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

Chapter 30

Kate stayed with Nick while Anders examined Zoe, gently stroking his forehead. He was deadly pale, his breath shallow and barely even audible. “Please, don’t die,” she whispered, a couple of her tears splattering on his cheek. His skin was so cold it felt as if he was gone already. Anders claimed that it was just due to the huge blood loss. With Nick being human now, the doctor couldn’t exactly keep giving him animal blood anymore. Grams sent someone to raid the blood bank in the nearest hospital, hoping that human blood would help him, but the cat wasn’t back yet.

Nick didn’t move or react to her tears or words in any way. Of course he didn’t, he was in a deep coma and it was unclear whether he would ever even wake up. But Kate had to stay positive.

She was just about to enter the room where Zoe and Anders were but their quiet voices stopped her. “...my fault. He is going to hate me now.” Zoe sounded devastated, her sniffling breaking Kate’s heart. The poor girl was blaming herself for Nick’s injuries and everything that happened.

“Of course not, young cat lady,” Anders replied in a surprisingly kind voice. “I won’t pretend to know what exactly happened but I’m very sure that the man does not hate you.” There was a silence for a few moments as Zoe was probably frowning at the doctor, because he quickly continued, “You know how I know that? Because, my dear Zoe, your friend only woke up for a few moments and your name was the only thing he said. He wanted to know whether you were okay. And when your scary aunt told him you were, he was relieved. Now, I don’t know how things go in the cat world, but with us plain boring humans, that surely isn’t a sign of hating someone.”

With a careful hope in her voice, Zoe whispered sheepishly, “He did?”

“Yes, girl. Now, let’s put a tight bandage on that elbow of yours so it grows back together properly and you won’t have to walk around with one arm longer than the other.” Zoe’s chuckle was interrupted by a sharp pained hiss. “Sorry, it’s all done now. You are one brave girl. Tell me, how does one join that cat club of yours? My old bones could surely use that accelerated healing,” he said playfully.

Kate had to admit that for a veterinarian, he surely knew his way around kids. Being still quite frightened of her, the doctor flinched when she finally opened the door and walked in. Honestly, it was the only reason she was willing to leave Zoe alone with him for a few minutes, knowing he was too scared to try something stupid like harming her.

There was a tight bandage around Zoe’s elbow and Anders was just sliding a sling over her head to place her arm in. She jumped off the examination table and darted straight to Kate, hugging her with her healthy arm. “Did Nick really ask about me?”

“Yes, he did. He loves you, we all do, none of this was your fault, Zoe.” Words didn’t seem to be helping much but Kate had no idea how else to convince the girl that it was the truth. She felt the girl suppress a yawn and realized Zoe must have been exhausted. If she had been kept in the same place as those disfigured creatures that kept moaning and crying all the time, she probably didn’t get much sleep. “How about you go take a quick nap? I’ll wake you if there is some news about Nick, okay?”

Like when he dies. “Shut up, Catherine!” Fatim snapped at her. “It’s not over, you don’t get to whine and curl in the corner just yet. Suck it up!” Wow, what a pep talk.

Anders gave Zoe some painkillers and directed them to one of the empty bedrooms upstairs. It looked like it belonged to a teenage boy some time ago but hasn’t been used in ages. Fortunately, the girl was so exhausted she fell asleep almost immediately. Kate left the door open a bit so the light from the hallway would illuminate the room. Zoe would probably be scared waking up in a strange place and in total darkness.

When she got back down, the doctor was already stitching up Melanie’s injury while Liz was sitting on a chair in the corner, a bloodied bandage around her head. “f*****g dog bit off a piece of my ear,” she growled upon noticing Kate’s raised eyebrow. “I’m fine but Grams insisted the doctor check me up.”

“Mhm,” Anders nodded, his face and ears turning red. “I don’t know who this Grams is but I feel like I should send her a thank-you card for sending so many naked women into my house.” He flinched when Mel hissed at him, her features twisting as she snapped her sharp teeth next to his neck. “Sorry, it was supposed to be a compli-”

“Shut up,” Kate interrupted him, lifting her head up, trying to hear whatever made Fatim anxious. A car coming into the driveway. “You expecting someone?” Her eyes narrowed when she pierced Anders with a sharp look. He wouldn’t be so stupid to try and call someone, would he? It didn’t sound like the police, just one car, some stupid girly song blasting out of the radio.

The doctor’s face grew pale and he shook his head vigorously. “No! I… Sometimes people come in the middle of the night when their dog gets hit by a car or something like that but they usually call first.”

Kate stepped outside, Liz and Mel following suit, pieces of thread and a needle still hanging from the wound on Mel’s side. Julia and her pigeon friend whose name Kate didn’t even bother asking for joined them and their ragtag group formed a protective circle around the entrance to Anders’ practice.

The car stopped in front of the house, momentarily blinding them before the driver shut the engine down and turned the headlights off, along with the dreadful music. The cats could smell him even before he got out of the car. “A werewolf,” Mel spat on the ground, ready to shift.

“Yea,” Kate sighed, recognizing both the man’s scent as well as the smell of his cheap cologne. “The f**k are you doing here, Luis?” she shouted at him the moment he stepped out of the vehicle.

The werewolf was tall, a tank top showing his beefy arms and shoulders. He flicked his head to get the hair out of his eye for a second before it fell back down. The dumb haircut was definitely new, he had a buzz cut last time Kate saw him. A corner of his mouth curled up into a sly smirk. “Wow, what a welcome party. Ladies, I appreciate you were so eager to meet me that you have already proceeded to remove your clothes but, sadly, I’m mated and not really interested in your virtues.”

“Who’s this d**k?” Liz hissed, pulling out her claws.

Kate ignored her, stepping forward to look right into Luis’ face. “Why are you here?”

“Why do you think, Catherine? Your creepy Prime called me and pretty much commanded me to get my ass over here. She said, and I quote, that you needed my blood, which is kinda scary. And sick. Have you developed some new kinks since we met? Aside from the silver chains and the wolfsbane?” His tone was playful but his words hit dead center. Nick was not the first werewolf the gang came across.

“Your blood?” She tried to ignore her hatred toward that annoying prick and focus on what he said. “Wait, can werewolves give blood to each other without worrying about blood types and s**t like that?”

He frowned at her. “I think so. What the f**k did you do, Catherine? You went a bit too far with your games?”

“My g-ugh. We don’t have time for this. Come on, you need to help Nick.”

She turned back to the house but the werewolf didn’t follow her. He stayed by his car, arms crossed in front of his chest. “Do I?” Whatever playfulness was in his voice before, it was gone now. “I’m not saving some poor guy’s life just so you can continue torturing the s**t out of him! I don’t-”

“I’m sorry, okay?!” Perhaps it was good Luis was there, this was long overdue. Kate blinked a couple of times, trying to chase the tears away from her eyes but a couple of them still managed to fall out. “I’m sorry for what happened. I wish I could say it was not intentional but damn, you just open your mouth and it makes me want to shove a knife into your stomach.” She turned his way but didn’t find the courage to look up at him. “I know it doesn’t mean s**t to you but I apologize. For everything. You are absolutely entitled to hate me but could you please help my-Nick?” The werewolf would hardly be happy to hear the cat calling Nick her mate.

His frown deepened, his brows forming a crevice in the middle of his forehead. “Hmm,” he mused and his eyes darkened as he took a step toward her. Kate knew what was coming and, despite Fatim violently protesting, she let him have his way. When his fist came towards her chin, she didn’t try to move out of the way, gasping in pain as she was thrown backward by the force of his punch. She quickly stopped the other cats from attacking him. The birds backed off a bit, they didn’t seem too eager to be near a pissed-off werewolf.

“Feeling better?” she growled at Luis, rubbing her sore chin.

He grinned at her. “Much. Now, show me this poor guy that has fallen into your clutches.”

Anders didn’t even bat an eye over the newest visitor to his house and went to prepare some flexy plastic tubes for the transfusion, flinching when Luis leaned in to sniff the air around him. “A human. First time around weres?” The wolf smirked when the doctor nodded. “You seem to be handling it well.”

“I think he’s in denial,” Kate chuckled. “That, or it’s the amount of vodka he put into his coffee just an hour ago.”

“Hey! You don’t actually expect me to deal with these mind-shattering revelations sober?” Anders defended himself. “By the way, are you sure about this blood thing? A human would die if he got the wrong type.”

Luis waved his hand and let the doctor put the needle into his elbow pit. “Yea. I’ve been to a pack hospital a couple of times and they did it all the time.”

“A pack hospital,” Anders rolled the words on his tongue as he was connecting the other end of the tube to a needle and then searched for a vein on Nick’s pale arm. “Why didn’t you take him there?”

If only it was that simple. “He’s a rogue.” Right, that word probably meant nothing to Anders. “Like, uh… an outcast.” Yea that was probably closer to the human view of the world. “He can’t go anywhere near any of the packs.”

“Rogue my ass,” Luis frowned and winced when the blood started to flow from his body to Nick’s. “He’s just a scrawny kid. Are you sure he’s a rogue? He doesn’t seem like he’d be able to survive a week on his own. Why the hell would anyone kick him out of the pack?”

“Because werewolves are traditionalistic assholes and he was too different to fit in. I think you can relate to that,” Kate smirked.

Luis mirrored her expression. “Yep, the wolves are almost as bad as a bunch of batshit crazy cats.”

Kate couldn’t exactly argue with that but she still felt a need to defend herself. “Luis, we did not do this to him.”

“Catherine,” he leaned forward, watching her intently, “if I thought for a second that you cunts put the poor kid into this condition, I’d rip your f*****g throats out.”

“Let that bastard try, I’ll tear him a new one!” Fatim was ready to fight but Kate didn’t let her. Before he was made a rogue, Luis was an elite pack warrior, there weren’t many chances they could take him on, not without wolfsbane at hand. And he seemed almost friendly now, which was remarkable, given their history. They better not provoke him.

Kate knew she should get some sleep, she didn’t exactly do much of that in the past two days, but her brain refused to slow down enough to let her rest. It would be better if she could cuddle up to Nick but Luis was sitting right next to him and she didn’t want to stir the waters too much. So she just raided Anders’ freezer and sat in his kitchen with a bucket full of ice cream, absentmindedly putting the spoon into her mouth.

“Do you want some whipped cream with it?”

Kate flinched, she was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t even hear Anders come. “Oh, no thanks. Sorry,” she blushed a bit, realizing that they basically invaded the poor man’s home and forced him to deal with some pretty crazy stuff. Not to mention stealing his clothes. “I promise we will totally pay for all this.”

“Don’t worry about that,” he waved his hand and grabbed a second spoon, digging into the bucket as well. “With the money that my practice just received from an anonymous donor, I can afford to buy a wagon of ice cream. And a couple of new shirts.” Great, it seemed that Grams had already wired some compensation to the man, plus no doubt a fat bribe to keep him quiet. “Unless, uh…” he scratched his head nervously, “you’re going to kill me?”

Yes, she could totally see how he would reach such a conclusion. They must have seemed like a pretty crazy and very violent bunch of people. Creatures. Whatever. “Nobody is going to hurt you. If you manage to keep your mouth shut.”

“I don’t think that’s going to be a problem,” he chuckled and reached into a shelf, pulling out a bottle, “I might become an alcoholic if you come around here often though.”

***

Next update: Wednesday