Page 51 of Shaped to Be Yours

I shoved him. “Apparently so. But I trust you to have enough control to not break the skin. You can do that. I know you can, because I think all these new parts of you are the real you now. Human, wolf—”

“—cat, snake,” Jason droned on mockingly. “Maybe I should try a bear next.”

“Do not try getting bitten by a bear.”

“I was joking.”

I knew that but at least I got a larger smile out of him. “I don’t care which version of you I’m kissing, Jason, because they are all you. Impatient, short-tempered, no filter you.”

He snorted but with more of a laugh again than dismissal.

“What we need to practice is you being in control whether you look human or not. You need to give in to your beastly nature. Lean into your primal side, or you’ll never trust it. What better way than by playing in the woods?”

“Because it could be dangerous? Because we were told not to?”

“We won’t go near the portal.”

“What about Whitmore?”

“Whitmore doesn’t need to know.” I reached into Jason’s pocket and took out his phone to set it on the nightstand. “He only found out before because we told him we’d gone into the woods and his app hadn’t shown that. This time, we simply won’t tell him.”

Jason looked at me as intensely as he had when we first got down here and started getting handsy. “It is weirdly sexy whenyoubreak the rules.”

I snickered and took out my phone to set it on the nightstand too. I didn’t need it for what I had planned. More tit for tat.Tatfor tat?

Definitely more everything.

“Come on. We won’t go in far.” I stood and led Jason out of his bedroom onto the porch. I still had hold of his hand when I made to step onto the grass.

“Wait. It looks like rain again.” Jason tugged me back.

I glanced at the sky. “We have time,” I said. I could feel it. “Look. You can still see the Summer Triangle.”

“The what?”

I pointed to a grouping of three twinkling stars. “Vega, Deneb, and Altair. Astronomy student here, remember? They’re the brightest this time of year, but you can’t see stars through cloud cover, and they’re still visible. We have time,” I said again.

I let go of him and started to undress right there in the backyard.

Jason watched on in muted shock, all the way up until my shorts came down. Then his cheeks flushed, and his eyes shimmered like a deer’s caught in headlights—or a cat’s, or a wolf’s, maybe even a snake’s, but allheat.

I loved how much this was a reversal from last time.

“Come and get me,” I said and darted into the trees.

It was cold this late at night, especially being naked and on bare feet, but I knew Jason would catch me to warm me up. I had a head start, but I imagined him tearing off his clothes in record time to give chase.

I ducked right, following the first forking trail away from the portal. Then I heard the bounding of paws and a playful growl and snap of teeth. I was heating up already with the rush of blood flowing through me and heading decidedly south. It wasn’t only monsters that got something out of being primal.

Huffing visible breath as I darted between trees down a different trail, I risked a glance back. When I turned forward again, Jason leapt out in front of me.

“Shit!”

He leaptat me, and a momentary spike of real panic hit me as he slammed me back and up against a tree. Up because my feet were dangling. Then Jason dug his face into the crook of my neck and bit down.

“Ohhh,” I moaned. I hadn’t hit the tree harder than I could handle, and he hadn’t bitten hard enough to break skin. He was marking me, claiming me, while keeping me pinned.

I brought my legs up to wrap them around his waist and better anchor my lower back against the tree. Something about the mix of wolf, cat, and newly acquired snake just did things to me. Was his tongue forked like this? I definitely felt two independent prongs flick over the indents he’d left on my neck.

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