Page 5 of Catnip

“If you’re gonna be a fucker, at least attempt to be an intelligent one. We have a decent tracker with us, for once. Takeher.”

Oh, yeah. That might have beensmart.

He looked back towards the closed doors; Ace had called a very small number of close friends to join them - some had made it, others hadn’t. Vivicia, a loner based in LA, had arrived amongst the first. As well as being unwaveringly loyal, the female also happened to be a wolf shifter. Coveney wasn’t bad at tracking, as far as felines went, but wolves were indubitably better equipped for that sort ofjob.

But that would mean asking a favor. The idea was always repulsive to him, but he could deal with it this time; he owed nothing to Vivicia.Yet.

“I’ll send her your way. And I’ll cover for you forfour hours.If you don’t check in by then, I’ll find you, and kill youmyself.”

The Inn

Unlike some Wyverns,Coveney hadn’t spent a lot of time outside of his pride territory. Others had freelance jobs online, or friends they wanted to see somewhere in the world. Some of them had even lived in the regular human world for a time; Tracy, for example, used to have book signings. Rye, Daunte, and Ian, who dabbled in venture capitalism, put on a suit and went to some meetings every now andthen.

Coveney took the role of Head Enforcer when the pride was created nine years ago, and he’d never left his post since. He didn’t take holidays. For some reason, Rye still insisted on counting the time off he was owed; he had over two years, last time he’d looked. He’d probably never use any of it. He was mildly curious about some places in the world. Okay, more than curious. Exotic locations fascinated him, hence why he secretly watched the Travel Channel whenever no one was around. But he owed the Wyvern, and the least he could do was protectthem.

Leaving the pride for four hours this evening was quite possibly the closest thing he’d ever done to taking some time off, and even that was born ofduty.

That meant he’d rarely dealt with any other kind of sups. He knew felines, he knew witches, like Niamh, and seers, like Hsu. The rest he’d read or heard about, but he couldn’t boast of having any first-hand experience with them, hence why Vivicia was making him feeluncomfortable.

Were female wolves supposed to be that big? He’d fought plenty of lupine over the last few years, but he’d never stopped to wonder about their gender. Still, even compared to the enemies he recalled, she seemed pretty damn huge. The animal was the size of a goddamn bear. His tiger carefully ran one step behind, although he could certainly take her, speed-wise. And the snarling; was that really necessary? They were all friendshere.

The female stopped running quite suddenly and her quick, yet painful, bone cracking process started; half a minute later, a naked woman crouched on the floor. Aprettynaked woman. He would have to be blind to fail to notice Vivicia, with her dark, sensual eyes, and all her smooth skin; like most shifters, she was fit - the amount of exercise they needed to stay sane saw to that - but she also had a fair amount of curves. He’d been more than conscious of her in the past. Today, neither he nor his tiger cared, single-mindedly focused on finding their elusive savior. It had been over three hours since she may have been shot. The poison could very well have taken hold bynow.

He also shifted, after negotiating with his frustrated tiger who didn’t want to let go quite yet. But he couldn’t speak with the female in their animal form, as she wasn’t part of the pride. Stupid, weird, magic mojo rules he didn’tunderstand.

“I can’t help if I don’t know what the hell I’m tracking,Robocop.”

She’d taken to calling him that for some reason. He hadn’t bothered askingwhy.

“I toldyou.”

“Yeah, an eagle. There’s at least fifty dead ones around us, though. My wolf smells eagle everywhere north of thehouse.”

He shook hishead.

“She came from the east, and headed west, towards thetown.”

“I need more. Sorry, but I don’t have her scent, anything that belongs to her, and I haven’t seen many eagles in thepast.”

Coveney sighed. If the she-wolf had issues catching her, what chance didhehave?

You have herscent.

“She smelled of olive and lavender,” he muttered, running his hand through his hair, pissed he didn’t havemore.

If Daunte was right, they had her name, her phone number, and other crap like that - any applicant who wanted to join the pride needed to leave that. He could try to track her electronically - or get Ian to do so, anyway - but they were running out oftime.

Vivicia frowned and put her hands on the floor, before shifting back. She sniffed left, then right, before dashing across the woods, heading towards the town, thistime.

He ran after her, staying on his human form, because she was already slowing down. They always left a few clothes here and there for situations such as these; quickly pulling a pair of track pants on, he started to make his way through their smalltown.

The pride house was the first home anyone coming through the woods could see, and then there were a few homes, a school, a bank, a bar, their Alpha’s bakery, some restaurants, all on the main road. Vivicia ran through it all, arousing the interest of a few humans. None of them freaked though, just raising abrow.

Anywhere else in the world, that would have been weird, but their Alpha female had created a small shifter haven in Lakesides, long before they’d come. As they hadn’t done anything to ruin that over the last year they’d spent here, they were accepted. So far. If they’d heard the racket their battle had caused just earlier that day, they might have been a little less friendly. Thankfully, Rain had erected wards around the town before it had all started. As the enemies had witches of their own, her wards around their own house hadn’t held out, but they hadn’t been concerned about the town, so the regulars remained blissfullyignorant.

“Is that a new pride member?” someone asked him as he passed. “Can’t be a dog,right?”

He carried on running, not stopping to answer, because Vivicia had slowed down,finally.

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