Dex's POV

When I awoke, I had no idea what time it was. My hands were still red from yesterday, was it yesterday? When I touched the golden bars. My throat was burning, and I couldn't remember the last time I had something to drink. To make things worse, my stomach was growing with hunger. Most of the time I ignored it, until it really hurt, but that was kind of hard to do with the smell of food drifting down into the cellar.

The cellar was quite boring to be honest. All there was was the hard concrete floor, and it's walls. I discovered a bathroom too, thank god, but other than that it was rather bland.

"Hello?" I called, but my voice cracked. The burning feeling had become much worse. "Hello?" I tried again, but my voice was still hoarse.

"What is it?" A voice growled in response.

"I need water." I stated simplify.

"Why would I give you that?" The voice asked. I wondered who it was for a moment. Then my head started hurting, and I figured it was the dehydration, setting it.

"Please." I said, my voice barely over a whisper. Black dots danced at the edge of my vision, and everything was blurry. I heard voices, but I couldn't make out the words.

I wasn't sure how it happened but I found a large glass of water in front of me. I drank it all and luckily the fire in my throat went out. My stomach growled but I ignored it. I wasn't going to ask for food right after I asked for water.

"Are you hungry?" The voice asked. This time I recognized the voice as male but I couldn't figure out who it belonged to.

"What's it to you?" I hissed, trying to ignore the growling f my stomach.

"I don't want you to die. That wouldn't be very good of me, now would it?" He said.

"I don't need food." I stated, but my stomach growled in protest.

"Ya, sure. Let me get you something." I heard them walk away, and come back with something that smelled like chicken. "There you go." The voice said, before dropping some food on the ground. My lip curled in disgust.

"I'm not eating that." I said, gesturing to what used to be chicken, "I'm not a animal."

"Ya, and I'm not a three headed chicken." He said, with a snort.

"Funny." I said with mock amusement. The boy kept making rude comments about me, so I decided it would be best, to take a nap. I squeezed my eyes shut, and let myself fall into a deep sleep.

. . .

When I opened my eyes again, I saw I wasn't in my forest. I always dreamed of the same forest. This one was different. I saw Nick, or my cat that is.

"What is this place?" I asked him. He didn't respond, only walked in a certain direction. I followed him slowly, but soon I was racing to catch up.

"Stop." He meowed, and I stopped just before a clearing. In the clearing there was a cat, flicking her tail impatiently. She looked strangely familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I glanced at Nick and then it hit me. This cat looked like him.

"Nick, who is that?" I asked.

"Lana." He replied simplify. I then noticed another difference from this dream, and my normal ones.

"Nick, Why are we two different people?"

"The owner of this dream has dreamed it this way." He said.

"So this isn't my dream?"

"No. We're dream jumping. It's something werecats can do, when they fall asleep." He said, I just nodded and turned my attention to the clearing again.

I watched as someone else entered. She had brown hair and green eyes. I knew her immediately. It was Mae. A low hiss escaped my lips, and I wanted to jump on her and strangle her.

"Why hello, Mae!" Lana purred, as if happy to see her, "your early today. Taking a little nap, I suppose?"

"I was up all night, guarding Dex, of course I need sleep." Mae responded.

"Speaking of which, we have some guests in our dream. Nick why don't you quit hiding in the bushes and come on out! You too Dex!" Lana said. I guessed she must have smelt us hiding there. Nick walked out, and touched noses with Lana while I just blinked, respectfully.

"How are they here?" Mae asked, bewildered.

"Good question. Nick, care to explain?" She purred.

"Dream jumping." Nick said, simplify.

"What about you?" Mae asked me, "Care to explain yourself?"

"Not really." I said, "what about you? Care to explain yourself."

"I have nothing to explain." Mae said with a huff.

"Then I will." Lana said.

"Lana please don't do this." Mae begged, voice barely over a whisper.

"You see Dex," Lana said, ignoring Mae's plead, "I'm Mae's cat."

"But that would make her a..."I trailed off.

"A werecat." Lana finished.

* * *
Mae's POV

I woke up screaming. The whole house ran to me in alarm. I couldn't believe what just happened. I wasn't a werecat. I was just going mad. Okay that didn't sound much better. I breathed in shaky breaths and started to calm down.

"What was that for?" Dex screamed from the Cellar. "I was trying to sleep over here!"

"Well I'm sorry if my screaming woke you from your nap." I shouted back. The rest of the household, relaxed and went back to what ever they were doing. I looked around for Xander, but I didn't see him. I suppose he must be out. So instead I walked over to Dex, who was unguarded at the time. I glared at him with cold eyes.

"What do you know?" I hissed to him. He seemed the least bit concerned.

"What? That your a werecat, and your lying to your friends and familiar family." He said.

I gripped the bars of the cellar very tightly, "I'm not a werecat!" I hissed, then there was a tingling in my hands, then a burning. I released the gold immediately and looked at my hands.

"Gold burns werecats." Dex said coolly, "so I'd stay away from it if I were you."

"I'm not a werecat." I hissed.

"Werecat, werecat, Mae is a werecat." Dex sung childishly.

"Am not." I said.

"Are to." He replied.

"Am not."

"Are to."

"Am not."

"Are not."

"Am to!"

"Okay, if you say so." Dex said with a shrug. I then realized what I'd said and felt pretty stupid.

"I hate werecats." I mumbled.

"Don't hate yourself." Dex said.

I got up and walked to the couch. He made me so angry! Why did Lana have to tell him. My life was so unfair sometimes.

The door then swung open and Xander appeared. His mouth was frozen in a grim expression. He walked up to me and sat down.

"What is it?" I asked, worried for him.

"Nothing." He said. I knew it was a lie.

"I know your lying." I stated simply.

"Okay. I was in town, looking around, when a huge explosion went off. I ran to it, but stayed hidden. They blew up the bank. Two people were dead, with messages of their blood painted on the sidewalk." He said, shaking his head sadly. "I've never seen this much destruction from werecats before."

"That's because it wasn't werecats." Dex said from the Cellar.

"And why would you say that?" I questioned him.

"Because werecats work at night. We're stealthy and silent. The only way to really know we were there, is the bodies left behind. We don't mess with humans." He said. I could tell there was probably a unless they mess with us first message implied at the end.

"He's right." Xander said, "Werecats are to cunning to do this. It would blow their cover."

"Then who did it?" I wondered out loud.

"The Shadow Army." I heard Dex whisper to himself.

"What's that?" I asked.

"It's a army made of shadow animals. It's commanded by a wolf, who is commanded by June. They attacked me before I was found... It's like they wanted me away from the Pride... crap!"

"What's Crap?" Xander asked him.

"They want the Pride without its leader. So it's weak and confused. They're going to kill them all." Dex said, concern in his voice, "I need to go!"

"He's right. Mae let him out." Xander told me. I felt fear spike in my stomach. I couldn't touch gold.

"Why don't you do it. I'm not a servant." I said, giving him a good enough excuse.

"Just do it, please." He hissed to me.

"Looks like your not the only one with a secret, Mae." Dex said, a taunting look in his eyes.

"What's he talking about?" I asked Xander, before he could ask me.

"I can't tell you." He said in a low voice.

"Well I can!" Dex said, "I've been looking threw Pride records and I noticed something strange. Xander, the boy without a cat. Cast out by the Pride, he lived among humans. It was later discovered that he was blessed with the Visions. Seeing the future. The Pride wanted him back, but he refused, so they locked him up. Same weaknesses as a werecat same strengths. Only without the cat. So he can't touch gold."

"Is that true?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes." He mumbled. Suddenly he perked up, "Will you tell me what Dex meant about you?"

"That's a story you don't want to hear." I mumbled.

"Oh I'm sure he does." Dex said.

"Please tell me." Xander whispered.

Soon the words can spilling out. I told him how Lana first came to me in a dream, but she's been getting stronger. Much too strong. I told him how worried I was about shifting for the first time.

"So you can't touch gold as of today?" He asked, but it was more of a statement.

"Yes." I mumbled guilt building inside of me.

"This just occurred to me. I'm stuck in a cage and the only people around can't touch gold either. Great!" Dex said.

"Wait a minute Dex." Xander said. He ran into the kitchen and grabbed two hot pads. He then opened the golden bars and pulled Dex out.

"Thanks, I owe you one. Now I've got to go save my Pride!" Dex said, sprinting for the door. When he touched the handle he jumped back in shock. The handles were