Page 24 of Her Purr-fect Christmas Mate

“Your inner animal doesn’t change who you are. If your cat is a reflection of your soul, then that must be who you’ve been your whole life already.” Like he was a dragon. A creature of fire and vengeance and destruction.

Peony’s laughter echoed hollowly along the connection that bound him to her. *Yeah. I guess this is who I have been. My whole life.*

She did not sound reassured.

“You should shift back. Some distance from your animal form might help.” He almost reached for her, but stopped himself. “I was impatient with you before. I apologize.”

She stared at him, her green eyes wide. *You APOLOGIZE?*

“For thinking you rejected me first. And for assuming you were remaining in this form to make things difficult.”

*You admit you rejected me, then.*She looked away.

“I shouldn’t have left.”

Peony-the-cat didn’t move. She kept her gaze averted. Even her ears didn’t twitch. But her attention flowed towards him, bright and intense. He stilled. His dragon spread its wings uncertainly. It had always been the apex predator in any encounter. Other shifters, the few times he met them, barely dared to look him in the eyes.

And now, without even looking at him, his mate pried into his mind and stripped him bare.

Her attention burned the shadows from his mind. If she looked, she would see all of him. His dragon. His soul. Her psychic gaze would pierce the walls he kept things behind that even he didn’t want to see.

But she stopped before she looked that far. She kept to the edges, then drew back. *You’re telling the truth,*she said, shock echoing down their connection before she pulled away. There was a sensation of a door being closed, and he realized he’d been so stunned by having a spotlight on his mind that he’d never considered the openness might go both ways. *You really wouldn’t have left?*

“I never gave any thought to the possibility I might find my mate,” he admitted. “You say you’ve been waiting for your inner animal to give your life meaning. My life was laid out for me the moment mine emerged. And it has not been a life that had room for anything else in it.”

He couldn’t explain why he was so reluctant to reveal the nature of his inner animal.

Your brutish dragon, the dragon in question hissed at him.

Yes. Maybe that was the reason.

Her gold-flecked green eyes took in the room. Pale furnishings, cool lighting, featureless walls, and colorless bed linens.

As lifeless as the rest of my apartment.Which was an unpleasant thought. And that was strange: before now, he’d been quietly proud of his stripped-back living quarters. They provided no distraction from the important part of his life.

By contrast, Peony’s cramped apartment had been full of life. Books and art and clothing, all the evidence of the life she claimed she was waiting to start. He grimaced.

She flicked an ear at him. *What are you thinking?*

“You can’t tell?”

*Seriously? I know I’m an open book right now, but you’re not.*

He raised one eyebrow. Inside him, his dragon attempted to do the same.Strange words from a woman who just stripped away all my defenses.

Not all,his dragon reminded him.You haven’t let her see me, yet. Or the walls. Or what’s behind them. You don’t even let yourself see what’s behind them.

He cleared his throat. “Do you want to attempt to shift back into human form?”

*THAT’S what you were scowling about?*She hesitated. *Yes. But like I completely failed to tell you earlier, I have no idea how.*

“Let me try to help with that.”

She shot him a suspicious look.

And she’s justified in doing so,he thought wryly.She must have caught on to how I keep avoiding her questions by now.

*All right. I’d appreciate that.*She rubbed her face with one white-socked paw, then added in an undertone he wasn’t meant to hear,*Better than calling my folks and explaining it all to them.*

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