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“No problem.”
Byron had a map on his tablet, and several of the houses were marked with a red x.
“We have three unoccupied homes right now,” he said. “That’s going to change in forty-eight hours, and there will be two more. But they won’t be clean and ready for at least a week if not longer.”
“Are they the homes of the guys who attacked Barron?” Mercy asked, giving Barron’s hand a squeeze.
“Yes.” Byron stopped walking and faced them. “We exiled Jake, Lenn Jr., and his parents. They were all against Duke and Memory becoming mates. It appears that it was Lenn Jr.’s idea to threaten you with the intention of Barron kicking you to the curb and taking Memory, too. They wanted Duke to mate with the lioness from the other pride and to keep our pride pure lions only.”
“They obviously don’t understand what a mated male feels like when he finds his heart-match,” Barron said. “I’d never walk away from Mercy. And I know damn well that Duke wouldn’t have sent Ree packing, either.”
“The whole lot of them were fools,” Byron said, shaking his head. “But that’s what happens when you’re stuck in the old ways. Our pride should have changed the mating laws years ago.”
“Don’t you guys have a match-maker, though?” Mercy asked.
“Yes, why?” Byron asked.
“So she’s just out of a job?”
“No. There are still lions who don’t want to wait for their heart-match, or don’t believe that everyone gets one. So Abbie will be working for those who want her services, but maybe she might not be as busy.”
Barron thought of Diesel, who’d had his mate-match fail. Then he looked at Mercy, who smiled up at him with the sunlight making gold highlights in her hair. “A heart-match is the way to go.”
“Agreed,” Byron said, clapping Barron on the back.
Two hours later, Barron and Mercy had fallen in love with a house close to Donnie’s. It had a quaint front porch with a creaky wooden swing that he promised to fix, three bedrooms, a back porch that had a great view of the woods, and a kitchen that Mercy said she’d learn how to use.
“Well, it’s all yours,” Byron said. “You’ll just have to sign some paperwork, get it cleaned, and then you can move in. Come over for dinner tomorrow night and we’ll get things going.”
“Thank you so much,” Mercy said.
Barron shook his hand and thanked him.
“Well, honestly, it’s my pleasure and I want to thank you guys, too, for finding each other and sticking with us while we sort all the laws out. It’s not easy to be different, especially with shifters.”
“No problem,” Barron said.
Barron and Mercy walked back to the alpha’s house with Byron, said hello to Davina and then hung out with Donnie until he fired up the grill and made them his famous barbecue ribs.
When they finally made it back to the apartment, he was ready to spend some quality time with his gorgeous mate.
Mercy toed off her shoes by the front door. “Did you ever think your life would go like this?”
“Honestly, no. But I’ve never been happier.”
“Oh?” she asked, stepping into his embrace and rising onto her toes. “Do tell.”
“Well,” he said, giving her waist a squeeze and drawing her close so she could feel just how turned on he was. “No matter what else happened with the pride, I would have been content because at the end of the day, I get you. You’re everything to me, and I don’t know what I’d do without you in my life. You make my heart happy and you make me feel like my cat and I have finally found our home.”
“Aw, Barron,” she said, blinking rapidly as her eyes glittered. “You’re the most amazing guy I’ve ever met in my whole life and I’m so lucky to be with you.”
“We’re both lucky,” he said, lifting her into his arms and striding toward the bed. “But for the record, I’m the luckiest.”
She nuzzled his throat with a soft purr-like hum. “Whatever you say, sexy.”
ChapterTen
“So are you excited?” Mercy asked as she sectioned Ree’s freshly washed and dried hair and pinned it up.
