approaches you, I just want to rip him apart with my claws. Even if I like him—like Li. And especially if I don’t—like Jason.”
“There’s no reason for you to be jealous.”
“I’m not, now. Jason backed off, and I owe a debt of gratitude to Li for finally getting you to admit your feelings.”
“Yes, you do owe him for that. By the way, he said if you ever left me, he’d come looking for you.”
He smiled. “It’ll never happen.”
Passing a clearing, I noticed him stick his nose in the air. “What do you smell?”
“Hmm, I smell bear, mountain lion, deer, several dogs, horses, fish, lots of squirrels, water, plants, trees, flowers, and you.”
“Doesn’t it bother you to smell everything so powerfully?”
“No. You learn to tune it out and focus on what you want to smell. It’s the same with hearing. If I concentrate, I can hear little creatures digging underground, but I just tune it out.”
We arrived at the Double Falls, and he led me over to a mossy rock that served as a lookout point. I shivered, my teeth chattering, even in my jacket and gloves. Ren quickly whipped off his jacket and secured it around my body. Then he pulled me back against his chest and wrapped his arms around me. I felt his silky hair brush against my face as he leaned his head down next to my cheek.
“It’s almost as beautiful as you, priya. This is so much better than having to worry about Kappa chasing us or needle trees puncturing my skin.”
I turned my head and kissed his cheek. “There is one thing I miss about Kishkindha.”
“Really? What’s that? Let me guess. You miss the arguing.”
“Fighting with you is fun, but making up is better. That’s not what I miss though. I miss having you around as a man all the time. Don’t get me wrong. I love the tiger part of you, but it would be nice to have a normal relationship.”
He sighed and squeezed my waist. “I don’t know if we’ll ever have a normal relationship.” He was quiet for a minute and then confessed, “As much as I enjoy being a man, there’s a part of me that wants to run free in the forest.”
I laughed from inside the deep layers of his jacket. “I can just picture the look on the park ranger’s face when hikers say a white tiger was running through the trees.”
Over the next few weeks, we fell into a routine. By mutual decision, we decided to put wushu on hold, and I had to spend a half hour on the phone consoling Jennifer and encouraging her to keep going without me.
Ren wanted to be near me all the time, even when he was a tiger. He liked to stretch out along my legs while I sat on the floor and studied.
In the evenings, he played his mandolin or practiced on the new guitar he’d bought. Sometimes, he sang for me. His voice was quiet and deep with a warm, lilting resonance. His accent was more pronounced when he sang, which I found very hypnotic. His voice alone was potent enough, but when he sang, it put me in a trance. He often joked about the beast soothing the savage girl with music.
Sometimes, I would do nothing but sit with Ren’s tiger head in my lap and watch him sleep. I stroked his white fur and felt his chest rise and fall. Being a tiger was part of who he was, and I was comfortable with it. But, now that I’d finally accepted that he loved me, I was overcome with a desire to be with him.
It was frustrating. I wanted to share every moment with him. I wanted to listen to his voice, feel his hand in mine, and lay my cheek against his chest while he read to me. We were together, but we weren’t together. Ren spent most of his human hours at school, which left little time for us to develop our relationship. I was starving for him. I could talk to him, but he couldn’t reply. I quickly became an expert on reading tiger expressions.
I snuggled with him on the floor every night, and every night he picked me up and put me back in my own bed after I fell asleep. We did homework together, watched movies, finished Othello, and moved on to Hamlet. We also kept in constant contact with Mr. Kadam. When I answered the phone, he spoke to me about