"Anna?"
She startles. She had forgotten about Shadow. She is a little bigger now that she's not a kitten, so she can meet his eyes, but he's still very big and imposing and she feels so much like prey. It relaxes her a little bit when she notices that he's not looking at her like he's planning to eat her with a side of fries. She quickly pulls her claws back and stop cutting into his expensive upholstery. "I'm sorry," she mumbles, curling up even more, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging them tight. Her tail is even fluffier in this form and she can curl it all the way around her, giving her a sense of being hidden and her hair is long enough to cover her breasts. She's still a little bit embarrassed though. He doesn't know her and she doesn't think he's interested in mounting her, so she shouldn't show off her lady bits like this. Master insists on clothes.
/> He crinkles his forehead as though Anna was the most confusing thing he has ever come up against. "I'm really sorry, Anna," he says.
She shrugs and looks back at her tail. Hair is beginning to gather on her tongue. She hasn't been groomed for a while and there's an itchy spot between her ears. Her gaze drops onto his large hands and she drops from the couch onto her hands and feet. She slides up to his legs and lifts her head up until she is butting his knees. "Pet me," she demands. pushing her head into his palm.
Chapter One: New Master
Master Monty dies on a Monday morning. She would have thought that there was something poetic about it if she hadn't broken down completely upon hearing his heart stop, losing her human form and shifting completely into a cat as she stumbled towards him.
He takes his last breath while taking a nap in their garden, lying under the sun and watching her play among the poppies. She notices the second his heart stops beating and panics. She shifts instead of suffering through the heartache like a normal human being. Fully cat, she doesn't feels as much, doesn't experience the heartache she would have had she been human. She goes to lie by his side and curls up in the nook of his neck with her tail wrapped around her body. He is still a little warm and still smells like life. She nuzzles his neck, where his pulse should have been. She wishes she could follow him. She loves her Master. He feeds her the best fish and hides her from the world because they'll hurt her. She knows that not because he told her so, but because he doesn't try to keep things from her. He shelters her, but he doesn't lie. He tutors her and hires tutors for her when he realizes she is learning faster than he can cope.
It is selfish of her to think of herself at this time, but she wonders what's going to happen to her now that her Master is no longer here to take care of her. She has grown so used to being taken care of. Maybe she would live the rest of her days out as a cat. She's more cat than human most days and she doesn't really mind much. Everything feels so fickle and pointless when she's in this form and she's inclined to just stay in this form.
Master Monty had purchased her from an auction for an extravagant amount of money. She thinks he did it not because he wants to keep her, but because he doesn't like the man whom he's bidding against. She remembers the stranger's face, cruel and harsh with a sort of hunger, like he can't wait to touch her. The man bidding aggressively for her was much younger than her Master, who already had a head full of white hair at that time. She doesn't know which Master would be kinder for her. The other man looked a little bit like her. He has the same eyes, yellow with a slit of green and black for pupils. She thinks he would be able to understand her because he is a little bit cat. But Master Monty had looked so much kinder, even then, even though he's a wolf. He brings her home and pets her head when she looks up at him quizzically. He had taken off her collar at the auction house and hadn't put a new one on her.
"Are you my new Master?" she asks.
He nods, sage and a little bit unhappy because he hadn't meant to buy her. He only wanted her away from the other man's hands. "If that's what you want, then yes," he says, and then he explains that he has to keep her hidden, but she's free to roam in his estate. His servants are paid generously to keep their mouths shut and she's free to be human if she wants to be, even with her cat ears and tail. He has a huge estate, a mansion that takes her a week to finish exploring and a maze-like garden surrounding the mansion. A forest surrounds the garden, and it takes half an hour by car to drive from the main gate to the garden, and then another fifteen-minute walk to the front door.
He treats her like a daughter he's never had. Except he has children. He has several children with their own families who don't talk to him anymore because he refuses to give them money. He had a younger wife, a woman he fell in love with when he was in his seventies. She had no business falling for a man more than twice her age, but loved him nevertheless and he loved her more than he had loved anyone. They have a son together and he seems to be the only one of his children whom he talks about fondly. He never visits too. When his wife died ("Cancer," he had said with a soft, far-away look) his son took off and never looked back. The house reminded him too much of his mother. "Now he's off living his own life," he would say with pride. "Doesn't want to live off his dad's money," he continues, sounding entirely too approving.
"I'm living off your money, Master," she purrs, curling up at his feet, blinking up at him pathetically.
"You're different," he huffs. "You're working too. You keep me company," he says and she knows this is true. She doesn't really do anything other than keep him company, but he tells her that when she's eighteen, he'll have a marriage contract arranged for her. There are people who would pay an obscene amount of money to take her as their bride. Half shifters like her are status symbols. Rich men keep them around to make themselves feel important. "I'll sell you, and then I never have to work a day in the rest of my life ever again," he says.
"You already do that, Master," she tells him with a little frown and he laughs.
Master doesn't need the money. Even after spending so much to purchase her from the auction house, he has plenty more.
Maybe he does have someone in mind for her, but she won't be able to find out now. Master Monty dies two days before her birthday and his body is found by the servants that night.
None of the servants in the sprawling mansion knows what to do with her. Their contracts to keep quiet about her are binding, even in his death. If they talk about her, they risk losing not only their jobs, but everything they've ever earned from Master Monty. So they don't talk about her even when a lawyer shows up with someone from animal control and before she can bolt, the man has a steel wire around her neck and is tossing her expertly into a cage. He locks her inside while she panics and the rest of the employees look on vainly. Several times, she thinks someone is going to speak up and point out that she's not actually a cat and putting her in a cat cage is inhumane, but they pull back before actually doing anything. The lawyer isn't even looking at them. He's looking at her Master's other family members, who have suddenly shown up and appear all-too-gleeful about her Master's death. They're only here for the money.
"There's none," the man says. "The house is going to Shadow, as is the cat."
"What?" someone splutters. Anna can't see her from the way she's being carried in the cage, but her voice is high pitched and a little grating. "Why would we care about a cat?"
"Half of the inheritance is meant for the cat," the lawyer deadpans, sounding like he's dead inside. "That includes this entire estate. Whoever owns her gets the house."
"How can a cat inherit anything?"
"I can take care of the cat."
"Take care of a cat?!"
People are screaming over each other, each wanting to be heard. She grimaces and wishes the cage could close off sound too.
"She is bequeathed to Mr. Shadow."
"He left everything to the little bastard, didn't he?"
"That fuc-"
She channels her animal and stops listening. She does, however, start protesting anew when she realizes that she's being taken out of the garden and into a car that smells utterly unfamiliar.
When she starts trashing about in the cage, someone injects her through an opening at the side of the cage and she fights the lethargy seeping into her bones. She's fighting a losing battle. The drugs spread through her system until she is made her sleep for a long time and when she wakes again, she is in the same cage, but she's no longer in the first car. Instead, she's in the passenger seat in the front of a car and there is a sullen man driving the car, smelling agitated and unhappy.