Read Online Cat on the Fence by Tatiana Caldwell - Free Book Online

tie with tiger stripes, and a worn condom lay nearby. Wait. Were these
Alex’s clothes? Karabi froze and her heart squeezed in her chest as she feared
something awful must have happened to him. She sniffed at the air. For the
first time ever she wished she’d honed her hunting skills instead of shunning
most things Cat. As it was, she had a great sense of smell but a terrible time
separating one scent from another and identifying the source of the aroma. She
did know that in addition to a countless number of humans, some exotic animal
had been here. It smelled feline. Wild. She smelled something else too she
couldn’t immediately identify, which sent her skin crawling. What in the hell
was going on? She contemplated taking off her clothes and going Cat so that she
could investigate better but decided against it once she imagined the potential
drama of someone spotting a cheetah walking down Jackson Boulevard.
    Karabi crossed the street ahead and then traversed over to
the left side of Jackson Boulevard when she spotted a pair of tiger-striped
boxers up farther east on the sidewalk, and so she continued in that direction.
It was then that she saw the fresh paw prints in the snow. But the paw prints
weren’t a cat’s. They looked canine but they weren’t a dog’s either. She
stopped when the prints turned right into the alley between two tall buildings.
No way was she about to go down an alley by herself at this time of night.
She’d have to go get some immediate help with trying to find Alex if he had
been attacked by some animal.
    Some animal ,she thought. And then it occurred
to her. What if Alex was the animal? The more she considered it, the
more sense the possibility seemed to make. Other than with Felicia, Karabi
hadn’t spent much time at all with other Werecats since she’d graduated from
the private high school that was all Were and left her parents’ house over a
decade ago to study biological science and zoology in college. Could she have
been that out of touch with her own kind? She would have thought she’d
recognize another full-blooded Werecat working alongside her every day, sexing one
in a window box. Unless he wasn’t a full-blooded Werecat or something like
that. Then she heard the howl of what sounded like a very large wolf nearby and
she went completely stiff.
    Unless he wasn’t a Were cat .
    Even more disturbing was the low growl she suddenly heard
approaching from the alley. Her instincts told her to hoof it but her curiosity
and concern for Alex conflicted. She stood perfectly still and listened,
waited, until she saw the wolf with golden eyes emerge. He was no ordinary
wolf, she knew that for certain. He was huge, bigger than a man even, with a
thick coat of gray-and-black fur that seemed stretched over human muscles. He
walked toward her and contemplated her with an arrogance and intelligence that
wasn’t anything like the wolves at the zoo. Didn’t even smell quite the same.
When he looked up at her she could almost swear he was grinning. She wasn’t
certain if the grin was in kindness or in threat. Either way, there was just
one question she needed to ask him.
    “Alex? Is that you?”
    The creature’s expression didn’t change at the mention of
the name, and the low growl continued. He just stood there for a moment and
continued to look at her. She raised her gloved hands and tried talking to him
again, feeling slightly foolish. “Alex, if it’s you, it’s okay. You don’t have
to hide—”
    But then the wolf’s growl turned into an outright snarl and
he stood fully upright on two legs like a man, well over six feet tall. Then he
lunged right at her.
    * * * * *
    Karabi opened her mouth to scream but instead a loud,
threatening hiss came out as she leapt straight up from the ground several feet
and landed off to the side of where she was standing before. It amazed her a
bit that even while still in human form, her Cat instincts continued to work.
    The wolf-man stumbled a bit