My Pet Cat Turned Into A Boy!

Chapter 10
‘Move over! Let me see,’ snapped Chen shoving Tao’s face out of the way.
‘Ouch!’ exclaimed Tao giving Chen an injured look.
‘Oh sorry, did I hurt you, princess?’ asked Chen without even glancing at Tao as he squinted at the warehouse. ‘I’m going to have to take a closer look. You guys watch out for any suspicious activity.’
‘I thought you said it would be empty,’ said Chanyeol giving me a quick uneasy look.
‘Well, yeah, it’s supposed to be empty. But it wouldn’t be the first time we were surprised by unwanted company,’ murmured Chen with his eyes still trained on the warehouse.
‘Remember that time down in Fort Wayne? Weren’t there like fifty guys waiting for us inside that tiny shack? You would never have thought so many people could fit into such a tiny space,’ said Tao with an easy smile in my direction like we were sharing a joke.
I answered with a half-hearted smile.
I had been cooped up in the mansion for almost two months now, so when Chanyeol had asked if I wanted to go with them, I had all but jumped at the chance.
At the time it had seemed like a good idea, but I must say that the image of fifty armed men lying in wait with the intent to kill, was quickly making this road trip look less then glamourous.
‘We barely made it out. I had to drop my baby and change form,’ continued Chanyeol with a reminiscing look on his face as he caressed his Heckler and Koch UMP-9 (and if you’re wondering how I know this, it’s because he likes to go on and on about his damn guns like his life depends on it). ‘And then we ended up hiding in some women’s backyard. She was a bit… shocked when she saw us.’
‘I think finding a bunch of armed dudes in your backyard would shock most people,’ I said wryly.
‘Actually,’ said Chen matter-of-factly. ‘I think it was more the fact that we were all butt naked.’
I choked. ‘What!?’
‘Don’t look so surprised. You know what happens to our clothes when we change,’ said Chen breezily. ‘And I’m pretty sure she was checking out Zitao.’
I choked again.
‘Of course she was! I’m like totally hot,’ said Tao with a superior look on his face.
‘He lives for these moments,’ Chanyeol told me conspiratorially.
I laughed while Tao just grinned shamelessly.
‘Okay, I’m going to sweep the place. Be back in a flash,’ said Chen.
‘Sure, me and baby will keep watch,’ said Chanyeol waving his gun about a bit too enthusiastically.
Chen dodged it reflexively and threw him a frosty look. ‘Don’t wave that monstrosity at me.’
‘Don’t listen to him, baby, he didn’t mean it,’ said Chanyeol caressing the barrel lovingly.
Chen rolled his eyes in disgust and changed into a falcon. I gasped at how quickly it happened. It’s like your eyes couldn’t keep up with the speed of the transformation.
After a few tense minutes, during which I pondered whether I should mention this little escapade to Jongin, he returned. I looked away discreetly to afford him some privacy while he pulled his clothes back on - not that he seemed to care one way or the other.
‘It’s all clear as far as I can tell,’ said Chen just a tad breathlessly.
‘Let’s move in,’ said Chanyeol excitedly.
The mission today was fairly simple. Junmyeon had given them the coordinates to a warehouse that was owned by Wu Yifan, reportedly it was filled with weapons and there was no one guarding it except for some high tech alarm system. The boys were supposed to destroy everything in the warehouse, and bring back anything they deemed important.
We slid down the hill stealthily. Once we reached the bottom we ran across the open space until we reached the warehouse and dropped into a crouch as we hurried towards the entrance. Chen pulled some complicated looking machine from his bag pack, and after carefully unscrewing the alarm box attached to the wall, he attached the wires from the alarm to the machine. He pulled out a small computer and started typing away furiously.
My heart was beating loudly in my ears and I was pretty sure I was about to overdose on adrenalin before we even got the damn door open.
Finally Chen said it was safe to break in because he had cut off the original alarm signal and substituted it with his own that wouldn’t go off. He had also tampered with the cameras so it would show a frozen image of the inside of the warehouse and not what was actually happening.
Chanyeol shot the lock off the door and busted inside, gun at the ready just in case, but there was no one there.
We all filed inside after him and I stared around in shock at the endless corridors filled with racks upon racks of guns and boxes. It was terrifying.
Chanyeol looked like he had just stumbled upon his dream home, and was planning on moving in, which at this point didn’t surprise me one bit.
‘Let’s get this party started,’ whooped Chen. ‘Cas, if you see anything you fancy just help yourself.’
Chanyeol was already going through the shelves and stuffing things into his bag pack.
I wondered around aimlessly while the boys planted the bombs that they were going to detonate once we were all clear of this place.
I saw a beautiful set of shuriken and couldn’t help but hook a few to my belt. There was a sudden burst of whooping and I followed the noise until I found Chen leaning over a box.
‘You’re not going to believe what I just found,’ he told me excitedly.
‘What?’ I asked curiously.
‘Say hello to my new best friend, Glenmorangie Signet,’ he said pulling out a bottle of whiskey from the box.
I laughed and rolled my eyes in exasperation.
Chen carried on rummaging through the box, and I meandered down another corridor. I looked up and noticed a row of windows right at the top by the roof.
‘Guys! We leave in two, so pack up.’ Chen’s voice echoed loudly in the warehouse.
I was about to turn around when a movement caught my eye on the window. A bird, maybe.
I squinted upwards trying to make out what I had seen. There it was again and…it wasn’t a bird - that was for sure.
I gasped in shock and took a stumbling step backwards. I recovered and started running down the corridor at full throttle.
‘RUN! IT’S A TRAP! THEY’RE HERE -’
My shouting was interrupted by the sound of multiple breaking windows, one burst inwards directly above me, showering me in glass. I screamed and skidded to a halt as someone landed heavily in front of me. I slipped and fell backwards on my butt.
The masked stranger was big and, I noticed, heavily armed. I recognised his clothes as the same Wu Yifan’s men had been wearing.
I skittered backwards on my hands and feet. He probably didn’t see me as much of a threat because he strode towards me without pulling out any of his weapons.
For a second, I froze with fear. I wasn’t used to this sort of confrontation, and I didn’t know if I was ready to pull out my gun and shoot someone just yet. I panicked as he reached for me and kicked him square in the face. I heard a crunching noise under my boot which made me think I had probably broken his nose. He swore and clutched at his face.
I knew I should have taken this opportunity to shoot him but instead I stood up and ran.
That was a mistake.
I felt his hand wrap around my ankle and pull. I fell forward hard, but before I could react I was being flipped over on to my back. He wasn’t wearing his mask any more, and there was blood pouring out of his nose. He had an elaborate tattoo curling around the side of his face to just below his right eye.
‘You bitch!’ he snarled backhanding me.
Some of his blood dripped down on my face, but I barely noticed as my head snapped to the side, and a wave of pain shot across my right cheek.
He started dragging me upwards by my collar. I shot my hand up and buried one of the shuriken into the side of his neck. He howled and I used a move Tao had taught me to throw him off me.
I tried to stand up using a shelf as support, my head still ringing from the slap. I felt his hand clamp down on the back of my jacket trying to drag me backwards. I let my arms slide out of the jacket so he was left holding an empty jacket. I climbed up on to the shelf, and crawled to the other side pushing everything that was on it outwards, until I had dropped on to the ground on the other side, along with a bunch of packages. He was too big to fit between the shelves and I peeled down the corridor as fast as I could. I heard him let out a bellow of rage, and the shelves next to me shook as he kicked them.
I was almost to the end of the corridor when another masked man appeared from around the corner. I dropped to the ground just as a round of shots was fired above me. I looked up and saw him take a step towards me with his gun pointing down at me. Suddenly, he went stock still and crumpled to the ground.
Chen stood behind him with a bloodied knife in his hand and – amazingly but not surprisingly – the bottle of whiskey in the other from which he now took a long swig. I had never been so happy to see him.
‘Been looking for you,’ he said, then his eyes widened. ‘You look like shit! Is that blood yours?’
‘I don’t think so,’ I said shakily.
He held out his hand to help me up, but instead I pulled the bottle out of his other hand, and took a long drink. I coughed as it burned down my throat and stood up on my own.
He gave me an impressed look as I returned the bottle to him.
‘Get your gun out, and let’s get the hell out of here,’ he said.
Suddenly, an almighty roar ripped across the never ending cacophony of bullets and shouting. Chen’s head whipped around and he broke into a run in the direction of the noise, grasping my arm and dragging me behind him.
We crouched behind a shelf full of boxes and took stock of the situation. It didn’t look great, to be honest.
Chanyeol was shooting at a barrage of men blocking the exit from behind a container. Tao was a few feet away in his tiger form fending of a group of about ten who seemed to have him cornered. They were shooting him with stun guns, and they were trying to get a rope around his neck – not very successfully so far. I guess their aim was to capture and not kill.
Suddenly, a man dropped from the top of a shelf above Tao on to his back. Tao bucked but the man was already stabbing him repeatedly on the neck. It didn’t look like a knife, and as the man dropped to the floor and rolled away, I realised what it was – a syringe.
Chanyeol bellowed with anger and charged towards the men surrounding Tao. He morphed into a grizzly and tore through the men like they were made of paper. I couldn’t help but flinch as they went flying in different directions.
Chen was covering him by shooting at the men Chanyeol had been fighting earlier so that they were forced to turn their attention to us.
I saw Tao collapse on to the ground and turn back to his human form. Chanyeol took his ankle between his jaws and dragged him backwards towards where Chen and I where crouching.
‘Ok, up you go,’ said Chen hauling me up on to Chanyeol’s back.
He grabbed Tao – who was unconscious – and threw him up behind me, then he climbed up too and held Tao in place. I sort of felt sorry for Chanyeol.
‘Hold on tight,’ he told me.
I held on as tightly as I could as Chanyeol tore off towards the exit. The men dived out of the way as Chanyeol took the door of its hinges. We were halfway towards the hill when bullets started flying around us. I felt Chanyeol flinch but his pace didn’t falter as he raced up the hill. I heard a series of loud explosions and turned slightly to see that the warehouse was in flames. Chen must have detonated the bombs.
Once we reached the van, Chanyeol waited for Chen to climb down with Tao before turning back. Chen climbed into the driver seat and the rest of us clambered into the back – Chanyeol hauling Tao in after him.
I could hear the rest of the men who had survived the explosion crashing through the brush after us. Chanyeol had just enough time to buckle Tao in before Chen was speeding down the road.
‘Is he okay?’ I asked anxiously as I stared at Tao - way past modesty at this point.
‘Yeah, they just put him to sleep. He’ll be fine,’ Chanyeol assured me as he pulled on a pair of black jeans with a grimace.
‘You’re hurt,’ I said pointing at his bleeding ribs.
‘It’s okay. It’s just a flesh wound,’ he said dismissively then his eyes narrowed as they stared at my arm. ‘I think you’re hurt.’
At that moment I became aware of something warm oozing down my arm. I touched it with my hand and it came back scarlet. I turned my arm around to look at it and found an ugly wound across my upper arm where a bullet must have grazed me. It was bleeding profusely.
‘Oh! I didn’t realise,’ I said weakly, feeling quite dazed all of a sudden.
‘You guys okay back there?’ shouted Chen.
‘Yeah, all good,’ answered Chanyeol while looking through a first aid kit that they always kept in the van for emergencies.
He pulled out a roll of gauze and moved across the aisle to sit down next to me. He pulled my arm towards him gently and started wounding the gauze around my arm.
‘It might need a few stitches but it’s not serious. I doubt it’ll even leave a scar, but we have to stop the bleeding,’ he explained.
He tied the ends into a ribbon but didn’t immediately remove his hands.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said quietly.
‘For what?’ I asked in surprise.
‘For bringing you along. I should never have done that. It was irresponsible and stupid,’ he said quietly.
‘I only came because I wanted to,’ I told him gently, and when he still refused to look at me, I put my hand on his cheek and forced him to look at me. ‘You saved my life, there is nothing to forgive. You’re my friend and you just wanted to cheer me up – nothing wrong with that.’
His face broke into a slow smile. ‘It was fun, wasn’t it?’
I looked from Tao’s prone form to his bleeding ribs and snorted. ‘You should look up the definition of fun, dude. I’m not sure you know what it means.’
Chanyeol started laughing and I started laughing along with him. Chen peered into the back of the van again. ‘You sure you’re okay? They didn’t shoot you with anything weird, did they?’
That only made us laugh harder.
I dug through the first aid kit and dug out some more gauze. ‘You’re turn.’
‘I’ll be fine until we get back to the mansion,’ said Chanyeol.
‘You’re bleeding loads, and I’m going to wrap you up whether you like it or not,’ I told him firmly.

When we arrived at the mansion I was oddly queasy. I think things were starting to catch up to me.
As soon as Chen opened the back of the van, I jumped out and ran towards the nearest bush – which happened to be a beautiful rose bush in full bloom.
I fell to my hands and knees and threw up, not even caring that the boys were watching – we’d shared blood, sweat and tears, why not a little vomit while we were at it?
When I finished I felt a lot better. I looked up at Chen who was leaning against the side of the truck with an amused look on his face.
‘Classic!’ he said taking a swig of the bottle of whiskey that had miraculously survived the battle.
‘How?’ I said gesturing at the bottle emphatically.
He smirked. ‘I’m awesome, that’s how.’
Suddenly, someone jumped out of the van and staggered down next to me. I patted Tao’s naked back gingerly as he threw up next to me.
‘Must be a side effect of the drug. It’s happened before,’ said Chanyeol climbing out of the van.
‘What did I miss?’ asked Tao with a dazed look on his face.
‘Besides us saving your sorry ass, not much,’ said Chen.
‘Uh-oh,’ murmured Chanyeol.
Chen looked up in the direction that Chanyeol was looking at and stiffened. He swore and quickly hid the bottle under the driver seat.
I stood up to see what they were looking at and saw Kyungsoo striding towards us with a furious look on his face, and following closely behind him was Jongin. I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way, trying to give the impression that the last few hours had been more akin to a merry romp through the countryside, instead of a Die Hard flick.
Jongin caught sight of me and stopped dead. His face draining of colour.
At that moment I caught my reflection on the car window and gasped in horror. Any possible lies about me having waited in the van the whole entire time flew out the window as I took in my reflection.
There was blood smeared across my face and my right cheekbone was starting to swell up with a dark bruise. My t-shirt was torn in places as was the knees of my dark jeans. My left arm was covered in blood and half of my hair had fallen out of its pony tail and was hanging around my face messily.
Tao was still sitting on the floor looking out of it, and Chanyeol stood shirtless with bandages swathed around his middle already stained with fresh blood.
Jongin ran towards me and grabbed my arms making me wince.
‘I was so worried. Are you okay? What happened?’
His voice was drowned out by Kyungsoo’s. ‘ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MINDS?’
‘Is that a trick question?’ asked Chen.
‘Chen, I swear,’ said Kyungsoo through gritted teeth looking like he was struggling to control his temper, a battle which he obviously lost as he bellowed the next words. ‘YOU TOOK A CIVILIAN OUT ON A MISSION?’
‘Casey is hardly a civilian,’ said Chen surprising me.
Chanyeol stepped between them and I knew he was going to say he had invited me.
‘I hid in the van, and then they had no choice but to take me along,’ I lied, my words coming out in a rush.
Chen’s jaw dropped open and Chanyeol gaped at me, luckily Kyungsoo was too busy staring at me to notice.
‘You did what!?’ exclaimed Jongin disbelievingly.
‘I-I’m sorry,’ I said hanging my head.
‘That’s n-‘ began Chanyeol but Kyungsoo interrupted him.
‘I’m disappointed in you, Casey. Not only could you have died, but you could have put the others at risk too,’ said Kyungsoo in a hard tone of voice.
‘I know. I’m sorry,’ I said regretfully.
‘It wasn’t a combat mission, Soo. We were just to destroy an unguarded warehouse,’ said Chen impatiently.
‘I guess that explains why you guys look like you were stomped on by a herd of buffalo,’ said Kyungsoo sarcastically.
‘Buffalo!? What…there was buffalo there?’ asked Tao sounding both confused and amazed.
We all turned to look at him. He paled, and turned back around to throw up again. Chen snorted but peeled his jacket off and wrapped it around Tao’s shoulders in a surprisingly affectionate gesture.
‘It’s not what she said, Soo. I invited her to come along. She looked bored so I thought…you know…’ Chanyeol’s voice trailed away as Kyungsoo pinned him with a withering look.
Even though Kyungsoo was a lot smaller then Chanyeol, he suddenly seemed to tower over him, so mighty was the force behind his dark eyes.
‘Bored? She was bored?’ repeated Kyungsoo disbelievingly.
‘Like really bored,’ said Chanyeol looking pleased that Kyungsoo seemed to be understanding.
‘What he means is that she looked like she could do with some cheering up,’ clarified Chen.
‘So you took her out on a mission!?’ asked Kyungsoo incredulously.
‘It’s not like we could take her out clubbing – it’s a Tuesday night,’ said Chanyeol with a what-else-could-we-do look on his face.
Kyungsoo stared at Chanyeol like he was some sort of alien creature he had never seen before. He grimaced and rubbed his head like he was developing a very bad headache – which he probably was.
‘I want the four of you in Junmyeon’s office in two hours,’ said Kyungsoo succinctly.
He turned around and started walking away. Half way to the front door he turned around and said grufly. ‘Chanyeol, have Lay take a look at that wound. I don’t want you bleeding all over the new Persian rug.’
Before I could do anything else I was suddenly swept up in Jongin’s arms. He started towards the front door.
‘What are you doing? I can walk,’ I said in astonishment.
He didn’t answer as he carried me through the main doors and all the way to the infirmary. He put me down gently on one of the resting beds. I stared at him anxiously.
‘Are you angry?’
‘No, I’m not angry, Cas,’ he sighed but he still wouldn’t look at me, as he dug through a medicine cabinet.
I watched him wash his hands and then grab some saline water before turning back to me. He unknotted the gauze around my arm carefully and started unwinding it. The blood had crusted causing the gauze to stick to the wound. He dampened the cloth with saline until he could pull it away without causing me too much discomfort. His eyes darkened as he surveyed my wound, but he didn’t pause as carefully bathed in saline. I winced and drew in my breath sharply.
He stopped what he was doing and let his arms drop to his sides. ‘I think you might need stitches. I’ll get Lay to do them. He’ll be better than me at it.’
Jongin finally looked up at me; his face looked raw and vulnerable and his eyes dimmed as they stared at my bruised cheek. I reached out to touch his hand but he pulled it away abruptly, and turned his back to me. I felt hurt at his rejection, it was even worse than getting shot at by those maniacs.
‘Jongin, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Just don’t…don’t be angry at me, not right now,’ I said feeling horribly close to tears.
Jongin turned around again to face me looking shocked. ‘I’m not angry at you! I could never be angry at you…I love you, Cas.’
I gasped at his sudden confession but instead of feeling comforted, I was feeling more alarmed than ever. There was just something in his expression that was scaring me and I reached for him again. He backed away before I could touch him; shaking his head.
‘You deserve so much better than this – than me. I’ve brought you nothing but pain and suffering,’ he said shakily.
‘How can you even say that!? Every second that I spend with you brings me nothing but happiness,’ I said with growing alarm when he only shook his head again.
‘You’ve been forced to leave your home, and live as a fugitive because of me. You’ve almost been kidnapped, twice now, because of me. And now, you’ve been…god! You’ve been shot and beaten up, and it’s all because of me. Because you tried to help me,’ said Jongin with a look of anguish on his face.
I slid down from the bed and walked towards him. He backed away until his back hit the wall.
‘Don’t! Cas, please. You can still walk away from this – it’s not too late for you. You can still have a life away from all this…from me,’ he said it like the words were being ripped from him.
I stopped right in from of him, and took his hand in mine, he went rigid but didn’t try to pull away.
‘It is too late. And I’m happy it’s too late; because nothing has ever made more sense in my life then falling in love with you,’ I said, my voice choking a little bit at the end.
He stared at me as if transfixed, his lips slightly parted. I brought his hand up to my lips and kissed each one of his knuckles lovingly. He closed his eyes, then with a shudder, put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me away from him. I refused to let him shut me out this way, and pushing his hands away, I clutched his shirt front and kissed him fiercely on the lips. His hands sank into my hair, gripping tightly for a second but then he wrenched his face away.
‘This story ends in blood and tears. We cannot win against him, and he will never stop hunting us. I won’t do this to you. As soon as it’s safe, you have to leave.’ There was a finality in his tone that made my heart sputter almost to a halt, but the desperation in his eyes was a tangible thing.
‘I will take the blood, and I will take the tears, but I will not leave you, Kim Jongin. I’m right here, my love, and I’m not going anywhere,’ I said softly, reaching up to turn his face to me, forcing him to look at me.
We stared at each other, and I saw his resolve shake, and then with a groan, crumble as our lips crashed together. It was like I was caught in a storm; my body had never felt so alive, my pulse thrummed and my blood sang – it was like a full bodied orchestra happening in my body…and it was glorious.
Jongin’s hands were everywhere, in my hair, down my back, on my waist. He brought his arm around my waist and I automatically knew what he wanted. I jumped up and wrapped my legs around his waist. He pinned me against the wall and kissed me deeply, his hands gripping me tightly. I was startled when a moan slipped out of my mouth, but Jongin pulled my head back exposing my throat; he bit me, and if I’m being completely honest quite hard, but I could only shudder from the pleasure of it.
He carried me to the resting bed and lowered me down. I pulled him down over me, enjoying the weight of his body over mine, as we kissed. His hands roved over my body wonderingly. I pulled at his t-shirt, and he obliged me by pulling it over his head and throwing it over his shoulder.
‘Argh! Really!?’ I heard a muffled voice exclaim.
I squeaked just as Jongin abruptly pulled away from me and jumped to his feet. The first thing I saw was Chen holding Jongin’s t-shirt aloft with a disgusted look on his face – had that just hit him on the face?
Lay and Chanyeol stood behind him laughing. Tao was standing next to them with Chen’s jacket tied around his waist in hysterics.
Jongin rubbed the back of his neck with a discomfited look on his face; his ears were turning a bright shade of red.

I quickly sat up on the bed and composed my features, trying for a dignified look while I smoothed my clothes down.
‘I assume this is yours?’ asked Chen chucking the offending article of clothing at Jongin who caught it reflexively.
‘Just be happy it wasn’t his boxers that hit your ugly mug,’ guffawed Chanyeol.
‘Ugly!? Me?’ repeated Chen with an offended look on his face.
‘What would you call it then?’ asked Tao between some - seriously - high pitched laughing.
‘Stylishly unique,’ suggested Chen loftily.

Notes

Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, I absolutely loved writing it XD
If you liked it please subscribe, and/or leave me a comment telling me what you think of the story so far.
Lots of love,
Ange