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CHAPTER ELEVEN

NERI

For the past hour, Neri helped the others as they covered each inch of Kai’s house as they checked the functionality of the cameras, the motion sensors, and the perimeter alarms. She flashed to each sensor, remembering their placement after she almost tripped over them, twice. The first time when she ran from the house. The second, the night of Hunter’s attack.

To make sure they worked, she walked past them before Silas, who sat in the control center filled with monitors and lights, most of which Neri had no clue what they showed, told her the sensor was working. Silas’s thoughts were the only one who could reach her miles out from the house.

She finished her last sensor and smiled when Hunter appeared from behind a tree and into view.

“Alarms working?” she asked.

“Yep. I hid more and rearranged the trip alarms so they’d have to search for them if they come back. I pushed others further out for a quicker alert.”

Neri chewed her bottom lip and Hunter wrapped his arms around her waist.

“What’s wrong?”

“I… brought her here. She wants to destroy us and she stayed in the shadows, happy to fuck with things behind the scenes, until you found me. The way she looked at us, with such hatred… I don’t understand.”

Hunter kissed her forehead.

“Angel, you’ll never understand the motivations of people. I’ll give you she’s a good strategist, messing with things while staying hidden from us takes talent, but she’s exposed. We suspect her motivations, well two at least. One, she wants revenge and two, she wants power and money. Those two things come with taking over Dark Company, which has been her main goal for years. And there were modifications to the shifter’s genetic code.

“Answers will come in time, but we shouldn’t worry about when she’ll come after us. We’ll take care of the problem when we learn more or she attacks. Either way, we have time to kill before dinner so what do you say, we shift and go for a run around the mountains?”

Neri blew out a breath, relieved Hunter understood her need to relieve her nervous energy, but she never thought to ask him to shift. But because he brought it up, she jumped up and down on the balls of her feet clapping her hands as she gave him a huge smile.

“Can I see you shift?”

Her eyes grew wide when Hunter purred.

“Please?”

Hunter nodded and closed his eyes.

Neri remembered the weird tingling throughout her body as her body shifted on instinct. She forced herself not to blink as Hunter transformed from his human form.

With no expectations, excitement sizzled through her as her gaze roamed over the panther in front of her. He was gorgeous. There was no other color than black anywhere on his body, but she found she was wrong the minute Hunter opened his eyes and the familiar piercing green made her smile.

“You… wow. Wow.”

Her hand drifted from her side and when her fingers slid through the fur around his neck, she relaxed her shoulders and sighed. The fur grew silkier the further it was from the root, but when she bent her fingers and inched around Hunter’s neck, his head burrowed against her stomach and purred in contentment.

That’ssogood.

She laughed. Instead of moving her hand away, her left hand joined in and soon she became mesmerized by his fur as she scratched forward, moving toward the crown of his head. For several minutes, she lost herself in the rhythm and enjoyed the sound of Hunter’s purrs as they grew louder. Her mouth opened in protest as he lifted his head, but as he stepped back, his body shook out his fur in waves as she watched.

Ready to go for a run?

“Um… I don’t remember how I changed before.”

Close your eyes and relax.

Neri did as he asked.

Picture your form, the white fur, the pink pads on your feet.

Before he finished, Neri sensed a tingle, this time on the top of her head. It didn’t spread throughout her body so when she blinked her eyes open; she expected half of her to be a panther and the other half human. But her enhanced eyesight proved her wrong. She had transformed even faster than she had before.