I jolted and spun in my chair too fast. The dizziness I had been fighting off swirled my vision and had my blood rushing in my ears, though some of that might have also been the shock.

Firstly, the person I had been chasing had found me.

Secondly, it was a man.

Thirdly, now that he was right in front of me, his scent was clearer than before. I had thought the strangeness to it was because of the way it mixed with the diverse crowd, but no. He wasn't a werecoyote or even a werewolf. My eyes darted to his name tag and read "Lyle Crowley, Werecougar."

I was drawn to a male werecat.

I stared at him, too shocked to do much else. At least I wasn't dizzy from breathing in too much anymore. I wasn't sure I was breathing at all. The man took in my shock with twinkling eyes, seeming completely unbothered by anything. In fact, his smirk grew the longer it took me to recover.

After an interminable moment in which I gaped at him and he gazed at me with bright eyes, he said, "Cat got your tongue?"

I was still too struck stupid to perform more than the simplest of tasks, though I knew I was definitely breathing now because his scent was setting me aflame. My nose burned, my canines descended and felt sensitive against my tongue, and my heart was racing. Being near this man was exhilarating in a way I had never experienced before.

His smirk spread from one side of his mouth to the other, creating a full-blown smile. I realized he was still waiting for an answer and shook my head slowly, though a more honest answer would have been yes.

Excitement glittered in the eyes I couldn't seem to look away from and even though I hadn't spent much time with werecats, I could recognize the look of a feline about to pounce. It only made my heart race more. "No? Maybe we should do something about that."

Before I had even processed his words, he gripped my shirt and tugged me closer to him. His lips met my own in a brief, hard kiss. I felt him smile against me before he kissed me again, licking and nibbling at my bottom lip until I gasped at how good it felt to have him touching me. He took the opportunity to slide his tongue into my mouth. There was no question of dominance in our kiss. He controlled everything about it. I'd never been kissed like that before – usually the women I dated were all too happy to let me take the lead. Something about the way he effortlessly made me submit to him was overwhelmingly erotic.

The kiss ended when he pulled away from me. His eyes roved my whole body and it was obvious he liked what he saw. His pupils had blown up so hardly any hint of their bright green color remained and a smirk was back on his face. It looked so natural there, I wondered whether this was his usual expression. He wore it like I wore a frown.

"Pleasure to meet you, Jasper," Lyle said.

I opened my mouth to answer him, but shut it again when it became clear nothing would come out.

"Ah, so the cat really does have your tongue. I'd be happy to claim the rest of you if we find somewhere a little more private."

That only shocked me further, but it broke the dam of words that had been fighting to break free. "What?" I gasped.

Lyle tilted his head and studied me curiously. A brow slowly lifted in a perfect arch before he said, "Privacy, Jasper. Let's find some."

I blinked a few times, trying to clear the fog that had settled over my brain as his scent infected it. "Is mating even the same for werecats?"

Lyle brushed the backs of his fingers over my cheek and it felt so good, my eyes drifted shut and I leaned into them. "I imagine the mechanics are the same," he answered me, sounding amused.

My eyes snapped open again and I couldn't help glaring at him, even as his fingers trailed lightly down my neck. When I leaned into the touch, he moved his hand with me, denying me greater pressure. The feather-light touch had my knees trembling and I was glad I still knelt on the chair. "That's not what I meant."

"Perhaps you should elaborate," Lyle suggested. He leaned in and let his lips follow the same path his fingers just had. I trembled and could hear his low chuckle in my ear. I braced my hands on his shoulders and pushed him away. I couldn't think when he touched me like that, and I really needed to think right now.

A nearby door opened, sending a rush of air blowing past us. The air was clean of his scent and the fog cleared out of my mind just enough for me to realize how insane this situation was.

He was a man. I was straight.

He was a werecougar. I couldn't mate with a cat!

I shook my head and clambered off the chair so I could take a step away from him. He stepped fluidly around the chair as I moved, so I didn't gain any distance between us. "This is crazy," I said.

Lyle's eyes flashed and he snarled. "Not so crazy," he said. "Besides, what does it matter? I want you under me." This last part was said in a low growl that had my pants feeling even tighter than before. I could feel the wetness leaking out of me and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to calm myself down. How was he doing this to my body when he was all wrong for me?

I felt Lyle step closer. His heat seeped into me and his scent surrounded me. I wanted to roll in it, to absorb it into my skin. I wanted him to touch me more.

Lyle kissed me again, roughly this time. I felt his tongue curl around first one canine, then the other. At this point I was painfully hard and when he gripped my waist and pulled it against his own, I almost howled at how good it felt to touch him where I needed him the most, even though we were both clothed. Lyle's fingers slid under the waistband of my jeans and kneaded the skin there. I felt desperate to feel his hands on me lower.

"Fuck," I panted when his lips released me.

"That's the idea," Lyle said. His eyes bored into mine and I could see him losing his patience. Weren't cats supposed to be immensely patient?

"You're a different species," I gasped against him as his fingers pushed even deeper into my pants.

"So? That only matters if you want to reproduce with your mate. We couldn't anyway."

Right. I wanted a mate I could have children with.

"We'll use surrogates or adopt," Lyle said. "You think too much."

His lips closed over mine again and by the time he pulled away, I had almost forgotten that I wasn't going to give in to him.

I clung to my last thread of self-control and said, "You're a man. I'm straight."

Lyle chuckled. The sound was almost sinister and it had me leaking with want. He withdrew a hand from my waistband and briefly cupped me through my pants. I shuddered violently and my head dropped down onto his shoulder. What was he doing to me? "You are not straight, Jasper," he said.

Between the pleasure that still racked my body, the desperation to chase more, and the simple fact that I didn't have a rebuttal, I could only accept his words for the truth. Maybe I wasn't 100% straight. Maybe it was more like 99% and I had just found my 1%.

Lyle cupped my face in his. "Say yes," he said, his eyes intent on mine.

My heart hammered in my chest and I panicked.

I had a choice. I knew that. I could refuse Lyle and go on to find a nice werecoyote woman, or maybe a werewolf. Someone I could have a completely traditional life with, someone with whom I could raise children, children we created together. I could do those things.

But I could also just... not.

I knew Mom and Dad wouldn't care if they knew I was happy. Penny certainly wouldn't. The only real hang-up was me. Could I really accept the drastic changes he would bring into my life?

I studied Lyle as intently as he did me. Without making any conscious decision at all, I found myself nodding. That smirk of his grew and his eyes glittered. It was an eerie expression, one that had goosebumps raising on my skin and a chill of anticipation going down my spine.

He looked like the cat who caught the canary.

Without another word, Lyle snatched my hand and started pulling me through the crowd. He slipped into gaps I never would have tried to cross, they were so fleeting and small. I was helpless to do much other than follow him, though. It occurred to me that I should text my sister to let her know I was leaving early and not to worry about me, but I was honestly afraid to bring the real world into the strange fog Lyle had put over me. It might snap me out of this, and I was growing increasingly certain I didn't want to escape the fog. I wanted to live in it, possibly forever.

When we got outside, the air cleared enough that Lyle's scent fully dominated my senses. His fluid steps faltered and he came to an abrupt stop, nostrils flaring. He turned toward me and pulled me into him, pushing his tongue into my mouth and dominating me, pushing a knee between my legs so he could rub on me. "You smell incredible," he said between kisses.

The compliment swirled in my head and sent pleasure through me. If I smelled half as good to him as he did to me, I had to smell pretty damned good. I liked the idea that I could shut down his senses like he did mine. I liked the idea I could have even that little bit of control over him, since it was clear he was in charge here.

It shouldn't have made me tingle, shouldn't have had me harder than I'd ever been in my life and losing my mind with anticipation for what he would do to me when we found that privacy he was supposed to be finding for us.

Lyle groaned and pulled away from me. "If we don't get going, I'm going to take you here against the building. I don't think you want that, not least because I don't have any lube with me."

My cheeks flamed at the reminder of what I was about to let him to do me. Lube was something I hadn't expected to ever need. I especially hadn't thought I would ever let anyone stick their appendages... up there.

But then Lyle kissed me again before working a hot path down my neck, licking and sucking and biting until my fingers were buried in his hair and my crotch was grinding desperately against his.

"Let's go," I said. Lyle's eyes met mine, glinting with triumph.

"You're impatient," he said. "I like it. Come with me."

I let myself be pulled to the parking lot. Lyle opened a passenger door for me and I slid in. I inhaled, excited to fill my nose with his scent, but the interior of the car barely smelled like him.

"It's a rental," Lyle said from the driver's side. I frowned in confusion and he said, "I could see the question in your eyes."

That brought up another question, one I didn't want to think about. Where did he live, exactly? Apparently not around here, but then again, neither did I. I was too afraid to ask now, though. If the answer was too far, I didn't want it to ruin this. Better to handle the fallout later.

I distracted myself from my thoughts by pulling his arm toward me and pressing his wrist to my nose. The wrist was a pulse point, so his scent was concentrated here, though not as strongly as on his neck.

Lyle gently tugged his arm away from me and said, "You'll lose control if you keep that up. Patience."

I knew he was right, but it was hard to be logical at a time like this. My fingers itched to touch him again and it took real effort to keep my hands to myself. Lyle glanced at me whenever we hit a stop sign or a red light and he smirked when he saw the tension written across my face. I was slightly disturbed at how calmly he was taking all of this. Was that a werecat thing? Or was it just Lyle? Or – and this was the most disturbing – did I not affect him as strongly as he did me?

"Soon," Lyle said. "We're almost there."

I looked out the window and saw him pulling up to a hotel just down the street from where the room I shared with Serena was. Well, she could have the room to herself from now on, I thought, glancing at Lyle. My mind shied away from thinking through the other repercussions, so I grabbed his arm and took in another draw of his scent, making Lyle chuckle. He didn't pull his arm away this time until the car was parked.

Lyle got out of the car and I scrambled to climb out, too. He was reaching for my door when I stepped out, a look of mild annoyance on his handsome face. "I was going to open your door," he said.

"I can handle a door," I retorted. My words were immediately invalidated when I shut the door behind me, only for it to bounce back open. Lyle snickered and shut it, himself, before wrapping an arm around my waist and walking me to the parking garage's elevator.

We didn't speak again for a while, not all the way to his hotel room. I had to push back my questions several times, since the silence only gave them room to grow and multiply, but I was determined not to worry about the details until later. I could handle anything he threw my way once my head cleared, and that wouldn't happen until after we were – my mind stuttered over the word – mated.

My mouth was suddenly dry and nerves claimed me when I caught sight of the bed in the middle of the room. He would take me there. It was enough to make me nervous all on its own, but all the other surprises that came with this coupling started to overwhelm me, too.

Was I really about to commit myself to a man for the rest of my life? To a feline shifter? Would his instincts make him attack me if we shifted together? Cougars could destroy coyotes. They were way bigger. Bigger muscles, bigger claws, bigger teeth.

But we would be mates. He wouldn't hurt me, I assured myself.

He.

I was going to mate with a man.

My mind went in panicked loops until Lyle stepped in front of me and braced his hands on my shoulders, leaning down so our eyes were on-level. "Calm down," he said. "You're going to like everything that happens, I promise."

That was actually the only part of all this I wasn't worried about. Or, it was a worry, but not in the way he thought. I knew he was going to make me feel amazing. Hadn't he proven that already? My body, against all the odds, responded to his like it had responded to nothing else before. That was what frightened me.

That, and everything else that was running through my mind.

Lyle brushed his fingers through my hair. It felt better than I could have imagined and I shut my eyes, relishing the sensation. "That's it," Lyle said softly. "Just trust me."

And I did. Heaven help me, I did trust him.