“I’m going throw this in the wash and sulk over the premature end of my date.” I gestured toward the laundry room with my foldedblanket.
“Fair enough.” Marc glanced at the time on his cell phone as Faythe appeared in her office doorway, one hand on her hip. “Just sulk quietly, please. Greg’sasleep.”
“I know.” Just like I knew the little monster would be up at dawn, and Marc would be up with him, so Faythe could try to get four or five hours of sleep in a row. She looked like she was ready to fall over as itwas.
The new baby slept soundly, when hedidsleep, but he ate around theclock.
“Kaci,” Faythe said before I could make a break for the laundry room. “Let’s talk.” She waved me into her office, then she closed the door. “Another playdate in the barn?” She glanced pointedly at the blanket still tucked beneath my arm as she sank onto the leathercouch.
“Nothing happened.” I flopped onto the sofa across the rug from her and tucked my feet beneath me with the blanket on mylap.
“And what if Marc stops showing up? What’s yourplan?”
“I’m an adult,Faythe.”
“That’s why I’m asking. Adults have to beprepared.”
“I have condoms, if that’s what you’re getting at,” I said, and to her credit, she didn’t even flinch. Marc would’ve been hyperventilating. Or faking a heart attack to escape theconversation.
“That’spartof what I’m getting at.” She exhaled heavily, and my gaze settled on the thin white scar bisecting her left cheek, from the outer edge of her eye to the corner of her mouth. She’dslaughteredthe bastard who’d cut her, and rather than a reminder of what he’d done, the scar had become a testament to how thoroughly fierce Faythe was—a tabby kicking ass in a tom’s world. Even eight weeks postpartum. “I just want to make sure you understand what could happen if one of these boys decides he’s entitled to more than you’re willing to givehim.”
I sat a little straighter. “I understand that I’d break every bone in his hand and send him home to his mommy in tears.” That, I’d learned fromFaythe.
But she only frowned. “Unless Marc hears him screaming and comes running, in which case we’ll have to fire up the industrial incinerator.” The only part of a cattle ranch that was actually functioning at the Lazy S. Its intended use was to dispose of dead livestock, but we always seemed to find alternative applications. “So maybe just keep that in mind while you’re exploring yoursexuality.”
“Acknowledged. Would you rather that Iexploreoff thepremises?”
“No. This is your home, and you should feel comfortable here. But Marc’s right about at least one thing—no tabby has ever brought home a string of human men before. Not even me. I know you don’t think the enforcers care, but I promise you they’venoticed.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “It’s their job to notice everyone who comes onto theproperty.”
“Yes. But eventually one of them is going to noticeyou.”
I shrugged. I wouldn’t mind being noticed, but it wasn’t any of the enforcers I kept hoping to find in the barn, ready to terrify my latest human date. Nor was itMarc.
Her gaze narrowed on me, and my heart began to beat harder. My face had given too much away. “There’s no hurry, Kaci. But if you like one of them, I could set somethingup…”
“No!” I could feel my cheeks flush. “I don’t need you to make some poor guy go out withme!”
“That’s not whatI—”
“I’m not a social charity case.” Except that wasn’t true. I was an orphan—for all practical purposes—that the South-Central Pride had taken in as a kid. And no one had forgotten where I’d come from. What I’ddone…
“Of course not—” Faythe’s phone rang, and she glanced at the bassinet against one wall while she dug her cell from her pocket. “It’s Rick Wade. Can you sit tight for a minute, Kaci? This is about Justus’strial.”
Justus Alexander. My pulse rushed a little faster when his face appeared behind my closed eyelids, and if she weren’t preoccupied with the baby and an incoming call from the Chairman of the Territorial Council, she might have noticed myreaction.
Justus was a stray Faythe and Marc had accepted as a member of the Pride back in February, to make sure he’d get an actual trial—as opposed to a simple order of execution—for the murder and infection he’d allegedly committed in the freezone.
Theformerfree zone, also known as the Lion’s Den. Soon it would officially be recognized as the Mississippi Valley Territory, if Faythe and Marc could muster a couple more votes on thecouncil.
For the past four months, Justus had been sleeping on the couch in the guest house, where the enforcers lived, waiting for his trial. His older brother Titus was Alpha of the new territory—the only stray Alpha in the country, other than Marc. Maybe in the world. But Titus’s efforts to get his territory officially recognized had been complicated even beyond the council’s hesitance to let strays play in the purebred sandbox by the fact that he’d accidentally taken Robyn Sheffield, the only known female stray, from the territory—and refused to send her back against herwill.
And by the fact that his younger brother had committed several crimes that could have exposed the existence of our species to the rest of theworld.
Like Titus, Justus was yummy in an I-would-eat-him-for-dessert kind of way. Unlike his brother, Justus was only a couple of years older than I was, which meant that it would totally not be creepy if I—hypothetically—had a huge crush onhim.
Unfortunately, he was also TROUBLE in allcaps.
