I said, "Don't touch me right now, Edward."
He didn't argue, just dropped his hand. I felt the heat of it get farther away when he stepped back. "Is the ardeur rising?"
"It's trying to, but it's more . . ." I stepped in close to Ethan. A good guard would have moved back, but he didn't. I was careful not to touch him, but my face was just above his bare arm, just above the skin; I breathed in the scent of him, deep.
Then another scent and my blue tigress rose and began to pace with the others.
"I thought we had the only blue tiger male alive today, but that's where the gray curls and eyes come from. The white tiger paled you out, but you're blue."
"My grandmother was blue, but you do have the only pure blue tiger male. I'm so mixed up, I'm no color."
"You're not just red, or blue, or even white, you're . . ." I didn't say it out loud, because the Harlequin were trying to kill all the gold tigers; so far they'd missed them, but here was one that held a touch of that rich, golden power.
"I'm what?" he asked, and just looking up into his face I was almost certain he didn't know that he held some of that precious bloodline. Interesting.
"How many forms do you have?" It came out as a whisper, with my mouth almost touching the skin of his arm.
"Three," he said, and his voice was already deepening. I couldn't tell if it was tiger, or just male reaction.
I wanted to ask, "Not four?" but I didn't. The weretigers intermarried for genetic persity, and most of them just looked like one side of their heritage or another.
At home I had Domino, who shifted to black and white, but physically his hair was black and white, showing the mix. If the human form showed just one, then one was what the tiger seemed to have. I'd never met another tiger who could do three colors, let alone four, but there was still that sweet scent of golden power. The gold tiger in me gave a soft, whuffing purr. I tried to think reasonably, but I didn't feel reasonable. My skin felt heavy with need; things low in my body tightened. The reaction staggered me. Ethan reached out, took my arm, just instinct. Someone almost falls and you try to catch them. I could feel his hand through my jacket like heat and weight, as if his human shape were already only just something to hold all that power.
"Get out, Edward," I said in a strangled voice.
"What?"
"Go back, see how the hunt's going, but you can't be here."