Eight

The living room was littered with tools and boxes that once housed baby accessories. The women had taken Grace to have infant photos done at some fancy schmancy studio downtown while the dogs finished their project.

The one they’d started a week and a half ago.

But to be fair, it was several projects. They were building a crib, changing table, and dresser. And they’d added a few stationary toys in the mix. Grace would have everything she needed by the time they were done.

“Wait,” Diz said, frowning at the directions he insisted on reading. “I don’t think that piece goes there.”

“Damn it, what do you mean it doesn’t go there?” Surge scowled. “Of course it does. Look, see? It fits right in. Lock and key, baby.”

“One, don’t ever call me baby. Two, according to the directions, it doesn’t go there.”

Surge rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t calling you baby. It was a rhetorical.”

“Well, I don’t know about you two, but me and Beast are fucking killing the furniture building. Call the changing table done.” Drake smiled and high-fived Beast.

Diz’s jaw hung open, echoing Surge’s unspoken thoughts. “Are you kidding me, alpha? You just trying to be funny now? That thing wouldn’t hold a pet rock, let alone a baby.” He tossed Drake a booklet. “Try reading the instructions.”

Drake caught it frowning. “I’ve never had to read instructions. I don’t plan on starting now.”

“You damn well should,” Surge agreed. “My baby’s not laying on that thing until you fix it. Come to think of it, Diz, let me see those.” He yanked the directions from Diz’s hand and scanned them, looking for the correct piece to finish off the damn crib.

“Your baby?” Blister murmured from his place behind the couch where he’d been working on one toy for entirely way too long.

“Yes. Mine.”

“Yours?” Beast asked, confused.

“Yes, damn it. She’s mine. For now anyways.”

No one said anything and Surge didn’t look up from his instructions.

“She’s not actually yours,” Drake said carefully. “You know that right? You know you can’t just claim her as your young. We have to find her clan and return her. Along with that wounded one. When she wakes, this Three Men And A Baby shit ends.”

Surge raised his head to glare at his alpha. He didn’t anger easily. Never had. But his wolf had been aching all fucking week, confused and hurting like it was years ago. On edge and floundering because something had changed. Something extraordinary and life-altering had happened.

There was a bond. Two of them.

He didn’t know what to do about it. There wasn’t a pretty answer for how to save the kitten from the brutal cats and win over Tana. But he wasn’t letting anything get between him and what was his. Not this time. And if anyone would be able to understand that, it should be his goddamn motherfucking alpha.

“I don’t think so,” he rumbled. For once, his wolf was solid. On this, his animal was sure. The baby and Tana were his.

Drake cocked his head to the side, standing to face Surge. “What did you say to me?”

“The baby’s not going anywhere when that female wakes up. Her mother ran in front of a fucking truck. For god’s sake, what do you think they were running from?” His voice thundered, startling his packmates. “I’m not sending them back to it. And so help me, neither are you.”

Drake fumed at Surge’s defiance, but he didn’t say a word.

“Maybe Surge is right,” Diz said, but Drake hit him with a singeing glare. “I’m just saying, the female was scared when I found her. Terrified. And I don’t think it had anything to do with being hurt. Arkansas. She said it over and over, like it was her last hope.”

Beast frowned. “Arkansas? But we know they aren’t from around here. Could they be from the Ouachitas?”

“No,” Blister said. “There aren’t any bobcat clans out there. Besides if they were, Tana would know them.”

Drake sighed in frustration. “We can’t just keep them. This isn’t a fucking lost and found. The clan will want their young. We already might be in deep shit over the accident.”

Bullshit. As awful as it was that the mama was gone, Tana couldn’t be blamed for that. The bobcat was an adult shifter who knew better than to run into the road. Carrying her baby. Exposing her young in such a way. No, Surge wouldn’t let anyone take this out on Tana.

“You know what the cats do to their mates?”

Drake frowned.

“Do you?”

“What are you talking about,” Diz asked impatiently.

“Forced claiming,” Surge spat. “The cats don’t give their females an option.”

Diz’s face turned hard, his nostrils flaring with rage. “Bullshit.”

“It’s true.” Owyn’s monotone voice came from the doorway. No one had seen the cat enter. “But it’s even worse than that. They mate to procreate, and once their female is with young, they find others to bed. As many as they want.”

Beast looked ill. “They aren’t monogamous?”

Owyn shook his head.

“What the hell are you saying ‘they’ for?” Blister ground out, his gaze burning a hole through Owyn. “Ain’t you a cat?”

“Because, asshole, my clan doesn’t do that shit. Figured you knew that, since you know Renner.”

“Magic’s people don’t mate like this?” Drake asked, still reeling from the revelation.

Owyn shrugged. “Our people don’t mate at all. Easy.”

“Easy?” Diz said skeptically.

“The alternative is rather fucked up, so yeah, it’s easy.”

“But… Renner?” Blister mumbled.

“He’s different. He’s the only mated panther in our clan and he’s absolutely dedicated to his female.” Owyn put his hands up. “Enough, okay. Surge is right. The baby’s future won’t be a happy one if you send her back to her clan. Just… think about it.”

With that, he left.

There was a moment of silence, fraught with tension before Drake spoke.

“I don’t know. What if the female doesn’t want to be here? We can’t make her stay. And shouldn’t the baby be raised by her kind? Maybe she’d be better off going home with Tana.”

Home? Tana?

Tana fucking was home. She just didn’t know it yet. And the guys didn’t either. No one suspected Surge’s feelings.

“We’re shifters. We are her kind,” Surge argued. “And that’s another thing… Tana, she’s mine too.”

Drake’s mouth became a thin line. His shoulders lost all fight. The look in his eyes spoke volumes. He thought Surge had finally gone off the deep end. Fallen right off the cliff of insanity and into straightjacket land.

Diz smacked Surge on the back and he turned to find his friend’s face cracked with a smile the size of the Grand-fucking Canyon. “No shit, man. Really? Tana. Your intended is a cat?”

“I didn’t know that was possible,” Beast murmured in awe.

Blister piped up. “Better watch the claws. That’s my piece of mated advice.”

Surge shook his head. Shit.

“It’s not like that. Not quite.” Surge’s gaze went to his alpha, and Drake threw his palms in the air.

“This is all you, Surgie boy.”

Of course it was. Damn it.

“What’s going on?” Diz asked, frowning.

“She’s not my intended. My…” Surge swallowed the words stuck in his throat, making room for new ones. Harder ones. His laugh struggled past the barrier, sounding sick. “My intended died in the fucking fire before I even knew what I was.”

There was silence while his confession sank in.

“Oh… fuck.” Diz ran one hand through his short hair. “Shit, Surge. I’ve been talking about you meeting yours for almost a year now. Why didn’t you fucking say something?” The apology was in his tone, and Surge didn’t want it. He didn’t want any of his boys feeling sorry for him. Diz looked at Drake. “Did you know about this?”

“Of course I knew,” their alpha said calmly.

Surge spoke up. “Look, it’s not like we sit around and shoot shit about our feelings. I didn’t tell you guys because it didn’t matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. What was done couldn’t be undone.”

“It matters,” Blister argued. “It matters a fucking lot. Losing your intended, Surge? Of course it matters. She’s the reason you laugh.”

“Yeah, well I have a new reason now. It’s Tana. It’s Grace. And this time I’m laughing for real. Not because I’m fucked inside.” Surge dropped the screwdriver he’d been gripping so hard he was sure he had a permanent Stanley imprint on his palm. “Look, I supported all of you when crazy ass shit went down with your mates. If you can’t do the same for me, then what the hell is this? It isn’t a pack, that’s for damn sure.”

He marched for the door, needing a good run. If his goddamn wolf could accept the cats, why couldn’t his brothers. Who knew he’d ever prefer the company of his eccentric animal to them.

“Surge, wait,” Beast called after him.

“No,” he growled, yanking the door open. “The cats are mine. Deal with it.”

He pushed through the entrance, into the blaring sunlight, shifting without bothering to remove his clothes. His wolf let out a chortle and shook out his black and brindled fur. He bounded down the steps toward the woods, intent on working off some steam. He’d prefer to work it out with Tana, but running would have to make do until he could convince his kitty he was what she needed.

And he would.

She belonged with him after all.