Page 5 of Pretty Kitten

The damn woman took a vicious pleasure in giving him details when he didn’t stop her. He’d thrown up as much as she had during her first trimester.

“We’re great,” Rye replied, sparing him. “They say we’re good to go in about ten days now.”

He was smiling from ear to ear.

Then his intense gaze looked around, and fell on the most vulnerable thing in the room.

A tray in hand, Clarissa came out of the kitchen area, and walked right to them; he didn’t think anyone had given her a Shifter 101, yet she always did the right thing. She went to serve the Alphas first.

“Ace told me you thought of asking Niamh to work at the bakery this summer?”

Clari nodded enthusiastically.

“Yep. I could train her on weekdays when we’re quiet, and she could help on weekends. She’s a bright kid, I’m sure she’ll make herself useful. Plus, it would be a change of scenery, you know?”

“What?” Daunte growled, completely baffled.

That was the worst idea of the century. Niamh was a witch - a teenage witch, just discovering her powers, and with a mile-long attitude. They wanted a human to supervise her?

Yet, ignoring him, Rye nodded.

“It’s brilliant.”

“I’m actually ashamed I didn’t think of it myself,” Ace piped in. “Baby brain, maybe. She’s bored here, and she makes us pay for it. Plus, we could pay her some money, which means she’ll have her own playtime fund. I loved that at her age.”

“That’s the most stupid idea I ever heard of,” Daunte proclaimed, but somehow, everyone ignored him. Again.

“She might be a little too young to be on the books legally,” Clari admitted, and Ace shook her head.

“Shifter laws are a little different. We’re expected to raise our kids to take their place in the pride when they’re ready. I can write her in; it means applying for a license but it’s a simple formality.”

He couldn’t believe his ears. Daunte took a step forward, placing himself between the Alphas and Clari, arms crossed.

“That’s a no. Ace, you’ll be in the shop even less when the baby gets here. That means you’re asking a human to take care of one of us. A powerful, young, volatile, one of us.” Without turning, he could feel anger radiating from Clari, and he ignored it, concentrating on his Alphas. “What if Niamh hurts herself and gets upset?”

He didn’t need to spell it out after that. Rye and Ace exchanged a glance, knowing exactly what he referred to. Niamh fought the other kids, learning to defend herself, and she’d twisted her ankle on a one on one with Jasper a few months back. She really hadn’t meant it, and she’d stopped herself immediately, but they’d all been shocked by the strength of the wave that had followed. The humans in town had written it off as a weird natural phenomenon, an earthquake, but they knew better.

“You’re right,” Ace sighed.

“What?”

“Damn, it’s hard to remember Clari isn’t really one of us,” Rye conceded.

“What?”

Daunte had every intention to carry on ignoring her, but Clari shoved his shoulders to walk past him, planting herself on the other side of him to face the Alphas.

“What is that all about? You think I’m so irresponsible I can’t take care of a damn kid? And you’re listening to him?” she sounded furious.

It probably didn’t help that Daunte was smirking. He knew he’d won. The Alphas would put her safety before anything else.

“Of course not,” Ace dismissed the notion with a wave of her hand. “But Daunte is right, there’s more to Niamh than meets the eye. And, frankly, she needs to be around someone who can knock her out if needs be. That’s why we’ll have to homeschool her until she gets it under control; or we’ll have to send her to a sup academy. It’s really not about you. Teenage sups and humans don’t mix.”

Clari appeared to be slightly mollified. Daunte was practically certain the matter would have been dropped, if Ian, who generally kept to himself, hadn’t piped in, “We could always set a bodyguard outside of the store when Niamh is working. I don’t mind doing it. And if she makes it without incident this summer, maybe she can even try a semester at the local high school.”

Daunte opened his mouth and closed it again, because there were no words to express his displeasure. Instead, he turned his gaze on Ian, and locked it threateningly, promising reprisal. Next time they had training together, the tiger shifter was going to pay for that.

Daunte faced a conundrum. Like his father, he had no inclination towards the role of Alpha, but his level of dominance meant that he didn’t like to be told what to do, and he hated when things didn’t go his way. To put it simply, he was controlling as fuck. Thankfully, it generally wasn’t a problem in this pride; Rye was a great Alpha, and their opinions practically never clashed.

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