Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
And I knew beyond a doubt that Casteel was about to attack. And as a true Primal of Death, even a newly Ascended one, he could and would kill Reaver.
I quickly thought about something happy. It wasn’t hard. Immediately, the thought of our time in the lilac-filled caverns of Spessa’s End came to mind. “It’s okay,” I said, focusing on him and projecting my emotions—how being there had calmed me—through the eather to him as I gently grasped the nape of his neck. I started to speak, but something prickled against my palm. Something soft. It reminded me of hair. Or fur.
What the…?
The Primal mist suddenly vanished, and the eather drenching the chamber eased. I started to relax as I lifted my hand.
Tiny specks of silver light erupted all over Casteel’s golden-bronze skin. “Cas—?”
I shouted as his jaw snapped out of its socket with a crack and his canines jutted forward, thickening and lengthening.
What in the actual—?
Fear punched through me as I reached for him, having no idea what was happening. His back bowed, and the sound of the sheets tearing snapped my gaze down. His palms—his fingernails. They had sharpened. My head snapped up as I heard his joints popping. And then I knew what was happening.
Casteel…
Was…shifting.
My lips parted in shock as I heard bones breaking and fusing back together. The fur I’d felt moments before sprouted from the silver specks all over his body—black fur spotted with gold. He whipped around, a growl rumbling from deep within his chest.
Cas…
Had shifted.
Into a cave cat.
I had to be hallucinating.
But there was definitely a very large cave cat prowling across the bed, the fur along his belly grazing my legs.
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing as he crouched, his ears twitching as he sniffed the air.
“What…?” I whispered, his ears flicking again as his tail swished across my stomach. I froze at the feeling of his fur.
It was…soft.
I blinked once and then twice, but the cave cat was still there. I rose onto my elbows, the shock beginning to wane. “What. In. The. Actual—?” My volume increased with each word until I screamed, “Fuck! Are you kidding me?”
Casteel jerked at my screech. I’d startled him. Probably not wise, but honestly, I couldn’t care less.
Because he was a fucking cave cat!
I jerked upright. “A cave cat! Oh, my gods!” I shrieked, this time causing Reaver to jump. “The fur! The fucking fur. And Kieran…that asshole didn’t—”
“Poppy,” came Reaver’s dry, gravelly voice. It irritated me. Deeply.
“What?” I yelled, my hands balling into fists.
“You might want to take it down a notch,” he advised. “Or five hundred.”
“He’s a cave cat!” I shouted.
“I can see that—”
“And he shifted before I did?” I leaned forward. “What in the fu—?”
“Don’t!” Reaver stepped into the chamber from the doorway. “Don’t grab at him.”
Casteel sank lower, lips vibrating as he let out a snarl of warning.
“I’m not here to hurt her,” Reaver said.
“Of course, not,” I exclaimed. “He knows that—”
“He doesn’t know shit right now, other than he wants to tear my throat out.”
My gaze snapped back to Casteel. His chin had lowered, and he bared his really big, really sharp teeth.
This motherfucker was a cave cat!
“Yeah, I see them, big boy,” Reaver said. “Mine are bigger.”
The rumble deepened, and muscles rolled and flexed under his thick fur.
“I’m warning you.” Reaver unfolded his arms. “You come at me, you’ll regret it.”
Casteel’s ears flattened as his claws dug deep grooves into the wood of the footboard. I knew I should do something, but the part of my brain that was still functioning on logic recognized that he wasn’t actually a cave cat, even as I stared at the thick, spotted black fur. He’d only just shifted into one. The vadentia told me it shouldn’t be possible. Only true Primal gods could shift after Ascension. Deminyen Primals were more like Ancients. It took time for them to gain the kind of power needed to shift one’s being. Not days, weeks, or even years. It should take centuries. And it wasn’t just the Joining that’d enabled this. I wasn’t sure what had. It felt like I was missing a key piece of information, but I couldn’t focus on that right now.
The very big, larger-than-Kieran-in-wolven-form—maybe even as large as Kieran’s father Jasper in his wolven form—cave cat was ready to attack. I saw it in the power building in his hind legs, but it wasn’t just that. It was also his emotions. They poured out of him in a way they rarely did, and there was no mistaking them: sharp anger and feral distrust.
Clutching the blanket to my chest, I scooted forward—
Then rocked back when his long tail whipped into me from the side. My mouth dropped open. “Did you just hit me with your tail? Your tail?”
Beneath the spotted fur, bands of muscle along his back rippled as he tensed further.