CatOutoftheBag by Tatiana Caldwell

something,
right? But what’s the Ahfa part mean?”
    Justin laughed. “It means your friend Dawson here is gonna
be in deep shit.”
    Sofia furrowed her brows. “I don’t understand.”
    “You will soon. I’ll escort you to your table,” Justin said,
reaching for her arm.
    Sofia flinched away, flashing a fake smile. “I’m fine,
thanks.”
    Justin shrugged then beckoned her to follow him. “I didn’t
mean to hurt you that day. It’s against the rules to harm another Were unless
it’s in defense, and I would never intentionally hurt a queen.”
    It seemed more like a declaration than an apology. She kept
her face forward, not making eye contact with him as she responded. “Nathan
wasn’t meaning any harm either when he fulfilled my request to be alone with
him. And yet you’re furious with him.”
    “That’s different though,” Justin scoffed. “He wanted you to
himself.”
    “I don’t see how it’s different, from what I understand of
why you attacked me…”
    There were a few seconds of thoughtful silence before Justin
came up with a retort. “You know Dawson’s taking advantage of you, right?”
    “Is he?” she asked in a bored voice as she trudged behind
him. “How so?”
    “You’re a newly awakened Were and you’re in heat.
He’s taken advantage of your delicate and naïve state to get what he wanted.”
    Sofia laughed. “I’m sorry but no, I don’t believe that.”
    “You think his affection is genuine?”
    “I know it is. He’s completely honest with me.”
    Justin side-eyed her leeringly. “Ha, is he now? So did he
tell you about him and Cassandra?”
    Sofia cut away her eyes.
    Justin snorted. “I didn’t think so.”
    Sofia grumbled to herself, but she wasn’t going to readily
let anything Justin said solely sway her one way or the other. There was still
a lot she didn’t understand about the Pride, the relationships between its
members or the current situation. Until she received more information, she
didn’t know what to think about anything.
    They stopped at a small, round table decorated with a white
tablecloth and four chairs, two of which were occupied by Cassandra and Nathan.
Cassandra’s mouth was an angry slit and Nathan sat rigid in his seat. Justin
pulled out a chair between them and beckoned for Sofia to take it.
    “Cassandra here can take it from the top for you. I’m going
to join the council. It was nice to finally get to meet you, Sofia.” Justin
turned to eyeball Nathan with a wicked grin. “You get to sit here and enjoy the
rest of your meal with her for now, Dawson, but I’ve got a pretty good feeling
you’ll be eating your shit for dessert.”
    Nathan didn’t even look at Justin. He just continued to
stare off to the side in silence.
    “Go on, Justin, that’s enough.” Cassandra shooed him off.
“I’ll join you at the council’s table after I’m done here.”
    Justin nodded and walked off, leaving just the three of them
alone at the table. Sofia turned to Cassandra and Nathan and exploded. “Could
someone please explain to me what the hell is going on? Why is everyone on
edge? What was so bad about Nathan taking me out of here? What is this Ahfa
queen stuff?”
    Servers came by and ignored the tension at the table as they
deposited silver platters of food and pitchers of drink, and went on their way.
    Cassandra leaned back in her chair and folded her hands upon
the table. “First of all, Sofia, you need to understand that we Werecats are
practically an endangered species.”
    “Why? Are we being hunted?” Sofia glanced at Nathan but he
seemed distracted and remained aloof.
    “No, we’re not specifically being hunted. But as far as we
can tell, Weres of all kinds are simply rare,” Cassandra explained. “Especially
Werecats. There’s still a lot about ourselves we don’t yet fully understand,
like how exactly we’ve come to be, why we tend to have our first shift during
puberty, why some are Late Bloomers and don’t shift until