Page 10 of Targeted By Fate

Once my folks found out I’d met my one and only, they might move back into our house because they were also on vacation when Maynard met Rhodes. Or maybe they would go on back-to-back cruises, as they were always pestering us to mate and give them grandbabies.

With one hand holding the cat, I went to punch in the door code, but it was flung open to reveal my five brothers standing in a semicircle.

“That’s the big emergency? You adopted or found a stray cat!” Thiago tut-tutted and yawned.

Lake glanced behind me, and his face fell when I told him I couldn’t stop off for snacks because of the cat.

“You could have gone to a drive-through,” he huffed and flung himself on a sofa.

“Seriously? You wake up my kid because you got soft and adopted a cat… from the street, judging by the matted fur.”

I shoved Maynard's hand away as he picked a grass seed off my mate. “Stop it!”

Five faces and annoyed voices must have been too much for my mate. He crawled over my shoulder, but I pulled him back. There were so many nooks and crannies in this place that I might never find him if he ran off.

Ezra groaned. “Am I to believe that you’re a cat dad now and we all have to bow to the kitty’s whims?”

“Kitty litter is inyourroom, bro,” Riggs snapped.

“Stop it!” That was my Beta voice, and my siblings froze.

Riggs gave in. “Fine. The litter can go in the laundry.”

“Shut it, you fools, and listen. I’ve met my mate.”

“I knew it.” Thiago leaped off the sofa. “Is he human? Did you stash him in the trunk of your car?”

“Is he handcuffed? I thought that was what we did to our brothers’ new mates.” Riggs had forgotten about kitty litter, and both he and Thiago had latched on to memories of when we met Rhodes for the first time. He chuckled, and he and Lake fist-bumped.

Ezra opened the door and peered outside, yelling there was no mate in the driveway, until I shouted again and told them they were asshats. “My mate is right here.” I pointed to the cat snuggled under one arm.

My announcement was greeted with five furrowed brows and huhs.

“Dude, that goes against shifter law and human ones.” Maynard lowered his voice. “That’s gross and?—”

I screeched, and the cat clawed my jacket. “Shut the fuck up, bro. He has a problem.”

“I think you’re the one with?—”

I glared at Lake, and he shut up.

“He can’t shift, and I think he either took some of the drugs at the Pulsepoint...” Or elsewhere. Until he shifted, it was all guesswork.

My brothers didn’t let me finish.

“Why would a shifter take drugs?”

“That’s not a great start to a relationship.”

Maynard sneezed and stepped away, saying he might be allergic to cats. I tossed a box of tissues at him, saying he was fine.

“I’ve heard of similar cases in the last month,” Ezra piped up.

“Was it deliberate or his drink was spiked?” Lake put his face close to the cat and meowed. It’d serve him right if he got scratched. “Like the ones that killed those shifters.”

“Do you speak feline?” I snapped. My brothers were my support network, and they weren’t helping.

“Sorry, no.” Lake waved at my mate

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