Cat fight!

Hackles bristled. A ridge of tawny hair stood from the back of her head down the length of her spine to spread over her ass and down her tail. Claws dug into the ground as she clenched her paws into were-fists. Drool dripped from her muzzle. Nostrils flared and her sinuses were afire with that predator's scent – his scent. A low, savage growl rolled like thunder through her body. Her eyes narrowed to slits, yet her pupils dilated.

Sariah was set to kill.

Yards away, in a wide beam of milky moonlight, she saw him. Not a human, not running upon two feet, but sleek and golden, round ears pinned to his skull and long tail held out for balance as he ran.

A Were-Cat! Sariah's mind reeled, yet her predator instincts flared and she launched from her crouched position.

Kill! Haunches pumped. Kill! Paws pounded the ground. Kill! Claws dug turf.

Foamy spittle flew from her jaws. Huge snorts of air filled her lungs. Short grunts escaped her throat with each pulse of her hind legs as she hurtled toward the one whom had irritated her for so long. Kill! Her bloodlust called. She closed the distance between her and her hunter; now her hunted. His rudder-like feline tail tickled her nose. She snapped her teeth, but missed. One last thrust of body weight, one last lunge and she sank her canine fangs deep into the werecat's tail.

He yowled in pain. She braced her hind legs, snapped her head back and to the side as she made her heavy werewolf body an anchor. She dragged the cat to a halt.

He rolled, and turned in the midst of the curl to rocket from the ground and slam into Sariah's body. His sickle-like claws extended, they pierced into her hide. She returned his yowl. But then turned her head, her muzzle curled in a heinous howl of rage. She struck out with a heavy paw and cuffed him upside the head. He spat and snarled, he roared in rage as she followed the paw strike with a lunge of jaws. Once more she bit into him, this time sinking her jagged teeth into the thick skin beneath his mane, above the lower vertebrae of his neck. She shook her head viciously even as she pushed back and to the side with her legs.

The cat came down. Sariah kicked at him, managing to snag his underbelly with her dew claw before she pinned his body between her muscled hind legs. She smacked at his head, again, her right fore leg slipping in the blood on his neck and then over his shoulder blade. The werecat turned under her cage of canine legs, gathered his limbs beneath himself as he tried to buck and dislodge her. Dark laughter burbled in the blood in her mouth as she took the scruff of his neck in her teeth and rode the big cat's body like a canid harpy from hell.

"Here, Kitty Kitty," she growled over his bloodied flesh in her maw.

The cat ceased to struggle. He collapsed beneath her.

"Sariah?" He mewed.

That voice hit Sariah with a physical forced. She released the fold of his neck, his blood mingled with the foam on her muzzle. Her eyes were wide in shock.

"Stuart?"

The tears which bled from his eyes were answer enough. The love of her life, the werecat whose blood tainted Xander's dominance over her, and the one she thought long slain, lay beneath her. Her heart ached with such a sudden and severe pain that she could not longer hold her canid form. The werewolf body trickled from her. Her ears shrank, her muzzle shortened as the fur fell away to reveal echoed tears upon her own face. One last howl of pain tore at the night, and then Sariah was human and naked beside him once more.

She reached a bloodied hand out to touch his short muzzled snout. "Oh, Stuart… How could this be? Xander killed you…"

"Nay," he grunted in pain. "He tried. My body was dead, it's true; but my heart would not die, not with our love burning there." A muddied paw tapped his chest, above his heart, and then reached for her. Pink hands came up, and caught that paw, turning it so that she might stroke her cheek against it.

Tears fell unchecked from Sariah's amber eyes; they washed the blood from his foot. Her lip trembled. "Stuart…" She whimpered again and again.

"Shhh," he tried to calm her, but the sound was little more than a feline hiss. "Sariah, stop; tears are not necessary. I am here…"