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“What difference does it make? You just have to babysit her, not learn her innermost thoughts. You don’t even like Randa, remember?”

Kahn’s mouth thinned. “I don’t want to be alone with the woman anymore.” He declared with a scowl. “We need to divide the duties differently. I will investigate Saxon, and you can accompany her places. I’m tired of her being so fucking polite to me.”

“You were the one who insisted on being with her today. You said the rest of us would be too easily swayed by her.”

“Well, I’m changing my mind!”

Everyone else in the store shot him wary looks, startled by his volume.

Randa caught his eye and frowned disapprovingly.

Kahn slouched a bit and waved a hand towards Julius, blaming him for causing a scene.

Randa didn’t seem convinced, but she refocused on Mannus, who was pitching a fit about how few pockets were in his new human pants. They were yellow. Even yellow was better than alligators.

Julius wasn’t perturbed by Kahn’s yelling. He was used to it. “Alright. Well, I’m happy to spend time with Randa. It’s been years since I had a female to talk to”

Kahn was silent for a beat. His gaze cut from Julius to Randa and then back again. “No. I’ll stay with her.” He finally decided. “You’ll be too easily swayed.”

Julius’ mouth curved.

Kahn watched Randa, as she continued to fuss over Mannus’ tantrum. She had been way less understanding about Kahn’s complaints, and he was the one wearing fucking alligators! Instead of telling Mannus to stop acting like a child, Randa gave a conciliatory nod, like she was listening to his bullshit.

It didn’t seem fake. It seemed like she actually cared that he was upset. Would a genuinely heartless person care about Mannus being distressed over the lack of pockets in his human pants? Kahn doubted it.

He doubted so much about his initial impression of Randa, of the Stone House.

His eyes followed her as she selected a different human mating costume for Mannus. She moved like every step was a dance. Against his will, something deep inside of Kahn began to calm. The savagery that was always on the edges of his consciousness faded a bit.

Being near her soothed places he hadn’t even known were raw.

Maybe that was the issue. He’d gotten used to being half-feral. He had to relearn the lessons his sisters had taught him. Only instead of centuries, he needed to process the changes in a matter of hours. It was uncomfortable and it pissed him off. Kahn hated to be wrong.

And he was wrong about Randa.

Julius was right. He never would’ve allowed any man to talk to Tonia or Prinny or Syllia or Aggie or Livinia or Roma with anything but respect. Kahn had never talked to them with anything but respect. They had loved him. Looked up to him. Trusted him to be their champion and protector. They would expect him to be better than this.

Kahn sighed and rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.

The jungle still called in his head, fighting against civilization. He hadn’t realized how fragile his toehold in society was until Randa. How far he’d fallen into Gone Wild. For the first time in years, he pushed back against it.

What the fuck was he doing, being angry at this girl?

Whatever she’d done, Kahn had no doubt done worse. He was the one with the problem, not her. He should apologize to her. He should assure her that he didn’t hate her. At all. That he actually found many things about her… appealing. Then maybe she would start to like him a little bit, instead of always watching him with such…

Randa’s graceful movements through the clothing racks came to a jarring stop, interrupting Kahn’s thoughts. Rye had walked up behind her, whining about his aggressively tropical shirt. (He should suck it up. Kahn would’ve gladly worn palm trees over alligators.) Randa jolted at Rye’s unexpected approach, her shoulders hunching. Her body instinctively tensed, as she spun to face him and scrambled backward an awkward step.

From out of nowhere, Kahn thought of his sister Tonia.

His brow furrowed.

Julius didn’t notice. “We’ve all done things we regret.” He mused. “I think we should move on from the past. Randa is bothering no one here in the human realm. She doesn’t seek out conflict. She seems to be actively avoiding it, unless threatened.”

“She’s hiding.” Kahn whispered.

“She is being stalked by someone.” Julius reminded him. “It makes sense that she’d hide.”

It was more than that. “She has bolts on her doors and plastic on her windows. She’s afraid of being attacked.”