The Billionaire's Secret Litter I Gave Birth to Shifter Kittens

Billionaire Jonathan Farley suffered from infertility. Desperate for an heir, he kept over a hundred women at his manor like songbirds in gilded cages.

He made his terms clear: whoever bore him a child would receive a billion-dollar reward.

A year later, ten of those women gave birth in succession.

Every single one was dismembered and buried alive. The crime? Infidelity.

Now, a month after them, I'd finally delivered.

But when I saw what I'd given birth to, I burst into tears.

Those women who'd been buried alive for cheatingat least they'd produced human babies.

Mine weren't even human.

They were five tiny kittens.

1.

The private physician attending the birth fainted on the spot.

Only my nanny Joan Chavez remained, her eyes bulging as she stammered:

"Miss Henson, wh-what is this?"

What is this?

I wanted to know too!

How could a person give birth to cats?!

I pinched my thigh hard, praying this was a nightmare.

But it hurt. God, it hurt.

This wasn't a dream.

I was finished.

The memory of my ten predecessors' fates flashed through my mind. I collapsed against the pillows, too horrified for tears.

A year ago, I'd been brought to this lavish manor along with over a hundred other women from across the country.

That day, Jonathan Farley announced to all of us:

Whoever could give him a child would receive one billion dollars.

And so the desperate race began.

Fertility drugs. Acupuncture. Prayers to every deity imaginable.

We tried everything. No one conceived.

Until a month later, when Victoria Swansonthe plainest-looking among ussuddenly announced her pregnancy.

Jonathan was overjoyed. He visited her daily, showered her with attention, sent jewels and gifts flowing into her room like water.

Over the following month, nine more women confirmed their pregnancies.

I was the last one Jonathan had slept with.

And it had only happened because he'd stumbled into the wrong room, drunk and barely conscious.

I'd assumed I had no chance. Then, the next month, my test came back positive.

Just as every expectant mother was praying for a safe delivery, Victoria gave birth first.

A boy.

Everyone envied her. She was about to claim the billion-dollar prize.

Instead, they severed her hands and feet and buried her alivealong with her baby.

The reason: she'd cheated.

The child wasn't Jonathan's.

After that, the other women delivered one by one.

One by one, they were discovered to have secretly conceived with other men.

One by one, they were dismembered and buried.

I hadn't understood how Jonathan caught themuntil my own labor began.

Jonathan waited outside my door with doctors and bodyguards.

The moment a child was born, a paternity test was performed.

Those ten women had failed the test. They were disposed of on the spot.

Yes, they'd taken the risk of getting pregnant by other men for the money. But I hadn't!

So why had I given birth to five kittens?!

Right now, Jonathan and his men stood guard just outside my door.

What do I do?

Those other women at least got a paternity test.

I'd just delivered five fuzzy little kittens.

One look, and Jonathan would grind me and my babies to dust.

As I spiraled into panic, his cold voice cut through the door:

"Why has the room gone quiet?"

Footsteps. He was coming in

The door was about to open. Terror seized me.

I scrambled to grab the squirming kittens and shoved them into Joan's arms, my voice barely a whisper:

"Quick! Hide them in the trash bin!"

Joan stared at me in shock.

But my hands moved faster than my brainI shoved all five kittens into the trash can.

The moment I finished, Jonathan pushed open the door.

His gaze swept over the unconscious doctor on the floor, then to my empty birthing bed.

His brow furrowed. "What happened?"

"Where's the baby you gave birth to?"

Under Jonathan's piercing stare, I knew if I didn't come up with a believable explanation, I'd be buried alive in the next second.

My heart was about to leap out of my throat. My mind raced.

In a flash of desperation, I took a deep breath, swung my legs off the bed, and bowed deeply to Jonathan.

"Mr. Farley!"

"II'm so sorry!"

Jonathan's expression darkened instantly.

"Why don't you tell me exactly what you're sorry for?"

As he spoke, the bodyguard behind him was already reaching for the dagger at his waist.

I clutched my stomach, forcing a look of utter mortification onto my face, my voice trembling.

"Mr. Farley, what I just pushed out with all my might wasn't a baby!"

"It was a massive, absolutely foul, years-old case of constipation!"

"That's what knocked out the doctor!"

Dead silence filled the room.

The doctor and bodyguard stared at me in shock.

Jonathan's mouth twitched.

He eyed my belly with suspicion. "Who performed your prenatal exams?"

"Dr. James," I said quickly.

"Mr. Farley, Victoria and I have been at odds since I arrived, and Dr. James is her lover. I suspect he deliberately misdiagnosed me to make me offend you!"

"It's my own fault for being stupid enough to believe his lies. I've been eating like a pig these past few months, which is why my belly got so big. That agony just now wasn't laborit was the world's worst bowel movement!"

Dr. James had already been dealt with anyway. Dead men tell no tales. This was his mess to take the fall for.

Jonathan stared at me, his face like thunder.

"So I've been waiting out there all this time... for you to take a shit?"

Humiliating as it was, I forced myself to nod.

"I had no idea things would turn out this ridiculous."

"I'm truly sorry for wasting your time!"

Jonathan gave me a long, unreadable look, then turned to the doctor behind him.

"Dr. Finch, examine her. See if she's telling the truth."

It's over.

Dear God.

You're really not leaving me with a shred of dignity OR my life, are you?

Under Jonathan's watchful gaze, I extended my arm with the resignation of someone walking to the gallows. I could practically hear the Grim Reaper calling my name.

Dr. Victor Finch examined me thoroughly, then pushed his glasses up his nose.

"Mr. Farley, Miss Henson's physical condition is... rather unusual."

Jonathan raised an eyebrow. "Unusual how?"

Dr. Finch's tone was clinical.

"Her heartbeat is strong, and her circulation is robust. She shows none of the typical signs of someone who's just given birth."

"Based on this, she genuinely doesn't appear to be postpartum."

I gazed at Dr. Finch like he was my personal savior.

I could have kowtowed to him right then and there.

Ordinary women lose half their strength giving birth.

But I wasn't ordinary.

Those five little kittens together weighed less than a few ounces. Delivering them was no different from... well, exactly what I'd claimed.

If Jonathan weren't standing right there, I could've sprinted a hundred meters without breaking a sweat.

Jonathan's face grew even darker after hearing the report.

He was probably picturing himself mobilizing his entire household, waiting solemnly outside the dooronly to be rewarded with this. A vein pulsed at his temple.

His cold gaze fixed on me, and his voice dropped to a dangerous register.

"What an idiot."

"Starting today, you're moving to the storage room in the back courtyard. You're not to leave without my permission."

The storage room?

I nodded eagerly.

"Thank you for your generosity, Mr. Farley!"

It worked!

They survived!

The sheer relief of escaping death clouded my mind completely.

I grabbed the shell-shocked Joan, snatched up the trash bin holding my babies, and fled to the storage room that very night.

The place was cramped and run-down, but looking at my five little kittens nestled on the makeshift bedding, it felt like paradise.

"Joan, get some rice waterthese little ones must be starving."

Joan hurried off and returned with a bowl.

But no matter how we tried, the kittens refused to drink.

Watching them curl into pitiful little balls, Joan hesitated before speaking:

"Miss Henson, they are yours, after all. Maybe you should try... nursing them?"

A human nursing cats?

Was that even reasonable?

Then again, I did give birth to them.

I couldn't just watch them starve to death.

I expressed a bit of milk into a bowl.

The moment I did, all five kittenseyes still sealed shutscrambled toward it like they'd caught the scent of something irresistible.

The bowl was empty in seconds.

That's my offspring for you.

Survivors, just like their mother.

As I continued feeding them, my mind churned.

I'd lived a clean life. The only man I'd ever been with was Jonathan.

So why had I given birth to a litter of cats?

I combed through every detail before and after the pregnancy.

Diet? Normal.

Contact with anything strange? Nothing.

The only unusual thing was the day before I slept with JonathanI'd found a pure white stray cat in a corner of the garden.

I'd fed it some scraps of meat.

Could that cat have come to repay my kindness by gifting me five cat-children?

I was still puzzling over this when a soft, babyish voice broke through:

"Mama, hungry."

I thought I was hearing things.

I looked downand nearly lost control of my bladder.

The five kittens who'd just been fighting over milk had transformed into five plump, pink-cheeked human babies.

My hand jerked. The bowl crashed to the floor.

Joan let out a shriek and dove behind me.

"Miss Henson! The catsthe cats turned into people!"

I swallowed hard. "I see that."

One moment they'd been fuzzy little furballs. The nextfive chubby babies.

Now all five of them stared up at me with round, glistening eyes, their voices soft and milky:

"Mama, hungry. Eat eat."

Dear God, was this some kind of cosmic joke?

Bad enough I'd birthed a litter of kittens.

Now the kittens were turning into humans?

"Joan! The door! Lock the door!"

I kept my voice low, practically throwing myself at the entrance, fumbling frantically with the lock until it clicked shut.

Then I took a deep breath, turned, and approached the bedding.

Tentatively, I reached out and poked the cheek of the nearest baby.

Soft.

Warm.

A real, living child.

Still in disbelief, I asked again: "You... can talk?"

The baby I'd poked nodded vigorously and stretched out tiny arms:

"Mama, hold me."

The other four immediately chimed in:

Oh my God.

Five kittens had not only turned into humansthey could speak from the moment they were born?

What on earth had I given birth to?!

Once the shock faded, a strange maternal instinct surged through me.

Especially looking at those pudgy, adorable facesmy heart melted completely.

Cat, spirit, humanwhatever they were, they were mine now. Madge Henson's children.

I snapped into action, cradling them one by one as I nursed them in rotation.

Perhaps because they were cats at their core, their appetites were surprisingly small.

Before long, they were all full.

In the days that followed, I threw myself into the chaos of raising five babies in the storage room.

The little ones stayed in their adorable human forms most of the time. Only when I occasionally scolded them and they got scared would they shift back into kittens.

They grew at an astonishing ratepractically changing overnight. In just two weeks, they could walk and jump.

I'd given them one strict rule: never, under any circumstances, leave our room.

They were obedient. So far, there hadn't been any incidents.

While peace reigned inside the storage room, outside was a different story.

The tale of "Madge Henson's ten-month pregnancy ending in a bowel movement" had become the joke of the entire city.

Mockery echoed through every corner of the manor.

"Did you hear? That Henson woman was so desperate for money she rubbed her belly full of crap and called it her baby!"

"I know! The doctor passed out from the smell. Word is he was so traumatized he quit on the spot!"

"Now the whole city knows our manor houses a woman who was pregnant with ten months' worth of shit!"

"And she's still in that storage room, babbling to herself, cooing at her 'babies' like a madwoman!"

Joan stomped her feet in fury every time she heard the whispers. I let them roll right off me.

What did those idiots know?

I had five shapeshifting, talking babies!

I had no idea how it happened, but their intelligence absolutely crushed those drooling ordinary infants.

I was starting to think this disaster had turned into a blessing in disguise.

No competing for favor. No scheming and backstabbing. Sure, I was poor, but guarding my five incredible secrets? Life wasn't half bad.

The only downside was the storage room's miserable conditions.

Cold and crumbling, that was bad enough. But the foodnothing but other people's leftovers, day after day.

Five growing babies needed real nutrition. Those scraps of cold rice and wilted vegetables barely counted as a snack.

One night, I sat staring at an empty bowl, wondering how I'd feed them tomorrow. When I turned around, the mat was bare.

All five babies had vanished.

Panic seized me. Joan and I split up, searching frantically inside and outside the storage room.

It was pitch black. Where could they have gone?

If anyone found them, we were finished!

Just as tears threatened to spill, I heard rustling from the corner.

Then, one by one, five little figures waddled out.

The oldest two carried a food box between theminside were exquisite dishes and steaming bowls of nutritious soup!

The third and fourth dragged a bag together, its mouth gaping open to reveal all kinds of filling snacks!

The youngest clutched a jade box carved with intricate patterns.

I leaned in for a closer look.

My legs nearly gave out.

This was the urn Jonathan kept enshrined in the ancestral hallhis mother's ashes.

He treasured this more than his own life!

"Wherewhere did you get this?" I pointed at the urn, my hand trembling uncontrollably.

The youngest puffed out his little chest, face bright with pride:

"Mama hungry! We go find food for Mama!"

"Shiny box pretty! For Mama to play with!"

My vision went dark.

Play with?

This wasn't a toy!

This could get us killed!

At that moment, Joan burst through the door, nearly tripping over herself:

"Miss Henson! Bad news! Mr. Farley's mother's ashes have gone missing. He's in a rage, tearing the place apart with his men."

"They've already reached the storage room door!"

What?!

If Jonathan found these five cat-children and that urn, we were all dead!

Bang! Before I could react, the storage room door was kicked open.

Jonathan strode in with a swarm of bodyguards at his heels.