Page 15 of Pretty Little Kitty

“You’re not helping,” Kia snapped at his cousin.

“How can your uncle object?” Suero asked. “Your cheetah has chosen. No one can stand in the way.”

“It would be a stronger case if your wolf chose me too,” Kia replied, unintentionally letting his bitterness show. Confronting the reality of the situation made him acknowledge the truth.

It was one-sided.

“You know I have no control over that.” Suero ran his hand through his hair, his jaw tense. “If it were up to me, I would choose you, kitten.”

Kia was taken aback. They were strongly attracted to each other, but he’d assumed his feelings were deeper than Suero’s. “You would?”

He held Kia’s chin, offering a soft smile. “From the moment I laid eyes on you, something clicked inside me. Absolutely, I would choose you. But wolves are stubborn and selective. Until my beast realizes what an amazing, beautiful man you are, I can’t bind you to me.”

Kia tried to keep it together, but it was hard. He’d never truly be Suero’s unless the man claimed him. “You mean if your wolf realizes it.” Kia pulled away. He understood Suero was stuck between what he wanted and what he couldn’t control, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. “We both know there’s no guarantee that’ll ever happen.”

Kia was just trying to protect himself, but it was rough. He wasn’t pushing Suero away out of anger. He was trying to outrun the disappointment.

As he tried to walk away, Suero caught his hand. The touch was painful because he knew he had to leave, but all he wanted was to be in Suero’s arms.

“Doesn’t it matter that I want you?” Suero asked. “That has to count for something.”

Suero wasn’t arguing. Kia saw that in his beautiful eyes. He was pleading.

Gently pulling his hand free, Kia gazed up at him. “And if one day your wolf chooses, and it’s not me?” He was trying to rip the Band-Aid off before fate did it for him, but his emotions were getting the better of him. “What then, Suero?” His voice shook. “You might want me, but if your wolf chooses differently…”

“That’s why you need to be with me,” Suero argued. “How can you be my elegido if you’re not around, letting my wolf get to know you better?”

Suero was trying so hard to make logic out of instinct, and it was tragically endearing. He was doing what wolves do—fight for what they wanted, even when the rules were out of their hands. He was hopeful with teeth. But he couldn’t give Suero what he was asking for.

Kia shook his head in disbelief. “So, you want me to abandon my life and leave my coalition on the chance your wolf might choose me?”

“It doesn’t have to be that dramatic.”

He did not just say that. “Dramatic? Tell me, Suero. Would you uproot your life, leave your pack behind, if the tables were turned?” Kia asked.

He was not going to be someone’s maybe. He needed real proof of commitment, which Suero couldn’t offer.

“Twenty-five minutes,” Jared announced.

“If you were my elegido, absolutely,” Suero growled. “I’d go with you anywhere, and no fucking uncle would stop me.”

It was loyalty wrapped in longing, but wasn’t enough to make Suero’s wolf choose him.

“I’m so sorry for following my alpha’s orders,” Kia snapped back. “Unlike you, I live with mine, and—” He stepped back, inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly to calm down. “I don’t want to argue with you, Suero. But I need you to see how complicated this is.”

Kia was exhausted but still reaching. He wasn’t being dramatic. He was fighting to be understood without blowing things up. And he could see Suero was struggling too.

He pulled Kia into his arms, nearly making him cry. “I do understand, cariño. But that doesn’t make it any easier. I don’t want you to leave.”

Kia didn’t want to leave either. While he loved and respected Xavier, he resented the tight hold his uncle had on him, but also knew it was because Xavier cared. Kia’s mother had been Xavier’s sister, and her loss had devastated him. Clinging to Kia was his uncle’s way of ensuring he didn’t lose his nephew too—the last connection to his cherished little sister.

Kia was loved and protected. But it cost him his freedom, and now, possibly his chance at love. That hold was making his life miserable.

Suero sniffed the air while scanning their surroundings, causing Kia to do the same.

The foul stench of hyena wafted in their direction. Kia wasn’t sure how many there were, but the smell was overpowering.

“Go,” Suero softly urged. “Get out of here.”

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