Page 43 of Warlander Beast Cat

Even if they weren’t meant to be, she still cared, and she didn’t want Gunner mauling him. Those men had their hands full with that one.

I’ll let you know when we get him home safe. Have fun tonight, Cadence.

The way he had typed out her name at the end felt so formal.

Okay, he’d checked in after the drama, and that was nice of him. And she had to admit she did like knowing he wasn’t making out with Sasha behind the bar.

“You good?” Jenna called from the front porch.

She shoved her phone into her purse and got out. “Never better,” she lied.

“What did he say?” Lucia asked from where she stood in the open doorway of the cabin.

Cadence inhaled deeply. “He said he’s sorry.”

Lucia nodded and turned abruptly, disappeared inside and called, “Follow me.”

Cadence’s mind was still on the text conversation with Kru, so when Jenna asked, “Did you hear me?” it startled her.

“Huh?”

“I said, do you think this is safe?” she whispered so softly, Cadence almost couldn’t hear her even with her heightened shifter senses.

“Maybe,” she answered honestly. But also maybe not. She didn’t need to say that part though, because Jenna looked unsettled enough already.

Cadence stepped forward and followed Lucia through the dimly-lit cabin. Lucia had turned on some undermount lighting in the kitchen and was digging around in a small pantry. She came out with a trio of plastic cups, the two bottles of sparkling grape juice cradled under her other arm.

“This way,” she clipped out. She pushed open the back door and disappeared outside.

Cadence just shrugged at Jenna’s questioning look, and then followed Lucia outside.

There was a red cedar-chip path that led from the back door into the woods.

Lucia walked at a fast clip without looking back, and Cadence had to jog to keep up. The light from the back porch light faded, and she had to squint and wait for her night vision to kick in. Jenna’s loud footsteps sounded behind her. Bird shifters were loud in human form. Cadence made a note to tease her about that later, when she wasn’t a little scared of Lucia sacrificing them to the moon or whatever.

They walked a few minutes before Lucia slowed and stepped off the path to expose a trio of iron chairs. As Cadence slowly approached them, she gasped. The chairs were positioned near the edge of a cliff.

“Which one do you want to sit in?” Lucia asked Cadence.

She searched Lucia’s face in the moonlight. Her night vision had kicked in, and Lucia’s face was cast in blue highlights and shadows. Nothing but earnestness painted her face, but her eyes were lightened and glowing like an animal’s.

“Which one do you usually sit in?” Cadence asked, not wanting to step on a Novak grizzly’s territory.

“I’ve never sat in any of them.”

Cadence frowned, but it was Jenna who spoke up. “Then why do you have them here?”

“I was waiting for you,” Lucia said.

For five breaths, none of them moved. Cadence couldn’t even hear the other women breathing, they were all so still.

Cadence sat in the chair closest to her. It was on the end.

Lucia sat in the middle, and Jenna took the last chair on the other end. Lucia didn’t speak as she opened a bottle of sparkling grape juice and poured it into the three plastic cups. She passed them out and then leaned back and relaxed, eyes on the dark ravine before them.

This was a really different plan than going to the bar for a girls’ night.

Cadence sipped the grape juice politely, but holy hell, it was actually delicious and she took a bigger sip. Jenna seemed to be enjoying hers, too.

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