Page 24 of Bad Blood Alpha

Jasmin cackled with laughter. “Right?” she said. “The first time Brody and I kissed, it was right after I stitched him up from a brawl we’d just been in.” She got a dreamy look in her eyes. “Blood and sweat and fight adrenalin…it was smokin’ hot.”

She flipped the switch on the coffee pot so it would start brewing.

She went on, “But Flynn doesn’t bring women back here. If he’s getting laid—which, judging by how grumpy he always is, he probably isn’t—he’s doing it somewhere else.” She turned her bright green gaze back on Kira. “But I’ll tell you what Flynn does do. He’s a fucking magnet for broken and abandoned shifters. He has this compulsion to help them. Don’t fuck with him, and don’t get him killed. Or this crew will tear you apart.”

Before Kira could come up with a response to that, Jasmin’s head went up, her eyes darting toward the door. “They’re back.”

The jaguar could move almost as fast as Flynn—she was out the front door before Kira even realized she was going.

Kira didn’t follow—instead, she went to one of the big windows in the dining area that looked out on the porch. It was open, like all the windows on the ground floor, letting in the cool night air through the screen.

The whole search crew trooped across the muddy lawn. First came a woman with long curly black hair and a faint scar on her face. Walking next to her was a gorgeous, naked, leanly muscled man with his dark-brown, shoulder-length hair plastered to his head by the rain. In one arm he cradled the cutest little black panther imaginable, its paws on his chest and its head tucked under his chin.

A baby panther. It was a baby that had been lost. The man carrying him—his father—must be Xander, which made his curly-haired companion his mate, Jenny.

They were followed by a tall man with blond hair that flopped over his eyes, and a scar across one cheek. That must be Brody, the wolf—Jasmin’s mate. He was dressed, but his clothes were ripped and torn from the underbrush. The owl floated overhead.

The panthers got to the porch stairs, where Flynn was standing with Sloan, now in human form. His dark-blond hair was long on top and shaved on the sides, and his gray eyes looked tired and miserable.

Jenny paused at the top of the steps, Xander and the little panther just behind her.

“I’m so sorry,” Sloan said softly, his head down. “I didn’t know Brandon was even there. I thought he was inside with you. My cat just went nuts—” He shook his head.

“It’s not your fault,” Jenny said. “He got away from us. Ninja panther strikes again.” She put her hand on Sloan’s arm. “Are you okay?”

“Fucking PTSD,” Sloan muttered.

Jenny patted his shoulder, and then rubbed the side of her face gently against Sloan’s. Like a cat, Kira realized. Of course, duh. They were both cats.

She went on across the porch. Xander tried to shoulder past Sloan, not making eye contact, but Flynn’s quiet voice stopped him. “Xander.”

Xander stopped, but kept his eyes down, stroking his son’s fur.

Sloan reached out and ran his fingers down the baby panther’s back. “Hey, Brandon,” he said. “Sorry, buddy. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The little panther stretched and shimmered, and there was a sound like twigs snapping. Suddenly there was a little boy in Xander’s arms, maybe two and a half or three, with dark silky hair and an identical expression to Xander’s.

“You’s very snarly,” he said disapprovingly to Sloan. “You made my panter run away.”

“I know,” Sloan said. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.” He touched the little boy’s shoulder. “You know I wouldn’t ever hurt you, right?”

The boy rolled his eyes. “I knows dat. But my panter doesn’t know all the fings dat I know.”

That brought a slight smile to Sloan’s face. “I hear you. Sometimes my leopard doesn’t know things that I know, either.”

“Like, thunder-boom doesn’t hurt him really?”

Sloan huffed a tiny laugh. “Yeah. Like that.”

Brandon nodded. He reached up and pulled Sloan’s face down, rubbing his baby cheek against it. “Okay. I isn’t mad.”

He poked Xander. “Daddy, we isn’t mad at Unca Sloan, right? We has to kiss his face so he knows.”

Xander raised his eyes to Sloan’s. Kira saw him take in the still-healing gouges on Sloan’s arms and torso, from Xander’s claws.

The moment stretched with tension. Everyone held their breath.

Xander put his free hand around the back of Sloan’s neck and gave him the same face-rubbing cat-gesture of affection.