“No, he’s an idiot,” Jordon said sarcastically. “Of course he did, but they’re accusing them of starting it, which makes no sense. They’re bringing up old shit from when Desmon and his mate got together, something to do with him stealing her from the Goodwins. They’re accusing him of trying to poach females from their pack, and he’s very tense about it.”
“Sounds like wolf shenanigans,” Cage snorted. “You know the wolf side of the Alliance is all kinds of fucked up. I never trusted those motherfuckers.”
“They’re so power-hungry,” Kade agreed. “Always fighting with each other about something stupid.”
“I know,” Jordon sighed. “But this is a good pack. I think they’re worth sticking with.”
They had only joined the Nightwind pack three days ago. They were invited because their longtime friend, Shawna, ended up mated to one of their alphas, and the Nightwinds needed help fighting a territory war.
And that’s what the Riley brothers did all the time—fight.
Kade was hopeful things might finally settle down now that they were invited into a real pack, one with lots of land and security. It had been a long time, and they were all very ready.
“I didn’t say they weren’t a good pack,” Cage argued. “But I sure don’t like pack politics, and I like Alliance politics even less—especially the wolf side.”
“Well, it doesn’t matter what you think about it. We’re former undercover agents who got in between a territory war with a bunch of rural pack wolves. We have to give our statements, which means, Kade—”
Kade held up his hands. “Let me shower, we’ll grab breakfast, and head out then. I’ll hurry.”
“You don’t need breakfast.”
“Jordon.” Kade gave him a pointed look. “I didn’t eat dinner, and I burned a lot of calories last night.” He placed a hand against his chest. “Big kitty needs to eat.”
“Have one of Cage’s protein bars.”
“Where have you been my entire life? I cannot eat those bars,” Kade growled at him. The panther under the surface was very edgy at the idea of being left in the dirt by the lovely Candy and then not even getting breakfast to help ease the pain. “There is no way I’m going into a meeting with Alliance officials without eating. That’ll be bad for everyone.”
“Man, I like the bars. I dunno what your problem is,” Cage grumbled. “I got tons of snacks you could eat.”
“Yeah, just make an exception for once,” Jordon agreed. “Some of that stuff tastes good if you’d give it a chance.”
“Look, I’m not the weird one here. Great for you two. You won the genetic lottery—have all the bread, potatoes, and protein bars you want.” Kade sighed for what had to be the thousandth time in his life. “But I’m a fucking meat-eater. That’s it. None of that other shit works for me.”
“Like it or not, you’re part wolf like the rest of us,” Jordon assured him. “You can eat an omnivore diet for one morning. I promise you won’t die.”
“You might as well be offering me cardboard.”
“We’ll drive through somewhere,” Jordon offered rather than argue.
Eating fifteen over-cooked hamburger patties sounded fucking dreadful to Kade, but it was better than nothing.
“I guess,” he grumbled. “But I’m going hunting after we’re done.”
“Fine, hunt.” Jordon held up his hands. “That’s one of the reasons we agreed to join Nightwind. Wide open spaces.”
Cage and Kade took the SUV. They let Cord and Jordon go ahead because Kade needed to get something in his stomach before he was a danger to all the nice humans and wolves who lived in Hollow Mountain.
Kade insisted on sitting in the parking lot outside Desmon Nightwind’s office and eating his very disappointing breakfast. His morning was not going awesome. He was having a hard time getting over Candy leaving when he should have been thanking her. The last thing he needed to add was an overly attached human to the life he lived.
It would be horrible for everyone, most especially Candy Barr.
Try telling that to his baser instincts, though.
“You’re grumpy for a guy who just got laid,” Cage observed as he sat in the passenger side of the car, eating a bun with just cheese on it. “Hey, can I have your pickle too?”
“It’s all yours.” Kade peeled off the pickle sticking to his hamburger patty and tossed it into the pile of cheesy buns spread out on the burger wrapper in Cage’s lap. “Weirdest panther in existence.”
Cage just grunted in acknowledgment while he put the pickle on his burgerless burger and took a bite, much happier with Kade’s leftovers than Kade was with his hamburger patty.
Cage could eat absolutely anything.
Just like a werewolf.
Kade was much pickier and generally a huge pain in the ass when it came to food, according to his brothers.
Just like a werecat.
Kade actually growled as he took a bite of the patty. He did not want to be dealing with shifter politics right now, but he was an adult and knew for a fact he had to face this problem—like he did all the others—because there was always something.
Being born into a family of shifter mutts had its downsides.
Kade and his three brothers were certainly an oddity in their world.
Their father was a wolf, and their mother a panther. That almost never happened because big cats and wolf shifters notoriously did not get along. Kade, Cage, and Jordon came out as cats, though the wolf side showed up in all of them in varying ways.
Cord was the only wolf of the four of them, but he was weird too.
For one, he was a great jumper for a wolf, and his hearing was better than other wolves, but his sense of smell wasn’t. It was better than Jordon, Cage and Kade, but not as good as other werewolves.
He also had weirdly sharp claws for a wolf.
Of all of them, Kade could blend the easiest in the shifter world. He was mostly just panther. His scent was panther—nothing smelled off about him. His diet was panther. His attitude was panther, and he kicked ass like a panther.
The only thing he’d ever noticed to be more wolf-like was the pack mentality. He did not feel comfortable away from his family. He was blindly loyal to them, almost to a fault—like a wolf.
Kade also wasn’t very sneaky or sly, a notorious cat trait.
He was more of a punch-first, ask-questions-later type of shifter. He spoke his mind and didn’t always think about the consequences of it. Very wolf-like, but his twin, on the other hand… Kade looked to Cage, who was still happily eating his way through all Kade’s discarded buns.
“Will you do most of the talking?” Kade asked hopefully.
“I got you.” Cage gave him a grin. “It’ll be fine. They let pack wolves do whatever they want, you know that.”
“Yeah, I remember,” Kade said with wide eyes. “I got the nightmares to prove it.”
“Okay, that went dark.” Cage looked at him in concern. “You’ve been weird since you got back this morning. Care to share what the issue is?”
Kade shrugged and pulled another hamburger out of his bag, trying to figure out for himself what the problem was. He did not want a relationship. He couldn’t have one even if he wanted it, but knowing that didn’t change the fact that he’d felt incredibly sad since he woke up alone.