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For once in my life, I didn’t mind having someone else answer for me. I thought that proved that I really was not feeling up to my normal self at all.

I allowed them to escort me out of the store and back into the SUV. I didn’t even protest as one of them buckled me up as if I were a child, and I absolutely did not miss the look the brothers shared between them at my lack of protest. They were concerned, and I couldn’t blame them.

I sat back in the seat and closed my eyes to the world around me.

Adrian had struck out with his first move in this war, and he’d been found wanting. That was not going to make him happy in the slightest, and I knew he’d strike again soon.

After today, I’d learned he could have just about anyone involved in it, and I needed to be extra careful around anyone who wasn’t my family.

I needed to be extra careful.

And I needed to actually take this threat seriously.

It was all easier said than done.

6

It didn’t take long after we got to the big house for everyone to show up there. So I wouldn’t have to listen to them as they went over every tiny little detail of what had gone down in the super store, I went up to my bedroom after telling them that I needed to check on my hairless babies.

I wasn’t certain who believed me, but Quinton sure did look like some kind of proud, demented father.

I got the fuck out of there before he could get any more ideas about being a daddy that I absolutely did not want any part of. Sometimes he got these stupid ideas in his head, and he thought he could talk me around to them. They scared the shit out of me.

Binx was nowhere to be seen, and I assumed he’d been left at the shop because he refused to leave, was hiding in Dash’s room because love and affection scared the shit out ofhim,or Romero had kidnapped him again.

I loved that cat something fierce, but he could be a serious asshole sometimes. Still, I wished he was around more because I missed him.

Binx was different now. He had been ever since Romero had taken his magic back from the poor cat.

It was another thing that I could blame myself for, because if I hadn’t freed Romero, Binx would still be the same. But then we wouldn’t have Romero, so there really wasn’t any desire to go back to change it. Just the thought alone made me a bad person.

But I missed my cat, and I wanted him to return to his horrible old self. That wasn’t going to happen though, and I wondered if this Binx was the real Binx and what he was like before Romero had given him his magic to hold onto for safe keeping. Like with the color change to his fur—had he originally been white with little black splotches?

Only Romero would know these answers, and I had no desire to ask him. Bringing up the past for either Romero or his son was just bringing up painful reminders of the family that had horribly abused both of them.

So I left it alone, but I had a bad feeling about the whole thing. Like it left a bad taste in my mouth just thinking about it.

Romero had changed things for all of us, not just Dash and Binx. It was an adjustment having him in all our lives now.

As selfish as this was going to sound, I would have rather Romero remained without his magic than for Binx to have gone through his transformation.

And that was what really made me a terrible person, because I wouldn’t give up my magic for just anything. Now that I had it, I never wanted to let it go. It was an important part of what made me, well... me. I’d be lost without it.

Yet I’d take it from Romero in a heartbeat if it meant Binx would return to normal.

Fuck my life, but I didn’t need anything else to feel bad about.

“Meow.”

I looked down at the precious little creature who’d made that seriously pathetic noise. My sweet little baby, Bone.

Ash was the one Quinton had claimed for himself, even though they were both mine. He could pretend all he wanted.

“Hey, baby girl,” I cooed as I scooped her up off the floor. She snuggled into my arms and immediately began purring.

“What the hell are you wearing, my sweet little girl?” I asked her in shock. “Has Daddy Quinton been in here messing with you again? And where the heck is your sister? Where has she gotten off to? Hopefully she’s not getting into trouble somewhere in this stupidly large house. Your daddy, the total psycho that he is, keeps taking down certain gates when I’m not home in hopes of luring you sweet girls to his room. He thinks that if he keeps buying you things and spoiling you rotten that you and your sister will pick his room over mine and you’ll want to move in there with him. He’s crazy.”

I knew he was crazy, but I now held proof in my arms. My poor little girl was all dressed up in some bizarre leopard print outfit that I did not understand, because I didn’t get why people felt the need to dress up their pets.