Page 12 of Taming the Beasts

Thursday

Emma

“Wait up!” I yelled as I tried to heave the duffel bag over my shoulder again. It was way heavier than it looked and it kept slipping off my shoulder. What else did Zoey have in here? Bricks?

Kebe just kept speed walking down the sidewalk. She opened the white picket fence to Zoey’s house and hurried up to the front door.

“Kebe! Stop!” I kicked open the door of the white picket fence and it immediately swung back and hit me in the knee. “Ow.” I pushed it out of the way. “Kebe!”

She dropped the keys from her hand and finally spun around. Her face was pale. “I don’t know what I was thinking. We should have just shown them the coin, right? That was the plan.” She grabbed the keys off the ground, opened the door, and disappeared inside.

For fuck’s sake.Showing them the cure right away had been the plan. But I’d started to panic a bit and then she’d commandeered all of it. And honestly, she had a few good points about why we should wait. I hurried after her and closed the door behind me. I sighed as I dropped the heavy duffel bag on the ground.

Kebe was pacing back and forth in the living room.

“We could just go back,” I said. I wanted to tell Callum. I hated secrets. I’d been in love with him for tenyears. We were finally giving our relationship a real shot. And it felt different now that I was wearing the ring he’d given me. I didn’t want to start our engagement with lies and betrayal. We’d had enough of that over the past decade.

Kebe shook her head. “It’s too late to change our minds now. I’m sure Zoey is busy.”

Yeah, there was a zero percent chance that Zoey wasn’t hooking up with the twins right now. And I should have known the whole time that she’d make us get caught. There was no point in dressing up in these outfits if we weren’t going to show them off. I pulled off my cat mask and tossed it onto the coffee table.

Kebe stopped pacing. “They weren’t anything like I thought.”

I was so confused. “Who?”

“Zoey’s boyfriends. I thought they’d be more…well…you know.” She waved her hand dismissively through the air.

No, not really. “More what?”

“Well, I’m not an expert on supernatural creatures. But aren’t werecats supposed to be…violent? Dangerous? Unpredictable? Dirty? Crass?”

Dirty and crass?I pressed my lips together. They definitely weren’t those two things. All of them wore fitted suits to work and they ran a bank. They were smart and sophisticated, not dirty and crass. But I’d certainly jumped to some conclusions about them after seeing them shift right in front of me. Violent, dangerous, and unpredictable had been pretty high up on my list too. I’d kept telling Zoey to be careful around them. I’d been very judgmental. Callum’s negative opinions of themhadn’t helped the situation either. I sighed. “They’re good men,” I said.

Kebe just stared at me.

“You saw them. Did they look dirty and crass to you? And as far as the other things go…they do their best to control their emotions so they don’t shift. And they’re always together so that if one of them does shift they can get him into one of the vaults for his own protection. For everyone else’s protection too. They’re as careful as they can be.”

Kebe just kept staring at me.

“It’s not their fault that they shift, Kebe. Just like it’s not Callum’s fault that he’s a vampire.”

“Of course it’s not Callum’s fault. And there’s nothing dangerous or unpredictable abouthim.”

Um…what?One drop of blood in a room and Callum became very dangerous. Primal. It was terrifying and alluring to watch all at once. Especially when he was the one to draw blood. I thought about all the bite marks hidden underneath my clothes.

But his actions were a little predictable under circumstances involving blood that he didn’t plan. He’d kill. He wouldn’t be able to stop himself. And that was very dangerous. I remembered the way he’d looked at me in the hay maze when I’d first come to Crooked Point. If Bennett hadn’t shown up, I swear Callum would have ended me right there. He hadn’t been able to keep his eyes off my neck. Callum was definitely dangerous.

Why was Kebe so okay with the idea of vampires but so not okay with the idea of werecats? This must have been how Zoey thought of me during all our conversations about exactly this. “Kebe, they’re alldangerous. But they’re all doing their best. And honestly? I don’t think you can stay here in Zoey’s house unless you let go of these preconceived notions about her boyfriends.” Zoey wasn’t here to defend them. So I’d do it for her. They were my friends too. And they were dating my best friend. I had to start defending them.

Kebe shook her head. “That’s what I’m trying to say. They’re not like what I was told.” She pulled off her cat mask.

“Told? Who told you about werecats?” I’d never even heard of them until I’d seen one with my own eyes.

She ran her fingers along the cat ears on the mask. “I mean they’re not anything like I heard about. Werewolves I mean. From movies and stuff. It’s all the same. But also not the same, because they’re not like I thought they’d be. Zoey said Huxley designed that bank. The interior decorations were impeccable. And the expensive finishes?” She shook her head. “And that lingerie set he picked out for Zoey? All the finest materials. And he was dressed well too.”

Why had she assumed that werecats would have shit taste? I didn’t remember that from any werewolf movies. And werecats weren’t werewolves. I wondered if they’d be offended by all the werewolf comparisons. “Yeah, they have good taste,” I said. Especially Huxley. He definitely enjoyed the finer things in life. “I don’t even understand where you came up with these stereotypes?”

“My d…” she coughed. “My bad,” she said.