Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116662 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 583(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Deke looked pleased. “When?”
“Soon.” Providing her Alphas weren’t difficult. “Tate will come along, as will her Alpha male. We’ll probably—”
“Dear God, will you never stop?” yelled another voice from down the hall.
Isaiah looked to see Tate’s youngest brother, Damian, scowling at his sister.
“Until the world accepts that I’m right about you and brands you the monster you are, no,” Elle bellowed back at him. “No, Beelzebub, I will never stop.”
Damian threw up his arms, his face red and splotchy. “I can’t with you.”
Her insistence on him being the antichrist had never shifted, and Isaiah doubted it ever would. All pallas cats generally struggled to get along with their siblings as children if they were close in age. It wasn’t even rare for them to attempt to kill one another. Tate and his other brother, Luke—who was also the pride’s Beta—were perfect examples of that. But such siblings didn’t always carry their grudges into adulthood. Elle was different in that respect.
His lips quirked, Deke looked up at Bailey, who’d quite clearly zoned out. “Are you in a mental world of your own again?”
She hummed as she snapped to the present. “I’m just wondering if colors look the same to everyone else as they do to me.”
Isaiah felt his mouth curve. The female often came out with the weirdest stuff, though some of it could be described as insightful.
Deke frowned at her. “What?”
“Well … we can’t know for sure that we all see the exact same thing when we look at a color, can we?” she asked. “My version of yellow could be different from yours, and we’d have no clue. And before you go thinking that our eyes can be trusted to see things exactly as they are, just note that leaves are not really green.”
Deke stared at her for a long moment. “I’d tell you to look it up, but you don’t like reading about anything that involves science.”
“Because scientists lie.” Bailey climbed down from her mate’s back and skirted around him. “They shape our view of the world with bullshit from when we’re young so we’ll miss the truth even when older.”
“I really don’t think that’s the case.”
“Because they’ve successfully brainwashed you.” She patted his cheek, all mock sympathy. “It’s so sad.”
Isaiah couldn’t help but chuckle.
Deke fisted her sweater. “No one has brainwashed me, least of all scientists. They deal in logic—something I’m aware you fail to grasp.”
“Preaching logic is another way to shape and control you. Do what’s rational, follow the rules, blend with the flock.” She cupped his chin. “Don’t let them trap and rule you.”
His brown eyes glinting with exasperation, Deke insisted, “There is no trap.”
“You have so much to learn, young grasshopper. Stick with me, kid. You’ll be fine. I’ll open your eyes to reality in time.”
“My eyes are wide open.”
“And seeing only what scientists tell you to see. Hello, brainwashed.”
Isaiah bit the last of his chicken from the bone to keep from laughing out loud.
Deke let go of her sweater and threw up a hand. “Okay, this conversation is just plain over.”
“It’s a good sign that my questions make you uncomfortable,” she told him. “It means you’re starting to believe I might be right but you’re not ready to face it yet. I can work with that.”
Done with his chicken wing, Isaiah walked over to the nearby portable trash can and dumped his rubbish into it. As he wiped his fingers with a napkin he’d earlier pocketed, he sensed someone approaching and looked up. His Alphas were on their way over—probably to check if Isaiah had heard from Quinley yet, since they’d said they would.
To be fair, she might have reached out again. It was so loud in here he wouldn’t have heard his phone beep.
Having tossed his balled-up napkin in the trash, Isaiah dug his cell out of his pocket and checked his notifications. She had actually sent him another message. Reading it, he felt an unexpected sizzle of anticipation enter his bloodstream.
Isaiah had no sooner finished rattling off a reply than his Alphas reached him. “Just heard from Quinley.” He closed the app and returned his cell to his pocket. “Her Alpha suggested we meet tomorrow morning at ten. I told her that’d be fine, since you said any day or time would be good for you.”
Tate nodded. “Still is.” The dark, well-built male cocked his head. “I wondered if you’d change your mind once it all became real. It’s one thing to answer a questionnaire and contact someone online, it’s another to take the next step. But you really are sure of your course of action, aren’t you?”
Isaiah gave a slow but decisive nod. “I thought hard and long about it. Then I thought hard and long about it some more. And some more. This is the right thing for me.”
“Then we’re fully behind you,” declared Havana, leaning into her mate as he stroked her long maple-brown hair. “Having a black-foot around could be interesting. I’ve met a few in the past. They seemed pleasant enough. They always seem pleasant enough”—mirth bled into her almond-shaped bluish-gray eyes—“but when riled … Well, ‘mean’ often goes along with ‘small’ in the shifter world.”