Cats And Dogs: A Shifter Novella (3 page)

Her aunt’s jaw dropped and a look of
astonishment swept over her face as Belle slammed the door shut in
her face and locked it quickly. Then she went and sat back on the
edge of her bed, her heart heavy.

With dread, she waited for what
she was sure would come next…her uncle’s heavy footsteps pounding
up the stairs, the shouting, the threats…but it didn’t
come.

Instead, she heard angry voices
rising up from her aunt and uncle’s bedroom below her. She rushed
to the heating vent and pressed her ear up against it; they didn’t
know it, but the ducts carried the sound of their conversation up
to her room.

“
He’ll just have to adjust his
plans. He can move up the wedding date, for God’s sake. He can just
hold her on his property until  they get married.”

Her heart froze in her chest.
Wedding date? Nobody had asked her to get married. What were they
talking about?

And what was all this about holding her on
someone’s property?

“
What if he says no? What if he
wants his money back?”  That was my uncle’s voice.

Wants his money back? They’d sold her to
somebody? But who would even want her  enough to pay for her,
and why?  They couldn’t sell her - this was 21st century
 America!

“
He won’t want his money back. He
was very clear  how much he wanted her,” my aunt
insisted.

“
That was when he thought that
nobody would miss her. What about this werewolf?  He could be
a problem.”

“
Well, we’re not going to tell him
about the werewolf, are we?” Her aunt’s voice was angry.
 “There’s no way that I’m giving back fifty thousand
dollars.”

Belle’s mind was racing.

“
We could still try to see if she’d
marry him voluntarily,’” her uncle  said. “Point out how rich
he is, how she has no future, tell her we’re going to kick her out
on the street and he’s her only hope, he can give her a good
life....”

“
That might have worked before that
stupid werewolf bastard came along and ruined everything,” her aunt
grumbled. “Now if she thinks she’s got a shot  at  being
mated with that wolf, there’s no way she’d agree to marry Raymond
Charucki. Why would she? He may be rich, but he’s old and ugly and
everybody knows his reputation.”

Belle’s heart dropped to the bottom of her
stomach.

Raymond Charucki? He was a
sixty-year-old panther shifter who was well known as a mobster who
owned half the politicians in Montana. He’d also been accused
by half a dozen woman of kidnapping, rape and torture.
 And every single woman had quickly dropped the charges,
refusing to prosecute.  There were rumors of intimidation and
threats, and  several of the women had disappeared
afterwards.

If he wanted Belle, she was doomed.

But why would he want her?

She quickly pulled her cell phone
out of her pocket and dialed.

“
Agnes, my aunt and uncle are
talking about selling me off in marriage to  the mobster
Raymond Charucki. He paid them $50,000 for me. That’s why they’ve
been watching my every move these past few weeks. I am going to
sneak out of the  house right now, and  I’m going to have
to leave town. Please tell Axel I’m sorry. I don’t  dare go to
the police about this; they’re good friends with my aunt and uncle.
I’m going to have to go into hiding.”

She was sick with worry. What
would happen to Agnes when she was gone? Maybe she could find a way
to secretly send Agnes  money from another town...but how?
She’d have to send it by mail, the postmaster would probably be
keeping an eye out on Agnes’  mail...

Head whirling, she stripped off
her clothing so she could switch to panther form in case her family
tried to confront her  as she snuck out.  In panther
form, she’d have a fighting chance against them.

She closed her eyes and
concentrated, letting the panther form take over, and then sank
down to the floor and grabbed  one of the pillowcases
 full of clothing, holding it in her mouth.

Carefully, silently, she slipped
out of the door and down the stairs.   She rushed
 through the living room, down the hallway, and  stopped
at the front door to slap the door handle with her paw, opening it.
 She scampered outside, across the yard...

As she ran, she suddenly felt a
sharp sting in her hindquarters.  She fell to the ground, the
pillowcase dropping from her mouth, her mind fogging, her heart
pounding with terror.

“
Mom!” she could hear her cousin
 Elmer’s voice, from very far away..“ She was trying to get
away, but I tranked her!”

She could feel herself shifting back to human
form, the wet dew of the grass cold against her naked skin, as she
sprawled helplessly on the lawn and the world slipped away from
her.

She woke up with her head pounding, still in
human form. She was stark naked, and as she struggled to sit up she
realized that her hands were tied above her head, and her legs were
tied too.

When she opened her eyes she realized that she
was still in her bedroom,. She’d been tied to her bed.

Bleary-eyed, she glanced at the
clock. 5 a.m.

She struggled to shift, and felt a
sharp stinging sensation circling her neck.

Oh, God. Her aunt and uncle had collared her.
They’d put a copper collar on her, which stifled her shape-shifting
abilities. She was trapped in human form.

Her heart pounded frantically in her
chest.

The collar irritated the skin of
her neck, and she longed to yank it off. The ropes on her wrists
were too tight, however. Helpless, she lay there watching the
second hand of the clock circle around, again and again, unbearably
slow.

The hours dragged by, and nobody
came to rescue her. Maybe Agnes  was too afraid to go up
against Raymond Charucki. Maybe Agnes had called the police and
they’d notified her aunt and uncle instead of coming to help. After
all, the police chief and her uncle both belonged to the same
country club and the same hunting lodge, and her uncle contributed
heavily to the mayor’s re-election campaigns. Calling the police
was pretty much pointless.

Maybe Agnes had been killed for trying to
help.

Belle blinked back tears at the
thought.

She couldn’t believe that only the day before,
she’d thought all of her dreams were coming true - for a brief,
glorious moment. Axel McManus had finally noticed her. He hadn’t
just noticed her, he’d flirted with her. He hadn’t just flirted
with her, he’d asked  her to go on a date with him.

And then her dreams had crashed down to earth
and exploded into nightmare.

At eight o’clock, she heard men’s voices and
footsteps pounding up the stairs, and then her door swung
open.

Raymond Charucki strode through.
He was stocky, gray haired, and his face was heavily lined. He wore
a blue silk suit with a navy tie, and a blue silk handkerchief
square adorned his pocket.

Behind him were two hulking bodyguards, in
dark nondescript suits. One of them had a scar that slashed through
his right eyebrow.

Charucki strode over to the bed
without a word, yanking the blanket off her. His gaze  swept
over her naked bodily greedily, and his pink tongue poked out of
his mouth,  wetting his  thick  liver-colored
lips.

Belle shuddered in fear, yanking
instinctively at the ropes that bit into her wrists and ankles, as
Charucki leaned over the bed, staring down at her naked, restrained
body.

“
Very nice,” Charucki leered, then
turned back to her aunt and uncle. “But you told me that she was
meek and compliant.”

“
She is meek and compliant!” her
aunt said hastily. “She’s just...been acting up  a little
lately. Maybe it’s that time of month for her. She’ll come around
right away for you, you’ll see!”

“
She’d better.” He pulled a knife
from his pocket, and Belle stiffened with fear.  He waved it
in front of her face, then ran the flat of the blade down her
cheek.

“
This is a copper-coated knife. If
I cut you, the scars will never heal.. Understand?”

“
Yes,” she choked out, rigid with
fear and anger.

He slashed at the ropes which
bound her to the bed, freeing her. She sat up quickly and grabbed
at her blanket to cover herself; he snatched it away and dropped it
on the floor, and his men laughed loudly, with coarse snarling
sounds.

Raymond fixed his cold marble-gray
eyes on her as she covered herself with her hands and shrank away
from him on the bed. “You will behave yourself, and walk out of
this house calmly and quietly, or you will walk out of here naked.
Understand?”

“
Yes,” she said coldly.

She grabbed clothing from out of one of the
pillow cases that she’d stuffed full and pulled on a faded old
sundress, and then quickly put on sandals.

Her aunt and uncle stood smirking
as she followed Raymond out of the room, the tiny, stuffy room
with the low ceiling where she’d lived for the last ten years of
her life. She  wouldn’t miss that room, that was for
sure

.

The bodyguards followed close on
her heels.  She had no chance to escape. Silently, she let
them lead her out of the house.

She glanced around desperately as
they led her over to a waiting limousine  with darkened
windows.  It was a beautiful country morning. The sun was
rising over the treetops on the distant horizon, and she could hear
the lowing of cows and the crowing of roosters, and nobody was
coming to save her.

Raymond slid in first, and she slid in after
him, and then the bodyguards slammed the door and climbed in the
front seat.

The car took off, gliding down the
road.

Despairing, she turned to Charucki.  “I
don’t agree to marry you. You can’t force me to marry you. It’s
illegal,” she said angrily.

A cold, angry smile quirked
his thick lips.  “Oh, believe me, I can make you beg to marry
me. I can make you beg for a lot of things.
”

She shrank away from him, pressing up against
the door.

“
For instance, while you’re begging
for the pain to stop,  you’ll also be begging for your little
friend Agnes’s life. Or maybe not. Maybe when I’m done with Agnes,
you’ll beg me to be merciful. Beg me to put Agnes out of her
agony.”

Her aunt and uncle had told him about Agnes.
Of course they had. There was no low to which they would not stoop.
 She’d never hated them more than she did at this
moment.

Hot tears ran down her face.
“Why?” she pleaded. “Why do you want me? I’m a nobody.”

“
On the contrary. You’re a healthy,
fertile young panther who can give me excellent cubs. Your parents
were brilliant scientists, and their gene pool  is a superior
one. I am coming to the age where I want children; you will give
them to me. And of course, the dowry doesn’t hurt.”

He frowned at her. “Of course, your aunt and
uncle promised me that you  were meek and submissive, and
would follow all orders instantly. I’m disappointed to see that
they lied to me, but I assure you  that you’ll be begging to
please me,  soon enough.”

“
What dowry?” her mind was
whirling, retreating from the horror that her life had suddenly
become. They were racing down the road, towards whatever prison
Raymond planned to hold her in. There was no escape.

“
What dowry? Of course, there’s the
generous monthly allowance from your parents estate...” at her look
of astonishment, he threw his head back and laughed.

“
Your aunt and uncle never told
you. Of course they didn’t. I imagine they’ve been pocketing every
cent that the trustees sent to them.  Now it will be mine. And
when we marry, you receive all of your inheritance free and clear.
 It will go into our joint bank account, of
course.”

He turned to her, a loathsome
smile stretching across his face. “And now, you’re going to show me
just what a good little girl you can be - what the
hell?”

The car abruptly slammed to a halt.

Startled, she looked out the
window and saw a pickup truck blocking their path…with a dozen
werewolves piling out of the bed of the truck and a half dozen more
piling out of the cab. It looked like most of the pack from Big
Timber Falls were there.

Including Axel.

Agnes must have called them. Agnes was smart;
she’d know that the local police chief wouldn’t help Belle, and
Axel was Belle’s only hope.

And shockingly, amazingly, even after Belle
had rejected him yesterday, he’d come for her.

The werewolves surrounded the
limousine in an instant, and Axel delivered a mighty kick to the
passenger door, which flew open.

Raymond, his two bodyguards, and his
driver leaped out of the limousine. Raymond turned back to snarl at
Belle “Stay inside, I mean it!”

But Axel pushed past him, grabbed
Belle, and pulled her out. When he saw the collar on her neck, and
the tears streaking her face, he howled with rage.