Chapter 69 - FUN AND GAMES

[KYLE POV]

I had never expected to hear that Jacy had locked her wolf away for that long. To go nearly ten years without shifting. How did she manage to do it without going insane? There are people who lose their animal self as punishment or as the result of battle injuries and most of them end up going crazy from it. How was my mate able to stay sane, to remain herself, if she had gone that long without shifting?

Regardless of the answer it meant two things. One was that she was beyond strong and powerful. That spoke volumes to the amount of control and fortitude that she had.

And for two, it meant that she needed to move fast before her wolf abandoned her altogether.

I had been right too. When I told Jacy to shift and she had trouble. It meant that her wolf has distanced her mind from Jacy's. She was losing touch with the animal inside of her and that meant that she was losing that which made her not human.

I told her to try and reach the wolf, to try and coax her out and that was what she was doing. She had sat on the forest floor and closed her eyes. She was talking to her wolf in her head, or trying to.

Then I saw the change begin to take effect on her face. I saw the slight change in the color of her hair and the lifting of her ears. I saw fur begin to spread across her face. I knew she had reached the wolf and successfully coaxed it out of hiding.

As quickly and as quietly as I could I stripped my clothes away. I set them aside and began to shift into my beast.

I felt the bending of limbs and muscles that one would think was painful but it was actually pleasant. The only shift that hurt was the first one. After that it was a happy experience.

I felt my fur begin to sprout and the wind ruffle against it. I felt my tail swishing from side to side. I hadn't closed my eyes and I hadn't moved at all, but I was not lower than I had been before. As big as my beast was I was still shorter than my human self, especially when sitting on the ground.

I was still watching Jacy as she shifted. I watched as a dark brown fur spread across her, but then it was highlighted with lighter brown streaks. She was a brindled wolf and she was beautiful. She looked calm and serene and powerful all at the same time.

When she opened her eyes I saw that they were the exact same shade as her human eyes. She was gorgeous. Even though I was a feline and she was a wolf I thought she was sexy in that form. This was her Alpha wolf form and that meant it was special and perfect.

When she opened her eyes I saw the surprise in them. She hadn't expected to see me in my animal form. She was expecting human Kyle not the panther Kyle. She didn't look disappointed though. If I wasn't mistaken that was a slight wolfish grin on his face. She liked what she saw.

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Seeing Kyle in his animal form was a bit of a shock. I had never seen a panther up close before. A shapeshifting one or the real thing. But I didn't hate seeing this side of him.

Kyle was of course a black panther. Solid black fur covered every part of him and his deep red orange eyes seemed to glow from within. He was also huge.

I knew that real panthers were bigger than real wolves so it would stand to reason a were-panther would be bigger than a werewolf. But damn was he big.

I stood at about four and a half feet tall in my animal form, that's from the ground up not from nose to tail. I was a big wolf and humans would definitely be scared shitless if they saw me. Kyle though, now that was huge.

He was a big kitty in many ways. Right now he was in the form of a big cat that seemed to be about three times bigger than the real thing. At least I think it was three times bigger, it could possibly be more. He was that massive.

I swear his paws were fifty percent bigger than my head was when I was in my human form. His claws were long and curved and lethal looking. And then there was the soft looking fur that covered his entire body.

I felt like drooling right now as I looked at him. He was one sexy beast. And that's saying something because I have never been a cat person before, but I think I am changing as a person. I really want to see more of this sexy kitty.

"Ready to have some fun?" I was somehow able to understand what Kyle was saying to me even though it sounded like a cat chuffing and purring and not words. I wondered if he could understand me as well.

"That depends, what do you want to do?" I saw a sly feline smile creep onto his face when I asked him that. He definitely knew what I had said.

"It's been a while since you were in your wolf form. You need to exercise those limbs. Let's play a game of hide and go seek." I felt a shiver run through me as his words washed over me.

"Hmmm." I did my best to sound like I was purring with that one sound. "I haven't played hide and seek in a long time. Who gets to hide first."

"Who do you want to hide first?" He turned the question around on me.

I could tell by the way that Kyle was talking that he wanted to find me first. Did he like the idea of tracking me down? This might get to be really fun.

"I will hide first, you can find me." I smirked at him and tilted my head. Don't forget to cover your eyes. It's not fair if you watch me go."

"Don't worry, I won't."

I knew he would find me no matter what. He was just going to follow my scent but I could still do my best to evade him. This was going to be more like chase and tag than hide and seek. Still, these childish games could be fun every once in a while I guess.

Once Kyle turned around and covered his eyes with his paws I took off running. I was running as fast as I could but I hadn't told Kyle how long to count for. After no more than five seconds he was already coming after me.

I heard the sound of his feet tearing through the forest as he came after me. I knew that he would catch me soon if I didn't do something to evade him. With lightning quick reflexes I turned sharply and started heading back the way we had come.

It seemed to work. I didn't hear Kyle's steps anymore. I started to relax as I tried to track his scent in the air.

His scent was everywhere. It seemed like it was floating through the air toward me. That's when I realized the mistake I had made. Kyle had climbed a tree and came after me from above. By the time that I realized it he was already leaping at me through the air.

With Kyle leaping at me through the trees I just turned and let him come right at me.

And that was when we heard the gunshot.

Kyle was soaring toward me when someone took a shot at him. It sounded like it had come from a small caliber rifle, probably a .22 or something similar. The sound of the shot threw the two of us off so much that Kyle ended up landing on the ground next to me instead of on me.

We both heard hunters coming through the trees, I could tell that Kyle had heard them based on the twitching of his ears. It was like they were looking to see if they had got the prey that they were shooting at. I knew that we would be caught before we had the time to get back and get dressed but we had to do something.

"Come with me." I told Kyle as I started to run back to where our clothes were. It wasn't that far and we could make it. I could tell how agitated that Kyle was. The way his tail flicked and the set of his ears. It all spoke of his anger and frustration at the moment. 

As soon as we were by the tree that we had left our clothes at I shifted back and Kyle followed suit. With us both human again I grabbed him and pulled him down on top of me.

"Make it look convincing.." I smirked at him as the hunters came closer.