Page 96 of Omega Hunted

Cassian crouched a few feet away, making himself smaller without ever taking his eyes off me, and his smile stole what remained of my breath.

“Oh,” he whispered, his voice thick. “Oh, my sweet snow cat.” My ears flicked towards him. “I’ve never seen anything so beautiful.”

I understood every word, and warmth unfurled inside my chest. A strange, wonderful feeling rippled through me, and before I knew what I was doing, I lifted my head a little higher, my whiskers twitching as my cat soaked in the praise.

He was…

Preening.

The ridiculous certainty of it made my human mind want to laugh, but my cat saw nothing ridiculous about it at all.

Alpha sees us.

Alpha approves.

We are beautiful.

My tail gave one slow, satisfied sweep across the snow.

And for the first time in eight years…

I felt whole.

Cassian stayed where he was until I made the first move and padded towards him, each step becoming surer than the last. It was astonishing how natural it felt. My paws barely disturbed the snow despite my size, my shoulders rolling beneath thick white fur while my tail swayed behind me as though it had never been absent. Somewhere inside me my human mind was still trying to understand how this could be real, but my cat wasn’t questioning anything as Cassian slowly lifted one hand. He didn’t reach for me. He didn’t assume I wanted to be touched. He offered his hand and left the choice with me.

I closed the final few inches between us and rubbed my cheek against his palm, scenting him, feeling his wolf close to the surface as his fingers disappeared into the thick ruff around my neck, scratching beneath my jaw. My eyes slipped closed, a deep rumble building in my chest until it rolled through me in a powerful purr that seemed to vibrate all the way to the tip of my tail.

My cat leaned into the affection, and with every stroke of Cassian’s hand, I felt safer. My body wasn’t preparing to defend itself. It wasn’t waiting for the next command or anticipating pain. Every instinct told me I was exactly where I was supposed to be. Without thinking, I pressed harder into his hand until he laughed.

“There you are.”

His fingers drifted over the top of my head and between my ears, and I pushed upwards, butting his hand with enough enthusiasm to rock him backward a step.

A warm chuckle escaped him.

“I thought you might do that.”

I did it again and this time I put my whole weight behind it.

He landed on his ass, and his laughter burst out across the mountainside, loud and unrestrained, echoing through the trees until even the silence seemed warmer for hearing it. I’d never heard Cassian properly laugh before and my cat adored the sound.

I made a rough little chuff in response.

Cassian blinked at me. “Don’t you like that noise?”

Before I could decide, I shook my head, sending a spray of powdery snow straight into his face, and he froze for a heartbeat before wiping melting snow from his cheek. I sent him my widest kitten eyes, but he wasn’t falling for it.

“You absolutely meant to do that, menace.” Cassian shook his head, still smiling, before standing and then taking a couple of slow steps backward and slipping his hands into the pockets of his coat.

“So,” he said, amusement dancing in his eyes, “what now?”

I didn’t stop to think.

Thinking belonged to the human part of me that had spent years second-guessing every decision, every movement, and every breath. My cat didn’t hesitate because he didn’t need to. He knew exactly what came next.

I spun away from Cassian and launched myself into the untouched snow.

Power surged through every muscle as though I’d finally remembered how my body was always supposed to work. I covered an impossible distance in a single leap, landed without effort, twisted in mid-stride, and ran again, sending clouds of glittering powder high into the moonlight. I raced in widening circles around the clearing, then threw myself sideways into a drift so deep it swallowed me whole before I exploded back out again, snow cascading from my fur as I bounded away with another burst of energy.