Born Cheetah (2 page)

Rayna smiled and took the hand he extended, letting him tug her to the dance floor. He turned her, and she was against him while a slow song had them rocking together. It was effortless the moment that she let herself relax.

“I thought you were married already, Rayna.”

“Why would you think that?”

“Leyline told me you were running away from home to be with a boy. I just thought it sounded likely.”

She blinked back tears. “No, that wasn’t the case. I had to leave to keep from injuring someone.”

“Ah, the predator problem.”

“Something like that. I was too territorial for my own good, and it broke my heart.” She smiled sadly at the memory.

Leyline had told her that Gregory was about to propose. Leyline was eighteen and Rayna sixteen at the time. Rayna had wanted to tear her older sister’s throat out, so she contacted Aunt Reggie and a few hours and a conversation with Justine later, Rayna was on her way to the city with Reggie as her guardian.

She had money, she had ambition, so she finished her education and tried to forget the man who was going to be her brother...only he wasn’t. He and Leyline broke up before a proposal was ever tendered, but by then, Rayna had begun a new life with new school and new friends.

He frowned. “What were you territorial about?”

“I had an inappropriate crush.”

“What species? Did you fancy a human?”

He continued to sway against her, and she slid her body against his, chuckling quietly at the reaction he couldn’t supress.

“No, he wasn’t a human. He was a runner.” She sighed and felt it best to get it out in the open, but she couldn’t make herself say it straight out.

“Really? I don’t recall too many shifters on the track team.”

She looked up at him. “There was one.”

He stopped in mid-sway. He blinked, and she read a confusion of emotions in his features.

“Never mind. It was a long time ago. Excuse me.” She headed to the bar and told Chuck she was retiring for the night.

He looked back toward the dance floor, but she didn’t. With her head high and a wave to a few of the regulars, she left the Crossed Star bar and headed to the Open Heart Bed and Breakfast.

Her feet slapped the road as she stalked back toward her home away from home. She heard feet behind her, and his scent reached her a moment before Gregory spun her around.

His eyes were intense, but she couldn’t say anything, because he swept her into his arms and kissed her with a ferocity that she had no idea was inside him. She whimpered and threaded her hands in his sandy locks, holding tight to his mane.

He pulled her head back and pressed fevered kisses to her neck while whispering, “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Leyline.”

He lifted his head and nodded shortly. He didn’t truly understand, he couldn’t, but he could guess why a sister dating a fellow would wreck the younger sister’s possibilities.

She pulled his head back to hers and tugged at his lower lip with her teeth.

He groaned and kissed her again, thrusting his tongue between her teeth, tasting her and pulling back in a rhythm that sent her sex clenching in the same beat.

Rayna moaned and pressed her hips against the bulge in his jeans. She didn’t care about tomorrow. Tonight, she wanted him inside her.

She pulled back. “I am staying at the Open Heart.”

He shuddered. “I am staying at the herbivore hostel. I think I will walk you home and see you in the morning.”

Rayna froze. “You don’t want to come inside?”

He shuddered again. “God yes. But not tonight. Can I meet you for breakfast?”

Her body shrieked at her to simply tackle him and take him right there. She ratcheted down her inner beast. “I run at dawn. I can meet you afterward.”

He grinned. “May I join your run?”

“Of course. I will wait five minutes after dawn and then set out. If you aren’t there, you will have to skip it or catch up.”

He smiled, “I will be there. I have always been an early riser.”

She stepped back, and he let her go. She was flustered. “Right. See you tomorrow then.”

With her whole body humming, she turned and walked toward the Open Heart. He walked in step beside her, which didn’t help her body calm itself. Silence was between them, but even that was warm and familiar.

At the door of the bed and breakfast, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and stroked her throat before he turned and stalked off into the night. She slowly opened the door and watched him go.

Shivering with over a decade of longing, she walked inside and nodded to the proprietor, Teebie.

“Did you find someone new, Rayna?”

Rayna walked up the stairs, “No, someone old, but if it works out, I will know what I have missed my entire hormonal life.”

“Good night, Rayna. Sweet dreams.”

Rayna groaned. Dreams were going to be vivid, hot and leave her shivering. Sweet was not in the cards.

Running into the stallion she had a crush on for most of her life was definitely unanticipated. She had never looked forward to dawn with more enthusiasm in her life.

She was wearing her running leggings and her sports bra along with her sneakers as dawn crept over the horizon. Rayna checked her watch and started the five-minute time.

At three minutes and fifty-five seconds, she heard footsteps, and to her shock, Gregory came jogging around the corner. She grinned and met him at the street, starting a solid pace that he was forced to match.

It wasn’t like he could pass her; he didn’t know where she was going.

Her runs took her along the path in the woods, down past the edge of the pond, around the lake and through the meadow.

She paused next to a stream that had been elevated into a drinking fountain for their kind. “Care to stop for water?”

He nodded. “Ladies first.”

She cupped her hands, rinsed them and then filled them with water, sipping slowly and backing away from the water source. She had what she needed.

He moved in and mimicked her manners, drinking far more than she had and splashing himself.

She sat on a rock and looked around at the meadow and the open expanses where shifters were free to be themselves. “It is very beautiful here. Nearly as nice as my home.”

“I thought you had an apartment over a shop.” He blinked.

“Did some emergency research, did we? Naw, I have eighty acres just outside of town. It is a place to run, to chase, to enjoy.”

He blinked again, water droplets in his lashes glittered like diamonds. “You didn’t say hunt.”

“I rarely need to hunt. It is a developmental issue, just like otters learn to move in the water and find the right fish, I had to learn to stalk, chase and kill so that my instincts would not take over.”

“And I had to stand, walk, run and learn how my beast felt at any given stage in its life. Even hunger was a learning curve. I was never one for oats and hay until my beast took over one day. I had gas for a week after that.” He shuddered.

She grinned. “It beats waking up with blood and fluff on your lips. My beast is usually very tidy unless she wants to prove something to me. Then, she will paint me with blood and make me wake up in it.”

“Ouch. So, you were in danger of hurting your family?”

“I was in danger of hurting Leyline.” She rubbed her shoulders as they knotted with tension. “She told me you were going to propose, and I wanted to kill her and my beast did too. It wasn’t a battle; it was an exercise in restraint. I called for help, and she suggested that leaving the situation was for the best. I believe that she was correct.”

He nodded. “Shall we continue?”

She grinned. “Of course. That was just the warm-up. For the next bit, we run through those hills.”

“Lead on. This is more of a challenge than I have had in years.”

Rayna nodded and headed off on the path that would take them up and around the eastern edge of the Crossroads, around the settlement and down through town. They would need to stop for a shower, but breakfast would be welcome.

She let her feet pound the ground as they climbed, clambered and sprinted around barely-there paths. Her body flexed, twisted and burned by the time they arrived at where they had started.

“Would you two like to come in for breakfast?” Teebie was standing in the doorway, her blue skin glowing in the morning light.

“We are a little sweaty.” Rayna smiled.

A flash of light and they were both as tidy as when they had started; in fact, Rayna’s deodorant was even in place. That was some magic.

Gregory was looking around in shock. “What just happened?”

“She cleaned us up for breakfast. Come on. Her muffins are amazing, and the bacon isn’t bad either.”

He smiled and took her hand, pulling her toward the smell of breakfast. “Tell me, is she really blue?”

“Blue with a hint of purple. Quite pretty. She’s a djinn.”

“She is lovely, but she isn’t a shifter. Why is she here?”

“Oh, her aunt owns the place, and her aunt is a shifter.”

“What kind?”

“Dragon.”

He blinked. “Oh. Right.”

They walked into the dining room and took seats next to each other.

Teebie snickered and placed plates in front of them before she laid out an amazing collection of breakfast foods from eggs to pancakes to muffins and lots of bacon.

Honey was the main condiment, and Rayna used a lot of it. It was in her coffee, on her pancakes, across her bacon and drizzled in the muffins.

Gregory was watching. “I thought your kinds was supposed to be obsessed with meat.”

“And your kind is supposed to be herbivores, Mister
Nine Slices of Bacon
. You can’t look to stereotypes of species you haven’t met.”

He munched the bacon. “I still have a human half, and the human half likes bacon.”

“My human half likes honey. My inner beast likes bacon. I am satisfying both at the same time.” She grinned and winked at Teebie.

The blue woman sat at the table with them and smiled. “It was something she told me her first day here. She has fought for balance, and she achieved it.”

Rayna blushed and looked down at her plate, focussing on her breakfast while Gregory stared at her. “You are joking.”

Balance between beast and human was rare. For most shifters, there was a struggle that would last their entire lives.

She shrugged and nibbled at her bacon. “I had to balance or start looking at my family as snacks. It was an effort over a week in the forest, but she and I came to an agreement. I would let her run a minimum of five times a week and she would curb her appetite for small, fluffy things.”

Gregory was blushing. “I don’t know that I could ever get to that point with my inner horse.”

“I know. One mare in heat and off you go.”

“It isn’t as bad as that.” He stabbed at his pancakes.

“I watched you in high school. It was pretty bad.” She grinned, and his expression cracked into laughter.

“It wasn’t great. Certainly not very pleasant for the females my interest landed on.”

She mumbled around a mouth full of muffin. “Must have been hard on your zippers, too.”

Teebie barked with laughter and refilled their coffee.

Pink flushed his suntanned cheeks. “Well, there was that as well. Now for you, why haven’t you found a match of your own yet?”

It was a loaded question for the Crossroads. “Well, I have been here for seven days, and while I have met plenty of men I was sexually attracted to, there are none that I wanted to build a life with. I am old fashioned where it counts.”

“You have been here for a week?” He was shocked.

“I know. I have blown their average of four days right out of the water. All of the staff is pulling for me.”

Teebie grinned, “We really are. While I enjoy having her here, it is becoming a little disheartening. We all want the best for our guests, and she just isn't having luck in finding her match.”

“I will continue dancing with frogs until I find my prince, Teebie. Don’t worry.” She sat with her elbows on the table and nothing but crumbs on her plate.

“Just dancing?” Gregory was leaning back and drinking his coffee.

“Yup. No sense in distracting them from a female that would actually want more than one night from them. As soon as they are deemed unsuitable by my inner cat, I extricate myself from them.”

“You are letting your cat pick your mate?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Of course. If she doesn’t like him, I am never going to hear the end of it.”

He nodded. “Very sensible. So, what are you up to this afternoon?”

“I was going to take a walk, visit the shop, get a burger, maybe see if the salon is open yet to get my nails done.”

“Since you are nearly an occupant of the Crossroads, would you take me on a tour?” Gregory smiled hopefully.

She chuckled. “Sure. How about we both change and I meet you outside the café?”

“Sounds good. Thank you for the breakfast, Teebie. It was amazing.”

“Anything for my special guests, and Rayna is definitely a special guest.” Teebie smiled and started clearing the table.

Rayna lifted her chin with a grin, “And I am also good at removing rodents.”

Teebie shuddered. “Don’t remind me. Those beavers were not happy.”

Rayna cackled and got to her feet. “So, Gregory, still up for meeting me at the café?”

He sighed and got to his feet. “It is a good thing that I know you, Rayna, or that rodent crack would have given me second thoughts about kissing you.”

Her inner beast perked up at that. She had been attached to Gregory since she had first seen him all those years ago. Her inner cheetah started to purr, and it was all she could do to show Gregory to the door and head upstairs to change into a long skirt, sandals and a loose top.

Rayna looked in the mirror and winced. With deliberate defiance, she removed the top and skirt to put on underwear. Propriety had a place in her life. It let her live alongside with humans and not constantly be attacked by defensive females who thought she was out for their males. Of course, sometimes she was, but it was never in front of the female.