CatOutoftheBag (11 page)

She took in a long, deep, heavy breath. “Fine,” Sofia said.
“We have an agreement.”

“Good,” Cassandra responded. “Justin, escort Sofia to the
cell to tell Nathan goodbye and then arrange to have him moved to one of the
campers for the night.”

“Will do,” Justin responded as he bent his elbow at Sofia.

She looked up at him, saw understanding in his face and knew
that she would be able to talk honestly with him, and that perhaps he might
even help her.

Sofia took his arm gratefully this time.

* * * * *

Nathan bit the right corner of his mouth as Sofia stood
before him in his cell. The look in her eyes worried him. What was going on out
there? What were they doing to or telling her? He glanced over at Justin, who
was standing nearby and seeming to be keeping guard before turning his
attention back to her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay, just exhausted. You?”

“You’re leaving, I’m in a cage, booted out the fucking
Pride. Been better,” he chuckled.

“No, you can stay with the Pride. I got the council to
change their minds about dismissing you. Instead they’re going to punish you
with solitude for the rest of the night, and whatever additional reprimand
Cassandra comes up with.”

“How did you manage that? What did they make you agree to?”
Nathan cut a suspicious glance at Justin, but he was a blank slate.

“I agreed to join. I threatened to leave and never have
anything to do with them unless they let you stay in.”

Nathan felt the color drain from his face. “You did
what
?
Why?”

She looked hurt. “What do you mean why? Leaving the Pride
would disrupt your entire life. I couldn’t have that happen just because of
me.”

“And I can’t have you—” Nathan paused and licked his lips,
took a deep breath and paced in a tight line. He delivered his next words
carefully, struggling to keep his voice calm. “Who are you picking for your
induction?”

Sofia scoffed and looked off to the side. “I chose to
postpone my induction, since I’m about to leave. They’re letting me say goodbye
to you before they move you to one of the RVs.”

“Stay with me another week.”

She shook her head and put up her hands. “Don’t.”

Nathan scowled. “If you’re not going to stay, you might as
well have let them kick me out.”

“You’re annoyed with my leaving again,” she sighed, her
shoulders sagging with defeat. “Can you tell me exactly why?”

“Because you’re leaving me here. Don’t you understand what
leaving me here, as a Pride member, without you means?”

“No, I guess I don’t understand.”

“I’m a virile male,” he said. “There’s a bunch of pussies
out there with their biological clocks ticking. I’m
expected
to perform
in the Mating Ritual every night. After my punishment is over, they’re
demanding that I participate with
full enthusiasm
each night that I
remain here.”

She stared at him for a long time. He waited, watching her
as she kept opening and closing her mouth as if she were going to say
something. Eventually she looked away. When she spoke again, it was without
making direct eye contact. “Well, it’s not as if you’re collared. You’re free
to do whatever you want.”

The silence between them was long and painful. Nathan
thought of a thousand things to say but wanted to laugh at himself. Here he
was, the noncommittal one, ready to commit, but the woman he wanted wasn’t. He
couldn’t, wouldn’t ask anything of Sofia she wasn’t ready to give. He either
needed to man up and give her the space and time she needed, or not and move
on.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her into a tender
embrace, his lips pressed against her forehead. She wrapped her arms around his
back and pressed her face into the side of his neck. They held each other like
that in silence for several heartbeats.

“You have my number,” he said finally. “Call me sometime
when you have a moment.”

She looked up at him, her bright-brown eyes big and heavy
with uncertainty. Then she looked away, nodded slightly and gathered her
belongings.

Rejected, Nathan watched her leave, dragging her bag behind
her. And his heart right along with it.

Nathan paced around the trailer like a caged lion. It had
been only twenty minutes or so since Sofia had said goodbye and he was escorted
to the camper. He tried not to think too hard on how long the council was going
to let Sofia postpone her induction. In his fifteen years of involvement with
them, he’d never once known them to postpone an induction for a new member—let
alone bypass one. They must have really wanted her in to agree to that. He
imagined all sorts of future surprise visits to her NY apartment by horny Toms
like Justin and his ilk. Or worse, that they would wait until the next retreat
and make her join a mating ritual where Nathan would be forced to watch as part
of his punishment. Just the idea invoked a low predatory rumble from Nathan’s
throat, and his body shuddered as the cat within him raged to be set free, to
lash out its claws.

The door to the camper swung open just as Nathan was about
to shift and have a full on kitty-fit, and in sashayed Cassandra. She closed
the cabin door behind her and moved to sit on one of the bench seats. She eyed
him coolly as he retracted his partially extended claws and let his paws revert
back to hands.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk with Cassandra. But they
needed to talk. He licked his lips and sat down on the bench seat opposite her.
“So I’m really still in?”

“You’re still in.”

“Why?”

“Sofia said we could only have her if we keep you. And we
really wanted her.”

“How did you get her to agree to join? She was pretty
adamant about not participating in the Mating Ritual.”

Cassandra leaned back in the seat, placed her elbow on the
backrest and propped up her head by the fist as she faced him. “Aren’t you more
interested in knowing what new punishment I’ve determined would suit you, since
you’re staying with us?”

Nathan exhaled deeply and rolled his eyes but he allowed the
avoidance of his question. For now. “I can probably guess.”

“Then guess.”

“You’re going to force me to join the Mating Ritual,” he
said. “To appease some of the queens who have been asking for my attention for
a while now.”

The openmouthed and furrowed-brow expression on her face
told Nathan that not only had he guessed incorrectly, but Cassandra hadn’t
anticipated that being his answer. “No. Part of your punishment is to ban you
from the ritual, not make you participate in it,” she said. “I didn’t realize
that the ritual was such torture for you.”

“Because you don’t know me very well.”

“Apparently not,” Cassandra hissed. “But now that I know
this, I’m reconsidering my tactic. You’re going to be part of a special,
private ritual for the rest of the retreat.”

He rolled his head. “What will be so special about it, hmm?”

“There are three senior queens just over forty, who are
anxious to be impregnated while they still can. They’ve specifically chosen
you. You will mate with all three of them, daily.”

He hunched his shoulders up and down. “You know firsthand
that my participation won’t matter.”

“You’re a virile male, Nathan,” she said, pointing a finger
at him. “You need to make it matter. Your
full
participation is
required.”

A laugh preceded his reply. “You know I’m not interested in being
a sperm donor.”

“I’m one of the three.” Cassandra ignored his arguments.
“I’ll be the first with you, starting tonight.”

“You and I used to get along because unlike all of the other
females out there, you weren’t looking to get knocked up.”

She flashed a heated look at him and leaned forward in her
seat. “What if I’ve changed my mind? What if I realized since the last time we
met up that I’m not getting any younger?”

“Then you should go on out there,” he flicked his hand in
the air indifferently. “There are plenty of Toms in that room right now who
would gladly screw you for the cause.”

Cassandra got up and moved toward him then straddled his
lap. “I want you.”

Nathan glanced up at her, annoyed and disinterested. “No,
you just want what I can do for you.”

She scowled at him. “Is that such a bad thing?”

“It is when you
know
that’s not what
I
want.”

“You know that’s part of the grounds for you to stay in the
Pride,” Cassandra fumed. “You have to mate. I can make it easier if you want,
by only requiring you impregnate me.”

“Said I’m not interested.” He shoved her off his lap and she
went tumbling onto the seat beside him.

“I
know
.” Her voice raised an octave. “I’m not asking
to collar you, Nathan, or for you to be a doting daddy. I already know you’re
not interested in such things.”

“No,” he corrected her. “I’m not interested in those things
with
you
.”

Cassandra stared at him, her mouth a tight, incredulous slit
as the understanding fully hit her. He didn’t expect Cassandra to take
rejection easily and so he braced himself for the tongue lashing.

But to his surprise she merely stood and straightened
herself up. The smile she flashed was eerily devious and conniving. “You
will
mate tonight. That is not debatable.”

He scoffed. “What makes you so sure?”

“You asked me just a while ago how we got Sofia to agree to
join us. The truth is, it wasn’t too hard. She seems to believe you really care
about her. There was little she wasn’t willing to do in order to protect you. I
suspect you will do the same.”

Nathan snapped his head. “Are you…threatening Sofia?”

“It’s a warning.” Cassandra grinned. “If you don’t comply,
you’re both out of the Pride, and there’s no returning. And there’s no more
protecting either one of you.”

A warning. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Without
making further eye contact with her, he jumped to his feet. “We’re done.”

“That’s it? You’ve don’t have anything else to say?”

He started walking away. “No.”

“Where are you going?” she called after him.

He felt dirty. To the core. “To take a shower.” He went into
the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind him.

Nathan quickly undressed and stepped into the shower stall.
It was tiny and almost claustrophobic, but the steamy hot water beating down on
his skin was exactly what he needed.

Maybe he was done with all of it. It would be hard without
his job, without the Pride, but the price to stay was too high—his dignity…his
heart. Maybe even his honor.

Eventually realizing that he was in the same shower Sofia
had used, Nathan placed his palm on the wall and closed his eyes. He thought of
her naked beauty standing in that very spot, the water rinsing the soap from
her caramel skin, sloshing it down her sumptuous curves.

He figured if he hurried, maybe he could catch a flight back
with Sofia. Let her see just how serious he was about her. What did he have to
lose? Screw the Pride and their myriad sexually demeaning rules and
expectations, and their determination to dictate who he slept with and when,
expecting him to share the woman of his dreams just because they said so. Screw
the council for taking advantage of their position to try to manipulate others
just so they could have what and who they wanted.

Yes, if he left right now he could join Sofia. Together
they’d figure out how to make it. Two stray cats against the world.

After turning off the water and drying off, he looked for
his clothes, but they weren’t where he’d thought he left them. He went back out
to the cabin, almost expecting Cassandra to be lying on her back naked on one
of the seats, or for her henchmen to be ready to tie him down and tell him to
do his manly duty… But the vehicle was empty except for him. His clothes
weren’t out there, either. What had Cassandra done with them, and why? If she
thought being naked was going to keep him in the RV, she was wrong about him
yet again.

Nathan stepped out of the RV and instantly poised for a
fight. But there were no guards or anyone at all outside his door to ensure he
remained in solitude or on standby to be a male concubine.

“And there’s no more protecting either of you.”
Particularly
on guard due to those cryptic words and the strange absence of any enforcement
of his punishment, Nathan treaded carefully but quickly as he entered the cave.

He headed toward the small room he’d been sleeping in
earlier in the week to get his stuff out of its wardrobe, but he had to pass
the ceremony hall. The Mating Ritual had already started and all the kitties
had lined up in the room. Fifty-plus naked, hot and horny cat shifters in one
room—Nathan held his breath so as to not overload his senses with all of their
scents. He tried to move past them as fast as he could, but he ran into Justin
Finland of all cats.
Shit.

“Not easy to get through, eh, Dawson?” Justin chuckled.
“They’re all excited. There’s a newcomer tonight.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Nathan spotted the shrouded
female standing against the wall at the back of the room, being greeted by all
of those remaining in line. Almost all of them naked and in human form, and one
by one they introduced themselves in traditional Pride fashion. Some of them
shook her hand. Most of the men got close enough to sniff at her and allowed
her to get a whiff of them. A few of them touched her hand or leaned in to kiss
her on the face or to plant a quick smooch on top of her lips. “Great,” he
mumbled.

“Aren’t you going to introduce yourself?”

“Not really interested in this one,” he replied curtly.

Justin laughed. “Wow, you must have it bad. Suit yourself.
Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Out of here. I’m not staying.”

“Why not? Your status with the Pride is intact.”

“But my
interest
in the Pride isn’t,” Nathan said as
he tried to move past.

But Justin blocked him. “Wait a minute, Dawson, you can’t
just walk out of here.”

“The hell I can’t.” Nathan stormed by Justin and went into
the room to grab his belongings from the wardrobe. He was still packing his
bags when he heard council member Ava Mayer make an announcement.

“Okay, everyone has now been introduced to her as Cat and
human. She’s made her decision and she’s ready to declare it now,” Ava said.

Several seconds went by in silence and Nathan had enough
time to zip up his bag and mutter curses at the world for putting him in this
uncomfortable situation. He was beginning to stick his arms into a shirt when
he recognized the voice that spoke next.

“Hello everyone, it was nice to meet you. I’ve made my
choice.”

Nathan froze stiff. Was that Sofia?

He moved to the doorway where he could see the shrouded
woman. She was moving toward the center of the room and climbing the pedestal.
Once she reached the top she dropped her cloak. Her long, wavy brown hair
framed her toned shoulders, the brown nipples thick and pert in the center of
large, chocolate areolas the size of half dollars, topping off a delicious pair
of toffee-colored breasts.

It was Sofia Saldana standing there, naked and lovely and
not on her way to the airport—but fully introduced to the Pride and now being
admired by all the Weres in the room.

“Who do you choose?” Ava asked her.

“Him. If he accepts,” Sofia replied. Then she lifted her
hand and pointed a finger right at Nathan.