Doggy Tales

A Nearly Cat-astrophic Christmas

Tessa put the finishing touches on the Christmas tree and stood back. The beautiful star looked perfect perched on the topmost branch. She plugged the lights in, then turned and gasped at the effect.

Their first Christmas in their new house.

Beautiful!

They had family and friends coming over tomorrow night for a holiday party and dinner. It would be interesting to see how everyone got together.

She hoped the fur didn’t fly too badly.

Literally.

Jeremy and Genna Bruin, the pack Alpha and his wife, were coming over for the first time. So were Ivan and Lindsey Biendino, the pack Beta and his wife. And Scudder’s family.

And her relatively normal family.

Normal being relative, as opposed to a bunch of shape-shifters. Although calling some of the members of her family normal was a pretty far stretch to begin with.

Scudder walked in from the garage with an armful of garland for the mantle. She’d shooed him out of the living room when he insisted on helping her and instead drove her nuts. He was sweet, but he spoiled her rotten.

Being the wife of a shape-shifter had taken a little getting used to. Tessa found out that Scudder’s branch of the family still had a tendency to be guided by the moon. Not like the bullshit Hollywood myths, but it was a more powerful time of the month for them. Although she felt sorry for Scudder’s parents. With six girls and Scudder the only boy, Colin and Sherrie Harris must have had their hands full when their children were kids…

Well, pups.

“The tree looks beautiful,” he said, leaning in for a kiss. “How are you holding up?”

“Nervous as hell. Lindsey said one of Ivan’s cousins is coming with them.”

“Oh, good!”

“He’s a panther.”

Scudder nearly choked. “Um, okay.”

She poked him in the chest. “I won’t have anyone teasing him or making catnip jokes. Understand?”

He nodded. “Yeah.” He put down the armful of garland where she told him to. “This’ll be interesting.”

The next evening, Tessa nervously finished up the last of the preparations with Sherrie’s help. She loved her mother-in-law and felt extremely close to her, as close as with her own mother.

Sherrie grabbed her by the shoulders and made her look at her. “Stop worrying.” She smiled. “I remember how nervous I was the first time I hosted a family gathering.” Sherrie wasn’t a born shape-shifter, but had been married to Colin nearly forty years. “Everything will be fine.”

“And if the fur flies? Remember, my family doesn’t know about the shape-shifting stuff.”

She shrugged. “I brought extra bourbon to spike the eggnog.”

Scudder and Colin’s job was to greet people, take coats, and get drinks for their guests while Sherrie and Tessa put on the last touches. By the time Tessa discovered all their guests had arrived and it was time to serve dinner, she realized she hadn’t yet been introduced to Frank Biendino, Ivan’s cousin.

She supposed he was the handsome blue-eyed blond hunk standing in the corner with a cup of eggnog and chatting up her pretty and single cousin, Kaylie.

Oh, boy.

Nervous, she tried to calm her stomach, but when she caught sight of the two of them sharing a good-bye kiss on the front porch at the end of the evening, she elbowed Scudder. “Aren’t you going to do something?” she hissed in his ear.

“Do what? Wish them mazel tov?”

“He’s a…” She realized her voice was going up. She quieted her tone. “Shouldn’t we warn her off or something?”

He shrugged, turned, and planted a panty-melting kiss on her lips. He leaned in and whispered into her ear, “Would you have wanted someone to warn me off of you?”

Gulping, she shook her head. No, she loved Scudder.

“Then let Cupid have his fun. And them, too.”

Kaylie drove home, her head spinning. Frank Biendino was a cutie, a total hunk. With blond hair and crystalline blue eyes that seemed to penetrate to the depths of her core, she realized halfway through the evening her panties had a huge wet spot, and that was just from talking with him!

Now she had his number programmed into her phone. He’d promised to call her in the morning, once she had a chance to check out her upcoming work schedule, to set up a date. She never had good luck with men and didn’t want to get her hopes up too much, but…damn.

She got home, took a hot shower, and went to bed with her vibrator sporting a fresh set of batteries. Two orgasms later, with Frank at the center of her fantasies, she finally managed to get to sleep.

The next morning, she found she had absolutely no problem springing up out of bed and rushing into work at the department store she worked at. Her supervisor was just posting next week’s schedule when Kaylie rounded the corner at a dead run into the employee lounge.

“Is that it? Next week?” she eagerly asked.

The woman laughed. “Yeah. What’s up with you? Got a hot date to plan?”

Kaylie smiled when she saw she had Tuesday night off and all of Wednesday. “Something like that, Lily. Met a hunk last night at my cousin’s Christmas party.”

“Sexy and single?”

Kaylie giggled. “Yep! For once, I think I found a handsome, normal guy who isn’t a freak!”

As promised, Frank called her and set up a date with her. When he hung up, he smiled and licked his lips. He’d spent the entire evening trying not to drag Kaylie into an empty bedroom and fuck her brains out.

Finally, in a room full of dogs, he’d found a mate.

Ivan will love to bust my balls over this.

He didn’t care how much his cousin would tease him. He could close his eyes and conjure Kaylie’s scent, complete with the overlying musk of her arousal.

He’d made women horny before, but never had someone responded to him like that before.

Ever.

By the time of their date Tuesday night, they’d spent several hours talking on the phone. When he picked her up at her apartment a little after five, it took every last ounce of his will not to push her back inside, rip her clothes off, and claim her right then.

But that kind of claiming was generally frowned upon nowadays, even if he already knew she was the one for him.

And he knew. She was already wet, and they’d only walked from her apartment to the car.

He’d picked a small family restaurant near his townhouse in Hyde Park, west of downtown Tampa, for their dinner. Decorated in beautiful Christmas lights inside and out, it was romantic, quiet, and even better, only five minutes from his door.

Kaylie excused herself to the bathroom. She couldn’t believe the lack of self-control she had over this man. She was already a wet mess.

I should have brought spare panties.

Fuck it, hopefully her panties would be off by the end of the evening. She’d even brought a few condoms with her in case things worked out the way she hoped. If it made her a slut, she didn’t care. Just the fact that he turned her crank the way he did was good enough for her. She’d been over a year without a man in her bed and was sick of being alone.

She returned to their table and caught his amused smile.

“What?” she asked as she took her seat.

He leaned in and nipped her earlobe. “You are a wet, wet girl, aren’t you?”

Her body heated at the purring tone of his voice. How the hell could he purr when he hadn’t said any r’s was beyond her, but he did.

She managed a squeaky, “Uh-huh!”

“Would you like to go back to my place?”

She started to stand when he chuckled and placed a staying hand on her shoulder. “I meant after dinner.”

“Why wait?”

He looked at her before bursting out into gales of laughter. “I guess you’re right.”

They were practically ripping each other’s clothes off before he even kicked his front door shut behind them.

“I don’t normally do this,” he rumbled against the base of her throat where his tongue was doing delicious things to her libido even without any contact with the more sensitive regions of her erogenous zones. “I don’t normally take a woman home on the first date.”

“Neither do I,” she gasped, “but I don’t care!”

He scooped her up into his arms and carried her into his bed. He was totally naked by the time he pounced on her and pushed her legs apart. She heard the rip of fabric, and then he tossed the remnants of her panties over his shoulder onto the floor.

“I’ll buy you new ones,” he said before his head disappeared beneath her skirt.

She fell back to the pillows, moaning, his tongue rasping along her clit and dissolving conscious thought. Shirt and bra off and somewhere on the living room floor, she realized he was making a purring sound as he licked and sucked at her pussy.

“You…taste…sooo…good,” he murmured between strokes.

She moaned in reply, unable to speak as the first of several orgasms wiped out her fine motor skills for a few minutes.

When he finally came up for air, he pulled her skirt down and flipped her over, pulling her up to her knees and yanking her skirt the rest of the way off.

She heard the sound of a condom, then the biggest, hardest cock she’d ever felt started slowly pressing for entrance.

Fists buried in the pillows, she fucked herself back onto his enormous rod. “Oohhh god, yes!” she screamed as yet another orgasm washed over her.

Never…this…good…ever!

He held still inside her until she recovered, then he started moving again, slowly at first, then picking up speed and force until his thighs slapped against the back of hers and she felt like her body would never stop rippling in waves of pleasant passion.

He let out a roar that reminded her of a mountain lion’s scream as his own climax hit. His body slammed into hers, her brain turning into some sort of pleasure-filled soup as they collapsed onto the bed, his weight comfortably pinning her to the mattress.

She found his hand and laced her fingers through his, pleased when he squeezed her hand. He nuzzled the back of her neck, gently nipping, his cock and her clit simultaneously twitching with renewed interest.

He purred in her ear. “You are so wonderful.”

Again with the purring. He reminded her of a big cat.

“You’re pretty damn great yourself,” she managed.

With lithe agility, he rose up, flipped her over, and covered her body with his again. “I want you,” he whispered. “I want you to be mine.”

Reality struggled for a foothold in her brain. “Huh?”

He kissed her. “Marry me. Be my mate. I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.”

Sitting up, she pushed him off and scrambled up the bed away from him. “What? Are you crazy? We just met!”

He followed her on all fours, stalking her, his blue eyes blazing. “Tell me you don’t feel it. I can smell it on you. Tell me you don’t feel something for me that you’ve never felt before for any other man.”

“I…I…” She always was a sucky liar. “Okay, yes, something, but marriage?”

He grabbed her and kissed her again, nearly melting her reserve until her sanity sent her a telegram. She pushed him away again.

“This is crazy!”

He sat back and shook his head. “I know what I know. My kind does. Just like Scudder and Tessa.”

“What?”

He was taking a huge chance. The only reason he did was because he knew, one thousand percent, that she was meant to be his mate.

“Scudder is a shape-shifter like me. Well, sort of like me. He’s a canine. I’m a feline.”

Startled, Kaylie’s face went blank for a moment before she started laughing. “That’s a good one. Riiight. Shape-shifter. Sure. I think that orgasm fried your brain.”

He realized his cock was still sheathed by the used condom. He yanked it off and threw it on the floor to deal with later. Then he closed his eyes and shifted.

Kaylie’s laugh died in her throat, followed by something she thought might have sounded like a strangled scream, except she couldn’t seem to force any air into her lungs. A huge panther with blue eyes and blond fur the same color of Frank’s now sat on the end of the bed where Frank had just been.

Frozen in place by fear and disbelief, she realized she couldn’t move as the large cat silently stalked up the bed again until it lay between her legs, its chin now resting on her belly.

And as it started vibrating, she realized it was purring.

How had her evening gone from mind-blowing sex to something out of a horror movie? “Nice…kitty?” she whispered, too terrified to move.

She swore the beast smiled at her.

Frank waited her out. He knew from talking to some of his cousins that once the initial shock wore off and the screaming stopped, that usually the mates started processing what their eyes were showing them and their minds started working again.

He was just glad his neighbors were in Bermuda on vacation. Her screams wouldn’t attract unwanted attention.

She slowly started to move out from under him. He moved with her, following her as she backed out of the bedroom and down the stairs, her eyes never leaving him. He continued purring and hoped they could get past this stage quickly and get back to the fucking portion of the evening.

He could spend all of his life with his cock buried inside her.

And spend his life loving her. Without a doubt.

In the living room, she grabbed her purse. He wasn’t sure where she thought she would go with nothing but her purse, but then she glanced around and before he could shift back, she spun around, dashed into the guest bath, and locked herself in.

Crap. He shifted back and lightly tapped on the door. “Kaylie? Honey, please, come out and talk to me. It’s going to be okay.”

He heard her speaking to someone in low, hysterical tones. He knocked a little louder, heard her nearly panicked squeak and the speed of her conversation pick up. Sure he could either break the door down or pick the lock, but that would only terrify her more.

Before he could talk to her again, his cell phone rang. He ignored it and pleaded with her to come out, to listen to him. Then his house phone rang. He let it go to the machine when he heard Ivan’s voice.

“Frank? Pick up right the fuck now.”

“Crap!” He leapt the couch and grabbed the handset before the machine could cut him off. “What?”

“What the fuck is going on? I’ve got Scudder Harris on the phone saying his wife’s cousin is hysterical and locked in your bathroom!”

He let out a groan. Fan-fucking-tastic. “Yeah, I just showed her my shift. I asked her to be my mate.”

“Oh, Jesus H. Christ! I’m on my way.”

Before Frank could respond, he was listening to a dial tone.

Damn it! He tried knocking on the bathroom door again, but all he got in response was the whispered, panicky sound of Kaylie talking on the phone.

He closed his eyes and rested his forehead against the door. He took a deep breath and struggled to keep his voice in what he hoped was a calm, reassuring tone. “Kaylie, sweetie, please come out.”

After five minutes of that, he realized he wasn’t getting anywhere. He took the stairs two at a time, threw on a pair of running shorts, and grabbed his bathrobe for her. Hopefully, Ivan could talk her out.

Thirty minutes later, someone pounded on his front door. He opened it, and Ivan, Lindsey, Tessa, who was still talking on a cell phone, and Scudder all pushed in.

“Where is she?” Tessa demanded.

He sat, dejected, on the couch and pointed at the bathroom door. Lindsey spotted the bathrobe he’d left by the door, and she and Tessa ordered the men into the kitchen as they gathered around the bathroom door and started speaking to Kaylie through it.

Frank grabbed a bottle of scotch from a cabinet and poured himself two fingers, neat, gulping it in one swallow.

Scudder and Ivan scowled at him, and he held up the bottle. “Help yourself.”

Ivan shook his head. “You dumb fuck. On the first date? You couldn’t control yourself better than that?”

“She wanted it, too! She practically ripped my damn shirt off. Buttons were flying all over the place!”

Scudder leaned against the counter, arms crossed over his chest. “Yeah, sleeping with her is one thing, but you couldn’t wait a little bit at least to show her what you are and to claim her?”

He studied his bare feet. “She’s my mate,” he muttered. “You don’t understand.”

“Fuck me, I don’t understand,” Ivan said. “Believe me, I do. But obviously, scaring the shit out of the poor woman isn’t the best way to do it!”

He glared at his cousin and the man who would hopefully become his cousin-in-law. “I’m sorry I’m not as perfect as the two of you.” He caught the sound of the women out in the living room and started toward the doorway. Ivan and Scudder each caught him by an arm and dragged him back in.

“Let me go!” Frank angrily said. “I need to see if she’s okay!”

Ivan jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “You wait here with us, dumb-ass, until the women say she’s okay. If she’s really your mate, one thing you’ll quickly learn is you might be Alpha in bed, but she’s going to rule the fucking house if you want your happily ever after with her.”

Scudder nodded.

With a snarl, Frank shook them loose and paced the small kitchen for the next hour while Scudder and Ivan silently kept watch on him. Finally, Tessa appeared in the kitchen doorway, frowning when she saw Frank.

“You really fucked this up, buddy.”

“Yeah, so they told me.”

“Get your ass out here.”

Lindsey sat with Kaylie on the couch, a protective arm around her shoulders. Kaylie was wearing his bathrobe and shrank against Lindsey at the sight of Frank.

Her eyes looked wide with shock.

“Are you okay?” he asked her. He wanted to be the one comforting her.

“They said…they said all three of you can do…that,” Kaylie whispered.

The men nodded.

“Do it.”

Ivan and Scudder looked at each other, then to their respective women to confirm that was what they should do.

“It’s okay,” Tessa said, now sitting protectively on the other side of Kaylie with an arm also around her. “Do it. Show her how you guys shift.”

Shrugging, Ivan and Scudder quickly stripped and shifted. Ivan transformed into a large black wolf with a dusting of silver in his coat and grey eyes. Scudder turned into the largest black Lab Frank had ever seen, nearly as large as Ivan, with golden-brown eyes.

Kaylie felt the breath sucked out of her. If it wasn’t for the grounding presence of Tessa and Lindsey on either side of her, she thought she’d pass out.

“Now you,” she whispered to Frank.

He shucked his running shorts and shifted back into the panther.

She still couldn’t believe it.

“Are you okay?” Tessa asked.

She shook her head. “No. I think I need to go home…”

She lost consciousness.

She awoke sometime later in the backseat of a moving car. She was, she realized, still dressed in the bathrobe, which she knew to be Frank’s from the scent. She hugged it to her, inhaling deeply until the entire evening came back to her.

Tessa reached over from the front seat and touched her arm. “You okay?”

Tessa carefully sat up. “Where are we going?”

“Back to our house. You’ve had quite a shock.”

“You ain’t kidding.”

“I got your clothes and your purse,” Tessa said.

“Thanks.”

Back at the Harris house, Tessa plied her with a spiked eggnog, and the women sat on the couch and talked about everything until dawn. Finally, exhausted and with her brain—and heart—hurting, she collapsed on their guest bed.

When she awoke later that day, she felt horrible. Tessa had laid out some of her own clothes for her to wear, and after a shower in the attached guest bath she made her way out to the kitchen.

Tessa hugged her. “You okay?”

“Tell me it was a dream or a nightmare or something.”

Tessa shook her head. “Frank turned into a panther.”

She collapsed into a chair at the table. “I don’t understand this.” She burst into tears. “And I think I love him! How can that be?”

Tessa smiled and sat with her. “Can I invite him over here for dinner? He’s been calling every thirty minutes to check on you.” Her cell phone rang. “And that’s probably him right there.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Kaylie nodded. “Will Ivan and Lindsey be here, too?”

“Yes. And Jeremy and Genna. Jeremy is the local pack Alpha.” She grabbed her phone and glanced at the screen before answering. “She just woke up. I’ll call you back in a few.” She hung up on him and put the phone on the table. “There’s a lot to learn.” She kindly smiled. “But let me tell you what, once you get over the shock, you’ll never regret it.”

She took a deep breath. “Okay. Dinner. Sure. I think I can handle that.”

At six o’clock on the dot, Frank knocked on the Harrises’ front door. Anticipating his punctual arrival, Ivan and Jeremy had arrived at five thirty. Kaylie felt nervous when she saw Frank standing in the front doorway.

She also felt her nether regions throb at the memory of their hot sex.

Fuck!

He stepped in, looking worried, his eyes never leaving her. “Hi, Kaylie,” he hesitantly said. “Are you okay? I’m sorry about last night.”

She nodded and pointed up. She was standing under a sprig of mistletoe fastened in the doorway. “Let’s start with this and see where we get.”

Before she finished her sentence, he’d raced across the room, taken her into his arms, and kissed her.

Without a will of their own, her arms encircled him as she closed her eyes and savored his taste, his scent.

He purred.

Something inside her broke free and melted. “Yes,” she whispered, not understanding why she’d suddenly lost her mind. “I want you.”

He scooped her up and headed to the guest bedroom, kicking the door shut behind them.

The others stood there, stunned, then laughing as the muffled sounds of rough, animalistic sex filtered through the closed door.

“Well,” Jeremy said. “I guess Frank got his Christmas wish a little early this year.”

THE END

WWW.TYMBERDALTON.COM