Port in a Storm

By K.L. Noone

Colin is not having the best time lately, being a runaway shifter with a less than stellar reputation, hiding beneath a car in the pouring rain hoping to evade the angry warlock looking for him.

David's had a long day. Being the local white witch and healer is a worthwhile occupation, but it's rarely an easy one.

When he spies a stray kitten under his car, he figures he'll be able to rescue at least one living thing that night ...

• Language: English
• Publisher: JMS Books LLC
• Release date: Aug 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781646560400

K.L. Noone

K.L. Noone loves fantasy, romance, cats, far too sweet coffee, and happy endings! She is also the author of Port in a Storm and its upcoming sequel, available from Less Than Three Press, and numerous short romances with Ellora’s Cave and Circlet Press; her fantasy fiction has appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword and Sorceress anthologies. With her Professor Hat on, she teaches college students about Shakespeare and superhero comics, and has published academic articles and essays on Neil Gaiman’s adaptations of Beowulf, Welsh mythology in modern fantasy, and Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels.

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Port in a Storm

By K.L. Noone

Published by JMS Books LLC

Visit jms-books.com for more information.

Copyright 2019 K.L. Noone

ISBN 9781646560400

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Cover Design: Natasha Snow

Image(s) used under a Standard Royalty-Free License.

All rights reserved.

WARNING: This book is not transferable. It is for your own personal use. If it is sold, shared, or given away, it is an infringement of the copyright of this work and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without permission in writing from the publisher, with the exception of brief excerpts used for the purposes of review.

This book is for ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It may contain sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which might be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/or are used fictitiously, though reference may be made to actual historical events or existing locations. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Published in the United States of America.

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For all lovers of cats, magic, and happy endings.

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Port in a Storm

By K.L. Noone

Rain. Rain and grimy city streets and cars.

Cars were the worst, Colin Rue decided. He could hate cars. They splashed through puddles and sent waves across already soaked kitten fur. Cars were terrible.

The latest minivan, not caring what one drenched feline shapeshifter thought of it, made a right turn at the base of the hill. Water fountained up. Colin stared at the street, which was busy being an ocean. Rain dripped onto his head.

He could’ve become human. He could’ve escaped like that. In human form.

He would’ve been naked, and scared, and shaken to the core.

He was all of those anyway. For a fleeting second, he heard a warlock’s laugh, felt a hand caressing his head—

No. He’d run. He’d gotten out of his collar, and he’d run.

Colin hid behind a dilapidated rosebush and peeked at street signs and tried to think only about the next move, the next breath, staying free.

He didn’t even know where he was. Los Angeles, or a dependency thereof. Southern California, anyway. He’d been running for hours; he knew he was out of the heart of the city, away from a tasteless lurid sky-view penthouse and diamonds at his throat and lazy commands. But he didn’t know where he’d ended up. Some neighborhood. Suburbia. Roughly middle-class homes with their matching level of care given to appearance. Rose bushes.

Street signs weren’t designed for people of feline height. He spared a moment to add those to the list of terrible things. Street signs and cars.

Himself. His choices.

No, he told himself again, firmly. You got out. You did get out. You’re Colin Rue, descendent of one of the original twelve shapeshifter families, you once had the North American Arch-Mage offering to buy you drinks and sweep you off your feet. You can handle this. You can handle anything.

That kind of thinking had, of course, led him here: hiding in kitten shape, naked and scared and shaken, as he’d already admitted to the rosebush.

The storm got worse. Lightning. Hail. Unseasonably angry thunderclouds. Colin Rue, who knew exactly why the lightning, inched back into leaves and branches.

He didn’t want to. He didn’t even mean to. He couldn’t help it.

He knew he couldn’t handle anything. He couldn’t do anything. He