It was a particularly cold morning and the sun had only just risen above the horizon judging by the colors of the sky, Azura couldn’t see it yet as it was still behind the tall mountains in the background. Exhaling resulted in clouds of frozen vapor and she rubbed her hands together more instinctively than that she was cold. The area she found herself in was one she hadn’t been to before. It was in the forest, with the mountains in the background but she stood in a big, wide clearing. Snow coated the ground undisturbed, proving not many came here and It was the perfect spot for what she wanted to do. It was just the hour that rubbed her the wrong way.

An arm snaked around her waist as lips descended onto her neck. Azura tilted her head back, a small moan escaping her mouth as Lucas nipped at her skin. She couldn’t help it but his touch set her body on fire once again and the ache between her legs rose just as fast as it had the other three times.

“You sure you can handle another round, Sunshine?” He teased her as he hugged her from behind.

“Yes…” She couldn’t help but flush red at his suggestion, then shook her head right after. “Or no, actually. I’m pretty sore from all that thumping and being here at this ungodly hour doesn’t help either!”

Lucas laughed and let her go. “Is that a complaint I hear? Did you not enjoy it? ‘Cause I swear I heard you shout several times not to stop... In fact, the last round, you were on top of me and I barely had to do anything. Plus…let’s not forget us being here was your bright idea. I wouldn’t have minded a bit more sleep after that last fuck.”

Azura grabbed the knitted hat off her head and tossed it at him with all her might as she huffed in disagreement. “Yeah well, you had your arms wrapped around me so tight your morning wood was poking into my hip. Can’t waste a perfectly fine boner, and yes, that woke me up. If you weren’t so scared of me running away, we would still be sound asleep in your bed, Jackass.”

“Back to jackass, are we? I’ll take that as a compliment.” He winked at her while looking around for a place to sit. When he looked back at her, Azura was already stripping naked. “Hey! Slow down on the undressing part! It’s not like you can catch a cold and I like the view.”

“This was your idea, mister. Now let me strip and shift and ‘flame up’ as you put it! Just remember, I’m still angry that you refuse to shift.”

She took off her pants and tossed them towards him followed by a snowball which hit him right in the face. Azura chuckled at his surprised face but before he could retaliate she started the process of shifting. Bones cracked and moved underneath her skin. Teeth elongated and sharpened as if it were the most normal thing in the world. As she dropped to the ground on all fours, white fur with black and gray rosettes sprouted from her skin and covered her from head to long tail.

Once the transformation was done, Azura stretched her front paws all the way to the front before shifting her weight and stretching the back paws in a similar fashion. Her mouth opened in a big yawn, flashing all her teeth for the world to see. When she turned her attention back to Lucas he flashed her a wide grin right as he let a giant snowball fly through the air towards her. There was no way she would get hit by it, that was something they both knew, but it never hurt to try.

Azura jumped to the side, the long bushy tail providing balance as she dug her pads into the snow and charged straight towards the still grinning Lucas. The idea to just knock him over edged itself in her brain but at the last moment, she decided against it and skidded to a halt before him before rubbing herself all over him like a normal house cat. A loud purr reverberated from her body as she scent marked the human man before her.

A warm laugh filled the air around them as Lucas sat down on his hunches and buried his hands in her thick rough fur. He smiled at the big cat in front of him before he placed his forehead against hers inhaling her scent.

“Staking your claim by rubbing your scent all over me? That’s your ‘revenge’ for the snowball? Which, by the way, you started. Now that I think about it, you tend to start more things.”

She gave him a playful nudge followed by a very rough tongue going across his cheek. Lucas stumbled back by the action and landed on his rear. He looked stunned for a moment but shook his head as he watched the female snow leopard before him roll over onto her back and stretch her front paws in an invitation to play. She chirped at him and cocked her head to the side waiting for him to react.

“No, I’m not going to play with you!” Azura huffed in disappointment at his rejection but rolled over to her side. Somewhere she was still pleased he had actually recognized her body language.

“Time to get serious, Azu. Let’s see if you can fire yourself up again.”

Lucas got back up and brushed himself off then walked over to a nearby tree and leaned against it while he waved her off to the clearing. Azura got back on four paws and shook her fur before trodding away from him. When she was almost in the middle she stopped, lowered her head, and closed her eyes. She could feel the snow beneath her paws, the muddy ground underneath it. She breathed the fresh cool air, felt the wind blow through her fur. Her tail moved from left to right slowly, the tip sticking up as a small radar. She could feel the heat inside her stir, the flames beginning to emerge. Her mouth opened a little, bearing her canines.

Let's say we put on a little show for him. He deserves it after all.

The flames started in her mouth again as they had last time. Soon her paws were also covered in flames and slowly but surely they crept all over her body like a blanket. With one last power surge, she felt the wings explode from her back. Slowly she moved them one by one at first, stretching and closing them. During the fight with Nathan, she had used them by instinct, allowed the Phoenix to guide her, but now it felt different. She was in full control and even though the wings wouldn’t be able to carry her, they did give her a whole new sense of balance she had to get used to.

The immense power that surged through her body felt amazing. After getting used to her new form, Azura turned around to face Lucas. He was still leaning against the tree, a wide smile of adoration on his face. She started running, first straight, trying to speed up as much as possible with the use of her wings. After, she tried cornering, as fast and tight as possible without losing her balance. Something that she needed a little more practice with as she tumbled and rolled over several times. Every time she did, her wings would disappear for a moment until she was back on her feet again. When she finally got the hang of it, it was clear to herself and to Lucas that she was more agile and faster than anyone else.

As the last bit of exercise, she tried leaping and jumping. She hoped that with the use of her wings, she would be able to go higher and maybe even float a little. She jumped from a high rock several times, sometimes with the wings tucked in and other times with the wings spread wide open and it did make a difference. Flying, however, would be impossible as the wings had no solid matter and would not be able to carry her.

After an hour she was done. Her energy level had withered and she was panting. Being fused like this drained her energy much faster than normal. Something to hold into account whenever she were to use it. She walked over to Lucas who got up from the rock he was sitting on and stopped two meters away from him. She knew the flames wouldn’t burn him, but she had no idea if he knew. She chuffed at him and bowed her head, folding in her wings as well.

"You want me to touch you? Like this? Are you crazy?!" He chuckled a little as he guessed but she could smell he was a bit afraid. Azura chuffed again and took two steps closer.

"What are you doing, Azu." He watched her suspiciously as she slowly crept closer. "You're still on fire... Stay there."

Right as he said it, she closed the distance between them and moved her head lower so his hand was resting on top of it. She felt him stiffen up but he did not move or back away. He was shocked as he felt her fur beneath his fingers, the flames around his hand. It gave a small tingle but it did not hurt at all.

He had been holding his breath as soon as she came to him and now slowly he exhaled, his heart racing. Slowly he stroked her head, amazed at the effect that it had. The flames rippled past his hand like water. Azura started to purr and moved around his legs until she was standing on the other side of him. He scratched behind her ears and couldn't help but smile as some of the flames slowly crept up his arm like branches from a vine.

Both their faces shot in the same direction at the same time. Lucas retracted his arm at the same time Azura jumped away from him but the flames around his arm stayed. A sharp and heavy pain erupted from his lower arm as Azura let her flames wither away. Lucas's eyes grew wide as the burning sensation intensified and he buried his lower arm in the snow. He rolled up his sleeve and cooled his arm down with the cold ground.

Azura had run off and returned moments later in human form and fully dressed. She’d felt it, the sting had gone right through her, but the scent that they both had caught had made her ignore it. It had made her forget to douse the flames while they were passive. As she saw Lucas hunched over in the snow, she ran over and dropped down next to him.

"I'm sorry! The smell caught me off guard! I didn't know it would burn you!" Lucas just grunted and pulled his arm from the snow.

He examined his clothes but they seemed perfectly fine before he turned his attention to his actual injury. Slowly he rotated it around till the inner arm was facing up. He blinked a few times as goosebumps erupted over his skin. A strange heat was still present as he watched deep red lines form and crawl on his flesh. It was almost as if they were performing a slow dance.

"What the hell..." Lucas traced it with his fingers and flinched as the burning again intensified as the red lines stopped flowing. He groaned in pain and clutched his arm to his chest. It lasted only a short moment before the pain subsided completely. "What’s going on, Azu? This is no normal burn!"

"I don't know, but I do know that we have company." She hissed at him and slowly got up.

Lucas quickly rolled down his sleeve and got up as well looking in the same direction that had gotten their attention earlier. Still far away two moving figures appeared. One a snow leopard and the other a man. They made their way over, moving slow and with their heads tilted down a bit. The man had his hands in constant view while the snow leopard next to him swept his tail side to side in a relaxed manner.

They were like her. Azura gasped as the realization hit her. The way the snow leopard moved, the size of it, and the eye color of both of them told them everything they needed to know. The man was as tall as Azura with brown curled hair pulled to the back in a man bun. He was thin but through the thick layer of clothes, you could still see he was strong. She guessed him to be around ten years older than herself. The snow leopard was a fraction bigger than herself when she was one. He still matched the normal size for a true snow leopard but she knew he was a shifter too. Azura clenched her fists as they came to a stop a respectable distance away from them.

"Hello, Azura and...partner." His steel-blue eyes betrayed no emotion but the man’s light voice did all the more. He was clearly amused but there was no hint of threat in there.

"How do you know my name?" Azura barked right back at him. Hearing him say her name had startled her and the only way she knew to react was to be on the offense. Lucas grabbed her wrist and pulled her back a little before stepping forward himself.

"Who are you and what do you want?" Unlike Azura, Lucas was calm and tried his best to give his voice a sense of authority. "You’re trespassing so you better have a good reason for coming here."

"Don't worry." The man in front of them began to speak again focusing mostly on Azura. "My name is Killian and this here is Zahair." He pointed to the snow leopard at his feet. "We've only come to invite you back to our lands, Azura. It's been too long and you have become quite a woman. I still remember the day you were born as if it was yesterday."

Azura stiffened at his words. Any response seemed to flee her brain making her just gape at them without actually saying something. When Killian had pointed at the snow leopard Zahair, she had focused on him briefly but quickly had forgotten about him as she frowned at the man she apparently should remember. Her mind drew a blank though, no matter how hard she tried.

A hand at the small of her back made her snap her head at Lucas who had stepped next to her.

“What do you want? Isn’t it enough that you guys killed one of our own? Now you want Azura to come to you guys too?!”

Killian kept his calm as he changed his focus from Azura to Lucas. "I'm sorry about your friend but he overstepped some boundaries and attacked first. He actually stayed with us for quite some time after getting lost and all went well until a rather...unfortunate event. He attacked and we had no choice but to defend."

Azura and Lucas exchanged looks. With the little information he had shared, her mind was already spinning. He wanted her to come back to the place she was born? He had known her from birth so he probably also knew her mother and possibly her father. The names didn’t ring a bell but she was barely past two and a half years old when she was found and adopted. Too young to have actual memories of her prior life. She bit her lip and lowered her head for a moment.

"You had no right to kill him the way you did." Lucas's voice snapped her out of her thoughts again.

"As I said, it was a rather unfortunate event.” Killian hesitated a bit, his eyes darting down to Zahair for just a millisecond before meeting with Lucas again. “We didn't want it to happen the way it did but we had no choice. He was young, like the one that he challenged. He made a mistake and angered one of our youngsters and as you might know... We can get a little out of control. Especially when we're young. The one who killed him has been punished according to his crimes. You will have to take my word on that."

Killian seemed unfazed by the whole incident but he was clearly done with the topic at hand and switched back to Azura. "We want to welcome you back to our home, where you belong. Seeing as how you've managed to live alongside them for so long without incident, there might be a way to reunite our kinds with you as a leading aspect." Killian gestured at Lucas before continuing. "You can even bring your...partner along with you. We won't harm him. Maybe this is the time our species comes together and rekindled. It's an invitation. Think it over."

Azura managed to find her tongue again and spoke up. “How did you know where to find me? And why now?” She tried to sound indifferent but couldn’t hide the small tremor in her voice.

Killian chuckled and pointed down at Zahair. “He found you. A little over a year ago, I think. It was an accident but he was out on a walk and noticed you walking on a lake as a snow leopard.”

The incident rang a bell in her head as the memories flooded back. She remembered the lake, remembered rolling around on the ice before a sound had sparked her interest. She remembered the blue-eyed snow leopard staring back at her from a distance.

“We didn’t know it was you just yet so we had sent out some patrols to try and find out. After we verified, the next challenge was catching you alone…” Killian glanced over at Lucas. “Or as alone as possible. That proved to be more difficult than we thought but here we are. Think about our offer. We would like to see you return again.”

The sudden movement at Killian’s feet startled Azura as she glanced at the snow leopard who turned around and walked off. Killian gave them a curt nod and turned around as well.

"Wait!" Azura reached out and as the two blue-eyed shifters turned around she dropped her arm. Killian turned in such a manner as if he were waiting for this to happen, a small smile on his lips, while Zahair just glanced back for a moment and slowly started walking away.

"Where do we go? And how do I know you're speaking the truth?" The smile on the thin man’s face grew.

"You have to trust me, I guess. But let's say I have noticed you are no longer wearing the ring your mother gave you. I hope you still have it. There should be an inscription in the ring. The date she and your father first met. To find us, just go to Norbury and head up in the mountains from there. We will find you. Just know the invitation is just for the two of you. If you bring anyone else we will see it as an act of war." He turned back around and walked away leaving the two of them behind. Neither Azura nor Lucas moved until Killian and Zahair were out of sight.

"Now what?" Azura turned to Lucas, a pained expression on her face.

"Please tell me you don't trust them." Lucas still kept his eyes on the horizon as if he was waiting for an army to start attacking them.

"I don't! But they know me! They know where I come from... I might even have some family left there. How else was he able to know my name and know about the ring?" She bit her lip again and buried her nails into the palm of her hands. Her voice became quiet. "What if he is speaking the truth? What if I go there and I’m able to negotiate something between our species. We're all snow leopards..."

Lucas moved to her front and gently grabbed her hands as he placed a kiss on her forehead. "He invited us. He gave us no time limit or date, it was only an invitation. Norbury is not that far, we have time to think it over. I know your head is full right now, but we do need to head home because we have some more explaining to do to the rest. While you were exploring your ‘flamey’ side, I gave everyone a call if they could meet with us later. It’s time we tell them what we discussed last night." He wrapped her in a hug. "Oh, and I will get my revenge on you for burning me."

She couldn't help but laugh as he switched topics like a pro. He let her go and she rolled up the sleeve on his right arm. There was a barely visible red mark that resembled a flaming feather. The same that Nora had on her arm in her vision. Azura traced the outline of it and smiled as she looked up at him.

"I guess you've got a tattoo now." She murmured.

Lucas just stared at it bewildered and lowered his vest and coat over it again. "Marked by a phoenix... Wonderful... Here I am thinking only those werewolves mark each other."

"What? Werewolves don't mark each other dude! That only happens in stories and fairytales. Get your facts straight." She shoved him in the side with a big grin.

“They don’t?” Lucas looked genuinely confused. “Then what about the whole mate thing? Didn’t you say that Floyd and Nora were mates?”

Azura cocked her head to the side as she placed her hands in her hips. “You really don’t know? You’ve been to Greenwood for crying out loud! Werewolf territory! And you’re telling me you really thought they marked and mated for life?! Which books have you been reading?” She started to laugh as he crossed his arms.

“Alright fine, I’ll explain...as we’ll walk home.”

Azura dug her hands into the pockets of her coat and started heading back while she started talking. “Yes, Nora and Floyd were mates. That’s what it’s called when two werewolves start a relationship. There is an actual bond between them which does grow, but it’s an emotional bond and they can choose their own mate. It’s not a soulmate, not the other half of you, and they can break up and start other relationships without a problem. The marking and soulmate crap is a thing humans made up for their own tales. It’s a myth. Floyd and Nora were a strong couple. They knew each other since they were little and their ‘so-called’ mate bond was quite strong because of that. Floyd being a tad possessive, and his general dislike of anything other than a werewolf is what made him have a thing against me.”

The change of topic had lightened the mood as they walked back home but Killian’s invitation still lingered in her mind. Not just his invitation if she was honest. The longer they walked, the quieter she became till she was completely silent and just stared absentmindedly at the path in front of them. Lucas shot some glances her way but kept his mouth shut as he noticed the frown between her eyebrows. Instead, he just took her hand in his and entwined their fingers while his thumb gently rubbed the back of her hand in a soothing manner. Azura glanced up at him and her features relaxed immediately when he shot her his signature smile.

‘“You think they saw me all flamed up?” She bit her lip and dug the nails of her free hand into her palm.

“If they did, they did remarkably well hiding it. I highly doubt it, Azura. They were upwind and we managed to smell them out before we saw them. I’d say you're safe.” He gave her hand a small squeeze which she returned as she went silent again.