Chapter Eight
She was full.
The hamster looked around and sniffed the air. It smelled like humans. She’d been with humans all night. For years it felt like. Her nose tingled so she wiggled it again and ran her hands across her whiskers to stop the itching.
She was on a candy mountain. There were so many snacks here. The humans kept putting them in her cage. The big one especially. He had short hair on his face. Maybe he was part hamster too.
She loved these colorful balls of sweetness, and she got a little scared that someone would take them away before she could stop them, so she shoved as many as she could into her cheek pouches. Her cheek pouches were her favorite.
She could keep so much food in there.
Mouth full, she stood up on the side of the see-through wall, her little fingers stretched out. She studied the humans. There was one with scary eyes that kept staring at her. He was dangerous. Beside her sat a woman with bright eyes too. And short hair. Maybe she was part hamster too.
The big man had his hand resting on the bucket he had trapped her in. She didn’t mind being trapped if there was lots of food. The room was unfamiliar. It was dim in here and everyone was taking sips of brown water and laughing a lot.
All but the big man beside her. He looked sad.
Her skin felt funny. She didn’t like it.
She pushed off the wall and itched her ear with her hind leg, but it didn’t help. She tried the other ear, but nope, no help. She didn’t like this feeling in her body. It was uncomfortable. The glowing eyed woman was staring at her now. She looked concerned.
She said something. She could hear the words, but human words never meant much to her in any order.
“I think you should take the hamster outside.”
The big man said, “No, Raisin will get cold. It’s fifteen degrees out there.”
God, she was itchy. She scratched under her armpit with her back leg, but her belly was so full, she could barely reach. Even her little nipples were itching.
Maybe it was all the candy.
“Lance, trust me, you need to take her outside. Now.”
The human sounded like she was not full of laughter right now.
She liked them better when they were all chatting and not paying attention to her. She liked to eat in peace.
The gold-eyed man was moving closer to her cage. He was very dangerous, she could tell. Some kind of predator. She didn’t like him coming closer.
She hid behind the pile of colored candies.
“Back off, Reed. You’re scaring her.”
“She’s different,” the gold-eyed man said, but his voice was scary. It was growly.
Another man pushed the gold-eyed human back and went all the way out the front door with him. Thank goodness.
Now she could eat snacks some more.
She reached for another candy, but her skin was burning now. Ow, ow, ow! She writhed and arched her back in agony. The humans were louder now, and the cage moved fast with her in it, and then…and then…
Boom!
****
“Fart,” Birdie choked out around a mouthful of what tasted like peanut M&Ms.
She lay sprawled like a starfish across what looked like the floor of a bar. She was butt-naked.
Birdie let the candy dribble out of her mouth and onto the floor.
To her infinite horror, Lance was standing beside her looking down at her with unblinking, shocked eyes. “Raisin?”
“I’m not a Raisin,” she said around very tight vocal chords. She tried to get up, but her body wasn’t working quite yet.
“You’re a hamster shifter?” Ava (the Ava she had waited three months to meet) exclaimed.
“I can’t move,” Birdie rasped out.
“Oh my God, I’ve got this.” Ava yanked on the edge of a tablecloth. Now, surely she’d meant to be smooth about it, and remove the cloth without all the dishes even moving, but as it stood, all the glasses, dishes, peanut baskets, and a candle came raining down with the tablecloth.
Tonight simply could not get any worse.
“My stomach hurts,” she said.
“You ate a lot,” Lance said, still looking shocked and a little disturbed.
“What did you feed me?” she ground out.
“Uuuh, Cheerios, fruit roll-ups, cereal, other kinds of cereal, crackers, more kinds of crackers, a spoonful of peanut butter, some grapes and a strawberry, a chocolate bar, some M&Ms, beef jerky, bean dip, three kinds of chips, a pretzel stick with some cheese sauce—”
“Okay,” she groaned, scrunching her face up. “You could’ve given me some nuts and called it a day.”
“I did. There were peanuts in the M&Ms.”
Feeling like roadkill, Birdie rolled over gingerly under the tablecloth Ava had thrown over her and curled into the fetal position, like that would make her stomach feel better.
“You’re a hamster,” Lance said in a strange tone.
“I’ve carried you around all day in a cage and introduced you as Raisin to at least twenty people.
You were in my coat pocket for fifteen minutes.
You bit my finger.” He held up his finger with a Band-Aid on it.
“I thought you were a boy for the first three hours I knew you.”
“Definitely not a boy,” she said, pushing up into the sitting position. She looked around. The bar seemed to be closing soon, thank God. There was no one in here right now except for them and the bar tender and a girl with braids and an uncertain smile behind Ava.
“I didn’t even know there was such a thing as hamster shifters,” the pretty woman with the braids uttered.
“There’s one,” Birdie said.
“You’re the only one?” Ava asked, her glowing green eyes wide as full moons.
The woman with the braids said, “My husband almost ate you like three times tonight.”
“Natalie’s husband, Reed, is a Cheetah shifter,” Ava said blandly.
“That’s good. That’s nice.” Her mortification had her wishing Reed had just ingested her so she didn’t have to exist in this moment right here.
“I bought you a hamster ball,” Lance said. Oh yeah. He seemed to be in some kind of shock.
“Well, thank you. You can probably get your money back on that one. Sorry about your cage.” The plastic container was in about a dozen pieces on the floor right now.
“I bought you one of those hamster wheels for your cage,” Lance said.
“Okay, buddy,” Ava said. “You’re doing good, why don’t you take a little minute to process out of earshot, and do us a favor, okay? Can you tell Brock I need the extra pair of clothes from his truck? I’m going to take…” She arched her eyebrows at Birdie…
“Birdie Grenadine,” she introduced herself, finally, finally, to Ava.
“I’m going to take Birdie to the ladies room and get her cleaned up and feeling a little better. Post-Change aches can be a little brutal.”
Lance was standing there like a bump on a log. “I’ve never seen a shifter’s animal before. You’re really tiny. With tiny ears and little hands.” He held his hands up, fingers splayed. “You have cheek pouches.”
“It’s okay,” Ava said, pushing him toward the door.
“And a little nub of a tail,” he said. “And very sharp teeth.”
“Is he going to be okay?” Natalie asked, staring after him.
“Just a little shock is all,” Ava said, and then she squatted down and eased Birdie’s arm over her shoulder and stood, dragging her up with her.
Natalie kept the tablecloth in place, wrapped around Birdie like a flour tortilla, bless her heart, because the other humans were filtering back in here—Brock and the gold-eyed guy. Reed.
“When I imagined meeting you, I never imagined doing it naked,” Birdie murmured.
“You wanted to meet me?” Ava said softly as she pushed the ladies bathroom door open and helped her inside.
“Yeah. For months. You are a rare shifter, and the only rare one I’ve ever been able to track down, and I thought if I came to this UnValentine’s Day celebration here, I would be able to meet you and…and…”
“And what?”
“Not feel so alone? There are only eight other Nine Banded Armadillo shifters in existence besides you. I thought maybe you would know what it was like.”
“Just so you know,” Ava said as she grabbed a stack of clothes someone passed through the bathroom door, “Your animal is the cutest shifter on earth and beyond. She’s so cool.”
“Come on,” she groused. “There is nothing cool about changing into a rodent and eating for four straight hours and then Changing back and dealing with a food hangover for the next twelve hours.
Ava snorted, and lowered her gaze, but Birdie had seen it—the smile. She was trying not to laugh.
“It’s not funny,” Birdie muttered, miserable. “And now that fine-ass man will always remember the day he carried me around and named me Raisin and fed me fruit roll-ups, and now how is he supposed to find my titties attractive?”
“You look gorgeous.”
“He will always remember my beady eyes. Hot men don’t do relationships with women who can grow nub tails, or however he put it.”
“You’re being too hard on yourself,” Ava said through a barely contained grin, handing her a pair of jeans.
“I really liked him,” she pouted, pulling the jeans on.
“Well, okay. It’s true, Lance didn’t react the best, but you have to remember he’s a dumb boy and boys don’t always do the right things.
It’s a bit of a shock the first time. Give him a little bit, okay?
Think about if it were reversed. If you fell for someone, and you carried him around in your pocket all day and thought he was your pet, and then boom, he turned into the person you had a crush on, you would probably need a minute too. ”
She inhaled deeply and exhaled an explosive sigh. “You’re even cooler than I imagined you would be.”
“Guys,” Natalie said, shoving the bathroom door open. “The bartender said last call, so I ordered us bathroom drinks.”
“Bathroom drinks?” Ava said with a giggle as she took a margarita from her hand.
“Yours is just ginger ale, girl,” Natalie said, handing over a regular glass of bubbly soda. “I saw some of what you ate today. You don’t need any help with that stomachache.”
“I’ll actually be fine in a few hours,” she said as a smile crept across her face.