Page 18 of Pretty Kitten

“I don’t get it,” he whispered. “Last week, you wouldn’t hear about getting reinforcements, then all of a sudden, you call a meeting within twenty-four hours. All of us got spooked by your tiger at first, but you’ll only consider those who aren’t… Isn’t it a little premature?”

It sounded like Rye was preparing for war, and Daunte didn’t like it - mostly because Rye hadn’t shared his reason with him yet.

And, alright, that might have been because he’d woken up late, and the strangers had already arrived by the time he’d emerged downstairs. Damn brandy.

“I talked to Hsu,” Rye replied.

Shit.

Hsu, a ten-year-old child who’d come to them close to four years ago, had visions; all of which had come to pass. They were always accurate, and generally just a hair short of apocalyptic.

“Is it Zack? Clarissa?”

He barely recognized his voice.

“Both,” his Alpha replied. “She saw people come at them both. We were there, but there also were strangers getting in the way, trying to help them. I recognize some of their faces amongst these,” he said, gesturing to the inside of the pride house. “None were those who stepped away from me, though.”

Well, this explained that.

“Do they make it?” he asked. Hsu saw the visions evolving when they changed their path. “Do we all make it?”

Rye just shook his head, looking more tired than ever.

“I don’t know. There’s a block. She can’t see anything past a certain event, in just a few weeks. Something shielded from her gets in the way. That can be good, or bad. For now, all we can do is try to make it until then.”

Daunte nodded, and started asking how he could help, until something hit him. He should have thought of it sooner, but with everything Rye had just revealed, he’d just caught up.

“That means she’s going to shift. Clarissa. She’s one of us.”

And Zack was a Turner. But right now, his heart beating at a thousand times a minute, he was concentrating on the first part of the equation. It felt like, in the middle of all this turmoil, someone had sent him a lifejacket to hold on to.

The woman he’d wanted more than anyone else in the world was going to become strong enough for him to make her his.

Well, if she’d have him; given the fact that he’d been an asshole to her for the last ten months, he couldn’t exactly rely on that.

“Yes. Poor girl. She had a normal life until now. Now, she’s going to have to lie to everyone she cares about, and relearn everything she thought she knew.”

* * *

Inside, Daunte paid attention, watching closely as Rye observed the candidates left. Some, he barely paid any mind to - others, he stared at intensely until they squirmed and looked away.

Interesting that he already knew who he was going to pick - the entire selection process was just for show. It wouldn’t do for an Alpha to seemingly pick his pride members at random.

Tell me the poser wasn’t in the vision, Daunte texted Rye, as the mountain of muscles happily removed the shirt he’d just put on to show his tattoos to the women.

“Some of them are decorative, but, this one, I got the first time I survived a hunt - in England, Huntsmen still hunt our kind.”

Jas giggled, pointing to another design. “And that one?”

Daunte was going to barf. And possibly also punch the guy in the teeth, if Clari started to giggle, too.

He was, the Alpha replied immediately, accompanying his message with a shake of his head, making it clear how enthusiastic he was to welcome Luke.

“So, you left your family to be mercilessly hunted and came over here,” Ian summarize merrily.

The giant shrugged.

“No, they’re all dead.”

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