Page 20 of Cats and Dogs

Chapter 9

Theories

Rye and the others came back from Italy with a bunch of touristic presents – sadly, without gelato, although Coveney was uncharacteristically wordy in describing the foreign ice cream.

The kids were excited to see everyone, especially Ava. She was new, and she doubled that awesome attribute by also changing into a bird. Most of them couldn't shift yet, but their dormant animals still were fascinated with her eagle.

Christine wondered if Ava realized how much trouble she'd be in when the teenagers all chased her. She didn't seem to mind playing with Clive and Victoria, but when the six other shifters eventually joined, she might run away from the pride, screaming.

After Christine had kissed the kids good night, they were all chilling in the living room, listening to their tales about the now-unhidden city of Dale, when Ian burst in, smirking like it was his day job.

"Hey, everyone!" He didn't let anyone reply, immediately adding, "Can we talk?" while meaningfully looking at the Alphas.

Rye got up, but the enforcer backtracked, saying, "Actually, I guess I can talk to everyone at once. It's not a security issue. Well, not anymore."

"Can you, like, stop talking in riddles, and get to the point?" Vivicia suggested, pulling a nail file out of her pocket and starting to file her nails.

She might only have begun to hang out with the pride a year ago, but she knew mister-know-it-all well enough to anticipate a long story. She wasn't wrong.

"So, a while back, when we were still working out the identity of our enemies, I considered the Vergas and I dismissed them..."

By the time he was halfway through his tale, Vivicia had stopped with her nails; everyone was staring at him, open mouthed.

Ian could be super annoying when he was smug, but today took the cake. He was positively beaming, glad to have worked out the story.

"Wait, so we actually owe a bunch of narrow escapes to that guy?"

"Most, if not all, of our escapes, yep. I wasn't sure until I got there, but his eyes are so much like Lola's, I knew as soon as I looked. Plus, he had a kid with him; not his. He just got him out of there because it was the right thing to do."

"If I was the kind of gal who actually swooned, I totally would right now," Ace said. "How fucking sweet." She turned to her mate. "We have to let him meet Lola."

Rye was glowering.

"None of that crap. We have to. Or we'd literally be the bad guys in this scenario."

"I don't fucking care about being the bad guy. I care about the safety of my pride and the fact that this could just be an elaborate story to get close to Lola."

"He was close to Lola this morning, according to Christine. How hard would it have been to jump the fence and claw her?"

The Alpha male growled at the very notion. Every single kid in the pride was his to protect, but he and Lola had always been close. Even casually mentioning a scenario where she could possibly get hurt was making him see red.

"Christine, could he have hurt her this morning?”

She bit her lip. "I mean, there was a lot of us in the house, so we would have jumped him right after, but yeah. If he'd really wanted to, he could have. It would have been suicidal, but doable."

"Maybe he's just not suicidal, so he's waiting for a better occasion," Rye said.

"Oh, shut it. I know you don't like the idea of owing anyone, but you have to face it: that guy did help you in the past. The facts add up. And he has every right to see his niece after all this time."

It was always entertaining to see Rye give in to his mate's logic, however reluctantly. She wouldn't say the Alpha male pouted, but his brooding expression was pretty damn close to pouting. She, Vi, Ava, Rain, and Jas had a hard time hiding their smiles. Daunte was staring at the floor to make sure he wasn't caught smirking and Ian disguised his laughter in a cough.

“Ian, call your friend. Tell him he can come tomorrow morning, with the boy.”

“He isn’t my friend, exactly.” The enforcer grimaced, pulling his phone out. “I mean, he’s a wolf.”

“I’d resent that if I cared,” Vivicia said, batting her long lashes.

"Alright. He can come. But I don't want him alone with her at any point, got it? Lola doesn't know him. She doesn't even like dogs."

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