Page 24 of Remy & the Wildcat

“Yeah, so my sisters were heavily encouraged to not date in the pack at all, to stick to humans if they wanted to go on a date. The only one who never dated at all is the youngest, Kendall.”

“Why didn’t she ever date anyone?”

“I don’t know. I asked her once and she just shrugged and changed the subject.”

Their food arrived—they both had ordered a porterhouse—and they chatted while they ate, about the pride, the towns on Alpha Jason’s list, and their families. She didn’t really want to talk about her family. Her stepmom and half-brother had shown their whole asses and made her feel terrible and embarrassed that Remy had witnessed it all.

He'd had a great childhood and clearly came from a loving and supportive family. What he had grown up with was what she coveted for her own future children.

When their meal was over, they left the restaurant and she was still chuckling about a story he’d shared from his childhood, when he’d tried to sneak out of the house to go hunting with his friends and had gotten busted by his dad.

The moon was low in the sky, casting a silver glow over everything, as Remy and Thyme stepped out of the restaurant and walked toward his truck. The parking lot wasn’t well lit, and something suddenly gnawed at her gut, a warning from her cat that something was wrong.

Tugging on Remy’s hand she said, “Hold on a second.”

He looked down at her, concern on his face. “What’s the matter.”

She swallowed and looked around. “I don’t know. I just… feel like something’s wrong.”

He inhaled deeply and his eyes flashed to the amber of his wolf. “I smell wildcats. Stay close.”

He put his arm around her and they walked with a quick pace to his truck, which didn’t look quite right.

“Damn it,” Remy said, his voice a low hiss.

She gasped when she realized what was wrong: his tires were slashed. “Oh no,” she said, her heart sinking like a stone. She looked up at Remy and saw his jaw clenched, his gaze searching the darkness around the parking lot. “Who would do this?”

“I have a good idea,” he said. His gaze dropped to hers and anger glinted in the amber depths. His voice was laced with a dangerous edge, gruff like his wolf was two seconds away from coming out. “It has to be Leif. I smell wildcats, but it’s a muddled scent and I can’t pick him out and I haven’t met everyone.”

She couldn’t pick out anyone’s particular scent either. “Why would he slash the tires and how the hell did he even know where we were?”

“He’s clearly following us, although I was checking in the mirrors and didn’t see anyone.” Remy snarled a little. “He was hoping you wouldn’t find your truemate so he could take over. He was just a month away from leading the pride when you came home with me. This seems like a warning.”

Her chest tightened with emotion. Holy hell, she didn’t want to think that someone had been following them, watching them.

When she shivered, Remy put his arm around her. “We need to be careful, Thyme. Leif may be more determined to lead the pride than you realized, and Liam, while well-intentioned, isn’t an alpha and clearly doesn’t have enough authority or power to make Leif toe the line.”

“The elders have been in charge since my dad passed away because I couldn’t take over without a mate.”

“Liam is on our side, but Jacob clearly isn’t, so I would assume that Leif feels pretty untouchable with one of the elders on his side.”

She swallowed hard. “What if he comes after us?”

“I can take care of Leif. But we need to be careful. You need to be careful. What he did? It’s a pure, unadulterated warning.”

She blinked rapidly to quell the sting of tears, and then she took out her phone. “There’s a garage in Marin that has a twenty-four-hour tow truck. I’ll have them come get us.”

“That sounds good. In the meantime, we need to get back into the restaurant, see if they have cameras. I don’t want you out in the open, anyway.”

“Okay.”

She called for a tow and then they walked back into the restaurant. Remy learned from the manager that they didn’t have exterior cameras, and were happy to call the police for them, but he said no. It was a pride matter, and human police wouldn’t know how to handle it.

Hell, she didn’t know how to handle it.

“I hate this so much,” she said as she stood near the front door and watched for the tow truck.

“It’s an inconvenience, but it’s better than what could have happened.”

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