Page 25 of Kitty Cat

Rygan nodded. “They’re after a two year old.”

The other humans, who were shamelessly eavesdropping, gathered around them; the glaring had stopped, replaced by curiosity and, if Rye wasn’t mistaken, protectiveness. Holy fuck.Humanswere being cool with shifters. What the hell was happening with the world?

“This is Rygan, the Alpha,” Ace introduced, pointing to him. “And Daunte, the Beta. You’ve met him a couple of times in the past, right?”

“Aye,” a guy in the crowd said, nodding. “You came to my pub last year. Pretty good at pool, aren’t you?”

She played them so damn easily. In a minute, she’d established that the Beta - one of the highest authorities in the pride - had already come to their town without causing any trouble, and she’d also made it clear that they needed their help; something the small town people apparently responded to.

“Tracy is a bestselling author,” she added; that seemed to impress - Rye guessed the town didn’t see many celebrities. “They’ve stayed at my place this week, and they want to buy your house because of the security measures you’ve taken. The windows are reinforced, aren’t they?”

“Yes; it was originally made for my daughter, when she was single,” Andrew explained. “Only the best for my girl. The fences are electrified, too.”

When the auction started, the humans sat around them; they all glared at the couple of investors wearing suits. The pride won - they weren’t going to let this opportunity pass, even if they’d had to overpay for the house - and everyone clapped.

“You can move in today, it’s empty,” the mayor told them. “We’ll take care of the paperwork by the end of the week.”

Others said a variation of, “You got a problem, you call. No one should target kids.”

Rye just stared at Ace, dumbfounded. She winked before getting up.

“Right. I’d better get back to work - poor Clary has been alone for over an hour.”

Tease

Rygan was annoyed, and more annoyed yet, because quite frankly, he had zero reason to be pissed at all. They’d won the house they wanted, buying it for a pittance; if they left, they could flip it and make a decent profit. His keen sense of business should have put him in a good mood, but instead, he wanted someone to punch.

If. He’d thoughtifthey left the house - when it was a question ofwhen. They were going to leave. Thinking otherwise was just going to set him up for disappointment.

The problem wasn’t as much leaving Lakesides - although he’d taken to the quiet town and its weird inhabitants - as it was knowing that he’d leave a certain loner behind…

“What’s the matter?” Tracy asked, frowning.

He noticed that he was growling low, threateningly.

Dammit. He and his tiger had never been as unsettled as they had been since their arrival in Lakeside. The animal had wanted him to follow Ace around like a damn lost puppy, and had started to sulk when Rygan wouldn’t give in.

It was as though…

No. He wasn’t going to start thinking nonsense now. He was attracted to and intrigued by Aisling, no doubt about that, but attraction happened every day. Having a hard on for a woman didn’t mean that she was his mate, his other half, shaped by nature to complete him.

Matings had been studiedover the three decades since the paranormal community had revealed themselves to the rest of the world. Shifters, angels, demons, vampires, and everything in between had fated mates, and no scientist had come up with definite information; they just had theories, at best. Some said mates were the results of an evolutionary thing: nature picked two people who were likely to have strong children, and bound them together. That theory was destroyed by the fact that sometimes, true mates were of the same sex, and therefore unable to reproduce.

Rye didn’t care about the logic behind it. All he knew was that, as a shifter, he had two choices - getting married and blood-bound to someone he cared about, some day, or waiting in the hopes of meeting that one person designed for him, and share everything, heart, soul, and blood.

He was already stronger than he cared to acknowledge, and patience had never been his forte. Besides, he was thirty-one. Like many before him, he was more than happy to go with option one: find someone to spend his life with. Find someone who wouldn’t be in his head constantly - someone who couldn’t control him. He might already have settled down if his damn tiger had been more compliant. But no, out of all the women he’d met, the stupid animal had to pickthat one.The one who came with a warning label.

Still. That didn’t mean that the woman was his mate.

Itdidn’t. Most other feline shifters he knew were attracted to women left, right, and center. Their animals sometimes agreed with them, letting them form relationships, temporary or otherwise. Ace might have been the first that the grumpy tiger found fetching but it meant nothing.

Nothing at all.

His head snapped left as his nostrils took in a scent that shouldn’t already be so familiar. Wood, earth, spices, currently mixed with butter and honeycomb. There she was, behind the window of a pretty, elegant bakery, giving a frosted cupcake to a little girl. Then, she leaned over the counter and handed one to the human guy accompanying the child, along with her most open, dazzling smile.

He didn’t like that at all.

“Rye?”

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