Feral Magic Read Online Free Page A

wanted to believe the beast meant the baby no harm.  Matching his gaze, she took the step up and backward, reached for the doorknob.
    STAY!   The mental order rolled from the creature as he crouched and tipped a gurgling Stanley to the ground.  Definite power behind that word, command presence radiating from the alpha male.  Stanley hunched into fetal position, tense and quiet, as if he already knew that order.
    Brandy inched back.  Then stopped, stunned, as she saw the black-jaguar-with-mane morph .  Air wavered around him as if he was giving off heat waves.  She saw beast rippling weirdly into man, reshaping, fur changing to skin, bones contracting, face reforming and flattening from feline muzzle to human.  No raw, red muscles or stark, white tendons or bones, but the outward change was weird enough to have her eyes widening and mouth dropping open.  It didn't take long, only a minute or so, and the air rippling intensified, turning colors, turning dark as if light warped in some way around him.
    Then a naked man stood before her, clothes and a pack at his feet.  His narrowed gaze scrutinized her.  He was...attractive in a unique way, with the same rich caramel-colored skin as Stanley, but features more Asian than African-American.  Black hair, long to his shoulders, and thick.  Black brows.  Black body hair, but only lightly dusted.  He stood more than six feet.
    Extremely well-muscled, not much fat, but with a few scars pink enough to be recent.
    Naturally her gaze flickered to his sex, which matched in size with the rest of him, then she glanced back up at his unsmiling face, with those eyes so dark a purple they seemed black.
    He bent and picked Stanley up, and the baby relaxed and cooed, leaning against the man’s broad chest.
    "I thank you for watching Favel," the man said with an accent she couldn't place.
    They stared at each other more, tingles zipped up and down her nerve endings.  Amazingly attractive, extremely dangerous man.  Fear won over sexual interest.  "Are you going to kill me?" she whispered.
    He blinked.  "Why?"
    "For knowing your secret."
    "What secret?"
    "That you can change into a black jaguar.  That you're a... shapeshifter."
    His large hand stroked Stanley's – Favel's – head, rubbed his back.  "I heard that panther folk were rare in this dimension."
    In.  This.  Dimension.  That's what he'd said.  Brandy's knees wobbled a bit, but she didn't think she could afford to sit.  She wet her lips before answering, "Try 'no pantherfolk' at all that I know of...here.  Only…."  She gestured to him and the baby.  "No werewolves.  No ... um ... shapeshifting human-to-bear.  Nothing."
    His purple gaze remained steady and unrevealing.  She kept her scrutiny on his face, though he didn't seem to have a cultural problem with nudity.
    "I am tired.  I do not have a safe place to stay here.  I need sleep and food.  Will you invite me into your domicile?" he asked.
    If her eyes widened any more she'd get muscle strain.  Her abdomen had cramped tight, as if shrinking from the claws – his fingernails looked like they could become claws at any instant.  Not that a clenched stomach would protect her.  Was he lying?  If she let him in, would he kill her?
    Her mouth dry, she continued to whisper.  "You trust me?"
    He dipped his head, then answered equally quietly.  "Yes, lady.  You did no harm to a babe."
    Well, no.
    "Can I trust you ?" she asked.  Her heart had begun to pound, her brain to blaze with more unanswered questions.  Where did he come from?  How did he get here in the first place?  How soon would he leave?  Could she trust him?
    He shifted Favel to one brawny arm, put his other hand on his heart, inclined his torso.  "I swear on the love for my murdered mother that I will cause you no harm while I am in this dimension."
    More than just words, something like power or magic seemed to lend the sentence – the vow – terrible weight.
    Time stretched as they