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

Chapter 21

Kate’s apartment was unlocked but empty. Fortunately, Adira did catch a fresh whiff of her scent from the hallway and Nick followed it. Hers wasn’t the only scent that was coming from a room on one of the upper floors. There were other werecats, several of them, and while under normal circumstances it would make Nick think twice about barging in, now it didn’t really matter. Kate was in pain and she was in there, so he needed to be in there as well.

Lots of faces turned in his direction when he opened the door, the eyes in most of them immediately turning yellow, but Nick ignored them. All that mattered was Kate’s face, tearstained and contorted by immense desperation and fear. But there was a hint of relief flashing through it when she looked up at him, and that was good enough.

A tall, dark-skinned woman stood in his way when he took a step toward Kate. Nick tried to push her away but she grabbed his arm, her long claws digging deep into his flesh. His lips rolled back into a furious snarl and the woman smirked. “Kate, did you forget to chain your dog? It’s running loose around here. Better put him on a leash before he pisses all over our carpet.”

“Who the f**k do these stupid furballs think they are?! I could eat that cunt in two bites! One in her cat form!” Adira was done with being pushed around by tiny cats. Nick felt his teeth getting longer and sharper as his presence flooded their joined mind. “Touch me again, pussycat,” she growled through Nick’s mouth, snapping his jaws right next to the werecat’s neck, “and I’ll piss all over you before tearing your pathetic little body to shreds.”

“Okay,” Emmet’s deep voice sounded from behind them, “let’s keep this civil.” He grabbed the woman’s wrist and pulled her away from Nick. She hissed and struggled before glancing towards the couch Kate was sitting on and nodding furiously. Having eyes only for his mate, Nick didn’t even notice Grams sitting right next to her. The old lady was hugging Kate, her gnarly hand caressing the woman’s long dark hair.

Nick shivered a bit upon seeing the Prime, knowing she didn’t exactly love werewolves, but he didn’t let any of it show on the outside. Instead, he strode across the room confidently, sitting down on Kate’s other side.

Would she even want him there? She did tell him to leave her alone. Hmm, perhaps this was something he should have thought about earlier, before barging into a room filled with clearly hostile creatures whose leader hated his guts. And the only person who could stand up in his defense was angry with him for being her mate.

His worries proved totally unjustified because Kate squirmed out of Grams’ hug and curled up to Nick, sniffling quietly when he wrapped his arms around her trembling body. “It’s okay,” he whispered, despite not having the slightest idea what was even going on.

Most faces around him had some form of a contemptuous smirk on them at that moment. But not all of them. For some reason, Emmet smiled and nodded at him. Grams didn’t seem to be angry that Kate chose to be comforted by Nick rather than her. The old lady didn’t even look infuriated or annoyed by Nick’s presence like some of the other cats in the room.

“What happened?” Nick dared to ask. Kate’s shoulders twitched in a suppressed sob but she didn’t answer.

Grams rubbed her forehead and, with a deep sigh, handed a phone over to Nick. It only took one glance at the screen to understand why Kate was so heartbroken. “s**t,” he muttered, unable to focus as Adira was howling desperately, yelling profanities in his mind. “The birds?”

“Yes,” Grams nodded, turning to the others. “As I was saying before we got so rudely interrupted by Kate’s doggo,” she smirked in Nick’s direction, but it sounded more like a playful tease than an actual insult, “the sabotage is postponed until we can be sure Zoe isn’t in the facility. You all have your assignments, so go, now. And be safe.”

Most of the werecats quickly cleared the room. The dark-skinned woman hissed, glaring at Nick, and he found himself giving her the middle finger before returning his hand to Kate’s arm. Emmet chuckled quietly, coming over to pat Nick’s shoulder and give him an appreciative nod, which left Nick absolutely speechless. How many times in his messed-up life has he wished his own father would do at least one of those things? Why did this complete stranger look almost proud of Nick, an expression that only ever appeared on Alpha Christopher’s face when he was looking at Nick’s brother? Nah, Nick was probably just imagining things.

He planted a brief kiss on top of Kate’s head, not really sure why, it just felt right, and reached for the phone again. Zoe looked almost peaceful as if she was just sleeping in her bed and not unconscious on a concrete floor. “That’s not silver, is it?” he asked quietly upon noticing the metal collar around the girl’s neck. It looked a bit yellowy, but not yellow enough for it to be gold. And he did remember Kate touching the silver chains without any problems.

“Nah,” Emmet shook his head and sighed. “It’s electrum, sort of an alloy of gold and silver and some other stuff. But it works the same on us as silver does on you.”

A quiet growl rumbled through Nick’s chest when he remembered the agony he went through when Kate tore the silver chain off his neck. At least it looked like the thing on Zoe’s neck was somewhat padded on the inside so the metal wasn’t touching her skin directly. But it didn’t mean they haven’t added anything else since the picture was taken.

Grams gently placed her hand on Kate’s knee. “We’ll find her.” She sounded convincing but Kate just helplessly shook her head and started sobbing again. Head tilted to the side, Grams turned at Nick, studying his face for a while. Whatever she found there must have satisfied her since she nodded and stood up. “Stay with her.”

Nick barely even registered the old lady and Emmet exiting the room, leaving him alone with Kate. Nick’s poor mate was sobbing brokenly, drenching the front of his T-shirt with her tears, which he didn’t mind in the slightest. Should he say something? Tell her everything was going to be okay? That was bullshit and she knew it just as well as he did. In the end, Nick just chose to stay quiet and hold her, letting her cry while he gently stroked her arm and back and caressed her hair.

Finally, all her tears seemed to have dried out and she just shivered uncontrollably. “You’re here.” Her voice was hoarse.

“Of course I am.”

She sat up, pulling away from him, and hid her face in her hands. “It’s all my fault.”

“It’s not your fault, Kate. None of this. And we will do everything we can to fix it. Zoe is a tough kid. I bet she will claw her way out of there before we find her.”

Kate cackled and gave him an inquisitive look. “We? You are staying? Even after… what I said?” There was a great deal of shame on her face. That was a good thing, right?

“I don’t care what you said. I’m staying and I’ll do whatever I can to find Zoe. Adira might need to rough up a few cats from this gang of yours but there’s no way we’re letting anyone chase us away.”

Kate smirked through the tears. “Sorry about that. I’ll fix it. But… I don’t know… I haven’t thought about…” Despite her struggle to find the right words, it was quite obvious to Nick what she was trying to say.

“It’s okay.” He pulled her back into his arms, immensely relieved that she didn’t protest and even relaxed a bit, resting against his chest. “We don’t have to talk about it now. I’m just a friend that is here to help, alright?”

“A friend.” Kate tried the word on her tongue and then scoffed quietly. “I’m not sure I can think of you as a friend. This is just so f*****g complicated.”

That is was. “Yea. We are technically four different beings. It’s like some weird polyamorous relationship,” he couldn’t fight off a smirk.

“And everyone wants something else,” Kate sighed. Did they? Tilting her head to look at him, Kate asked, “What does Adira want?”

Nick tucked a few loose strands of Kate’s hair behind her ear, taking a moment to exchange a few quick thoughts with his wolf. Even though he already knew what the answer would be. “That one is easy. She wants the same thing I do - to have a pack that we could protect and cherish.” Noticing how her face fell when she heard him speak about a pack, Nick quickly continued. “It’s just a word, Kate. I don’t think a pack necessarily has to mean a bunch of werewolves. In my mind, it’s just a different word for-”

“A family?” she asked cautiously, lowering her head so he couldn’t see her face.

Now it was time for Nick’s face to fall. A family? Is that what he wanted? In his memories, a family was rarely a source of happiness. Just a bunch of people forced to be together because they were blood-related, despite not really liking each other. Contempt, scorns, constant bickering. Disappointment. That’s what family meant for Nick.

There were other families, better ones. Nick knew that well, yet he still refused to taint the idea of being with Kate and Zoe by that word. “A group of people who like each other. Who want to stay close. No contempt or disappointment in their eyes,” he whispered, not even meaning to say the last part out loud. “It doesn’t have to be werewolves,” Nick added with a smile, not wanting Kate to pity him. “I think a couple of crazy werecats would work just as fine.”

Wow, did he really just ask her whether the three of them could live together? Hmm, a bold move for an eighteen-year-old homeless rogue with no money and no idea how to take care of a child. But Kate didn’t seem like she had a clue about that particular thing either, maybe they could figure it out together. If they manage to save Zoe.

“Of course we will, don’t even think about that,” Adira rumbled quietly.

“What… What does Fatim want?” That was an easier question than directly asking what Kate wanted.

Kate sighed, a corner of her mouth tugging upwards in an annoyed smirk. “It’s more along the lines of what she doesn’t want.” Oh, yes, Nick heard the cat the first time, loud and clear. Kate smiled over the memory as well and nodded. “I think she’s just afraid of losing her independence.”

“Is that what males do in your world? Why there are only female cats around here in this gang of yours? And Emmet, hmm.” That was an odd one. Nick hadn’t seen Grams’ other goon around in a while but Emmet stayed. And despite everything that happened, Nick found himself almost liking the guy.

Kate chuckled and shook her head. “Cat males and females don’t really work well together most of the time. It’s more of a f**k-and-leave relationship. Emmet is only around because he is f*****g Grams right now. And he’s not very dominant, for a cat, so we can tolerate him. When she gets tired of him, she finds a new toy and he goes. Our world has always been held together by females. Males are too… hard to deal with. Or at least so we’ve all been led to believe our entire lives.”

She trailed off and Nick raised an eyebrow, urging her to continue. The messed-up worldview didn’t exactly leave much space for him in Kate’s life. And he wanted to be there, one way or another. A sad smile appeared on Kate’s face as she stared into an empty space, lost in her memories. “My sister was different. She and Linc, they had an actual family. The ideal kind, the one from the commercials, with all the smiling and hugging and saying I love you crap. They were so damn happy it was almost nauseating.” Her expression made it more than obvious that she was just joking.

“They would have made it, you know? Break all the customs, show the rest of us that it can be done. That we don’t have to live a miserable life full of meaningless hookups, constantly fighting against each other to preserve our precious independence. But the stupid war… Linc died when Zoe was a toddler, she doesn’t even remember him. And Em…”

Nick nodded. He already knew the story of Zoe’s mother. Kate didn’t exactly give him an answer to the question he hasn’t even asked yet but the way she spoke about her sister’s family gave him hope. It was hardly the right place or time but Nick couldn’t stop himself. “Would you… Is that something you would want? The ideal family from the commercials?”

***

Next update: Saturday