Page 47 of Slaying the Shifter Prince
He helped me obey, bending my stiff limbs until I was a little ball of ice in the middle of his huge bed.
That dimly registered. I was in his bed. Not just on a blanket at its foot.
I must be delirious or dreaming.
Not only because of that, but because when I opened my eyes from my next slow blink, a wall of fur greeted me. Rich auburn stripes fading into creamy white.
And soft. Oh, gods, so soft!
It wrapped around me, a huge creature with paws the size of dinner plates. No sign of any claws.
What an odd dream.
A purr rumbled from the great chest at my back, vibrating into me, soothing the pain of the creeping warmth, lulling me into a deeper dream.
I let my eyes drift shut and the world went dark.
21
Such strange dreams studded my pained sleep. Huge creatures. Ice beasts. And something made of auburn flame that tore them apart and kept me safe.
I woke, stiff and warm, cocooned in furs and a dry, dusty scent that seemed faintly familiar. The freshness of outside overlaid it, and a deeper, musky note ran beneath.
And, my word, wriggling my toes had never felt so good. With a little sigh, I burrowed deeper into the furs.
They purred and pulled closer.
Wait.What?
A gasp tore through me as I tried to sit up, but what I’d thought was a heavy blanket draped over me turned out to be a huge leg.
A huge, striped, furry leg. A sabrecat’s foreleg.
I stared. I blinked. I bit my lip, which hurt.
So this wasn’t another dream.
And those stripes… I knew those stripes.
Just like when I looked up, I knew the yellow eyes that looked back.
Sepher. The prince. He wasn’t a beast man this time, but a sabrecat, with long canines that curved past his chin and gave the species its name.
His ribs contracted as he let out a long breath. Eyes shutting, he butted me with his head, a gesture I’d seen sabrecats do with their riders but had never experienced directly. It could’ve crushed me—he was longer than I was tall and thick with muscle. But he controlled his strength, and it was a firm bump, like a slap on the back.
You’re awake.The voice in my mind was his, and it sounded relieved.The healers said you would wake eventually, but I was starting to wonder. He canted his head.Lazy creature.Yet his foreleg pulled me closer and his purr deepened into a thunderous rumble.
I stared up at him, mind still stuttering over the fact of a huge fucking sabrecat wrapped around me.
I’d known he could shift into an animal. And I’d worked out it was likely a sabrecat. But I’d expected something more monstrous and frightening, like the beast man shape he’d taken in the forest. Not something so beautiful. Notthis.
Predatory and yet gentle.
Beastly and yet regal.
Monstrous, and yet I was not afraid.
As my brain slotted the pieces together and ceased to be quite so occupied by the fact of what he was, I turned to my own state.
