Free Cat's Wolf (A Shifter Romance Novella) by Leanne Crabtree

hurried to the toilet.
    Flushing the toilet she washed her
hands and then headed back out to the corridor, stopping halfway through the
door when she saw Brent heading her way.
    A slightly silly grin curved his
lips as he gave her a respectful nod, “Morning.”
    “Morning,” she replied.
    “I heard you had a good time last
night,” he teased, his grin turning into a full-fledged smile. Kaitlin cheeks
flamed and she pressed one warm cheek to the cool wood of the door. “Both of
you actually, judging from the noises I heard.” She groaned audibly and dropped
her head forward, then heard his light chuckle as he grew closer. “Don’t be
embarrassed, Kaitlin. It’s great to see him happy again; you’re obviously good
for him.”
    The bedroom door opened and Rhys
stepped out in nothing but some hastily pulled on jeans that were almost
indecently low on his hips. He relaxed when he saw her, “Breakfast?”
    She nodded and followed after him
down the corridor to the kitchen while Brent slipped into the bathroom.
    Her gaze swept from side to side as
she tried to take in everything at once in the ultra-modern, state of the art
kitchen. It was huge with a black marble countertop running in a U shape with a
large island in the middle where there was a six ring stove.
    Rhys opened cupboards pulling out
two skillets which he placed on the counter top. Then he bent and pulled open
another door and grabbed a carton of eggs and several packets of bacon and
sausages.
    Ten minutes later, the three of
them were sat at the breakfast bar, talking as they ate.
    “So what’s our next move going to
be?” Brent asked as he forked up a whole sausage and brought it to his mouth.
    Kaitlin smiled despite herself as
she glanced at the food piled on their plates. The guys each had eight
sausages, twelve rashers of bacon and five fried eggs. She hadn't wanted so
much food and had the remaining four sausages, six rashers of bacon and two
eggs with a good squirt of brown sauce.
    “We should talk to the council
members. See what they all think of their esteemed leader. If they seem
derogatory we ask for their help if not we leave them alone. All we really need
is a majority vote.”
    “My father likely has something on
each of them,” she cautioned, cutting her bacon in half. Kaitlin felt both of
their gazes on her and glanced up. “What?”
    “You have a point,” Rhys said.
    She rolled her eyes. Of course she
did.
    “So what do we do instead?” Brent
asked.
    Tilting her head, she thought about
it. “I imagine my father has pissed off a lot of people over the years. Why
don’t we find them; band together?”
    The two men shared a look and then
Brent nodded slightly. Then he turned back to her. They must have been having a
silent conversation; something unique to the wolf shifters. “It’s not a bad
plan. Can you think of anyone in particular?”
    Several names ran through her mind
and she dismissed most of them but one in particular stood out.
    Malachi.
    He was a cat shifter, a jaguar like
her father. They’d been close when she was younger; one of the few boys not
scared of her father. It had been him who had taken her virginity at the age of
seventeen and for that he’d been made an outcast of the clan at the hands of
her dad. It had basically happened overnight and no-one really understood why
but they’d never questioned the ruling. That had been over six years ago and
he’d never caused any trouble since then; or before he’d been exiled if she
remembered correctly.
    “Malachi Dawson. My father exiled
him from the clan several years ago.”
    “On what grounds?”
    Blood rushed to her cheeks and she
dropped her gaze to her plate as she answered to avoid Rhys’ probing gaze.
“Deflowering his daughter.”
    A tense silence fell at the table
and she chanced a glance up to see Rhys’ jaw was clenched tight and his hands
were fisted around the knife and fork he was holding, the metal beginning to
bend in his grip. His eyes