged off her jeans and shirt and laid them on a glass patio table. Her cat was prowling in her head, anxious to see Remy’s wolf and hunt together.

“You okay, sweetheart?”

She turned to him and watched as he shed his jeans and straightened, his muscular body on display.

“I’m nervous, but I don’t know why.”

“Because it’s all new. You and me hunting, the pride in Copper Creek.”

“Maybe that’s what it is.”

He leaned over and kissed her. She appreciated his confidence, but she wasn’t really feeling much herself. She wasn’t sure what was bothering her, or where the nerves were coming from, so she decided to push them to the back of her mind. There wasn’t any use in just generally worrying about everything when it seemed like things were going off without a hitch.

She laid her undergarments on the table with her clothes, next to Remy’s, and stepped into the grass with him. “Let’s do this.”

“Can’t wait to see your beautiful cat,” Remy said with a rumbling growl.

She inhaled deeply and let herself go into her shift. It didn’t take long for her cat to come out, her body shifting and reforming as soft, gray fur sprouted and her whole body compacted into her sleek cat form.

Letting out a yowl as she stretched, she got to watch Remy as he finished shifting into his big wolf, with amber eyes and pretty gray fur. They took time to scent each other. He sat perfectly still while she pressed her nose to his neck and inhaled the woodsy scent of his wolf and then licked his cheek. He chuffed at her as she purred while he pressed his nose along her neck and shoulder, then gave her a little nip on the back of her neck.

She could hear the pride as they shifted and went on the hunt, the yowls and caterwauling of their wildcats letting the wildlife know that there were new predators in town and they were on the hunt.

She and Remy padded into the woods until they were completely enveloped by them. They paused briefly to scent the air and listen. They both heard the sounds of rustling nearby and, after meeting each other’s gazes, they raced off, the cool night air whipping around them.

The night was theirs, and she couldn’t wait to see what happened.

They’d been out on the hunt for a couple hours when shots rang out suddenly. He and Thyme skidded to a halt and listened. There weren’t supposed to be hunters in the woods. There were signs all over the border of the territory that belonged to the pride now, and the mayor had sent notice out to the few townspeople to remind them that hunting was off-limits.

But he’d definitely heard gunfire.

He and Thyme shared a look. Her ears were flat, her nostrils flared and her whiskers twitching.

She was so freaking adorable.

The woods went absolutely silent like someone had pulled the plug on the wildlife around them.

And then he heard the sound of pounding hooves.

What the hell?

The sound seemed to be coming from multiple directions and was accompanied by calls of alarm that he recognized as deer.

As the sound grew alarmingly loud, he barked at Thyme and they raced away, wheeling to the left. He was planning to head back to the house and out of harm’s way, but the deer caught up to them, their terrified calls echoing in the night with their pounding hooves.

A deer knocked into Remy and he went rolling to the side, narrowly avoiding being trampled. He ducked and wove through the mass of deer and lost sight of Thyme.

He leaped around the deer, dodging their hooves, and howled in worry. Where was Thyme?

As the last deer leaped by him he heard another gunshot.

Pain ripped through his heart and he stumbled.

Thyme!

Thyme had never seen so many deer at once as the ones that barreled down on her and Remy. They were clearly terrified of the gunshots and running for their lives. She and Remy cut to the left but the deer were on them within moments, their hooves pounding the ground, dust and debris flying up as they raced away from whatever danger was stalking them.

She heard Remy yelp as he was knocked down by a deer. She tried to get to him but the deer were panicked, leaping and running everywhere. The more she tried to make her way to him, the farther she seemed to get. She hung a right and ran away from the deer so she could circle back around them and find Remy.

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