Page 39 of Rescued By the Beast
If I had any doubts before, now it's certain: he's going to kill me.
Chapter 13
Mark
Anger explodes inside me.
"Look what you've done!"
The cat seems to jump inside her own body, struggling, scratching, trying to escape from my arms.
What do I do now?
"Don't yell at the poor thing, it's not her fault, she's just scared..." Ted starts talking and his words irritate me even more.
"Yell at her? I'm yelling at you, damn it! You made her sick!" I growl, anger overflowing.
"Me? How is this my fault?"
"You touched her, you picked her up too hard, too fast... She's still recovering and now she's sick," I say through gritted teeth.
The cat is still struggling, and I'm at a loss.
Damn it, what do I do?
If I don't know how to deal with people, even though I live with them every day, how am I going to calm a kitten when I've never had a pet?
"Shh... It's okay." I hesitate for a second before lowering my face to her head and kissing her soft black fur. "You don't need to be afraid..."
The smell of vomit rises, and I imagine that's bothering her.
I need to clean her up, make her comfortable, see if she's okay.
Have the wounds become infected? Could it be...
"Mark, breathe, you look worse than the cat," Ted says, his hand closing around my shoulder, as if trying to anchor me.
He's right, I need to calm down, I need to reassure the cat.
"Call Ethan, get him here," I ask abruptly, still angry with him.
"Of course." Ted is already holding the phone to his ear, and I can't hear what he's saying, but I trust him to pass on what happened.
Meanwhile, I take the cat to the bathroom, close the door behind me, and carefully place her in the sink before getting rid of my vomit-covered shirt.
I turn to her and growl to myself when I see her trembling, her green eyes wide with fear, fixed on me.
"I'll take care of you, everything will be fine, I promise," I say, in the softest voice I can muster, trying to sound confident.
Carefully, I pick her up again and turn on the tap. With one hand cupped, I scoop up a handful of water and bring it to her muzzle to clean the dirty fur around her mouth. I hope Ethan gets here soon.
I don't know what I'm doing. I don't want to make things worse...
The bathroom door opens and Ethan peeks inside.
"Mark? Ted told me what happened. Does she have any other symptoms?"
The advantage of being Ethan's neighbour is that he shows up quickly in emergencies.
