How to Tame a Cat (ManxMan)

Chapter Twenty-Three: Bad Choices

~Chapter Twenty-Three: Bad Choices~

I nearly drop my bowl of cereal when the sound of a mechanical baby's laughter comes from somewhere behind me. If there is some kind of demonic Terminator baby on my counter, I am running like hell, I tell myself as I push away from the counter and spin on my heels.

To be great embarrassment, it is not a demonic robot baby; it is my cell phone. "Heather," I growl in a low voice. Just because she changed my ringtone to the creepiest thing possible, it does not mean I am willing to wake her up. She is currently asleep upstairs and while I would much rather be talking to her before she leaves in a couple of hours, I am not suicidal. To stop the ringing, I flip it open without checking the number. "Hello?"

"Why is it that I only just now found out Mr. Voclain left town?"

Ah, Dylan.

"Because you're losing your touch?" I suggest lightly before leaving the kitchen and going outside. Too much talking will probably wake her up and I do not need her joining whatever this conversation is about. "Is that all you want?"

Dylan grumbles something too fast for me to catch, but it sounds very close to 'stupid cat'. "First," he starts, and I groan, "why didn't you tell me he was leaving?"

"You'd assume that he was leaving for good. Well, he's not. Our deal is still in effect, but he is just visiting his family while Heather is here," I explain before adding, "And now I owe him a favor, despite it all being for naught since Diego told her all about it."

"I told him to. I figured she had the right to know. If you had told me you didn't want her to know, she would still be in the dark," Dylan objects.

What annoys me the most is that the stupid wolf is right. "What else?" I demand, wanting to move on before he can continue to point out more of the terrible choices I made. "Actually, wait. My turn. Why do you hate Ryland so much?"

There is a significant pause on the other end as my friend considering his answer. As it turns out, he was considering something, but not his answer. "You say that as if you don't hate him," Dylan accuses, his voice becoming tight. "What happened to the I-want-him-gone Cade?"

Now it is my turn to hesitate. "I got to know him," I mumble. He snorts on the other end, which makes my anger flare up. "You never answered my question. Why do you hate him? It was your idea to let him stay, remember?"

"Yeah, the mistake of the century. I thought you'd turn him down the second you found out. You weren't supposed to make a deal with him," Dylan counters, his voice rising as well.

"I didn't have a choice! And why did you want me to turn him down? Is it because he's a guy?" I snap, defending Ryland for reasons unknown. I should not be defending the lion, but arguing with Dylan is more important.

Dylan makes a noise of protest, "That has nothing to do with it. It's because he's a lion. Even a Fae would be better...okay, no, they aren't better, but they are almost on the same level of terrible."

"Level of terrible? Really?" I snort, my anger fading, but only a little. "Besides, it's not like he's going to kill me or anything. He couldn't if he tried."

"Why is that?" Dylan asks cautiously, and if we were in the same room, he would be eyeing me.

"He activated his side of the mating bond," I admit. While I am not all that keen to let Dylan know this, if I do not tell him and he finds out some other way...well, our friendship has already been strained by all this and I would rather not hurt him more by not telling him. Silence stretches out between us. "You still there?"