Alex grimaced. “Unless the shifter either has more than one mate, or it wasn’t a true mating.”

“There aren’t that many shifters who have more than one mate.” Ryan shoved what looked like half a Belgian waffle in his mouth.

“Wolves, Lions and Coyotes can have more than one mate. Other than that, I can’t think of any.” Julian waved their waitress over. He needed more caffeine before he dealt with everything going on. He’d have to call and leave Tai a message again. The Kermode hadn’t called him back yet. Julian was beginning to worry. Could Cyn have really ticked Tai off that much?

“You say Chloe got the message too?” Alex grinned, and it wasn’t a nice one. “Perhaps that means she’s the one who will get two mates?”

Julian shook his head. “No. I’m pretty sure Chloe isn’t the one. Neither am I.” And thank Bear for that. Julian had no need for a second mate. His Cyn was more than enough for him. Besides, once she was marked and changed her mating instinct would kick in and she’d eat anyone who came between them.

“Then who?” Ryan’s voice was beginning to rumble, his Grizzly close to surfacing.

“Two becomes one. It might not have anything to do with mates. We could be completely off base.” Alex ate the last bit of cantaloupe, rolling his eyes when his cousin snarled. “It could mean anything, really. When two becomes one, it means they join, right? So that means that when two becomes one, they separate. So what separates?”

“Eggs. Old mayonnaise. The Schwarzeneggers.” Ryan blinked as they stared at him. “What?”

“But then one becomes three.” Julian poured sugar into his coffee, ignoring the grimaces of distaste on their faces. So he liked it on the sweet side. Did Ryan really have to gag like that?

“Could it be chemistry? Or atoms, or something like that?” Ryan picked up his own mug of pure black coffee and took a sip, sighing in satisfaction.

“It could.” But Julian didn’t think so. Something told him this had to do with shifters somehow. He just couldn’t see the connection yet. “By the way, Gabe wants us to think about the possibility that whoever is after Cyn could be associated with the people who were originally after Tabby.”

“Well, isn’t that just fucking great? I’d hoped I was wrong about that.” Alex shoved his empty plates away with a rough sigh. “Who the hell stood over my cradle and cursed me to live in interesting times?”

Ryan’s expression was distracted, as if he hadn’t heard a word they’d said. “So what else separates then rejoins, other than people and chemicals?” Ryan shoved the last of the waffles into his mouth. He’d decimated a stack that would choke a horse in four bites. Julian wasn’t sure if he should be impressed or horrified.

“Seriously, Ryan, you have mating on the brain.” Alex grabbed his own plate and attacked the scrambled eggs. “Just bite her already. It worked for me, didn’t it?”

Ryan’s eyes darted to something just over Alex’s shoulder. “You think so?” Julian smothered his laughter as he saw what, or rather who, Ryan was staring at, a bag filled with take-out boxes in her hand.

“Oh, yeah.” Alex sat back with a self-satisfied smirk on his face. “I haven’t heard a single complaint yet. Tabby recognizes who’s the boss.”

“Really?” A soft, feminine voice with a deep southern drawl caused Alex’s face to freeze. “You think you’re the boss of me, sugar?”

“Shit.” Alex dropped his fork, paling at the sound of boot heels tapping on linoleum.

“Busted,” Ryan snickered, stealing Alex’s last bit of bacon as the big Grizzly turned to face his mate.

“Hey, baby.” Alex was out of his seat so fast Julian could’ve blinked and missed it.

“Don’t ‘hey baby’ me, Alex.”

“Aw, come on, don’t be that way.” Alex reached for Tabby, but she danced out of the way. “I didn’t mean it like that.”

“I think you meant it exactly the way you said it.” Tabby batted at Alex’s hands. “Don’t think you’re going to get out of this by being cute.”

Alex pouted. Even Julian had to agree that Alex was damn cute when he pouted. He really did look like a giant teddy bear. “Aw, come on.”

Tabby turned on her heel and started to walk out of the restaurant. “Hmph.”

“Tabby!” Alex ran after his mate, leaving his cousin and Julian to pay the bill.

“That was almost worth how much this is going to cost me.” Julian waved the waitress over as Ryan doubled over and laughed his ass off. “Check, please!”

“Thinks he’s the boss of me, huh?” Tabby was damn near growling, her eyes flickering back and forth between their normal deep brown and her Wolf’s gold. “Just kidding, my ass.”

Glory tilted her head. She looked completely innocent, so Cyn knew something outrageous was about to pop out of her mouth. “But I thought non-Alpha Wolves liked being submissive and stuff like that.”

Tabby snarled, and—

—were those fangs? Someone was cranky today.

Cyn rolled her eyes and pointed to a chair. “Down, girl. Sit. Stay.”

“Yeah, no eating the coworkers,” Glory snickered. “It’s bad for business.”

“Glory? Shut the hell up.” Seriously. What was she going to do with these two? They had been rubbing each other the wrong way all day. Cyn was ready to boot both their asses out the door.

“You know what we need?” Glory spun in her chair, her head tilted back as she stared up at the ceiling.

“New shoes?” Tabby’s expression lightened at the thought of going shopping.

“Only if they’re dancing shoes.” Glory’s expression was positively wicked as she stared at Cyn and Tabby. “When was the last time we drove into Harrisburg for a night out on the town?”

“Do we dare?” Tabby nibbled her thumbnail, a sure sign she was tempted to do something she probably shouldn’t. “With everything that’s going on it might not be the safest thing to do.”

“We could always ask the boys to join us.” Cyn wouldn’t mind dancing the night away in Julian’s arms. Just the way the boy walked made her drool. Being on the dance floor was a whole other experience, one that should probably be illegal in several states.