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Her tail did another violent swish as she hissed at Joaquin and the two men standing beside him, all wearing club cuts. When I’d done work for Joaquin, he’d just taken over the club. There was mention of what the previous officers had done to earn their money.
Joaquin shook his head as he rested his hands on his hips. “This shit just keeps coming back to haunt us. Lily-Rose, my name is Joaquin Torres and along with some others, we took control of the Iron Hammers about four years ago. All those who had any part of the human trafficking the club did are dead and gone. It’s a new group now, one that doesn’t do that shit. In fact, we spend a lot of our time searching out those who were trafficked to save them. Ask your mate. He’s helped us with it in the past. I promise you will come to no harm at the hands of the Iron Hammers MC. You’ll only find protection.”
She stopped hissing as he’d spoken, but that tail of hers was still swishing angrily. I wasn’t sure what else to do to convince her to trust us enough to come down. She’d known me for less than a day. I couldn’t expect her to believe me or Joaquin just because we said we were safe.
“Please, Lily-Rose. Come on down and give us a chance. We’ll head back to Texas, far away from here and Kevin. We don’t need to live with the club. We’ll find a place out of town, somewhere on the coast where there’s lots of trees and shit for you to climb around in. Your abilities aren’t dampened any more. If we do anything you don’t like, now you can fight back. You got claws, baby, and you’re faster than any of us wolves.”
Joaquin stepped forward again to speak to her. “We also have a few feline shifters in our club. While none of them are ocelots, I’m sure they’d be happy to spend time with you and help you figure out what your abilities and limits are. I’m guessing you’ve been forced to wear those bracelets for a long time and never had that chance.”
He turned to me, frowning. “In that case, she might not know how to shift back to human. We’ll leave you alone with her and head back to the motel. Once you get her down, even if she can’t shift back yet, bring her there. We’ll load up and make tracks back home.”
Lily-Rose
I stayed still as the three men shifted back to wolves and trotted away, keeping my gaze on them until they left my field of vision before I turned back to Cujo. Twitching my nose, I tried to inhale his scent but could only catch the barest hint of it from my position. He stayed motionless below my tree, just waiting. He didn’t look angry, but he also didn’t look like he was going to give up and leave any time soon.
Mate.
My ocelot stood firm. While she didn’t have any trust or love for the Iron Hammers, Cujo was ours and apparently that was enough for her to trust him. Slowly I rose and digging my claws into the tree, made my way down the trunk to a lower branch. Once I was in a position to safely pause, I glanced up to check on his location. He hadn’t moved but the moment he caught my gaze, he stepped forward, toward me. I was low enough in the tree that he could now reach me and with how he’d lifted his arms, I guessed that was his intention.
“That’s it, sweetheart. You are a stunning kitty. So beautiful. We’ll have you shift in front of a mirror someday so you can see for yourself. C’mon, come here and let me hold you for a bit. I promise you’re safe with me.”
He held his hands on either side of me, palms toward me, but didn’t attempt to pick me up. I had my claws dug deep in the branch so he would have had a time trying to detach me anyway. I leaned over and sniffed at his palm, letting his scent soak into my lungs and soothe all the earlier panic I’d felt.
I nuzzled my head in against his hand, purring, and retracted my claws.
With a chuckle, he gathered me up and pulled me in against him. “There you go, safe and sound. How about we head to the motel and see about getting you to shift back? Since you shredded your clothes back in the parking lot, I’m thinking Joaquin had a point about you never being taught how to shift. It’ll be easier for you to learn if you’re in a safe environment with no distractions. And I’ll ask Joaquin to find you something to wear. Neither me nor my wolf would handle others seeing you naked well at all.”
He and Joaquin had guessed right. I’d never shifted voluntarily back to human before, and when Kevin had forced the change on me, I hadn’t done it with my clothes intact like these wolves could. Not that I cared about having shredded those slutty clothes Kevin forced on me. I would gladly never wear anything like that ever again.
Cujo started walking through the trees and with a contented purr, I rubbed myself against him. He chuckled when I bumped my head under his chin, nuzzling my face in against his neck, trying to absorb more of his scent. My feline instincts had taken over, and they were telling me I was safe in the arms of my mate, so I was free to relax and play a little.
“Affectionate little kitty, aren’t you?”
He held me with one arm and used his other palm to stroke my back and sides as I continued to snuggle in against him. The caresses made me shiver in bliss as he strode quickly toward the town.
By the time we made it to the motel, I was purring like a train and pushing my head into his palm with each stroke he made down my body. But I stilled and grew silent when I caught sight of Joaquin and a few other men waiting for us.
“Shh, my little kitty. Everything’s just fine. We need Joaquin to show us to a room, remember? And ask him for some clothes for you.”
I stayed quiet and laid my ears down as I flicked my gaze between all the men, ready to pounce at any of them if they threatened Cujo or me.
“Lily-Rose, retract the claws.”
Cujo’s voice sounded a little strained and I looked down in shock to see I’d dug both front paws worth of claws into his shoulder. I quickly but carefully removed them from his flesh, before tearing part of his shirt away so I could lap at the wounds. My inner cat was in full control and my human side had no clue why she was doing what she was, but I was happy to see that apparently my saliva healed. Within moments, they were nothing more than rapidly fading pink dots.
When I glanced up again, Joaquin was watching us with a smirk on his face and a glint to his eyes, like he found this whole situation hilarious but didn’t want to outwardly laugh.
“I see you two have made nice. Room nine is all yours. You’ll find a change of clothes for you both in there already. We don’t have much time to fucking waste here, so clean up as fast as you can. It’s a couple days ride to get back to Galveston, and I want to make a good start on it today, if possible. No sense in making a fucking enemy out of the deputy if we don’t have to. Never know when you’ll need someone like that on your side.”
I was totally on board with leaving as soon as possible. If Kevin hadn’t figured it out yet, it wouldn’t be long until he did. I’d like to be far away from Timber Cove when he started searching for me. I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure I could trust the Iron Hammers MC, but my ocelot was refusing to even consider leaving our mate, so it looked like we were going to be hanging out with the Iron Hammers for now.
Joaquin handed Cujo a key card and after a muttered thanks, Cujo was taking me toward the room while I kept my gaze focused on the men who were all still watching us. I was grateful Joaquin hadn’t stopped at the motel Kevin had made me work out of, a run-down-should-have-been-condemned-twenty-years-ago place on the other side of town. Kevin never spent any money he didn’t absolutely have to when it came to anything other than his own comfort.
Once we were inside the surprisingly spacious room, Cujo kicked the door shut and headed toward the bed. When he loosened his grip, I reluctantly leaped to the mattress where I stretched out before with a swish of my tail, I turned around to sit and watch my mate. He was very tall, with wide shoulders. His dark hair was cropped short and he had a closely trimmed beard that drew my attention to his mouth, which began to stir other ideas.
“Right, well. As fucking adorable as you are in this form, I need you to shift back so we can get cleaned up and head out.” He rubbed a palm over the back of his neck. “Assuming Joaquin hit it on the head, and you haven’t done this in a long time.” He winced. “I haven’t had to think abouthowI shift in a long damn time. You sort of just picture yourself as a human, with arms and legs, fingers and toes, all that shit. And it happens.”
I frowned. What about clothes? But I couldn’t ask until after I shifted. The downside to being an animal was the lack of voice. Looking around, I saw a pile of clothes on the desk. I pointed my nose toward it then looked back to Cujo, trying to get him to guess what I wanted. He followed my gaze after the second time and grinned.
