by May Sage
She didn’t think they’d ever disagreed as much as they did now. Aisling wanted Daunte’s pride out of her house as soon as possible. Her cat wanted to crawl to her brother’s Alpha and jump on his cock. Repetitively.
She wanted kitties - always had - but normally, she agreed with Aisling that no male was worth their time. That Alpha…
The slutty cat liked Rye, and it all came down to dominance.
Dominance was partially a genetic thing, and partially some Freudian shit that wasn’t quite understood. No one was born dominant, just like no human was born overweight; some had a faster or a slower metabolism but ultimately, it came down to the individual’s choices. Sometime around puberty, their dominance level was set for good and they learned to use it.
Submissives could use their vibes to diffuse situations - the most powerful ones - the Omegas - were able to stop pissed off dominants in the middle of a conflict, calming them down. The strongest dominants had the ability to force obedience. All in all, both extremes could be dangerous.
Aisling had met exactly two feline shifters whose level of dominance equaled hers - her father, and her little brother. They’d never quite established who amongst them was the most dominant, and no one needed that question answered.
She felt comfortable enough in her family’s company, knowing that she couldn’t bend their will without meaning to; other shifters, she tiptoed around, unwilling to become a domineering ass. That was one of the many reasons why she was unmated; she’d never tie herself to a male she could mold and she could mold everyone she’d ever met. She’d feel like shit about controlling someone else’s actions - and besides, her cat wouldn’t let her get involved.
Her brother’s Alpha was another matter. He was as dominant as her - at least. She didn’t know whether he was stronger; it wasn’t impossible. She’d been pissed when Daunte had turned up at her doorstep with strangers; she could feel her cat infusing her every movement and there was no doubt that she’d also had her vibes working overtime. When she’d turned towards the intruders, all of them had taken a step back.
All of them, except him. He’d looked at her with no fear, and his cat hadn’t seemed startled either; she could feel him, barely under the surface.
Hers had clawed at her mind, demanding naughty things. But then, she’d seen the girl standing behind the Alpha, close to him, and snarled. The familiarity was enough to infuriate her cat.
Damn stupid pussy. Aisling had no interest in males; especially males who were part of a pride. She had a good life in Lakesides, with her bakery, her home, the amazing forest surrounding her - and when she felt an itch, she could find a human to scratch it somewhere in a nearby city. It wasn’t like her to let some local male lick her out in her kitchen, even if he was only staying in the area temporarily.
But telling that to her cat right now was pointless. She wanted to be pinned under him again, and this time, she wouldn’t let Aisling walk away.
Disagreeing with her cat felt weird; they normally felt the same way, as both of them liked simplicity. But the horny animal felt that jumping the Alpha was a pretty simple thing while Aisling knew it was anything but.
She had no business lusting after a guy like him. He was the Alpha of a pride that was staying around her territory; worse yet, he also was her brother’s Alpha. That was too close to home and she preferred her flings to stay far, far away.
Basically the whole thing screamed stay away.
Her cat meowed in protest, focusing on what she found important - kitties. That hard cock that had been glistening against her could have given her kitties.
The animal didn’t understand the subtleties of the nature of shifters. Even if Ace had wanted to - and she definitely didn’t - she couldn’t have just gotten herself pregnant by fucking another shifter. To procreate, they needed to be bound - by a blood oath, or a mating bond. She tried to explain it to her animal, who metaphorically stuck her little paws on her ears and chanted can’t hear ya, I want kitties.
She sighed, and ignored the cat.
“Daunte is two or three years younger than me,” Aisling replied to Clary.
“Two or three? You’re not sure?”
This. This was why she didn’t talk about her family.
“It’s a long story.”
She might have shared some of it, or might have left it alone; who knew? But she didn’t, because just then, her ear vibrated, catching a faint change in the atmosphere around her.
There were wards around her town and her territory; she’d paid a witch friend of hers to place them, and maintain them. They’d been activated when Daunte and his pride had driven their bikes through it, warning her of their arrival.
And they were ringing again now.
Ace knew that one of the members of the pride had gone away a couple of days before - the short-haired enforcer. There was a good chance that she was just coming back.
Possibly. Maybe.
Still, she needed to check. Ace had plenty of enemies and it wouldn’t do to let one of them walk in.
“Take care of the store,” she told Clary, not taking the time to explain herself.
She walked out back, removing her clothes and shifted before leaving the bakery.
Finding the intruder took all of seven minutes; a sniff in his direction clarified that he was a wolf, which didn’t say much. Someone she’d pissed off might have sent a wolf loner to scout the area and confirm her whereabouts. But as she found the man with a camera, taking pictures of the pride in her home, that spelled a different story.
It wasn’t her problem. It wasn’t her problem. She could just call Daunte and get him to track the wolf.
But then, just when she’d convinced herself to do that and go back to work, like she should, she saw the wolf’s lens focusing on the kids playing in her backyard.
Her cat didn’t wait for her authorization. She launched forwards, her claws digging deep inside the shifter’s back.
The wolf screamed and attempted to shift, but before he could, she’d turned back to her human form. Changing forms took a lot of shifters close to a minute; being in perfect sync with her animal meant she could do it in the blink of an eye. He never saw that coming; before he knew it, she had him in a headlock.
The wolf struggled, cursing and even spitting at her, but no one had ever managed to make her let go, and it wasn’t going to start now.
Shifters were considerably stronger than humans - even their weakest submissive, without any fighting skills, could defend themselves against a military trained officer - because of their animals. Like it or not, Aisling had an extra injection of feline gene, which made her twice the shifter in every way.
And sure, that meant that catnip had embarrassing effects on her, even when she was in human form, but it also meant that she had no problem grabbing the wolf under one arm, and carrying him, kicking and screaming, like he was just a toddler.
The commotion got some attention; a bunch of adult Wyvern cats were standing on her front porch, eyes focused on the two hundred pound of muscles she carelessly dragged along.
Rygan was frowning - a habit of his, from what she could tell - while Daunte smiled; Ola, Coveney, Tracy and Christine each bore an expression somewhere in between the Alpha’s and the Beta’s.
“What have we here?” Daunte asked, catching the wolf she tossed his way.
She shrugged.
“Your problem,” she growled, annoyed that she’d intervened at all. “He was looking at you, not me.”
So, yep. Maybe she was a little defensive.
She turned her heels, cursing herself for the second time that day, because half of her wanted to stay and see what the scout would reveal when the Wyvern played with him until he talked. But whoever said curiosity killed the cat might have had a point - she didn’t want to find out. It wasn’t her problem.
And anyway, she could always ask her brother later.
“Ace,” Daunte chanted behind her. “If you don’t stay now, I won�
�t tell you what I’ve found out.”
Dammit.
Contacts
Rygan’s attention should have been entirely focused on the wolf strapped to a chair near the chimney, but it wasn’t.
For the first time, he saw Aisling with his pride - or most of it. Ola and Christine had taken the children to their room; the rest of them stood in the lounge, snarling at the wolf.
Aisling should have stood out like a sore thumb, been an obvious outsider, made them feel uncomfortable. She didn’t. The others weren’t pushing her out with unwelcoming body language, except Kim, maybe, but she hardly counted. It seemed like she had a place amongst them.
His tiger agreed; he knew exactly what place he wanted her to have.
Rygan shouldn’t have been surprised when he read the animal’s desires, but he was. He’d known she interested him; he hadn’t realized that the tiger saw her as a potential partner. She was strong, and protective too - otherwise, she wouldn’t have hunted that wolf for them. The animal saw her as an equal - a perfect Alpha.
Rygan narrowed his eyes. He saw everything his tiger pointed to, but he was the smart one here. He wouldn’t let lust, and the fact that she was the first female the tiger liked, cloud his judgement. She was a loner, probably because she liked it that way. She’d said it herself; she hadn’t been fond of living in a pride.
He’d fuck her - repetitively - while they lived in Lakesides. That much, he didn’t doubt. They might even date; he had no objection to wining and dining her, if she was into that sort of thing. But thinking of her as a potential Alpha was premature, to say the least. For Christ’s sake, he didn’t even know her damn name.
“Aisling, do you have a chainsaw?” Ian asked, coming back from their SUV empty-handed. “I think we’ve left ours in the old house.”
Their prisoner rolled his eyes.
“If you think that’s going to intimidate me…”
Ian snorted.
“It’s not to intimidate you. That’s to go through your bones so we can bag you up when we’re done.”
That made the wolf stop smirking, now he realized there was no good cop who’d try to sweeten him up. They were going to kill him; how quickly depended on him.
“Look, we’ve all got things to do, so we’ll keep things simple. I’m quite happy to snap your neck and get it over with, after you’ve told us what we need to know,” Daunte said. “Or, we can remove your nails first, then cut your knuckles, dunk you, bleed you slowly - you get the picture. Tracy loves experimenting.”
The young brunette smiled sweetly. “I write suspense books,” she said with a wink. “Please say you don’t want to talk. I can always use some new material.”
The wolf got the picture; his eyes started to look around, hoping for something he could use, searching for a way out. With so many of them around him, he didn’t have a chance, and he soon realized it, because he tried to negotiate.
“Hey, I was just under a simple contract. Someone hired me to find the Wyvern pride and bring back proof, that’s all. If you let me go, I can tell them I’ve found you on the other coast.”
Ian chuckled humorlessly.
“Or you could go back and sing like a canary. Sorry, man. Not taking the chance. Nothing personal.”
He sounded matter of fact, almost bored. Rygan often left the interrogations up to him because his clinical detachment, paired with his cool demeanor, were pointblank frightening.
“You said you were hired. You’re a loner.”
That came from Aisling, who spoke softly, sounding soothing and sympathetic. Looked like they had a good cop after all.
“Yeah…wait, I know you.”
“You might,” she conceded.
Suddenly, the guy seemed fascinating to Rye.
“Where was the listing posted?” Ace asked, before he could do anything foolish - like change the direction of the interrogation.
The question didn’t make sense to Rygan, but their prisoner replied, “The Lodge in L.A. Some suit came in, offering shit loads of money just for a tracking job.”
Aisling fetched her phone and brought it to her ear; while it rang, she turned to Daunte and told him, “That guy knows nothing, just kill him.”
The person she’d tried to reach on the line must have answered, because she started to speak.
“Hey, it’s me. There’s been a tracking contract recently. Yeah, that’s right. Cancel it.” A few second later, she thanked her contact. “You’re the best.”
Everyone was looking at her, except Daunte, who was bagging up the corpse of the wolf he’d just killed.
“How did you…”
“Not important.” They all highly doubted that; but admittedly, it wasn’t the most pressing matter right this second. “If your enemy went to the Lodge, they can pay a pretty penny, and they won’t give up once they hear their contract was cancelled - I’ve just bought you time. You need to sort your shit before my town is turned in a fucking battlefield.”
The woman was glowering, understandably pissed, but Rye was relieved to see that the anger didn’t seem to be directed towards them.
“Look Ace, we’ve tried to negotiate, we’ve tried to contact the wolves we are allied to, and we’ve tried to track them. But we’re a young pride,” Daunte said. “We’re not going to get far; not by ourselves.”
Admitting it sucked, but the Beta had said it like it was. They just didn’t have the right contacts; Rygan knew people of importance, but they weren’t associated criminals, bounty hunters, and vengeful wolves. The most useful resource they had was Coveney, but the man couldn’t hack information if they didn’t know where to start.
The loner glared at Daunte until he said one simple word.
“Please?”
Her shoulders sagged. She flipped him off, and her phone was back on her ear.
“Hey Knox. Listen, I need you do to me a favor. Name your price. I’m not the one paying.”
One hour. One hour - and a hundred thousand - was all it took, and they had answered. Names, details.
“I don’t even know the Vergas pack,” Daunte said, shaking his head.
“They’re pretty big in wolf circles,” Ian interjected.
Rygan nodded; he remembered hearing quite a few things about them.
“They’re purists; even their own kind finds them excessive. They don’t accept matings between wolves and other kinds of shifters, or humans. Wolves that can’t shift by puberty get killed, and the parents don’t have the right to give birth to other children after that. But they pretty much stick to wolf affairs.”
It didn’t make a blink of sense; why would they be after them?
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 were rare. 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-connected pack of wolves. That wasn’t going to be pretty.
