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He started toward the door and stopped. Caden needed space. His jaguar needed to run, Quinten could tell. He’d seen it a few times the last couple of weeks, where Caden would get too antsy or worked up about something, and the only thing that helped was shifting and sprinting through the woods or zigzagging through the hedge maze.
He’d even jumped into the pool once and swam around before flopping onto his side on the heated cement and napping for an hour.
Liam had always been the same. He’d never noticed if some of the other shifters had the same sort of traits, but he figured it was definitely a cat thing at the very least. They just got grumpy and frustrated if they didn’t stretch their fur often enough.
Instead of tracking him down and forcing him to have a conversation, he pulled out his phone and texted Nero.
Quinten: Make sure that Caden gets back to the house. Dare and I are going into the city for the night, but I’ll be back tomorrow.
Nero texted back quickly. It didn’t sound like he wanted to go back to the house, boss.
Quinten swallowed. He’d known that they’d all be able to hear, even as he’d dragged Caden into the plane. But for the first time in a long time, a spike of rage shot through him at the lack of privacy.
Quinten: I didn’t ask for your opinion. If he’s not at the house in the next hour, I’m holding you personally responsible.
Nero: Understood, sir.
Usually, Nero’s texts were filled with emojis and LOLs. He knew he had pissed him off with his half-thought-out plan. Dare had been upset the entire drive to the airport too. Quinten figured he probably owed them an apology for forcing them to go along with hurting Caden.
But at the moment, he was just exhausted.
All he wanted was to wrap his arms around his kitten and have him forgive him. He had a hard time seeing what kind of future they could have together, but he knew he had to be a part of it.
And not on the periphery, like he kept his brother and son, but firmly entrenched in it, getting his hands dirty, standing by Quinten’s side.
That was what he wanted, and if he had gotten to know Caden as well as he thought the last couple of weeks, he knew that was the kind of mate Caden would be.
He just… God, he was terrified he wouldn’t be enough. That he’d fall short in giving his jaguar all the things he needed from a mate.
He made his way off the plane and back to the SUV. Alan was waiting next to it, prepared to drive him back to the house or take care of the SUV.
“I’m going to fly to the city in the helicopter. Thanks for the ride.”
He patted Alan on the shoulder as he passed and then headed into the hangar, where he’d seen Dare storm off to before Caden had confronted him.
He found the sour wolf going through one of the storage lockers they kept there. He was fairly certain everything in there was already well organized, but it was something Dare did when he was upset.
“I’m going to text Arnold. He should be here soon.”
“Already did,” Dare said without turning around.
“Dare.”
The wolf whipped around. “Don’t.”
It was all he said before he marched out of the hangar. Quinten rubbed at his forehead, wondering if there was anybody else in his life he could piss off.
His phone started to ring. A bit of brotherly premonition told him that his day was about to get a smidge worse. Sure enough, he pulled it out to find Liam’s name on the screen. He almost didn’t answer, knowing he was about to get an earful. But he deserved to know that they weren’t coming anymore.
“Hey,” he answered.
“Hey, yourself,” Liam said. “What’s this I hear about you fucking everything up?”
He wasn’t sure which one of his people had texted his brother, but they were getting fired immediately.
“I miscalculated,” he said slowly.
“No shit. I told you that you couldn’t just bring somebody to a new pack and drop them off. These things are delicate.”
