A chill ran down her spine. She stared in horrified fascination as his body stretched and lengthened, as fur rippled over his skin, as his jaw lengthened into a muzzle and teeth erupted in his mouth. The leopard was black with whorls of darkened rosettes buried deep in the luxurious fur. It wasn’t the first time she found herself face-to-face with the beast.

Rachael recognized the fact that she was breathing far too fast. The leopard was inches from her, his yellow-green gaze holding hers. Waiting. There was a nobility, a dignity about the animal as he waited. Her hand shook as she reached out to touch the fur. The animal snarled, exposed the wicked canines, but she touched him. Connected to him. It was instinctive and the only thing she could think to do under the circumstances. “Fainting is out of the question,” she murmured softly. “I’ve tried it and it just doesn’t work for me. I’ve never figured out how other women manage it. If you were trying to shock me, believe me, you’ve succeeded beyond your wildest dreams.”

Even as she uttered the words, she wasn’t altogether certain they were the truth. There had been signs. She hadn’t wanted to believe them. It seemed too far-fetched. Surely scientists would have discovered them by now, yet he stood there, staring at her with his wild eyes, his hot breath in her face. He was unmistakably a leopard. A shape-shifter. The thing of myth and legend.

“Why do you want me to be afraid of you, Rio?” She bent her head toward his, ignoring his snarl of warning. She rubbed her face over the dark fur. “You’re the only person who ever looked at me for myself. You gave me acceptance even when I didn’t deserve it. What is so terrible about what you are? I know people far more terrible.” Tears burned behind her eyelids. It wasn’t as if she could stay with him. “I guess this answers the question why you run around naked in the forest. You like to go out at night as a leopard, don’t you?”

It was useless to hide from her in animal form. When he looked into her eyes there was no horror at his revelations. He could read sadness there. Rio shifted back to his human form and sat on the floor beside the bed. “I’m neither human nor animal, but a mixture of both. We have traits of both species and some of our own.”

“Can you assume another form?”