Page 92 of Wedding the Werepanther

“What have you done?” he growls. “Are you naked again?”

“The werekittensreallyenjoyed the bakery,” I say, buttering him up since baked goods are a bit of an obsession of his. “But they aren’t used to sugar yet.” I hold out the phone so he can hear their high shrieks of joy and the loud exclamations of all the people shocked to see children running so quickly.

“Fine,” he says. “I’ll be there in a moment.”

I grin at Kayla as I hang up. “He should be glad they’ve forgotten to use the shadow roads, otherwise they’d be blinking in and out of sight all over the place.”

“You jinxed it.” Kayla’s eyes go round as they look past me, and she points.

Wisp runs two steps, disappears, and reappears several yards away, still running in a straight line. Slate follows her, flickering in and out of sight as he leaps in and out of the shadow roads to zip across the green. Dawn’s craftier than both of them, disappearing onto the shadow roads and changing direction each time so you have no idea where she’ll reappear.

Severin swoops down from the sky to land on the edge of the green, and another shadow fae exits the bank and trots over to meet him. It’s the clerk who converts our Faerie gold into human money and banking accounts. Severin gives several orders, hand slicing through the air as he gestures toward the kits, who keep popping in and out of sight in a dizzying blur of motion. The other fae lifts her hands, and a pulse of magic sizzles through the air, leaving all of the non-magical humans shaking their heads and looking a little dazed.

I wave a thank you, then take off, chasing after the kits and making them shriek even louder when I follow them in and out of the shadow roads.

We race back and forth, moving in and out of the real world, making dizzying loops and spirals as the little ones choose random directions constantly. Kayla and Dewdrop stay near the middle of the green, leaping forward to try to tag any werekitten that gets close. Then Mother and Mist join me in the chase, and the lot of us becomes a swirling whirlwind of joy and play.

As quickly as it started, it halts, the werekittens flopping onto the ground in sleepy heaps.

All of the adults sit, and Kayla collapses backward onto the grass, Dewdrop settling beside her. As soon as she catches herbreath, she says, “We totally need a T-shirt that says:I survived the Sugarpocalypse.”

“We do,” I agree, sharing a smile.

“That thing you do, where you use the shadow roads for only short periods of time, isepic. It looks like a series of mini-teleports, but your motions are so smooth and silent.” Her beautiful eyes gleam with admiration. “I need to work that into a game somehow.”

“One condition.” I smirk. “Make sure the character looks exactly like me, as you did with the Cat character from yourFate of the Faegame.”

She groans and covers her face with her hands. “You’re never going to forget that, are you?”

“Never,” I purr and nuzzle her ear.

When the kittens wake up, we head for Grounds for Celebration, where we get various coffee drinks for the adults, fruit juice for Dewdrop, and babyccinos for the kits. When the werekittens whine about their steamed milks not containing any coffee, Kayla and I share a look, and she gives a small shudder. “I’m not ready for the Caffeinepocalypse.”

“Can it really be worse than the Sugarpocalypse?”

“Don’t say that!” She bats my arm with the back of her hand. “Most of the coffee drinks also have a lot of sugar. It would bedoublethe hyper.”

“Then you’re right.” I pick up her hand to press a kiss to her knuckles. “I might have the increased endurance of a fae shifter in his prime, yet I’m certainly not ready.”

We continue on our tour of the shops. Mother enjoys visiting Haute and Bothered, where she talks to the shadow fae dressmaker about arranging special clothing bespelled to accommodate werepanther tails.

Mist lingers in Your Bubbly Charm, smelling everything. “I never knew there were so many types of soap.” I buy her acinnamon and spice bar as well as a couple of fruit-scented soaps for the kits.

As we pass Bling It On, Diamond waves at me from the window far too enthusiastically. I make a hand signal for her to be discreet. Since Victoria put me on house arrest last week, it means I never got a chance to pick up the rings, and I’ve been occupied ever since with the handfasting and my family.

The bell above the door announces our arrival at I Touch My Shelf, and the kits launch forward at a run. “I smell Naomi!” “Naomi!” “Where are you?”

She bustles out of the back, already laughing, her arms thrown wide to scoop them up into a hug. “Hello! What a wonderful surprise. Look at you! You shifted!”

“I got an extra translation crystal from Luke for Mother to take home, and I thought it might be nice to find some children’s books for the little ones.” My people learn how to read, even in our panther forms, but we have only a few scrolls obtained from the orcs, so they’re mostly dry accounts of battles and not much fun for kits.

“Oh, yes, can we?” Wisp’s eyes go huge and pleading. The other two join in.

“Manipulative little scamps.” I grin down at them. “I already said you could.”

Naomi points out the children’s section, and they scramble away.

Kayla and the others follow, but my old friend grips my forearm. In a flash, she teleports us into the bookshop’s office.