Page 16 of Claws for Celebration (Hollow Oak Mates #3)

MOIRA

T he transformation had been breathtaking in its fluid grace, human form melting into something wild and magnificent that should have terrified her but instead felt like recognition.

Watching Lucien shift from man to panther and back again obliterated the last fragile barriers her rational mind had constructed around the impossible.

Magic was real. Shape-shifters existed. And she was apparently both a witch and completely, helplessly attracted to a man who could become a two-hundred-pound predator at will.

"That was extraordinary," she breathed, her hands still tingling from the memory of touching his midnight-black fur. The panther's warmth had felt like touching liquid starlight, powerful and otherworldly yet somehow familiar. "You were beautiful. Both forms, but especially..."

"Especially what?" Lucien asked, pulling his shirt over his head with movements that seemed more fluid now that she understood what lay beneath his human facade.

"Especially as yourself. Your true self." Moira stood from the bench, drawn toward him by forces she couldn't name but no longer wanted to resist. "When you were the panther, I could see you in those green eyes. All of you. Not hiding, not carefully managing what you revealed. Just... you."

Something shifted in his expression, vulnerability replacing the careful control he'd maintained throughout their conversation. "And that doesn't frighten you?"

"It should," she admitted, taking another step closer until she could see the silver flecks in his eyes that the moonlight revealed. "Logic says I should be terrified of falling for someone whose other form could kill me without breaking a sweat."

"I would never hurt you."

"I know." The certainty in her voice surprised them both. "That's what should scare me most, how completely I trust you despite everything I've learned tonight. Despite barely knowing you for two weeks."

"Sometimes two weeks can feel like a lifetime," Lucien said softly, his hand coming up to cup her cheek with the same gentle reverence he'd shown her throughout their impossible evening. "Sometimes people recognize each other from the very first meeting."

His thumb traced across her cheekbone, and Moira felt a tingling sensation between them; the gravitational pull that had been building since their first conversation among ancient books and afternoon tea.

"Is that what happened to us?" she asked. "Recognition?"

"I think so. Though I'm still not entirely sure what we recognized."

Moira thought about the way her magical abilities had responded to his presence from the beginning, how the protective spells she'd unconsciously woven had always included him in their sphere of influence.

How being near him felt like coming home to a place she'd never been but had always been searching for.

"Maybe we recognized possibility," she said, reaching up to cover his hand with hers. "The chance to be ourselves completely, without hiding or pretending or carefully managing what we reveal."

"Is that what you want? To stop hiding?"

"With you? Yes." The admission felt like stepping off a cliff, exhilarating and terrifying in equal measure. "I've spent my entire adult life being careful, being professional, being the responsible academic who never takes risks or makes impulsive decisions. And look where it's gotten me."

"Where has it gotten you?"

"Alone," she said simply. "Successful but alone. Respected but never really known. I've been so busy protecting myself from making mistakes that I forgot to actually live."

Lucien's other hand came up to her face, his touch warm and steady in the cool mountain air. "And now?"

"Now I'm standing in a magical garden with a shape-shifting panther who makes me feel more alive than I've ever felt in my life." Moira laughed softly at the absurdity of the statement. "If this is a mistake, at least it's an interesting one."

"Moira," he said, her name carrying weight that spoke of unspoken promises and possibilities she was only beginning to understand. "You should know that what I'm feeling for you goes far beyond simple attraction."

"How far beyond?"

"Far enough that the thought of you leaving Hollow Oak makes my chest feel like someone's squeezing my heart in a vise. Far enough that protecting you has become more important than any duty or responsibility I've ever accepted."

The raw honesty in his voice made her breath catch. "That's either the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me, or the most terrifying."

"Can't it be both?"

"Everything about tonight has been both." Moira found herself moving closer until they were sharing breath in the silver-washed garden. "Magic, shape-shifting, discovering that my entire understanding of reality was incomplete. And this, whatever this is between us."

"What do you think this is?"

"Something that defies rational explanation," she admitted. "Something that feels inevitable and impossible at the same time. Something that makes me want to throw caution to the wind and see what happens when I stop being careful."

"And what if what happens is complicated? What if choosing this, choosing us, means your life becomes something you never planned or expected?"

"Then I guess I'll learn to adapt." Moira's smile felt braver than she felt, but the truth was she'd already adapted to more impossible things tonight than she'd thought humanly possible.

"Besides, my carefully planned life was apparently built on incomplete information anyway.

Maybe it's time to try building something new. "

Lucien's thumb traced across her lower lip, the gentle touch sending heat spreading through her entire body. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure that I've never felt more myself than I do right now, standing here with you. I'm sure that whatever we recognized in each other was real. And I'm sure that if I don't kiss you in the next thirty seconds, I'm going to regret it for the rest of my life."

"Then don't regret it," he said, his voice heavy with the same desire that was making her pulse race.

When his lips met hers, the world shifted on its axis. The kiss tasted like promises and midnight and the wild freedom of accepting something that defied every rational thought she'd ever had.

His hands tangled in her hair while hers fisted in his shirt, pulling him closer as if she could somehow merge their bodies through sheer determination. The kiss deepened with desperate hunger, weeks of careful restraint and growing attraction finally given permission to burn.

Magic sparked around them in golden threads, her unconscious power responding to the emotional intensity with visible manifestations of light and warmth. But Moira barely noticed the supernatural fireworks, too lost in the sensation of Lucien's mouth moving against hers with reverent passion.

When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, she felt fundamentally changed in ways that went beyond magical awakening or supernatural revelation.

"That was," she started, then lost her words entirely.

"Magic," Lucien finished, resting his forehead against hers while they both struggled to regain equilibrium.

"Literally," she laughed, gesturing weakly at the golden light still shimmering around them. "I think I just accidentally created some kind of romantic light show."

"I think you just created something much more significant than that," he said softly, his green eyes holding depths she was only beginning to explore.

Standing in the moonlit garden with magic dancing around them and the taste of possibility still burning on her lips, Moira realized she'd found something she hadn't even known she'd been searching for.

Not just romantic connection, but recognition.

The bone-deep certainty that this person, this impossible, wonderful man who could become a panther and had spent weeks patiently guiding her toward truth, was meant to be part of her story.

Whatever came next, whatever challenges or complications lay ahead, she wanted to face them with him. The academic who'd built her life on careful research and measured decisions was ready to take the biggest leap of faith imaginable.

She was ready to trust in magic, in destiny, and in the wild certainty that sometimes the most important discoveries couldn't be found in books or genealogies, but in the space between one heartbeat and the next when two people recognized each other across impossible circumstances and chose to build something extraordinary together.