Addie (Pack of Misfits #1) - Raven Kennedy Page 0,27

last night. And this morning. Many times. She’s a bit of a coyote-freak, I’ve come to find out.

Still, my animal has never sent out a mate-call before. Ever. She’s picky. But it looks like she did last night, although I have no memory of it. And…it looks like Penn answered it and bit me. I inwardly groan and run a hand over my face and back down to my tender neck.

“It doesn’t fucking concern you,” Penn snaps at Herrick, bringing me back to their current bickering. “I’m the one who answered her mate-call. So get dressed and calm the fuck down.”

“The fuck it doesn’t concern me,” Herrick seethed. “This was just supposed to be us helping out a female last night for a good time. Now you might be tied to her indefinitely. You. A pred. Mated to a duck. That’s not supposed to happen!”

I feel his words like they’re a blow to my stomach, and I outwardly flinch. Seeing my reaction, Lafe steps forward. “Hey, it’s okay,” he soothes, placing a hand on my shoulder, his thumb brushing past the collar of the shirt I’m wearing to settle over my skin.

Feathers immediately pop out along my collarbone from the contact, and twinges of pain erupt as my shoulder and arm barely resist shifting into a wing. I look down in shock and see that Lafe’s hand has turned into a paw.

I shove him off and back away with my arms raised, my feathers popping off my skin and landing on the floor. “No freaking way.”

He looks from his paw to me and back again. Without skin-to-skin contact, our forms return to normal and the rest of my feathers sink back under my skin.

“...Both of us?” Lafe asks incredulously. “How can that even happen?” He steps forward again, nose raised.

He keeps sniffing at me until I swat him away. “Stop it.”

He shakes his head like he’s trying to clear it, but just from that one whiff, he’s gone completely hard again, which is pretty difficult to miss, since he’s still bare-ass naked. His dick is pointing at me like it wants the quickest directions into my vagina. I try really hard not to make eye contact with it, but it keeps jumping up and down like, “Pick me! Pick me!”

“Can you put pants on?” I ask, covering my eyes. He doesn’t even hear me.

“We can’t both have answered her mate-call,” Lafe is arguing with Penn. “I mean, sure, shifters form triads and quads sometimes, but it’s rare, and the mate-call never happens at the same time.”

“Well, obviously, it happened. Though I don’t remember answering it,” Penn says, frowning at me.

“Don’t look at me. I don’t remember sending it out in the first place.”

Shit. Were we really that high on pheromones? Yesterday I was just a single shifter, and now I have two mates? A couple of preds that I barely know? Not good. And if I made the mate-call to them, then what if…my eyes shift over nervously.

Seeing the direction of my gaze, Penn and Lafe slowly turn toward Herrick. Realization dawns on him and he shakes his head obstinately. “No,” he declares. “Fuck no. I am not mated to a damn duck.”

I went from Lake Lady, to baby, to just, damn duck. Ouch.

Penn nods in my direction. “See for yourself.”

Herrick clamps a hand over my bicep before I can even try to back away. Almost as soon as he touches me, he wrenches away again like he’s been burned. We all stare at the fur covering his palm. My stomach plummets all the way down to my toes.

“Fuck!” he yells, running a hand over his head. “Great. This is just fucking great.” He rounds on me, using his tall frame to try and intimidate me. “Why would you put out the mate-call?” he demands.

“I didn’t mean to,” I snap. “And anyway, why would you answer it? This isn’t just my fault. It takes two.”

“Or four,” Lafe mutters.

Herrick shoots him a scowl.

“Not helping,” Penn mutters.

Herrick’s disgusted display at having answered my mate-call makes me sick to my stomach. I mean, I know a duck isn’t an ideal mate for a coyote. Hell, predators never mate with prey. And a duck? I can only imagine the things he’s thinking right now. His old pack is legendary for its strength and its numbers. It comprises of strong predator shifters only, and there’s a big prejudice in our world against the misfits like me. Anyone who isn’t a predator is looked down upon.