“Of course not,” Nick replied through his teeth. His eyes flared with the promise of retribution as they settled on Roni.
Sliding his hand around to rest in the crook of Roni’s neck so he could massage her nape with his thumb, Marcus asked Stone, “How’s your mate?”
“Dying. That was her diagnosis this morning, anyhow.”
Shaya rolled her eyes, groaning. Gabrielle Critchley was quite the hypochondriac.
“She also informed me that she doesn’t want a big funeral. She’s picked out a dress, wrote down what flowers she wants, and even made a CD of the music she’d like to have playing.” He shrugged. “She’s nothing if not organized. So, Marcus, I hear my daughter’s mate put up a bit of resistance when you pursued Roni.”
“Just a little,” said Marcus.
“But you didn’t let it stop you, I see.”
“Not once I’d made up my mind to have her.”
“That’s good. Some males don’t hesitate in going after what they want.”
Shaya closed her eyes. “Dad . . .”
“Yes, baby girl?” Again, she just shook her head.
Suddenly the back door flew open, and Eli stepped outside holding up his cell phone. He pointed at Roni. “You! That’s was evil, Roni!”
She double-blinked. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
“Does your cruelty know no boundaries?”
“What did she do?” chuckled Marcus.
“Take a look. Take a long look at who you’ve mated.” Eli tossed his cell to Marcus. “Total. Fucking. Bitch.”
As his mate continued to brush off her brother’s insults, Marcus found himself looking at Eli’s Facebook profile while Nick, Shaya, and Stone peeked at it over his shoulder. Eli—or Roni pretending to be Eli—had posted on his wall at four-thirty in the morning: “I’ve got an announcement to make. I’ve found my true mate. Yep, turns out my mate was under my nose the whole time.” Under the post was a photo of a naked Eli curled up in bed . . . with a grinning Kent spooning him.
Shaya clapped a hand over her mouth, but she couldn’t hold in the laughter. “Oh, Roni, you didn’t!”
Nick gawked at Roni, his eyes glinting with humor. That humor disappeared when a laughing Stone slapped him—a little too hard—on the back. “Your sister’s ruthless. I like that.”
Shoulders shaking, Marcus threw the phone back to Eli and snuggled tighter into his mate, pressing a kiss to her temple. “I see now that I got off lightly.”
His expression pained, Eli continued ranting at Roni, “Do you know how hard it’s been, thanks to the last stunt you pulled, for me to convince people that I’m not actually gay, and it’s just you messing around?”
“Calm down, Eli,” interjected Shaya. “I’ll bet half those ‘friends’ aren’t really your friends anyway.”
Eli looked at her like she was dumb. “You think this is just about my friends list? Did you not notice how many times that announcement has been shared on Facebook?” He turned his glare on Roni. “I’m now known on a global scale as a gay, submissive, kinky, mated male recovering from an STD!”
Roni tilted her head. “If you’re looking for remorse, you can find it in the dictionary somewhere between rectum and runt.”
Throwing his hands up, Eli made a sound of exasperation. “Don’t think I won’t kill Kent for this when I find him,” he threw over his shoulder before marching back into the lodge.
Lounging back on the swing, Stone sighed. “Glad I came here today.” He flashed a shark grin at his daughter’s mate. “Aren’t you, kid?” Then he chuckled.
Nick snorted. “Keep laughing, old man. Just don’t forget who chooses your nursing home.”
After breakfast, Derren proposed they all go on a pack run. Roni could understand why: restlessness was wafting from all of them as they hoped for the call to say that Brunt had been released on bail. The one thing guaranteed to calm them was the touch and support of their pack.
Roni was one of the first to shift back to her human form, wanting to spend a little time with Shaya—who had opted out of the pack run due to being tired. Then, leaving the Alpha female to have some quality time with her father, Roni went to sit on a fallen tree, watching as the other wolves played. Although . . . she wasn’t sure if Marcus’s wolf was necessarily “playing” when he leaped hard enough at Zander’s wolf to knock him into the stream. That might have been why Jesse’s and Bracken’s wolves dived on him.
A jet-black male wolf and gray-white male—Derren and Eli—joined the fray. It was hard to tell whether they were helping anyone or just plain wanted to play. Caleb and Kent’s wolves were sprawled on the grass, resting, apparently uninterested in the others.
Footsteps coming from behind Roni preceded Nick’s scent. Having shifted back into his human form and redressed, her brother sat beside her on the oak. “Okay, so my own medicine doesn’t taste good. You wanted to give me a little reminder of what it’s like to have family meddle and play games.”
“Yes, and you need to stop,” she said firmly. “Whether you consider him a ‘man-slut’ or not, Marcus is my mate, which means you have to let it go.”
Nick sighed. “I know. At first, I thought I was looking out for you by trying to keep him away. I wanted to keep you happy and safe and—”
“You wanted to relieve your burden of guilt.” He went silent, looking confused and a little off balance. “Nick, whatever you may think, you didn’t traumatize me that day in the woods. I’ve never been anything but grateful to you for what you did. In fact, I’ve felt indebted to you my whole life.”
He reared back. “What? That’s stupid.”
“Then we’re both stupid. Everything that happened . . . it was awful. But it wasn’t my fault, and it wasn’t your fault. Stop trying to make up for something that’s all in your head. All the overprotectiveness ever did was make me feel suffocated, like you didn’t recognize my strength.”