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Her heart momentarily stopped beating.
Chapter Nine
Catie opened her mouth, closed it, opened it, and closed it again. Words could not form on her quaking lips. Luke bit his lip and sighed as he looked at the woman literally falling apart in front of him. He knew that this information was probably going to be the end of the beginning for them, but he didn’t want to live a lie.
“Catie…” Luke said and reached his large hand out to clutch Catie’s face. Without even thinking about it, Catie slapped Luke’s hand out of the way before he could touch her.
“What did you say?” Catie asked out of breath. Maybe she heard him wrong because there was no way that Luke just told her that he was a shapeshifter when she told him just the other day how much she detested them. “What did you say, Luke?” Catie asked again louder when Luke didn’t respond to her,
“I can change into a lion, Catie. I’m a shapeshifter.” Luke said elaborating. Catie looked at Luke then like he had lost his mind. Catie placed her hand to her head as emotions of sorrow and hate fought for dominance. “Please say something, Catherine.” Catie’s eyes went from left to right as she tried to process what Luke had said to her. This had to be a dream, this couldn’t be reality, but the throbbing pain from Catie’s incoming headache told Catie otherwise. In pure anger, Catie balled up her fist and threw it towards Luke’s perfectly chiseled face.
“I invite you into my house, I gave you my time and even slept with you and you’re telling me you’re one of those monsters?” Catie screamed in anger. She’d spent all this time agonizing about how Luke felt about her and marveling about how gorgeous and kind he was and he was the thing that she hated most.
“I am not a monster, Catie. I will never intentionally hurt you or anyone else.” Luke said and moved closer to Catie as she moved back.
“What did you do to me?” Catie shouted as tears started forming in her dark eyes. She always stood by what she believed in and the fact that Luke was standing there in her home made her a hypocrite. Catie was supposed to be exposing shapeshifters for the monsters that they are, not sleeping with them.
“Catie, I haven’t done anything to you. I’ve never hurt you or lied about my intentions. I know it’s real soon, but I care for you. I want to be with you, Catie. I’m only telling you this because I don’t want to start our relationship off with a lie.” Luke said and walked closer to her again. He wanted Catie to hear him out, not push him away.
“Don’t touch me! Get the fu…” Catie bit her lip and looked around quickly. She walked over to the still hot lobster tails and started throwing them at Luke. Anything that was in Catie’s reach was thrown at Luke. “I don’t like your kind! You’re a menace to society! You’re murderers!” Catie screamed as she hurled everything that was within arm’s reach at Luke. Being a lion, Luke dodged it without any problems, but it still hurt. It hurt to have the woman that he cared about react this way to him.
“Catie, please,” Luke called out as he grew tired of dodging. He’d take the blows if it’ll make Catie happy. Luke stood there and felt the still hot food connect with his body. Luke grimaced in pain, but he endured it. Catie’s arms were growing tired and her lungs hurt from all of the yelling that she did. Her tears refused to stop running down her face as she thought about her sister being brutally murdered by a shapeshifter. Though the shapeshifter that killed Abbey was a werewolf, it didn’t matter to Catie. All shifters were the same in her eyes.
“Why are you still here? Get out!”
“Catie, you said that we could talk. You’ve spent so much time making this food for us, and now it’s destroyed. Let me make it up to you. I’ll have something ordered here. Anything you want, money isn’t a problem. Just please hear me out, Catie. Please don’t push me away before I can properly talk to you.” Luke pleaded but Catie wasn’t hearing any of it. This was her house and if she wanted Luke to get out, he will.
“I’m calling the police,” Catie said dropping the fried okra on the ground and walking passed Luke to grab her phone. She didn’t want to touch him or even be in the same vicinity as him. Luke sucked his teeth. He didn’t care if Catie called the police on him, but he did care about Catie feeling safe and comfortable. He’d leave her for today so that she could think about everything that’s happened, but he’d be back for her.
“You don’t have to do that, Catie.” Luke said sadly and shoved his hands in his pants’ pocket. “Thank you so much for cooking me dinner, I’m sure I would have loved it.” Turning on his heels, Luke exited the kitchen. “I’ll give you some time to think about things. Have a good night, sweetheart.” Luke made his way out of Catie’s house with a full heart. As Luke closed the door, Catie followed behind him and threw a skillet at the door.
“Don’t you ever come near me again you monster!” Luke was already out of the house, but Catie knew that he heard her. “Please forgive me Abbey,” Catie chocked out as soon as she heard Luke’s tires screeching down the road. Catie promised her sister, Abbey, after she died that Catie would do anything possible to bring shapeshifters down, but it appeared that she was brought down by one.
****
Monday morning Catie stormed into work and flew into her office like she was running from the law.
“Dang girl,” Tiffany said walking into Catie’s office before the still irate woman had enough time to slam the door. “Who drunk all the milk in your house?” Tiffany asked with a small laugh, but when Catie didn’t respond back, Tiffany frown. “Catherine… is everything alright?” Tiffany asked growing concerned. She had never seen Catie like this before and it was scaring her. Catie couldn’t think straight as she pulled several files from her file cabinets. She didn’t want to think of what happened to her last weekend, and she felt it would be pointless to tell Tiffany anyways. Catie wasn’t familiar with Lucas Curtis prior to their meeting and even though she could tell that he was wealthy, she didn’t know the man was a billionaire. Catie’s heart was aching from his betrayal, but she swore vengeance on him and all shapeshifters. She won’t allow another woman or man to go through what she’s going through.
“So much crap happened to me, Tiffany. I’ve learned that you can’t trust everyone because they look good. But I swear… that these monsters won’t have a chance to hurt anyone physically or mentally again.”
“Wait a minute, Catherine,” Tiffany said completely lost as to what Catie was talking about. “What are you talking about? Why are you so angry?” Catie heard Tiffany asking questions, but she couldn’t be bothered with answering them. Catie had too many things on her mind at the moment.
“Please Tiffany,” Catie said finally looking at the woman. “I’m working on a story and I don’t want to lose my train of thought. I’ll talk with you later.” Tiffany placed her hands on her hips in slight anger. She hated that Catie was keeping the goods from her, but it wasn’t like she could do anything about it.
“Okay Catherine. I’ll get back with you later.” Catie nodded her head and shut and locked the door behind Tiffany. She had work to do and she didn’t need any distractions.
****
“It’s rare that you come to the bar this early. Trouble in paradise?” Donna sarcastically asked. Luke disregarded Donna’s disrespectful question. The woman was walking on thin ice though, and Luke would punish Donna in due time, but now wasn’t the time to think about that.
“Round up everyone, we need to have a meeting. Anybody that’s not a part of the pride, kick them out.” Luke said and walked straight passed Donna and made his way to the conference room downstairs. It wasn’t really a conference room; it was more of a lion’s den because they very rarely had meetings in their human form. Donna looked after his retreating form and grinned. There was definitely something wrong with Luke, and she was positive that it had something to do with that human woman.
“Good, because Lucas Curtis is all mine.” Donna whispered and did as she was told by her alpha. She closed down the bar, rounded up the crew and transformed into a lioness. When the pride got into their den, Luke was already in his lion form sitting high and poised. He didn’t waste any time getting straight to business.
“Brothers and sisters, we are in a grave predicament. I’ve found the one who I wish to mate with for the rest of my life, but unfortunately she isn’t a fan of shapeshifters.” The crowd of lions mumbled but stopped when Luke started speaking again. “Her name is Catherine Ziles. I’ve met and imprinted on her over a week ago. She told me that she hated our kind, but I kept my identity a secret from her until last night.” Luke shook his furry head as he recalled what a travesty that was.
“So what?” Donna asked since nobody else was taking the initiative. “Are you ordering us to kill her before she exposes us?” Even though the existence of shapeshifters weren’t a secret, they decided to keep their identities a secret. They definitely didn’t want their secret revealed after the incident with Luke killing someone last year. People knew a shapeshifter did it, but they didn’t know how and what animal they were. Like Catherine, there were groups out there dedicated to destroying shapeshifters for good, and they didn’t want to start a full out war with the humans.
