He paused. He could reassure her definitively that he'd never hurt her, feral or not, but it would require a huge leap of faith on his part. If she freaked the fuck out, it would have to be dealt with, or cause him to turn traitor to the club, and not report it. He was in an impossible situation. Still, the tiniest sliver of hope still remained. If she was truly his mate, would fate bond him to someone who wouldn't understand? If she'd felt the claiming the way he did, had it already affected her in some way, enough for her to realize the truth of his words?
“I'm still mostly me. The cat can take over sometimes if it's close to the surface, but it's a compromise, we're paired. Some shifters can actually hold conversations with the animal inside of them, like a damn split personality. I haven't connected that well with mine yet. It's still a kind of new partnership we got going on. Trust me when I say... I would never hurt you, in either form. Even if the cat has gone wild or is under threat somehow, you would be the last person it would turn on. I know that without hesitation.”
“But how, Thian? How can you be so sure, especially if you say you're not as attuned to it as others are? You can't promise me I'm safe yet tell me that you don't have full control. Life doesn't work that way.”
His smile was wry, the knowledge that he could very well lose her anyway still hanging heavy on his mind. “Shifters are a bit more unique from humans in more ways than one. Not only can we shift into animal form, but our love lives are different as well. Because of our unique genetics, every shifter has one person they're physically and genetically compatible with.”
“Call it science, call it Fate, whatever you like. They generally find them by scent. The cat smells its mate in a crowd and loses its fucking mind until their mate is claimed. The first night I was at the house, I had gone outside for a run as a cat, to check for the scent of the rogues in the woods. You were out late that night. When you walked past me in the hallway, it was like a punch to the gut. My cat instantly knew you were its other half, the one it would honor and protect above all others.”
She froze, staring at him for long moments before standing. “You have lost your mind.”
With that, she turned, picking up the mess of cloth at her feet and carting it back into the kitchen. He heard her dump them into the trash can and waited for her to come back out so they could finish the discussion, but the longer he sat there, the less certain he became that she was intending on continuing the talk at all.
Standing, he was pleased to note that when he concentrated on the electrical energy in the air with purpose, soft sweatpants formed low on his hips. He'd healed enough for that ability to come back online, at the very least. It was a start. The rest would catch up. The smaller scratches and bites wouldn't take long at all. The one under his ribs he was more concerned about, but it took would heal faster than a normal human's injury would.
Moving into the large kitchen, he spotted her attempting to clean the refrigerator of expired containers and food, tossing items into the opened trash bag at her feet as she mumbled quietly to herself. He supposed it was a good idea, so nothing rotted that they'd have to deal with later. Why it had to be done right this second, he didn't know. When she heard him come into the room, she turned, face panicked as she gestured at him with a drooping piece of celery that had obviously seen far better days.
“I don't even like pets, Thian!”
The pure anguish in her voice was so odd for the words she spoke that he started laughing. After a moment of glaring at him, it seemed the laughter was contagious, causing her to burst into giggles as well. Once they'd settled, she wiped tears from her eyes, moving to perch on one of the bar stools at the island. Watching him, he was happy to note that some of the wariness was gone from her stance. Small favors.
“I promise to always clean the litter box, and wipe my paws and muzzle before entering the room. Just because I'm a cat doesn't mean I can't have manners, Princess.”
She rolled her eyes at that, before sobering. “What do we do now, Thian? What does being a mate even mean? Is it permanent, like marriage? Does that make us dating? Something else? How important is a mate in your world? What happens if your mate is human? How does that even work? Do the mates literally have no say in this whatsoever? The cat just decides they like the smell of a single person and that's it?”
He hadn't thought of it that way before, but now that she mentioned it, it did seem pretty damn unfair. Especially for a human mate, like she was. They were just dragged into this.
“It's... kind of? There isn't really such a thing as marriage in our world, not for two shifters. They're mated, and that's pretty much for life. It's more sacred than marriage. Some of the shifters who have human mates have done a marriage ceremony, to keep their mate and their human families happy, but not all do it.”
“If our mates are human, we can turn them with a bite. It's strictly watched... we can't just go biting people, that's part of what rogues do that make them so dangerous. They can get us outed to the world, put us all in danger. It's why clubs like ours go after them. Not because we want to
