Page 5 of Kitty Cat

Daunte got to his feet, and smiled, yelling after her, “We’ll be here a week, tops - downstairs, no one will go upstairs. Then, we’ll get a place nearby. We’ll stay out of your way.”

He wasn’t asking permission, and to everyone’s surprise, the woman he’d called Aisling just shrugged indifferently.

“You still run that bakery?” he asked, and somehow that must have been pushing his luck, because she turned, her eyes flashing gold again.

“We’ll order in bulk. Delivery. The entire pride will completely stay out of your way. That’s a promise.”

She turned again, and walk away, replying, “I’ll overcharge you.”

Daunte yelled back a, “Love you!” that earned him a growl.

Rygan wasn’t quite certain what had occurred, and apparently, he wasn’t the only one because Jas asked, “So, we have a place to stay?”

Daunte turned to her and winked.

“Yep. And more surprisingly, I still have my balls.”

Sanctuary

The house was completelyunexpected inside. The decor had been kept minimalistic, save for the cat furniture running along the walls and ceiling. Trees, ramps, elegant toys fixed to the wall.

Aisling was apparently the ultimate crazy cat lady, which was yet another thing to add to the ever growing list of What The Fuck about her. Shifters didn’t often keep pets, as domestic animals felt intimidated and weirded out by them, but there was at least half a dozen different cats in the house.

Rygan frowned. Most doors and windows were opened, letting them roam free. Obviously, the woman wasn’t wary of intruders. Finding himself assessing the house, he inwardly shook his head, concerned about her safety, and pissed at her for not taking it into consideration. Sure, she obviously could take care of herself, but that didn’t mean that she should be quite so careless; a burglar didn’t even need to break in as things were - he could just casually waltz inside. What if she was out of it when a criminal got in? Drunk, or napping. Most felines weren’t known for being light sleepers.

His protective instincts were working overtime, which wasnormal.Or so he told himself. Alphas were naturally prone to worrying, especially when half of their pride wasn’t in the vicinity.

Yep. Rygan was fully aware that he was bullshitting himself. While the statement was true, his protective instincts were only triggered by children, unprotected submissives and his own pride members. In short, he shouldn’t give a fuck about Aisling, the stranger, the loner. And he was surprised, and weirded out by the fact that, for some reason, he did.

“Is that a lynx?”

They all froze; if shifters could spook domestic cats, they completely freaked wild ones. Many shifters had been mauled by animals, in part because they always felt so reluctant about antagonizing what their cats saw as their less fortunate peers, dumber but endearing versions of themselves.

The feline, which was indeed a lynx, snarled in Rygan’s direction before running along a rope bridge leading from one wall to the next, and got out of doors as fast as he could.

“Ace runs a feline sanctuary,” Daunte explained.

Ace. It suited her. Why did it piss him off that he had a nickname for the woman?

“She normally gets wounded animals back on their feet, and takes them back to the wild, but I’m pretty sure I saw that grumpy puss here last year,” he said, sounding surprised.

Then, he gave them a grand tour of the ground floor, visibly familiar with the house. The bedrooms were large, pleasing, and prepared for visitors.

“Kitchen, bathroom, second bathroom, bedroom- we’ll have to share, there’s only three downstairs.”

It didn’t really bother him; they’d slept in two rooms before - the kids and the women together, and the guys had bunked together in a lounge - but he found his eyes glaring at the ceiling. Did the woman really have to keep the whole upper floor to herself?

But then again, if he asked himself what would have happened had an unknown pride turned up at his door without warning, he had to sigh and concede that the woman wasn’t exactly being difficult. Still. He and his tiger, in perfect agreement, for the first time today, would have preferred to sleep closer to her.

Much closer.

“Rye, you take this one,” he said, pointing to the smallest of the three rooms. “The rest of us can manage.”

He didn’t mind the small room at all, but he still frowned.

“Why did you say we’d stay downstairs? The house is large and the rest of you will be crowded.”

“We don’t want to piss Aisling off. Trust me on that. We’re already abusing her hospitality.”

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