Harper paced back and forth as she waited for Ryker to return. Arrogant son of a bitch. Something about the devilishly handsome man unsettled her. Oddly enough it wasn't the fact that he was a shifter. Yeah, she knew about them. One of her best friends was a wolf shifter, and he'd come in handy a time or two helping her break up pit fighting rings.

Dylan had ridden around in a cage in the bed of her truck, snapping and snarling like the vicious creature he could be, and the organizers had practically sent her an engraved invitation to participate. The novelty of a wolf was enough to draw a huge crowd and the bastards who forced their poor animals to fight lined up to prove they could take him down.

Instead of showing up with her wolf to fight, Harper had arrived with the police in tow. They'd busted the entire ring and thrown the spectators in jail as well for illegal gambling. So yeah, she knew about shifters. However, she hadn't been expecting to find one at the Pussycat Palace.

She'd almost shit a brick when a lion had pounced right in front of the bush she'd been hiding in, but you could have knocked her over with a feather when she saw him shift into Ryker de Lyon. Big, blonde and gorgeous, the CEO of F.E.R.A.L. was easily recognizable since his handsome face was plastered across every media source.

She'd heard a lot about the Foundation for Endangered and Rare Animal Lives since Aylese sponsored it and believed it was a great organization. Harper wasn't convinced. Not when it's CEO walked around in designer suits, lived in a luxury penthouse and had a fleet of expensive sports cars.

In her opinion, the overpaid jerk should reduce his salary so more money could go to protect the animals. After all, that was the reason why people donated it. Other than minimal overhead expenses, every dime that her shelter received went toward animal care, which was why she had more volunteers than actual employees.

The pampered de Lyon was the last person that she would have suspected of being a werecat. He always looked so polished and perfectly put together. She'd be willing to bet he'd never actually spent any time with the animals the foundation supported. Pfft. He was probably afraid of getting poop on his designer shoes.

Fidiot.

It figured he'd be a lion shifter though. Lions were royalty in the animal kingdom and that same arrogant streak shown in the man as well. He was exactly the kind of man that her sister would be interested in. The Purity Princess was all about respectability and sophistication. They really would be a perfect match.

It was too bad that Aylese was allergic to cats.

Harper snorted a laugh at the thought and then recalled the reason why she was there, to begin with. She hadn't heard from her sibling in two days, and for all she knew, Ryker and Jett Black could be holding her prisoner somewhere in this mansion. Well, she'd come here to rescue Aylese, so it was time she did just that.

She marched across the room, opened the door and ran into a brick wall. Strong hands came up to steady her, and she looked up into golden eyes that glowed. From this close, she could see burnished gold striations radiating out from his mesmerizing irises and ridiculously long eyelashes for a male of any species.

Pressing her hands against his rock hard chest, she pushed herself away from Ryker, ignoring the full body tingling sensation she'd experienced from being pressed up against his masculine frame. Refusing to acknowledge any attraction to the arrogant ass, she demanded, "Where the hell is Aylese?"

 

***

 

'Mine, mine, mine,' his lion yowled plaintively and had a hissy fit when Ryker released his hold on her. Even through the finely woven silk of his shirt, he had felt the heat of her body pressed against his. The imprint of her breasts was seared into his chest, and he barely resisted the urge to rub his hands over it.

Over her.

But doing something that foolish would mean that he was giving serious consideration to this mate thing, and that was out of the question. No matter what his lion wanted, or how much he bitched, Harper Stone was not, nor would she ever be, his mate. So his cat needed to suck it up and deal with it.

"I sent a car to pick them up," he informed her a bit stiffly. "They should be arriving soon."

Her cobalt eyes narrowed suspiciously as she replied, "Jett Black said she was his guest here at the Palace."

"She was, but after someone tried to abduct Aylese and the cub we thought it would be safer to move them off the premises," he admitted. There was no doubt in his mind that this annoying creature was who she claimed to be, so his theory about her being sent by GenMod had been discarded.

However, one very important question remained unanswered, so he closed the space between them to demand in a low growl, "Now where the hell is Wilds?"

The little she-devil didn't back down an inch. She stood her ground, held his alpha gaze and replied, "I have no idea who you're talking about."

His cat was seriously impressed. 'Mine. Mate now!' He demanded.

Ryker was not impressed. The woman just wasn't normal, and the fact that he didn't intimidate her in the least just pissed him off even more. "He's the man we sent to get you," he bit out. "The last we heard, you were with him."

"Pfft. Must have been the tail I lost," she derided as if losing a tail was commonplace. From what he'd heard of her outrageous exploits, maybe it was.

"That doesn't explain why he's not answering his phone," he insisted.

"Then I suggest you take it up with him when he shows up empty-handed," she shot right back.

The woman was infuriating, and she didn't show a whit of respect for his alpha status. There was no way in hell that she could be his mate. If she were, he'd put her over his knee and paddle her curvy little ass into submission. A fact that enraged his already agitated cat. Unfortunately, that option was also out of the question.

Since Harper's sister was Jett's mate, that made her a member of the jaguar shifter's pride and his brother would not be pleased if he harmed her. Not to mention that Aylese would probably have his head on a platter. Mores the pity. So he was going to have to find some way to deal with the exasperating female until they arrived.

"Let go of me you fucking baboon! I'm going to rip your goddamn balls off and shove them down your throat when I get loose!" The shouted threats from an unfamiliar female voice snagged his attention, and Ryker stepped into the hallway to find out what all the caterwauling was about.

Wilder was walking toward him with a woman slung over his shoulder like a side of beef. His arm held her thighs locked against his chest while her feet flailed and she pummeled his back with her fists. His brother lived up to his name because he looked more like a wild animal than a human at the moment.

When one of her feet clipped his crotch, his other hand came up and delivered a stinging smack to her jean covered ass. The female screamed furiously and unless he was sadly mistaken, sank her teeth into the tiger shifter's back in retaliation. "What the fuck is going on?" Ryker demanded incredulously.

"Deal with her," Wilds growled as he bent and dropped his burden to her feet. The woman went on the attack and immediately began kicking and punching any part of the werecat that she could reach. The other man roared furiously, whirled her into his arms and trapped her back against his chest to hold her still.

Ryker could only stare at the disheveled woman in astonishment because she looked exactly like Harper Stone. Sweet Jesus. There were two of them! And this one was even worse than the one he'd been dealing with. It was no wonder that Wilds looked as if he was about to lose control of his tiger at any second.

'Not mine,' his cat staunchly denied, finally showing a modicum of intelligence.

"Hayden!" Harper gasped in astonishment as she stepped into the hallway. "What the hell are you doing here?"

"What the hell am I doing here?" The other woman demanded in an ear-piercing screech. "This baboon kidnapped me because he thought I was you! What the hell have you got mixed up in this time?"

"That is so not fair," she retorted indignantly. "You always manage to make things my fault when I had nothing to do with this."

"Don't even try to convince me this isn't one of your harebrained schemes gone wrong," her twin countered hotly as she struggled to get free of the arms that held her. "Let go of me you big ox!"

"Well now that they know which one of us is me, feel free to leave the same way you got here," Harper snapped and walked back into the office.

Wilds released the other woman, and she followed hot on her sister's heels, both men right behind her. "Since I rode half the way here in the trunk of a car I'll find my own way home thank you very damn much," she bit out scathingly.

At that announcement, Harper whirled around and impaled Wilder with a look that would have shriveled a human man's balls. "You put my sister in a trunk?" She snarled and received a warning growl from the tiger shifter in response.

To which Ryker responded purely out of instinct by putting himself between the pair, baring his teeth at his brother and growling, "Mine." His cat was ready to shred the tiger shifter into pieces if he so much as looked at their mate. The pitying look the other man gave him just pissed him off even more.

"Yes, he did," the doppelganger insisted. "He claimed that he had to bring Harper to Aylese. After that, the Neanderthal barely communicated in anything except grunts and growls. So what the hell are we doing here and where is Lese?"

"I'd like to know that myself," she admitted and cast a disparaging look at Ryker. "That fidiot claims she's on her way here."

"Who the hell are these people?" Her sister demanded. "Why do they have Lese and why did they have to bring you to her?"

"It's a long story," Harper admitted in vexation. "The gist of it is that I stole a baby and Lese was delivering him to his father."

"You stole a baby?" Her twin shouted in disbelief. "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, Harp, have you lost your goddamn mind?"

A shouting match ensued between the sisters that left Ryker hanging onto his patience and his cat by the skin of his teeth. Wilder didn't look much better. Somehow without his even being aware of it, both he and his brother had flanked the women, instinctively moving into protective positions beside them.

"Enough," Jett roared as he led his mate and cub into the room, the rest of their brothers right behind them. The lion shifter could have wept with relief at not having to deal with the infuriating woman anymore. She was Jett's problem now.

'No, no, no,' his dumbass cat protested. 'Mine, mine, mine.'