Page 79 of Catastrophe

“Forget the witches. There’s something bigger going on here.” Michael stooped and caught my eye. “Come out. I promise nothing will happen to you.”

He’d better not be lying. But my titan was being beaten within an inch of his life and I feared I wouldn’t make it in time to save him. I had to take risks. I mentally apologized to Baelen and crawled out from under the bed.

The two men looked like giants as they stared down at me, Jack confused and Michael worried.

“Why did she think a cat could heal a titan?” Jack asked. “Specifically, a cat with purple eyes and blond fur that looks exactly like this cat?”

“Change,” Michael ordered and against my better judgment, I did.

Jack flew backwards, a scream locked in his throat, and all he could let out was a squeak. “What the fuck?!”

“Shhhh,” I tried to cover his mouth, but he slapped my hands away.

“You’re a shifter.” He breathed and turned his wide eyes to his friend. “You’re hiding a shifter in your room? What the fuck?”

“I’m a familiar actually,” I said and although their eyes seemed to bulge with the additional knowledge, they had other questions on their mind.

“Did you heal the titan?” Michael asked in an accusatory tone while pulling a t-shirt and sweatpants out from his drawer and handing them to me.

“Yes. But in a dream, not in person. I don’t know where he is here,” I replied honestly and hurriedly pulled on the clothes.

“You knew a witch here knew about you, and that you could be linked to me and didn’t think to mention that?”

I closed my eyes briefly. “I held back information which I knew wouldn’t help my cause. I want to say I’m sorry but I’m not. You would do the same in my position.”

His jaw tensed, and his eyes narrowed. “How do you know her? The witch?”

“She was my witch’s girlfriend until she murdered her and almost killed me, too.”

That seemed to startle him out of his anger. “You have a new witch? I didn’t know that could happen.”

“I seem to be the first.”

He crossed his arms and glared. “Your new witch isn’t here?”

“He’s … busy.” Being another dragon. But you don’t need to know about that.

“He? A male witch?” Michael glanced at his friend, who just stared at us both with the same shocked look frozen on his face. “We don’t know that there’s a male witch that powerful.”

A smile pulled up the corner of my lip as pride washed through me. “He’s special.”

Michael’s eyes narrowed. “I thought you were in love with the titan.”

“I am. It’s complicated. I’m with all of them.” I waved a hand dismissively. It would take too long to explain, but hopefully, with my honesty, he felt he could trust me again because what I had to say next wouldn’t be easy to believe.

“All of them,” he repeated, his eyebrows high, and he glanced at Jack again to share his astonishment.

Jack coughed, coming back to life, and then, with big animated movements, exclaimed, “I’m sorry, am I in the twilight zone? Can we circle back to the fact that you,” he pointed at Michael, “are hiding a familiar in your room? Rule-following, schedule-making, neat freak, you?”

Michael sighed. “Look, you know something weird is going on here. Clawdia has told me about this Darren, and he’s not what we think. He’s not even human. He’s a magic draining dragon and the witches are working for him. The supernaturals we’ve captured are his breakfast.”

“You’ve cracked. You’ve actually cracked.” Jack stared at his friend, mouth agape, and shook his head. “She was naked.” He looked at us. “Is this an Alani thing?”

An Alani thing? Was there more to this story? He said he didn’t know if she was alive.

Michael shook his head. “You know me—”

Jack interrupted. “I love you dude, you’re my brother, so I don’t understand why you think taking a familiar and hiding her in your room is a good fucking idea. And listening to her stories about a dragon? Are you mental?”

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