Page 71 of Rhett

“Don’t forget to come back later,” Brody called out. “Enjoy yourself.”

“Bye, Brody,” I said over my shoulder.

“I like him,” I said to Rhett. “What type of shifter is he?” I stopped in my tracks. “Or is that impolite to ask?”

“Not in the Ridge.” He nudged me along. “Brody, Quinn, and Piper are wolf-shifters. Mack, my deputy, is a lion-shifter. Emmett is a rhino, and Jasper, a tiger.”

“Is it common in the Other world to form a pack with different species?”

“No. That’s why most residents in this town call us the misfits.”

“Misfits? That sounds derogatory.”

He shrugged. “We don’t care what people say about us. We’re more than friends. We’re a band of brothers who served in an elite military unit together, and we’re inseparable.”

We passed a funnel cake booth, and my stomach grumbled. “Why did you decide to settle in the Ridge?”

“When Quinn’s father died, he retired—well, we all did—and he came back here to take over as the alpha of this town and alpha of the Bane pack. So instead of going our separate ways, he talked us into making Black Forest our home, and we’ve never looked back.”

We stopped at a booth with aThings on a Sticksign.

“Hey, Darcy. How’s it going?” Rhett asked the rotund woman grilling an assortment of meats. The aroma curling up from the grill made me practically tipsy.

“It’s going,” Darcy replied, then looked over at me. “Welcome, Nova. What can I get you?”

I smiled. “Hi, Darcy. Just surprise me.”

“Serving it up,” Darcy replied in a singsong voice. She pulled two skewers of sizzling meat off the grill, wrapping them in foil before handing them over to us.

“And two lemonades,” Rhett requested, then paid for everything.

We took our food and drinks over to an empty picnic table and sat side by side.

I bit into the succulent, rich smoked meat. “Goodness, it’s scrumptious. What is it?”

Rhett ripped a chunk off the skewer. “Don’t ever ask what kind of meat Darcy is cooking up. You might not like the answer. Just enjoy.” He took another chunk off his skewer and chewed with a look of pure enjoyment on his face.

He smells better than that meat you’re eating,my inner beast said.

I chewed faster.Quiet,I snapped.Just let me figure this out.

What’s to figure out?my beast asked.We choose him. Now bite him.

“Question,” I squeaked.

“Huh?” He stopped midchew.

“Does your animal talk to you?”

He laughed. “All the time… lately.”

“What do you mean by lately?”

“My jaguar has been pissed at me for years. He stopped talking to me. Well, correction, he communicated only when he was complaining about one thing or another. And let me tell you, he’s a big complainer. But other than that, he was angry at me because he thought I’d given up on searching for our fated mate.” He grabbed my hand. “Now I can’t get him to shut up. He’s been saying that you’re ours from the first moment he got a whiff of your scent.” He pressed his muscular thigh against mine.

Picking up my cup, I sucked lemonade through the red-and-white straw. “And did you agree with him?”

“Nope.” He shrugged. “I fought my attraction to you because I’m stubborn and a little bit of an asshole.”