"Tommy named him Apex."
Sinclair's eyebrows lifted. "As in—"
"Apex predator."
"Really?" Sinclair's amusement was accompanied by the chuckles of those who'd heard me. "That should make things interesting for the other cats."
I wagged my eyebrows.
"We'll be there in a few minutes."
Sinclair gave me a hard stare. "The sooner the better."
I didn't say anything as I watched Sinclair wheel himself out of the dining room. Something was going on, and I wanted to jump up and race after Sinclair to find out what it was.
I didn't.
I smiled at Jojo and Tommy then gestured to their plates. "Eat up."
My stomach was too knotted up to do more than push the rest of my food around on my plate. I knew Jojo noticed because he gave me a confused stare, but Tommy seemed oblivious, for which I was grateful. He didn't need to know there might be a problem.
"Hey, Tommy," I said when we were done eating, "do you think Apex would like to go play with Bob and his cat Mustachio?"
Tommy nodded. "Bob told me about his cat and showed me pictures."
"Good." I wanted Tommy to be comfortable with whoever was keeping an eye on him. I wished he could have gone with us, but something was telling me this was not a conversation for little ears.
Bob bounced over, Shade right behind him. The smile on Bob's face was huge. The one on Shade's face, not so much. "Come on, Tommy, come with me. We're going to go get Mustachio and take him back to your room to play with your kitten."
Tommy took Bob's hand and walked with him out of the dining room.
"I'll keep an eye on them," Shade said as he followed after them.
I felt a little better about that.
I grabbed our dirty dishes and carried them into the kitchen. "Thank you for breakfast, Henry," I said as I started washing them. "Tommy really liked the pancakes."
"Oh good." Henry smiled. "I have something special planned for lunch."
I smiled at the man. "I'm sure whatever it is will be wonderful."
I set the dishes in the drain rack then dried my hands off. "Thanks again. Henry." The man didn't get nearly enough thanks for all the work he did to keep everyone fed. Frankly, the man needed a raise and maybe an award or two.
I walked back into the dining room and headed straight for Jojo. I held out my hand. "Let's go see what has Sinclair so out of sorts."
"He doesn't want us to leave, does he?" Jojo asked as he took my hand.
"No, babe. You're here to stay."
"What about Tommy?" Jojo asked. "There aren't any other kids here. What if the alpha doesn't want to have kids here?"
I stopped and turned, clasping his face between my hands. "Baby, you and Tommy are welcome here. Sinclair never would have accepted you into the pride if he didn't want you here. And the only reason there aren't other kids here is because we have so many damn cats."
Jojo blinked at me. "Cats?'
I chuckled. "We've just never run into an opportunity where there would be kids until you and Tommy. I have no doubt, that somewhere down the line, more kids will be joining the pride."
"Oh."
