“Both.”
“Oh.” He rubbed his chin. “All right, then. We’ll need to deal with anyone who’s seen both your shapes. Once we get free, I’ll call it in to the Pride, and someone will send a cleaning crew. Pretty sure the protocol on yetis being outed is the same as lions.”
She remembered his feline. “Your coloring is unique.” Dark compared to the usual tawny golden.
“I get it from my mother’s side.”
He still hadn’t clued in. “The attackers saw your lion,” she pointed out.
“Er…what?”
“The first time you woke, you freaked and roared. It was very loud, and you were furry. You have a big mane.”
“Fuck.” A word he used quite a bit, despite it being bad. “Guess it doesn’t matter now then which they see. They all have to die.”
“All of them?”
“Anyone who’s seen or heard of us shifting.”
She blinked. “That’s a lot of people. And isn’t killing wrong?
“Depends on how you look at it. Their deaths could save thousands.”
“Even if you could, how?” They were stuck.
“I have a plan, but I need your help.” He leaned forward as if afraid he might be overheard. “So, listen, that camouflage thing you do? Can you do it on demand? Say, hide well enough that the people offloading us think you’re out of the cage?”
Hide in the open? “Maybe. I don’t know.” All she knew was that he kept calling her a yeti, but that didn’t feel right. I am… It eluded her.
She didn’t know what or who she was. Yet. But she did know that she trusted Zach, and at least he had a plan.
Only once they heard the machinery for the cargo area did he give her a nod.
Time to hide. She crouched to make herself smaller and then hid. Waited, as did Zach, sitting with his legs crossed, hands on his knees, eyes closed. Appearing nonchalant, even when the machine grabbed hold of the cage and started yanking it. The movement made it hard to hide. Thankfully, nobody came to peek at them until they had been loaded onto a luggage cart.
Since it was night, there were plenty of shadows. But someone still noticed. A very deep voice said, “Where the fuck is the girl?”
Zach lifted his head, smiled, and then said, “I ate her.” Then he lunged with a human roar.
The guy shot his dart gun, never realizing that he missed because Zach slumped over and lay still.
The attackers opened the cage so the guy could climb inside for a peek. That was the one Zach tackled as she dove out the door and took care of his partner.
She pounced on him, and they hit the ground hard.
Well, he did anyway. She was on top, adrenalized. And after that long flight, in need of a snack.
Would she get in trouble with Zach if she had a quick bite? The attacker’s neck looked succulent.
“No,” Zach snapped as he stepped out of the cage, still nude and looking very nice.
“What are you?” blubbered the fellow in English.
Her grumble conveyed hunger.
“No time. Let’s go before someone notices.”
Zach grabbed her hand, and they ran, with her fur receding until she pounded the ground barefoot, his shirt fluttering around her frame.
As they bolted, a voice spoke up, shrill with alarm. “They’re getting away.”
“What idiot opened the cage?”
Bang.
The idiot was probably gone.
They ducked around the corner of a building but kept running. They didn’t stop until they were in a massive parking lot. A good thing she had a memory of seeing one before, or she might have been a little more awed. Within the ranks, they crouch-ran, him leading the way. She didn’t know what he was looking for until he stopped at an older car. The kind with a long back end. He popped the trunk and rummaged, pulling out a bag stuffed with different clothes.
At her questioning look, he said, “Shifters always keep spares in their trunk. This belongs to a wolf, but it will do.”
The wolf was built on the smaller side than them both. On her, the clothes were short and tight. On him?
She snickered. The fabric for the top and bottom molded him oddly. The pinkness emphasizing the bold lettering. Cutie. Printed on both the ass and the chest.
“Don’t you dare laugh,” he threatened as they kept moving.
“I think you look great.” Better than great, and not just because he was the first person she’d truly connected with in a long while.
He was handsome. And she couldn’t help but be aware of him. He didn’t know that while he lay in her lap, she’d stroked his hair. Learned his features by touch—another person.
Her skin tingled where they were connected. She loved the feel of his hand laced with hers.
As they threaded through the cars, he stated, “I know where we are.”
“How?”
He pointed. “License plates put us in Jersey. Jersey airport, to be exact. Meaning, they smuggled us internationally. The Pride will want to know about this. This kind of live poaching needs to be stopped.”
The word poaching brought a shiver. “People hunt us.” It sounded wrong to say it aloud. She was supposed to be tracking and trapping her prey.
“People have always hunted animals for food or sport. Getting caught by them is our fault because we know hunting season. We know how to stay safe. The ones we’ve got to really watch for are those interested in us because we can swap into fur.”
“Because we frighten.”
“Partially. But there’s also a fear that the humans might see us as something they can use.”
“So, we hide.”
“Yes, we hide. And, lucky for you, I know just the place.”
Chapter Seven
Zach did not warn his dad that he was coming. Time enough, once he arrived, to deal with the old curmudgeon and his complaints. The biggest one being: Why get a pet if you’re not going to take care of it?
A few times a year, Zach accepted jobs for the Pride that took him away. Yet when he told his dad that he planned to kennel Neffi—the best kitty in the whole damned world—in the nicest place money could rent, his father lost his shit. “Wasting good money. Might as well flush it. What is wrong with you? I’ll take care of it since you can’t.”
Given he’d had to leave Neffi for a few weeks at this point, he could just imagine the upcoming lecture.
“Worried?” Fluffy queried, her expression losing its childlike innocence the more she got away from the cave. She sat beside him in the car he’d borrowed. AKA stole. When he no longer needed it, he’d set it on fire. The Pride would ensure that the owner was completely covered by the insurance company with no rise in premiums.
“Yeah, I’m worried.” But not for the reason she likely thought. What would his father say when he showed up with a yeti? What would he say? There also existed the possibility that they might be followed. “Those kidnappers came after us pretty brazenly.” Would they attack his father’s place? Was it even a good idea to go there? He could practically hear his dad barking, “You think I can’t protect myself, boy?”
“Should have let me eat them.” She pouted.
“Are you hungry?” He answered his own question. “Of course, you are. We were drugged, who knows how long ago. With lots of shifting in between.” He felt the lack of calories rather intently, too. Another reason to hit his dad’s place. Food.