Page 21 of Me and My Christmas Familiar
Lachlan squeezed his eyes shut. He could feel his familiar’s yearning.
But was Kit even his familiar anymore? Could a shifter be a familiar?
He’d never heard of it. Familiars were animals. That was the way it went. He would have to ask Grady.
Because maybe now that Kit had shifted into his human form, he wasn’t Lachlan’s familiar anymore. His chest tightened. It felt like a band wrapped tightly around his ribs and squeezeduntil they might crack. Lachlan didn’t want to lose his familiar, his cat, his Kit.
But Kit wasn’t just a cat anymore. He was a human too.
The whole time, since the moment he’d seen the poor kitty in the street, Kit had been a shifter. When Lachlan had held Kit, stroked him, fed him, and hugged him, he had this whole other, hidden form Lachlan knew nothing about.
Lachlan couldn’t wrap his mind around it. It didn’t make sense. How could his sweet cat also be this ridiculously attractive man?
Lachlan tried to think of everything he knew about shifters. He realised that whilst he knew many shifters, he didn’t know that many specific details, just that they could shift from human into their other form. Like Wulfric could shift to his wolf form.
Lachlan’s chest ached. It felt like a gaping hole had opened inside him.
And the worst thing was all he wanted to do was hold Kit, his cat, in his arms, stroke his soft fur and listen to his purrs as they comforted and calmed him.
But in those few seconds when Kit had shifted, the Kit he knew had disappeared.
His head hurt as he tried to process and think of what to do now. He willed sleep, wishing to escape his tumultuous thoughts and feelings.
He’d not heard Kit move. Still, he sensed Kit’s intense, wishful gaze on his back. But he couldn’t look at Kit. He couldn’t bear to once again see the distress in his green eyes, or the agony etched into his face. The memory still tore at him.
But Lachlan hadn’t known how to respond. The man spoke to Lachlan like he cared for him, like he knew him, like he loved him. He wanted to touch Lachlan, hold him, and be with him.
But Lachlan didn’t know the strange man in his room.
He loved Kit, his cat familiar. How did Lachlan feel about Kit the human?
And when Kit had pleaded to sleep together in the same bed, the idea of this beautiful man being so physically close had terrified Lachlan. If he truly had been a stranger, just a man in the bakery interested in Lachlan, perhaps they could have gone on a date.
Lachlan would definitely have been interested in a man like Kit. But of course, a man as beautiful as Kit would never have been attracted to Lachlan if they’d just randomly met.
He just wished Kit were a cat, a true and proper cat. Not a shifter. Then, right now, they’d be cuddled together, asleep in Lachlan and Kit’s bed, both happy and content with life. That was all Lachlan wanted.
And maybe he’d have been content if Kit had been a shifter but just remained a cat forever. After all, he’d been one for years now. It would have been simple. Easy. Then they both could be blissfully happy.
Ignorant but happy.
Guilt twisted sharply in his belly.
Kit was a shifter. He had two forms. A cat form and a human form.
It would be wrong for Kit to remain in one form forever just to please Lachlan. Surely it would be unethical to deny Kit half of himself, even if Kit had done so for so many years.
Lachlan just wanted to stop thinking. He wanted it all to stop. He wanted to fall asleep and wake and realise it had all been a terrible nightmare and Kit was just a normal cat.
Then suddenly, he woke. Despite all the thoughts that scattered and frayed in his mind, he must have fallen asleep.
The room had lightened. He lay on his back, facing the beamed ceiling.
He turned and looked to the other bed.
Kit sat on the bed, facing the window. His whole body sagged forward, as if on the verge of collapse. Sorrow pulsed steadily from him.
“I think I remember more,” Kit said in a soft, toneless voice.
