Shadow Read online

  Shadow woke sometime later. When he was in full cat form time often got hazy for him, so he had no idea what time it was, but it felt like night. He was on a warm soft bed, with a warm soft body lying up against him. It was the woman, and they were alone. The room smelled of animals, many different types and species. He felt good, fairly whole, but tired. Obviously someone had healed him. He rolled over and wrapped the woman in his paws and pulled her closer. She woke up and yawned and looked at him, then kissed him. He’d never been kissed in full cat form before, it was interesting. So he kissed her back and slipped her some tongue, well all of it actually, she seemed to like it and started pressing up against him.

  “Ohh yes, Kitty feels better I see!” she whispered and Shadow’s nose picked up a scent he was rather familiar with. About that time he also realized she was naked laying there.

  “I’m Shadow,” he rumble purred deeply, rubbing his body against hers as she rolled over onto all fours in a rather obvious invitation.

  “I know,” she said looking back at him and smiling.

  Shadow shifted back to his sex form and crawled over to her, then using his tongue he slowly worked his way up her leg, then up her back until he was nibbling on her neck as he mounted her, taking his time and putting his hands to good use as he drove deep into her tight heat, purring rather loudly as he enjoyed her body.

  Apparently she was enjoying his as well from the rather enthusiastic sounds she made. They made love several times. When he finally wore down and they were snuggled up again under the blankets, with satisfied purrs coming from him and sighs of happiness were coming from her, he spoke again.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Circe, you’re one of mine now,” she giggled.

  Shadow cocked an ear and looked down at her; he could feel a hold on him now that she mentioned it. She had control of the cat, but he was not all cat, and the man in him could see some things worked both ways and that she was a rather hot and enjoyable female, so he’d let her hold his leash a little. The cat in him liked her, and that was important.

  “Circe, huh. I think I’ve heard of you. I thought you hated men?”

  “I do. But you’re not a man.”

  Shadow flexed a part of his anatomy that was still lodged in a rather warm and tight place. “Not a man?” he chuckled softly, “Sure about that?”

  She clamped him back and moaned softly. “Oh, definitively. Very male, and I like males, a lot! But not a man, definitely not a man. An animal.”

  Shadow purred again, he remembered a bit more about her now. She was powerful, very powerful. Once of the city’s heavier hitting villains. She was something of an AR nut, and one nasty and cruel bitch. She didn’t come out to the parties the criminal types held very often, apparently a lot of them were afraid of her too, they claimed she could turn men into animals. But she seemed just fine to him.

  He must have spoken out loud because she responded to his thoughts:

  “Oh I can be very nasty, don’t you worry about that! But I treat my animals, especially the ones like you, very well. Very well indeed.”

  Shadow yawned, “Apparently.” He pulled her closer, he was exhausted, all the sex on top of his recently healed wounds had him very run down. “Wake me when you get up. I’ll take you to breakfast someplace nice.”

  “Oh, we could just eat here you know.”

  “Whatever, just make sure there’s lots of it.” Shadow yawned again and was quickly asleep.

  Shadow enjoyed Circe’s company for the next week, or more appropriately – her body. She had a nice one and he definitely used it a lot, not that she was complaining, instigating was more like it half the time. Personality wise he wasn’t quite sure about her yet, but he was drawn to her and liked her. It eventually dawned on him however that she was keeping him there, almost against his will. Almost, because when she would tell him he didn’t need to go or should stay, he’d agree with her. It was insidious, her control over him, but even after he realized it he couldn’t really complain about it. Because of what she was, the animal in him just couldn’t find fault with her. But it didn’t mean she had complete control over him either.

  “I’m going to head back to my place today,” he told her. They were inspecting her property, she made the rounds twice a day, checking up on the animals she had as well as her staff of female helpers. Shadow eyed them all appreciatively, they were all very attractive, and all seemed interested in him, and he definitely had plans on eventually checking them all out himself.

  “Oh you don’t need to do that, Shadow, you can stay here.” She said smiling, and he could feel her will pushing up against his own.

  Shadow purred, “Yes actually, I do. I have things to take care of and you need to realize that you don’t control me as much as you think.” He smiled and pulled her over and kissed her.

  Circe looked a little surprised. “I’m ordering you to stay!” she said and Shadow could feel the pressure increase, but it just put his backbone up.

  “I’m not a pet, Circe, I’ll be back tomorrow. Stop pushing.”

  “If you leave, you can’t come back!” she warned.

  Shadow put his hands on his hips and looked down at her, “Bull Shit. I’ll come and go as I please. You wanted me, you got me. Now you better learn to deal with the reality of me.”

  She looked at him. “You’ll come back?”

  He blinked, “Of course I’ll come back, we both know you’ve got a hold over me now. Besides I like you, you feel niiiicce,” he purred the last bit.

  “You’re so much smarter than the other animals. I wasn’t sure how you’d deal with it.” She said cautiously.

  “Not much differently than they do I’m sure,” Shadow said motioning to one of her wolves.

  She nodded and he left her then.

  He had to be careful going back to his place, he only had the slacks that he’d been wearing that night left, and they were blood stained rather badly. He’d been walking around naked at Circe’s the entire week, which with the fur wasn’t a big issue for him, but might be for others in public.

  When he finally did get home he spent a few hours getting caught up on his bills and other affairs. Then he went down to his favorite bar, the watering hole for most of the underground, Bell’s.

  When he walked in the front door conversation stopped for a moment as everyone looked at him. There were quite a few surprised looks and quite a lot of respectful ones as well.

  “Thought you were dead,” one of the regulars said looking up at him.

  “Nah, just busy with a lovely young lady.” He nodded to the barkeep, “I’ll have the usual.”

  “Sure thing, Shadow. I’ll have the waitress send it to your booth.”

  Shadow blinked, “Booth?”

  “You inherited Jin-Tao’s” the regular spoke up. “That’s one of Bell’s rules.”

  Shadow ‘huh-ed’ and walked to the back of the bar. The booth’s weren’t large, four people usually, but if you were someone important you had a personal one at Bell’s. Shadow had been trying to figure out how to get one for the last month now that he’d marked the place out as his favorite.

  The one he got was impressive, Jin-Tao was rather up there on the scale of things, and this one was close to ‘center stage’ as it were. Shadow looked around and saw one a bit more secluded that gave a better view of the bar and had a bit more of the shadows that he tended to like.

  “Whose booth is that?” he asked the waitress.

  “Red Hands’” She told him.

  Shadow nodded, he didn’t know Red himself, but he’d heard of him. Not a major player, but definitely a player.

  “Bring him a drink on me, ask him if he’d like to trade booths.”

  She blinked at him, “You’d trade this spot for that?”

  Shadow laughed, “What’s my name again? Do you think I want to sit out here in plain sight in the brighter lights? Hell no!”

  “Oh,” she said and shrugged.

  Fifteen
minutes later and Shadow was sitting in a spot he preferred much much more, and was satisfied. Judging from a few of the comments he overheard a lot of folks approved of his choice. Jin-Tao had been a flashy show off kind of guy. Shadow wasn’t. Jin-Tao had also been around for years and everyone knew him, while Shadow had really only come to everyone's attention last month when Scorecard introduced him.

  “Here,” he said to the waitress when she brought him another round, “Take this and have Bell get someone in here to reupholster the seats, replace the table with something nicer, and spruce the booth up.

  She looked at the roll of bills, it was about five grand. “Sure thing.” And went off to the back.

  “Might want to hold on to some of that,” A guy said slipping into the seat across from Shadow.

  “Hi, Carl, invite yourself in why don’t you? And why’s that?”

  “Don’t mind if I do, Shadow,” Carl laughed. Shadow hadn’t quite figured Carl out yet, he was a nice enough guy and talked with everyone in the place, but you were never quite sure were you stood with him.

  “Laughing Boy is pissed; he’s really up in arms about what you did.”

  “I’m not surprised, but what does money have to do with it?”

  “Well traditionally when someone aces off one of someone else’s lieutenants, a little money changes hands as an apology.”

  “Ah, Dane Geld.”

  Carl nodded, “Pretty much.”

  “So what’s traditional?”

  “Well if you were a rival boss, a couple of hundred grand would do the trick.”

  Shadow almost choked on his drink, “That’s a lot of money, Carl.”

  “And you’re also not a rival Boss. I’d say at least fifty thou, maybe a bit more.”

  Shadow sighed, he had it, but his cash flow wasn’t the best right now as he'd just invested almost all of cash using Liz's business advice. He’d need to make another big score this year if he didn’t want to go broke before that started to pay off.

  “Thanks. Carl, I’ll send it. Wouldn’t want people to think I’m a piker or something.”

  Carl nodded, “That’s why the bosses like you, Shadow, you show respect. And after the way you dealt with Jin-Tao, they know you’re not an ass kisser, that you’re a man of honor. They appreciate folks who follow the old ways.”

  “I just wish the lower ranks would appreciate it and stop challenging me.” Shadow grumbled, “That outfit I had on the other night cost a fortune! And now it’s trashed. I hate ruining a good suit!”

  Carl nodded obviously sympathizing. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much anymore. The Bosses have ordered their men to lay off and the noobs are all pretty much terrified of you now. So chill and cool for a while, Shadow, you’re in the big leagues now!”

  “I don’t know, we’ll see I guess.”

  “Well as Circe’s new Lieutenant, and her only male one, people are going to be treading lightly around you, so enjoy!”

  Shadow closed his muzzle, which had opened during that last comment. “Circe’s Lieutenant?”

  Carl laughed, “Word travels fast down here, you should know that. She and Laughing Boy don’t get along much, never have. So it’s only natural she’d recruit someone like you after you kick his number one man’s ass.”

  “Huh” Shadow said.

  “Exactly. Welp, gotta go. Keep the faith!”

  Shadow watched as Carl went over to another booth to work his particular magic and pulled out his cell phone and called Jin’s ex-girlfriend. Might as well spend the evening with someone cute.

  “So, shack up with any tramps?” Circe said a little snarkily to Shadow when he walked in to her place rather late the next afternoon.

  “Only one,” he said and pushed her right up against the wall and stuck his nose in her crotch. “But let’s see, I smell one, two... how many?” He looked up at her pleased to see her flustered expression. “For someone who loves animals you keep forgetting that I am one. And we’re not mated so I’m not going to start killing everything that you want to fuck. So grant me the same courtesy and you’ll feel a lot better.”

  “Somehow I have a feeling you’re not going to give me much of a choice, are you?” Circe grumbled pushing at him.

  Shadow laughed, “Oh hell no. I have every intention of fucking your entire staff before the week is out. See what they’ve learned and all that!” he snickered.

  “I don’t mind them too much, that’s part of their jobs after all.”

  “Ah, and you’re their alpha bitch,” Shadow nodded slowly, “that makes sense.”

  “Yes, I’m the alpha, and don’t you forget it!” She agreed and pushed his head back down, or at least tried to.

  “Guess that makes me the alpha male,” Shadow snickered again and let her push him down to her crotch, which he then used his rather long tongue artfully on, after using his razor sharp claws to carefully divest her of her undergarments. Circe got very hot when he did such things he had quickly learned. And he appreciated that very much when he mounted her later and enjoyed her body once more.

  They spent the next hour having sex before she called an end to it, she had a job to do that night, and Shadow was expected to come along. Shadow would have preferred not to, but he knew he wouldn’t refuse. He did shift into his full cat form, Circe was known for bringing animals to her heists and this one would be no different. Shadow figured that another cat in the mix wouldn’t stand out enough for anyone to connect him to it; she did have a couple of jaguars already that she sometimes used.

  The team was fairly simple, a half dozen wolves, a half dozen of her amazons. These gals weren’t part of the animal care staff; some of them had no interest in males of any stripe. They were well trained and well practiced Shadow noticed, and quite loyal. There were a few other animals in the group too: a couple of hawks for surveillance, some dogs for sentries, and a couple of medium sized wild cats for getting into tight places.

  Circe really did talk to the animals in a way that they could understand and she could understand them when they talked back to her. Shadow also discovered that the other rumor was true; she could, and did, turn men into animals. Just about all of the animals she took on her jobs had once been men, which was why they were smart enough to do some of the very complicated things she told them to.

  Being as he was already part animal, Shadow had learned that he was immune from that ability, but he still had been surprised to find out she had over a dozen animals in her menagerie that had once been men. He was even more surprised to find out that they were all rather content with the situation. Apparently they found Circe's level of care a lot better than anything they'd experienced previously, because the effect supposedly did wear off, but only if you left.

  Tonight's job was a fairly simple robbery, the only difficult part was robbing something of value, and Circe had found something that someone else wanted and was willing to pay a lot of cash for. Shadow wasn’t terribly interested in the crime, he had his own jobs he did now, and he was very careful about his targets, they were picked for a reason more than for the payoff. Circe however was more interested in the money she could make.

  The advantage of the place they were robbing was that the target depended on obscurity mostly. So Circe felt it would be lightly guarded.

  Shadow tagged along as they cased the perimeter, and then penetrated the grounds of the building, Circe’s team next studied the outside until they found the alarm feeds they were looking for and neutralized them. It wasn’t terribly exciting of course and took a while, quite a while. Circe and her gals weren’t going fast, Shadow felt they should have prepared more, but at least they weren’t sloppy.

  Going in was done fairly quickly after that, and there was only one guard who was quickly rendered unconscious before he had time to sound an alarm, or even know he was in trouble.

  It was a different story for the owner however who happened to be in at the time of the heist.

  “Ah what have we here?” Circe chort
led at the sign of her wolves holding an older man at bay.

  “Who are you? What do you want?” The man said. He looked scared, but he wasn’t cowering at least Shadow noticed.

  “Oh I was just in the neighborhood and thought I’d let myself in,” Circe said, “excuse me while I help myself, please, don’t get up!”

  “Take what you want and get out!” he said.

  “Oh I will, don’t worry, I will.”

  Shadow watched as Circe went right to a cabinet and opened it; the man groaned and sagged against the wall.

  “Bitch,” he whispered softly.

  “What?” Circe growled and turned her head to look at the man.

  He looked up at her, then at the wolves. “Nothing. Just take it and go.”

  “Maybe I’ll take something else as well,” and she looked to the wolves. “Kill him.” She said in the tongue of the animals.

  “Stop!” Shadow growled and swatted one of the wolves on the ass, “Back off, now!”

  The wolves backed away from the man and growled angrily, looking from Shadow to Circe and back again.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” Circe yelled at Shadow, “I told them to kill him!”

  “He’s innocent; he’s no threat to you. You want me? Well there’s a price to pay for me, Circe, you can only kill when you must.”

  “He insulted me!”

  “You’re robbing him; do you expect him to like you? You got what you wanted. Let’s go.”

  The man looked from the cat who was growling, the wolves who had been growling, and the woman who was making strange noises at them all. Wisely he decided to keep his mouth shut.

  Circe cursed and grumbled and glared, then gave the order for everyone to leave. The Amazons stared at Shadow as he followed Circe out of the building. They may not have been able to speak the tongue of animals as Circe could, but they had a pretty good idea of what had just transpired, Circe’s temper was famous.

  “You would have fought me for that bastard, wouldn’t you?!” Circe yelled at Shadow.