Cormac (12 page)
As he emptied deep inside of her, his teeth
tore at her flesh again. Even as she knew that she was getting weaker from it,
he moved down her body again, this time as his cat, and bit deeply into her
belly. Holding onto her consciousness, she told him how much she loved him.
Andi never lost sight of the fact that she belonged to him and only him.
Screaming again, this time in agony, she
waited for him to take the final bite, the last one that would hopefully change
her over. As Mac’s cat tore into her leg, Andi felt herself slipping. There was
nothing left in her to scream with. All her energy was in just staying awake to
tell him that she loved him. When his cat lifted his head from her leg and
whimpered, she pulled him close to her with the last of her strength and closed
her eyes. She’d either die a very happy woman or be a cat in a few days.
The room was dark when she woke. The heavy
furred animal at her side had her curling into him. But the voice beyond the
darkness had her turning in that direction. When the light came on, she stared
at Storm for several seconds before the other woman smiled at him.
“He’s been here, as his cat, for two hours.
He thinks he killed you.” Andi asked her how long she’d been out. “Yeah, about
that…not so long. You were, like me, supposed to be out for a week, they said.
I didn’t think that shit worked for me, so I was awake in a few hours. Same
with you. You’ve only been out for about four. Good job, that.”
“He was afraid he’d killed me? Why?” Storm
said she had no idea what went on in the mind of a man when everyone could see
that it had worked. “I’m a cat? I’m really a tiger.”
You really are.
Andi looked down at
Mac when he spoke to her.
Get rid of Storm and we’ll just cuddle here for a
few minutes before I take you in the woods and run you down.
Andi looked at Storm to tell her that…well,
she wasn’t really sure what to tell her, but she was leaving anyway. When she
paused at the door, she turned to look at her and Mac. Andi knew right then
that Storm would be her best friend for the rest of her life. She had no idea
why that thought popped in her head, but once there, she knew it was true.
“Congratulations, and good luck. Don’t
forget, it’s easier to walk on two legs than four when you get out there. Just
saying.” Nodding at her, Andi looked at Mac when the door closed behind her.
“I’m a tiger. Have you seen her yet?” Mac
said that he had not. That she was going to show him now. “I have no idea how
to even attempt that. What do I do?”
Think of her. But—
Whatever else he was going to tell her was
lost as her cat just consumed her. Every part of her body seemed to be turning
inside out, but not in a painful way. As she sat there, her body humming with
her newfound power, she blinked several times as his cat stood next to her.
I was going to say, wait until you have us a
clear path to get out of the house, but you were too quick. I usually love that
about you, but now…. Well, we have no one to open the door for us.
Oh. I guess I should have waited a minute or
two.
He laughed and rubbed his long body against hers.
I can feel that all over
me. I mean, like you’re stroking me from the inside out.
I will be soon enough. Once we get out of
this house, I’m going to show you how to run, leap over things, and generally
enjoy what you have become.
He moved to the bedroom door and waited. She started to
ask him how to change back when the door opened, and Riordan was suddenly there
laughing.
Lucky for you, Riordan was still here. Or we’d have to replace
everything in this room.
What do you mean by that?
She looked around the
room as he answered her.
Oh. You mean cat sex isn’t as pretty and maintained
as human sex? Good to know in the event that I’m a cat and we’re in close
quarters, and I have a sudden urge to jump you.
Laughing, she watched the
two men as they stared at her.
As soon as Riordan moved back from the door,
she took off toward it. It felt strange at first to walk on four feet rather
than just her two, but she got the hang of it soon enough. But when she came to
the stairs, she stopped and looked down at them. It was a scary thought, going
down them like this.
“Move down them one at a time until you get
the hang of your new body.” She looked up at Riordan as Mac streaked past her
to the front door that was standing open too. “You need to exchange blood with
all of us now. So that we can converse in the way of our people.”
The way of our people?
He laughed again and
rubbed his hand through her fur.
You’re a sap; has anyone ever told you
that?
“Yes, daily. So, how is it you can talk to me
this way, I wonder?” She didn’t care and took off, carefully, down the stairs. Moving
out of the doorway, she heard Storm laugh and suddenly just didn’t care. As
soon as she felt the earth beneath her feet, it was all she could do not to
dance at the feeling it gave her.
It only took a few moments to find which
direction Mac had gone. His scent, like his cologne, seemed to call to her.
After nearly tasting him on a few branches, it became less easy to find him by
scent. It was as if he were teasing her into looking harder for him. Just as
she came upon a stream of fast moving water, Andi stood as still as she could
when she saw the stand of deer that had been there the other day. They were
just as alert and cautious, but today there was one less of the babies.
I think he was killed several days ago when
they were crossing the road to our land. A car hit him but didn’t stop. I
didn’t know if it was their baby or from Riordan’s property. But the reason
they haven’t taken off with you standing there is that they can’t smell you as
yet. If they did, they’d be gone in a minute.
Lifting her head as slowly as she
could, she looked for Mac.
I’m to your left. You’ll have to be very still
and concentrate to see me. It’s the reason we’re marked the way we are.
It took her ten minutes. When he asked her repeatedly
if she needed help in locating him, Andi told him no, she wanted to find him on
her own. But as soon as she saw him, his tawny stripes blending in so well with
the surrounding grasses and scrub around him, she watched in marveled awe when
he came closer to her.
If there was a word for the way he looked
right now, Andi had no idea what it might be. Amazingly beautiful. Sexy beast.
Breathtaking form. All these combinations of words, but not a single one seemed
to fit him.
I love you, Cormac. With all that I am, I
love you.
He paused coming toward her, his sleek body standing so still he looked like a
part of the world around them rather than a man who turned into a cat.
You
are the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me.
And you to me. I have loved you for all of my
life, I think. Only waiting on you to come to me so that I could give you my
heart.
Her own heart seemed to melt at his words.
Now run, Andi. We wish to chase you,
then fuck you.
She took off, startling not only the deer
that were there but a raccoon and a few squirrels too. The woods, it seemed,
were alive with life. She was amazed at all the sounds she could hear as well. Even
the flapping of the wings on the birds overhead.
Andi loved how she felt, the way her body
seemed to know just when to jump, when to land, and how not to hurt herself
when she did. Just as she was congratulating herself on her ability to adapt so
well, she was knocked to the ground so hard that she tumbled ass over head
three times before she stopped. Then Mac was standing over her. When he ordered
her again to run, she stood up and rubbed her body against his, feeling the
same connection to him as she did in the house.
I want you to take me.
He told her that it
wasn’t like that when his cat had his fun with her. She more than likely
wouldn’t enjoy it.
But you will, and that’s what matters.
As soon as she rubbed her body to his other
side, he bit down on her shoulder and mounted her from behind. It was strange
and weird having him do this, and her cat seemed to take exception to it. Snarling
and trying to throw him off, she tried to calm her, but it didn’t work. She was
pissed.
His cat, bearing her down to the earth, sank
his teeth harder into her shoulder when she tried to get away, and she finally
sat down and stopped moving. He couldn’t take her and that seemed to piss him
off more.
He’s going to hurt you.
She told him he
could try. There was humor in his voice, like he was enjoying the fight as
well. When she was able to break free of him, his cat snarled at her as she
took off again, and this time she decided to be the aggressor rather than the
victim.
Twice he walked by her. She wasn’t sure if he
was teasing her again or hadn’t found her. But when she was knocked down again—this
time he wasted no time in entering her—she submitted to him. There was no other
word for what happened between the two cats. He took, she let him. When he
finished, Andi snarled at him and Mac laughed.
I told you it wouldn’t be the same. I’m so
sorry about that. But he needed your cat to submit and when she was did, it was
good. Shift, love, and we’ll make it worth your while.
She thought of her body, the one that seemed
to be right there for her, and felt her human self come around. When she was
standing there, naked and ready for him, Mac’s cat knocked her to the ground
and buried his head between her thighs.
He wasted no time in bringing her three
times. Each time she thought she couldn’t take any more, he’d nip at her flesh,
her clit or her thigh, and she’d come, screaming again. But when she begged Mac
to come to her, his big cat melted away under the man she’d come to love. As
soon as he was deep inside of her, his cock filling her like the cat never
could, Andi watched him, his cat just on the surface of him, as he made the
most glorious love to her.
As they lay there, each of them holding onto
the other, Andi wondered if they had created a child or not, and what would it
be like to love someone as much as she did Mac.
Hester slipped up behind the man who pulled
out the newspaper and caught the door just before it closed up tight. Smiling
to herself at her win, she pulled out the paper and stuck it with the rest of
her stolen items in her large handbag. She’d eat well tonight, she thought with
a grin.
Two days ago she’d come upon the idea to
change her appearance so she could go into town. It had taken her the better
part of the next day to come up with a suitable outfit to change herself, but
in the end she’d been quite pleased with it. Then yesterday she’d walked around
the neighborhood, not too far from home in the event some fool came to run her
off again, and hadn’t been recognized by a single idiot. One man had even asked
her if she would help him gather wood that was free for the taking. Like she
would do a thing for anyone that lived on her street. After telling him to fuck
off, she made her way back to her house and made her plans to make a trip to
the store and other places that needed taken care of.
So today she’d gone to the store first,
getting the much needed supplies that had run low over the last few days. Expiration
dates hadn’t been considered when she started hoarding her foodstuffs, and she
knew it was something to do with the government trying to control them again.
They were putting shit in the food so that when they decided it had been not
used soon enough or they wanted the consumer to spend more money, they set off
the charges and the food would spoil. Fuckers. They wouldn’t beat her at this
game. Hester knew she was much smarter than any of them anyway.
Of the fifty or so cans of soup she’d had in
her room and other places in the house, forty-four of them had been tampered
with. The lids had even popped off on a couple of them, leaving her a mess to
clean when the smell died down. There was going to be hell to pay when her
niece and nephew came home. And her brother wasn’t going to be allowed in the
house once he got his shit together either. Fuckers, all of them.
All in all, it had been a very profitable day,
she thought as she made her way back to her home. She had meat now…not a lot,
but enough to sustain her for a few more days if she was careful. Vegetables
that were as fresh as she could get them, and some milk. None of that non-dairy
shit either. Wholesome milk for her coffee, which she had managed to get as
well. She’d even been able to get in and out of the post office without being
seen, and had cash money, too, to put by in the event she had to venture out
again before she was able to bring the kids to heel. Pulling out her paper, she
sat down on the bench under the big elm and opened it up while reading the most
recent propaganda that it was spouting.
The headlines on the front page were the same
shit. Someone was pissed off at someone else. There was war going on here or
there. Hester knew that it was all lies; there were no wars going on, only
people wanting the money spent on them. It was like when they said they put a
man on the moon. Hogwash, all of it. Why on earth would anyone want to travel
all that way just to walk around in some sand? They want that kind of shit
going on, just travel to the beach and do it. She turned to the next section to
read the obits and news there. Usually they could be counted on to get that
shit right.
Nearly choking to death on a grape she’d
pulled from her bag, she read the first headline there three times before she
could get the stupid fruit dislodged enough to catch her breath again. There
was no fucking way this was true. Looking around, she spied another newspaper
stand machine and went to it. Not even waiting on someone to buy a paper first,
she paid the fifty cents and pulled out another paper.
Another Harrison Bachelor is Off the Market.
It was the subline
that had her seeing red.
Cormac Harrison has married Andi Collins in his
parents’ home.
She’d told that girl no and here she had done
just the opposite of what she’d told her. That damned girl was going to pay for
this; Hester would make sure she paid dearly for it. She was going to beat her
within an inch of her life.
Hester looked around for someone to confirm
what she was reading and, of course, they were too busy with their mind sucking
phones stuck to their faces or in their laps while they entertained themselves
on them. Porn, she knew that was what they were seeing. Everyone was looking at
porn and she knew it.
Hester stormed up to one man who seemed to be
talking to himself, and she jerked the tiny thing off his ear. She’d thought it
was an earring, but apparently it was a talking thing and he was pissed off at
her because she’d ended his call. He screamed at her for two minutes before she
snapped at him to shut up.
“And fuck your call. Where did this news come
from?” He looked at the paper she was shoving in his face, then down at her. The
smirk on his face had her wanting to wipe it and him off the face of the earth,
but he crossed his arms over his chest like he knew what she was thinking. “Who
wrote this shit, and how to I get it retracted? I did not give anyone the say
so to print this crap, and I want to know how to get it taken out of the paper.”
“You don’t. I mean, it’s true, so why would
you anyway? Andi is a nice girl, and Mac is very—”
Hester hit him, just drew back her fist and
slammed it into his face. As she was walking away, she heard him screaming
something about lawyers and owning her, but she knew he didn’t have a leg to
stand on. As far as he was concerned, he’d been hit by a fucking man, not a
woman like her. He’d have to find her, wouldn’t he?
“I’m going to kill her if she thinks this is
funny. I’m not the least bit amused. She’s not going to be getting married to
nobody. Not so long as there is breath in my body, she ain’t.” Taking the
shortest route to her house, walking through yards instead of the walkways,
Hester came upon the cruiser long before she did her home. And when she saw
them bastard suits on her porch with Andi and three other men, she didn’t even
think about what she might say to them, but walked up to them and reached out
for Andi.
Her hands come up empty when she went to
snatch the girl bald. Her arm that held her big bag was pulled up behind her
back, and all her things dumped on the ground before her. Andi was still
standing there when she glanced over at her, and she would swear the bitch had
the nerve to be laughing at her. Hester saw red so deeply she was sure her
eyeballs were bleeding from it.
“Let me go, you motherfucker. I’m going to
have a word or two with that ungrateful cunt there.” There was laughter again,
this time from all of them, and Hester tried to jerk free of the man but he
only held her tighter. “You’re going to pay for that, you son of a bitch. I’m
going to beat the living shit right out of you as soon as you set me free. Let
me go, you moron.”
“I don’t think so. I sort of like having you
where I want you. And if you think my wife is going to let you touch her now,
you’re stupider than I thought you were. And that’s saying a lot. Hester,
you’re going to hurt yourself more if you don’t settle down.”
Hester started stringing together curses at
the man that she knew was making no sense whatsoever, even to her ears. “You slimy
cock hammer shit fuck pecker-head. Let me go right now, or I swear to Christ
that I’m going to hurt you in ways you cannot imagine.” Jerking on his grip on
her only did what he’d said it would and hurt her worse, and pissed her off to
the point where she no longer cared what she said. “You prick-eating douche
knob fucker pompous fart lover, let me the fuck go.”
“My goodness, Hester, where did you learn
those words? Oh, I know, down on the dock where you lived.” Hester looked at
Andi and ordered her to call her aunt. “No, I don’t think so. Not anymore. That
is a term of endearment, or at the very least, respect, and since I have none
whatsoever for you, I’m not going to call you anything but your given name. I
do not like you, much less feel any sort of endearment toward you. But I will
say that you have been very busy, haven’t you? Calling the prison to harass
them, stealing from the local stores, even going so far as to hitting an off-duty
cop when you didn’t like the headlines of the paper. You’re not going to be
able to get out of this very easily this time, Hester. There are witnesses to
your dirty deeds.”
“You had me followed? There is no way you
knew it was me.” Her hat was pulled off her head and tossed at her feet. “You
didn’t know it was me, I know you didn’t. You’re lying, you fucking bitch. And
don’t think I’ve not been making a list of shit you owe me for too. You’re
going to be chained to the floor like I told your daddy to do years ago. You’ll
never see the light of day again. And this marriage you think you have? That’ll
be over too.”
“I’m pregnant too.” Hester forgot about the
man holding her and jerked her arm in a way that she saw stars when it pulled
at her. She didn’t have to have no doctor degree to know it was broke, either. She
felt it all over her body. But she’d be damned if she’d let them know it. She
was made of better stuff than any of these fuckers were. “And so you know, I’ve
been changed into a tiger as well. I’m about as happy as a woman can be. You
should try it sometime. It’s an amazing feeling. Being happy, I mean. Not the
tiger part. You’re not fit for that, I think.”
“You’ll be changed back too when you get your
ass back in that house. There is no way I’m going to have a monster in my
house.” She tried to use her arm, just to prove to them that she wasn’t hurt,
but tears filled her eyes when it moved.
As she sat down on the porch, her arm
throbbing like a bad tooth, she wondered what the fuck was wrong with these
people. They were acting like there wasn’t a thing wrong with this shit. Changing
into monsters wasn’t natural, she knew this. The government did this. Well,
she’d show them. Pulling her things to her the best she could with her one good
arm, she told them what she thought of all of them.
“You’re all gonna pay for this shit. See that
I don’t bring a hurt down on you that you’ll feel for years and years. Once I
get me in my house, I’m going to be making me some calls, see if I don’t. I’ve
had enough of this bullshit, and I’m getting that useless daddy of yours back
here too. I knew I should have killed him when I did your mamma. Things might
have been a little different for me had I did it. But now here I am stuck with
doing all this shit on my own.” She realized that no one was speaking and
looked up at Andi when she thought about what she said. “You don’t think she
died all on her own, do you? Had to teach that boy a lesson too. When I told
him to leave her to her own business, all he did was mope around like he was
lost because his mommy was so sick. She wasn’t sick, she’d done birthed a
fucking brat. One I was gonna have to kill too.”
“You killed my mother? Jim told Mac that you
did, but…you actually let her bleed to death while he begged you for help?” Hester
snorted her answer. “What kind of monster does that? And why? What did she ever
do to you?”
“Monster? I’m no more monster than any smart
person who knows that kids are going to ruin this fucking world. Look at you. Standing
there with your hooking boots on, your too tight sweater. When you come to live
in my house, and you will, there will be changes made. And that babe? Well,
it’s a good as gone too. The first thing I’m going to do is have someone come
in and exercise you back to the other fucking dumbass you were. Then you’re
going to set to doing what
I
want from then on. I’ve about done with
you.”
“Hester Elizabeth Collins Casey, you’re under
arrest.” She looked up at the cop in front of her and spit on him. Hester no
more believed in the authority the cop might think he had over her than Andi
was thinking she going to go on like she had before. “That’s not going to win
you any kind of brownie points with us downtown, you know. You and your
brother, you’re quite a pair, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you. You get his ass on back here too.
He’s got some things to answer for like the rest of them. I’m going home. Andi,
get rid of them monsters right now and get in that house. You have a lot of
work to do.” When she felt herself being lifted up, her arm making her sick it
hurt so badly, she screamed at them to let her go. But all they did was take
her to the cruiser that was still sitting on her front lawn. Hester reached
into her pocket and pulled out her gun just as the cop, the filthy piece of
shit that was telling her she had rights, was shoving her into the back door.
Hester thought about killing the cop, but she
knew for some reason that she’d only get one chance at this before they tried
to knock her down again. So she thought of that fucking niece of hers and
wished that Jim, the retard, was here too so she could kill two birds with one
bullet.
Turning toward Andi, doing something that she
should have done years ago, Hester pointed the gun at her and smiled. As far as
she was concerned, Hester was doing the world a favor by taking one more
monster out before it was able to breed. But before she could do more than just
point it, Andi was gone and in her place was a huge fucking monster. A fucking
tiger, of all things, that the government had sent to kill her with. Even as
the cat leapt at her, Hester fired her gun until all it did was click. Then it
hit her. The big cat took her to the ground.
