The house was completely unexpected inside. The decor had been kept minimalistic, save for the cat furniture running along the walls and ceiling. Trees, ramps, elegant toys fixed to the wall.

Aisling was apparently the ultimate crazy cat lady, which was yet another thing to add to the ever growing list of What The Fuck about her. Shifters didn’t often keep pets, as domestic animals felt intimidated and weirded out by them, but there were at least half a dozen different cats in the house.

Rygan frowned. Most doors and windows were opened, letting them roam free. Obviously, the woman wasn’t wary of intruders. Finding himself assessing the house, he inwardly shook his head, concerned about her safety, and pissed at her for not taking it into consideration. Sure, she obviously could take care of herself, but that didn’t mean that she should be quite so careless; a burglar didn’t even need to break in as things were - he could just casually waltz inside. What if she was out of it when a criminal got in? Drunk, or napping. Most felines weren’t known for being light sleepers.

His protective instincts were working overtime, which was normal. Or so he told himself. Alphas were naturally prone to worrying, especially when half of their pride wasn’t in the vicinity.

Yep. Rygan was fully aware that he was bullshitting himself. While the statement was true, his protective instincts were only triggered by children, unprotected submissives, and his own pride members. In short, he shouldn’t give a fuck about Aisling, the stranger, the loner. And he was surprised and weirded out by the fact that, for some reason, he did.

“Is that a lynx?”

They all froze; if shifters could spook domestic cats, they completely freaked wild ones. Many shifters had been mauled by animals, in part because they always felt so reluctant about antagonizing what their cats saw as their less fortunate peers, dumber but endearing versions of themselves.

The feline, which was indeed a lynx, snarled in Rygan’s direction before running along a rope bridge leading from one wall to the next, and got out of doors as fast as it could.

“Ace runs a feline sanctuary,” Daunte explained.

Ace. It suited her. Why did it piss him off that he had a nickname for the woman?

“She normally gets wounded animals back on their feet and takes them back to the wild, but I’m pretty sure I saw that grumpy puss here last year,” he said, sounding surprised.

Then he gave them a grand tour of the ground floor, visibly familiar with the house. The bedrooms were large, pleasing, and prepared for visitors.

“Kitchen, bathroom, second bathroom, bedroom - we’ll have to share, there’s only three downstairs.”

It didn’t really bother him; they’d slept in two rooms before - the kids and the women together, and the guys had bunked together in a living room - but he found his eyes glaring at the ceiling. Did the woman really have to keep the whole upper floor to herself?

But, then again, if he asked himself what would have happened had an unknown pride turned up at his door without warning, he had to sigh and concede that the woman wasn’t exactly being difficult. Still. He and his tiger, in perfect agreement for the first time today, would have preferred to sleep closer to her.

Much closer.

“Rye, you take this one,” Daunte said, pointing to the smallest of the three rooms. “The rest of us can manage.”

He didn’t mind the small room at all, but he still frowned.

“Why did you say we’d stay downstairs? The house is large and the rest of you will be crowded.”

“We don’t want to piss Aisling off. Trust me on that. We’re already abusing her hospitality.”

Rygan glared at his friend, pissed that he felt like punching his throat. He wasn’t possessive of the females he took to his bed, he wasn’t even particularly protective of the females in his pride, beyond a basic need to know they were well. He shouldn’t want to inflict damage on one of his closest pridemates.

“How come I’ve never heard of her?” he asked, or demanded, to know. “Dammit, Daunte, I’ve known you for sixteen years.”

They had first crossed paths at a Fest Daunte had attended with his mother. The feline prides around the continent kept a low profile because of their constant wars with wolves. They weren’t frightened, but, contrary to lupine packs, feline prides put the safety of their cubs above all else. Wolves had too much pride and not enough sense to think about their children when they attacked; wild cats did. But every year the leader of all feline Alphas called a meeting, for various reasons; the Alphas, Betas, and Enforcers saw it as work, but for the rest of the gathering, it was just a humongous party. Barbecue, friendly competitions, and - he learned when he was a little older - orgies, too.

Daunte had been surly, too serious for a ten-year-old kid, and his pridemates had seemed to make fun of him. Rye hadn’t been the most sociable of sixteen year olds at the time, but, on an impulse, he decided to talk to him; because of his status, singling him out warned the bullies away.

He never would have guessed he was talking to The Butcher’s son. He never would have guessed he’d earn his loyalty so easily, but he did. The moment he turned eighteen, Daunte requested a transfer to Rygan’s pride, although, at the time, it had been ridiculously tiny and threatened on every front.

As he’d met the guy every year for the first eight years of their acquaintance, and then had been his Alpha for the next eight, he was surprised, and irritated that he knew nothing about a woman he was visibly…familiar with.

He was sticking to that reason, although the beast inside him had a much simpler explanation. The usually simple, playful tiger bared its fangs and growled at their friend. Stay away from her, it said. Mine.

“Aisling and I go way back,” Daunte replied.

That wasn’t even the beginning of a vague sort of response, and Ian, who was shamelessly eavesdropping, snorted at it.

“And you went to see her less than a year ago…”

“I didn’t actually hide my vacation, Rye. You know I went away last July. You didn’t ask where.”

Rygan just glared.

“What?”

“You’re hiding things - from us. Your pride.”

“I’m not hiding anything relevant about the pride, or about me. I get that you’re curious - I would be, too. But Aisling is a close friend of mine - someone I’ve known for longer than any of you. And she wants her shit to stay private. You know better than to think I’ll betray my friend’s confidence.”

Yes. Unfortunately, they did know better. Daunte kept his words, hence why he had been so conflicted about leading them here; if he’d promised Aisling he wouldn’t, it had gone against everything he was. Rye should be thanking his Beta for putting the safety of the pride above all else - even above his honor.

Being perfectly conscious of all that didn’t stop him from glaring at Daunte, making his displeasure clear without pushing his dominant vibes to attempt to force his will on him. His Beta didn’t look away.

The rest of the pride arrived then, just in time to break their stare-off. Rygan’s priority was always his pride; he turned to the door, checked that everyone was here.

“How was the flight?” he asked his Head Enforcer.

It was a tall, willowy blonde who answered, cutting off Coveney.

“Horrid,” Kim told him, her whiny voice annoying, as always. “The flight attendants were rude, and your dad should fire the damn pilot. You wouldn’t believe how unsteady we were, I thought we were going to crash.”

Rygan ignored the dominant female, as he usually did. He didn’t think she was able to describe anything without finding cause to complain. He would never have accepted her in the pride, if she hadn’t been Jas’ twin.

---

Jas and her sister had been loners since their childhood - or rather, they simply hadn’t lived with a pride, but they’d had a home. They had been adopted by humans. From what Rye knew of it, Jas had been a daddy’s girl, and her military-trained father had taught her everything he knew, while their mother had given all of her attention to Kim, taking her shopping, getting her nose and tits done when she’d asked for it. Although they had been identical once, the two women couldn’t look more different now. Jas wore her dark hair short, cut like a pixie’s; her little turned-up nose and her pouty mouth made people mistakenly think she was sweet. Kim was all for the long, straight, blonde Barbie look, and she was still waiting for her Ken. Rye didn’t often pay attention to what she said, but, from what he’d unfortunately overheard over the years, she fully intended to marry well - only an Alpha or a billionaire would do.

They’d joined the pride because their parents had said they should give it a try - being loners meant that shifters around them had treated them like crap. Men expected them to be for sale, women mistrusted them. Jas had turned up one day, and explained her predicament.

“We have money, so we won’t use your resources.” She’d also been completely sincere when she’d added, “My sister will be a burden, but I’ll make up for it.”

Rygan immediately took to Jas, he loved how straightforward she was. If his tiger had showed any interest, he might even have asked her out. As for Kim… everyone sighed when she walked in, wearing stilettos and a nonexistent skirt.

But her endless, generally barely covered, legs probably had something to do with the reason why he hadn’t protested when she’d asked to join. He had just been twenty-two at the time, after all.

---

“It went okay,” Coveney translated. “There was some turbulence for ten minutes. Your dad sent one of his drivers, so we didn’t need to rent a car.”

He nodded, reassured. That meant that there was no paper trail of their whereabouts; if they created a false trail quickly enough, they might manage to stay inconspicuous a little longer.

He wasn’t delusional enough to think that the wolves would just abandon their relentless hunt - they’d find them eventually. But at least the pride had some time to work things out - time they desperately needed.

Until now, Rygan had assumed that the wolves were hunting them on principle; his status meant that beating his pride would give any wolf an extra dose of street cred. But what they’d seen in Hsu’s vision? Attacking kids and submissives? Feline or wolf, there was no honor in it.

Rygan needed to work out their enemy’s motivation and find a way to really get them off their backs, before it was too late.

“Let’s get the kids settled - only unload the essentials, we’ll be leaving as soon as possible. Once that’s done, we need to call our contacts and get to the bottom of things. The way we’re getting hunted is personal. Time to find out why.”