Page 7 of What I Should Have Known

“Good, now let’s go inside.” I released his hair and shoved my hands in my pockets as we walked to the single white door with paint peeling from the edges. A small bell tinkled as we stepped inside.

Chapter 3

BERNIE

The scent of animal sweat and faint ammonia slapped my nose as heavily as fresh blood from a body. The dark wood walls were lined with pictures and advertisements to the right, while the left side had a large window with cages of cats on the other side of the glass.

Raiden scurried across the cement floor and stopped at the C-shaped reception desk, tapping a small bell. Scattered on the top of the speckled countertop were stacks of papers advertising animal programs and other local news. A few cups full of pens with little flowers tied to the top were littered about the chaos. The humming of the two outdated computer screens facing empty chairs on the other side of the desk was drowned out by the bellowing noises of animals through the hallways on either side of the desk.

“Be there in just a moment!” a powerful but gentle female voice danced out from the back.

Raiden wandered away from the desk as I meandered over to the glass window. Stepping between a couple of metal chairs, I gazed at the variety of cats. They all lounged in their boxes.

Except for one.

One cat who looked different from the rest, maybe a year old or so, continually whacked at a string dangling from the top of her kennel. There was nothing in the world that could’ve forced me to pull my eyes away from this… animal. Ripped pieces of cloth were strewn chaotically about her box, and the kitty litter in one corner was about the only thing that did not look like a hurricane had passed through.

Suddenly, the cat whipped her head toward me, massive green eyes widening upon contact. There was not a single hair on her body. Not a single whisker graced her nose. Gray and pink skin covered the entire cat with eyes too big for her body and ears that stood straight up.

Moss-colored eyes remained locked onto mine.

My lip curled in shock. “Thefuckis that thing?”

“Thatthingis a Sphinx. A breed of cat,” the same woman’s voice hissed at me.

“Ignore my brother, Katalina,” Raiden exclaimed.

“How many times do I have to tell you it’s just Kat?” she replied lightly.

I wanted to spin around and apologize, but the cat continued to stare. And I couldn’t pull myself away from such a strange and unusual sight. Hunching forward as if she was ready to pounce, her shoulders rippled beneath her skin and a shudder danced down my spine at how each muscle rocked so visiblybeneath her gray hue.

“Damn,” I muttered again. The only word that managed to slip through my lips.

“Are you sure you’re related to him?” Kat whispered loudly at my brother.

Ripping my eyes away from the hypnotic lock of the cat, I faced the worker who stood behind the reception desk. A grungy T-shirt hung from her shoulders, her brown hair a frizzy mess pulled up into a high ponytail. Such a disheveled look that I couldn’t help the crooked smile from rising on my lips.

Her blue eyes widened with shock before annoyance slipped across soft features that seemed hazily familiar. As if I’d once crossed paths with her. Throwing a hand on her curvy hip, she pursed her lips.

“You,” she hissed.

Raiden shot a glance at me, confusion twitching his eyes.

I pulled my brows together. “I’m sorry, do we know each other?”

There was something tugging at the back of my mind, screaming at me that we did, but I couldn’t place where or when we’d met. And I normally never forgot faces. I definitely wouldn’t have forgotten hers with those bright, round eyes and short, voluptuous figure.

She shook her head, strands of her hair billowing around her face. “Of course you wouldn’t remember. You were such an ass, and your entire group was disrespectfully loud.”

Raiden’s mouth fell open.

“I was an ass? To you specifically?” I asked. A sharp meow chattered from behind me, and I whipped around, adrenaline surging through meon high alert. The cat lunged forward, slapping the glass separating it from me.

Kat chuckled. “Even Muffin agrees with me.”

“Muffin?” I blurted out, turning back around to face Kat.

She cocked a brow and nodded. “She has a name.”

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