Naomi nodded miserably. “I know, but I love her,” she admitted in a broken voice. “I love my cat.”
“Tell me this,” Angus said. “Does your cat feel like a killer to you? Does she like to slay things?”
She snickered, unable to help herself as her cat yawned, jaws wide with flashing fangs. “She’s more likely to want to find a spot to snooze. Like, a nice comfortable tree branch. Which isn’t to say she might not chase after a squirrel or a bird if any happen by, but it’s about the chase, not killing it.”
Renee sank down on the seat beside her, nodding in satisfaction. “Well, there you go.”
“Yes but… I mean, how can youreallyknow? How can you see into someone’s heart… someone’s soul, and see what is there, inside?”
“Into someone’s soul,” Renee echoed softly. Her gaze lifted to her husband, still standing behind the sofa, and they exchanged a long glance.
Exhaling a sigh, Naomi pushed her hand through her hair. “I know everyone thinks I’m over-thinking this. That I’m taking it too seriously. But they didn’t grow up with my mother, with Beatrice. My older sisters. Hearing about the things they’d done, things theyenjoyeddoing. I don’t want to… to lighten up about it, and then discover I’m wrong. Because it’s people’s lives we’re talking about, literally. Right now, it’sLiam’slife we’re talking about.”
A short silence fell. After a moment, Angus reached out to pat her hand.
“Don’t despair,” he advised. “We may yet have a trick up our sleeves.”
He headed back to the lobby, and Naomi was left alone with Renee. She glanced at the older woman, hesitant. The need to confide in someone was weighing on her, but this could go so, so wrong. She could be cast out, not just from the inn but from the community. She worried at her lower lip with her teeth. She liked Liam, so much, and she wanted a future with him. But by keeping this secret, she was putting him at risk. Not to put too fine a point on it, he could be in mortal danger if everyone was wrong about her.
“The thing is, there’s more.” She blurted out, aware that Renee had been waiting, a quizzical expression on her face. Taking a deep breath, she gulped a little, anxiety filling her. “Something I’ve never told anyone. But last year, my cat did hurt someone. Shortly before I… before I went into the zoo.”
“A man?”
Nodding, Naomi found her fingers were twisting together, and she had to make a conscious effort to still them. “Yes. I was just trying to get away from him, and she came forward… my cat. I didn’t Change or anything, but I was suddenly stronger, you know? And… and I marked him. I mean, there were scratches on his arms, that he assumed was from my fingernails, but I’m pretty sure she… I… raked him with claws.”
Frowning, Renee shook her head a little, as if trying to clear it. “Get away from him? In what manner?”
Naomi blushed. “Well, we’d been on a date. He asked me out, and he seemed nice, and… well, I was lonely, and alone. And it was just a simple date, you know? He took me to an Italian restaurant for dinner just a few blocks from where I lived. But when we were walking home… this was in Manhattan… he asked if we could stop by the bodega around the corner from my place, so he could be sure it was all closed up properly. His father owned it, you see. That’s how I knew him, it was just down from my apartment. Um, I’m rambling, aren’t I?”
Renee chuckled. “Just a little, but I’m following. So the bodega was closed by the time you returned from dinner, and he wanted to stop in to check on things?”
“Yes. But once we were inside, he… um... he wanted…” she stumbled over her words. “He had the wrong idea or something. When I said I’d see myself home, he grabbed me and kissed me.” She grimaced, remembering. “It was horrible, all wet and… anyway. So then he was pulling at my dress, and I was trying to get away, and I couldn’t… couldn’t breathe, and suddenly she was there, close to the surface. I had to hold her back from Changing then and there. She wanted to rake and claw at him, go for his eyes, his throat.” Naomi gulped, paling. “She wanted to rip into his genitals with her hind claws. And more, she mademewant to do those things, too.”
Renee’s gaze was steady, her eyes narrowed on Naomi’s face. “Let me get this straight. You said no, and he still kept trying?”
Naomi bit her lip. “Well, yes.”
“Kept trying as in… forcing himself on you?”
She nodded.
Renee persisted. “Not taking no for an answer, attempting to force your compliance. As in, he was going to rape you.”
Naomi felt her face heat and was pretty sure her cheeks were scarlet right now, and she dropped her gaze to the floor, her shoulders hunching. She didn’t like using the “r” word, didn’t even likethinkingabout the “r” word.
“Well, um… yes,” she admitted. “He was pretty clear, telling me what he was going to do, whether I wanted to or not.”
“It’s called rape,” Renee informed her. She braced her hands on her hips. “Naomi. Look at me.”
Clasping her hands before her to still the nervous flutters of her fingers, she raised her gaze to Renee. The older woman’s deep brown eyes were unwontedly serious, and Renee reached out to pull her hands into a warm clasp.
“Honey, doesn’t your cat talk to you? If not in words, then in feelings? Pictures?”
“Sometimes, yes. Not words so much, but like you said, I get feelings from her. She… she was raging, that night. I couldn’t reason with her.”
“Naomi.” Renee tightened the clasp on her hands. “Your cat wasn’t going crazy because she was going Rogue. Of course she would have been in a rage, that man was assaulting you. She wasn’t going Rogue, she wasprotectingyou.”
“I...” Naomi stared at Renee, words failing her. She took a minute to let it sink in. “I hadn’t thought of that. It didn’t even occur to me. She… my cat… was so enraged, she wouldn’t listen to me, wouldn’t calm down, and I guess I assumed…”
