Catching a familiar scent, Ace lifted her head and called Clary from the back of her small bakery.

“Hey, sweet. Do you mind taking over at the counter? It’s pretty quiet.”

Clarissa had been her assistant since she’d come back from college, six months prior; although she had an MBA, there weren’t a ton of exciting jobs in Lakesides.

In many places, some would have frowned at a human working in a bakery owned by a shifter, but Ace had struck gold with this town.

It wasn’t that the people of Lakesides liked shifters - they were human, so most of them didn’t, understandably finding them scary as fuck – but, before her, they’d dealt with a guy who ran a pack that pillaged, raped, and murdered, so they’d learned to appreciate her perhaps overly sarcastic, but otherwise charming self.

Well, maybe not charming, but she didn’t have murderous tendencies, most of the time.

---

The townspeople had reported the pack terrorizing them, but human authorities couldn’t do much - they just told the Shifter Council, who’d demanded that the wolves fix the issue. Only, wolves weren’t organized the way feline shifters were.

Felines had a leader, a governing body, so to speak. They might not be officially recognized in the US, but they called their leader their King, and he was just that. If someone went out of line, they had the authorities in place to take care of it - so no feline messed up.

Wolves had a Head Pack, and when it wanted to act, it was lethal. However, that pack only moved its finger when someone directly threatened them. The rest they shrugged off, putting it on their To Do List for a decade or two later. Aisling was sure that, eventually, they would have come to take care of the issue, but they left it for over a year.

Aisling pitied their race. Not all of them were bad; in fact, most wolves weren’t, but their authority was so corrupted, they couldn’t do a thing about their reputation. That was the reason why there were more loner wolves than any other kind of shifter out there; in general, those who’d left their pack had a damn good reason to have chosen that lifestyle. Aisling’s cat suffered from the isolation, but not nearly as much as a wolf ever would. Their species, like their wild animal counterparts, was really meant to live in groups.

It was a wolf who’d told her about Lakesides; her friend, Vivicia, had just mentioned it in passing, unknowingly planting a seed. Ace had lived in Los Angeles, and damn if the City of Angels wasn’t all about drama. Although they paid well, she’d been tired of having to deal with the angel, nephilim, and demon issues there. She’d been ready to find somewhere to settle down at the time, and somewhere so isolated a pack could get away with murder - literally - was her idea of perfection, so she’d turned up in town to see it for herself. People had been pretty mistrusting, but after a couple of beers at the local bar, they’d felt protective enough to tell her to pack her things and go before the Alpha wolf living nearby heard of her being there.

They’d really feared the man, that much had been obvious. Ace wasn’t sure whether she would have chosen to stay - after living in the city for seven years, Lakesides had seemed awfully small - but the day after she’d arrived, the stupid-ass Alpha had showed his face at her hotel, demanding favors for letting her live.

Yeah, that had gone down well. She’d slit his throat and cut his balls off.

The humans had been grateful at first, but wary, with good reasons; as she could so easily dispose of a man so huge and dominant, and subdue his entire pack with her vibes, they’d wondered if they’d been thrown out of the pan and right into the fire. So, she’d kept a low profile, occasionally turning up on game day to watch football at the pub. Bored out of her mind, she bought an empty store and fixed it up. She didn’t exactly have a thing, a passion, like some did. She loved reading, running, knitting, swimming, and, if she was entirely honest with herself, she kind of liked fighting, too. But while nothing made her feel excited, there was one activity that soothed her mind, making her reach that special place - home.

Baking.

A long, long time ago, a sweet female shifter who always hummed or sang, had popped her on top of the kitchen countertop as she rolled dough; later, she got Aisling to help. Baking was home. Every time she smelled apple pies cooking in her oven, she remembered the little piece of happiness the woman had carved for her.

So, she opened a bakery. She wasn’t classically trained, but apparently her things were good enough for the people of Lakesides. Ace was certain that what had nailed the deal had been her cupcakes. Which, by the way, were pretty awesome.

Three years later, it was the mayor who’d approached Ace, asking if she could use an employee when Clarissa had come back to town. Ace, who was pulling fifteen hour shifts between baking, serving customers, and delivering orders, jumped on it and hadn’t had any reason to regret it since.

“Sure, take as much time as you need,” the ever-enthusiastic, ever-smiling young woman replied.

She thanked her and headed to the kitchen, following her nose.

Suddenly, a hand closed over her lips and a pair of strong arms pulled her into a dark corner of her shop. A smile played on her lips. In other circumstances, she might already have drop-kicked her attacker. As soon as they were locked in a cupboard, her kidnapper’s arms went around her waist, engulfing her in a bear hug. She let him.

Ace wasn’t touchy-feely, but she was a shifter - a cat shifter. That kind of contact was a balm to her soul when it came from the right person. Daunte Cross was one of the few people whose touch she accepted.

He chuckled, his annoyingly huge chest moving against her cheek. As much as she’d like to pretend otherwise, he was all man now.

“Hey, sis,” he whispered.

He liked to call her that in private; because she didn’t let him say it in public. Not anymore. She’d shed the name Cross and all its meaning long ago.

She pushed his chest back and glared up - and up, and up. The boy was tall, damn him.

“Did you, by any chance, lose my number? You know, the one I had you memorize at nine years old?”

Daunte never played fair; he pouted and his big amber eyes went all pleading and cute.

“I can’t do that expression over the phone. You would totally have told me to take a hike.”

The man had a point. Dammit.

She sighed and climbed on top of a shelf, asking, “Okay what’s the deal?”

It really wasn’t her problem; they even had an agreement - whenever they’d met up over the years, they never spoke of the issues they encountered in their lives. Being siblings didn’t give them the right to be in each other’s business.

But he’d changed the rules of the game by turning up; she needed to know what sort of mess he’d brought to her doorstep.

“We don’t know. Our pride has always been in danger - from felines who think one of our Enforcers is a criminal, although he was acquitted, and from shifters around us, because we’re small and they assume it makes us easy pickings. But that pack… they’ve been on our case for about two, three years, wherever we go. We stayed where we were, and fought them whenever they came to our door, at first, but then they went after one of our kids - a sixteen-year-old, while he was at school. He didn’t make it.”

Daunte’s eyes were cold, and for a minute he reminded her of their father.

“We’re strong, Ace. All of us. But we’re ten adults, and there’s seven kids. We have no clue who they are, honestly, but every time they attack us, they completely outnumber us. There’re at least sixty fighters in their pack - I’m sure they have kids who would make them vulnerable, too, but we’d never target them anyway.”

She nodded, understanding. But that didn’t change a fact.

“I’m happy here, Daunte. No one bothers me. You know I’ve never turned away any loner who needed to lie low, but an entire pride? That will bring some attention to my territory.”

And it was just that: hers. She’d stuck to the location after killing the Alpha for one simple reason: she had been able to buy the entire forest, its lake, its mountains, and the twelve houses built on it. The pack of wolves who’d lived there before her had just rented; the territory had belonged to an old family who’d been more than happy to sell out to her, because they’d known she wouldn’t pull any shit on them.

Having a pride settled in town might damage the little piece of home she’d managed to carve for herself.

“I know,” Daunte replied, nodding. “But the pride is family, and I do whatever I can to protect my family. If it means begging my big sister for help? So be it.”

She rolled her eyes, but her expression was still guarded.

“What?”

Ace took a few seconds, deciding whether she really wanted to bring up the subject. Then, she gave into what her cat was demanding - what she herself really wanted to know.

“Your Alpha. I need you to tell me about your Alpha.”

Need was a strong word; she needed water, fresh air, and cupcakes. Information about a complete stranger shouldn’t have seemed as essential to her - but it was.

The man had made quite the impression on her, and she would feel off balance until she could pinpoint why.