by Lia Connor
He was still naked. He didn’t seem to care. Claws extended to full and frightening sharp length, he whipped to and fro, narrowly examining the milling throng. Gabriella stayed good and out of his way. Beware of cat!
“There!” he bellowed, launching at the door at full human speed. Gabriella followed as fast as she could, not coming close to keeping up but not losing him, either.
Derek plunged for the shadows. Gabriella didn’t understand at first.
Then, she saw that the shadows concealed a shape. A large male shape, pinning down a screaming, kicking human body. The male -- Madre de Dios, Benjamin! -- bled from a deep shoulder wound that could be from nothing but a bullet. Gabriella reacted on pure instinct and flung herself to Benjamin’s side, pulling him to the light almost before she’d landed.
“Don’t,” Benjamin warned, dangerous but not nearly threatening enough to get her to back off. “Prisoner.”
“You’re bleeding!” Lacking anything to press against his wound but her own two hands, Gabriella used those. “Did you get him? The shooter?”
“No.” Benjamin didn’t hide his disgust. “Too fast. Don’t know what he was. I shifted to gain some ground and that’s when he shot me.”
“So who’s this?” Gabriella craned her neck to try and see under Benjamin. “An accomplice?” She couldn’t see the person under Benjamin’s bulk, but hesitated to move him.
Derek had no such patience and shoved Benjamin off. The Catkind panther hit the dirt with a bellow of pain. Ready to scold Derek with all her might and see to Benjamin, Gabriella leaned in --
-- and stopped.
Her heart skipped a beat as she stared, disbelieving, at the shooter’s accomplice. Coarse, tangled black curls and a pixie face set in lines of stark terror stared back at Gabriella. A face she knew very, very well.
“Marnie.” Gabriella reached for her, heartbroken and confused. “Marnie.”
“You know her?” Benjamin had risen on his own accord and held one arm close to his torso. His tail switched angrily, thumping the cobbled pavement of the plaza. “Who is this?”
The dynamics had changed. Gabriella could see, now, exactly what went into making a Prince among the Catkind. Derek had the brazen balls; Benjamin enforced the Alpha’s justice.
Didn’t mean Derek wasn’t pissed enough to bear white lines of anger by his mouth. “Answer the question,” he hissed, bringing his sharp teeth close enough o snap off Marnie’s nose if she displeased him further. “Who are you? Who shot at us? Who wounded my mate? By the Catkind, he will pay, and so will you.”
Marnie sobbed in terror and threw herself at Gabriella. Gabriella wrapped Marnie tight in a hug. She couldn’t have not. Cradling the frightened young woman to her chest, she dealt her Catkind lovers a harsh look of warning. “Marnie’s my sister. She’s not bad,” Gabriella tried to explain. “She’s just… oh.” The penny dropped. “She’s desperate, and she’s afraid. Her boyfriend, Rafael.”
“He, he said he’d kill me if I didn’t turn you in,” Marnie wept. The trembling of her thin arms and legs and the particular type of fear rattling her told Gabriella that Marnie wasn’t lying. “My baby. Rafael would have killed me, and my baby would have died, too.”
Derek and Benjamin exchanged disgusted looks, but didn’t attack Marnie.
“I don’t smell any gunpowder on her,” Benjamin admitted grudgingly. “No oil, no cordite. She’s not the one who fired the gun, not earlier and not now.”
“But this boyfriend of hers did?” Gabriella could tell Derek was gearing up for a wild chase through the night sure to end with his strong jaws ripping the life from a man. She couldn’t feel any sympathy for any such man who’d manipulate a pregnant woman.
“Not Rafael,” Marnie managed to get out between waves of tears. “I don’t know who he was. Rafael, he said he’d gotten a thousand dollars from someone to shoot a Catkind man. He wouldn’t tell me anything else except the killing part.”
“She’s telling the truth.” Gabriella wasn’t sure how she knew, but she did. She rocked Marnie to her breast and hummed soothing words. Inspiration struck. “If Marnie tells you everything -- absolutely everything -- about her no-good boyfriend and the people he knows, the possible shooters, will you promise to protect her?”
Derek stared blankly at Gabriella. She could read his thoughts as clearly as if they’d been shouted in her head -- you must be insane.
“Mate of mine,” Benjamin warned. “This isn’t the way to start our dynasty. Royalty, if that’s what we want to be, has obligations. If she asks for sanctuary…” He let his sentence trail off, the meaning clear.
Gabriella watched Derek wrestle with his pride and need for mindless revenge. “For me,” she pleaded, laying her hand on his bulging arm. “For your Empress.” The title slipped easily from her lips, feeling natural on her tongue.
Derek eyed Gabriella narrowly. “Then you really are promising yourself to us?” he demanded. “For now and for always?”
Gabriella nodded, sure in her decision. The choice could not have been clearer. “I am.” She stood, still hugging Marnie to her bosom. Marnie had almost stopped crying, though she still shook with fear. “I would even if I didn’t want to protect my baby sister. My heart is yours, my body is yours, and my future is with you.” She raised her head and straightened her shoulders, knowing herself to be now and forever afterwards Empress of the new Catkind races.
Benjamin leaned to kiss Derek. His lips trailed along Derek’s mouth, gentling him down from the last remnants of his prickly rage. “We’ll get revenge another day,” he promised. “Right now, we have a world to work with and two women who need us. Come with me, lover. We’ll disappear into the night, and tomorrow we do what we need to.”
Derek crossed his arms. “As long as we stop at Gatos for another Mexican beer first.”
Gabriella burst into giggles. After a disbelieving moment, Benjamin’s lips softened into a smile. “Lunatic.”
“Monarchist,” Derek fired back.
“That’s the pot calling the kettle black.”
“Enough, both of you.” Gabriella kissed first Derek, her fierce warrior, and then Benjamin, her stalwart protector. Her heart thrilled to the amazing thought of the future that lay before them. “Let’s go before the police get here. Someone’s called them by now.”
“Good enough reason to get out of here for me.” Benjamin rotated his shoulder. The bleeding had stopped, and Gabriella could see now that it had only been a graze. He hesitated, then winked at her. “You took Derek for a spin. Want to try your luck with me this time?”
Gabriella thrilled with glee. She’d never get tired of this in particular, would she? “All you ever have to do from here on out is ask.” She watched, heady with pride, as Benjamin morphed smoothly from man to panther. This time, when she mounted up, she managed it nimbly. Benjamin waited until she’d found her seat and wrapped her arms around his neck.
A frightened squeak drew her attention back to Marnie, who stared at Derek in his mountain lion form, her eyes the size of saucers.
“It’ll be all right,” Gabriella promised. “Sit on his back and hold tight.” She kept a careful eye on Marnie and was proud when, after only a brief inner struggle mirrored on her sister’s face, Marnie gamely climbed aboard and found her seat.
“Thank you,” Marnie blurted. “Thank you for helping me.”
“I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of this kind of thing in the future. Don’t ask. I’ll explain later.” Gabriella pressed her heels lightly to Benjamin’s sides. “One stop at Gatos for two bottles of Mocteczuma to go, and then we’re on the move.”
Derek and Benjamin loosed their feline roars of triumph. Exultant giddiness seared Gabriella from the inside out. The Catkind began to run, away from the world of men and into the night.
Gabriella clung to her dark lover and laughed, delighted, all the way.
To Be Continued…
Cat O'Nine 2: Cat's Eye
All Marnie want
s is a good man who’d treat her right. Instead she always seems to end up with losers -- like her latest boyfriend, who nearly got her killed. Now her world’s turned upside-down and inside-out. Her rescuer swears to protect her, and she’s thinking it’s time to take her big sister’s advice, and go after the kind of man who’ll treat her right -- even if he’s not human!
A curly-haired prankster of a Catkind Jaguar, Tracey is more than happy to Marnie gets just what she deserves. Even better, he has a Serval friend, Josh, with a mouth created for sinful delights and a way of making a woman forget all her troubles.
The human’s world? They can keep it. It’s Marnie’s turn to have some fun.
Lia Connor
Lia Connor supposedly lives in the South, but her job takes her almost everywhere but there. Her laptop is her best friend as she travels. She's thrilled to be working with Changeling Press. She loves to write about BBW's, hot, hot, hot threesomes and were-animals. Lia would love to hear from you. You can contact her at [email protected].