Reese (Pack of Misfits #2) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,14

sweet? What color eyes does she have, and what does she look like when she smiles? I can’t help but envision her every time my mind wanders. I want to know everything about her.

I especially want to know why some human brought her to a pet shop, totally fucking filthy, underweight, dehydrated, and in the most fucked up cage Addie said she’d ever seen.

Just thinking about that makes me grit my teeth. I want to know who the fuck kept her like that. And I’m not the only one. Alpha Hugo and the enforcers have talked about it in multiple meetings. My friend Toby fills me in a little, but until Mousey can shift back and give us some real answers, we only have so many leads.

Addie sent Hugo the surveillance footage of the human who brought her in, and then Matt, our resident hacker and otter shifter, managed to break into some of the traffic cams and get the human’s license plate.

Once we had that, it was easy for Matt to track down his address. Problem is, the man has two dozen of them. He’s a landlord in town and rents out everything from apartment complexes and duplexes to single-family homes.

The enforcers are taking care to visit every single residence, but considering the human also has multiple cars and parks them all over the damn place, it hasn’t been easy.

Hugo has his best sniffers going to each place, trying to pick up Mousey’s scent, but they haven’t found where she came from yet. They haven’t been able to pick up her scent around the exteriors at all, which tells us that she hasn’t been outside walking around at any of the places. Not very surprising, considering the state she was in. She was more than likely kept inside against her will.

So finding out any more information about her has been slow going. Or maybe it just feels like that because I’m impatient.

I don’t like the fact that someone treated an animal like that, shifter or not. And the idea that the person might get away with it? That’s enough to make my blood boil in anger.

I force myself to take a calming breath, because I’m very aware of Mousey and her sensitivity to anger. I don’t want her to smell it and freak out. After all, she thinks I’m sleeping.

I heard about her reaction to the scent of anger when she was first brought to Hugo. He was pissed to see her like that, but his anger made her tremble. It didn’t stop her from running out and biting him on the finger, though.

I grin at that.

She might have a fucked up past, but she’s a spunky little thing. And that gives me hope because that means that, despite her size and what she’s been through, she’s strong. And I see that strength more every day as she continues to grow bolder, despite being in a strange place with strange shifters.

And my animal? He likes that about her too.

I hear Mousey’s claws click across my floor, and I realize that she’s abandoned the dresser climb tonight. Good thing, because she makes me nervous as fuck every time she does it. I keep thinking she’s going to fall and hurt herself, which is why I’ve been leaving the drawers open like stairs so she can just climb up them. But tonight, she bypasses it. At least I’ll have clean underwear to put on tomorrow.

When she rounds the bed and I hear her pause, I know she just spotted the little gift I left her. My lips curl up and my animal snorts, pleased with himself, like it was his idea.

There’s a little squeak of excitement that cuts off short, probably as Mousey remembers she’s supposed to be quiet. Then all I hear are her feet quickly scampering over and the telltale sound of her finding the small rubber bouncy ball I left for her.

It’s shiny metallic gold and only cost me a couple of quarters in a vending machine, but as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to get it for her. Mousey is fond of treasures. Shiny ones in particular.

Since she’s been visiting my room every night now, I decided to leave it for her here rather than in her own warehouse. As far as I can tell, mine is the only room she visits. I’m oddly smug about that.

Mousey stays in my room for another fifteen minutes, totally occupied by rolling and bouncing the ball