Page 25 of Ivory's Familiars

“We need to talk to her cat.”

Vaughn startled a little as he and Ronan spun to face Seth who was eyeing the beautiful white creature with appreciation, “What?”

“We need to talk to her animal,” he repeated, “Our panthers are all instinct, right? It’s us humans who are all logic. So, it’s her human half that’s fighting us. We have our own panthers – have you bothered to listen to what yours is telling you?” Seth asked, crossing his arms over his naked chest.

“What the hell are you talking about, Seth?” Vaughn was not in the mood for Seth’s stupid antics.

Seth rolled his eyes but walked over to him. He unsheathed a claw and ran it down the centre of Vaughn’s chest, purring at the same time. Vaughn’s panther never failed to react to one of the members in its shadow. Not only did he always recognise the panthers as fellow familiars, but Vaughn’s panther thought of them as mates. Despite the tense situation, his furry spirit reacted predictably to Seth’s seductive feline and rose up, scenting its male mates. But to Vaughn’s shock, it also scented another mate – one that could breed. His jaw fell open, disbelieving eyes darting to the white panther.

“You feel it now?” Seth asked, stroking a soothing hand down his uninjured arm.

He could only nod mutely.

“Feel what?” Ronan demanded, obviously still very much in human mode.

“She’s our mate.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“She’s our mate,” Seth stated, watching as Ronan also took a deep breath. His lover’s eyes widened comically and he turned back to them;

“How is this possible?” he asked.

Seth shrugged. He had no idea. He was the fresh soul here. They were the ones who had been around the block a few times. If anyone knew what the hell was going on, it should be one of them. Besides, quite frankly, he didn’t really care. All he cared about was soothing the female panther just metres away.

“Well, what do we do now?” Ronan asked, looking completely bewildered still.

Seth shrugged again. Why were they asking him? “What do you want to do?” he offered.

“Honestly? I want to pin her to the ground, mount her, and sink my teeth into her.”

Ronan’s words had his dick springing back to life in a nano-second and a quick look revealed the same impact on Vaughn. They were all still standing around naked, not having taken the time to throw on clothes when Ivory had bolted.

Growling echoed throughout the room, and Seth saw Ronan’s words were not taken in quite the same way by the white panther. In fact, she had hunched down low, her shoulders bunching as if ready to pounce. And if he wasn’t mistaken, her eerily pretty violet eyes were trained intensely on the hard evidence of their desire. Quickly shielding his now deflated manhood with one cupped hand, he held his other up in surrender – or supplication.

“Probably not the wisest course of action at the moment, Ronan,” he spoke from the corner of his mouth, never taking his eyes from Ivory.

“Understatement of the year,” Vaughn commented, pushing Ronan in front of him as a human shield.

Ronan threw his partner a disgusted look at the cowardly, albeit smart, move, “How do we fix this?”

Seth didn’t think he had ever seen Ro looking so lost before. The man always had all the answers. Looking to his other lover, he found him in a similar state of confusion and unease. And they treatedhimlike a child more often than not? Their reactions were understandable though, he guessed. They had served their coven faithfully for generations and he knew they had both given up hope on finding any remaining members. This must be a huge shock to their systems. On top of that, Ivory did indeed smell like mate. As far as Seth knew such a thing was unheard of.

Sure, both Vaughn and Ronan smelled like mates to him. But that was due to the fact they had been lovers for years and their animals had claimed each other as surely as their human halves had. Although a physical and mental attraction had been there from the moment he had met her, he had yet to form that same solid intimate bond with Ivory. So the fact that his panther was practically grinding its teeth in agitation to get to what it considered its female, suggested Ivory was their natural life-mate.

Figuring his two companions were going to be fairly useless – Vaughn had no patience and Ronan was spouting words like ‘mount’ – Seth determined he was going to have to talk the female off the ledge. Taking a deep breath, he relaxed his muscles as much as possible, coaxing his panther to the forefront of his mind. It wasn’t exactly difficult – the creature really did want to get to its mate. His transformation took mere seconds and he found himself staring down at fur and paws instead of skin and hands. He immediately opened his mouth, scenting the air, whiskers twitching as the delicious aroma of female assaulted senses which were far more sensitive now in this form.

Cautioning himself and his other half to take it easy, he remained low as he slowly crept across the space keeping them apart. Ivory still held herself tense and there was still a resounding rumble deep in her throat, but he could see her nose twitching. Her mouth opened a moment later and he knew she was scenting him as he had her. He only hoped he smelled as good to her cat as hers did to him.

When he was only about one metre away, he lowered himself to the floor and immediately rolled to his back, exposing his vulnerable, soft belly. The female cocked her head to the side, looking curious despite herself and Seth batted a sheathed claw playfully in the air. He heard Vaughn snort derisively at his antics – no doubt storing this away for future humiliation – but Seth didn’t care. His primary goal right now was to look as non-threatening as possible. It was kind of a hard task considering his panther was almost twice the size of her more feminine form. He allowed a purr to rumble in his chest as he relaxed his head onto the floor, green eyes beseeching purple ones.

Seconds ticked by agonizingly slowly but eventually the white cat closed the distance between them. Her white head reached out tentatively, nose twitching and eyes roaming, as she took in his form. One more step and she was within touching distance. Seth cautioned his animal not to move, knowing Ivory needed him to be the submissive in this scenario. She walked in a slow circle around him, sniffing every part of his body, before finally pushing her furred face against his neck almost affectionately. She continued to rub her cheek over his face and neck and he knew he would now be covered in her scent. Their scent glands were located in their cheeks and it was how they marked their territory. His panther began purring, satisfied that the female considered him hers. As for Seth, his heart began thumping in relief and triumph. She recognised them now. She had to.

Hoping she was comfortable now, he shifted back to his human form, remaining seated on the floor. Ivory didn’t flinch away from him but nor did she shift back either. He decided to give her a bit more time and took the opportunity of being so close to study her. She was definitely a jaguar like them but she wasn’t pure white – not like he and the others were pure black. Her undercoat was white and her spots were a very pale grey. In the wild, such markings were extremely rare, he knew. But not rare enough they didn’t have a name – ghost jaguars. He had never seen a ghost jaguar – or white panther – shifter before. She was beautiful. Raising his hand, he was pleased when the animal allowed him to stroke the softness of her head. She purred, bumping her head against his hand and he smiled;

“You’re a very pretty jaguar, Ivory. Won’t you shift back now? We would never hurt you, I promise. Can’t you feel what your cat is feeling? Trust it. Trust us. Shift back for us so we can talk,” he crooned, stroking in long motions.

A shimmering displacement in the air accompanied her shift and soon enough, a gloriously naked Ivory crouched in front him. The dips and curves of the body were familiar to him but the face was not. This face held higher, sharper cheekbones, fuller lips, a pointier chin, and a straighter nose. Her eyes were a wild and unearthly shade of violet and her hair, once brown and shoulder length, was now pure white and kissing the curve of her bottom.

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