She was relieved that Gonzales couldn’t come after her any longer. But most of all, if they could make it home without her shifting, she was looking forward to being home, somewhere she could settle down with a man who would be her husband and his sister who would also be her own.
The call for boarding began, and with some trepidation, Kat strode to the back of the plane where their seats were located.
The problem with the seating in the back was that the location of the restrooms make it a heavy traffic area. Also, the seats didn’t recline, and they were narrower. But still, there were no seats behind them, and the remaining seats in the last row were empty. So Connor and Kat took the window and aisle seats on the right side of the plane, and Maya had the aisle seat on the left side.
Because the plane took off at midnight and the flight was only five hours, the lights were turned down low, and pillows and blankets offered. Then everyone settled down to sleep. Hopefully no one would get up in the middle of the night to use the restroom, in the event that Kat shifted.
Of course, she would have to shift. It was inevitable.
Connor knew they wouldn’t be safe until he had Kat in his Suburban at the Houston airport and they were well on their way home. But three hours into their flight, when he saw her pull her blanket onto her lap and heard her unzipping her pants underneath the soft brown fabric, he knew the worst was about to happen.
She didn’t look panicked in the least, just resigned to making the most of it. And for that, he was proud of her. He looked up to see that the flight attendants were seated and no one was moving about in the cabin. Everyone was asleep.
Maya was soon alerted to Kat’s difficulty as Kat pulled her blanket higher and wriggled out of her shirt and bra.
Connor and Maya watched Kat to see her progress and kept an eye on the walkway in case anybody began to move about the cabin. The thrum of the plane’s engines seemed almost as noisy as the jungle as Kat sat next to the window, her blanket up to her neck. She wasn’t shifting.
Was it like before? When she was in the tree and couldn’t shift? That could be a good thing.
Snuggling under the blanket, she smiled at him and Maya, then closed her eyes. He pulled Kat down so she rested her head in his lap and made sure his blanket and hers covered her nakedness sufficiently. He even drifted off, but twenty minutes later, he felt her shift, felt the weight of her body and the size of her head increase, the change in the way she breathed, kind of a purring sound.
Maya was watching Kat, too, but they couldn’t do anything about it. They had one hour and forty minutes left before they landed. The announcement would be made before that and passengers would begin to stir. Refreshments would be served. Tray tables replaced, seat belts refastened. And then the descent.
They had maybe one hour left before all that came to pass. After that, if Kat still hadn’t shifted, they were in trouble.
Kat felt more comfortable sleeping on the seats, her head in Connor’s lap, while she dreamed of marrying Connor in a superquick and simple way. She didn’t need Connor to make a fancy proposal. She certainly didn’t want any huge wedding when she didn’t know anyone. Nor could she comfortably have a large wedding where she suddenly might shift while walking down the aisle in a gown fit for a princess.
She needed to say she would marry him, though.
She stretched out, realized she wasn’t extending her human limbs, and her eyes popped open. Omigod, how did she shift again without knowing it?
She lifted her head and looked up at Connor. He leaned down and kissed her furry muzzle.
“I love you, you know?” he said, smiling.
She shook her head, not believing he didn’t mind. Why hadn’t she had any prior warning before shifting? Automatically, she tried to sit up.
“Stay down, honey,” he whispered, and she realized it would be easier for him to cover up what she was if she continued to lie on the seats.
She really had thought it would be like the time in the tree when she didn’t shift. She wanted to pace, hoping she would shift before it was too late. Connor and Maya were keeping their cool, acting as though it was no big deal and that everything would work out as it was supposed to. But she couldn’t help the anxiety racing through her blood.
The noise of the engines droned on as the cabin remained dark, the sky black outside the windows, the passengers sleeping, and no one walking down the aisle to use the restroom.
For the moment, she felt safe. Furry and bigger, rebellious in a small way, and even amused in an alarmed sort of way. She knew that if anyone found her like this, she and Maya and Connor would be in real trouble.
She began telling herself that it was time to shift now. Then she heard someone moving along the aisle, headed for the bathroom. Connor immediately covered her head with Maya’s blanket.
Now she was hot. She listened for the door to the restroom to open, shut, the toilet to flush, the door to open, shut, and the passenger to move back down the aisle. When she figured he had moved far enough away—she could tell by his hefty cologne that the passenger was a male—Connor pulled the blanket off her. She was panting.
As a naked human, the blankets had been perfect. But in her jaguar coat, she definitely didn’t need them.
Another passenger headed down the aisle, and Kat gave a muffled groan. A creaky serving cart made its way to the back of the plane. So not good. Announcements that refreshments were being served and that the plane would soon be descending made Kat’s heart pound with increased concern. As another passenger drew near, Connor covered Kat’s head again.
Okay, shift! Even if she did manage to shift, then what? She would be trying to get dressed while people were making their way to the bathroom for their morning pit stop.
“Anything to drink?” the flight attendant asked.
“Orange juice,” Connor said. “Two.”
Now why would he do that? It would mean bringing down the seat-back tray, and she would have even more difficulty trying to shift and change.
But when the cart was in the aisle, the flight attendant told a passenger, “If you’ll wait until we’re done serving snacks, you can move about the cabin then.”
Good. The cart was moving back up the plane’s aisle away from them, and the passengers would be blocked from…
Another passenger headed for the restroom. Oh, yeah, except for all the seats that had already been served and were now on this side of the cart.
Kat thought she would die from heat exhaustion. Cats didn’t sweat, so the only option for her was to pant and wish she could go for a swim to cool off.
Next came the announcement for the pickup of trash, setting trays in their upright position, pulling seat backs forward from the reclining position, and refastening seat belts. At least everyone was seated and not coming to the back anymore. But the worst was that she felt the plane descending.
Connor had again removed the blanket from her head, but she was still feeling terribly hot when the plane landed with a thud. Her heart hit the pavement, too, as she realized she wasn’t going to make it in time to shift and dress.
She tried to sit up, the natural instinct to see what was going on. But Connor encouraged her to keep her head down.
The plane was still taxiing toward the airport.
Shift. Shift.
The plane came to a halt. Oh, God, everyone was going to look over their seat backs and see her.
But no one was in the seats directly in front of theirs, and as soon as the Fasten Seat Belt light went off, people were busy standing and getting their bags from the overhead bins. The place was chaos, and no one could see her in the farthest seat back. Maya was standing with her bag and Kat’s, blocking the aisle in front of the last row of seats.