Page 3 of Prey It Ain't So

After Dolly hears my embarrassing,geeky secret, we settle back in with our knitting. We’re both making tiny gifts for Raina and her crew, though she’s moving slower than me. I’ll probably end up doing more than one, but honestly? She’s catching on fairly quickly, unlike my brothers and the gargoyle. I like that we’re all sharing hobbies now; this family unit stuff is much healthier than the Khan boys were when my angel arrived. It’s good for grumpy old ancients, too, because they isolate far less.

Dolly Drew may have healed herself piece by piece, but she’s also healing the broken spots in us as well.

“Raawwwwwwwwr!”

My angel shrieks and I jump about a foot in the air, almost stabbing the intruder who came up stealthily behind us has to be our mate. “Holy. Goddamn. Fuck!”

Lowering the knitting needles, I look at Fitz reproachfully as he gives us his best psycho grin. “You realize this is supposed to be our ‘safe place’, you dickhead. Look what you did to our girl.”

His eyes dart to Dolly as she heaves a long, slow sigh, probably trying to calm down her bunny. “Aw, Baby Girl… I didn’t mean toreallyspook you. How can I make it up to you? I’m game foranythingyou want.”

Dolly’s eyes go from wide to wicked in a blink, despite her racing pulse. “Imightforgive you if you help me with something. I can’t tell younow, obviously, but… you have to agree to it, no matter what.”

That’s dangerous as hell. Fitz would be crazy to?—

“Anything means anything, Baby Girl. You’re on.” He gives me an even crazier grin, and I groan inwardly. The two of them are practically unmanageable when they’re together, especially if it rises to a challenge.

I clear my throat and say, “If it’s dangerous, Felix and Aubrey will lose their shit. You realize that, right? I mean, we all care, but those two are… particular about keeping everyone safe.”

“Ah, but they don’townme, Chessie. No one ever will again, so as the Queen of Anarchy under this roof, I decree that Fitz and I are scheming.” She presses her lips together, her eyes sparkling with mischief as she wiggles in her seat a bit. “But… to makeyourheart stop thudding, I promise it’s not dangerous. It’ll be fun, I think. Is that better?”

Fitz ruffles my hair, messing up the careful topknot. “Sure it is, D. Chessie is cautious by nature and he’s always been a peacemaker. You know exactly how to get him calmed down… and riled up.”

His brows bob and I crack my neck as I try not to let his implication affect me. The rest of the guys will be here soon, and there is much to discuss. Our mini ‘conclave’ with the others ledto decisions about how we would all contribute to hunting down clues once the Council lifted the ban on leaving campus. We’re allowed to leave in two days, which means I have to wrangle my less organized family members into getting ready. Everyone has their assignments, and as soon as we confirm ours, we have to skedaddle.

“Stop that,” I grumble as he leaps over the back of the couch to wiggle in between us and put his arms around our shoulders. “You are not always the main character, my love.”

That gets a snort out of him that is hard enough to hurt. “Of course not, baby. She is; weren’t you listening?” Fitz taps his ear playfully, pretending to be put upon. “Baby Girl, I think he needs his ears checked. You should use your tongue.”

Dolly socks him in the thigh, even as she giggles. “Fitz, you areextrahorny today, which is making you impossible. We can’t drop everything to fuck all the time; it’s ridiculous and impractical. Sometimes, we have to focus on the tasks at hand.”

“People in your dirty books don’t seem to think so,” he pouts, batting his lashes. “I think my mates aren’tnearlyas accommodating as the ones we read about. They get to fuck in the middle of battles, and in classrooms, and on camera… I’m being persecuted for my needs. That’s what it is.”

“Fitz, between the six of us, we have enough sex to breed a fucking herd of cattle.” Winking at our girl, I shake my head. “My angel is right; there’s a time and place for everything. Right now, it’s time to get our shit together so we can leave for our part of the summer sleuthing. If it makes you feel better, we can fuck on the train?”

His eyes light up and Dolly squeals, too. They share a manic grin as they both say, “I’ve never done it on a train before.”

When they realize they just ‘twin talked’, they high-five, then dissolve into laughter.

Aye-yi-yi… they’re going to be a handful on a wacky European road trip—I can feel it in my bones.

“The Captainand his crew will leave early in the morning on Monday. They’re headed for the remote isle where the puffin elder and his clan live when they are not traveling.” Renard is draped over his chair, his tail swishing like a cat’s as he looks at our family.

“Good,” Felix replies before he sips his whiskey. “I think using them as proxies will make the prey shifters feel more comfortable than if we’d gone ourselves. The Princess is an odd mixture of both, but they would have been able to sense the pred in her. I’m not sure we would have gotten as much information with their natural instincts telling them to run from us.”

Aubrey snorts, arching a brow as amusement crosses his face. “You’re probably right, Raj. I don’t know the makeup of their motley crew, but given Raina claimed it’s a circus? They probably have a wide variety of species, many too small to withstand extended visits from apex preds.”

“Farley said he and the badgers are digging in Paris. He wants to find out more about the cult we stole from, and the Council connections of the staff here.” I push my glasses up as I lookup from my tablet, waiting for someone to jump in. “That only leaves your friends, Angel.”

Dolly sits up, grinning broadly. “Rufus, Cori, the triplets, and Coach Z are heading to Oxford to meet with the big guy’s colleagues. Ru-Ru is out of his mind excited because West End theater is incredible, but the real reason is to have the Kavarits get them access to archives at the college and the British Museum. Their connections will help them get to documents we might need to piece everything together and stop a war.”

“They won’t be able toreadthem,” Aubrey grumbles. “Fucking sphinxes are useless with translation, and none of them know Fae like Rennie.”

The gargoyle in question winks at him. “Don’t respond; you haveno ideahow much complaining he’s done in private about missing that brief journey. I’ve done my best to soothe it, but I hope like hell your friends and Z can get scans and pictures for us to examine or he’ll never shut up.”

“Research isn’t Zhenga’s forte, but wrangling stubborn, privileged preds is part of her skill set. She’ll keep them on task and ensure the trip isn’t wasted time, Aubrey.” Felix shoots him a stern look before he continues. “Wehaveto delegate, even if you hate it. There’s too much to do, too many people involved, and the result of failure is not one we can afford.”

“True,” I say as I beam my screen on the TV. “Which is whyweare waiting for the response so we can book our train tickets and accommodations to the eastern part of the continent. The trip from our destination to where the gargoyles are hiding will take some time, and we have no idea how that’s going to go. That’s why we can’t pivot and do this other shit ourselves. You know that, Aubrey.”

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