Page 82 of The Prince of New York

“It could be worse. I’ll call the royal vet and lay the groundwork for Isla’s care. For the most part, she’s an easy keeper, but she’ll need daily visits with a veterinarian until she stops stress plucking her feathers.” Domingo pointed at a part of her cage, which had tufts of gray-green feathers on it. “She’ll rub her head against the bars when upset as well.”

What was one more traumatized being in the palace? “How do I transport her safely?”

“We’ll provide a box. Just carry her on your shoulder until it’s time to leave, and then you’ll put her in the box with her blanket for short transport. I’ll give the royal vet instructions for standard transport, but for the trip back to the palace, having her in a box on your lap will be fine.” Domingo gestured for me to follow him, and he guided me through the shelter back to the cat room.

Isla resumed bobbing, making a variety of mid to high pitched sounds.

“Those are happy Isla sounds,” he informed me. “She likes watching cats, and she has no concept they are predators and she is prey. While she was smuggled into the Royal States, we believe she was treated exceptionally well. She has no idea what fear is, and she enjoys interacting with humans. While she is a nocturnal species, it does seem she has adapted to diurnal life. If she can tolerate the aviary at night, that might save you from many odd noises at night.”

“The palace will have cats aplenty for her to interact with, and we’ll be making use of animal empaths to make certain all cats in our household know Isla is not part of their diet.” That would drive me to the brink of my sanity, especially as I wanted to entice Madelyn into considering my suite as a possible home. That would take time, assuming I could figure out how to get her attention.

Caring for an endangered parrot, two little girls, more cats than I could shake a stick at, and quite possibly an entire pack of service puppies would keep me busy and distract me from my various failures when it came to the woman. For the moment, she was safe within the palace, and that was all that truly mattered.

In the cat room, May and Danielle were on the floor meeting the candidates. The toddler had a rather large and fluffy cat on her lap, and the pair appeared on the verge of taking a nap together. May did her best to convince a scraggly white and black cat to give her the time of day. “What’s wrong with that cat?”

“Old age,” Domingo said, and he sighed. “Her owner, like Isla’s, passed away.”

Well, the old animal wouldn’t be living out the rest of her life in a shelter on my watch—nor would any of the other old cats. I’d sacrifice a room in the palace to be a cat suite, and I’d fight my sister over it. “How many elderly cats do you have right now?”

“Ten. We usually keep them together in one of the smaller cat rooms.”

I dug out my phone and dialed my sister.

“Is something wrong?” Rachel answered.

“Only if you don’t like what I’m about to ask you. Can we set up a room in the palace somewhere for a bunch of old cats? There are ten of them, and I don’t want to leave them here. I’m pretty sure I can afford some feline freeloaders.”

My sister snickered. “Sucker.”

“Wait until you meet my new pet. I’m pretty sure I was chosen and didn’t actually get a say in this adoption.”

“Cat, dog, or other?”

“I am joining the endangered species club, but mine is a bird. She likes mango, Rachel.”

“I see. The mango lovers have united. All right. Yes, I’m sure we can make a room for the old cats and introduce them to the palace staff for play and enrichment time. We have Jacob on staff, so it’s not like we’re doing anything more than adding work. How goes the puppy project?”

“I don’t know. I left everyone unattended to meet Isla.”

Isla squawked and made a bunch of other sounds, loud enough my sister laughed at the bird’s antics. “Isla is a parrot of some sort, I take it?”

“She is a fancy parrot from New Zealand, and if you need something to do while I’m adding to the palace residency numbers, you can contact them about what we need to do to care for her. The shelter has been talking with them, but you’ll probably want to get involved.”

“I can do that. I’m grounded for the next month, by the way.”

I chuckled. “The physicians want to make sure you’re in a quiet and stable environment?”

“Yep. I have been told if I try to step foot on a plane to California except in case of an actual emergency, I will pay for it in creative fashions. Melody is going to stay here to keep an eye on me, and you’ll have Dr. Stanton and His Royal Majesty for the first part of the trip. Ethan has decided I am not leaving his sight unless absolutely unavoidable.”

“That seems reasonable and wise of him. I’m sure I can handle some Californians without much in the way of supervision. Danielle seems to have found a napping buddy for herself, and May likes one of the senior cats.”

“Obviously, you must bring those kitties home for them. Try to introduce May to a kitten. If she only has a senior cat, she’s going to be heartbroken when the poor thing passes.” My sister heaved a sigh. “For fuck’s sake, I’m on the phone. Can’t you see I’m on the fucking phone? Bring another goddamned needle near me and I’m going to shove it up your ass!”

I covered my mouth so I wouldn’t crack up laughing and disturb the animals. “On that note, I’m going to let you go. We should be headed back sooner than later. I’m going to ask them to help us blitz through the adoption paperwork.”

I hung up before Rachel could turn her temper onto me. I returned my phone to its pocket and gave Isla another round of petting. “Domingo, are there any younger cats that get on with the older one?”

“Yes, we have one that gets along with just about every other cat, and she tolerates children.” He pointed at a fluffy gray cat in a cage. “That’s the one. She loves playing with other cats, so we let her into the senior cat room to socialize and play with them.”

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