She might have a fucked up past, but she’s a spunky little thing. And that gives me hope because that means that, despite her size and what she’s been through, she’s strong. And I see that strength more every day as she continues to grow bolder, despite being in a strange place with strange shifters.
And my animal? He likes that about her too.
I hear Mousey’s claws click across my floor, and I realize that she’s abandoned the dresser climb tonight. Good thing, because she makes me nervous as fuck every time she does it. I keep thinking she’s going to fall and hurt herself, which is why I’ve been leaving the drawers open like stairs so she can just climb up them. But tonight, she bypasses it. At least I’ll have clean underwear to put on tomorrow.
When she rounds the bed and I hear her pause, I know she just spotted the little gift I left her. My lips curl up and my animal snorts, pleased with himself, like it was his idea.
There’s a little squeak of excitement that cuts off short, probably as Mousey remembers she’s supposed to be quiet. Then all I hear are her feet quickly scampering over and the telltale sound of her finding the small rubber bouncy ball I left for her.
It’s shiny metallic gold and only cost me a couple of quarters in a vending machine, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to get it for her. Mousey is fond of treasures. Shiny ones in particular.
Since she’s been visiting my room every night now, I decided to leave it for her here rather than in her own warehouse. As far as I can tell, mine is the only room she visits. I’m oddly smug about that.
Mousey stays in my room for another fifteen minutes, totally occupied by rolling and bouncing the ball around. Then, like she’s eager to get it back to her nest, I hear her make her way out of the room, rolling the ball as she goes.
Wait for it…
Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce…
And there goes the ball bouncing down the metal staircase and making a shit ton of noise. She probably just woke up everyone in the entire warehouse. I grin into the dark room, and my animal chuffs in amusement.
She’s just too fucking cute.
6
Reese
Ever since my rat took the plunge to sneak over to Lug Nut’s room, I’ve been exploring all over the place. I do it during the night or early morning, when the shifters are mostly sleeping.
I’ve only come across a few nocturnally-driven shifters out wandering, but none of them have bothered me in the least.
Because of my nighttime pandering, my collection has really grown. It’s grown so large, in fact, that it’s now taking up about a third of my large cage. But it still needs some work. And more stuff. The shinier the better.
In the center of it is Lug Nut’s lug nut. I placed it up on a little pedestal made out of dice and some coins. My rat is a bit obsessive about it.
I’m currently rummaging under Addie’s bed, sorting through the dust bunnies as I search for more stuff, when the bedroom door suddenly slams open, scaring the cheese squeeze out of me. I freeze next to the bedpost, and the female with black hair freezes right back, our wide eyes locked on each other. My heart starts thumping about a mile a minute, fear taking hold of me.
Then, like the pause button gets hit again, the female suddenly screeches, “A mouse!”
I’m a majestic friggen rat! Why does no one see that?
Before I can snap out of my indignance, the horrified female suddenly gasps. “You’re a shifter!”
Just like that, she shifts, quick as a snapping whip.
Into a damn rattlesnake.
I squeal and sprint as fast as I can back to my cage, knocking over Addie’s hamper in the process. Clothes go flying, and a shirt lands on my body, but I keep running even though I can’t see anything, because there’s a friggen snake slithering right at me.
I run face-first into the metal cage, stunning myself with a burst of pain. With a little grunt, my nose hurting like a bitch, I manage to hook my claws around the wires of the cage and climb up. The shirt slips off my body right as I round the top of the cage and fall inside.
As soon as I land, the snake makes it to the other side of my cage and starts to hiss at me.
Fuck, her fangs are big. Why are they so damn big?
As that thought enters my mind, the snake lashes out. Huge fangs strike at my cage right where I’m standing. If it weren’t for the wires, I’d be snake indigestion right about now.
I tumble backwards, my fear notching up to a whole new level. I dive-bomb beneath my pile of collected cotton balls, screeching when I hear her attack my cage again and again. Peeking out, I realize with a thudding heart that my cage door is still open. If she figures that out...I’m toast.
Every time her fangs clang against the wires, I feel the noise vibrate all the way down to my bones. I have nowhere to go, so I hide inside my cave, but that quickly gets upended when the snake lashes out particularly hard.
I come tumbling out of the cave, ass over head. Unfortunately, the rattlesnake didn’t just de-cave me. She also jostled the hatch, and she suddenly homes in on that movement like a damn hawk.
Shit!
Realizing she has a way in, she starts slithering her way up the metal bars to the top of my cage, and then her tongue slinks out, as if testing the air.
Or maybe she’s smelling the fact that I just pissed myself.
Either way, her tongue is slithering out really aggressively, and if I might say so, judgmentally.
The snake and I stare at each other for a hot second. And then she strikes.
I dive to the left under my wood shavings, barely escaping her attack.
She strikes again and again, trying to get at me, so I race around like crazy, making sure to pivot left and right. You always zigzag when someone is gunning for you. That’s, like, basic survivor shit.
Yet no matter what kind of fancy footwork I do, the fact of the matter is, there’s no way to escape. I’m stuck in here, and she’s blocking my only way out. All I can do is evade her, but for how long?
She strikes right in front of my feet, and I barely manage to stop in time before her jaws snap shut.
Cheese and mice, that was close!
I’m not gonna be that lucky again.
Sure enough, she hisses and rears back to strike again, but before she can, a hand is suddenly yanking her out of the cage. I’m so stunned I’m not being eaten alive right now that all I can do is blink at the space the snake was just in. Twitching my nose, I look over and see none other than Lug Nut tossing the snake onto Addie’s bed.
“Zoey! What are you doing? Shift back,” he tells her.
The snake rears up like she’s trying to meet his height and hisses at him. She’s shaking the end of her tail like crazy, but I guess this rattlesnake is minus a rattle, because it’s not making any noise.
“Knock it off,” he tells her.
She spits venom at him instead, making it land on his face.
Making a grossed-out grunt, he swipes at it to wipe it off. “Gross, Zoey.”
Me? I’m using this distraction to get the hell out of here. No way am I staying trapped in this cage in case she wants to go for round two.
Unfortunately, my rat’s flight instinct isn’t the smartest. Every prey shifter knows that you don’t run from a predator—it just makes them want to catch you even more. But apparently, I forget that survival instinct, because I scramble out of my cage and then race for the open bedroom door. I’m not even half way there before the snake’s attention snaps back to me, her damn tongue smelling me again.