The Cat's Meow, page 24
Though not the dogs, of course.
Visiting them would only rile them up.
She’d just set her bag down on the counter in the reception area when a crash from the cat side of the rescue made her jump.
She lunged across the reception area and flung open the door that led to the cats’ quarters.
She loved this area of the rescue center the most.
Because of the cats, of course, but also because it was a truly unique bit of architectural genius.
The lower level of the tower was a giant playroom for cats, with an actual real tree growing at its center.
Around the perimeter of the room was a circular walkway that twined around and around leading higher and higher to the dome at the top. All along the walkway were cat kennels. Each individual kennel could be closed off if that cat needed to be quarantined, but could also be opened so that the cat had free range of several kennels, of an entire floor of kennels or even of the entire complex.
It was truly genius.
But what caught Isana’s attention this time wasn’t the brilliance of the architecture or even the kennel system that had been built to resemble a fox’s intricate den of tunnels.
Instead, it was the giant bear sitting in the middle of the floor, legs forming a triangle that three of her favorite kittens were leaping in and out of.
“Seriously?”
Mason sent her a huge grin. “They’re adorable. I think I’m in love.”
The tiny colorpoint climbed onto his ankle and started attacking one of his shoelaces.
The two ginger kittens jumped into the bowl his legs had formed and rolled around, wrestling each other.
“How did you get in?”
He shrugged and kept his attention on the kittens, lifting one of the gingers up to his face so he could nuzzle its nose before setting him down and picking up his brother. “I’ve decided I’m going to adopt all three of them.”
Isana’s heart clutched. This was the hope for every bonded set of kittens and cats she accepted into the rescue, that they might be adopted together, so that their bond was never broken.
But to a bear? And not just any bear, but a grizzly. And not just any grizzly, but a Worcester grizzly. And for that matter, not just any Worcester grizzly, but the alpha himself.
It was enough to make her lightheaded.
“There’s a process for adoption. You can’t just come and decide you’re taking three of our kittens and walk out the door with them.”
“I don’t see why not.”
“Because we have to make sure you’re the right fit, that the kittens will bond with you, that you have the right setup at your house, that they’ll be safe and loved and happy there.”
Mason slowly raised his head and stared at her. “I have more money than I could spend in thirteen lifetimes. If there’s something missing at my house that they need, I’ll get it. As for bonding—” He looked back down.
The colorpoint had given up on the laces and was now sleeping on his ankle, her four legs wrapped around him securely. The two gingers had stopped wrestling and were now curled up in the curve of one of his knees, also sleeping. The sound of their purring filled the space between Isana and Mason.
Isana rolled her eyes. “There’s more to being a pet owner than a few moments of play time.”
Mason scowled. “Like what?”
“Like cleaning their litter boxes, feeding them, taking them to the vet for their shots and when they’re sick—”
“That’s what I have employees for.”
“And what if The Worcester Group goes bankrupt tomorrow?”
Mason let out a scoffing sound. “My Worcester Group?”
“The point is life is unpredictable and if you’re not fully prepared for everything taking care of these kittens entails, you’re not getting them.”
Mason let out a loud sigh of exasperation. “Fine. What do I need to do to prove I’m worthy of these kittens?”
Isana thought that question right there went a long way toward proving it, not that she’d ever admit it, and she was charmed in spite of herself. Still, she wasn’t one to turn down a brilliant opportunity like this one.
* * *
Mason had no idea how he’d managed to get himself into this situation. All he’d wanted was to adopt one tiny kitten—okay, three tiny kittens—but it shouldn’t be that difficult.
Fill out some adoption paperwork, pay the damn fee, leave with the kittens.
But that is not what happened.
He was beginning to think this Isana woman was the devil herself.
Surely only the Dark One could convince him, Mason Worcester, alpha bear of the grizzly Worcesters and CEO of The Worcester Group, to volunteer for a cat rescue.
Even worse than volunteering were the tasks involved.
If it was just playing with kittens and cats, he’d have no problem at all with volunteering. He might even make it a permanent gig.
But no. That was not all that was involved.
There were the sick kitties who needed medicine, which was a bit like attempting to control the wind.
There was one cat in particular, a huge monster named Reaper (a more appropriate name Mason couldn’t imagine) who wielded his claws much like Mason imagined the Grim Reaper did his scythe.
Unfortunately, Reaper was not a cooperative cat when it came time to give him his medicine, which came in liquid form.
“It’s the easiest method of getting medicine down his throat,” Isana informed Mason.
He firmly believed she was feeding him a line with that one because there was nothing easy about this shit.
He had Reaper wrapped in a towel, syringe ready to pour the medicine down his throat, and then everything went to hell.
His first attempt ended with a giant scratch across his nose and cheek and don’t ask him how the demon cat managed to get his paws free while wrapped in a towel. Clearly, Reaper had ninja powers.
After chasing the cat around the damn room and finally getting him wrapped in the towel again, his second attempt ended with a bunch of medicine coating Reaper’s fur instead of in his mouth. Damn cat moved his head at the last minute and all that medicine went to waste.
By the time Mason had caught the cat again and successfully delivered the medicine, he was exhausted.
The cat, on the other hand, was full of energetic fury.
Reaper stalked away and proceeded to ignore Mason for the next hour.
This shouldn’t bother Mason as he had many other things to do in that hour, like clean out disgusting litter boxes (how had he gotten into this situation again?) but somehow in the battle between cat and bear, Mason had decided he actually liked Reaper.
Maybe he’d adopt him too. The cat could be a big brother to the kittens, help Mason watch out for them.
When he mentioned this to Isana, she looked horrified. “I’m sorry, now you want to adopt Reaper too? You do know Reaper’s a crotchety old man who will probably make you miserable for the rest of his natural life.”
Mason shrugged. “That’s kind of why I like him.”
“Hmmm.”
By the time Mason was done cleaning kennels and litter boxes and had fed all the cats (forty-three in all!) he was completely done in.
This job was more exhausting than heading a multi-billion dollar real estate corporation, which was saying an awful lot.
Mason trudged out of the cat wing into the reception area, where Sarah was shutting things down for the evening.
“All finished?” She asked cheerfully.
Mason let out a grunt. “Where’s Isana?”
“I’m right here,” Isana walked into the room from a hallway at the back of the building. “Sarah, everything good on the dog side?”
“Yes, the volunteers from the dog rescue just left. They also gave us a stack of their applications, said they trusted us to process them if anyone wanted a dog. They’ve got their hands full what with taking in all those dogs from the fighting rings and that hoarder’s house.”
Isana groaned. “Fine. No one’s going to come here for a dog though. I mean, it clearly says Cat Rescue on the door.”
“You never know. I pass out dog rescue information all the time. This way we can actually show them some available dogs.”
“I suppose.” Isana sighed. “But we’ve got forty-three cats we need to find homes for. Forty-three! I’ll never understand why people don’t just get their animals fixed.”
“Well, good news,” Mason said heartily. “You’ll only have thirty-nine once I’m out of here.” He rubbed his hands together. “Now, what do you need me to fill out so that I can take my wee cats home?”
* * *
“He really thought that was going to work,” Soraya observed.
“For supposedly running an entire corporation, the man isn’t that smart,” Tivali said.
“Yeah,” Muezza agreed. “Even I knew one afternoon of volunteering wasn’t going to convince Isana of anything.”
Tivali winced as Mason stormed out of the rescue center, waving his arms and shouting about devil women. “He’s never going to win a mate with that kind of attitude.”
Mason paced in the parking lot a few moments, then turned and stormed back toward the building.
He flung open the door and shouted inside, “I’ll be back tomorrow after work. I’m not giving up! Those cats are mine.” He stormed away.
“Oh, that’ll convince her,” Muezza said.
“That man is hopeless,” Soraya said.
“I’m telling you, Bygul saddled us with an unmatchable,” Muezza said.
“Loosening Reaper’s towel should have worked,” Soraya said. “I can’t understand why it didn’t.”
“Probably because it required someone with more empathy than Isana Meier,” Tivali said.
“Or someone who hasn’t been scratched as often as she has,” Muezza said.
“True,” Soraya said. “I guess when you’re used to being scratched on a regular basis, you probably don’t have much sympathy for someone who gets scratched just the once.”
“Especially when that someone is a man-baby who’s wailing and whining,” Tivali said.
“It was pretty funny though,” Soraya said.
“Personally, I enjoyed watching the bear chase Reaper all around the room,” Muezza said. “It’s always fun to see earthbound cats showing humans who the boss really is.”
“Yeah, that was hilarious,” Soraya said.
“Funny or not, I have no idea how we’re going to match that man with anyone,” Tivali said. “He can’t even convince a woman who works in cat rescue, who’s overrun with cats needing homes, to let him adopt some kittens. The man has more money than most of the gods and she won’t even let him have a cranky, old cat. This mission is doomed.”
Chapter Four
“I’VE COME UP with a plan,” Kate announced when Nick walked into their offices the next morning.
“Oh, great. This should be good.”
“Isana already knows you, but she hasn’t met Ryan, Pete or Lyle. So we’ll have one of them go in and try to adopt the dog. Then we’ll give it to Maggie for Christmas.”
“Dude, maybe you should rethink this whole idea. What if Maggie doesn’t want a dog? What if she’s allergic? What if the cat decides to fight the dog?”
“Oh, I’m sure Genghis Khat will fight the dog. It’ll be all kinds of entertaining, just like when he took Jackson for a ride.”
Nick snickered. “That was hilarious.”
“I think we should send Ryan first.”
“If Ryan comes back with a cat, I’ll never forgive you.”
“Why would he come back with a cat? We’re sending him after the dog!”
* * *
Ryan wasn’t sure how he’d been roped into this situation. All he’d done was show up for work as usual and the next thing he knew, his boss’s mate was sending him on a very important mission.
At least he’d managed to convince her to let him finish the car he’d been working on. Otherwise, they would have gotten even more backed up than usual.
As it was, Jefferson had been annoyed with Kate for pulling Ryan from the shop early to go on this ridiculous quest.
She’d given him a highly specific description of a dog and orders not to leave the rescue center without him.
The only good news about this mission was that the cat rescue was located in the middle of Pleasantville, a human town, thus reducing the likelihood that anyone from his pack would see him entering the place.
Dragging in a deep breath for courage, he made his way inside.
Two women stood behind the counter, talking with a woman. There was a young boy at the woman’s side who turned and stared at Ryan when he walked in.
Ryan stared back.
Long minutes later, it occurred to him that he was in a stare down match with a kid who couldn’t be more than ten years old.
Still, the wolf inside wasn’t going to let him look away first. This kid was going down.
Just when Ryan was convinced he might end up spending the entire day there, the kid bared his teeth and made a fierce face.
It would have been more impressive if the kid had fangs.
Sadly, it appeared he was hampered by his humanity.
Ryan lifted his top lip and bared a single fang.
The boy’s eye got huge and he jerked back. He slid to the other side of his mother, then peeked out at Ryan again.
Ryan grinned at him.
The boy sent him a tiny smile, then looked away.
A few moments later, the woman walked out of the center her boy trailing behind, throwing glances over his shoulder at Ryan all the way.
“You do realize they were human, right?” At first glance, Ryan had assumed the speaker was older than she was based on her white hair, but now he realized she was probably in her mid-thirties at most.
Interesting.
“I’m here about a dog,” Ryan said, ignoring her question about the humans.
Both women looked surprised.
“But we’re a cat rescue.”
“Sarah.” The other woman put a hand on her shoulder. “Did Underdog Rescue send you? Just because we agreed to house a few of their dogs doesn’t mean we have the time to handle their adoptions for them.”
“Isana, I said it was no problem.”
“Fine. Fine. But they’d better start sending some cat people our way.”
“Come along. I’ll show you where the dogs are.”
Ryan followed Sarah through a door into another reception area, this one empty. The silence was broken by the faint sound of dogs barking.
“This used to be a veterinary clinic that also offered boarding for dogs before we bought it.” Sarah explained as she led him past a number of examination rooms, the sound of barking growing louder with every step. “We have a couple volunteers who come in and use the clinic to administer vaccinations and to spay and neuter our cats, but the kennels at the back of the clinic go unused.” She pushed through a swinging door that led to a giant room with kennels lining the walls. “I was kind of glad Underdog Rescue asked us for help. The kennels have doggy doors that lead outside into a run. It’s good to see all of this space being used again.”
All of the kennels appeared to be empty, though the sound of barking continued.
‘The dogs must all be outside.” Sarah walked across the room and pushed open a steel door. She used her foot to shove a rock against the door to hold it open. “Come on. You can meet the dogs.”
Ryan’s attention had already been caught though.
One of the kennels wasn’t empty after all.
Inside a large dog was lying, head on his paws, eyes on Ryan. He was pitch black and had the saddest of eyes.
“Well, hello, there, buddy, what’s up with you?”
Sarah came back inside. “That’s Cujo. I don’t know why anyone would name him that because he’s the sweetest dog of the lot. He’s just sad because his owner died and no one in the family could take him.”
* * *
Mason decided there had to be some benefits to being in charge. He had his assistant cancel his final meetings of the day and escaped the office in favor of the cat rescue center.
He wasn’t sure why he couldn’t stop thinking about the bear-not-bear, but when he wasn’t thinking about the kittens, he was picturing all that white hair and remembering the bear-not-bear’s scent.
The mystery of it was driving him mad!
He’d hinted repeatedly throughout his afternoon of volunteering, trying to figure out what animal smelled like a bear, but wasn’t, but she’d refused to share. In fact, for the most part, she’d ignored him.
Including when Reaper had tried to scrape off his face.
He couldn’t believe how mean she was!
He kind of liked it.
When he arrived at the center and found Isana standing at the reception counter, he was thrilled.
Sarah was nowhere in sight.
Even better.
“Did you miss me?”
She jumped and glared at him. “Like an itchy rash. What are you doing here?”
“I told you I’d be back. I’m here to adopt my kittens. I also brought some Bear Necessities, just in case. This countertop should do nicely.” With that, he began unpacking the box he’d brought with him.
Box of donuts.
Platter of cookies.
Homemade breads.
Giant platter of fish lasagna.
Crockpot full of—
“What on earth is all of this?” Isana exclaimed.
Before he could explain, the door to the clinic opened and Ryan, of all people, came through it, leading a dog on a leash.
“What are you doing here?” Mason demanded.
“Are those Bear Necessities?” Ryan made a beeline for the countertop and grabbed a handful of cookies. “You and Kate are the best people I know.” His words were mangled a bit due to his mouthful of crumbs, but Mason still understood him.
“Ryan’s adopting Cujo,” Sarah told Isana. “Here’s his application paperwork and his credit card.”
Isana stared at Ryan who was busy scooping lasagna onto a plate, then at Mason who was trying to decide whether he wanted to start off with some bread or with some cookies—maybe he should just go with both—then back to Ryan, who was now gagging and spitting out Mason’s delicious fish lasagna—wolves. They had no taste whatsoever.
