Jackie slowly waked as the sun warmed her fur. She felt something missing. She gradually realized that Keith was gone. After relieving herself under a bush (few things brought home the difference between ordinary life and Transformation Park life more than the lack of toilet facilities) Jackie padded to the creek, to drink from its guaranteed pure, clean waters.
Soon the breeze brought Jackie the delicious smell of a male panthermorph. She recognized it immediately--after last night, it would be a long time before she could forget Keith's scent. But the scent was accompanied by another, stronger, one--one that spoke to her hunger.
"Good morning, sweetheart." said Keith. "Look what I brought for you." He held out the headless body of a rabbit.
Jackie's first reaction was to be repulsed. Like a lot of newbie predators, she had fed the first day from the meat offered by Transformation Park staff. Although raw, it had the familiar anonymity of most meat humans consumed in industrial societies. She knew in the abstract that her new body was a hunter's, but she had not really thought about stalking, killing and eating an animal. And of course yesterday gender issues, not species issues, had been at the forefront of her mind.
And yet, the scent of blood and fresh-killed meat was doing things to her, things that were bypassing her conscious mind. Her morning hunger changed from a vague emptiness in her stomach to a ravenous keenness. Jackie remembered her words from last night--fight it and be miserable, or go with it and see what happens. She took the rabbit from her lover's hands--but had no idea how to eat it.
Keith showed her how to use her claws and teeth to get at the meat, and which parts of it were most delicious. The taste was more exciting than any food Jackie had ever eaten as a human. After sharing their breakfast, Jackie and Keith licked the blood from each other's fur. Jackie felt a distinctly erotic, and completely non-human, thrill as Keith's tongue gently but efficiently cleansed her face and neck of the rabbit's blood. What am I becoming, she wondered.