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interested to hear my answer, as was Shahid.
    ―I‘m no one, just another panther.‖
    He nodded. ―And where were you taken from?‖
    ―My apartment.‖
    ―But why?‖ Jamal wanted to know.
    I shrugged.
    ―So.‖ Jamal squinted at me. ―If you‘re no one special, are you
    interested in taking me up on my offer to become a Shu initiate? You
    should; you shift very fast.‖
    It was better than ―very fast,‖ and we both knew it. He was testing
    me to see what I would say. ―I‘d love to try,‖ I said, because I had to. I had
    to reconcile my seamless shift with the passivity of my nature for him, and
    pretending that I didn‘t realize the gift I had would do it. ―I just know that
    my skills are nowhere near the class of a Shu warrior.‖
    Jamal squinted at me, trying to sense the truth. ―We will decide,‖ he
    said finally.
    I had walked right into the trial without even realizing it. I was
    tired—it was the only defense I had. I didn‘t even know uniforms when I
    saw them.
    ―Surely you can shift for us,‖ he baited me.
    It was a test; there was no doubt about it. For me to turn him down
    when he was my only protection was idiotic. ―Of course.‖
    Jamal surged to his feet, yelling for everyone to come close and
    show the initiate, the epheboi, what all of them could already do. This was
    when they were supposed to show me their individual power and skill.
    I watched as the men formed a giant circle before starting to strip. As
    panthers, the idea of being naked was natural to them. I had never shared
    the ease that others did with being naked in a group. I traced my hesitancy
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    back to being nearly beaten to death the first time I had shifted in front of
    others. But now I was expected to strip without a care in front of these
    men, as this was simply part of the trial. I had no choice.
    I watched as one of the men dove into the middle of the floor, and at
    the last minute before he hit the ground, he rolled over and landed on all
    four feet, having shifted in mid-leap into a powerful golden panther. He
    looked more heavily muscled than even my mate. Logan was bigger,
    closer to saber-toothed tiger size, much larger than a male lion, but all this
    man, this member of the Shu, did was train and fight, and the toned
    muscles under golden fur proclaimed that fact. I hoped never to have to
    fight him or any of the others.
    The next man ran forward in a blur of speed, and when he stopped,
    he was suddenly a panther, his change like the flick of a light. They all
    took a turn after that, one after another, each one like a bolt of lightning,
    every one like a jolt or a flash, and there was suddenly a panther where a
    man had been seconds before. Shahid shifted in the blink of an eye, Taj
    just as fast, each and every one of the Shu so breathtaking that I was
    momentarily overwhelmed.
    When all the men who were in the room had transformed for me in
    blurring speed, Jamal came forward to show me the magnitude of his
    control. With each step, he grew and shrank as he crossed the manmade
    circle, man to panther over and over again, back and forth with an ease
    that I had never seen. To see another shifter with that much willpower,
    that much training and concentrated energy, was overwhelming. I had
    never seen anything like him.
    ―Come‖—he smiled at me as he stood in the center of clustered
    panthers one moment and men the next—―show us your gift, Jin Rayne.‖
    I debated quickly about what to do. Speed would not impress them;
    they were all fast. Power held no sway, as all of them were stronger cats
    than me. Only complete mastery of the change would bring forth awe.
    Suppressing my discomfort at being naked in front of them, I stood up and
    let the blanket slide off me and fall to a mound at my feet. I moved around
    the couch, lowering myself to my hands and knees, and then slowly,
    artfully, I began to crawl the length of the room.
    With the slightest movement forward, I let my glossy black fur swim
    over my body, forward and back, like the push and pull of the tide. I could
    change any part of me on command. One eye panther, one eye human, half
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    of my face cat, the other man, the animal in me sliding over my skin,
    appearing and disappearing at will.
    The effect, when I had shown Logan a month ago, had been
    complete silence as he forgot to breathe. It seemed to have the same effect
    on the assembled members of the Shu.
    It was like being at a dance