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WREN

I wasn’t sure what shocked me more: that a tiny kitten had made her home with a bunch of wolves, that it was Ender who had brought her here, or that her name was Princess.

It was the Princess thing. Definitely that.

She began kneading my chest and let out a happy purr. I couldn’t help but give her a little scratch behind the ears. The purring only intensified.

“She’s so cute,” I cooed. But as I studied her, I realized she wasn’t a kitten after all. Her features were almost uneven, her legs and body shorter than a normal cat’s, but her facial features were that of a full-grown kitty. “Is she some special breed?”

Locke shook his head, a smile playing at his lips. “No, she has dwarfism. Someone abandoned her at the local shelter.”

“Who would abandon you?” I singsonged, letting my fingers sift through her fluffy gray fur. “You’re perfect.”

“When the shelter has cats with more complex health needs, they usually call Ender,” Kingston explained. “Sometimes, he fosters them until he can find a permanent placement for them, but with Princess, he kept her.”

“That cat runs his life,” Puck muttered. “He video calls her when we’re on missions.”

I blinked down at the adorable creature making herself at home in my lap. “Are you telling me that the most cantankerous of all of you, the assassin, is also…a cat daddy?”

Locke started choking on the sip of juice he’d just taken, and Brix thumped him on the back. Puck burst out laughing. “I’m only calling him that from now on.”

“Be prepared to get an arrow somewhere painful,” Brix warned.

“Worth it,” Puck said, popping a piece of bacon into his mouth before taking my plate and starting to fill it.

“I’m still trying to process that the dark lord has a heart,” I mumbled as Puck set a heaping plate in front of me.

A deep chuckle sounded, and everyone froze, turning slowly toward Brix. Puck’s jaw dropped. “Did you just laugh ?”

Brix snapped his mouth shut and glared at Puck. “I laugh.”

“Once in a blue moon,” Locke muttered.

“They’re not wrong,” Kingston said, breaking off a bite of biscuit.

I took my free hand and picked up my fork, spooning some grits onto it. As I took the bite, I couldn’t help but close my eyes as a soft moan left my lips. It was the best thing I’d tasted in my life. I’d thought the sound had been quiet enough for only Princess to hear, but when I opened my eyes, I found four sets on me.

I swallowed quickly, my cheeks heating. “Sorry. It’s really good.”

“Birdie, you keep making those sounds, and I’ll make it my life’s purpose to be your personal chef,” Puck growled.

I broke off a piece of my biscuit and threw it at him. But he simply caught it in his mouth.

“I could do this all day,” he murmured .

“Don’t make Wren uncomfortable,” King chastised.

Puck sent him a look of mock affront. “I would never do any such thing. Birdie, do I make you uncomfortable?”

“Only when you say Guinness is a good beer,” I shot back.

He glared at me. “Guinness from the tap and in the UK, my love. Not the drivel here.”

Something about the words my love had my internal temperature ratcheting up several degrees. It was stupid. I knew Puck was just teasing, but I couldn’t deny how every part of me wanted those words. Which made zero sense because I barely knew him. I barely knew any of them. Yet I yearned for them all.

“Wren, you okay?” Locke asked tentatively from across the table.

I shook myself out of my stupor, spooning another bite of grits with one hand while petting Princess with the other. “I’m good, just thinking about the fact that I missed work yesterday.” I glanced at Puck. “Did you let Dina know I’d be out?”

He nodded. “Told her you had a bad migraine.”

The familiar explanation made an ache take root in my chest, memories rising of all the times my mother had made that excuse for me as a child. “Thanks. Does anyone know what time it is?”

“Eleven,” Locke answered. “Why?”

I popped a piece of bacon into my mouth and chewed quickly. “My shift starts at noon.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Kingston said. His tone wasn’t loud, but it was final, the alpha bleeding into his voice. If he really wanted to, he could force my submission. It wouldn’t even be difficult because my empath status meant I didn’t even have a tenth of the dominance he did.

Still, my eyes met his in challenge. “Excuse me?”

Kington’s jaw tightened, a muscle fluttering there. “You’re still recovering, and it’s not safe. Not when so many dark mages got away.”

I didn’t look away or show even a flicker of weakness. “You know as well as I do that wolves recover from this sort of thing in a matter of hours. A day, at most. It’s been almost two. I’m fine. And I doubt the dark mages will attack in the middle of the day. They don’t want to be outed any more than we do.”

Tension bled into Kingston’s neck, making a vein there pulse. “That doesn’t mean they couldn’t use humans to take you.”

He had a point, but I wasn’t about to stay cooped up in their fortress for the rest of time. “I can take care of myself. You’ve seen that.”

“What I saw was you getting a blade to the gut,” King growled.

Annoyance flickered, but I knew he was pulling the move out of care. “I won’t be alone. Puck’ll be working, too.”

“I can take one of the booths,” Locke offered.

I sent him a grateful look. “See, plenty of backup. I’ll only be alone when I pee.”

Puck chuckled. “We could use the buddy system for the bathroom?—”

“Puck,” I warned.

He held up both hands. “All right, all right.”

King looked at Brix in silent question. It was then that I realized Brix must be Kingston’s beta, and he was asking for his opinion. It was so different from how my father ruled. His opinion was the only one that mattered.

Brix turned that blue-green gaze my way. It roamed my face and felt almost physical, like a gentle breeze across my skin. My wolf threw herself against the walls of her metaphysical cage, wanting out. Wanting to get to him. I bit down on the inside of my cheek to keep her in check.

“A deal,” Brix rasped. “She goes to work and the gym but doesn’t fight us on staying here.”

My jaw dropped. “You know I’m not a prisoner, right?”

His lips twitched. “Little Warrior, prisoners don’t get a guest room.”

I let out a huff of air .

“You have one of us with you wherever you go,” Kingston added to the bargain.

My back teeth ground together. “Fine.”

He grinned. “I knew you could be reasonable.”

I did the only thing I could. I stuck my tongue out at him.

King barked out a laugh. “Such spirit.”

Puck leaned over and squeezed my thigh. “Will it really be so bad being stuck with me?”

The contact had heat spiking in my blood, and I sucked in an audible breath. My wolf snarled, chomping at her tightly held reins. Fucking hell. It took everything in me not to shift.

Something had changed while I was unconscious. Maybe it was the injury or being so vulnerable around these wolves, but my wolf was losing it. If she went feral, there was only one thing this pack would do.

Put her down.