Catastrophe Read online

  “You say they have live music?”

  “Often, not all the time. This being midweek, there may not be anyone playing. We’ll see if they show up—” Zyl cut off his words and looked away from Carl as another man approached their booth.

  “Hey, Zyl, who’s your friend?”

  Carl looked up then to see a big man, both tall and bulkily built. His instant impression was a likeness to a bear, a really big black or brown, even a grizzly. The man’s low, rumbling voice added to the resemblance.

  “This is Carl. He works at the zoo. He’s a vet technician, helps to take care of the animal’s health and wellness stuff.” Zyl offered the explanation right away.

  The big man held out a paw-sized hand. “Glad to meet you, Carl. I’m Ruric.”

  Carl started to stand, then realized it would be awkward, so he just extended his hand to shake. The big man had a firm although not crushing handshake.

  He turned his attention back toward Zyl. “Okay if I join you or is this booth private?”

  Zyl smiled. “Sure, we’re just kind of getting acquainted. Carl said he hasn’t been here before, so I thought why not? We just met…well, it was the other night. I think I gave him a start, actually.” He glanced at Carl, one eyebrow lifted in a sardonic arch as he winked. “Didn’t I?”

  Carl nodded. “Yeah, you could say so. I thought everyone was gone for the night, since we shoo the public out and close the gates before dark.”

  Ruric laughed. “Yep, Zyl can slip around quiet as a cat…”

  He slid into the booth beside Zyl and ordered another round for the three of them. As the evening wore on, Carl began to feel more at ease. Other patrons came by and chatted, joking and badgering each other in a mild way as friends and easy acquaintances tend to do. Pretty soon he felt like he was nearly one of the group.

  The odd thing was, though, every one of the guys who came over to talk reminded him of some animal. It was uncanny. If he just shifted his focus slightly, he could almost see lions, wolves, bears, badgers, deer—dozens of different creatures in the group of varied men. As far as anyone being gay, if they were, they were very laid back about it, nothing too obvious. That made Zyl’s caution seem almost foolish.

  He didn’t see anyone who acted like the typical twink or the more feminine type of gays. They were all very distinctly male. Was this really a gay bar, or was it maybe something else? Like a hangout for guys who were…No! There was no such thing as shapeshifters. That was fantasy, fiction, and game stuff. He could not and would not believe anything so bizarre.

  Backing off from the confusing thoughts, he decided there was nothing he could do right now, except write off his impressions and enjoy a rare night out with a group that felt congenial for all its oddity. Zyl especially had a dry, droll sense of humor. The rest of the motley group displayed a range of personalities and responded in a variety of ways. Still, everyone seemed to be good-humored, regardless how raunchy, ribald, or sly the joshing became. They included Carl to the point he began to feel like he’d been part of the gang for months. The novelty delighted him.

  Closing time came before he realized several hours had passed. He was feeling a little woozy and had lost count of the beers he’d drunk. That was not proper of him, being on call. Thankfully he hadn’t been summoned. Still, he couldn’t do that often! Although he wasn’t really inebriated, it was good he didn’t have to drive home. When the group split up to go various ways, he found himself walking back toward the zoo with Zyl.

  Although he was sure the other man had put away at least as many cold ones as he had, Zyl seemed to be stone sober. Without anything being said, the athletic man assumed the lead and headed unerringly back by the shortest and easiest route. In a vague corner of his mind, Carl wondered how his new friend had become so familiar with the area when he’d never seen the guy around before two nights ago.

  They entered again through the gate they’d used before. Zyl waited to let Carl input the combination. It took him two tries because his fingers had gone a bit dyslexic on him. Finally he got it and they went in. Carl then headed toward his cottage, somehow not surprised when Zyl strolled along beside him. It felt right.

  Carl rarely brought friends home. The little house was very small, very plain, and very cluttered. In some ways, it was more of a den than a home, with books and papers, medical gear, and an odd collection of souvenirs and mementos covering every surface, both horizontal and vertical. In most cases, he felt compelled to apologize for the disarray. This time he didn’t.

  “Want some coffee or is it too late for that?”

  Zyl shrugged, a fluid, supple twist of his shoulders. “Whatever you want is fine with me. It won’t disturb my sleep, at any rate. I’ll nap tomorrow.”

  Carl laughed. “I bet I’ll wish I could, that’s okay. It’s been fun. That makes a little lost sleep worthwhile. I guess I live a pretty narrow life most of the time.” He glanced back at Zyl, who had stopped in the doorway between the main room and the closet-sized kitchen. “I really liked your buddies. They’re funny cool guys, all of them.”

  “I’ll tell them,” Zyl replied. “I think they liked you, too. They don’t open up and act natural with just everyone. We’re all different, you know.”

  Carl went ahead and poured two mugs of coffee and stuck them in the microwave to reheat. That gave him a minute to absorb Zyl’s remark. Different. Did that mean the strangeness he’d sensed was real?

  Chapter 4

  He carried the two mugs to the narrow table and put one in front of Zyl, now settled on one of the two stools. “Different? How do you mean? What do you mean?”

  “They’re all like me. Shapeshifters, beast kin, Were-kind. You sensed it. I could tell. You were afraid or unwilling to believe, though. They recognized you as kin. I told you there’s a cat inside you. Not sure what kind, definitely a feline though.”

  Carl sat down before he collapsed. It made perfect sense, even though it went against everything he’d always believed. All he’d told himself and clung to for some tie to reality, to sanity. “I-I-I don’t know what to say, what to think. I want to deny it as I always have. Now it’s getting harder.”

  He clenched his hands around the mug, letting the heat leach into his flesh and drive out part of the sudden icy chill that threatened to absorb him. It was too much to take in, yet Zyl spoke in such a calm, matter-of-fact way that it started to sound like truth.

  Zyl reached across the table and covered Carl’s clenched hands with his. “I know. It’s a lot to take in, forces you to make a sharp and sudden turn in your beliefs. I understand, even though I’ve always known who and what I am. Somehow, you’ve suppressed it or it’s been suppressed by some outside force. Although you should’ve shifted by puberty, I realize you never did. That trapped cat is fighting to get out. The allergies are its revenge. Maybe I can help you through it.”

  Carl looked up and met Zyl’s green gaze, sharp though also somehow gentle, almost tender. “Can you? Will you? Help me, I mean? It’s going to be hard, going to be scary and I bet it’ll hurt like crazy, too. Tell me, how does it happen? How does someone become Were-kind or are they all born that way?”

  Zyl hesitated, as if marshalling his thoughts or trying to simplify his explanation. “There are three ways, really. Some are born that way. It’s carried on a recessive gene so requires one have it from both parents to manifest. Neither of them may ever display it if they only carry one. There’s a separate gene also, one that’s dominant, that can suppress the shifter genes. We’re still trying to understand and unravel all this. Anyway, trueborn Were-kind are not too common. Then there’s a virus that a regular human can be infected with. Most often it’s through a bite, although sometimes an exchange of bodily fluids is enough, especially if the human carries one of the recessives already.”

  Almost scientific, Carl thought. Okay, maybe he could accept it as at least something possible. Not exactly pertinent to him yet…just almost. “That’s kind of two-and-a-half ways,” he
said, recovering a bit of humor. “So then what?”

  “We need to work on getting you through the first shift.”

  * * * *

  Zyl saw the shock on Carl’s face as the impact of his calm statement soaked in.

  “You mentioned exchange of bodily fluids as a possible trigger. Does that imply what I think it does? I mean do you think we should…” The other man stumbled to a halt, a wash of color sweeping over his face.

  Restraining a laugh because he knew Carl did not find anything about this situation humorous, Zyl nodded. “That’s not the only way, we could. I mean a blood transfusion is one method…things like that, as well as sex. I won’t insist and certainly not force anything on you that doesn’t feel good to you, seem right or…well, you know. I mean no rape or anything! I’d never do that. Yes, I find you attractive and have from the first. Maybe you didn’t know.”

  Carl still blushed. “I—Well, I thought maybe and I was definitely attracted to you. The cheetah part. You are that mysterious male, aren’t you? And you as a human are beautiful, unique, magnetic.”

  Good, he’s beginning to accept that Were-kind are real and that animal and human can coexist in a single body with each emerging at different times. Progress. Still, he could be scared into retreat, into a shell of denial very easily. Gotta go slow here.

  Zyl reached again and took Carl’s hands in his. “Close your eyes a minute and just feel. Let your intuition and your inner senses respond.” He felt subtle tension quiver along the other man’s nerves, tighten his muscles, and dance goose bumps over his skin.

  Although Zyl usually shunned the use of the mind control power all Were-kind had to some degree, he sent the thinnest trickle of warmth and care through the junction of their clasped hands. Within a few heartbeats, he felt the slow relaxing that slipped over Carl’s body. The hands he held softened, fingers losing their stiffness. Then the least trace of a returning current of responsive energies began to flow back to him.

  The connection begun, they both stood and moved to the side, coming closer as the table’s barrier no longer separated them. Carl still had his eyes shut. He moved almost as if in a trance. An instant’s icy panic touched Zyl. Had he exerted more control than he intended, perhaps too much, so he had taken over the other man’s mind?

  No, even when he shut off the delicate exchange, Carl’s reaction did not vary.

  “You can open your eyes now if you want to.”

  Carl’s lids snapped up and his dusty blue gaze fixed on Zyl’s face. He smiled, an expression so bright and unexpected that Zyl’s heartbeat stuttered.

  “I want this…well, something. I’m not real experienced, although I’ve known for years I was gay. If you are, too—and it seems like that’s the case—I’d love to do whatever you want. I’m maybe not a real sub, lean that way. I want my partners to take charge. And if it makes me become a shifter, maybe that’s what needs to happen.”

  The tingling current flowing between their clasped hands seemed to grow stronger, hotter, more insistent. Zyl let it lead him. He took a step and then a half step more until they were standing just a few hairbreadths apart. He released Carl’s hands and lifted his own to settle on the other man’s shoulders. Carl reached as well and put his hands at Zyl’s waist. They both angled their heads so noses did not bump and there was no hesitation as they kissed, the first powerful expression of a union yet to come.

  Carl tasted like coffee, yet also a subtle flavor that seemed unique to him. Zyl knew his beast senses, even when he was in human form, were much stronger and more sensitive than those of most humans. Scents and tastes were especially keen, powerful, and significant. He’d now know Carl anywhere, any time, and under any circumstances. Just a hint of his scent would be enough.

  Their arms tightened around each other as the kiss went on. Tongues dueled and fenced, breaths gasped as their mouths moved, turning and shaping different connections.

  Yes, Carl’s feline. What kind? While Zyl was too bemused for now to sort that out, any doubts he’d had vanished in a trice. He knew soul-deep they were almost kin and yet different enough to intrigue, attract, strike mutual sparks from each other. A crazy joy and excitement sang through him at this discovery. Maybe he’d been sent to his current base at this zoo for a purpose even beyond the Were-kind work he already knew.

  He felt Carl’s stiffening cock nudging at him, even as his own had gone rigid while the kiss went on. Need and hunger began to take over, blurring his other senses, thoughts, and inhibitions. This coming union was essential, pre-ordained, and filled needs he had barely realized existed. He growled low in his throat.

  Carl responded. “Yes. Yes! I want you, need you. Whatever—I’ll suck you or you can fuck me or anything. We just have to do something, anything. Now!”

  Zyl reacted at once. He let go of Carl’s body to grab his T-shirt, jerking it up and over his head. Though not a big man, Carl was well built and apparently managed to get enough sun not to be stark white under the shirt. A light dusting of pale hair circled his flat tan nipples and darted down to his belt. Not quite blond or brown, a subtle shade in between, a few darker hairs mingled with the light. Definitely feline fur, though. Not cheetah—maybe ocelot? That image flashed through Zyl’s mind before lust took over completely.

  Carl began tugging at Zyl’s shirt, popped off one button, and fumbled the others free until Zyl could shrug it off. They pressed together then, skin to skin, with a sizzle of energy and heat that should have scorched them both. They rubbed, in a distinctly cat-like way, against each other’s bodies, the tawny hair on Zyl’s chest making a silky mat between them. Through it, there was enough contact to heighten mutual awareness for both of them. Zyl felt Carl’s cock stiffen even more. It pushed against his lower abdomen through two layers of denim, while his bucked in the confines of his Levi’s. It was time to get rid of their pants, too.

  Zyl released Carl and took a short step back as he reached to undo his belt and lower the zipper on his jeans. Dragged by the weight of the belt, they slipped off his lean hips. A slight shove and twist sent his shorts after them. The fabric pooled around his ankles.

  Carl lost no time in copying Zyl’s actions. In seconds, his denims and Jockeys were also on the floor. Almost before his clothes hit the deck, Carl dropped to his knees in front of Zyl. With care bordering on reverence, he reached to close one hand around Zyl’s now fully erect dick.

  “Oooohhhh.” The sound Carl made came somewhere between a moan, a sigh and a gasp.

  Zyl felt his whole body go taut as Carl’s hand closed around him. Although the touch was gentler than demanding, it sang through his nerves like savannah wind through tall grass. He could almost hear the sound of the surging energy. He could both hear and feel his accelerating heartbeat and the rush of blood pouring into the sensitive, powerful bit of his flesh that the other man held and then began to stroke, in a slow yet urgent rhythm.

  When Carl bent forward and put his lips over the tip of Zyl’s prick, he almost exploded. “Wait,” he managed in a half-gasp. “We should be doing this to each other, both at the same time. For starting the shifting activation, I mean.”

  “What?” Carl drew back, looking up at Zyl with a blend of shock, fright, and confusion painting his face. “Are you sure? I mean, I’m not sure this will even work or if I really want it to. I just want to share something special with you.”

  Zyl hesitated for a breath or two. An unexpected tenderness and concern swept over him. He wasn’t used to feeling any care for others, except a few of his close contacts in the Were-kind world, who were off limits for sex. For a human? Sure, in his human guise he’d had sex with various human males. Whle iIt had generally been satisfactory, he’d never felt a quiver of emotional attachment. The act either filled a sudden and immediate need or provided a means to get close to someone for information or influence.

  With a shock, he recognized this was different. Maybe it was because he was so sure Carl really was Were-kind, too, although for now
not a member of his team or under the same command, so therefore not strictly off limits. No, if he was honest with himself, he had to accept it went deeper.

  He put his hand lightly over the kneeling man’s head. “Get up, my friend. We should meet as equals here and share this fully with each other. Don’t you have a bed, someplace we can be comfortable?”

  Carl struggled to his feet, wobbling a moment before finding his balance. “There’s the futon…” he said, waving a hand toward the other end of the main room. “And yeah, sure, I have a bed. The door, just behind you…” He hesitated. “There’s not a lot of furniture. I don’t have much company.”

  Then he seemed to collect his wits and his dignity. “Let’s go to my room. I think I made the bed this morning. If not, excuse the mess.”

  Zyl laughed. “I slept last night in a grassy nest in the cheetah compound. A bed is a bit of a luxury.” He followed Carl, halting when the other man paused to flick a light switch. The lamp cast a soft glow over the cramped room. A double bed took up most of it. The bed was made, at least the spread pulled up and only a bit wrinkled and lopsided.

  Carl turned back to him. “I can be bottom,” he said, “unless you prefer not to do it that way.”

  Zyl cuffed him on the shoulder. “Equals,” he reminded. “What say we lie on our sides, head to feet?”

  The smile Carl gave him was unexpected and beautiful. “That’ll work.” He flopped down on the bed, kind of cattycorner across it, with his feet to the upper left. Zyl wasted no time in joining him. They might have lost a little stiffness from their erections, neither had any problem getting them back. A few quick caresses had Zyl hard as a bone and Carl in much the same state.

  Zyl paused for a moment. “No condoms if we’re going to do this right. You okay with that?”

  Carl nodded with an affirmative mumble.

  This time, Zyl welcomed the moist warmth of Carl’s mouth an instant before he drew the head of the other man’s cock into his mouth. Normally, he could maintain control enough to feel his own arousal escalate and yet continue to fellate his partner without hesitation. This time it was hard, really hard. He had to concentrate on not letting his teeth scrape or nip as heat flooded through him. Staying careful and controlled took enough effort that he rose to the crest at a slower rate than normal. He could feel the tension build, the pressure gather, and release nearing, yet still he was not quite there.