“It’s all right,” Mary assured. “You’ll handle her. She’s emerging and her every instinct is centered on Conner. Let her run with him and flirt until she’s worn out. She’ll want to mate with his cat. She’ll need his cat. And that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Once she’s aware no one is going to take her mate from her, she’ll settle down.” She held the dress so Isabeau could step out of it.

“Does it hurt?”

Mary smiled at her. “It’s a relief. By the time she emerges, you’re going to want to be with anything that resembles a man. When she starts, just let it happen. You won’t disappear, but it feels, the first time, as if she’s swallowing you. The faster you let it happen, the less of a wrench. Your man will be there with you and he won’t let anything go wrong.”

Isabeau couldn’t stand the feel of clothes on her skin, but she couldn’t run across the expanse of ground to enter the forest naked in front of her guests. Mary thrust a thin robe into her hands and she put it on without even looking at it.

“You’ve been so good to me,” Isabeau told her—or tried to do so. Her voice had turned to gravel, but she was determined to let Mary know what she had done for her, what this day had meant to her. “I don’t remember my mother—either of them, my birth or adopted mother, but if I have children, I’m going to try to be like you.” Ignoring her cat raking at her, she hugged the other woman, refusing to panic. If this calm, steady woman told her she would be all right, then she’d face this exciting, exhilarating moment with courage. “Thank you, Mary, for everything.”

She could barely speak with the ache in her jaw and mouth. Her skin felt raw, every nerve ending inflamed. Her womb clenched, and feathers of arousal teased her thighs and belly. The roaring in her head nearly drowned out the sound of Mary’s voice. She could barely hear her, as if from a great distance. Her vision was fully cat now, her hands curling until she was afraid to wait for Conner.

“I have to go.” Her voice was no longer her own, strangled and growling, her throat reshaping.

Fur rippled and receded along her arms, down her legs and left her body crawling with sensation. Flames licked over her stomach as her muscles rippled as if alive. The burning increased until she was nearly squirming. The light robe hurt where it touched her skin. Everything hurt.

Conner thrust his head in the door, took one look at her and caught her hand, yanking her under the protection of his shoulder. “Let’s go.”