Cat on the Fence (6 page)

Karabi walked out into the brisk air and looked around. She
didn’t see any available cabs out right away. The weather wasn’t too horrible
even though it was quite late in the evening. There were a couple of inches of
snow on the ground and a few flurries falling from the sky. Too cold to just
stand around waiting for a taxi but not too cold to walk a little until she
found one, so she headed east toward Wells Street and started strolling, which
was all she could manage after wearing those horrible shoes all night. Besides,
she could use some fresh air to clear her head for a bit.

Once she made it to the end of the block she noticed a
bundle of clothing on the ground. When she looked closely she saw it was a suit
and a tie with tiger stripes, and a worn condom lay nearby. Wait. Were these
Alex’s clothes? Karabi froze and her heart squeezed in her chest as she feared
something awful must have happened to him. She sniffed at the air. For the
first time ever she wished she’d honed her hunting skills instead of shunning
most things Cat. As it was, she had a great sense of smell but a terrible time
separating one scent from another and identifying the source of the aroma. She
did know that in addition to a countless number of humans, some exotic animal
had been here. It smelled feline. Wild. She smelled something else too she
couldn’t immediately identify, which sent her skin crawling. What in the hell
was going on? She contemplated taking off her clothes and going Cat so that she
could investigate better but decided against it once she imagined the potential
drama of someone spotting a cheetah walking down Jackson Boulevard.

Karabi crossed the street ahead and then traversed over to
the left side of Jackson Boulevard when she spotted a pair of tiger-striped
boxers up farther east on the sidewalk, and so she continued in that direction.
It was then that she saw the fresh paw prints in the snow. But the paw prints
weren’t a cat’s. They looked canine but they weren’t a dog’s either. She
stopped when the prints turned right into the alley between two tall buildings.
No way was she about to go down an alley by herself at this time of night.
She’d have to go get some immediate help with trying to find Alex if he had
been attacked by some animal.

Some animal
,she thought. And then it occurred
to her. What if
Alex
was the animal? The more she considered it, the
more sense the possibility seemed to make. Other than with Felicia, Karabi
hadn’t spent much time at all with other Werecats since she’d graduated from
the private high school that was all Were and left her parents’ house over a
decade ago to study biological science and zoology in college. Could she have
been that out of touch with her own kind? She would have thought she’d
recognize another full-blooded Werecat working alongside her every day, sexing one
in a window box. Unless he wasn’t a full-blooded Werecat or something like
that. Then she heard the howl of what sounded like a very large wolf nearby and
she went completely stiff.

Unless he wasn’t a Were
cat
.

Even more disturbing was the low growl she suddenly heard
approaching from the alley. Her instincts told her to hoof it but her curiosity
and concern for Alex conflicted. She stood perfectly still and listened,
waited, until she saw the wolf with golden eyes emerge. He was no ordinary
wolf, she knew that for certain. He was huge, bigger than a man even, with a
thick coat of gray-and-black fur that seemed stretched over human muscles. He
walked toward her and contemplated her with an arrogance and intelligence that
wasn’t anything like the wolves at the zoo. Didn’t even smell quite the same.
When he looked up at her she could almost swear he was grinning. She wasn’t
certain if the grin was in kindness or in threat. Either way, there was just
one question she needed to ask him.

“Alex? Is that you?”

The creature’s expression didn’t change at the mention of
the name, and the low growl continued. He just stood there for a moment and
continued to look at her. She raised her gloved hands and tried talking to him
again, feeling slightly foolish. “Alex, if it’s you, it’s okay. You don’t have
to hide—”

But then the wolf’s growl turned into an outright snarl and
he stood fully upright on two legs like a man, well over six feet tall. Then he
lunged right at her.

* * * * *

Karabi opened her mouth to scream but instead a loud,
threatening hiss came out as she leapt straight up from the ground several feet
and landed off to the side of where she was standing before. It amazed her a
bit that even while still in human form, her Cat instincts continued to work.

The wolf-man stumbled a bit in alarm. Then he sniffed at
her, circling her, while she once again deliberated fleeing or staying. Could a
Werewolf be reasoned with? Having never encountered one in person before,
Karabi didn’t know much about Werewolves beyond the stories she’d heard in
school. Cats and Wolves did not get along. A Cat and a Werewolf were evenly
matched. Wolves didn’t reproduce the way Cats did. Unlike Cats, Wolves couldn’t
control when they shape-shifted. Wolves were crazy and killed for no reason.

She watched with disgust and dread as this one continued to
sniff at her while developing a huge, menacing erection. Maybe they didn’t
reproduce the way normal mammals did but this one was apparently quite
interested in trying. Another sign that this could be her horny Alex.

But then the Wolf grabbed at her, snatched her to him and
licked sloppily at the side of her face. She cringed, revolted.
Eww!
If
this really was Alexander, a relationship with him
definitely
wasn’t
going to work.

“Let go of me!”

The beast made a noise that sounded like a mix between a
whinny and a laugh. It made her skin crawl and didn’t remind her of anything
like the Alex she knew. The wolf snatched her, threw her over his shoulder and
began bounding down the alley.

Shit
, she thought.
I’m going to have to mess up
this pretty little dress and fight this beast off.
She partially shifted
her hands into paws and dug her nails into the Werewolf’s back. He howled and
tossed her off him, and she hit the side of the building before landing in the
snow. Head pounding with pain and ears ringing, she was stunned for a moment,
her eyes fluttering to remain open. When the world stopped spinning a few
seconds later her canine attacker was standing in front her with a couple of
his buddies. That was when Karabi finally began to feel real fear. She got onto
her hands and knees, preparing to shape-shift so she could fight as the
cheetah.

But then there was a ruckus coming from the other end of the
alley as tin cans and glass bottles were knocked about, and the thudding of
paws could be heard in the snow. Something was coming. The three Werewolves
turned their attention that way and Karabi used the opportunity to scurry to
her feet and dash out the opposite end of the alley, yelling for help. There
was no way she could take on those three big guys and possibly a fourth all by
herself. She was also pretty certain at this point that Alex wasn’t one of the
Three Stooges and could likely have fallen victim to them.

Karabi yanked her purse off the ground where she’d dropped
it and had snatched out her phone and was dialing for help when she heard the
growling, snarling, roaring and hissing. Wait…roaring and hissing? She stopped
dead in her tracks. Was there a big cat in the alley with those Werewolves? She
turned around and headed back to the alley as she spoke into the phone, telling
the zoo guards that she suspected a wild animal attack on Jackson between Wells
and Franklin Street, and that they needed to send wildlife control right away.

When she made it back to her alley she saw a tiger and a
Werewolf fighting, a second wolf hobbling on the ground and a third wolf
charging the tiger. Her nose picked up the scent of something else strange
nearby. Another Cat? She peered on top of the roof of the building next to them
and could barely make out a hooded shadow. But she could see when it pulled out
a gun just before it fired a warning shot straight into the air. The two wolves
dropped the cat and went running off, and the injured wolf scampered away as
quickly as he could, with the shadowy figure bounding after them. The tiger
gave off one last threatening roar before falling to the ground and going
completely still.

Karabi’s heart sank. She could not take the sight of an
injured cat, stray or not. There was no time to wait for wildlife control. She
ran over to the animal and kneeled down to examine him. He was definitely a
tiger but no ordinary one. She recognized the scent immediately. He was a Were.
Where had he come from? He was bleeding profusely and breathing heavily.

“It’s okay, big guy.” Karabi pulled off her scarf and
pressed it against the wound on the cat’s side. “I’ve got you.”

The tiger opened his eyes and looked up at her, sad and
pained, and she gasped at how steel-gray and familiar they were. Then the striped
beast gently put his paw in her hand—as if to hold it—and chuffed in
contentment, and she was almost certain.

This injured Werecat was Alex McClellan.

Karabi watched the tiger in his sleep. Fortunately his
wounds weren’t too severe. She had given him a thorough check as soon as they’d
brought him into the zoo’s recovery room three days ago, stitched and bandaged
him up, given him some antibiotics and pain meds. It was a good thing they had
the big-cat experts onboard helping Musaka and Kimba. Karabi had everything she
needed. She’d insisted on taking care of this animal by herself in an isolated
room, much to the chagrin of the already stressed and overburdened medical
staff, but they had given in to her passionate demand. Karabi couldn’t risk
Alexander transforming back into a human in front of them. The scandal that
would cause—not to mention the feathers that would be ruffled amongst the
Pride—would be not be good.

If
this really
was
Alex.

After the attack in the alley, animal control had shown up,
ready to capture a wild animal. They’d sedated the tiger, lifted him into the
wagon and allowed Karabi to sit in the back with him. She’d used the
opportunity to cover the tiger with a blanket and kept whispering to him to
remain in feline form, hoping he would hear and understand if he was indeed who
she thought. When he didn’t respond with even the movement of his head or a
twitch of his whiskers and just stared back at her with the dazed look of an
injured and drugged kitty, she wondered if she was right about this animal’s
identity after all.

That was on Friday, over forty-eight hours ago. It was now
Monday and the tiger was still just a tiger—albeit an unusually large one with
gray eyes that seemed to possess extraordinary intelligence. He was confused
and scared, and although he eagerly drank water, he seemed reluctant to eat.
Whether this tiger was a shape-shifter or not, if he didn’t eat more soon he
wasn’t ever going to get better. Meanwhile, Alexander McClellan was still
missing. It was getting late in the morning and he hadn’t shown up to work yet.
Very unusual for him and not a good look.

Karabi told the Operations Manager, Kevin, that Alex had
gotten ill at the ball from something he’d eaten and she suspected he was still
sick and just hadn’t managed to call yet. She was sure he’d call soon, she’d
told Kevin. She quietly hoped one of two things would happen today—either Alex
would be calling them any minute to say he was actually lying in some hospital
bed somewhere…or this cat really was Alex and he would be feeling well enough
to shift back to human, with some coaxing from Karabi, any minute now.

And Karabi was
really
hoping scenario number two was
the correct one. Before animal control had come to the scene on Friday she’d
hurried back to collect the clothes she’d found in the Willis Tower elevator
and outside on the ground. When she found the phone in the pants pocket and
checked it, she discovered that it was indeed Alex’s phone. So if this cat
wasn’t Alex—just too injured to shift back to human form—then Alex might be
somewhere in serious trouble and she hadn’t the foggiest idea of where to look
or who she would go to for help.

She’d kept the tiger sedated most of the weekend. Every time
he woke he was famished. He’d start to devour the food she’d laid out for him
but soon he’d freak out and swipe and roar angrily at the dish as if he
couldn’t believe what he’d just eaten. The other staff members would come
running to see if she needed help, worried that this “stray” was a danger, and
each time she’d quickly sedate the beast and convince them that she had a
handle on it.

But today she needed him to wake without causing a
commotion. Karabi gently nudged the tiger until he lifted his head, stretched
out his front legs and yawned big and wide. Then he stared at his splayed paws
in what seemed to be utter confusion before jerking upright and quickly backing
into a corner of the room. If she didn’t know better she’d say this cat was
terrified of himself. Could it be possible that Alex didn’t know he was a
Werecat and had never shifted before Friday?

Carefully Karabi approached him. She had a sedative ready
just in case, hidden in her lab coat pocket, and slowly, carefully, kneeled
down before the snarling beast.

“Please, don’t freak out. Listen to the sound of my voice.
It’s me, Karabi. Do you recognize me?” She spoke softly, sweetly. The tiger
kept his gaze on the floor, refusing to look up at her, growling and swaying
his head from side to side.

She reached out and rubbed the tiger’s back. He winced but
did not try to stop her or attack. “Alex… Is that you? I really need to know.
If you are Alexander McClellan, please nod your head.”

The cat finally looked up at her and stared for a moment.
She waited, holding her breath. The tiger moved his head up and down so subtly
that she wasn’t sure whether it was a nod or not.

“Is that a yes?”

He moved his head up and down again, a little more
affirmatively this time. However Karabi still wasn’t fully convinced, so she
tried another approach. “If you are Alexander McClellan, wink your left eye at
me.” When he complied she added, “Now your right one.” When he successfully
responded to both commands she dove into his furry body and wrapped her arms
around his thick neck, hugging him tightly.

“Oh thank goodness—I’ve been so worried that you were out
there somewhere, sick or hurt or killed!” She must have squeezed too tightly
because the tiger growled irritably. But then he rubbed his head against her
chin once she loosened her grip.

“Is this your first time being in Cat?”

He nodded.

“Did you know that you were a Werecat?”

He shook his head.

Karabi bit the side of her lip. Most Werecats shape-shifted
into their Cat for the first time after they hit puberty. The hormones that
helped to transform their child’s body into that of a sexually mature adult
also provided the ability to transform their human body into their Cat one and
then back again. In high school she’d heard a little bit about Werecats that
didn’t gain the ability to shape-shift until much later—some not until their
twenties, or thirties, even a few not until early forties. They were called
“Late Bloomers”. Some had no clue they were shifters at all until after their
first surprising transformation, triggered by an encounter with the sexual
hormones of another Werecat. Karabi made a mental note to find out more about
Late Bloomers when she had some time.

“Listen, Alex, I need to know if you can change back to
human. If so, you need to be very careful about the place and time you do it.
The authorities are already trying to figure out where your tiger came from,
thinking someone illegally smuggled you in or that you escaped from a circus or
some other zoo. And everyone’s wondering where human Alex is.”

The striped cat shook his head and started to roar.

“Shh, quiet,” she said. “I don’t want anyone else coming in
here. Do you know how to shape-shift?”

He shook his head again.

Karabi sighed. “Maybe it’s a good thing that you can’t
shift. I need you to stay in this form until I can figure out a plan to explain
a missing tiger.” Cat Alex continued to move his head from side to side as if
distraught. That was when the idea came to Karabi. She got up, locked the door
and pushed one of the shelves in front of it, just in case someone tried to come
in before she was done.

She stripped off her clothes and then stood in front of the
tiger. He stopped shaking and looked up at her naked body, wide-eyed.

“You’re not alone in this, Alex. Watch.” Karabi shifted.
Once she was fully cheetah she pranced around the room in front of Alex,
letting him see that this wasn’t a trick. She went over to him, rubbed her nose
against his and licked the white fur beard that framed the bottom half of his
face. The whole time he sat still, quietly watching her.

Karabi felt a conflicting mixture of embarrassment, relief,
fear and excitement. When was the last time she shifted to Cat in front of
someone else? Alex’s cat species was much larger than hers but she didn’t mind.
He was so big, warm, soft, gentle mannered…and a little bit broken. She
couldn’t help but nuzzle up against him. It felt really good to let another
person see the other half of her true self again. Especially this person.

She transformed back to human and sat next to him, not
caring that she was still completely nude. She rubbed her fingers on the top of
his head and scratched between his ears. He pushed his head against her hand,
reveling in the touch. Soon he was lying on his back with his large head in her
lap and all four paws up in the air. Karabi laughed at him.

“You’ve got this part of being a cat down already,” she
said. She scratched at the fur underneath his chin, then moved her hands along
his firm, fuzzy chest. Down lower still until she got to his stomach. She
patted and scratched at his belly and he squirmed happily on his back,
extending his spine fully to allow her full access.

“Come back to me, Alex,” she said softly as she rubbed him.
“You need to control your shifting. Think about being human. Think about coming
back to me. I can’t kiss you while you’re Cat. It wouldn’t be as much fun to
pet you all over like this as it would if you were a man, either.” She let her
hand slip farther down his abdomen, teasingly close to his penis but never
going all the way there.

Suddenly he began to transform. Karabi continued to rub his
belly until there was a nude man in her bare lap looking up at her, with sultry
gray eyes underneath thick, dark brows. His curls were a messy pile of lushness
on his head and he had three days’ worth of sexy, masculine stubble. Karabi
carried her gaze down to take in his well-defined shoulders and arms, a chest
that wasn’t too chiseled but still nice and fit, and adorned with light tufts
of hair at the very top and a long strip that traced down between his pectorals
and stopped at his bellybutton. His abs were also fit but with just a tiny bit
of flab at the bottom that she playfully tugged at right now. She smiled softly
at the discovery that his bellybutton was an outtie. His body tapered nicely to
his waistline, which at the moment was dominated by his growing erection. She
tried not to stare too hard at it but it was a beautiful cock—circumcised and
curved slightly forward. Brown hair dusted his thighs and slender calves.

He was absolutely gorgeous. She’d known before that he was
hot but
damn
! Karabi would have thought that the fact she’d already had
sex with Alex would make seeing him naked not that big a deal. But boy was
Alex’s body a big deal. She was turned-on just looking at him lying there.

She swallowed hard. “Good job,” she managed to say.

Alex followed her gaze to his dick, then back up at her with
raised brows. “On the hard-on?”

Karabi snorted. “No, on the change back to human.”

“Oh,” Alex said. “That was all your doing.” He glanced at
his erection and tilted his head. “Well, they are both all your doing.”

Karabi’s heart swelled in her chest. Who was she kidding?
She adored this man. She stared down at his slightly parted mouth and licked
her lips, so wanting to press them into his. But she was naked at work, where
there was supposed to be an injured tiger in the room with her, not an
undressed purportedly missing coworker with a massive erection.
Priorities,
Karabi.
It was highly inappropriate to be so turned-on right now.

* * * * *

“How are you feeling?” Karabi asked him.

“Confused as fuck,” Alex said. He truly was confused. And
scared, fascinated, aroused, sore, enamored, awed. He didn’t know whether to
scream out in terror, run out and call for help or flip Karabi over and bang
her like animals do in the wild. But all he could do for the moment was laugh
in complete bafflement. “I’ve got so many questions.”

“Ask them,” she said.

He blinked a few times. His head was in her lap, the side of
his face right against her mons pubis, which she’d shaved into a neat little
triangle. When looking up at Karabi he got a full view of her underboobs and
erect, caramel nipples. She was looking down at him with long lashes and heavy
eyelids, her dark hair flowing past her shoulders and stopping at the tops of
her breasts. Her fingers were drawing circles on his stomach and his hard cock
was straining toward her.

He opened his mouth and closed it a few times, uncertain
where to even start. At the moment he didn’t know if he was coming or going.
Literally
.
“Am I dead?”

She laughed. “No, you’re alive and well.”

“But I was a tiger.”

“Yes.”

“And you were a cheetah, just now.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Neither of those things seem incredibly strange to you?”

She shrugged. “I’ve known I was a Werecat all of my life.
But I was a little shocked to discover that you are one too.”

“Just a little shocked, huh…” he echoed her. He found
himself staring at the way her breasts moved while she spoke. His hips bucked
forward almost involuntarily, his cock aching for those fingers to trail down
lower and touch it. “That-that thing you’re doing with your fingers right now?”

“Rubbing your tummy? You want me to stop?”

“No. I’m-I’m not sure,” he stuttered. “Um, I mean, it feels
really good.”

Karabi continued to rub him. “You’re a Cat. Of course it
does.” Her voice was thick and heavy with her own emotion and she looked as if
she was in some kind of an aroused trance herself.

He breathed in hard. “No. I mean I
really
like it.”

“I know.”

“I mean I like it
too
much.”

“So you
do
want me to stop?”

“No, I don’t want you to stop,” he said.
Down, tiger
,he tried to tell himself. This was a serious situation. He needed to get
out of there, not get off. But after three more circles of her fingers near his
pelvis he could feel his composure completely slip away. “But I’m really
fucking turned-on right now. I know you’re just trying to comfort me but we’re
naked and you—you’ve got these pheromones going—” He growled and grabbed her
hand, forcing it on his erection.