Cat's Choice (4 page)

She ran into the light now.
A silhouette of a man stood in the middle of the light, but she wasn’t afraid.
She knew it was Adolfo.
She saw his arms stretch wide, ready to receive her as she came up to him.
She threw herself into his arms and embraced him, as tears of both joy and despair ran down her face.

“Oh, Adolfo,” she cried, pulling back to look into his eyes.
“I thought you had left me.”

“I would never leave you, Caterina,” he said, smoothing her hair out of her wet face.
“You are my sister in spirit, and I will always be with you.”

“But I watched you die.”
She sobbed.

“Only in flesh, my darling.
In spirit, I will live forever, in your heart.”

His eyes were reassuring, comforting, and loving.
It put Caterina at ease.
But only for a moment, until she remembered he was actually dead and this was only a dream.

She embraced him hard against her, needing to feel that he was real and in her arms.
“I need you, Adolfo.
What am I going to do?
Who will protect me now?”

She heard him chuckle and looked up at him again, a bit agitated that he would find humor in this situation right now.

“Oh, my sweet, little one, you will be fine without me there to protect you.
You have already found someone who would be able to protect you better than I ever could.”

“What are you talking about, Adolfo?
I don’t understand.”
She was confused by his cryptic answers.

He just smiled and brushed his hand down her cheek. “You will when you awake, little one.”

Then his look turned serious. “When you awake, you will be given a very serious choice.
Our existence will depend on your decision, Caterina.
It will be hard. Especially with all that has happened to you.
Rem ember what I ‘m telling you now; i f you choose the right path, you will find peace, happiness, and more love than you have ever known in your life.
You will become whole again.”

He smiled again briefly, but then frowned. “But if you make the wrong choice, it will mean the end of our world as we know it.
You will be stuck within the grip of that evil man forever, and not I, nor anyone else, would be able to save you.
Do you understand, Caterina?”

His words scared her. “But Adolfo, why me?”

His face softened. “Because you ‘re special, my sweet.
I always knew you were.
That ‘s why I kept you safe for so long.
Because I knew one day, you would do something great.
That you were the key to our future.”

He kissed her forehead, and embraced her one more time.
Caterina felt safe in his arms.

But then he pulled away. “I have to go, Caterina.
Remember what I have told you and remember I will always be with you in spirit.”

She felt the emptiness as he left her arms.
She wanted to crumble to the floor but just stood there, reaching to pull him back to her, but her hands could no longer grasp him.

“Adolfo, don’t go!
I need you !” she yelled.

His voice was but a whisper now, as his body seemed to be consumed by the mist. “I have to go, but I won’t be far.
I promise.
I love you, Caterina.”

She sobbed as she wrapped her empty arms around herself. “I love you, Adolfo,” she yelled into the mist.
“I’ll miss you. I love you.”

Chapter 2

“What the hell?” Tripp exclaimed and caught the woman as she fell. The woman who ran the Bed and Breakfast rushed to his side and said , “Lay her there, on the bed. Poor thing, she came in last night exhausted, ratty clothes and barley able to keep her eyes open. I tried to give her some food , but she refused , saying she was just tired.”

Tripp frowned and looked down at his mate. She had been scared of him; he could scent her fear. When he had come into the building, he knew right away that his mate was in the building. When the caretaker told him about the woman who came in the night before, he sensed that there was something special about her.

“Can you call the clinic and see if someone is free to come over here?” he asked, and waited while the caretaker left the room to pull the phone from his side pocket and dial the Alpha’s number.

“Tripp?” Quin said when he answered the phone. “You just left no more than fifteen minutes ago, what could possibly have happened in that time?” t he Alpha mused, and Tripp grimaced when he said the next words.

“Well, the female kinda panicked when I walked into the room . She’s my m ate, and I growled at her . I think maybe she had a bad experience or something with wolves, because she looked like she had seen a ghost and fainted. Betsy is calling the doc to come and check her out. But I can tell from just looking at her that she has n’t slept well in days or eaten anything. She looks frail. I think we ‘re going to h ave to get her outta here so I can court her.”

Quin laughed on the other end of the phone and then Tripp heard him talking in the background to his mates. Cami must have been close because he could hear her yelling in the background , but Quin muffled the words, so he couldn’t hear her. It wasn’t good though because he could hear his Alpha growling through the line.

“Fine,” Quin said when he pulled the phone away from his chest. “Cami wants her brought here to the Pack house and help care for her until she ‘s well. I told her about being scared, but she said that the woman knew what we were coming here ; she must need help. I agree. So when the doc gives the ‘all clear,’ bring her over. We will have a room readied for her.”

Trip nodded, then turned when the woman began to wake up. She scrambled quickly to the top of the bed, and put as much distance, between her and them as she could. She looked terrified.

“Hey, I gotta go; she’s awake. I will let you know when we ‘re on our way, “ Tripp murmured into the phone and then hung it up and slowly put it back into his pocket. He wanted to keep it slow and easy, not to frighten her.

“My name is Tripp; I am the lead Enforcer for the Council Pack. You called and said you needed to give us some important informat ion. I came to talk to you,” h e said softly and held out his hand to her in a polite gesture to help her relax.

Caterina slowly climbed to the other side of the bed, feeling more comfortable with as much space as she could get in between them. She knew she had to come here, but now that the reality had set in; she was scared shitless. She was a human in the middle of a bunch of shifters, what the hell was she thinking?

Taking a slow and deep breath, she tried to calm herself. She needed to make sure that she didn’t sound like a dimwit here. This was her one shot at making them believe and help her. “I wanted t o speak to the Council directly, ” she said firmly, hoping she sounded more confident than she felt.

Tripp frowned and said, “And they want to speak to you. I ‘m to gather your things and take you to the Pack house.” There was no way he was going to tell her she was his mate until they got somewhere she couldn ‘t run. Tripp thought she looked like she was going to take off if he looked at her wrong.

“Why?” she said suspiciously.

“Because that’s what you wanted , little one, isn’t it?” Tripp said smoothly.

“Well, yes, but I thought it would be harder than to just ask,” she said warily.

“It’s not,” he said firmly and began to look around for her things. “Where is your bag?”

“I have nothing,” she said and bent her head.

Tripp felt an overwhelming need to comfort her. She was his mate, and a human. He didn’t think she would like to have his comfort so quickly, especially the way th at he wanted to comfort her. He felt an overwhelming urge to grab her and kiss her. Tripp never thought he would find his mate.

“I will get you some things later. We have some wonderful shops in town that the women of the Council own and help run; they will be happy to help you,” h e said smoothly and then breathed a sigh of relief when Betsy and Cloe walked through the door. When he had asked for a doctor, he assumed they would send one of the ones who were training . Of course, he should have known that Cami probably called and gave Cloe the heads up. They could not keep their noses out of anything.

“Well, what do we have here?” Cloe said brightly , and Caterina looked like she was going to run again. Cloe could be very intimidating to humans —her height alone made her seem imposing. Add her tattoos , and her normal black , biker look —jeans and leather jacket —and she looked like a doctor from hell.

Caterina swallowed and shook her head, “I ‘m fine, just a little tired still ; really , I just need to rest.”

Cloe laughed and put down her bag. “First off, my Alpha female would have my head if you weren ‘t looked over, and secondly, you look like you are going to pass out again. When was the last time you ate anything?”’

Caterina looked at Tripp for help, but he crossed his arms and watched her, wanting to know the answer himself. She looked like it had been days, even weeks, since she had a good meal. And the bags under her eyes made her look even worse.

“Uh, it could have been yesterday afternoon,” Caterina muttered.

Tripp frowned and refused to growl. He didn’t want to scare her more, but his mate was wasting away before his eyes. “Betsy, could you please call the Pack house and have a meal prepared for us when we arrive?”

The older woman nodded and then left the room. He knew that by the time they got to the Pack house, Cami would have put out a spread for them. His mate needed to take better care of herself, and he was going to make sure that she did.

“I need a little background,” Cloe said and pulled out a file and began to ask her questions. “Name?”

“Caterina Bonadado,” she said quietly.

They went through the normal information that needed to be given. Tripp felt very protective when he heard that her family had died, and she was all alone. He wondered how she came to be in Milliken, Colorado. It was a long way from where she started .

“Okay, Tripp, can you leave for a few minutes?” Cloe said softly, and he caught himself from grow l ing at the Council member.

“But she is my…” he started and Cloe held up her hand and said , “I know, but I need her to feel comfortable, please.”