Cat Refuge Read online

  Cat Refuge

  (Alien’s Among us) Bk 1

  By Liza O’Connor

  All Rights Reserved

  Any copying or recording is forbidden without the written permission of the author reproduction of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying, electronic copying is not allowed except that allowed by Amazon.

  In other words: if you buy this book anywhere other than Amazon, it’s a pirated copy. Please support Authors instead of Pirates. They often carry viruses.

  We are much nicer.

  All characters in this book come from the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names, titles or professions.

  Cat Refuge

  By Liza O’Connors

  All Rights Reserved

  Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Other Books by Liza O’Connors

  Blurb

  Jason Connors, the head of the FBI, becomes involved in a simple immigration case in which a doctor from Africa has married an American woman so he can enter the United States. Some claim the doctor is not human, but rather a cat-like alien species that can mimic the human form. Determined to discover what is really going on, he sends his brightest agent, Carmella Ginkabo to Africa, to uncover the facts. Courageously, she travels deep into the jungle to learn the truth from the first of this species who originally landed on Earth two hundred years prior. Her discovery alters the future of Earth forever.

  A Warning from someone who knows...

  “We all like to believe we are masters of our fate. However, usually it isn’t true. Somewhere, a person exists, sometimes completely unknown to you, whose slightest action impacts your life.”

  Chapter 1

  Catina’s muscles ached from straining against the vines that bound her wrists to the stakes. Sweat rolled down her sides, then dripped onto the thick green bed of the jungle floor. Hours had passed since the Marobi tribe had stripped her naked and tied her, kneeling on all fours, like a sheep waiting for slaughter.

  A sharp pain on her thigh jolted her from her exhaustion. She tossed her head back, swinging her long sweaty strands of blonde hair against her side, much as a horse uses its tail to swat away flies. The scent of her sweat-drenched body seemed to attract every damn insect within five miles. Their constant biting and burrowing in her skin was far worse than what she initially thought the Marobis planned to do.

  When they cut away her clothes and pushed her down on her hands and knees, she expected to be raped or sodomized. Yet, once they had her secured and defenseless, the men silently disappeared into the dense jungle. That had been hours ago. At least she felt it had been hours ago. Time had a way of distorting when insects burrowed in your flesh.

  Her body went rigid as she felt the cool caress of a snake crossing her leg. Her weary mind ran through the countless deadly snakes that inhabited this jungle as she remained perfectly still. A hard blow and piercing pain struck her thigh. Bitten.

  I’m going to die. Staked to the ground like a sheep to slaughter. I’m going to die.

  The foliage before her rustled. She strained to focus on the sound but could see nothing but an unnatural blackness.

  Is this Death come to claim me?

  As the blackness moved closer, it took the form of a large panther. It stood only a few inches from her face, studying her with such intensity that she could do nothing but return its stare.

  She had cared and nurtured wild cats for most of her life. Yet, never had she encountered one like this. He emanated power and control. His eyes, which locked into hers, declared intelligence far beyond the possible. His size was almost twice that of a normal panther. He stood over five feet in height and probably weighed seven hundred pounds.

  Unlike most wild cats, he looked very well fed.

  Catina now understood why the Marobis had left her staked like a lamb. She was their sacrificial slaughter.

  Even knowing the cat would soon kill her, she could not help admiring the beauty of the beast. He pressed his nose to her hair and sniffed. Instinctively, she raised her face and sniffed at him. She found his musky cat smell rather comforting. It made her think of the wild cats at home she tended.

  She was surprised when the panther’s warm rough tongue ran across her face. She nuzzled her head against his neck in response. She knew all it would take would be one snap of those massive jaws and her neck would be broken. But if she could establish a bond, perhaps, just perhaps, he wouldn’t kill her before her tracker could find and rescue her.

  She thought the panther seemed quite intrigued with his lamb. At six feet, she was larger than most of the native women in these parts. Or perhaps her white skin or long silky blonde hair confused him.

  “I’m not your average meal am I, big fellow?”

  The cat appeared startled by her comment, but after a few more intense moments of scrutiny, he continued to sniff and wash her body with his large rough tongue.

  Despite the imminent probability of death, Catina relaxed to the panther’s touch. Wherever his tongue washed, the itching bites ceased; even the burning snakebite lessened to a dull throb.

  She prayed her tracker would come. And what? Kill this beautiful beast? No, she couldn’t bear the thought. Frighten it away with a rifle shot? She wondered if this cat could be frightened away. It had probably never encountered a high-powered hunting rifle, so it wouldn’t realize the puny man behind it was lethal.

  The sensations of the cat’s ministrations upon her body distracted her thoughts. In her mind the cat transformed into a man with muscles like steel and skin as black as night. His touch set her skin on fire, and when his body folded over hers, she did not resist. He touched not only her body, but her soul as well.

  Chapter 2

  Catina woke to an audience of two: her tracker, Schuler, and a very black man wearing white.

  “Where am I?” she muttered.

  “In a Nairobi hospital,” the black man replied. “I am Dr. Tiburon. You have been a very sick young lady.”

  Catina stared at the doctor in disbelief. He looked like the cat lover she had imagined in her head.

  He leaned towards her and gently touched her face as he shined a light into her pupils. Even that slight touch brought back the feelings of desire. He even smelled of the same musky sweetness.

  He flicked the light across her eyes. “Do you remember what happened?”

  “I was…You…who are you?”

  He turned off the light and smiled, taking her hand into his. “I am Dr. Tiburon. I have been caring for you since Mr. Schuler brought you to the Kandu village. You were nearly dead from a viper’s bite. Fortunately, I had some antiserum with me to contain its spread until we were able to
get you to the hospital. Had Mr. Schuler not found you when he did…” The doctor let the sentence fall off.

  Catina barely heard his words. She focused on the low, almost growling timbre of his voice, and his touch. She stared at his hand that held hers so firmly. She could remember how wonderful it felt upon her breasts. She looked at his face. His high cheekbones and flaring wide nostrils gave him a regal, almost feline beauty. His skin was so dark, it actually seemed darker than black. She would have thought him the most handsome Nairobian she had ever met, except for his hair. No Nairobian ever had hair like that. The straight, silky strands were considerably thicker than normal hair. She could tell by its long length that he took pride in this difference. Presently, he wore it in a ponytail that fell several inches down his back. She imagined it would look quite stunning, rather like black flowing silk, when allowed to hang loose. An image rose in her thoughts of her entwining her hands into those most unusual tresses and pulling his large soft lips to hers.

  By the smiling glint in his eyes, she worried he could read her thoughts. Embarrassed, she looked away, and stared at Schuler instead.

  “What happened?” she asked her tracker.

  “You don’t remember? Those damn Marobis ambushed us with over a hundred warriors. My men took one look at them and ran. The Marobis knocked me out cold, and when I woke, you were gone. I spent the next twenty-four hours tracking you down. When I found you, you were all alone, lying on the jungle floor, naked and bleeding from a snake bite.”

  “I was lying on the ground?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I wasn’t staked to the ground?”

  Schuler looked at the doctor and frowned. “No. There weren’t no stakes. There weren’t no Marobis either. I figure you had somehow escaped them and was making your way back when you got bit by the viper.”

  Catina shook her head. She intended to disagree, but then looked at the two men studying her. What was she going to say? That she had a romantic moment with a panther?

  Schuler gripped her hand, evidently sensing her confusion. “It could’ve been the snake bite. When I found you, you were delirious from the poison. You wouldn’t have survived if Dr. Tiburon hadn’t been visiting the village. He gave you the first dose of antiserum there and then radioed the chopper that brought you here.”

  She looked at the doctor. “You were in the village?”

  He smiled. His teeth were brilliantly white and canine sharp. She had known many tribes who filed their teeth to sharp points, but she had never met a medical doctor who practiced that particular tribal custom. Now her memories made sense. If she had first met him while under the haze of delirium, given her love of the big cats and her obvious attraction to the doctor, it wouldn’t be odd that she might have, in her mind, transformed him into a panther making love to her.

  “Sometimes, fate is like that, bringing together people who need each other,” the doctor said.

  “Need each other?” Catina repeated. “In this case the need appears to have been all on my part.”

  Schuler coughed. “Yeah, well, actually I promised the doctor a favor in return. Except it ain’t me that’s got to do the favor. It’s you.”

  Catina didn’t like the worried look on Schuler’s face.

  “Maybe we should wait until she’s stronger,” Dr. Tiburon suggested.

  “No,” Schuler replied. “I better tell her now while she’s weak and can’t kill me.”

  “Schuler,” Catina glared at her tracker, “What have you done?”

  “Well you gotta understand the situation. You were almost dead when I got you to the village. The doctor had one vial of antiserum in his case, and that weren’t near enough to counteract the amount of venom in your blood. So we needed to get you to the hospital quick.”

  “And?”

  “When I radioed, I was told no chopper would be available for at least two days, at which time, I’ll be carrying out a corpse. However, the doctor got a copter there in two hours. So just remember, I was negotiating for your life.”

  Catina turned to the handsome doctor. “So how much do I owe you?”

  “It is not money, Ms. Nelson. To get the helicopter, I had to barter away something very important. I only ask you to replace what I lost in the trade.”

  “Of course. And that was?”

  “American citizenship.”

  Catina blinked. “Pardon?”

  “I had paid a woman considerable money to marry me, so I could enter the States as her husband. Now she has married the man who sent the helicopter to save you.”

  Catina was stunned. “You want me to marry you, so you can become an American citizen?”

  “That is what I bartered away to save your life. That is what your tracker promised in your behalf to replace.”

  Catina glared at Schuler, then at the doctor. “He had no right to make that promise.”

  “You were going to die,” Schuler pointed out. “That promise saved your life.”

  “Why would his radioing a helicopter cause the woman to marry someone else? I think you’d better explain this more clearly. Right now, it seems kind of flimsy.”

  Catina focused on the doctor. “Look, I’ll give you enough money to buy your way in. But you seriously can’t expect me to marry you.”

  The doctor’s wide nostrils flared. “Do you think there is an abundance of American women willing to marry men who need to enter the US? In case you don’t realize it, the act is illegal and the woman risks going to jail for many years if caught.”

  “I do realize that, which is exactly why I won’t do it.”

  He glared at Schuler and then at Catina. “So, you refuse to honor the promise made in your behalf.”

  “Schuler had no right to promise that.”

  Dr. Tiburon shook his head. “He had every right. You were dying. He saved your life. But in doing so, he has cost another.” With no explanation for his last statement, the doctor turned and left the room.

  Catina stared at the closing door in concern. “What the hell did that mean?”

  Schuler shrugged. “He wouldn’t say, except some relative, a sister I think, is in America and needs his help. He wouldn’t tell me why, but it is really important he gets to America sooner verses later.”

  “But what you promised him is illegal.”

  Schuler sighed and sat on the edge of her bed. “What was I supposed to do? You were dying. He had a means to save you, but it meant giving up his chance to save his sister. He wouldn’t save you without a promise that you would get him to America. Hell, it’s not a real marriage. You can sign a prenuptial agreement. Just marry the poor guy so he can get in and care for his sister.”

  “It’s still illegal!”

  “Right. Let his sister die, because your hand might get slapped by emigration. Jeez, the man only saved your life. No particular reason to be grateful.”

  “It’s his job to save lives. He’s a doctor. It’s in the Hippocratic Oath.”

  “To trade his sister’s life for yours? I don’t think so. He didn’t have to do that. As a doctor, he could have accepted the lack of a helicopter and let you die.”

  Catina pressed her temples trying to stave off a migraine.

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine. Just leave me alone. I need to be by myself right now.”

  Schuler nodded and headed for the door. He paused at the door. “I won’t say I’m sorry. If I had to do it over again, I’d make the same promise on your behalf. Saving your life was an easy choice. Now it’s your turn. You can choose to honor that promise or not. The only difference is you don’t know the life that hangs in peril. I suppose that makes it a harder decision…or easier, depending on which way your decision goes.” He then left the room.

  Soon after, Dr. Tiburon returned. He held out a couple of white pills. “This should help your headache.”

  Catina looked up into the handsome black face. “How did you know I had a headache?”

  Dr. Tiburon did not
reply but tipped the pills into her hand and gave her a glass of water.

  Catina stared at the pills with mistrust. “What are they?”

  “Tylenol.”

  She studied the pills. “They don’t look like Tylenol.”

  With reflexes so fast Catina wasn’t aware of his intent before it was complete, he snatched the pills from her hand, popped them into his mouth and drank the glass of water.

  She stared at him in confusion. “Why did you do that?”

  “Because I also seemed to have acquired a headache.” He turned and left the room.

  Catina frowned. She knew she had insulted him with her reluctance to take the pills. What did she think—that he would poison her for refusing to keep her promise?

  Not her promise, she corrected herself. Schuler made the promise.

  By the time, a nurse came in to check on her, the migraine was in full force and her brain throbbed in pain. She softly whispered to the nurse to get Dr. Tiburon, and then buried her head beneath her pillow, trying to protect her eyes from light.

  She flinched when he tried to pull the pillow from her face. She held onto the pillow until his low rumbling voice spoke. “It’s all right. I turned off the lights and shut the window shades.”

  Cautiously, she released the pillow and let him restore it beneath her head. She stared at him. In the darkness of the room, all she could see was his white uniform.

  “I’m sorry about not taking the pills. If you have any more, I’d be glad to take them.”

  He placed two pills in her hand and handed her water.

  She glanced at the pills and frowned. “These are different.”

  Dr. Tiburon sighed and sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’m giving you Tylenol 4. I think your migraine is too far progressed for ordinary Tylenol to help much.”

  She looked at his shadowy figure a moment and then swallowed the pills.

  He started to rise, but she reached out with her hand. “Thank you. I’ve certainly done nothing to deserve your continued kindness.”