Page 16 of The Wildcat and the Rogue (The Shifter Season #8)

JANE

The alley behind Rosten and Sons is a little bit of a dingy place, though I know that it is just somewhere we have to deal with if we want to get hold of the necklace. After a few days of planning, Ewan thinks we're ready to do this, and I have no reason to suggest otherwise. The longer we leave it, the more chance there is that Lady Whitstripe will have her necklace collected and then we have to figure out a way to get it from her home, which seems infinitely more difficult.

"Are you sure the jeweller is human?" I ask Ewan.

He nods. "I did every check I could think of, and asked several people who are knowledgeable about jewellers in the area, claiming that I wanted someone who understood shifters in order to commission a broach for you."

I raise an eyebrow. "What would that have to do with being a shifter?"

He pulls a face. "I said I wanted to have some of my fur set into the piece. I might actually have to do it now, considering how many people I talked to about it."

I laugh despite the seriousness of the conversation. "It is no different than a lock of hair. I would be proud to wear it."

"Well then, it shall be more than just our cover. Are you ready? You should shift first so that I can collect your dress for you. I imagine you don't have much experience dealing with clothes when in your cat form."

I shake my head. "And you do?"

"I'm normally still a man when I put them in the sack," he says. "I'm just naked."

"Ah." I check down both ends of the street before pulling the basic brown dress over my head. I have no idea where Ewan got it from, but it's helped us to stay unnoticed while walking through the streets. It's not like we could have come here in our finery or in our carriage as it would only have drawn attention to who we are.

I pass the dress to Ewan and he stuffs it into a sack not unlike the one he carried into my bedroom. A shiver runs through me as the cold air pricks my skin, and I pull forth the shift in order to counter it. My body shrinks, becoming the grey-striped wildcat I've been able to shift into my entire life. I stretch out my paws in front of me, ridding myself of the aches that come with not having shifted in very long.

Ewan admires me for a moment, only to remember what we're supposed to be doing and pulls off his own clothes, stuffing them into the bag along with my dress. I sit back and watch, not even pretending to look away.

He catches my gaze and raises an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything as he finishes his task and hides the bag of clothes. He takes a smaller bag with the fake necklace inside and fixes it to my back before shifting himself.

He's slightly bigger than I am, with large paws and keen eyes.

Unable to help myself, I walk over to him and push my body against his, purring loudly with my tail sticking up in the air. We don't really have time for this, but it's the first time we've shifted together, and I want to at least acknowledge the moment.

He pulls himself away and heads over to the jeweller's, locating the small hole that is likely for their cat. Judging from the size, it's just a normal house cat, but we should be able to get through there easily enough. Ewan goes first, wriggling slightly until he's through.

My whiskers brush against the wood, giving me a sense of the hole's size compared to my body, and I manage to get all of the way through with the necklace still attached to my back. The jeweller's shop looks different from this angle, and it takes me a moment to recognise it.

Ewan shifts back into human form. "Keep watch," he tells me as if we haven't gone through this part of the plan several times, especially around the times he kept telling me that I didn't have to come with him. But I've helped so far, I wasn't about to let him do this part on his own too.

He heads over to the counter and starts sorting through boxes. I'm not sure how he knows what he's looking for, but considering this isn't the first time he's retrieved an item for his employer, I'm going to trust his process.

I prowl across the floor, keeping my ears pricked for any noises that could spell trouble. The telltale scratch of mice beneath the floorboards is hard to ignore, especially as my feline instincts want to take over, but there's nothing else of note.

"Found it," Ewan says.

I trot over to him, knowing that he's going to need the fake necklace now.

He bends down and picks me up, setting me on the counter next to the box with the necklace in it. He pulls the fake from the bag and sets it down next to it. "What do you think? Good enough?"

I nod my head. Or at least, I do the approximation of a nod that I can manage in cat form, which isn't precisely the same, but it will do.

"Then I think we're about done." He switches the necklaces and puts the real one inside my bag. "You should get outside now. I'll follow."

I want to protest, but short of raking him with my claws, I don't think I really have a way to do that while I'm in the shape of a cat. He sets me back down on the floor and I look up at him.

"I'll follow right behind," he promises.

With nothing else for it, I slip back the way we came, knowing that the important thing is getting away with the necklace now. It's what's going to secure our future and that of my sisters.

I'm more careful when I go through the hole this time, as I don't want to damage the necklace in the bag on my back. This is not what I imagined married life to be, but in some ways, it is a little more exciting. I head over to where our clothes are hidden and look around me to make sure that no one is looking. I use my paws to get the bag off from around my neck and shift back into my human form, quickly scrambling for my dress before anyone sees me. It would be quite a scandal to be found outside like this, especially with a freshly stolen necklace in my possession.

I watch the hole in the jeweller's closely, worrying for every moment that Ewan doesn't return. I know he's going to be doing everything he can in order to make it look like we haven't been there tonight, but that doesn't stop me from worrying about him.

Finally, the grey-striped cat appears, shifting back into his human form and hurriedly pulling on his clothes. "Let's get out of here," he says.

I nod. "How long do we have to look after this?" I ask, holding up the bag with the necklace.

"I'll deliver it first thing in the morning. The shorter the amount of time we have it in our possession, the better."

I nod, not about to argue with that logic, especially when I would rather we didn't have stolen possessions on us at all, but knowing there is nothing we can do about it until the morning.