Howling In The Night | Night Cat #2

Howling In The Night - Chapter 22

Outnumbered and Outmatched

“Well, well. What do we have here?”

An extremely tall, slightly muscular man around his mid-to-late twenties stepped forward, a nine millimeter glistening in his hands. “A stray and his cubs. A nice package for Bruckheimer, don’t you think boys?”

Around him, men snickered in agreement. I felt a ripple of anger travel along my spine, down the very end of my tail. The soft crackle of earth underneath me told me that I’d unconsciously drawn out my claws and sunk them into the ground.

A threatening growl left Mr. K’s mouth as he shifted to stand in front of us protectively. For some reason, I couldn’t understand Mr. K in his other form as well as I could Xander. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he was a wolf while we were cats, but all I could make out from his growl was a garbled, “stay away from them.”

In front of him, the apparent leader of the group tsk-ed, pointing the gun at Mr. K. “I think we both know that you’re not going to be able to protect them. Especially if you’re thinking of fighting us.”

As if to prove his point, the men surrounding us stepped closer, tightening the circle they were enclosing us in.

Xander and I hissed angrily, taking one short step back each. In front of us, Mr. K’s tail went rigid and he unsheathed his claws. I felt a tickling sensation against the back of my leg and glanced around warily, only to find that Dean, too, had taken a step back, pushing all four of us together in a tight circle.

The sound of Mr. K’s warning growl made me snap back to attention. In front of the group, Mr. K was staring menacingly at the leader of the group. “Blue isn’t like this, Dirt!”

Xander and I glanced at each other in confusion. Blue isn’t like this? What on God’s green earth did that mean? Was it some sort of code?

Maybe I’d heard him wrong…? His words were pretty unclear to me, so maybe he’d said something else and I’d just heard him wrong.

Blue isn’t like this dirt?

Maybe he said “you’re a piece of dirt?”

No. The tone Mr. K had used was different. It was more of angry plea than a spiteful comment…

I was about to give up when a thought struck me.

What if, instead of “dirt”, Mr. K had said “Dirk”?

“You don’t need to do this, Dirk.”

Slowly, a snuck a glance in the leader’s direction. With his red hair, blue eyes, lean build, and youth I would have never guessed that he was the Dirk Mr. K had been talking about earlier.

I’d pictured a stocky, raven haired, middle-aged man with scars all over his face. Not someone who looked like he could have been Mr. K’s bunk buddy in college.

Mr. K’s bunk buddy in college? For some reason, I suddenly felt nauseated. The way my gut twisted when that thought floated into my head made me extremely uneasy.

“You’re a smart Ry. Think about what you’re up against.” Dirk took another step towards Mr. Kebler. “You’re out numbered, and, unless these three have mastered the art of fighting in their animal forms, you’re also outmatched. If you just surrender now, we won’t have to hurt you. That way you’ll be able to sleep soundly at night knowing that your stupidity didn’t get one of them seriously hurt.”

We “kids” didn’t even give Mr. K time to mull Dirk’s words over.  Responding to Dirk’s proposal the only way we knew how, the three of us crouched low to the ground, ready to spring, hissing and spitting furiously.