They were settled by dusk - Daunte had taken a trip to a nearby store to stock up on supplies they might need, Ian and Jas got the three rooms set up, and most of the others unpacked while Christine took care of the kids.

Kim painted her nails. Then she watched them dry.

As well as the expected essentials, Daunte came back with a heavy tray containing doughnuts, cupcakes, chocolate cakes, and mini pies. Rygan narrowed his eyes, catching something else over the scent of sugar, butter, and vanilla. Something woodsy and spicy.

“Your friend Aisling made these?” he guessed, grabbing a miniature apple pie.

Daunte nodded, sharing the goodies around.

Hell. This was a good pie. He peeked into the box his Beta had left on the dining room table and found a cupcake left in there. Rygan had just grabbed it when he sensed someone looking at him; he turned to find Hsu staring at him with watery eyes, like he’d just kicked his way through an entire litter of puppies.

He sighed, and regretfully put the cupcake in her little hands, ruffling her hair, although the kid was nothing short of a damn manipulative cupcake thief.

“Try that in ten years,” he said, his tone warning her.

She giggled and merrily skipped away.

As Daunte was back, and the pride had had a second to relax, Rygan started to get organized.

“Coveney,” he said, calling his Head Enforcer, “check the perimeter, we need to make sure it’s safe. Let me know if you catch any suspicious scents. Then come back and start digging up what you can about those wolves.” His proficiency with a computer made him the best person for the job, although it wasn’t the first time they’d looked. They just didn’t have enough information to know where to start. “And Jas,” Rygan stopped himself, feeling uneasy about sending her away so soon after she’d arrived. But he put the safety of his pride before anything else, and Jas was his best tracker. Her upbringing also made her navigate the world with ease, passing for a human if she wanted to. The rest of them never quite shook off their wildness, their otherness.

“I’ll be out there at dawn,” she said before he added anything else, knowing exactly what he’d demand of her. “You want me to locate the members of the wolf pack, set up a false trail, and fish for information.”

Rygan nodded, and breathed a little better now they had an immediate plan of action. He wouldn’t completely relax until they had answers, though. What did those wolves have against them?

---

On another front, Rygan felt just as frustrated. Since their arrival the previous day, they kept Daunte’s word and stayed out of their elusive host’s way, even though, honestly, it killed him.

They were all curious by nature, but Rygan was also not used to being told no, so dangling a sexy feline shifter wrapped in mystery, and saying that he couldn’t ask questions about her, was the equivalent of waving a humongous flag in front of a bull on steroids.

Daunte stayed mostly silent, though, and, despite his little speech, the questions poured from every side, some more obvious than others. He only revealed what must have been common knowledge - impersonal facts. They knew Aisling was a loner, they knew she’d lived in this home for three years, and that they were allowed to borrow her milk if they replaced it; but he said nothing when they asked where she came from, which pride she used to belong to - even her last name wasn’t something he was willing to divulge.

Dick.

“This place is freaking awesome,” Ian told them, coming back from a run. “And it looks made for a pride - or a pack. This house might be the first one anyone traveling through the forest by car will come across, but there are others, further into the woods.”

The annoying Beta nodded, “That’s right. There was a pack of wolves settled here, before. They were bad news and the humans in the nearby town were pretty worried. Ace took over; she gets along pretty well with the towners. Owns her bakery there and all.”

Rygan openly snorted at that, making everyone look at him with a questioning expression; probably because he wasn’t the kind of man who snorted. Ever. He just said what he had in mind, and moved on, preferring to keep things simple, straightforward.

What the hell was wrong with him?

“What?”

“You’re saying that a lone female singlehandedly took on a pack of wolves?”

“I never said she did it by herself - Aisling has plenty of contacts, and she could have called them,” Daunte replied, rolling his eyes. “But, in this case, she didn’t need them. She challenged the Alpha and got it over with.”

Another snort.

Yes. He was being an asshole. He was questioning what he’d seen with his own eyes the previous night: Aisling had taken Daunte without any issue and Rygan knew his Beta was more dominant, and better trained, than most Alphas. But asking questions hadn’t worked and Rygan wasn’t beyond fishing for information instead.

“An Alpha wolf, really? She’s a tiny thing. You went easy on her yesterday, didn’t you?”

He knew Daunte hadn’t, but, predictably, he narrowed his eyes and grew defensive.

“Going easy on Ace is nothing short of suicide. Forget whatever you think you know about females. She’s stronger than me, more cunning than Coveney, faster than you…and not very fond of being insulted. You might want to prevent yourself from doing so in her house.”

Rygan flipped Daunte off before taking a seat on one of the sofas; immediately, the little girl playing on the floor, their youngest, grabbed her toy and climbed on his lap.

“Hey, Lola Bear,” he said, some of his dreadful humor disappearing as the kitten beamed at him.

Try as the others might, he remained the girl’s favorite, which meant she’d probably grow up to either be extremely dominant, or extremely submissive.

They’d found her on their doorstep one day, without so much as a letter of explanation. The kid had just been a few days old at the time. Rygan guessed someone had heard that his pride took in kids, and had chosen to give them the newborn. Probably a lone female, or someone in danger. They could smell that she was a feline shifter, but, at her age, it was hard to tell which kind. They wouldn’t know for sure until she shifted, probably at puberty. It didn’t matter; various members of the pride were of different breeds - one of them wasn’t a shifter at all - but they all claimed each other. Lola was theirs now, just like Hsu, Jasper, Clive, Victoria, Daniel, Will, and Niamh. Some thought having so many kids made their pride weak; and in a way, they were right. They were vulnerable. But there was also strength in having something to fight for.

“Did you have fun in the plane?”

She proceeded to babble about her journey, using actual words mixed with gibberish, but, entertaining as the child was, his attention was soon diverted.

He felt like someone watched him, and, lifting his gaze, it landed on one of the elegant cat trees fixed on the walls.

After their arrival, the animals they’d met the first day had all gone out of doors, preferring to stay in the backyard or the nearby trees, but, calmly lounging on top of the highest piece of furniture, there was one cat left.

Rygan smiled. He didn’t often do so, but right now, he couldn’t help it. The animal was endearing, curled up on its side, stretching languorously. It was one of the fancy pets humans had bred to entertain themselves; something wild mixed with a domestic race.

“Is that a Bengal?” he asked Ian.

Cat shifters knew most breeds of wild cats out there, but they didn’t usually have a keen interest in domestic cats; Ian, however, was the annoying know-it-all of their group, and, as such, he’d probably know.

The guy shook his head. “Definitely not, no. He’s spotted, not marble. The markings make him look a little like a Savannah,” he said, “He’s bigger than a Bengal, but he’s light, too. Honestly, I’m not sure. See the ears, the nose? He looks like a margay if you just concentrate on the face. I’d say, it’s a mix. Beautiful, though.”

Everyone stared at the pretty thing who was seemingly ignoring them from his perch, making a show of cleaning his claws, and Daunte laughed, correcting Ian.

“She. That’s a she.”

“Was she also there when you last visited?” Christine asked.

He wasn’t the only one fishing for pieces of information.

“Oh, yeah. That gal isn’t leaving anytime soon.”

“Do you know what breed she is, then?”

“Half Savannah, a bit of panther, and something else. Not sure what.”

“Aisling bought her, then?”

Daunte tensed. “Can we agree not to ask about Ace again? Please.”

“You can’t blame us,” Ola told him. “We’re in her house, it’s nice, and we’re discovering things we aren’t used to. You’re basically asking us to ignore all that - that’s against our nature.”

“No, I’m asking you to respect our host’s privacy, and I’m asking you to stop hounding me.”

On this note, Daunte got up, stretching.

“Right, I’m going to take a bath now so I can crash right after patrolling the perimeter later. We have a long day tomorrow.”

He was avoiding the pride; everyone knew it. Rygan felt guilty that their curiosity had made the Beta feel like he couldn’t chill with the rest of them. Just not guilty enough to stop fishing.

He stopped the man from leaving, though, calling him back.

“Daunte?”

The Beta didn’t ignore him, but he didn’t turn on his heels, either.

“Thank you. We’re not showing it right now, but we’re all grateful to you, and your friend, Ace. You’re saving our skin. We know it.” But, because he was nothing if not sincere, he added, “However, I’m not done hounding you.”