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kind with him. Why hadn’t he seen the situation with Sloane for what it truly was instead of listening to his father? He had steered D wrong, and now D had pretty much called a hit on his mate’s head.
    Damn, did he feel stupid.
    It was probably his most moronic move to date.
    And he’d had a lot.
    “Where is he, Dudley?”
    D crossed his arms over his chest, his legs spread out a little further in a battle stance as he glared at all three of his brothers. He knew the look wouldn’t intimidate them, but he had to let them know that he meant business. He didn’t want Sloane harmed, and he had to convince them of this.
    “I’ve changed my mind.”
    The eldest brother, Raven, stared at him in disbelief, his mouth opening and closing before his lip curled back into a nasty snarl. “You want to be mated to a filthy shifter?”
    D bristled at his brother’s term for his mate. Sloane wasn’t a filthy shifter! D’s father had not only poisoned his mind, but his brothers’ as well. He knew they wouldn’t be swayed into thinking anything but hateful thoughts about shifters. Look how long it had taken D to come to terms with the error of his thinking. And he was the easygoing one. Well, Daniel, the second youngest, wasn’t as vengeful as the other two, but he knew Daniel was only here because he never went anywhere without Raven and Remus. “Yes.”
    Remus, the second eldest brother, pulled his face back in a mask of rage as he took a step closer to D. Swallowing hard, D prayed his brother wasn’t about to knock him on his ass. It would be the first time Remus had ever laid a hand on him, but from the expression on his face, he was truly pissed.
    It was a real possibility at the moment.
    Raven and Remus looked as though they wanted to throttle D. Daniel just looked at him curiously. D didn’t care. He wanted to be with Sloane. No matter what they thought of him.
    Let them do their worst.
    He just prayed he was breathing afterward.
    “What’s going on here?” Pa asked as he walked out onto the front porch, his brows pulled down into an angry frown.
    D had never been happier in his life to hear the bear’s voice or see the pissed-off look on Pa’s face.
    “Are you Sloane?” Raven asked as he pulled D from the top step.
    D yelped, trying his best to get back on the front porch. As crazy as it was, he felt safer with Pa than he did with his own flesh and blood.
    “No, but if you don’t let him go, I’m going to come down there and get him.”
    “Try it, shifter,” Raven challenged as he bared his fangs.
    D covered his face when he saw the entire Lakeland clan walk out onto the porch. What a fucking circus this was turning into. He didn’t want this. The family had been too nice to him for this to happen. And he didn’t want his brothers hurt either.
    This was one big clusterfuck that he wished he could sweep under the rug and forget about. All D wanted right now was to crawl under a rock somewhere. He had caused this. He was the one to call his brothers and tell them he was destined to be mated to a psycho shifter who wanted him dead.
    Gah, how had he screwed this up so badly? His anger mounted toward his father for raising him with such prejudice against anyone who wasn’t a vampire. It was his father’s poison gathering here right now.
    He felt Raven’s fingers slowly uncurl from his arm. D looked at his brother to see the concern swimming in the dark depths of his eyes. “Are you safe here, Dudley?”
    D nodded as he walked back up the steps. “I’m safe. They’re bear shifters. They’ve been very good to me.”
    “But they’re shifters, Dudley. You know what Father said about shifters,” Remus reminded him incredulously.
    Yeah, Dudley knew exactly what their father thought of the filthy beasts. He had reminded them on a regular basis to steer clear of the savages. But D had a different opinion of them, and he wasn’t going to allow his brothers to cause any trouble.
    “Dad lied.”
    “Take