Read Shifter for Free Online

blowing up my phone wanting to know where the day’s edits are.” With that, Sebastian bounds across the sofa and jumps onto the computer desk where she is sitting. He walks over to her, licks her chin and cheek a few times, then lies down behind the monitor.
    Two hours later, her sister calls. She has told the kids that Abby got a new cat, and they want to come over to see him. “You know my house is always open to the kids. You want me to order pizza for them?”
    “Would you please?” I hear her sister say. “They have Scout meetings tonight. I had planned on going for happy meals when we left your house, but pizza would be much easier.”
    “I’m on the pizza place’s website now placing the order. I’ll see you when you get here.”
    “You’re going to have guests,” she says, picking me up from my place in the floor once she placed the order. “I hope you don’t pee on anyone or anything. You haven’t moved since we got home. I’m sure you’re about to bust.” She curls me in her arms and begins to pet my stomach. Damn it, that feels nice. I can’t help it; I close my eyes and let her pet me. If I’m going to be stuck in this form, I might as well enjoy some of its perks. After she realizes that I’m not going to attack her after the first few strokes the way most cats would have, she continues for a few more seconds then takes me back to where the litter box is and sets me inside the box.
    “I’ll piss when I want to piss,” I hiss. “And that will not include when you are watching. Man, you are insufferable.” When she continues to look at me, waiting for me to do something, I wander around the smelly box, step out, shake the nasty smelly litter off my feet,—“Clean that up,”—and go to the water bowl to take a drink. I don’t really have to piss, and I know she will not let it go until I do something, so I drink some water then walk back to the living room. “This company of yours had better not pull my tail,” I hiss again as I pass her by.
    “Do you really hate being here that much?” she asks sadly.
    I freeze for half a step, thinking she is actually speaking to me, the person me, then force myself to keep moving another step or two. I can feel her watching me curiously for a second. “I am sorry you do. I will pray that the shelter finds your family soon,” she continues with a tone of voice that suggests that my current behavior is odd and not at all cat-like. Her tone is also sad. I wonder if this is because despite my behavior, she actually wants to keep me.
    I instantly feel bad for upsetting her. How can she know who and what I am or what has happened to me? She has only been kind enough to take me from that place. I seem to have gotten lucky with her. Her home is quiet and inviting. There are worse places I could be and worse people who could have adopted me. Mave sent me to that shelter thinking they would put me to sleep. Instead, this nice woman has adopted me. I should be more grateful toward her, but I am having a hard time being civilized under my current condition.
    Without looking back at her, I go back into the living room, jump up on the sofa, and pretend to sleep .
    “I’m not second-guessing bringing home the new cat, but there is something about him that is breaking my heart,” I hear her say to someone one the phone a few seconds later. “He seems exceptionally depressed and resigned. I didn’t know cats could look that way, yet he is pulling it off well. Maybe he is feeling abandoned. Maybe his owners had dropped him at the shelter door.
    “Listen at me. He’s a cat. I love my cats but to contemplate this hard on a cat’s emotions proves how out of touch with reality I am. Carrie is right; I have to get a life. I’ve got to do something with myself.”
    The conversation goes on, but I ignore it, dreading the arrival of children who are probably too young to know how to handle animals properly.

     
     
    Chapter