characters except my own belong to Kelly Armstrong. I'm just elaborating, collaborating and borrowing her beautiful work to get the ideas out of my head!

Lash of the Cat

Ch. 1: Teaser

I tore off chasing the chipmunk, leaving the boys behind in the woods. Sure, the fuzzy woodland creature wouldn't even be a snack to me, in any form, but it was cute and fun to chase. Almost as fun as those sadistic fluffy-tailed nuisances back home that are hilariously called fox squirrels. I mused as I chased the chipmunk that there was nothing foxy about those damn squirrels, and ignored my surroundings while I was having my fun. I didn't think there would be any other predators in these woods that would be stupid enough to challenge me or the boys, so why should I care about my surroundings? The boys weren't gonna be chasing after me any time soon, and they knew I needed to burn off some energy and frustrations. So, I just barreled through the woods after that cute striped rodent, not even paying attention enough to have my nose or ears alert me to dangers.

Big mistake.

He jumped out of the woods into my path from somewhere off my right side, and I barreled right into him, unable to stop in time. We both went down, a tangle of wolfy legs. He was huge! I snarled at him, and jumped up as quickly as I could untangle myself, and quickly went on the defensive. How dare another wolf come interrupt my game of chase and make me lose my prey! It was only then that I actually looked at him, and saw that his fur was almost midnight black, and his green eyes were completely out of place in the face of your average wolf. This was no natural wolf. He growled at me, and took off, continuing down the path that I had just cut through the forest.

It only took me a moment for fear to settle into my gut. He was following my path back to the boys, and I couldn't let him reach them without at least trying to give warning. I sprang forward, racing back down the path after him, my prey forgotten, and surprisingly found myself shoulder to shoulder with another large wolf. I pulled back long enough to catch a glimpse of what had glided out of the forest to race evenly with me, and saw that this massive wolf was blond. He turned his face to growl a low warning, and I saw he had ice blue eyes that would fit better in a human face than wolf's.

I don't know if it was the low growled warning, or the challenge that another creature thought himself faster than me, but I bared my teeth at him in a sneer and took off as fast as I could after my original challenger, leaving the blond one in my dust. I've been brought up to be an independent woman, and whupping these two mutts, no matter HOW big they are, seemed like the most fun I could have this week. That, and I don't do well with threats…

I let out a howl as I was just about to overtake the black wolf. We were too close for comfort to the boys, and I wanted to give them fair warning that we'd be barreling into their napping place. My howl obviously made the black wolf nervous, because he briefly shied like a nervous filly, breaking his long stride just long enough for me to finish overtaking him. A few moments later, I no more than took my open opportunity to take down the black wolf than I heard a reply yowl above me, and felt the thump of two large animals landing on either side of me and my new prey. I didn't have to look up to know that what had descended from the trees was a pair of nearly identical jaguars, and I didn't have to hear their growl to know that if I couldn't take this wolf down alone, they'd do it for me. Gotta love overprotective older brothers… Always looking out for a gal and watching her back!

I went to pin the black wolf right about the same time the blond one slid to a stop in front of our party. By the deep rumbling emitting from his chest, he wasn't exactly pleased at the situation. Then again, very few creatures actually like the boys. It had something to do with them being higher predators, and everything seeming like prey… Oh well. The black definitely wasn't happy about the situation either, and grabbed me by my left front leg and tried to flip me off him and into the woods. As I'm a pretty average sized wolf, and he had at LEAST 60lbs on me, this shouldn't have been a difficult thing to do. Too bad he was just a regular wolf and I'm not. Well, that at least is how I looked at it since he couldn't seem to get me off my feet. Ah, the fun of magic! He did at least manage to dump me off his back and onto my side. I guess that's when he finally scented what I am, because before I could blink, he was trying to mount me, and had me half pinned to the forest floor.

I let out a low irritated growl, and the boys sprang into action.