Free Accidentally Catty by Dakota Cassidy Page A

answers. I can’t work like this, and I have an animal to care for with an owner who just wouldn’t understand my paw. If Spanky doesn’t have the answer, and you don’t have the answers, then who does? If nothing else, he’ll believe us when we tell him shapeshifters exist, and then maybe he’ll see what’s happened to me is very real. Or maybe when you do show him, whatever’s keeping him from remembering will jog some memory of who he is.”
    Wanda’s expression held doubt.
    Katie sighed. “How about a compromise? Don’t nail him with everything at once. Maybe just a little fang and fur—no fireballs or levitation. That was like an acid trip with Linda Blair as the tour guide.”
    Wanda chuckled and winked. “You got it. You’re one tough cookie, Katie Woods. I admire that.”
    Yeah.
    A tough cookie with an amnesiac man-cougar.
    She shoots—she scores.
     
     
    SILENCE.
    There was nothing but nail-biting silence after the loud crashing of cages, Nina’s wickedly delighted laughter, either Wanda or Marty’s eerie howl, and one long, muffled gasp.
    Katie put her ear to the door. Her hearing was oddly magnified and so crisp it almost hurt. Maybe she could get a listen at what was going on.
    Nothing.
    Guilt assaulted her. He was just a kid. She’d subjected him to an unimaginable encounter with creatures he probably thought only existed in the movies.
    “You hear anything in there, Doc Woods?” Kaih asked.
    “Nada. I’m concerned he’s passed back out from shock.”
    “This has been some wild ride, huh?”
    “For who?” She flashed her paw at him with a grimace.
    “I know that part of this sucks, but can I just say something here?”
    “Expression in the form of speech is always encouraged.”
    He jammed his hands into the pocket of his lab coat. “This has been the best friggin’ night of my life. So totally beats kicking Skips on Water’s ass at Guitar Hero . Seriously, working for you was cool. You’re an okay boss, but this? This was a-mazing.”
    Katie turned, letting her back rest against the door. “You’re not at all afraid, Kaih? After everything we’ve witnessed tonight? Ingrid may never be the same. Yet, you’re acting like someone just gave you a ticket to ride on the starship Enterprise .”
    “It’s probably just that cool,” he joked. “No, Dr. Woods. I’m not afraid. Not of the OOPS team, anyway. They’re okay. I can sense it. I’m more afraid of what you’ll say when I tell you—”
    “Dr. Woods!” someone bellowed from outside the door to the clinic. “Open this door now!”
    Katie’s eyes went wide when they met Kaih’s. “Who the hell is that at this time of night?” she whisper-yelled, panic flaring in her gut.
    Ingrid squealed from her fetal position in the corner, fat tears began streaming down her face. “OMG, Dr. Woods! I’m so sorry!”
    Kaih threw an ACE bandage at Katie, instructing her to wrap it around her hand to hide her paw.
    “What the hell is going on?” she asked, searching his dark eyes as he helped her tug the last of the bandage into place.
    The banging of angry fists on the door mingled with the screech of the October wind. “Open this door. I know what you’ve done, and I’ll prosecute if you don’t open this door now!”
    The examining room door swung open behind Katie. Nina popped her head out and yelped, “Who the fuck is making all that goddamned racket? My ears are sensitive and I’m nearly in a vampire coma. Shut whoever that is the fuck up now!” Nina stomped over to the door, flinging it open with an angry grunt.
    Kaih tugged on her arm. “Listen, Dr. Woods, this is what I was trying to tell you—”
    “Who the hell are you? Do you have any idea how late it is?” Nina asked an elderly man, his thick head of gray and silver hair windblown and mussed, his bifocals haphazardly perched on his nose.
    Sharp clear eyes that matched his hair glared up at Nina. His wrinkled face was a mask of fury. He pushed past her, his