Page 8 of Cats Never Fly

“Good, then,” the woman nodded. “ConstableHubertwill take your statement.”

Dot—orIguess she wasConstableHubertnow—andIwent to school together.Shewas a year older than me and my littermates.She’dalways struck me as a timid person, ready to bolt at the first whiff of trouble.Itmay feed into a stereotype, but law enforcement seemed like a strange profession for a deer shifter.Theirkind was known for running from trouble rather than tackling it to the ground and going for the jugular.I’dalways thought that ifIwas into girls, she would be a perfect choice for me.Icouldn’t believe she’d become a police officer.Irespected the heck out of her for overcoming all her challenges to go for the job she wanted.Obviously, she’d gotten over her scaredy cat tendencies better thanIhad.

Shelooked at me with her big brown eyes, assessing me. “You’reone of theRiversboys, aren’t you?”

Inodded.Itdidn’t surprise me she didn’t remember my name.Noone ever did.Littermateslike mine usually attracted all the attention, andIwasthe other one.

“Yousaid you had something to report?”

Inodded again. “Ioverheard some supes talking about something…Something, uh, criminal,Iguess.”

Sheblinked at me, then nodded slowly. “Okay.Stayhere for a minute.I’llletChiefClarkknow.Okay?”

Shewasn’t gone but a moment.Whenshe returned, her cheeks were a little flushed.Sheopened the door to the office area of the police station and motioned me inside.

“He’s, uh, busy at the moment.I’lltake your statement and if he has questions, he’ll follow up with you.Soundgood?”

Sheled me to a messy desk and motioned for me to sit on a chair beside it.

“Normallywe’d do this in a meeting room, but… uh… not tonight.”Shepulled out a form from a pile and then took a minute to unearth a pen from the heaps of things on her desk. “Okay.Tellme what happened.”

Itold her about everything except the whistle and the inflatable tube man.Shedidn’t need to know about those things.Noone needed to know about them but me.

Chapter Three

OGDEN

Present Day

Thecrate was too small.Icouldn’t stand.Icouldn’t stretch.Idefinitely couldn’t shift into my dragon form without harming myself.

SoIsat in my bare-assed human form on the floor.

Normally, a crate like this wouldn’t be able to hold me, but magic had been used to reinforce the thick metal bars on this one.Unlikeother shifters, dragons kept the full capacity of their magic, superior senses and strength included, even in their human forms, so whatever magic my captors had used was impressive.Thosebars weren’t budging until my abductors decided they wanted me out.

Noneof that explained whyIwas naked, though.Fuckingperverts.

Whatelse had they done to me whenIwasunconscious?Ihated thatIdidn’t know.Iremembered nothing between the timeIstuck my toes in the water for my late-night swim and waking up here.

Whereverhere was.

Totop it all off, some little bastard mosquito must have bitten me too, because a bump on my forearm itched like crazy.Usually,Ihealed too quickly to be irritated by little bites like that, so the factIwasn’t was another cause for concern.Whatif it wasn’t a bug bite?Whatif they’d injected me with something?

DidImention how muchIhated this?

Iscratched my arm asItook in my surroundings, looking for clues about how to get out of here.WhatIsaw was alarming, but not especially useful.

Stacksof crates, like the oneI’dwoken in, filled the nondescript, concrete-walled room.Eachcage contained a naked person.Mysenses identified each of them as a supernatural being.

Youknow that saying about misery loving company?That’sa damn lie.Becauseevery single supe here was miserable and no one was loving the company.IknewIdidn’t wish to share this experience with anyone.Wewere being held like this for one reason:Wewere merchandise in a trafficking scheme.

Fuckingassholes.

Awhole host of supernatural products, the rarer the better, showed up on the magical black market from time to time, or so the headlines onSupenetclaimed.Dragonscales were, unfortunately, always popular, but flaming phoenix feathers and shavings from unicorn horns were the most coveted because of how scarce they were.

Noneof those headlines ever mentioned someone selling a whole supernatural being.Supeswere full of magic, so we were usually too difficult to contain.Ihadn’t worried about personal security for years, possibly centuries, not since theSupernaturalCouncilhad seized and destroyed those heinous summoning spells and talismans.

Honestly,Ihadn’t worried about it much before then either.Whyworry about something before it happened?