John Reese had done a lot of things over his lifetime. Some of them he had hated, but accepted that a soldier did what he was told in the defense of his country. He prided himself on his self-control, on doing the right thing whatever the provocation. Until now.
He gritted his teeth, buried his face in the pillow and hung on as Harold Finch dug shrapnel out of his backside. He could hear the distaste, mixed with concern as Harold gently probed his numbed left cheek with a pair of forceps.
"I'm really sorry, John." There was the faintest waver in Jocelyn Carter's voice.
Reese had been hiding a big ass secret his whole life, and this was exactly why it was a secret.
"I am a shifter. S.H.I.F.T.E.R." he spelled out, loudly and clearly, mainly for effect. "Cat. Not dog."
"It was just so unexpected." Added a second voice. This one was less successful in keeping the quiver out of her tone.
Reese's cat fangs throbbed with the need for him to shift and bury themselves in a nice, juicy carotid. Any carotid would do…
He couldn't just do that, he was a soldier protecting life. Every last fibre of his being was holding on to his human shape as hard as possible.
"There you go, Mr Reese."
Using a fine set of forceps Harold's deft fingers whisked the last of the silver buckshot from Reese's naked, quivering ass and gently covered Reese's humiliation with a clean sheet. When this was all over, Reese was going to need a psychiatrist, he was sure of that.
"How's the patient?" the third female voice was depressingly cheerful. Reese closed his eyes and stayed where he was.
"Oh, he's fine." Said the second voice.
"I was perfectly fine until Zoe yelled werewolf and Carter shot me in the ass with a shotgun cartridge packed with silver." Reese grouched, and burrowed deeper into the pillow. "This is why I don't shift." He directed his remark to the pillow he was clinging to, but was pretty certain that Harold interpreted the statement as being for his benefit.
"Besides… werewolf?" He turned his head and shot a steely blue glance at Zoe. She shrugged.
"I was startled."
"So startled that you couldn't tell the difference between a jaguar and a humanoid wolf creature?" John's lower lip formed a line that could only be described as a pout. It was too much for Carter.
There was a sharp intake of breath.
John shot a glare at all three of them. Carter glanced at Zoe, whose shoulders shook, and in turn caught Shaw's eye.
It was enough.
He felt hurt and humiliated, and that was definitely enough. John scrambled out of bed. Shot them all an angry glare, just for good measure, and dropped to all fours.
Carter and Zoe jumped back a little. An angry Reese was one thing, but the black jaguar that stood in his place, that was a whole other thing and they were not certain of their standing.
Only Shaw stepped forward, the huge, beautiful creature was growling, but Shaw knew cats, Reese was angry and irritated, but his instinct in whatever form was to protect.
She crouched down in front of him, and laid a gentle hand on his head. She didn't need to witness the transformation, she could have told anyone that the jaguar in front of her was not from nature. His size for a start, jaguars did not run at two hundred pounds of pure lean muscle: the ReeseCat eyes that were gazing deeply into her own were a silvery blue-gray, not the usual amber. When she had likened him to a barely socialized guard dog, how little did she realize that it was mostly true… she just had the genus wrong.
"This is going to be fun." She whispered. He still looked pissed, but Shaw had the feeling that her words went some way to repairing the damage laughing at him had done.
Shaw straightened up, and ReeseCat circled her to fall into step at heel like a dog.
Oh yes… this was going to be fun!
