Page 34 of Outnumbered

After a shuddering breath, I closed my eyes and pictured my rabbit form. The change happened quickly and easily, but when I opened my eyes and found myself being stared at by a bear, cheetah, tiger, and wolf, my heart almost exploded in my chest.

Triston leaned closer and sniffed my fur, ruffling it with his large breath.

I held perfectly still, terrified of what he would do next.

His mouth opened and I clenched my eyes closed, but instead of biting me, he licked me.

A small, startled squeak came out of me.

Caleb crawled forward on his stomach, keeping his body as low as he could and rested his nose in front of me.

When I realized he wanted me to approach him, I leaned forward and sniffed his nose.

He sneezed and I tumbled head over tail backwards from the force of it.

Thor laughed, but it was cut off by a grunt.

My tumbling had sent me into Branson’s side and he scooped me up in one of his giant bear paws, rolled onto his back, and set me on his huge, thickly furred belly.

He was so large I didn’t know which way was which until he raised his head so he could look at me. He winked and dropped his head back down.

Hopping across his belly, I moved up to his chest.

As I was circling to lay down, Riddick walked over, bumped me with his nose, and licked me, his large tiger tongue licking half of my body in one swipe.

Yuck.

“That went better than I thought it would,” Thor whispered.

Hopping onto Riddick’s head, I stood on my back legs to glare at Thor, Declan, Kylan, and Silverowl.

“See, you were worried for nothing,” Silverowl said.

“You know we’d never hurt you, Ember,” Caleb said mentally.

“I wasn’t sure if your instincts to protect me would trump your instincts to eat me,” I replied.

He shot up to his feet. “You can talk to us!”

“Uh, I guess so.” That was definitely a new development and would come in really handy, I bet, in the future.

“What’s wrong, Caleb?” Declan asked, seeing him on his feet, facing Riddick and I.

Caleb shifted to his human form and said, “She can communicate telepathically with us in her animal form if we’re in animal form.”

All eyes swung to me.

“That’s awesome,” Triston said.

“Thanks,” I said, feeling embarrassed and proud simultaneously.

“Can you hear our thoughts or just when we want to speak to you?” Riddick asked.

“I think just when you speak to me because that sentence is the first I’ve heard from you,” I answered.

I hopped off Riddick’s head and headed away from the house, enjoying the movements of this body.

“Want to race?” Triston asked as he walked towards me, his long, striped tail swishing behind him.