the number of kittens they keep around. I’m not sure how my daddy paid for his truck and new car. The rest of the escapees make more than I do, so I didn’t feel too badly about mugging them for their money. But we all chip in for the kittens—or fixing things around the house. Lynx kittens get into everything. And break everything. Honestly, it’s amazing the house is still standing. It’s definitely too small for the number of kittens living in it, though. But lynxes sleep in cuddle piles often, so it’s not like they really need a bedroom each. There needs to be a bedroom per litter for the most part. I was weird, as after I hit my teens, I opted to sleep in a closet rather than with any of the litters. My brothers snore.”
“Your brothers are also male, and your virus would have gotten cranky around randy teenaged boys. Teenaged boys are walking hormones.”
“They really are. They cried the first time I hid in a closet to escape them and their stinky hormones.”
Sebastian chuckled. “Poor, sad little lynxes. Now, stop worrying and come enjoy the nice room. It was probably your uncle, and he probably called the hotel and made arrangements for any upgrades you hadn’t taken care of yourself.”
“He really would,” I complained, but I stepped into the room, which oozed modern luxury with a splash of rustic. The hotel had gone with warm colors over a cool gray backdrop, creating an odd but welcoming effect. To my delight, there was a fireplace in the sitting room, and a gift basket waited on the coffee table wrapped in metallic red crinkly cellophane. “Nobody told me there’d be presents.”
“My bet is on the guilty clan of cats who want to make sure you have a good time at your retreat. It must be so difficult for you, forced to acknowledge your family loves you. But you are a lynx. You do enjoy making things as difficult as possible.” Sebastian closed the door and engaged the deadbolt. “Once you have unwrapped your present, I’m going to drag you off, as manly lions tend to do, and unwrap my present. And I made sure to bring all of the required accessories needed to keep you tamed and quiet for my enjoyment.”
Meow. “I like you make it perfectly clear what you have in mind, so I know I need to hurry up and see what’s in this basket so I can be unwrapped and become a present.”
“I must send you to your first spa pampering content and purring. I’ll also make arrangements for dinner, as I’m expecting you will be a relaxed mess of a woman by the time the spa is finished with you.”
I looked forward to it. “I don’t normally eat as much as I have been,” I confessed.
“Your virus is going wild taming my virus, just as mine is going wild taming yours. Then there’s the issue of your blood type changing, although it doesn’t have to change by much.”
“How much is not much?”
“I’m fairly certain, after looking over your file, you’re going to be switching from a negative to positive blood type, and the little I was able to look into it from the CDC’s files, this is the fastest of the changes from lycanthropy mating. You should be fully switched within a week or two, especially if I’m taking close care to expose you to as much of my virus as possible.”
I stared into his eyes. “How absolutely tragic for me.”
He laughed. “Go open your present. I want to listen to you purr.”
“Why do you assume I’m going to purr because there’s a present?”
“I’m hoping you will purr because there is a present, and since your family was not expecting me to be joining you, the present is surely for you rather than both of us.”
“The traitors could have called yesterday,” I reminded him.
Sebastian eyed the basket with interest. “It could be a trap.”
“You like presents?”
“I am a proud and majestic lion, Miss Murder Mittens. I do not merely like presents. I love them. Lions require presents to maintain their emotional health. It’s a rule.”
“But is it a rule you just made up?”
“That’s entirely possible, but if you’re the one giving me the presents, I’m guaranteed to be a happy lion, and my happiness is mandatory.”
I liked the playful side to Sebastian I hadn’t seen before, and I rubbed my hands and approached the coffee table. “Whatever this is, it’s big.” I peered