Page 24 of Were-Geeks Save a Kitten

Well, hell. For whatever reason, it seemed intent on where the two human puppies were trying to warm up McNabb.

Yordan cursed loudly—which came out as an angry, growling bark—then dashed forward. Why, oh why weren’t the geeks running away? Sure, they thought they were being heroic, staying next to the possibly dying McNabb, but if they would just dash away, the creature wouldn’t do more than ignore The Scot as so much driftwood. That was the nature of predator cats. They saw movement, not downed Popsicles.

See me! yipped Yordan. Over here! Look at me!

He made as much noise and commotion as he could, but the panther was stalking closer to the puppies.

“Run, you fucking idiots!” Marsha bellowed.

Yordan glanced back. She was on her hands and knees as a naked woman, slowly climbing to her feet. Well, hell. That was one less wolf. He had no idea how soon she could shift back to canine, but he had to assume not anytime soon.

Then he looked back at the human puppies. They were dragging The Scot away from the water’s edge. They weren’t naturally strong humans, and McNabb wasn’t exactly small. It took the both of them, and now they presented a single, slow-moving target to the panther.

God save him from puppies.

“Leave him!” Marsha screamed, but apparently they were the stubborn kind of heroic. So that meant it was going to be a tooth and claw fight.

Fine. It was his job to stand between monsters and idiots, and Yordan embraced his mission as holy law. He was running full tilt toward the puppies and intended to leap into the breach, when the panther readied his attack. The puppies didn’t see it coming, but the panther was starting that clicking noise that cats made. And its butt was twitching. It was about to make a killing strike.

Then the absolute worst thing happened. McNabb started to wake. He’d probably been shivering for a while, but Yordan was too far away to see it. Now the guy curled into himself and moaned.

Not good! Not good!

“Stay still!” Marsha bellowed. She was running on two feet but was much too far away to do anything.

Then the panther lunged. Yordan had no idea how so large a body could leap out of water so easily, but it did. It was one of the crazy things about magical monsters. They didn’t obey the laws of physics.

That was okay. He was used to impossible monsters, and he timed his leap perfectly.

He caught the panther’s face just as it came down. Scaly lizard legs landed on the sand with an oomph, enough to knock the puppies back. But Yordan caught the panther’s face with what was essentially a headbutt.

And—hallelujah—the panther was now laser focused on him. Cool. He could fight a cat any day. Even one twice as large as he was.

The cat lunged again, Yordan dashed away and tried for a side swipe. No go. It wasn’t that the skin was too tough. Nope, his claws would slice it right open. But the cat was so damned fast, he missed by a few key inches.

Next time. Nope.

Next time. Shit.

His peripheral vision showed him that McNabb was waking, coming back to full consciousness. Good. Maybe the guy could shift and help in this fight. Another trained wolf would be a godsend. Yordan was good, but he was getting tired. Magical gummy aside, no one could keep this up for long.

To the other side, Marsha was organizing the puppies, and pretty soon he had slower, stupider wolves dashing in and out. It helped. Gave him a breather and all, but it wasn’t enough.

And then. Sweet heaven, thank you. He saw the telltale shimmer around The Scot. Good. The guy was finally going wolf—

Fuck!

He’d been distracted watching The Scot and had missed an attack. Got a panther paw rake against his flank.

It wasn’t fatal, but it stung like a bitch. That leg was going to be slow now.

On the upside, the strike had pulled the panther into perfect position for wolfy McNabb to leap and sink his teeth straight into the creature’s neck.

Like right now.

Now!

Where the fuck was The Scot?