Page 86 of Catch a Tiger

“Like an alpha?” she felt her eyes glowing and the gold gilded the raven’s pale skin.

He chuckled. “I don’t possess that kind of shifter dominance, but sure – I’ll protect you just like an alpha would. I’ll teach you everything I know and help you find someone to teach you what I can’t.”

“A pack?” The blade disappeared into her secret pocket and she grabbed his strange black clothes with both hands, yanking him closer. “I won’t be abandoned anymore?”

“A flock,” the raven corrected, his surprise at her strength obvious. “A collective.”

“Like messengers of prophecy?”

He chuckled again. “Harbingers, actually.”

“What name would you give me?” she asked, letting him pick her up and cradle her against his chest. It was nice when she wore nothing but this horrible human skin.

“Hmm…what about Vixen?” The raven eyed the carnage with a professional eye. “We’ll call you Vix, for short. How did you kill them, little vixen? Even I don’t know how to do that.”

She purred and rested her head in the crook of his neck. “It’s a secret.”

“Keep your secrets then.” The raven chuckled again. “My name is Kenji, but you can call me whatever you want.”

“I like Kenji.”

She fell asleep as he told her about his home, explaining what it would be like, but she didn’t care because she wouldn’t be alone anymore.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself somewhere else – somewhere dark.

A snarl had her whipping around.

Silver gleamed, making her heart race as she recognized the bars of a cage. An orange tiger slammed into it over and over and over again. The scent surrounding her was lemongrass and sunlight…Mylo.

Pain so thick and deep it choked her, suffusing every cell of her body as she tried to climb free of it before it drowned her in madness. She could only take so much and this was far more than she’d ever handled before.

Vix needed to get him out of that cage so he would stop making more pain rattle their bones. Silver burned her hands and she ignored it, yanking the bars apart until it was large enough for the tiger to slip through.

Click-clack.Click-clack.

No, the reel was slowing down. She had to get him free first.

Click-clack.

“I warned you, didn’t I?” Suddenly she was the one in the silver cage and Gabriel was crouching before her, one hand wrapped around the bar that kept burning her.

Without any clothes, she couldn’t get away from the burning.

“Let me in, and I’ll make the pain stop,” Gabriel told her, his gray eyes merciless and cold. “I’ll give you back your fur, little warrior.”

Curling up into a ball didn’t help. She was so cold without clothes or fur, but at the same time she wasburning,and the sensation of both at once shattered the delicate glass holding her together.

Centuries later, she opened her eyes and found him still crouching, just outside the cage.

“What if I don’t want fur?” she asked, tilting her head to the side. “What if I want wings?”

The psychotic grin that spread across Gabriel’s face was a mirror of her own. “You don’tdeservethem.”

Chapter 26

Vix

Vix gasped as Gabriel’s voice rattled her brain and threatened to destroy everything she’d managed to hold onto. Those words shook her so hard she fell out of that silver cage, desperately grabbing for the visions, but just like snowflakes, they melted the second she caught them.

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