Rygan let his tiger run free at dawn, hoping to feel more settled afterwards, but the animal was on edge. Unusual. The beast he shifted into was, for lack of a better word, a complete dork. It would have been happy spending all of eternity in a box with a rope toy and a few trees nearby. His priorities were simple and straightforward - protecting his pride, playing. Not necessarily in that order.

Today, the tiger wasn’t interested in a run, or a dip in their pool. It wanted to get on the road, so Rygan shifted back and went to help speed up their departure.

Twelve hours later, he still wasn’t in the best of moods, all of his protective instincts working overtime as he was separated from the most vulnerable members of his pride. He really didn’t like the plan they’d come up with. Following them wouldn’t be hard; they’d left a trail a mile wide.

He got Coveney to fly with Ola, Tracy, Kim, and the seven cubs they’d adopted into their fold; although Niamh would probably take offense to being called that. Since she’d turned twelve, the little girl had tried to grow up too fast, not caring about the fact that her lipstick and high heels were turning his hair prematurely gray. There he was, thirty-one going on eighty-one, thanks to the millions of duties falling on his shoulders. Being the Alpha of a pride was no joke.

Flying wasn’t too much of an issue - using his father’s jet meant that the wolves wouldn’t be able to track their details, like they would have if they’d taken a commercial transit. But the rest of them weren’t as discreet. Christine, their only submissive, was traveling on the back of his motorcycle; Daunte and Ian flanked his sides, while Jas drove a big SUV behind them with their belongings.

He would have breathed easier if they’d made a detour to get any followers off their trail, but Daunte was adamant that they needed to arrive before the kids, so that they might settle things with the mysterious loner.

Every passing minute, Rygan was more intrigued about the woman who made his Beta stress out so much.

“Chill,” he told him at their last pit stop before they’d made it to the place Daunte had input into their GPSs. “If you can’t sweet talk her, we can pay her off.”

They might not be the biggest, oldest, or the most fearful pride out there, but they certainly didn’t lack funds.

Rygan had been given a fair bit of cash by his grandmother when he’d become Alpha, and he’d invested it wisely. Besides, unlike a lot of shifters out there - they normally kept to themselves, finding roles within their community, and shutting out the rest of the world - most of the members of the pride had businesses.

Christine handcrafted some girly shit that somehow sold - hats, scarves, Teddy Bears and god knew what - Coveney was a wiz behind a computer and pimped his skills as a PI, Jas had a popular travel blog, Ian invested in start-ups, Tracy wrote novels. Rygan didn’t demand it, but they all pitched in, dropping some of their profits in the pride’s savings account when they could. Which was often. Last time he’d looked, the amount in their savings had a lot of zeros. No loner was going to turn up her nose at the kind of bribes they could afford.

But, surprising and intriguing him again, Daunte snorted, “No. Trust me, if she doesn’t want us in her territory, there’s nothing we can say or do to change her mind.”

Daunte was adamant, but he didn’t elaborate, to Rye’s annoyance.

They finished the last leg of their journey within the next couple of hours; by the time they stopped in front of a handsome plantation house built at the heart of a wild, untamed forest, Rye was imagining that they would be met by a she-bear, a fearsome witch, or maybe even a damn vampire.

“Wow. This place is beautiful.”

It was; the location, the old house with ivy crawling up the walls, and those strong, high trees surrounding it were picturesque. His cat was seriously drooling over the untamed landscape, desperate to shift. He wanted to go play. Bad. But now wasn’t the time, and Rygan told him so.

Quiet.

The tiger inside him was normally more or less amenable - it understood that Rye let it have its say when he could - but today, it felt agitated. There was… something. He couldn’t place his finger on it. It scented something that made every part of him uneasy, unhinged.

Rye had no gift, but there was a fair bit of witch blood in his family tree - his grandmother had healing powers, like Ola, his aunt was a Seer, and his mother, a powerful empath - and he knew that meant he should listen to his instincts more than the average shifter, so he stayed vigilant, ready for the world to explode.

“Do I hear a waterfall?” Ian asked, and Daunte pointed west.

“Yep, that way. There’s a lake further into the forest, too.”

Ola shook her head and playfully bumped his shoulder.

“You’re in deep shit for not telling us about this place before. It’s perfect.”

They’d moved seven times over the last ten years since he’d formed the pride, but they’d never settled anywhere nearly as nice; these kinds of places were normally packed with humans, but, during their ride over, they hadn't come across even one house. This was the perfect location for a pride.

“Oh, he most certainly is in deep shit.”

They all tensed and turned away from the view and towards the beautiful, singsong voice, startled, because none of them had felt or heard anyone approach, even though Rye had been on high alert.

Fuck.

Rygan had a hard time staying focused; the moment he saw her, his entire attention was captured by her.

The brunette who’d appeared on the porch of the elegant home was petite, delicate, and dangerous. Her aura said so. The way she moved said so. The way his tiger clawed to the surface, urging Rygan forward, definitely said so.

His tiger had never paid any attention to a female before. Never. He didn’t form any words, but Rygan understood his feeling completely. Usually, when Rygan looked at women he found appealing, his animal was bored, finding them unworthy of its attention. Pitiful. Weak. He told him, play with it if you must, but don’t get me involved. Problematic, as no shifter could hope to form a relationship if their animal didn’t approve.

Right now the dumb tiger, who should have bared its teeth, jumped up and said chase the pretty kitty.

Shit.

Daunte echoed his curse, holding his hands up, “Look, I can explain.”

He actually didn’t finish the last word, as her foot was kicking him ten feet back. The woman had effortlessly jumped to him from the porch, and she kicked again, one of her knees colliding with his jaw, while the other wrapped around his neck. She did a flip that turned his Beta flat on the ground, all in a few seconds.

Jas was stepping forward, ready to defend her pridemate, but Rygan held her back. Normally, because of their difference in size and muscle mass, females fought females and males fought males, so it was understandable that the Enforcer felt like intervening; but Daunte wasn’t letting the woman win out of courtesy. He was trying to push her, struggling to get up. She’d just beat his ass, fair and square, without breaking a sweat.

What. The. Hell.

“He told us to stay back,” Rygan reminded Jas, and the woman’s head snapped to his.

She’d caught his tiger’s attention immediately, but now she had his.

Damn. She was a fucking wet dream. Those fiery golden eyes turned cat - narrow irises and all - that pretty face, and every sinful curve her yoga pants and t-shirt weren’t hiding got him hard; almost as much as her display of dominance.

She narrowed her eyes as her gaze crossed his, and he couldn’t exactly place a word on what transpired there. He only knew one thing: she was hot. Very, very hot. He wanted her so bad it was almost painful.

Cutting their staring contest short, her head snapped back to Daunte, making Rye want to roar in protest. He’d never been so easily dismissed. Most females, dominant or not, would have nodded to him, at least.

He didn’t like her indifference to his status or his vibes. Not. One. Bit. His tiger heartily disagreed, seeing it as a challenge.

“You told them to leave us alone? Wise,” she sweetly said to his Beta, “What else did you say about me?”

Her knee dug harder into his Beta’s throat, and Daunte croaked, “Nothing, I swear. Dammit, Aisling, I didn’t have a choice. We have cubs. A witch, a Seer, and five others. One of them is two.”

While she kept Daunte on the ground for another ten seconds, she then got up, letting him go.

“Talk.”

“Wolves. We fight them, but some of them stay back and aim for the weaker members of the pride. They never make it. Our Seer’s just nine, but she’s gotten stronger and stronger over the last three years - what she sees happens unless we change our decisions. I just thought for one second that we could stay here for a while, and she saw we were safe if we did that. Do you really think I would have come to you if I had any other choice? I don’t actually enjoy getting my ass kicked.”

The woman glared, but the glow of her eyes slowly faded; they reverted back to her natural human gaze, an amber which was a little more normal, and just as mesmerizing.

“You could have called,” she grumbled, turning back towards the house without another word.

Rye looked - of course he looked. Fuck, she could walk away from him any day with an ass like that.

Daunte got to his feet and smiled, yelling after her, “We’ll be here a week, tops - downstairs, no one will go upstairs. Then, we’ll get a place nearby. We’ll stay out of your way.”

He wasn’t asking permission, and to everyone’s surprise, the woman he’d called Aisling just shrugged indifferently.

“You still run that bakery?” he asked, and somehow that must have been pushing his luck, because she turned, her eyes flashing gold again.

“We’ll order in bulk. Delivery. The entire pride will completely stay out of your way. That’s a promise.”

She turned again, and walk away, replying, “I’ll overcharge you.”

Daunte yelled back a, “Love you!” that earned him a growl.

Rygan wasn’t quite certain what had occurred, and apparently he wasn’t the only one, because Jas asked, “So, we have a place to stay?”

Daunte turned to her and winked.

“Yep. And more surprisingly, I still have my balls.”