I slumped back onto the ground, stunned, as pain radiated out from my head to every cell in my body. This was the down side to being a cat shifter instead of something big and strong and terrifying. One little gate and I was toast.
"What the hell is that?" one of the guys asked.
"It's a cat, you moron."
"I've never seen a cat like that," the first guy insisted. "He has crazy fur. It'd look good as a rug."
I gulped.
A rug?
"You're nuts," someone else said. "There's not enough fur there for a rug."
There's not. Seriously. Even for an ocelot I was small.
No rug here.
"Lorenzo, get in the fucking car. We need to report back to— Who's this idiot?"
I couldn't look up. If I did, they would know I wasn't passed out. I just had to wait for the right moment, and then I could run.
"Hey, have you seen a cat?" someone asked, someone I hadn't heard before. The voice was deep, husky. It had a slight accent.
I looked.
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
The biggest man I had ever seen in my life was currently strolling down the alleyway toward me. Toward us.
He was coming this way.
His hair was short, but I could see wisps of it sticking out from under his knit cap. The dark goatee made his face seem more masculine, if that was possible. The dark mocha tint to his skin made him seem as if he came from some exotic foreign land I'd only read about in books.
I wanted to eat him.
I admit it.
I had an overwhelming urge to devour every inch of his beautiful frame.
I was obviously insane.
"I'm looking for my cat," Mr. Beautiful continued. "He got out and I can't seem to find him. He's kind of gray-ish, about this high"—the guy made a measurement gesture with his hands—"and weighs about fifteen pounds. He's a great cat, but he is totally car stupid."
"Car stupid?" Lorenzo asked.
"He doesn't understand big cars can squash little kitties."
"Is this him?" Lorenzo gestured to me. "We were driving by and I saw the little guy try and jump the fence, but he missed and fell to the ground, so we stopped to see if he was okay."
Bull-hockey.
"Ian!" the big man shouted as he hurried forward. "Where have you been? I've been so worried about you."
I tensed when he went to pick me up.
I didn't know this guy.
I wanted to know this guy, but I didn't.
