The glowing red numbers on his bedside clock said it was just after midnight. Vince tossed and turned, his animal restless inside him. He’d learned from his dad, Zach and Ed that it was a normal part of being a shifter, and they swore he’d get used to feeling his cat inside him, but right now it was nothing but weird and awkward.
He sighed in frustration. He was too old to be feeling weird in his own skin. It was another reason he wasn’t good enough for Penny, but damn her scent was driving him crazy right now. It didn’t make sense, though. Why did he smell her so strongly? It had to be his imagination, or else maybe her scent was clinging to some clothes somewhere in his room. But would it still be lingering from days ago, the last time he’d really been close to her?
Maybe. He had no idea how sensitive his senses were now. Everything had changed for him.
He flipped over in bed and sniffed again. Damn he missed her. He missed her mouthiness, her sweet ass, and those hypnotic eyes. Her everything. He wanted to wrap himself around her and confess his soul while she spooned into him and he breathed her in.
But that would be a long time coming, or maybe it would never happen if he didn’t figure out a way to get control over himself. He drifted off to sleep thinking about her nuzzled beside him…
**
His head was foggy but he had to see her. He pounded on her door, then froze in barely restrained need at the sight of all her sexiness when she actually appeared.
Her irritation and messy bedhead brought forth a low growl deep in his chest. She was his.
She snapped, “What?”
He grabbed her and kissed her, swiveling them around and pulling her back inside her place.
She shoved him away, though. “Stop it! Get your hands off me!”
Her words made no sense because his senses told him she wanted him, so he grabbed her up into his arms again. Or at least tried to. Somehow she ended up flipping him over her shoulder and onto his back.
And then the fog cleared from his head. He rolled over onto his stomach, confused about how the hell he’d even gotten here, but was so turned on by her.
“Vince! What the hell are you doing here?”
He slowly raised up to his hands and knees. “Oh my God, Penny. You have to teach me how you just did that.”
She screamed in frustration. “You’re being such an asshole! Leave! Now!”
A concerned voice and an unfamiliar face appeared in her open doorway. “Hello? Everything ok in here?”
Vince locked eyes with Penny. “I need to talk to you. I’m sorry for all this but I need to talk, and now would be better than later.”
She threw her arms in the air and growled out loud again, but shooed her worried neighbor away before closing the door to give them some privacy.
“You have two minutes before I call security.”
“Ok, ok. Look, I’m sorry for what just happened. I honestly don’t even remember coming over here tonight. My cat… it’s driving me crazy. For real. I’m having a hell of a time keeping all this straight in my head and figuring out how I’m supposed to act now, but one thing I know for sure is that I miss you and I want to be with you.”
She scowled. “And?”
He stared at her. And what? What did that mean? “And… I want to make up.”
She scoffed and turned back around, reaching for her door handle.
“Wait! Come on! I love you Penny!”
“That’s nice.”
“That’s nice? Are you for real?”
Her chest puffed up and she took two large strides towards him with her finger pointing straight at his chest. “I don’t believe anything you say anymore Vince. You’ve said lots of things, even made me believe you cared about me, but you were actually keeping everything big in your life a secret. That tells me you don’t want to get too close, so excuse me if I don’t trust you anymore.”
A sharp pain spiked in his head and he fisted his hands to his temples as the craziness inside him rattled around. When the throbbing calmed down, he sat down and focused on Penny again.
“I’m sorry. For everything. I thought all my problems would go away once I finally healed and could shift into my cat, but it’s like living with an alien inside me now. I don’t even know who I’m supposed to be anymore.” As if he ever really did.
The anger in the air was cooling off, but Penny still didn’t look all that happy with him. She finally sat down, though, on the arm of her couch, which forced him to look up at her. It made him anxious to have to raise his eyes to her because it gave him a feeling of inferiority. It felt like a challenge and he had to force himself to look away. It was yet another wereanimal thing he didn’t understand how to deal with.
“I didn’t keep things from you because I don’t want to be close to you. I kept things from you that I didn’t even want to deal with myself.” He scoffed and looked around the room, then back at this woman that he just wanted to wrap his arms around and stop talking about things that he had no control over.
“I’ve never been one of you guys, Penny. I didn’t even know I was supposed to be a shifter until I came here and everything went to hell. I thought I was part shifter. A hybrid. But then I saw the doctor.” He felt vulnerable telling her all this, but he supposed it was time, and she’d either accept him or not.
“So I found out I was actually handicapped, but there was no way in hell I was going to tell you that. I didn’t even want to hear it, so how could I tell it to the woman I was falling for?”
She frowned but didn’t say anything.
“And then my dad… I learned about him at the exact same time. I’d never even seen a picture of him, knew his name, nothing. And suddenly everyone knew, and then here he is, just hanging around all the time, and I have no idea if he’s supposed to be a good guy or not. I mean, he maybe kills babies for a living.” He let his head fall back and he looked at the ceiling as he said, “Welcome to my screwed up life. And now I have an alien living in my head that’s supposed to be my cat or something. I thought everything would be magically better once I was finally able to shift, but it’s still the same old confusing bullshit.” He looked her in the eye. “I couldn’t bring all that into a relationship with you. I wanted to just figure it out and deal with it first, then fix things with you once everything was good again.”
Penny’s voice rose in anger. “You are such a man! You just can’t ask for help, can you? Well tough luck buddy because I did help you. When you were out of it all day before you finally shifted into your cat. But I guess you don’t remember.”
He slowly shook his head in confusion. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember anything between the time I went home sick after Kaia forced me to drink vampire blood, and then waking up naked after I guess I shifted into my cat. Everything in between is a blank.”
Now instead of anger in the air, all he felt was pain.
“Is that why you’re so hurt right now? Because I don’t remember?”
Her eyes went wide and he could hear her heart start to hammer in her chest. But this time she didn’t yell. This time the pain in her voice made his own heart ache. “You acted like I was yours that day, even though you couldn’t talk, and then you finally shifted and…” She growled in frustration and looked away.
He leaned forward and grabbed her hand. “I finally shifted and what? What was supposed to happen?”
She snatched her hand away and bitterly snapped, “Nothing, I guess. Because that’s what happened. More of the same nothingness.”
“Penny, I just wanted to be better for you. I didn’t want to bring all the craziness of my life into yours. I wanted to be healed, but if this is healed, then I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I think I’m still screwed up.”
“Vince, I don’t care about any of that. I−”
“Well I care! I can’t ask you to spend the rest of your life with me just to force you to take care of me every time I get sick. What kind of man would I be to ask you to do that? I should be able to take care of you. And to worry about passing on to our kids whatever’s wrong with me? It kills me to think about it. So… I let you be mad at me. It was better than screwing up your life, too.”
She was suddenly blinking back tears. “You want to spend the rest of your life with me? And have kids?”
He gruffed in frustration. “Did you hear me? I still don’t know what’s going on with… this.” He gestured to himself. “I don’t have control over whatever this cat thing is supposed to be, Penny. It’s weird and not at all what I expected.”
She chuckled even though she still looked upset.
“I’m serious, dammit.”
She laughed even louder this time, and it irritated him, though he reluctantly laughed, too.
Good God he had no idea what he was doing, but he grabbed her up into his arms again. She squealed in surprise, but didn’t fight him this time.
“Penny, I−”
She put her finger to his lips. “Vince, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I tend to get into my own trouble from time to time. And sometimes I need help getting out of it. As you’ve seen.”
He stifled a smile. “Do you get kidnapped a lot?”
She smacked him in the arm. “No. It’s not usually stuff as dramatic as that. Jerk.”
He liked that she faked being mad at him right now even though there was a smile in her eyes.
“What I mean is we’re supposed to be a team. You and me. And I thought we were again that day you were so out of it. I went over to your place and you grabbed me up into your arms and wouldn’t let me go, even when your dad tried to pull me away.”
Anger filled his soul. “Why was he trying to pull you away? What happened?”
She put her hand on his chest. “Relax, kit cat. Your dad just didn’t want us all around. He wanted you to rest, but once I reached you in your room, you wouldn’t let me go and actually growled at anyone else who got too close.”
A sense of pride bubbled up in him, and Penny seemed just as happy about it.
He hugged her tight to himself. “Penny, you’re mine. I just… I don’t want you to have to deal with my issues.”
She smacked him in the arm. “Hey, jerk. I didn’t finish my story. While you were out I spilled my stupid guts to you, and I guess you don’t remember that either.” Her gaze drifted away. “Vince, you’re the first man to actually see me for who I am. You can’t take that away from me just because you don’t feel good sometimes. And if you hadn’t been so out of it, you’d know I also took care of you when you were sick. And I’d do it again. I love you, but you can’t keep things from me. You can’t shut me out like you’ve been doing. It hurts.”
He felt like the biggest loser right now, even more so because her emotions were seeping into him stronger than ever before. He could feel her love for him all the way to his bones.
He cupped her cheeks in his hands, and with tears stinging his eyes, he said, “I love you too, Penny. And I swear, I’ll do everything I can to not hurt you again. But you’ve got to understand, I’m out of my depth with all this shifter stuff.”
“And girlfriend stuff.”
He chuckled. “Yeah, and girlfriend stuff.”
“Are you asking for my help?”
He went still at that. He hated that word. Hated it. He was so sick of people wanting to help him, but an image of waking up naked in the woods suddenly came to mind. All those people, his new pack, even his own father had helped him when he needed it most. Even Penny had apparently helped him.
He finally understood how Anthony must’ve felt when he’d first turned vampire. He relied on his family for so much while he got used to his new life, and he was the most powerful of them all now. Maybe getting help from others wouldn’t actually make Vince weak. Maybe it really could make him stronger.
But it still felt like he was tearing his own guts out when he said, “Yes. I need your help. Or at least your understanding.” Saying it out loud was even harder than he thought. And it wasn’t just him this time, it was also his cat that hated to hear it. But he already knew he couldn’t do this on his own anymore. “Will you help me, Penny? Help me figure out what I’m supposed to do with this animal inside me? And more importantly, help me figure out how to be a good man to you?”
She clenched her fists and grimaced in what seemed like good natured irritation. “Yes, but only if you’re honest with me. We’re in this together. You and me.”
He pulled her tighter against him and said, “Honesty on both ends?”
She hesitated and he froze. Crap. He’d pushed her too far. She might have a lot to say to him about the way he’d handled his own issues, but she was still an emotionally vulnerable person whether she realized it or not.
One side of her mouth quirked as she looked down, then squeezed his arm. “You’re right. I guess I don’t always say what I mean either. Jerk.” She looked into his eyes and smirked, and he pulled her in for a kiss.
She fell into it, and in between quiet whimpers, he said, “We’re a team. You and me.”
She mumbled, “Ok,” as he kissed her neck, then nipped at her tasty flesh. Her body went supple in his arms, and her braless breasts pressing against her snug tank top were now too tempting to ignore.
Her hands were all over him as he cupped her and ran the pads of his thumbs over her nipples until they were taut, sensitive peaks that elicited just the right whimpers from her luscious mouth.
A shiver ran through her slowly writhing body, and her voice was breathy when she asked, “How are your bullet wounds? Do they hurt?”
“All healed.” That was one thing about all this recent craziness that he liked. He could now heal like a shifter was supposed to.
Penny’s bedroom eyes were suddenly alive and ferocious as she sat back from him, then grabbed his shirt and ripped it off his body.
He stared at her in shock and surprise, and in total lust. He was shifter and so was she. They didn’t have to be gentle with each other since they both had superhuman strength.
“Shorts off, kit cat.”
Excitement thrummed through him, his body instantly hot and hard for her. He had a powerful need to lick and nibble and do crazy things with her body.
“I have to tell you something first.”
She frowned irritably at him.
“I’ve… had this fantasy for a while. About you. And I’ve never told you about it.”
The zest was back in her eyes, and by the look of it, she liked where this conversation was going.
“You’re crawling towards me in a tight t-shirt and really slinky panties that don’t really cover your ass at all. So… do you have an outfit like that?”
She popped up with a wicked smirk on her face and disappeared into her bedroom, so he got to work getting naked. He quietly laughed to himself about how crazy his life had become, and how crazy it would continue to be now that he could actually shift into a freaking animal. All these people here did it every month, and sometimes more often, but now that he would be shifting too, it seemed incredibly surreal that this was his life.
And everyone here just took it in stride as just another day in Brookhaven.
Penny came out of her bedroom slowly, giving him time to look her over in a tight little top that squeezed her already ample breasts together, the short bottom of her shirt falling halfway down her belly. Her hot pink panties were lacy and had a little bow right in the middle with lacy straps on either side going round her hips to the back.
She gave him a look over as well. He’d gotten comfortable all spread out on her couch while he waited, and her eyes caught on his stiff erection before she gazed back up into his eyes. Hoping she wasn’t getting nervous or shy all of a sudden, he smirked wickedly and gestured for her to turn around while he began stroking himself.
She slowly twirled and let him see all of her, the sexy pink panties nowhere near covering her sexy ass, just like he’d imagined. The purr rumbled out of him before he realized it, and she dropped to her knees, then started crawling towards him.
And that’s when he knew this was his home. Brookhaven was where he belonged, with family and friends that cared about him and actually understood how crazy his life was. He’d grown to care about them, too, even the scary people, and couldn’t imagine not being a part of this anymore.
Penny growled and his animal perked up at her playfulness. For once he felt like a whole, healed person even though he knew he still had a ways to go with that, but his physical problems didn’t seem to matter anymore. Not now that he knew he and Penny could get through this together.