"What a show, folks! What a show indeed! Twin sisters reunited in tigerhood!" Professor Lupo shouted triumphantly into the roaring crowd. Julie and Joy relaxed their embrace to turn back to the audience. Neither were afraid of the attention anymore, and that was quite a good thing, since by this point the bleachers in the small tent were filled with almost fifty attendees. "Tigers are fiercely protective of their loved ones. A tiger cub doesn't leave its mother until its second year, you know."
He began listing some odds and ends of tiger trivia while Joy and Julie leaned against each other, basking in the literal glow of the spotlight.
"It's so warm, but I'm not hot," Joy whispered to Julie. "Why is that?"
Julie was purring along with her tiger twin. "Dunno, but it feels great, so don't question it."
In his wanderings about the front of the stage, Lupo was approaching the girls and mentioning something about heightened senses. Julie had stopped listening a while ago. She'd heard it all before, but the relative newbie Joy was hanging on every word, practically absorbing it into her fur. Julie finally was forced to pay attention when Lupo slid right behind them and dug his hands into their curly locks. Before they could turn their heads halfway around, his fingertips hooked underneath the black tips of their human-shaped ears and scritched the light coat of fur there. Surprise melted away from both girls to be replaced by succulent delight.
"One particularly important lesson, folks: never sneak up on a tiger unless you know their sweet spots." He dug further in to reach the skin. Julie's knees felt weak. "They're very keen on guarding their territory and they don't play well with others... unless they want to be played with. Isn't that right, girls?"
"Umm... mm-hmm..." They mewled in unison. They weren't exactly sure if he was right about tigers in general, but it seemed to work for them.
Lupo smiled confidently. "But don't let the ease at which I've tamed these beauties fool you, dear audience. These humanoid tigresses are much wilder than they appear. Were these ladies not distracted, they'd have heard me coming before I was even in arm's reach, fingernails bared, ready to claw at me if I so much as made a threatening stare."
Vague thoughts filtered through the twins' minds along with his message. Julie imagined a time when a classmate had cornered her at her locker, insisting on a date. If she'd stood up for herself then--kicked him in the kneecap and scooted off--she'd have been spared being groped at the movies. Similar ideas played out in Joy's mind. The girls looked at each other, foreheads touching. They narrowed their eyes and smiling knowingly.
Lupo's fingers finally retreated and he slid his hands gently down each girl's outer arm before stepping aside. "You'd be lucky never to find yourself the subject of their ire, I can tell you that. They carry all the instincts of a savage beast and the cunning of human intellect in one alluring package. In the wilds of the urban jungle, they're the lords and everyone is their prey."
Joy rubbed her temple. The more Lupo droned on, the harder her brain pounded. Her thoughts were jumbling up. Julie groaned. She'd been thinking about going for drinks after this, but images of prime ribs appeared next to her Mai Tais and whiskey sours. A punk invaded her daydream to steal her purse. She saw herself chase after him, tackle him to the ground and claw his eyes out. Onstage, she snarled in delight.
"But lest you think violence is all these tigresses are capable of," Lupo continued, "I should remind you of one other priority all beasts have..." He paused until the audience was leaning forward in the bleachers. His smile flared. "...the need to mate."
"Uhnn...," the twins muttered in unison. They clutched each other to keep from falling to the stage floor. Now their sex was pounding as hard as their heads. Joy gripped Julie's hand tightly. "Hhhow is he doing this?"
"I-I-I don't know..." Julie stammered. She shut her eyes tight and tried to think, but her thoughts about the other points where she'd transformed kept getting interrupted by flashes of studs sitting at the bar next to her, admiring her stripes. "It's... never worked like this befffore. To trigger, y-you'd need to... to say..." Were the studs bare naked? When did the stage lights get so hot?
As the audience started to notice the girls writhing, almost grinding against each other, Lupo tried to steal back some of their attention. "Apologies, folks. It seems I've reminded our guests a little too much of their primitive instincts! Now that we've convinced both girls to embrace their inner tigress, they're somewhat more open to my magic's...persuasion."
Julie gritted her teeth. So he was still an ass, that was good to know. She felt her heat getting under control. Joy seemed to be struggling. She wrapped a leg around Julie's. Julie tried to temper her purring long enough to be heard clearly. "It'll be okay. Just stop believing what he says."
Joy's eyelids fluttered around halfway open. "B-but...I don't want to. I... I like it." Julie wanted to be mad, but she knew she couldn't. She liked the sound of it, too.