Between the three of them, they wrestled the ladder into position. Dai braced the base as Griff started to extend the ladder.
Someone cackled. “Ooooh. It gets longer.”
“Don’t rush, boys,” another woman called. “Take your time. Set a nice steady rhythm.”
They were literally eating popcorn. Where had that come from?
Chase stepped away from the ladder, turning to the hecklers. Dai thought that he was going to try to move them on, but the pegasus shifter gazed over their heads as though he hadn’t even noticed the audience. With an exaggerated, theatrical gesture, he wiped an arm across his forehead.
“Hard work,” he announced, apparently to no one. “Especially on a hot day.”
Dai opened his mouth to point out that it was October, but Chase was already undoing his jacket. An appreciative ooooooh rippled through the crowd.
“What are you doing?” Dai hissed.
“Public relations,” Chase muttered back out of the side of his mouth.
Letting the jacket fall to the ground, Chase ran a thumb under his uniform suspenders. He flexed, turning from side to side as though working a knot out of his back. Several ladies actually applauded.
Dai shot an appalled glance at Griff. The squad leader just grinned and shrugged.
“All right, Magic Mike, get back over here before they start trying to shove money down your trousers,” Griff said, golden eyes crinkling with amusement. “Since you’re so good with the ladies, you can go up the ladder.”
“No problem.” With a last wink at his audience, Chase swaggered back over. He smirked at Dai as he set his hands on the rungs. “Watch and learn. I’ll show you how it’s done.”
4
Dai did not say, I told you so.
“You don’t have to say it,” Chase muttered, dabbing antiseptic on his wounds. “I can hear you thinking all the way from here.”
Dai hadn’t been aware that he’d been broadcasting his guilty satisfaction. Chase, as a pegasus, was a mythical shifter like himself. They were able to contact each other telepathically, though usually it didn’t happen by accident. He struggled to get a grip on himself.
“Sorry,” he said, meaning it. “I shouldn’t smirk. We are a team, after all. And there’s still a vulnerable shifter stuck up a tree.”
“There is nothing vulnerable about that lady.” Chase winced as he swabbed at the deep parallel scratches on his cheek. “She almost had my eyes out. Are we sure she’s a cat shifter? And not, for example, actually some kind of miniature, demonic wolverine?”
Griff came down the ladder, joining them again. He at least didn’t look like he’d lost a fight with a lawnmower, but he was also noticeably lacking a cat.
“No good,” he said, shaking his head. “I tried to coax her over, but she just glared and went higher.”
“Can’t you use your alpha voice thing?” Dai asked. “Order her over?”
“I don’t want to distress her.” Griff rubbed the back of his neck. “Being compelled to do something isn’t a pleasant experience.”
“You will treat Ms. Cat with courtesy and respect, young man.” Lyla folded her arms. “We have a zero tolerance policy for alpha-holes here. Start waving your big swinging dominance around, and I’ll throw you out. And write a strong complaint to your superior.”
“I don’t use my alpha power except in dire emergency, Ms. Marshal. We’re not at that point yet.” Griff’s mouth quirked. “And to be honest, I don’t think it would even work. By now my lion is pretty convinced that I’m subordinate to her.”
“Is there someone from her family that we could call to come and help calm her down?” Dai asked Lyla. “I think she’s so wary because we’re strangers. Maybe if she saw us with someone she trusts, she’d be more willing to approach us.”
Lyla’s lips tightened. “Unfortunately, no. We don’t even know if Ms. Cat has any family. She was found wandering the streets. It was only sheer luck that she was taken to an animal shelter where there’s a shifter volunteer. He recognized that she wasn’t just a stray cat, and brought her to us.”
“Poor lass,” Griff said. “And she’s never taken human form?”
“Not in all the time she’s been with us. About six months now. That’s why we call her Ms. Cat. We don’t even know her real name. Other cat shifters have tried to talk to her, but all she could communicate was that her
mate had ‘gone away’ and she needed to find him. She’s very confused and distressed by his absence.”