Like Cats and... Wolves? The Werepigeon Apocalypse [FREE and COMPLETED]

Chapter 24

The smirk on Melanie’s face was a victorious one and Kate stared at her, incapable of saying anything. It was plain nonsense, must have been. Nick didn’t even know birds existed before coming to Silver Falls. He looked confused, as if he wanted to shake his head and say something but stayed motionless upon remembering the syringe in his neck and Mel’s sharp claws holding him.

“I saw him tonight,” Melanie said in a smug voice, “just stopping by for a friendly chat with a bird before they each went on their merry ways. And don’t you think it’s a little too big of a coincidence that just as you let him roam around freely, the birds found out we were here and Zoe got kidnapped?! Stop using your cunt to make decisions, Katie!”

“I’d never hurt Zoe, you brainless furball!” Despite everything, that was something Nick apparently just had to react to. Mel gripped his throat tighter and the streams of blood running down his neck got wider.

Kate took a second to think about her words. Was she really blind to the facts when it came to Nick? Was she enchanted by his scent and distracted by the awesome s*x and couldn’t see the truth? Was the mate bond even a real deal or just some sketchy magic he had a witch cast on her to keep her distracted and weasel his way into their gang? Has he been lying to her from the start?

All she needed was one look into his eyes to know that every single one of those thoughts was pure bullshit. Whatever was going on, Nick hasn’t done anything wrong. He would never do something to endanger Zoe, Kate was absolutely certain of that. She took a step forward, glaring at Emmet until he sighed and let go of her arm.

Cats didn’t exactly believe in authorities, definitely not the way the werewolves did. There were no Alphas in cat society, no cat would ever accept living under one. Grams was the Prime because she was the most experienced and respected cat in their group. Not because she was the strongest or because the others were afraid of her. Whatever hold she had over the gang was based purely on each individual decision to follow her orders. Which was great under normal circumstances because it allowed everyone to maintain their freedom and independence. But right now it sucked because, without proper leadership, a situation like this was bound to turn into an awkward mess.

Still, the Prime was Kate’s best bet in helping Nick without having to actually physically fight Melanie. She could do that, she didn’t really have any issues with it and would probably even win. But Mel would have more than enough time to inject Nick with the wolfsbane before Kate could get to her. And that was not something she wanted for him. Not again.

“You are going to let him go and you won’t lay a f*****g finger on him ever again,” Kate said as calmly as she could manage. Which wasn’t very much. “Grams, this one is mine. And whatever problem you guys have with him, you will take it up with me first. The next person who touches him will get their ass kicked.”

Grams nodded, an amused smirk running over her face. But Melanie only got angrier. “You trust this dog more than us? More than me?! Just look!” Through the mind link, she sent Kate an image of a very naked Nick talking with a very naked old woman. They nodded at each other and the woman shifted into a pigeon, peacefully flying away. Nick scratched his head, looking lost in thought for a moment, but then shifted as well and ran off in his huge wolf form. “See?! He betrayed us!”

Nick gave her a desperate look, trying to shake his head without forcing Mel to rip out his throat. The memory certainly didn’t put him in a good light but Kate refused to believe that he would betray them. Her. Zoe. No, not Zoe.

“Yes, I trust him,” she said, stepping closer to them. Nick let out a shaky breath and closed his eyes for a moment, relief spreading across his face. “I’m sure there is a very good explanation for this which Nick will be happy to provide once you let him go. And I suggest, you do that quickly, girlfriend, because you know damn well who would win in a fight between the two of us.” Fatim moved forward, always eager to join in on a bit of threatening and Kate felt her features shifting partially. “We don’t like you groping our mate, cunt,” one of them hissed, “so put that hand away or you’ll lose it.”

There, she said it. Kate wasn’t even sure whether it was her or Fatim who said the word. And it didn’t matter that it meant something else in their world than it meant in Nick’s world. She publicly claimed him as her mate and it felt better than she would have ever expected.

Melanie stared at her in disbelief. Only after she glanced at Grams and saw the Prime nod did she let go of Nick’s throat and pulled the syringe out of his neck, backing off from him. Kate was a bit worried that Adira would be pissed off enough to force a shift and start attacking people but Nick seemed to have her under control.

He ignored everyone, didn’t even spare a glare in Mel’s direction, and strode straight towards Kate, cupping her cheeks and placing a gentle kiss on her lips. “Thank you for trusting me,” he said quietly, giving her a shy smile before turning to Grams. “I did not betray you. Yes, I talked to that pigeon lady, she approached me while Adira was scouting the perimeter for the secret entrance. She wanted to come to you but apparently was convinced that you would kill her on the spot. Can’t say that I blame her,” he threw an evil smirk at Mel.

No, Kate had to agree. They would have definitely not talked to a bird. Maybe that was a mistake? “What did she say?” That was the only important thing at the moment. Because it must have had something in common with Zoe.

“Well, she wants to help us get Zoe out. Which I would have told you,” he glared at the cats again, “if you stupid Hello Kitties gave me a chance.”

Mel scoffed, taking a few steps toward him. “Wow, what an inventive lie. Why the hell should we believe a word you say, fleabag?”

She was standing close to Nick again. Too close. Too f*****g close to Kate’s mate and neither Kate nor Fatim liked that. The cry that came out of her mouth certainly didn’t sound human. No, it was more of an angry meow that Kate, or Fatim maybe, let out when she leaped forward and shoved Melanie away. “Because I SAID SO! And get your filthy claws away from him!”

“You are such a cunt, Catherine, I swear I will-”

“GIRLS!” Grams’ voice sounded through the room, “please, stop that.” It wasn’t an order, she didn’t have such power over them. But her soothing presence both in the real world and seeping through the mind link helped Kate calm down and realize she might have been overreacting a bit. Melanie stepped back as well, with an uncertain expression on her face. She opened her mouth to protest but Grams stopped her. “Let’s hear the wolf out. As civilized creatures, please. Now is not the time to fight against each other.”

Melanie nodded, retreating to the wall again and watching Nick with a grim smirk. Kate let out a shaky breath, glad the Prime stopped them from having a physical confrontation. While she didn’t exactly love Melanie, especially now that she threatened Nick, she certainly didn’t want to hurt her. “I did want to hurt her,” Fatim swiped her tail from side to side.

“Yep, I saw that. Why? I thought you didn’t want Nick as our mate?”

The cat smirked and Kate could sense she was a bit embarrassed. “Not the way he means it.” Like either of them actually knew what the word meant for werewolves. “But if he is going to be someone’s mate, it’s ours. And nobody else touches what is ours.”

Kate couldn’t but agree. It didn’t matter that he wanted to leave her. He was here now and while he was here, he was theirs, one way or another. Hers and Fatim’s. She might be willing to agree to share him with Zoe and her cat but that was it. No other creature was going to lay a f*****g finger on him again.

*-*-*

Seriously, couldn’t these stupid cats catch a break? What the f**k was wrong with them? Nick spent hours running around the research facility and found the secret entrance based on Julia’s description. He came back tired and hungry but, like the good soldier he now was, went straight to Grams to report what he discovered. Only to nearly get killed or poisoned by the pissed-off blondie, Mel, as Kate called her. What a bunch of nutcases these creatures were.

The cat must have seen him talking to Julia. The b***h was pretty sneaky, Adira didn’t even notice her despite carefully watching her surroundings to not run into a random bird patrol. And yes, Nick could understand how that particular scene, ripped out of context, would make him look bad. But what the f**k, did he not earn at least the benefit of the doubt?

Guess he should have been grateful the cunt didn’t inject him with the wolfsbane straight away and just held him in check with the needle in his neck. But damn, was he pissed by getting caught off guard like that, Adira even more so. Probably why the crazy blondie waited until Kate walked through the door, knowing Nick would be distracted enough by her. And he was.

His mate looked like she kept crying most of the time he was gone and Nick hated himself for not being there to comfort her. There was a brief flash of indecision on her face when Mel accused him of being a traitor and probably showed Kate some incriminating evidence through their mind link. But Kate shook it off. She believed him. He didn’t have to defend himself or even explain anything. She just believed him. And if that was not a mate thing then what else was?

She even called him that, his mate. Kate or Fatim, it didn’t really matter. Just as it didn’t matter that it meant something else for the cats. Nick overheard them talking about Emmet as Grams’ mate and those two certainly weren’t in love or anything. No, they were just f*****g, as Kate bluntly put it. If that was what she wanted him to be for now, fine, he could live with that, as long as it meant he could be in her life. And, after all, what man would ever refuse to keep having s*x with someone as hot as Kate?

It was interesting to see their Prime in action as she stopped an argument between Mel and Kate. An Alpha would just bark a command and everyone would have no choice but to fall in line. The cats were different. Whatever Grams did was way more subtle but almost as effective. And she did something, aside from saying the words, even Nick could feel that. Like a soothing wave that washed over him, taking a part of his anger away with it. It even calmed Adira down enough to stop shouting at him to jump at the blonde b***h and tear her throat out.

Kate believed him but the other cats didn’t. The frown on Emmet’s face when Mel voiced out her accusations was for some reason more disappointing than the clear distrust and hatred in the rest of their expressions. Why the hell did it make Nick feel that way?

“Isn’t it obvious?” Adira stretched her paws and rolled her eyes at him. “Nicolas, you never got your father’s approval. So, quite naturally, you have latched yourself onto the first available father figure that passed through your life and started to seek their approval instead. You really are no better than the child who befriended you because you were chained to the wall and there was no risk you’d disappear.”

Adira was being brutally honest but there might have been some merit to what she said. However, Nick hardly had time to think about that. Grams was willing to hear him out and he needed to convince her he didn’t betray them before she decided it would be best to throw him back into the cage.

“Look,” he turned to the Prime, trying to sound calm, “I might not like you fluffy nutjobs. But I would never do anything that would put Zoe in danger. Or Kate.” His hand found hers and he grabbed it, intertwining their fingers. “We were scouting the facility perimeter for that secret entrance, just like you asked when the bird approached us. And yes, my first instinct wasn’t to kill it. It looked like there was something she wanted to say so I decided to give her a chance. We shifted and talked and then went on our merry ways,” he smirked at Mel, mockingly repeating her words.

Grams furrowed her brows, cautiously watching him, Nick couldn’t exactly decipher her expression. “What exactly did she tell you?”

“She spoke about this guy Ralo and that not all birds agree to whatever it is he’s doing in that facility. Honestly, it sounded like a lot of them were tired of this war and were only fighting it because they were scared of him. He’s making some sort of serum and apparently, he tested one of the earlier versions on himself and it made him crazy. Well, crazier than he already was. But this council of birds or whatever, they won’t make a move against him because he has results. He seems to be close to perfecting the thing.”

Kate gripped his hand tighter. “What about Zoe?”

“She’s alive, Julia said she was tasked to take care of her.” Nick moved to a large plan hanging on the wall, Kate following him since she refused to let go of his hand. “Ralo is holding her here,” he pointed at one of the buildings, “that’s his main base of operations. There are some underground cells where he keeps his umm… failed experiments.” Julia didn’t go into details in that part but Nick still shuddered even just remembering her words and the horror in her eyes. “He stashed Zoe there since there is no way she could escape from the cell even if she managed to shift. Which she can’t because of that electrum collar.”

Nick heard Kate swallow roughly and turned to her, putting his other hand on her shoulder. “Ralo is not hurting her. Julia said he was too obsessed with the research he barely thinks of anything else. He just keeps her there to stop you from doing something crazy like blowing the place up.” A quick side glance that the cats shared did not escape Nick’s attention. So they were planning to do that. Seriously, those cats were crazy.

Turning back to the map, he pointed at an empty space near the western fence. “The secret tunnel entrance is here. It’s guarded but not heavily, we only saw like five or six birds around. But we couldn’t get very close so there might be a bit more.” Still, no match for a bigass wolf.

“Why do they even need a secret tunnel? They are birds, they can just… like fly wherever they want to,” Adira asked in an annoyed voice. She wanted action, she wanted to run there and get Zoe, to tear anything in her part to shreds.

“Yes, they can fly,” Nick had to agree with her, “but they can’t exactly carry much while flying. And they probably couldn’t easily smuggle big things through the official entrance.” Things like a drugged child. “Julia and a few of her friends came up with a plan to get Zoe out. All we have to do is follow it.”

“And walk straight into a trap,” Mel scoffed. “Even if I did believe you, this is all based on what a bird told you. How the hell do we know she wasn’t lying?”

Nick didn’t really have an answer to that. All his instincts insisted on the fact that Julia was telling the truth. That fear in her eyes was definitely real, she was frightened of Ralo and whatever experiments the sick f**k was doing to her people. And it was obvious Zoe told her a lot about Nick. The girl wouldn’t do that if she didn’t trust the old lady. But none of that made a convincing argument for a bunch of cats that barely trusted him.

Grams tilted her head to the side, watching the map on the wall for a few moments before turning to Nick. “And you, wolf? Are you going to fight with us?”

“Yes.” Nick’s thumb slid over the back of Kate’s hand. “I will fight on your side as long as you stop fighting against me.” He couldn’t exactly go to a battle with them not knowing when one of them wasn’t going to put a knife in his back. Or, more specifically, a syringe filled with f*****g wolfsbane.

The Prime nodded. “Then it is settled. You are recognized as a part of this gang as Kate’s mate and you are now also under my protection. Whoever has an issue with you shall take it up with Kate or me first.” She looked around the room, her eyes pausing at each of the cats present for a second before moving to the next one, making sure everyone understood what she meant. “Let’s hear what this bird planned out.”

***

Next update: Friday