April hides her cat ears under a hat and keeps her tail wrapped around her waist. She doesn't want anyone to know what she is. The eighteen-year-old shifter is afraid of her own shadow and just wants to be left alone. That becomes impossible when she catches the eye of her boss, Mateo Kenzo, a powerful Shifter who is used to getting what he wants, when he wants. Mateo is immediately obsessed with the young shifter almost half his age. She's a lovely little thing, perfectly angelic with a pureness that calls to be protected... to be mated, his to take and possess. ..."You still don't understand?" he questions with a frown. "I'm like you," he says, eyes flashing a golden hue again. At her look of confusion, he sighs and lets his animal surface. The change looks agonizing, nose shifting and bones reconstructing, dark brown fur growing on his skin. It takes only seconds but feels like an eternity.She blinks, too confused for a second because she's expecting wolf-like features. Instead, she's presented with a face that's unequivocally cat. Jaguar, her mind supplies helpfully. "Not- not like me," she whispers. Bigger. Stronger. Still a cat, but much, much more dangerous."Almost," he rumbles, teeth sharp and too close to her face. The shift back to his human form is much quicker. "Similar enough that my animal recognizes you as kin, as mate," he says.A large hand sweeps up under her shirt, brushing over the warm tail she keeps hidden underneath. He grips her tail and unwinds it for her stomach, tugging it free.She tenses and then reacts without thinking, scratching him across his face.He pulls away too fast and her sharp claws slashes in thin air. "Feisty," he says with a feral grin that makes her tense.
