Destined Fur More

Naked Man Hugs

My paws padded softly into the snow as I heard Teague fly out the door behind me, still seeming to be in human form. I knew he hadn't seen me change. Well, maybe the golden eyes, but not the leopard. The cat was not out of the bag; not yet.

I wasn't quite sure why I didn't want him to know about me.

My heart thundered as my long legs stretched forward in a fast sprint, giving me the euphoria of feeling alive. Then I heard a familiar pounding close to me; the soft thumping of graceful cat paws crunching down on snow, running. I only took a second to glance back and see an gorgeous, rich black panther running right alongside me.

Teague's muscles pumped, showing pure, wild strength. His golden eyes flashed at mine, and I had the feeling he recognized me immediately. There seemed to be a grin spreading across his muzzle, but his smiling eyes let me know it was actually there.

Race? His eyes asked.

I'll kick your ass, I shot back, pumping my legs harder.

We ran alongside each other for the first few minutes, but I began slowly creeping further ahead than him, eventually leaving him to eat my snow. I kept running for a few minutes after I lost sight of him, but I eventually had to stop.

A few more minutes later, my heart had finally slowed. There was still no sign of Teague, but then I heard rustling in the trees above me. I glanced upward to see the panther leaping from tree-to-tree, leaping off a branch nearly twenty feet high and landing with a sound no louder than the average burp.

His chest was rising and falling rapidly, but I still saw a smirk on his face.

I threw one right back, Bitch, I beat you. How sad is that, losing to Fisher Keller?

Teague shook out his thick head, sighing and rolling his luminous eyes.

We both lay down in the snow, stretching out our animal limbs. My eyes wandered over to him, watching as he rolled around like an idiot in the snow. But idiot or not, I was filled with awe at the sight of him. His physical, human form was gorgeous, but this… this creature was truly beautiful in a way people could never be. Granted, we were half-human, but animals always had such a beauty about them to me.

I may hate nature, but I couldn't hate its creations. Well, more like the brilliance some had. I could care less about lemmings or jellyfish.

When I broke out of my admiring stare, I saw Teague giving me a look that seemed similar to the one I'd just been using on him. I then made a split-second decision to leap at him. The moment my body had twitched, he did the same.

So much from nerves fried down to stubs.

I pummeled him with my un-retracted claws as he bit at me. We were both on our hind legs, punching each other and eventually falling onto our sides in a tangled mess of limbs and vicious snarls.

In truth, I'd always wondered why animals thought it was so fun to wrestle each other; now I knew. It's not like you had opposable thumbs to play Xbox. You could dream all you want about talking to each other, but good luck in that endeavor. There was no soft touch when you're claws are three-inches long and very sharp. So why make it soft? Wrestling was pretty much the only interaction you had between each other, aside your eyes, and eyes could only convey basic emotions, if that.

So Teague and I slammed our bodies together and clawed, never getting tired, not apologizing for leaving gashes on each other, hardly even stopping when I sprung into the trees. We leapt back and forth from branches, faking left and bounding right. My Daggers of Doom were perfect latches into the bark; unfailing when it came to keeping me steady. The thing I hadn't counted on was them disappearing.