Free Hidden by Mason Sabre Page B

“You need to shift and then you need to take us to the baby. I won’t ask again.”
    One of the Humans threw some clothes down in front of her. She snarled at him and then took her sights slowly around to the suited Human .
    “I will tell you one more time. Shift now so that we may speak or you are of no use to us and we will find your husband and that baby ourselves.” He leaned down to her, grinning all the while. “Don’t think that we won’t.”
    Oh, Cathy knew that he thought they’d find Jeff and the baby—he believed it. It was in his eyes, a deep assurance of himself that he could do anything. She turned to the Human with the gun pressed against her and growled. She didn’t snarl, though, didn’t raise her lip too much, just enough to say back off . The Human got the message and she put her head down, careful to keep her paw from going down, too. Closing her eyes, she tried to call into herself, but it was near impossible. Her tiger was not willing to go away. There was danger around. Cathy forced her, told her that she needed to go. She needed to go so that Cathy could speak. The tiger had no time for talking, though. She wanted to fight and to protect. Cathy wished that she could. She hoped that Jeff was at the church. She was glad it was him who had to run. She wasn’t sure the other way around she would have been able to go through with leaving him.
    Cathy pushed down in herself and the tiger began to listen. She retreated with protest. Please, Cathy begged inside her mind. Please. She needed her to leave.
    The shift was slow and painful. Everything in it was forced and clunky. Even as her bones moved under her flesh, the pressure from the reluctance of the shift made her joints ache. When it was complete, she let herself sit for a moment on her knees, breathless from the effort and her tiger still trying its best to come back and face the threat that was there. She cradled her broken arm to her naked chest, not for privacy, but because the pain in it now, having shifted back to a woman, was far worse than it was before. But she would not let him see that he had caused her immense agony.
    “Dress,” the suited Human commanded.
    Cathy shot him a glance, defiant to the tears that pricked the back of her eyes. The tears weren’t for him or even for fear. They were for Jeff and the baby and this whole damn thing. They were the outlet for the anger that was welling deep inside. She pulled the blouse on, trying to avoid catching her arm. The top was shredded and bloody, but it was better than nothing. She pulled on the slacks they had brought too. One of them must have picked up the clothes she had removed when she shifted. She stood when she had dressed.
    The man stood with the gun by his side. He was too polite it would seem to aim it right at her. Funny that his manners didn’t go all the way deep inside. “Now. The baby?”
    “What baby?”
    The Human came closer. He smelt like expensive aftershave and greed. He smacked her across the face with the back of his hand. She let her head snap to the side with the force, but he was just Human . Didn’t he realise that all it would take from her would be one slash? “Where is the baby?”
    “I don’t know what you're talking about.” She stared him directly in the eyes as she spoke.
    The Human sighed. “You see this young man right here.” He pointed to the wolf who had knocked at her door. He had bound his leg with cloth from his shirt. Now he stood next to the Human . He was nothing but a traitor, not just to the baby, but to his own kind. He worked for the Humans , probably thought that it earnt him a fortune as well as a place worthy in this world, but he was nothing. “See the girl next to him?”
    Cathy nodded. The girl they had pretended was injured.
    “She’s actually his sister. You see …” He smiled. “His actual girlfriend, and this is the funny part, she works for you. Pretty little thing, not too bright. Walks with a limp? Maybe