“He could have put on fucking pants. Goddess, give me strength.”
Jay grabs his sweats off the floor and a T-shirt off the chair, hoping they will forgive him for not standing on ceremony. Catching up to the dawdling Gideon isn’t difficult—especially when he stops at the top of the stairs andtilts his head.
“Wha—?” Jay asks, but it’s too late.
Gideon doesn’t answer—he just takes off, flying down the stairs and into the living room.
There, on the floor—with her gorgeous face swollen, red-puffy eyes weeping tears, and laughing with Jay’s beloved—is Lauren Arnell Costas holding an all-white kitten.
Luca hands a black one to Gideon like it’s made of glass.
“They brought the kittens!” Luca announces, as if it’s breaking news.
Gideon plops down onto the couch beside Grayson as Leo arrives from the kitchen with a box of antihistamines. He doles them out to Grayson, Finn, and then to himself.
“This is our life now,” he sighs, lifting the box as if toasting someone with it.
Gideon lifts the kitten to his cheek—and Jay swears he sees a tear. Whoa.
“Did they just show up?” Unannounced is not either of his mother-in-law’smodus operandi.
Nix laughs and places a hand on Lauren’s arm, which she covers with her own, a smile on her face before running a single elegant finger over the kitten’s soft white head.
“Is she allergic? Like you?” Jay whispers.
“Fuck, yes. Worse than me, even. For all that is holy, do not comment on it.
Leo sneezes, and then Grayson follows suit. With a put-upon sigh, Finn stands up and points over his shoulder to the yard where two black-clad Sentinel agents are digging in the yard. “I am out of here before these two get going. Gentlemen?”
Grayson kisses Jay’s cheek while whispering, “Good luck, alpha,” before following Finn and Leo outside, where Tsuki and Rowan are stopping by each hole Sentinel has dug into the yard.
Only one of them is sniffing for intruders—no need to guess who.
“Cowards,” Frankie chuckles, waving at her son as he leaves the rest of them to their fate.
“Morning, Jay. I’m sorry to just pop in on you like this. The cats were getting too big to be in the pool house any longer, and we tried bringing them into the house, but as you can see…”
She doesn’t mention her wife’s uncomfortable reaction to the cats. The same cats Lauren is still petting.
“She’s allergic, but promised Nix she’d keep them. So…here we are.”
“Jamie!” Nix says. “Can we keep them? Tsuki doesn’t care one bit, and Moms brought all the stuff. Please?”
“Stuff” is an eight-foot cat tree and five boxes of what Jay assumes are cat toys and paraphernalia.
Jay should probably hesitate—because three-eighths of their family is allergic—but he quickly caves.
What?Jay can’t be blamed. Not when it’s disconcerting to have Lauren’s formidable look of disapproval pointed in his direction when she looks like that.
Jay would never deny him or Gideon this, anyway.
“Of course. What are you naming them?”
Because as much as Gideon has that little black kitten under his chin, both of them purring, these cats are a gift for Nix.
Nix hums, then looks at Gideon. Jay catches a nod from the alpha out of the corner of his eye.
Go ahead.
