Page 19 of Kitty Cat

He must have said it out loud, because Ace replied, “Their issue is your toddler.”

Those who didn’t growl protectively hissed; well, Kim didn’t, but no one cared.

“The youngest. She has wolf in her, right?”

They exchanged glances.

Honestly, Lola had always been hard to place, her scent and behavior didn’t quite fit any feline they could think of - not unlike Aisling, really - but Rygan had never wondered if she was a hybrid, because they wererare.Very, very rare.

The only way shifters could have children was if they were bound by blood, or mated. The blood ceremony that couples went through after getting married worked between shifters of the same species, or between a shifter and a human; no one knew why, but it didn’t completely bind shifters of different species - feline and wolves, or birds and bears. They sometimes married, but they never reproduced.

However, fated mates were a completely different matter.

Mated pairs were rare, although a little more common over the last century as they had been in the past - being able to travel the globe helped. But what he knew of the dozen of mated shifters he’d met was that they’d all become infinitely stronger. There was a pair of mated Omegas who’d singlehandedly stopped the shifter wars down in Mexico. In Canada, two mated Alphas ruled the entire country; they were wolves, but every race, feline included, obeyed their commands. Of course, not every mated pair took political functions, but they had one thing in common: power.

Rygan knew that a cross-species mating could result in children, but there hadn’t been one for centuries, to his knowledge.

“Okay, so let’s talk hypothetically,” Tracy reasoned. “Let’s say I was a wolf, part of the Vergas Pack, and I mated a feline. I’d know that I, along with my mate and child, would be hunted down.”

“So, I’d give my toddler to someone who isn’t likely to give it up to a pack of wolves - a pride of felines.”

Suddenly, it all made sense.

“Right, well, we can give them Lola and they’ll be off our case then.”

They all turned to Kim, who rolled her eyes and said, “Joke. Duh.”

Only, Rye wasn’t certain she had been joking. The woman was that shallow.

“They won’t get their hands on her,” Rygan stated. “Not while any of us are still breathing.”

He was purposefully looking at Ace when he said that, as if daring her to contradict him, telling them she was leaving them to their own mess. He half expected her to; but instead, the woman nodded, sealing her fate.

Alright,Rye reluctantly told his tiger. The beast might have had a point. He had to agree that she might somewhat make a suitable Alpha female after all.

That was, if he ever convince her to give him a chance. Oh, and also, join his pride, when she obviously loved her freedom.

Good thing he’d never been one to run from a challenge.

Wild

Fucking hell. What had she gotten herself into? All because the damn sexy Alpha had hypnotized her with all his manliness.

Aisling shook her head; if she was honest, she was lying to herself. She’d pledged to help because the barbarians needed killing. Badly. Going after an innocent child wasn’t flying with her - not at all.

But they were going against a gigantic, well-connectedpack of wolves. That wasn’t going to be pretty.

Fuck.

Needing a reprieve from her own home - even upstairs, she could smell the spicy, musky scent of the male who drove her mad - she ran out the window, landing on a nearby branch, and ran along the trees until she was deep within the forest.

Then, after leaving her clothes on a neat pile, she shifted…and the fucking cat immediately turned around, heading back towards the house.

Aisling had to laugh. The animal was impossible.

She could have shifted back, but there was no need to - caging her animal was never a good idea, and contrary to just about any other shifter out there, Aisling could actually hang around others without alarming them.

Her soft paws expertly made it back inside the house and she went to perch on her favorite tree, where she liked to observe the newcomers.

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