Claws // Colby Brock

💫25 💫

Didn't cats usually bring dead things to their owners? I knew I shouldn't think about it too much but considering the lack of a collar and the way this little thing felt so comfortable with me, I was starting to suspect it really didn't have its own home.

"I don't have any of your treats on me," I murmured to it, scratching behind its ears as it stared up at me, occasionally closing one eye. I spent a little extra time on its neck, since there was no collar...

If this cat did belong to someone, they'd probably take a randomly-appearing collar off, right? So if I wanted to find out for good...

"Katrina!"

Katrina appeared outside in barely a second, but she was careful not to startle the bundle of fur on my lap. She looked a little confused as she nodded at me to continue.

"We should find out if this little thing has an owner. Could you go out and buy a collar for it?"

"Why?" she questioned, almost scoffing.

"Because if it does have an owner, they'll take it off or something. They're not gonna just leave a random collar on it."

Her brow raised. "And why is it you want to know if it has an owner?"

"No reason," I chirped, winking at her before pressing a kiss to the cat's head. It purred into me more, melting my heart easily.

"I'll see what I can do," Katrina told me, disappearing again.

After a short while, she came back with a collar and I put it onto the feline. It didn't fight me at all, which made me think even more so there wasn't a reason why it had no collar if it belonged to someone. I set it free — reluctantly — and headed back inside to drop onto the loveseat a little closer to Colby than usual.

He glanced at me for a moment without saying anything and I caught his gaze. The need to smile was too intense for my liking, especially when he broke the eye contact to look down at my hands in my lap instead. I knew what he was thinking, what he wanted, but I also knew he wasn't going to do anything with everyone else around. A part of both of us was still waiting for them to start cracking out the jokes. I was amazed they hadn't started yet.

Just as I was starting to think something was wrong, I heard Jake snicker which drew my gaze in his direction. He was whispering to Tara — not that it mattered when the rest of the room were vampires — and if I wasn't crazy, I saw Kevin grin just after Jake had said something. My eyes narrowed, but I chose not to fan the flames. Colby didn't seem pissed off so he might not have been poking fun at us.

Might.

A little buzz in my pocket led me to slide my phone out and check the name. I wasn't surprised to see it was Anna, but her message seemed a little strange. She wanted to see me — alone — and as soon as possible. I considered for a long moment what could possibly be so pressing, then told her to come here. She knew I wouldn't be alone but I assumed the people she didn't want to be around were the pack.

I waited with my feet up and my head laid back until I caught the slightest whiff of her, only that was strange, too. She didn't smell right. Although it had been a while since I'd been around her enough to properly distinguish her scent in a crowd, I knew this wasn't completely her. There was something else.

She knocked on the door, causing the vampires to snarl or snap their heads toward the hall, but I ignored them to go and let her in. The moment I could see her, she was throwing herself at me, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Amira! You're the only one I know outside of the pack. Please help me."

I frowned, gently pulling her away from me. "Help you with what?" Staring at her, I breathed in heavily and instantly realised exactly why she didn't smell quite right. My eyes widened. "You're fucking kidding."