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“No,” Duke said, his voice steady.
Travis and Trista knocked on the front door for an hour. The others slept through it for a long time and I wasn’t about to let them in. Eventually, the pounding and screaming woke up Duke and Blithe. Duke lost the game of rock-paper-scissors and had to go up and get rid of them.
“Scott?” Blithe blinked at me from where he was curled around his cat-shifted mate and kittens.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I’m sorry they followed me.”
“Are you alright?” he pushed himself upright, still staring down at his kittens.
“I can’t ever show my face anywhere again, Blithe,” I shook my head.
“What the h-e-l-l did they do, Scott?” he asked, rubbing his eyes and looking around as if coffee might magically show up.
“I’ll make coffee once they’re gone,” I said. “I’ll be helpful and if you don’t want me to stay here maybe I can stay with Adrian and Nem or someone. I don’t want to go back. No,” I shook my head. “I’m not going back. Not this time. This is too much.”
“Are you going to tell me what they did?” he yawned. “I love you, brother, but I’m brain dead and it’s all fuzzy.”
“It doesn’t matter. I just need to know if I can stay here or not,” I finally said.
“You can stay,” Syre said, yawning as he sat up and checked his egg for signs of hatching.
He was a coyote and a vampire. Duke had told me all about him in a call one night. Syre was sweet and as haunted as the rest of us.
“Trista!” Duke shouted and we all looked toward the stairs.
There was my sister racing down them two at a time. Duke snatched at her hair but missed. Syre was the first out of the nest, all snarl and his fingers already letting out his claws. Apparently, he didn’t even need to know what she’d done to decide she wasn’t a safe person to be around his egg.
“Scott!” Trista yelled, coming fully into view.
“Go away!” I hissed.
Delilah and Lane, Blithe and Cord’s newborn kittens woke mewing and rooting around for milk.
“Trista,” Blithe said, a warning in his tone.
She opened her mouth to speak, but a shadow appeared behind her and Duke. The shadow took the form of a dog and for half a second I thought a shade had found its way into the house until I saw the glowing blue eyes. My mouth dropped open. What the fuck had anyone down here did to earn a visit from a pit hound. Surely, Frost wasn’t sending one after Trista just for---
The dog landed on her with a thud, growling and snarling, and rooting his muzzle around her hair. She growled and tried to push her way up but the hound wasn’t giving in. His three tails stood erect and he smelled --- Well shit! He smelled like mine.
My wolf woke up blinking and sniffing the air. I hated it when he did that because I always followed suit and looked like a hungry idiot. Only right then, I couldn’t think of any of that. Whatever the reason for the hound’s visit – he was mine! Mine! My Alpha – my future. Had he seen what the twins did? Had he already eaten Travis? No! He hadn’t! I would’ve felt the death over the pack link.
“Trista! Stop it!” I shouted, finding my voice as I scurried over the nest’s edge. “Trista!”
In hindsight, I’d realized I yelled at my sister while she was facedown under a huge three-tailed dog, but this was so typical for her. She got herself into bullshit and then wanted to be babied.
Duke glanced at me and Syre. The coyote shifter backed up to the edge of the nest as Blithe was climbing out. The hound didn’t bite Trista. He held her there as she thrashed and shouted threats. Then she screamed for help. The front door crashed above our heads. Travis let himself in after all.
“Stop it!” I said, stepping closer to the pair on the floor.
My wolf was tense, but his tail wagged as if he found an unguarded tray of pies. A memory flashed through my head of my sire breaking up a fight between two interns at the hospital and I charged.
“Nope!” I shouted like he had and grabbed the scruff of the hound’s neck.
He stopped and tilted his head as much as he could with his dignity in my hand. His glowing blue eyes met my gaze for a second and he glanced back down at his prey.
“She’s annoying, but you can’t eat her.”
“Scott! What are you waiting for? Get him off me!” Trista shouted.
