(MxM)Tales Of A Shifter (P2) - The Clan Celebration

Chapter 13 - Liked It

Chapter 13

"The leopard made YOU Shift?" Brandon asked him, glancing down at Ezekiel's hands. Somehow he strangled the growing need to reach out and un-ball the hard fist that Ezekiel had formed. The same need that had urged him to reach out and pet a giant snarling Leopard, instead of run.

But a moment later Ezekiel had dropped the fist with a curse. "Damnit!" Ezekiel growled in sudden and visceral agitation. He reached out, possibly intending to touch Brandon's cheek, but at the last moment a look of guilt flickered across his face and he pulled back. "Did he hurt you...?" Ezekiel asked him softly, looking Brandon over for injuries as he spoke. "Our strength....our anger....I can't control them when I'm Shifted."

Hoping to sooth Ezekiel's obvious anxiety Brandon shrugged both of his shoulders and shook his head. "No I'm fine." He reported, then feeling a small smile growing on his face he said. "When he first appeared he did sort of swipe and snap at me. But then he just sat on top of me and pinned me to the ground and made me stroke his head."

"I'm sorry, I can't believe he did that! I could have killed you" Ezekiel hissed, a sharp flash of blue crawling across his gaze as he scoffed in disgust and started to raise up off of the ground.

His sudden detachment and the frustration on his face made Brandon reach out and snatch up his wrist. With an unconscious thought he pulled Ezekiel back down into the soil in front of him.

"Ezekiel calm down!" Brandon found himself saying. Offering comfort simply because he sensed that Ezekiel needed it. "Its....It's okay..."

Without another word Ezekiel sighed and visibly tried to settle himself. Allowing Brandon to hold on to his wrist, Ezekiel's eyes drifted shut and his breathing became shallow and deep. For a time they just sat there with Ezekiel's breathing between them....until Brandon couldn't quite take the silence and began to ask a few questions simply to dispel it.

"Ezekiel When I was fighting you....did I make you angry?" Brandon asked, trying to determine what had cause the Shifter to feral on him. "When you Shifted you looked really upset. The leopard seemed upset too, did I hurt you?"

With a chuckle Ezekiel's eyes opened slowly, he looked down at himself, then back at Brandon before he responded. "He wasn't upset." He said, addressing his Shifter. "He was actually really excited to meet you. Hes been desperate to meet you for some strange reason the last few days."

"Oh." Brandon said, and smiled inwardly at the thought that the leopard was happy to have met him....because the feeling was mutual. Then a thought occurred to Brandon and he said. "But if you weren't angry how did the Shift happen? I thought you only Shifted if you're upset or in danger."

With a pause Ezekiel shifted on his knees then said. "Well you wouldn't know this, but there is such thing as a "happy" Shift.

"A happy Shift?" Brandon inquired at the new term.

"Just an expression." Ezekiel said back to him with a shrug. "What I mean is a simple Shift. Sometimes we get over stimulated and we change into our beasts by accident. We don't have to be angry or sad.....we just have to lose control of ourselves and for me....it's easy for that kind of thing to happen."

Because you're a Reaver?

Brandon wanted to ask....but didn't manage to form the words. He knew that Ezekiel said that Reavers were unstable....and dangerous. But somehow Brandon had forgotten all about that. He had forgotten that the fangs that were touching his skin, igniting all kinds of inappropriate responses, were the exact same fangs that tore a Ghouls arm into pieces only a week ago.