Free Shifter by Jennifer Reynolds Page A

making such a claim when she had to put me hold due to a customer. Seconds later, Dr. Smith picks up the line and asks me to come in and to bring my cat with me. At the time, she hadn’t known what I had named him. He had had most of his shots and vaccinations by the time I had given him a name.
    On some instinct I can’t understand, I place Dimitri in Sebastian’s carrier and not in the one the vet sent with him. If he is her cat she would know what kind of carrier he was in, still I don’t want to take it. I want an excuse to have to bring him back to the house, or at the very least delay the transfer process.
    Dimitri doesn’t fuss or argue as I load him in the carrier and drive to the shelter. The entire prospect seems to have actually saddened him. For some reason, I suspect he knows the woman, that she had been his owner, but she had done something terrible to him, and he doesn’t want to go back to her.
    “I won’t let her take you. I promise,” I say, unlatching the carrier while sitting at a red light and reaching in to pet him. For the first time ever, he purrs under my hands. This makes me cry.
    I’m a cat person. I love cats. I love their independence. Their ‘forget the world’ personality. I love that they can be sweet and charming one minute and have a ‘don’t touch me’ attitude the next. However, I have never been this way about them. I am sad when one dies or is sick, but never have I felt like this.
    There is something human about Dimitri, something sad and demoralized about him. He has been through something, something traumatizing. Something deep inside me wants to protect him. It tells me that he needs protecting.
    I wait in the parking lot of the shelter for a long moment, cleaning my face and getting my emotions under control before I head inside. I don’t want that redheaded bitch to know that she has affected me in anyway.
    “I’m sorry it has to be this way,” I say to Dimitri as I close the front of the carrier. He comes to the front of the carrier and does another thing he has never done before; he licks my hand. “Now you start being affectionate.”
    Dr. Smith is waiting for me when I enter the shelter. The look on her face shows anger and annoyance. The look isn’t for me, I’m sure of it. I take a small amount of satisfaction in that expression. The look means the redhead, despite her beauty, is not winning friends and influencing people here. This gives me a happy.
    “Hello, Dr. Smith, how are you?” I ask with a tremble in my voice, holding out my hand in greeting.
    “I’ve been better. I’m sorry to have to call you down here,” she says with a sad grin, taking my hand and giving it a quick shake.
    I feel a slight tingle at her touch, but it quickly fades, passing out of my hand as suddenly as it occurs. Dimitri shifts in the carrier, and I see his little nose peeking through the bars as if he is looking up at the doctor. He is probably a little worried about what is about to happen to him.
    “It’s all right. We both knew this day was bound to happen sooner or later,” I say as she bends down to touch the end of her finger to his nose.
    “I’m not so sure about all of that.”
    “Why?”
    “Well, some of her story doesn’t add up,” she says, standing up and nodding her head in the direction of the room the redhead is in. “I want you to do me a favor.”
    “Anything.”
    “Take the cat…” I was about to cut her off to tell her what I named him, but she waves a hand. “No names right now.”
    I nod.
    “Take the cat to Dr. McCray. He’s waiting behind those doors.” She points to a set of double doors to the right of her. The doors lead to the showroom where Joy had taken the day I adopted Dimitri. “He’s going to put him in amongst a group of other cats we have.”
    I start to ask why, but then decide it is probably better if I don’t know right now. I nod and walk over to the door. Just inside of the showroom, I hand Dimitri to the