Page 12 of Catnip

Visibly reluctant, the tiger turned on his heels, and closed the door behindhim.

Finding herself alone with the Alpha, Ava felt the strength of her gaze a little harder. The woman was downright terrifying; yet for some reason, she didn’t feel too uncomfortable in hercompany.

“I don’t know much about eagle shifters - your kind stay pretty secluded – but, from what I’ve heard, you take your honor veryseriously.”

Ava nodded cautiously. That was one way of saying it. Pride was absolutely everything to theirrace.

“So much so that when someone loses their pride, they often kill themselves. It’s also not uncommon for Alphas to condemn whole families for the sins ofone.”

So much for not knowing much about eagles; she’d nailed theircustom.

“Cats aren’t like that,” Aisling assured her. “No one here would judge you for someone else’scrime.”

Ava still felt uncomfortable, because she could have said as much in front of her pride. Yet she’d asked them toleave.

“But that’s not what I wanted to say,” the Alpha added. “See, I’m not likethem.”

She waved her hand towards the door, including all of her pride in thegesture.

“I don’t have the same moral compass. My brain doesn’t work the same way. I took your thumbprints and your DNA while you slept, and I got someone to track everything about you. I’m sure the report will be waiting on mydesk.”

Well,shit.

“You know why I didit?”

Of course she did - she’d wanted to know if she was a threat to theirpride.

“Because you saved my kid yesterday. You warned us, and, given the fact that we had our asses practically handed to us in mere minutes, without that heads-up, we’d all be dead. That means I’ll work out who you’re running from. I’ll hunt them down, and I’ll slit theirthroat.”

She was matter-of-fact,conversational.

“I’m not what people would call civilized, or sane, for that matter. I’m saying that even ifyoudid something, I would have your back.Understood?”

Actually, she didn’t understand, not really. That wasn’t how the world worked. But the Alpha female wasn’t lying, she was sure of it. Shifters could feel, almost smell, blatantlies.

“You’re saying you want me to trust you. And the thing is, I don’t actually have any choice,” she sighed. It was always going to come down to that. “You may want to call your mate back in for thisbit.”

So, a minute later, the five dominant shifters looked at her intently again, ready to listen to her explanation; the Alpha and Beta pairs, and Coveney made for a pretty intimidating audience. Clearing her throat, she wondered where she couldstart.

Her story hadn’t started six months ago. It hadn’t even started twenty-six years ago, when she’d beenborn.

“This is going to be a long tale, but I don’t think there’s any shortcut. I’d appreciate if you could keep the questions until the end, so I can stay ontrack.”

There were nods allaround.

“You’re probably not going to believe a word of what I’m about to say, but this is the truth as I knowit.”

Shit.

Here goesnothing.

Ava’s Tale

“Alittle undertwo thousand years ago, there was a mad, selfish man at the head of the most powerful empire in the world. Nero, he was called. He did many things, but one, the citizens of Rome never forgave. He took a humongous territory that belonged to the people, and made it his. His palace, his playground, hisgardens.

“Finally, though, he died. Those left to pick up the pieces had a pretty hard road ahead. The government had lost the faith of the people, and regaining it was going to take a lot ofwork.

“Then Flavian rose to power and decided to give that land back to the people. You’ve seen the results in postcards, I’m sure. They call it the Colosseumnowadays.

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