Ice_Reaux - Laura Wright Page 0,39

but a body knows.

“So…why did you come by?” she asked, and her tone was…playful. Flirtatious. She couldn’t stop it. It was like she was silently inviting him to kiss her.

But before he could answer, before he could lean in and touch her lips with his, Caleb came running up. “Who are you?”

Reaux turned from her to address the boy. “Reaux.”

“Are you a Pantera?”

“Breathe in through your nose, cub, and you tell me.”

Caleb glanced at Karen and grinned, his eyes so heavy with excitement it made her belly clench. Then, under the blue afternoon bayou sky, her son closed his eyes and inhaled, trying to scent the puma within the male.

“Yes, you are!” he exclaimed.

Reaux smiled. “Very good. Your senses are strong.”

Caleb beamed. “Can you shift?”

“Of course.”

The boy’s face fell. “I can’t. Or I don’t know how. I’ve tried. A few of the Hunters were teaching me, but it didn’t work.” He looked at Karen again and frowned. “Maybe I don’t have a cat inside me.”

He looked so devastated by this idea, Karen’s stomach clenched. She knew he was interested and fascinated by the Pantera. And that he was curious about that part of himself. But until this moment, she hadn’t realized just how deeply he wanted it.

“Caleb—” she began gently. But Reaux interrupted her.

“I didn’t make my first shift until I was around your age. And I’m full Pantera.” He gave the boy a stern look. “It will come to you. Soon. I can tell.”

“Really?” Caleb exclaimed.

Karen looked at the male beside her. Was he being honest? Or just trying to assuage the boy’s feelings.

“It’s very important to be around pumas,” Reaux continued, his focus remaining on Caleb. “They can help awaken your cat.”

Caleb nodded, seeming to grow older in that very moment. “Okay. How about now?”

“Now?” the male repeated.

“Can I be around your puma?”

Reaux laughed. “I like this cub.”

“Oh, Caleb,” Karen began. “Reaux was just stopping by. He’s not staying. Maybe another…”

Her words petered out because as she sat there, and as her enraptured son looked on, Reaux shifted into his cat. Where a second ago, a gorgeous dark-haired male with silver eyes sat beside her on the blanket, now there was a massive puma. Never in her life had she seen anything more beautiful. He was black as night, with streaks of white on his face. And when he turned to look at her, pierced her with silvery gray eyes, bared his teeth in what she was sure was an attempt to smile, her heart leapt into her throat.

My cat.

The thought was fleeting and crazy, and she refused to dissect it.

Reaux was moving away from her. Long, heavy strides and unsettlingly large paws. When he reached Caleb he rubbed his body against him. The boy fell down, and started laughing. The cat growled. Once. Then again.

Caleb looked over at her. “What should I do?”

“I think he wants to take you for a ride.”

Scrambling to his feet, the boy looked like he’d just won the moon and stars. “Is it okay, mama?”

The puma glanced over its powerful shoulder and gave her a nod. But she didn’t need it. Karen knew her boy was safe with Reaux, even in this form.

“Go,” she told him. “I’ll have the food ready when you get back.”

Caleb squealed and climbed aboard.

As she watched the incredible beast race off down the shore with her heart on his broad back, Karen felt something rush from her body. She couldn’t name it, but it was dark and bleak, and had grown happily inside her for years.

***

The puma liked the boy. It brought out the playful cub it once was. For an hour, they ran through the bayou. Following scent trails, digging in the earth. The cat growled at the boy, trying to pull the young puma from him. It was there. Under the surface. It just needed to feel brave. But when the boy’s mother called, a happy, playful sound bouncing off the cypress, the puma growled for the boy to climb on its back and away they went.

Back to the shore.

Back to his mother.

Reaux shifted the moment Caleb was off his back. Laid out before them was a small feast. Sandwiches, fruit, cookies. He watched as Karen settled her boy on the blanket and filled his plate. She asked about their adventures in the woods, and they laughed about the mudburgers being overdone and how they’d have to make do with the sandwiches this time around.

Cubs had been gone from the Wildlands for so long Reaux