Page 15 of Nicolette

How I knew, I didn’t have a fucking clue, but something told me this leopard was friendly, and we were safe with them. The leopard inched forward, stretching out his front legs as he let out an excited trill. That same indescribable feeling told me he was holding himself back from greeting me, unsure if I was up for it.

Hell, I didn’t even know if I was up for dealing with this, so I tried to push myself back away from the leopard. That’s when I caught sight of my paws.

Letting out a startled yowl, I jerked backward, crashing into something, which made me spin and hiss at the massive fucking orange tiger that had been sitting behind me.

Had that motherfucker been there the whole time?

What in the actual fuck was going on right now?

To his credit, the tiger did nothing but sit there and watch me, unconcerned that I’d just body-slammed him. Cocking his head, he let out a chuffing snort that was equal parts adorable and hilarious. Before I knew what I was doing, I moved forward to the tiger and returned his huff with one of my own, bumping his shoulder with my nose as if to say sorry. His response was to purr and start grooming my head. Batting him away, I backed up until I hit a wall with my ass and sat on my haunches. At least, that’s what I thought you called them when you were a cat.

How the fuck had I become a cat?

What kind of cat was I?

Who were the men, and why the fuck did my brain keep telling me they were mine?

“Nicolette,” a voice I recognized called.

My gaze snapped over to see Marco entering the room with a tray of food, chicken by the scent of it.

“Holy shit,” Polo blurted when he came in right after his brother. “How… that… she…”

“Right?” Marco agreed, but neither one of them was making any sense.

Hissing, I bared my teeth, my confusion making me angry. The two looked at each other, then hurried back down the way they came, so I decided to follow after them. I headed for the door and was cut off by the tiger, who tried to turn me back around using his whole body to rub against mine. In response, I snarled at him, lashing out with a paw, claws extended this time. He body-checked me, sending me rolling across the room.

He watched me carefully with his yellow-green eyes, whiskers twitching as he sat right in front of the door. Pissed at being barred from where I wanted to go, I let out a frustrated scream that translated into something as close as my feline body could make. Hunkering down low, I let my claws sink into the carpet, testing how much grip I would have on it to launch myself at the wall of tiger. Something like bemusement glittered in the fucker’s gaze, but he didn’t budge.

I threw everything I had into the movement, launching myself at him, jaw open, claws extended, ready to get my pound of flesh from him. If these assholes thought they could keep me trapped wherever the hell this was, they had another thing coming.

The tiger stood on his back legs and caught me in a hug, meeting my attack head-on before slamming me down to the floor. The whole house shook with the impact, but it hardly fazed me. I used my back legs, getting my feet between us, and used those claws to dig into his flesh. Snarls, hissing, and growling filled the air as we fought, making everything seem far worse than it really was. The tiger took a massive paw and turned my face away from him, and at that exact moment, wrapped his jaws around my throat. My whole body froze and went limp, fully acknowledging he had the upper hand.

The tiger held on tightly, ensuring I wasn’t going anywhere, as I tried to squirm, panting. Footsteps approached, and I spotted a pair of black leather boots as they came to a halt in front of me. With my head pinned like it was, I couldn’t look up to see who this person was, but I knew it wasn’t one of the twins. There was a power rolling off him that my feline self wanted to roll in.

“It seems you’ve survived the change, Nicolette,” the man said. His voice was silky and soft and made me want to purr with pleasure. “Let her up, Rambler. I don’t think she’ll cause any more trouble while I explain what happened.”

Rambler, who I learned was the tiger, released me and sat back, staying close. I waited a beat to make sure no one else was going to pull a fast one on me and attack when I wasn’t expecting it. Not sensing a threat in the room, I rolled over and sat, refusing to look at this man who was clearly in charge. Instead, I began to groom myself, starting with my chest so I could keep my gaze down but still see the rest of the room.

There was a soft chuckle from the man. “Is that how it’s going to be? We save your life, free you from The Broker, and I get the silent treatment? Well, I suppose I shouldn’t expect anything less for a proud lioness such as yourself.”

His words had me pausing mid-lick. When I looked up, I locked gazes with the man. His amber eyes caught hold of mine, making it so I was unable to look away no matter how hard I tried. It didn’t help that he was stunning to look at with wild, curly, golden blond hair. He had a short beard that covered his jaw, only adding to the wildness he portrayed. The man was taller than I was and fit as shit, if the muscles pressing against his T-shirt were any indication. As if he could tell what I was doing, he gave me a slow smile, and heat flickered in his gaze. A low growl slipped out of my mouth as the edges of my lips curled back, warning him against any ideas of getting frisky.

“Impressive, Nicolette. For you to recognize my hold on you is rather amazing. Feel free to fight it all you want, but it doesn’t change that I’m now your alpha. As leader and president of the Savage Pride MC, it is my job to teach you how to interact with the general public, so you don’t become a danger to yourself or others. Once you have learned how to manage your feline and interact well with the rest of the pride, then you can return to the world at large as a member of the Savage Pride,” he informed me. “Fail in this, and you leave me no choice but to kill you. The last thing the world needs is a mindless animal killing people. There are enough dangers in the world without me releasing one I helped create into the wild.”

Well fuck, way to lay it out for a girl. Here I thought I might have managed to free myself from the monster who wanted to control my life, but now it seemed I’d swapped one out for another. The feeling in my head, which I now understood was my lioness, chuffed in agreement. She didn’t like this male was trying to control her either. He might be more powerful but hadn’t earned the right to dictate her life. If he wanted to do that, he’d need to prove himself, show that he was worthy of her—our skills.

“Do you want to stay in this form, or would you like to return to your human body?” the man asked. Fucker hadn’t even bothered to tell me his name. “If you’d like for me to help you back into your normal body, nod your head.”

I thought about it for a moment but then decided if I was going to break out of this place, being a human would be far less noticeable to the public. Slowly I inclined my head, still unsure if this would be as painful as the last transition. I might choose to stay as I am. Bitch of it all was I couldn’t fucking ask, so human it was.

“All right, I will assist you, but you’re going to do most of the work. This is something you need to master, and the quicker you figure it out, the better for all of us. Now I want you to ask your lioness to take a step back from your mind. With her in charge, it will make this impossible. Your human brain needs to be the one calling the shots. Once you’ve done that, picture yourself in your mind and lean into the feeling of falling as your lioness pulls back.”

Holy shit, that was way more complex than I thought it would be. I mentally looked over at my lioness, expecting her to do as she was told. The bitch actually rolled her eyes at me, and I got the sense she didn’t think I could handle this on my own, that I’d need her. Well, ma’am, I hate to break it to you, but I’m more capable than most in the department of taking care of myself. Feeling the need to prove it, I showed her memory after memory fighting for the past eight years. A sense of mild approval came from her, but she still wasn’t budging.

Listen, you prissy bitch, I’m gonna need you to take like all the fucking steps back. This has been my fucking body for the past twenty-seven years, and I am gonna need it back.

I would be happy to let her out to play later, but I had a lot of questions to ask and no way to do it.