Chapter 2

Travis, himself, didn’t know the damn cat was anything more than a normal cat for almost three weeks when they’d first met seven years ago. Maybe because it’d been so long now, but those curious, piercing, and watchfuleyes of his were such a dead giveaway, Travis couldn’t understand how he’d ever believed this little guy was just a cat.

Not only were male calicos exceptionally rare, but the green of his eyes also wasn’t a normal green. Not even for a cat. They were the churning, passionate color the ocean turned during a storm. The green glistening through the treetops after it rained. Now, above all things, they felt like home.

Once he got the door unlocked and pushed opened, creaking at him in greeting, the cat shimmied between both his legs to get inside first. Travis almost dropped the bags in the process.

“After you, your highness,” he grunted as he shut the door behind him with his foot. “Thanks for your help.”

Inside, the cottage was cozy. Always had been. The whole thing spanned across one big room with several wooden beams and a loft bedroom. Sun poured in through all the windows; even the specks of dust that twirled merrily here and there glowed through its illumination. On the far end sat a wooden table and a row of cupboards where Travis would put away his groceries. His elemental altar was set up in front of the bay windows. Over in the big, stone fireplace hung a black cauldron. In front of it were several different sized pillows. Some satin. Some cotton. Some silk. Filled with goose down and sheep and goats’ wool.

Travis put the bags down on the table. At the same time, the cat jumped up onto it and rubbed against them. One even fell over, the contents spilling out across the tabletop. Before Travis could try to clean it up, the cat started pawing at one of the cans. He looked up at Travis, gazing right in his eyes, and knocked it off the table.

“Aw, come on, Niko.” Travis huffed as he bent over to retrieve the fallen can of billing’s root. “Was that reallynecessary? Are you stillmad at me?”

The cat stuck his nose up before leaping off the table to walk behind the wooden pantry and came back out from behind it on two human legs. Naked and unashamed. A pair of loose-fitting, drawstring trousers with a hole cut out of the back to make room for his tail was draped over the back of the nearest chair. Niko wasn’t a shapeshifter whose clothes transformed when they did. As a familiar, Niko’s clothes shed as he phased from cat to human.

This fact never bothered him. Even in their younger years, when Travis, awkward and embarrassed, blushed and hid his eyes, Niko simply strolled around to find some clothes to cover himself with. That meant either changing into those bought and tailored specifically for him or, as they got older, just shrugging into one of Travis’s shirts which now fell just above his knees. He never felt the need to hurry, though. Niko, cat form or human form, knew he had a beautiful body and was not above strutting about to show it off.

Once he slipped into his trousers, Niko stretched his arms above his head with a yawn. Claws extended from his fingertips and then retracted again as he brought his arms back down—scratching at the cat ears atop his head along the way—and his whiskers shook a little when he wiggled his nose. Behind him, his tail flicked once and then just swayed slightly as he walked back to the table.

“How did it go?” he asked instead of answering Travis’s question. “Did you remember my biscuits?”

Reaching into the bag that Niko didn’tknock over, Travis pulled out the bag of tea biscuits he wanted. Since a little brown-nosing could work in his favor, he opened it before handing it over to Niko. Niko said nothing about Travis’s gesture and just took it, sticking his hand in the bag for a biscuit. He shoved the thing into his mouth and waited for Travis to respond to the more important of his questions. Well, maybethe more important question. Niko was a sucker for those damn treats.

Niko pulled his legs up to the table to sit on it with them folded like a pretzel. There’d always been something so sweet and endearing about him seated that way.

Even in human form, he wasn’t very big. His limbs were long, legs and arms, and curled in tight, lean muscle, but he still only came to just a little over five feet tall. The poof of hair that sat upon his head matched the pattern on his coat. Despite all that napping in the sun he did, his skin remained incredibly pale which made those thin, pink lips and green eyes—which always retained those diamond pupils—stand out more. The look suited him.