Free A Cat's Tale by Melissa Snark

reached up to grasp his arms, settling her
fingertips against the inside of his wrists. She hadn’t consented to accompany
him and he didn’t want go through their usual production. Not tonight.
    “Josie,
please.” He kissed her neck below the ear and then her throat above the
jugular. Her fur felt velvet soft beneath his lips. “I need you to trust me.”
    Her
eyes narrowed with suspicion. “See? Talk like that makes me trust you less.”
    He
sighed. “Do you always have to be so contrary?”
    “I’m
a cat,” she said. “It’s expected.”
    “Right.”
His mouth twisted in a grimace. Out of patience, Jared picked Josie up and tossed
her over his shoulder.
    “Hey,”
she hissed, writhing so the muscles of her backside bunched and her tail
flexed. He got hard just watching her squirm. “This wasn’t part of the plan!”
    “Plans
change,” Jared said. He swatted her rump once hard for the simple pleasure of
watching her jump. Then he carried her into the bathroom and shoved the door
closed for the little privacy it afforded.
    “Put
me down, you Cromag wolfman.” She threatened him with the glide of claws across
his bare back. Jared didn’t flinch. He trusted her—more than she did him. It
wasn’t a wise choice, but he obeyed his instincts.
    Hefting
her off his shoulder, he set her down, placing her feet firm on the tile floor.
He exhaled hard so his nostrils flared. He looked down at her and remained
silent, thinking hard. She claimed to trust him. How much? Fuck, he loathed
having to destroy any of her hard-earned trust.
    Josie’s
eyes grew round and she backed away from him, staring with a fearful
expression. “Jared? Okay, now you’re scaring me for real…”
    He
held up his hands in a staying gesture. “Josie, would you do something for me?
Please? Just once do as I ask without a thousand questions and arguments.” Out
of desperation, he attempted to use his wolf to soothe her, allowing his power
to flow across her tense frame. It was risky. His attempts to treat her as a
submissive wolf tended to provoke a negative reaction from her.
    She
stopped retreating just before she ran out of bathroom. “What?” she asked. Her
mysterious cat mind was philosophical. To trust? Not to trust? That was the
question.
    “Shift
fully to human,” Jared said. He waited. Time passed and he realized she wouldn’t
do it for him. Her half-cat, half-human form was her armor. Trust had been a
mirage in their personal desert.
    Frustrated,
he closed his eyes, sorting possibilities and attempting to revise his escape
plans into some kind of workable strategy. The odds of getting out and keeping
Josie alive in the process seemed insurmountable without her cooperation.
    “Jared?”
    He
opened his eyes and found her in human form. She held her head high and stood
with her back straight, enduring his inspection. She was petite and whip-thin
with high pretty breasts and a tiny waist. Her skin was a dusky mocha and her
short black hair sleek and shiny. The clunky gold collar around her neck
contrasted with her refined beauty.
    “Josie,
you’re gorgeous,” Jared said. He beckoned her to him, not bothering to conceal
his arousal. “Why don’t you want me seeing you like this?” As a rule,
shapechangers had no taboos about nudity and little personal modesty.
    His
cat took three nervous steps forward, entering the circle of his arms of her
own free will. “I feel…exposed.”
    “You’re
gonna need to stay like this for my plan to work. Just remember, stay human no
matter what. They’ll know you’re not dead if you shift,” Jared said, reaching
for her throat with his hands.
    “Plan?
What plan?” she asked. Her pulse accelerated but then settled as he fumbled
with the collar, working the combination lock so that it snapped open. Jared
pulled the hated thing from her neck and then tossed it into the trash.
    Josie
blinked, her breath hitched and her blue eyes glimmered with unshed tears.
Jared ran his fingers over