Page 10 of Catnip

Wait, what? He messed up, and gotpraisedfor it? Today was so weird. Rye didn’t hand over compliments every other day; on the contrary, he always looked at Coveney with something akin todisappointment.

“Still,” the Alpha went on, “It doesn’t change the fact that we don’t know nearly enough about that girl to have her in our pride house, under the same roof as our kids. There’s a reason why I sent the rest of our potential members to Ace’s oldplace.”

“She’s wounded,” Coveney pleaded,tense.

He thought about banishing Ava to one of the outer homes, by herself, vulnerable. Now that the potential members had been fully accepted in the pride, they’d be living with them, which meant she’d be well and truly alonethere.

“Shifter healing is prettyquick.”

“This poison will slow it down. I cleaned my wounds after minutes; hers have been festering for hours. I’ll take responsibility for her. If you need to send her away, I’ll go with her. But I’d prefer to have our resources at hand while she getsbetter.”

Whatever Rye was about to say was cut off by Ace. “I’m good with that. If you’re happy to take responsibility forher.”

Coveney couldn’t recall ever having been responsible for a person, on a one-on-one basis. He had a responsibility to the pack, and he saw to everyone’s safety, but this seemed so different. Still, heacquiesced.

Before he left the office, he glanced at his Alphas again, and felt a little weirded out. He didn’t chat away like everyone else did, and he stayed at a distance from the rest of the pride, but he saw and understood more than he let on. After what had happened to him, he’d started to pay a lot more attention to people: their expressions, the things they didn’tsay.

He’d seen Daunte’s thing for his new mate, Clari, long before either of them had seen fit to do a thing about it. He’d wondered whether Ace could be Rye’s mate very early on, catching something eerie about the way they glanced at eachother.

Now, he saw something, too, as easily as if there had been a dialog bubble atop Ace’s head. The Alpha female was cooking up something. She had a plan in mind, and it involvedhim.

He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t think the woman had any reason to dislike him, so he might beoverreacting.

But he’d been wrongbefore.

The Alpha

She wokeup feeling like a shark had set its jaws around her middle and refused to let go. The slightest movement hurt, and her bandages werebloodstained.

On her bedside table, there was a full glass of water, and a bowl of something that looked like soup. She recalled Coveney saying he’d bring broth; obviously, he was a man of his word. He hadn’t woken her up for it, and she was pretty grateful. Being conscious sucked. She hadn’t been in pain while she slept, atleast.

Her throat was dry, and her mouth felt downright disgusting, so she moved to grab thedrink.

Shit. Wrong decision. She wasn’t moving again -ever.

“Let me get that foryou.”

Shefroze.

The light was dim - it was clearly the middle of the night - but she should have heard him, sensed him. There was a stranger in her room, sitting on an armchair not too far from her, and it hadn’t been the first thing she’d seen. Some shifter she was. She should have noticed himimmediately.

Coveney brought the glass to her lips and tilted it slightly to let her take asip.

She groaned, before managing to croak, “Thankyou.”

“Save your strength,” he replied, apparently not one forpleasantries.

Good. It wasn’t like she was up for a discussion rightnow.

“I need to look at the wound. The balm I put in there will prevent you fromhealing.”

She narrowed her eyes and tensed, ready to bolt. That explained why she felt like she’d been run over, but why would he use something likethat?

“To make sure your skin doesn’t regrow over the poison,” he explained, wincing. “Sorry. I’m not used to… speaking topeople.”

“You’re part of a pride,” she retorted,confused.

He shrugged. As she carried on staring, the tiger sighed, reading her annoyingly communicative silence. “You want me to clarifymyself.”

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