My Tail Appeared in Front of My Rival

After twenty-three years of being single, my parents finally told me the truth.

Actually, they forgot to tell me.

There is a difference.

I found out the hard way.

By growing a tail in my childhood rival’s bedroom.

My head felt heavy, like I had a fever. My limbs were weak. My throat burned. When I forced my eyes open, Liam Blackwood’s face was hovering above mine.

Oh.

Crap.

I remembered now.

I had come here to pick a fight.

Liam frowned when he saw I was awake and moved back slightly.

“You alive?” he asked. “Try not to die in my room.”

I opened my mouth to insult him.

Nothing came out.

My throat felt scraped raw.

After several pathetic attempts, I managed one word.

“Water…”

Maybe my dying-duck voice offended his ears, because Liam stood and brought me a glass.

I drank like I had crossed a desert.

Only after finishing did I realize he was staring at me.

We spoke at the same time.

“You—”

Liam stopped first.

Then, in the calmest voice imaginable, he asked,

“Are you a monster?”

My soul almost left my body.

“You’re the monster! Your whole family are monsters!”

Something tickled beneath me.

I shifted.

It tickled again.

Something furry was trapped under my hip.

I reached back and grabbed it.

Soft.

Long.

Fluffy.

Before my brain could function, my mouth ran ahead.

“Liam, when did you get a cat?”

Pain shot up my spine.

I froze.

Very slowly, I looked down at the fluffy thing in my hand.

It was attached to me.

To me.

My tail.

I screamed.

Then I launched myself at Liam.

Not gracefully.

Not bravely.

Like a panicked squirrel with a human body.

“What is that? What is that? Liam, stop messing with me!”

He caught me by reflex, one hand under my thighs, the other braced around my waist.

Unfortunately, that meant his palm closed around my tail.

A strange sensation shot straight through me.

I went stiff.

“Wait,” I choked. “My butt feels weird. Let go first.”

My eyes were full of tears, but his face was right there.

Too close.

Every breath he took brushed my cheek.

I suddenly remembered something deeply unfair.

Liam Blackwood had always been good-looking.

Everyone said so.

When we were children, adults said he looked prettier than me.

When we grew older, they said he had better grades too.

The real reason he became my sworn enemy was simple.

In kindergarten, the boy I liked had liked Liam.

Yes, that boy eventually stopped liking Liam after finding out Liam was also a boy.

But the damage was done.

My charm, my personality, my beautiful soul—they had all been insulted.

Since then, bothering Liam had become one of my favorite hobbies.

Liam, unfortunately, rarely reacted.

That made it worse.

Now here I was, crying in his arms with a tail in his hand.

My majestic image was dead.

“I’m not a monster,” I said shakily. “I don’t want to be taken away and experimented on.”

His throat moved.

“Get off me first.”

“Oh.”

I climbed down obediently and stood on the bed, head lowered, fingers twisting the hem of my shirt.

Behind me, my tail drooped too.

Apparently, my tail was more honest than my face.

Liam looked at me for a moment.

Then, unexpectedly, he reached out and patted my head.

The cat ears I had not noticed until that moment flattened under his palm.

His mouth twitched.

Then he rubbed one ear between his fingers.

A shiver ran down my spine.

It felt—

No.

Absolutely not.

I slapped his hand away.

“Don’t touch the evidence.”

“The evidence?”

“My ears!”

Liam’s face was unreadable.

Then he said,

“You really are a cat.”

I wanted to roar.

What came out was very small.

“Meow.”

Silence.

Liam stared.

I stared.

Then I fainted.