Page 48 of Colton’s Mate

Well, he must be feeling better if he was making stupid jokes.

Brandon shook his head. “We’re going to have to figure out some way of dealing with this.” Something outside of the reach of the Shifter Council, who frowned on this shit and could also potentially lock up Colt and Remy both, until and unless they proved they weren’t a danger to the shifter community.

Not his crew. Nobody was locking his people up.

Brandon turned to Remy. “Can you walk home?”

Remy rolled his shoulders and stretched out his legs one by one, as if testing out his muscles. “Um. I think so.” He looked around. “Can you grab my bag?” He waved his hand at a small carry-bag lying at the edge of the clearing. Brandon hadn’t even noticed it.

Brandon went to get up, but Phantom Nick just stared at the bag until it rolled over to Remy.

Well, hell. Someone had decided to use their powers for good.

“Thanks, Nick,” Remy said. He looked at Brandon. “That is Nick, isn’t it?”

“Yeah.” Only Brandon and Colt could actually see the ghost. And probably Squatch, but he’d never said. Kitty and Remy couldn’t see him unless Nick wanted them to.

Remy dressed himself slowly.

Brandon debated chickening out of the hard part of this conversation, but realized he couldn’t. He was alpha, dammit.

“So, what set your leopard off?”

Remy shrugged.

Not good enough. “You dropped something off at Callie’s? For Colt?”

“Yeah.”

“Did you talk to her?”

“I was an owl.”

Not an answer. “You had a bag of clothes with you, which means you planned on turning human at some point. Did you talk to her?”

Remy sighed. “Yeah, for a minute.”

“What about?”

Remy didn’t answer.

“Don’t fucking make me beat it out of you, man. You’re already hurting.” Brandon blew out a sigh. He was pretty sure he knew what this was about, and it was going to be a cluster fuck. “Is she Colt’s mate?”

Remy dropped his head. “Yeah. I think so.”

Yup. One twin with a mate, one without. Both of them with volatile new animals. Cluster fuck. “How do you feel about that?”

Remy sighed. “Why do people keep asking me that?”

“Why the fuck do you think? Because you guys have a bond nobody really understands. Everyone assumed you’d find mates at the same time.”

“Life’s a bitch. I’ll handle it.”

“I know you will. What I’m worried about is how your animals are handling it.”

If Colt bonded with Callie and her lynx, what would happen to his bond with Remy, and their animals’ bonds to each other?

If Remy’s leopard lost his connection with Colt’s leopard, would he go full rogue? Or just lose his mind and spend his life fighting both Remy and his owl? Shit.