Page 17 of Kitty Cat

The wolf struggled, cursing and even spitting at her, but no one had ever managed to make her let go, and it wasn’t going to start now.

Shifters were considerably stronger than humans - even their weakest submissive, without any fighting skills, could defend themselves against a military trained officer - because of their animals. Like it or not, Aisling had an extra injection of feline gene, which made her twice the shifter in every way.

And sure, that meant that catnip hadembarrassingeffects on her, even when she was in human form, but it also meant that she had no problem grabbing the wolf under one arm, and carrying him, kicking and screaming, like he was just a toddler.

The commotion got some attention; a bunch of adult Wyvern cats were standing on her front porch, eyes focused on the two hundred pound of muscles she carelessly dragged along.

Rygan was frowning - a habit of his, from what she could tell - while Daunte smiled; Ola, Coveney, Tracy and Christine each bore an expression somewhere in between the Alpha’s and the Beta’s.

“What have we here?” Daunte asked, catching the wolf she tossed his way.

She shrugged.

“Your problem,” she growled, annoyed that she’d intervened at all. “He was looking at you, not me.”

So, yep. Maybe she was a little defensive.

She turned her heels, cursing herself for the second time that day, because half of her wanted to stay and see what the scout would reveal when the Wyvern played with him until he talked. But whoever said curiosity killed the cat might have had a point - she didn’t want to find out. Itwasn’t her problem.

And anyway, she could always ask her brother later.

“Ace,” Daunte chanted behind her. “If you don’t stay now, I won’t tell you what I’ve found out.”

Dammit.

Contacts

Rygan’s attentionshould have been entirely focused on the wolf strapped to a chair near the chimney, but it wasn’t.

For the first time, he saw Aisling with his pride - or most of it. Ola and Christine had taken the children to their room; the rest of them stood in the lounge, snarling at the wolf.

Aisling should have stood out like a sore thumb, been an obvious outsider, made them feel uncomfortable. She didn’t. The others weren’t pushing her out with unwelcoming body language, except Kim, maybe, but she hardly counted. It seemed like she had a place amongst them.

His tiger agreed; he knew exactly what place he wanted her to have.

Rygan shouldn’t have been surprised when he read the animal’s desires, but he was. He’d known she interested him; he hadn’t realized that the tiger saw her as a potential partner. She was strong, and protective too - otherwise, she wouldn’t have hunted that wolf for them. The animal saw her as an equal - a perfect Alpha.

Rygan narrowed his eyes. He saw everything his tiger pointed to, but he was the smart one here. He wouldn’t let lust, and the fact that she was the first female the tiger liked, cloud his judgement. She was a loner, probably because she liked it that way. She’d said it herself; she hadn’t been fond of living in a pride.

He’d fuck her - repetitively - while they lived in Lakesides. That much, he didn’t doubt. They might even date; he had no objection to wining and dining her, if she was into that sort of thing. But thinking of her as a potential Alpha was premature, to say the least. For Christ’s sake, he didn’t even know her damn name.

“Aisling, do you have a chainsaw?” Ian asked, coming back from their SUV empty-handed. “I think we’ve left ours in the old house.”

Their prisoner rolled his eyes.

“If you think that’s going to intimidate me…”

Ian snorted.

“It’s not to intimidate you. That’s to go through your bones so we can bag you up when we’re done.”

That made the wolf stop smirking, now he realized there was no good cop who’d try to sweeten him up. They were going to kill him; how quickly depended on him.

“Look, we’ve all got things to do, so we’ll keep things simple. I’m quite happy to snap your neck and get it over with, after you’ve told us what we need to know,” Daunte said. “Or, we can remove your nails first, then cut your knuckles, dunk you, bleed you slowly - you get the picture. Tracy loves experimenting.”

The young brunette smiled sweetly. “I write suspense books,” she said with a wink. “Pleasesay you don’t want to talk. I can always use some new material.”

The wolf got the picture; his eyes started to look around, hoping for something he could use, searching for a way out. With so many of them around him, he didn’t have a chance, and he soon realized it, because he tried to negotiate.

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