Marco narrowed his eyes at the wolf shifter, but he smiled at the same time. “I trust that they’re not all traitors, and the ones who aren’t will catch anything that needs catching.”
My phone’s ringtone started playing, so unexpectedly I flinched in my seat. My mates all shot curious glances my way. No one had this number other than Kylie. I fumbled for the phone and answered it as quickly as I could.
“Kylie, what’s up? Is something wrong?”
“Not at all!” her cheerful voice rang out on the other end. “Everything is spectacular. Especially because I just touched down in Miami. So how exactly do I get from the airport to this shifter estate of yours?”
I blinked, my mind going momentarily blank. “Um, what?”
“I flew down to see you! You said you were going to be near Miami, and there was a sale going on—the flight was so cheap. I couldn’t resist.”
I opened and closed my mouth a few times before I managed to produce more words. “Okay. Okay. Oh my God. Let me just... talk to the guys.”
Who were all still watching me. Marco looked amused, Aaron curious, Nate concerned, and West—well, it was pretty hard to read West’s expression at certain moments. I’d go with “grim” this time around.
Marco was the man to deal with logistics here, I guessed. I muffled the phone with my palm. “Kylie, uh, flew herself down here. She’s at the Miami airport. Can we... bring her here? She wants to visit.”
“I’m not sure now is the best time for that,” Aaron pointed out.
Oh. Right. In my shock, I’d completely forgotten that even we weren’t necessarily safe on the estate. And Kylie didn’t have any shifter super powers to call on if the situation went south. A chill trickled through me. “She’s already here. I don’t know if she can even afford to change her ticket to go right back.”
Marco was already waving his hand dismissively. “Don’t even think about that. We can cover whatever you need.”
I got back on the phone. “Actually, Kylie... We’re in kind of a bad place right now. We found out that one of Marco’s people has been helping the rogues, and it sounds like they’re planning an attack while we’re here. I don’t want you getting hurt again, even though I do really, really want to see you.”
There was a pause. “You’re worried I’ll be in the way,” Kylie said. Sounding truly downcast was outside her vocal range, but I could hear her disappointment in the flattening of her enthusiasm.
“No!” I said. “I just know, if there’s fighting or something, you can’t defend yourself the same way.”
Kylie sucked in a breath. “What if I’m okay with that?” she said. “I’ve survived a long time around people a lot bigger and tougher than me. I’m not going to be a liability, Ren. Maybe I’ll even help! I found that first clue of your mom’s for you.” She paused again. “Unless you just don’t want me there at all.”
My heart wrenched. I did want to have her with me, to talk to her face to face instead of via a phone screen, so badly. Kylie had survived an awful lot in the city during the years we’d been on the streets. Maybe I was underestimating just how strong—and resourceful—a non-shifter could be.
“I do,” I said quickly. “Believe me, I do. You’re right. I’ll get Marco to send somebody. When I know what the plan is, I’ll text you any details you’ll need.”
As I hung up, Marco arched his eyebrow at me. I sagged in my seat. “She made a very compelling argument. And Kylie is the toughest person I know, even if she doesn’t look it.”
“It’s up to you, princess,” Marco said. “I can send someone.”
I waited for one of the other alphas—probably West—to argue, but no one did. “Okay. When you send them off, let me know where Kylie should meet them.”
Marco nodded. Then he swept his arm expansively toward the bunch of us. “We’re good to go now. My staff have prepared an informal luncheon-slash-meet-and-greet. I’d tell you to behave yourselves, but my kin probably won’t, so just do as you see fit.”
Alice fell into step with me as we headed for the plane’s door. “I’ll keep an extra eye on your friend if you want.”
My eyes widened. “If it’s any trouble—”
“None,” she said firmly. “Friends are important. Lord knows you’re going to need as many as you can get, and I don’t see any point in discriminating about who or what they are. If she’s important to you, that’s good enough for me.”
I smiled at her, more touched than I knew how to say. Apparently I’d made at least one more solid friend during my time with the shifter kin.
Marco’s estate was farther inland than Aaron’s, but the salt in the breeze told me there was a brackish lake nearby. Otherwise the place felt totally different from either of the other estates I’d visited. Lush tropical vegetation grew all around the paths, palm trees shading us with their fronds overhead. The summer heat had a damp weight to it.
The house, when we reached it, was a massive colonial mansion, all peach except the ornate white trim around the windows and doors. A greenhouse almost the same size as the rest of the building, its glass tinted to prevent anyone from looking in, jutted from the northern wing.
Having stayed briefly in one of the feline alpha’s guesthouses, I knew what to expect from the inside of the mansion: thick rugs, Victorian antique furnishings, and velvet basically everywhere. I felt underdressed the second I walked in the door. Marco led the way to the expansive ballroom where his “informal luncheon” was taking place.
A few dozen feline shifters—the ones who lived on the estate grounds, I assumed—were already gathered there, snacking on tidbits from the platters set on tables along the walls. Most of them glanced our way, but no one hurried over to greet us.
Typical cat aloofness, I found myself thinking, and caught myself before I smirked. Yeah, the feline shifters certainly kept to the attitudes of their animal counterparts.
But one of the kin around me might be scheming right now to overthrow all of us. I studied each of them as Marco ushered me deeper into the room.
“Alpha,” a woman in the first group we approached said, with the slightest bob of her head in deference. Her scent told me she was a lion. She turned her golden eyes on me. “And this is the dragon shifter.” Her tone gave away no clear emotion, but I felt her sizing me up. I lifted my chin instinctively, wishing I’d insisted on changing into something more elegant than jeans and a T-shirt.
“This is the great Serenity herself,” Marco said languidly but without any hint of irony. “I hope all of my kin will make her feel welcome.”
“Naturally,” the lion shifter said. She offered an elegant hand for me to shake. “Coreen of the Bushnells.”
“A pleasure to meet you,” I said, biting back any other comments I might have made about the warmth of her welcome—or lack thereof.