Page 44 of Prey It Ain't So

“Princess, you look angry again. We can’t go out there with emotions written on our features because it will?—”

“Give them weapons, I know,” I sigh as I finish primping my hair. “Trust me, Felix. I lived with a self-centered narcissist and a sociopathic bully my entire life. You guys don’t have to give me this pep talk every time, just because I have the only ovaries in the building.”

He blinks, looking surprised. “That’s not why I said it. You being female has nothing to do with why I reminded you.”

I arch a brow at him, struggling to rein in my fury about the situation. He didn’t do this and I shouldn’t take my frustration out on him. “Oh?”

“I said it because you are the beating heart of our family, Delores Drew.” My cynicism must be plain to see because he chuckles. “Well, yes, Ren and Chess are softer, as well, but you havemore hope, more compassion, and less bitterness than all of us combined. You probablyshouldbe just as jaded due to your past, but somehow… you’re not. That might be youth or it might simply be who you are, but your grain of optimism is worth saving. It shines through when you’re pissed about things like what we discussed tonight not only for yourself, but for everyone else, too.”

“I’m not a hero of the people,” I grumble. “I’m still a pale-skinned girl who grew up with lots more advantages than others, even if my parents were abusive as fuck.”

“True, but the differences between you and, say, your ex-friends, are as wide as the gap that bridge crossed.” The elder tiger sets his hands on my shoulders, looking in the mirror with me. “You lost control of everything in one night and then spent an entire summer picking up the pieces. When you came to Apex, you’d shed all those nasty bits everyone tried to grind into you about who you should be, who was worthy, and what was right to form your own code of ethics.”

“The old ones sucked and I sort of knew it before and didn’t do anything.”

The corner of his lips quirks as he says, “Thus go we all, Princess. None of your mates was using their influence, money, or power to help anyone before you crashed into our lives.”

That makes me give him a questioning look and he relents. “Okay, the brooding stone man was helping the prey more than we realized. You have me there, but the rest of us were too lost in our applesauce to give a shit about anyone else. That’s where you brought out the best in us and demanded we be better men. Plenty had tried at that point, including Z, butyoufigured outhow to accept us for who we were while still challenging us to be more. It’s not nothing, nor could just anyone have done it.”

Chuckling, I rest my head against his shoulder, looking up at him instead of into the mirror. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments, Felix. I just… I guess I’m struggling with the fact that I broke free of the expectations and now I’m being reeled right back in. Having the choice taken away again is bothering the fuck out of me.”

“Is it really being taken away, though?”

I blink as Chess wanders in, his off-hand comment throwing me off. “I mean, I can’t change this whole genetic anomaly thing, so yeah.”

“No, but youcouldchoose to ignore it and run for the hills. We’d go with you and no one would judge you. Your friends would probably follow, too.” The cheetah grabs his brush, raking it through his curly locks carefully. “But that’s not what you’re doing, is it?”

Blanching, I bristle with affront. “Of course not! I can’t leave all these people to be killed or imprisoned or whatever their evil plans are.”

Fitz comes in, his handsome face full of smugness. “Ah, but youcould, Baby Girl. Lots of predswould, especially ones with your resources. The money we all have means we could run and hide on beaches and shit forever, sipping little umbrella drinks while I try to avoid sand on my dick.”

“The difference is that you don’t evenconsiderthat as an option,” Felix rumbles against my back. “That’s why you’re bucking against this so hard; your heart has made that door non-existent, but itisthere and you’re choosing not to go through it.”

I blink, turning back to the mirror to stare at our reflections again. They’re right—I have other decisions I could make, but I’ve marked them as ‘not acceptable’, which is a choice in itself. I’m not actually trapped in a destiny I have no say in; I had my say, and now I’m left with the remaining options for action.

Damn these assholes for being so fucking smart; I was whipping up a good funk.

“I hate you all,” I grumble as I give in. “I was gearing up for a good brood, you know.”

Rennie pokes his head into the doorway. “Desolee,ma petite. That’smyschtick.”

I pick up my brush and throw it at him. “Out! There’s already too many big men in this damn bathroom. It’s not like at home where we have enough room for you guys to pile in and gape while I get ready.”

“I don’t gape, Baby Girl. Iogle.” Fitz grins as he reaches past his twin to grab my ass. “It’s a different vibe.”

Chess laughs as he finishes gathering his hair into his preferred top knot. “And I just needed to get my hair under control, but I couldn’t help myself.”

“Speaking of that, Chessie,” Fitz says as he sits on the closed toilet. “Help me get this mane under control for our big dinner with the royalty. I’d hate to seemunrefined.”

“For fuck’s sake, Fitz,” Felix sighs as he exchanges a look with a smirking Rennie. “I don’t think the point of tonight is to impress anyone. We need them to fill in the gaps of our theories—nothing more.”

“Maybe more if?—”

My gargoyle mate shakes his head, his expression turning sad within seconds. “It is not likely to be more,petite lapin. The elders, including my parents, are set in their ways and if we are right about the whys? Some extremely powerful shifters have been terrified enough that they acted against their own interest for centuries. Seeing me isn’t going to change that.”

Walking to the doorway, I poke him in the chest hard. He doesn’t flinch, but he meets my eyes. “Stop being so damned self-pitying, Renard Laveaux. Theyshouldwant to fix their enormous error in judgment, no matter what the consequences, and if they don’t, they do notdeserveyou. If you let them make you feel less than even for a second, I’m going to kick your cute ass myself. Do you hear me?”

He flushes an adorable pink and I have to smother a grin when he nods. “Okay, my fierce little warrior. I will keep that in mind as we navigate the waves of my past.”

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