Matt snorted. “Yeah right, you saved our butts and I think that, that clearly said that you didn’t want anything to do with them.”
“Matt is right Cayla, we don’t just hate tigers because of what they are, we tend to hate them because of who they are and we knew you well enough before you became one to know that you are nothing like them.” Mark said.
“But I was totally shocked when you turned out to be that tiger.” Andrew admitted.
I snorted. “And I was shocked when I looked down and had stripy paws.”
“At least croc’s story explained why I couldn’t find you in a shifter family line if yours was hidden.” Mark said. “It might have been easier to guess if I hadn’t thought your hair was dyed.”
I frowned. “What does my hair have to do with anything?”
“All tigers have naturally highlighted hair, it’s something to do with the stripes. A lot of them have it dyed to one colour so they aren’t so recognisable.” Dom explained.
“Apparently it used to be a way to identify them, but then humans started highlighting their hair and you never could tell.” Matt said.
“Oh, well, yeah my hair has always been this colour.” I said.
“Where did croc go by the way?” Dom asked.
Matt shrugged. “He took off not long after you guys left. He said he was going to find a hotel for the night.”
“How did your shifting go?” I asked Andrew.
He smiled and shrugged. “Painful you?”
I snorted. “I thought I was dieing, why did no one tell me it was painful?”
Mark chuckled. “There wasn’t really any reason to tell you since we didn’t think you’d be turning.”
“I wondered what the hell was going on and then my stupid tiger kept trying to make me chase things, what the hell is that about?”
“It’s just instinct.” Mark explained. “They like to hunt and I’m surprised you could resist it to be honest.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t stop myself.” Andrew confessed. “The minute I shifted I bolted for the trees, but that was when the tigers arrived.”
“It was only because I wanted to get to you guys so quickly. I knew you were in danger.”
“How would you possibly know that? Matt asked.
I frowned. “Beats me.”
Next second Owen and James ran over to us, James in human form and Owen in cat form.
“The arrows are poisoned!” James shouted before he even reached us.
Matt rolled his eyes. “We already figured that out bro.”
James gave a satisfied smirk when he reached us. “And I suppose you have an antidote too.”
Matt groaned. “No, but neither do you.”
“Oh, but I do.” James grinned.
“You do?” I asked quickly.
“Don’t lie.” Matt said ignoring me completely.
“I do.” James said holding up a little bottle.
Matt reached for it, but James was too quick. “Where did you get that?” He asked.
James grinned again. “Just admit it bro, I am more awesome than you.”
Matt looked shocked. “No way.”
“Dom, if I die before they give me that antidote please kill them both.” I muttered to him.
“James, how about handing over the antidote?” Dom asked him.
The pair of them ignored us as they continued to argue and I wasn’t sure if it was in my head, but I was sure I was starting to feel the affects of the poison. My vision was blurring and my body felt weak making me slump against Dom.
“Cayla, you ok?” Dom asked.
I nodded. “Think so.”
“James, if you don’t give me that antidote now then so help me…” He growled leaving the sentence open so that we could only imagine what he would do to him.
James seemed completely oblivious to the threat though as he continued to bicker with Matt. Dom looked as if he was barely controlling his anger so Andrew walked over to the brothers and shouted.
“Antidote now!”
“Oh, right.” They said at the exact same time before James handed the antidote to Andrew who then gave it to Mark.
Mark handed it to me and I frowned. “What do I do with it?”
He looked at me as if I was asking a stupid question before saying. “You drink it.”
I eyed up the green slimy looking liquid in the bottle. “Really?”
“What did you think you would do with it?” Dom asked.
“I don’t know, maybe sprinkle it on my injuries?” I asked hopefully.
Dom smiled at me. “Just drink it, it will be over before you know it.”
I sighed, unscrewed the lid and poured it down my throat. I almost choked it straight back up, but somehow managed to swallow the revolting stuff. It tasted so bad and lingered in my mouth making me have to resist the urge to wipe my tongue. The worry about the taste in my mouth suddenly disappeared as the pain in my shoulder and stomach slowly began to lessen.
I sat up quickly before examining my injuries and grinned when I realised they were all gone.
“That feels better.” I said before lying down on the grass and stretching out all the aches and pains until I felt back to normal if I wasn’t including how tired I was.
“Well, I’ll meet you lot back at the house.” Mark said standing up. “I need to let Denise know that we don’t need the antidote now.”
“Ok, well I’m staying here the night.” I answered with a yawn.
Dom groaned. “Well, I guess I am too since she seems to actually attract wolves.”
I smirked. “I’m a tiger now and super healing, I can take care of myself.”
“All that and yet you still managed to get shot by poisoned arrows that you just don’t happen to be able to heal from.” Matt chuckled.
“Shut up.” I muttered.
“Well, I’m off home.” James said.
The others said bye and I called. “See you at work.” As he turned to leave. He waved a hand in response before he turned into a panther and loped away into the forest.
Owen left with Mark, but Matt, Andrew and Dom stayed with me.
There were a few minutes of silence as the guys sat on the grass close to me before I finally asked.
“So, how long do you think it will be until the tigers come to kill me?”
“What are you talking about girl?” Andrew asked. “Croc said that they were going to try to use you, they can’t do that if they kill you.”
I sighed. “Yeah, but I also ran in here attacked one of the tigers, then saved you lot and then killed a tiger. I would think that was a pretty clear statement as to whose side I’m on.”
Matt groaned. “Do you have to keep saying you saved us? It’s bad for my ego knowing I was saved by a girl.”
“Just imagine how bad it would be for your ego if you were locked in a cage doing chores for the tigers.” I muttered.
“She does have a point.” Dom said.
Matt just shrugged in response.
“And Cayla, we are not going to let those evil striped cats kill you.” Andrew said.
I chuckled and Matt asked. “Evil striped cats, really?”
Dom laughed before he said. “Andrew is right you know.”
I shook my head. “That isn’t what I’m worried about, I’m more worried about the fact that they now know I am with the panthers, which means they will come after you guys.”
“We are more than a match for those pussies now that we can go all super grow on them.” Matt said with a grin.
I groaned. “You’re impossible Matt.”
Dom laughed as Matt started flexing his muscles and I couldn’t stop myself from joining in when Andrew gave in too. I was rolling about on the grass near the edge of the lake as I tried to stop the giggles from coming out of my throat. They died in my throat abruptly and turned to a scream when I rolled towards the lake and came face to face with huge yellow eyes and big pointy teeth.
“Alligator!” I yelled jumping away from the edge on
ly to fall over again.
“Actually, I’m a crocodile, Alligators have wider snouts.” Croc said as he returned to human form on the grass.
“Dammit, you scared the hell out of me!” I gasped punching his leg from the ground.
The other three were in renewed fits of laughter at my reaction to him and my heart was still going a million beats an hour as I took deep breaths to recover.
“Man, I thought you were going to book into a hotel.” Matt panted being the first to stop laughing.
He shrugged. “That was the plan, but I then realised I had no wallet so I thought I’d return here for the night. I thought you guys would be gone by now.”
“We would have been if it wasn’t for that awkward girl right there.” Andrew said poking my shoulder.
“Oh go away.” I muttered. “You don’t have to stay you know.”
“If we weren’t here you’d get eaten by wolves.” Dom said.
“I completely object to that statement, I would eat those wolves now.” I insisted.
“And probably choke to death on them.” Matt snorted.
“You’re such a bully.” I muttered and stood up. “I will just go find somewhere else to spend the night.” I said before stomping towards the trees.
“You know, we’ll just follow you until we can see you right?” Dom called.
I stuck my tongue out at him over my shoulder and changed direction to the tree over the lake before climbing it.
“Huh, not bad at climbing trees for a tiger.” Croc stated as I continued to climb.
“I make panthers look like amateurs.” I called back as I kept climbing.
“I could out climb you any day!” Matt yelled.
I sat on the branch swinging my legs and raised my eyebrows at him. “Really, you want to put that to the test?”
“Don’t you dare.” Dom growled at him when Matt’s face split into a grin.
“Chill man, I won’t let her get hurt.” He assured Dom as he walked towards the tree.
“You better not, or you’ll be sorry.” He hissed.
“I get it.” He said before looking up at me. “I’ll stay in human form just to go easy on you.”
I snorted. “I don’t need you to go easy, but ok.”
He climbed the tree up to my branch much easier than I had due to being taller and stronger than me and I’m pretty sure it must have something to do with the panther inside him despite him still being human.
We took it in turns to climb, I would climb up a branch and Matt would follow me easily. When it started to get above the highest branch I had climbed to I began to get a little nervous and kept looking down.
Matt smirked. “Is the height getting a bit much for you, do you want to forfeit?”
“Never.” I grinned glancing down at our now ant sized friends who were standing there silently except from Dom who was pacing back and forth glancing up at the tree, but I was pretty sure he couldn’t see us anymore.
I continued to climb then with Matt right behind me seeming to get more nervous the higher we got and he started watching me extra carefully as if ready to catch me if I should fall off a branch, but to my surprise I managed to keep steady.
When we were as high as we could get since there were no higher branches to climb onto Matt shrugged and smirked.
“I guess we are equally good at climbing. Call it a draw?”
I glanced down at the lake far below. “Would you jump down?” I asked him with a grin.
He chuckled. “Hell no.”
“If I jumped would I win?” I asked.
He rolled his eyes. “Of course you would win, but you’re not jumping so it doesn’t matter.” He paused and glared at me as I stepped towards the edge of the branch. “Cayla, don’t you dare.”
I grinned. “Why not?”
“Because if you get hurt, Dom will kill me.”
“I won’t get hurt though and it might be quite fun.”
“If you jump, I’ll just grab your arm and stop you.”
“That could get me hurt, you could miss, but just change my angle enough for me to land awkwardly.”
“Dammit Cayla, I’m not messing around here.” He growled.
I grinned. “Neither am I, I’ll see you at the bottom.”
He shouted my name, but before he could stop me I dove off the edge, it was such an adrenaline rush as I dropped from the tree. It almost felt like I was flying as it seemed that I was airborne for so long before I hit the water. The force of it against me was a little painful on the tips of my fingers being the first thing to hit the water. Having so much built up speed behind me my body was forced deep into the lake before I could stop myself and even begin to swim up to the surface.
I was surprised by how deep the lake actually was and I wasn’t sure I was going to get above the water before I needed to breathe. It was difficult to make out how far up the surface was in the eerie black depths that didn’t look at all scary in the sunlight. It was strange how darkness could turn even the nicest places into something that would induce fear.
Suddenly yellow eyes pierced the blackness like two lanterns in a cave and my first reaction was to scream, which resulted in me opening my mouth and swallowing water. Oh shit, there went the short supply of air I had, had left and despite closing my mouth again when I realised it was croc I had already swallowed too much and couldn’t breathe. I had a sudden burst of sympathy for anyone who had drowned, it was a horrible feeling breathing in water instead of air and suddenly I felt the end of Croc’s snout hit my stomach causing me to choke on yet more water, but when I grabbed on he moved up faster than I thought crocodiles ever could before I was deposited on the grass.
My knees were on the ground and I coughed up the water from my lungs trying to breathe in the free oxygen coming from the trees all around us. It seemed to take forever, but finally my lungs had exchanged the unwanted water for the oxygen that had never tasted as good as it did now.
I recovered just in time to lift my head and see a black panther jumping down from the tree and returning to Matt form before Dom had him pinned against the tree trunk.
I groaned and tried to get up, but I felt weak and kept falling back down. Andrew grabbed my arm.
“Are you ok?”
“I’m fine, but get me over to them or Dom is going to kill him.” I said my voice sounding much huskier than it usually did.
He nodded and with his help I reached the pair of them to hear Dom yelling in Matt’s face.
“I told you not to let her get hurt and you let her fall in the lake!”
“I didn’t fall, I jumped.” I rasped at him.
He turned his yellow panther eyes in a human face on me then. “You did what?” He growled.
“You heard me, I said I jumped. I’ve jumped before, I don’t get why you’re surprised.” I said trying to sound as if the whole situation was completely normal.
He released his grip on Matt and glared at me. “You were a little higher in the tree this time!” He roared.
I had never seen him this angry and to be honest it was a little scary.
“Well, yes, but I’m fine so it doesn’t matter.”
“Shit Cayla, of course it matters, you almost drowned! Does that mean nothing to you at all?” He shouted before raising his hand.
I involuntarily winced and recoiled from him as the same movement done by my Uncle had only resulted in pain. When I realised he was actually just lifting his hand to run it through his hair it was too late everyone had seen my reaction and I couldn’t take it back even though I wished I could when I saw the hurt on Dom’s face.
He frowned. “Cayla, I would never-.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” I cut him off quickly. “I just, it was automatic. I didn’t mean to, I’m sorry and I’m sorry I got you into trouble Matt.”
“Hey, I’m already over it.” He assured me. “But my ego might take a little longer since you won and all.”
I gave him a small smile before lowering
myself to the ground finding it a lot easier to sit than stand right now.
“Are you alright?” Dom asked kneeling down in front of me.
I was relieved to find the hurt gone from Dom’s face when I looked up at him, instead it had been replaced with concern.
I nodded. “I’m fine and thanks Croc.”
“It’s no problem.” He answered.
I yawned and lay down on the grass before closing my eyes. “Ok, well I’m going to get to sleep before anything else happens tonight.”
Thanks to my new and improved higher temperature after becoming a shifter I wasn’t as cold as I should have been after taking a dip in the water and just wearing a wet vest top and denim shorts, but I was beginning to shiver. The sounds of the guys talking started to lull me into sleep until I felt something soft land on me. It made me jump, but Dom’s voice reassured me and after looking I realised I had a hoody over me and from the scent teasing my nose I could tell it was his. I gave him a smile of thanks before snuggling closer into it pulling it tighter around me. When Croc began to ask about what the whole Dom lifting his hand thing had been about I was barely awake, but when the guys all paused in answering him I assumed that they wouldn’t tell him without permission from me.
“You can tell him.” I muttered.
They began to talk about it, I didn’t really want to listen so I was glad when I fell into a deep sleep by the lake surrounded by three friends I trusted with my life and maybe a potential friend that had already proved himself.
###
About the author:
C.M. Chidgey is a new author of young adult novels and has now published her fourth one. She spends a lot of time writing and often thinks of new ideas for books even before the previous one is finished. After being born in England she has lived there her whole life and lives with her parents, sister and brother. She enjoys spending time with her family, reading, writing and playing video games.
Discover other titles by C.M. Chidgey at Amazon.com/.co.uk.
Connect with me online:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/CM-Chidgey/314762188656649
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CMChidgey
My Website: http://cmchidgey.moonfruit.com/
One Of The Enemy (Hidden Descendant Series, Book 1) Page 19