Chapter 19
2468 Words
Nick barely slept, trying to make sense of the papers Kate gave him. It all seemed very serious and scientific but still, the whole idea was just insane. But his world stopped making sense ever since he turned eighteen and met Adira. It felt as if he fell through a rabbit hole like poor Alice and the place he landed in was designed by a sick madman.
He could just pack his bag and disappear, he knew his way around the building and it was obvious nobody would try to stop him. The thought was not as tempting as he assumed it would be. Even the idea of not being around Kate was painful. Stupid mate bond. But… he did feel the same way about Zoe and he certainly wasn’t mated with her. The little rascal simply invaded his heart, setting up a permanent residence there, and it would hurt immensely if Nick had to leave her behind.
Crazy or not, this seemed to be his new reality, so he better do his best to understand it. The papers were lined with his notes now. While he liked science subjects at school, this was an actual scientific paper covering a topic he knew nothing about. The terminology alone was completely alien to Nick and he spent most of the night googling words he didn’t understand. The sad thing was that the search results often contained more words he didn’t understand. It was a vicious circle.
But, by the time Kate softly knocked on his door, he had a fairly certain idea of what the whole thing was about. And it sounded even crazier than he expected.
“Coffee?” Kate’s voice sounded apologetic and she offered him a big cup of steaming hot liquid. Nick gladly accepted it and waved her in. “Damn, did you sleep at all?” she raised an eyebrow over seeing the mess on his table. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked-”
“It’s fine, don’t worry about me.” Nick had to suppress a yawn which would sort of spoil the effects of his words, warming his hands on the hot cup and inhaling the amazing smell coming out of it. Combined with Kate’s scent it smelt heavenly.
She brought a couple of chocolate rolls from the bakery across the street as well, pulling them out while sitting down on his couch. “Please, tell me you have some answers for me.”
Nick noticed that she had dark circles beneath her eyes and looked just as exhausted as he felt. “I… I don’t know. This is all so insane. Are you sure it isn’t just some sort of weird Jurassic Park fanfiction?”
“Jurassic Park?” She rubbed her forehead and let out an exasperated sigh. “Was that the thing with dinosaurs?”
Nick nodded solemnly and sat down at the other side of the couch, trying to give her some space, worried that if he sat right next to her, he’d just jump at her and f**k her right on the spot. The mate bond pull combined with his raging hormones was seriously something. “Look, Kate, there is something we should really talk about first, I feel like I should have-”
“No,” she interrupted him firmly, shaking her head. “Sorry, Nick, but I just can’t deal with feelings and s**t like that right now. I can’t. This is way too important, nothing can get in the way. So please, just tell me about the papers.”
It’s not like Nick didn’t expect it but he still had to at least try. And fail. “Fine,” he sighed in defeat, “but when you do find out about it, don’t get mad at me for not telling you earlier.” Which she was going to do anyway. A frown twisted her features but she nodded and waved towards the papers on the coffee table.
This should be fun. “Okay, I honestly haven’t found a way to say it so it doesn’t sound completely ridiculous,” he said, “simply because it IS completely ridiculous. But from what I understood, these scientists are looking for a way to combine ave DNA with samples dubiously obtained from various dinosaur fossils to create some sort of a hybrid.”
“Ave?” Kate’s brows furrowed over the unknown word.
“Yea, sorry, I bugged me too. Turns out, it’s just a fancy word for birds." It made sense. Sick and twisted sense, but with everything she had already told him about the war between cats and birds, there was some logic to this entire madness. Kate’s fists clenched over the mention of birds and she rolled her lips back in a quiet snarl. Nick continued, “What’s even crazier, they aren’t manipulating the DNA on embryonal level, so the newborn hatchlings would have the hybrid characteristics. No, they are trying to take a fully grown adult bird and alter their DNA so they would turn into some creepy mutant.”
Kate didn’t respond right away, she just rubbed her forehead, hiding her face in her hands for a few moments. “Fuck.” One quiet word to sum up the situation.
“Kate, this is impossible,” Nick tried to be the reasonable one. Of course he knew that arguing with crazy people was dangerous. But what else was he supposed to do? “Human science is not on a level to achieve this, it’s just not-”
“What if it’s not?! Didn’t you say it yourself that werewolves don’t know jack s**t about this DNA stuff? Then how the hell can you say it’s not possible?!” Kate raised her voice but despite her harsh words, Nick felt her anger wasn’t aimed at him. She seemed to be contemplating smashing her empty cup on the ground but set it down on the table and jumped up instead, restlessly pacing the room. “And what if it is true, hm? What if the birds really are trying to turn themselves into some f*****g weredinosaurs?!”
Nick snorted. He fought against it really hard, knowing the only possible effect it could have was that she would get mad at him. But it still came out and Kate froze in her tracks and turned to him. He thought she would start yelling at him or leap closer to punch him, that was something he was ready for.
The raw pain that flashed through her face before being replaced by a contemptuous smirk took him by surprise. “You don’t believe me.” No matter how much she tried to hide it, she sounded hurt, and her words sent spikes of pain through Nick’s heart.
He hurt her, she was in pain because he was stupid. Mate or not, that was not something he wanted. He jumped up and took a step towards her. “I’m sorry, Kate, I-”
“Shut up,” she hissed furiously. “Why did I ever think that-ugh! You are just a stupid dog, a selfish male like the rest of them! Get out!” she screamed at him and shoved him away when he tried to move closer. “Pack your s**t and leave, I don’t want to see you around here again! You are just a filthy liar who gives false hope to people.” Tears were welling up in her eyes and she blinked rapidly to chase them away.
Nick knew that he should probably just do what she said, she was very dangerous and not much in control of herself at that moment. But his mate was in pain and needed help and he needed to stop acting like a selfish jerk. “No,” he said firmly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
“What?!” Eyes turned yellow again, Kate jumped forward to him and snarled right into his face. “What did you just say to me?! This is my gang’s house! My house! If I tell you to get out, you will put your f*****g tail between your legs and LEAVE! Or I’ll toss you back into the f*****g cage!” Nick smiled softly, knowing she was just lashing out because she was scared and desperate, feeling alone and betrayed. Which meant she did have some feelings for him, no matter what she claimed. His smile seemed to have angered her even more, she was seething now. “You think I won’t do that?” she asked quietly, in an ice-cold voice, clearly trying to scare him away.
And while Nick couldn’t be one hundred percent sure she wouldn’t actually go through with the threat and toss him back into the cage, he was certain she wasn’t going to hurt him. “No, I don’t think you are going to do that,” he replied in a calm tone.
She slapped him. Nick saw it coming and he could have avoided it or grab her hand and stop her but he did neither of those things, grunting in surprise over how much it actually hurt. It was obvious Kate wanted him to retaliate, to yell at her, to fight her. But Nick was done fighting against her. When she raised her hand to strike him again, a couple of tears rolling down her cheeks, he gently caught her wrist and held it in place. His other hand went to her nape and before Kate could react, he leaned down to finally kiss her.
Her lips tasted like coffee and chocolate rolls and like her, the most delicious taste of all. She froze up for a moment but didn’t pull away, eagerly kissing him back, sighing in relief when he wrapped his arms tightly around her trembling body. Nick wanted it to be a gentle, innocent kiss but Kate desperately attacked his lips, slipping her tongue inside his mouth, throwing her arms around his neck to pull him even closer.
“It makes no sense,” she mumbled while catching a breath. “Why does this feel so good?”
Nick sighed, his palms cupping her face, thumbs sliding over her cheeks. “Because you are my mate. I wanted to tell you b-”
“WHAT?!” she cried out and pushed him away forcefully, looking furious again. “No. Just NO. I told you I don’t have time for that s**t. I don’t want it! And I’m not some damn toy that random divine assholes can just play around with. I choose what happens with my life, not some f*****g goddess!”
“You still have all the control, Kate.”
Her lips curled in a contemptuous smirk. “You bet your precious Alpha d**k I do! I don’t care that some stupid deity decided that I should be your b***h and spend my days licking your balls.”
“That’s not what-”
“Shut your f*****g mouth! I…” she took a few steps backward to put more distance between them, “I can reject you, right? That’s a thing, isn’t it? I can choose not to feel like this.”
Nick managed to take it standing up straight when she slapped him and when she pushed him around in her anger, but her words made him stagger. Was he really such a mess that not even his fated mate, the other half of his soul, didn’t want to be with him? He should have seen that coming, he was never good enough. Not a good fighter, not a good leader. Not a good future Alpha. Not a good son. And, apparently, not a good mate either. The pain in his chest became unbearable and he slid down to his knees. “Yes, you can,” he breathed out.
Kate hesitated, her hand sliding over her own chest, touching the very spot where Nick felt the agonizing spikes. She must have felt something through the mate bond, they spent enough time together for it to get strong enough to pass emotions through even though they haven’t marked each other. “I… just… I can’t do this. Just leave me alone, please,” she whispered with a quiet sniffle and darted out of the door, leaving heartbroken Nick behind.
*-*-*
The bird was injured. Its wing was broken and yet it desperately tried to fly away every time she came closer. Leila wanted to play with it, to poke it and see what it does. “That’s mean,” Zoe frowned at the kitten. Leila could be mean sometimes but usually listened to the girl. And she liked Nick. Zoe liked Nick too, even though he was a grownup. Most grownups were sooo boring. But Nick was fun. Like Kate.
Kate liked Nick too. Leila wanted Nick for herself but Zoe didn’t mind. It meant that Kate let Nick stay with the gang, even though Grams and the other cats didn’t like him. Cats really were mean sometimes.
Zoe knew she should wait for Emmet to come to pick her up after school. But he didn’t like birds. Nobody from the gang liked birds. Zoe sometimes didn’t like them either, they did kill mom after all. But this poor thing was hurt and if Zoe didn’t help, no one else would.
“Wait,” she said quietly, trying to calm the scared animal down. “I won’t hurt you.” The bird jumped up and flapped his healthy wing in a vain attempt to fly away, landing on the other side of the street. Look both ways, Zoe reminded herself before running after it, feeling really proud that she remembered what her mother had taught her.
Before she could get to it, the bird escaped into one of the side alleys. Zoe followed it, bouncing up and down excitedly. It was a nice day. Grumpy old Emmet built her a swing and Nick was going to play with her today. Maybe he could show her his wolf again? Leila nodded with a wide smile.
The bird was lying on the dirty pavement as if it had finally given up trying to run away from her. “It’s okay,” Zoe smiled, “I will help you, little birdie.” She took a few steps forward, reaching down to pick the injured animal up. The skin on the back of her neck bristled and Leila jumped up, hissing violently, trying to push forward and shift. A strange-smelling rag covered Zoe’s mouth, making her dizzy and sleepy. Just before she passed out, she saw the bird transform into an elderly woman covered in bruises who was cradling a broken arm to her chest, tears sparkling in her eyes.
***
You wanted pigeons? You got pigeons!
Next update: Tuesday
- Writer
