Sliding his arm around her waist, Marcus pulled Roni close. “This makes me think of our mating ceremony. How beautiful you looked.” He couldn’t help frowning when she ate another spoonful of his cake. “And how you tortured me the next morning.”
“You deserved it.” Still, she pressed a kiss to his throat—right by a scar he’d gotten from the fight with the jackals. The day after the attack, the Phoenix and Mercury enforcers had driven to the kill site and destroyed everything—cameras, videos, photographs, and motor homes. One particular area of the site was piled with bodies, most of which had been set alight.
They found the laptop computer, which the enforcers brought to Rhett. He then downloaded the membership list and all the e-mails exchanged between Lyle and the council member who had occasionally hired him. Only then had he crashed the website.
After that, they had given both the laptop and Eliza’s body to the rest of the council members, leaving them to deal with the issue—but first making sure they had copies of everything, letting the council know they would deal with the ugly matter themselves if they decided to “overlook” it.
As for the matter of Nolan Richards, the bastard responsible for uploading the vid of Roni’s attack . . . she had done her best to track him down, only to find that he was already dead. Suspecting Marcus, Nick, or Eli had something to do with that, she had confronted them. They had all answered her questions with “No comment”—which meant all three of them had to be responsible.
She’d been pissed that they had robbed her of her revenge by dealing with the matter themselves, but she couldn’t really expect different behavior from three extremely dominant, overprotective male shifters. They would be offended and enraged on her behalf, and would have seen such a move as taking care of her.
“Ro!”
Peering down, Roni found Kye chewing on his thumb. “Hey there, little man. Melted anymore hearts today?”
He held up his arms, clenching and unclenching his little fists. “Up!”
Roni picked him up and perched him on her hip. He pointed at Marcus’s cake and began smacking his lips together. “Want some?” Scooping a little chocolate sauce on her spoon, she fed it to him—ignoring Marcus’s grumbling. Adding to her mate’s torture, she then fed herself a little more of the cake.
With Dante at her side, Jaime came over, cradling a baby girl in her arms—Roni’s niece. “Wow, you’re getting Marcus to share. It really must be love.”
Marcus looked at Dante, who grinned at him and mouthed “whipped.” Asshole.
“Why are you talking so quietly?” Roni asked Jaime.
“I’m hiding from your mother. I promised I’d hand Willow back to her . . . but I don’t want to.”
Kathy and Nick literally fought over Willow Mika Axton all the time, both equally possessive and protective. Shaya seemed to be enjoying the reprieve from being on the receiving end of such overprotectiveness. The Alpha female had been an absolute trooper throughout labor, while Nick had been white as a sheet and had nearly lost consciousness.
Stroking a hand over the baby’s small tuft of blonde hair, Roni said to Kye, “What do you think? Isn’t she beautiful?”
Kye’s little face scrunched up. “No.”
Jaime laughed quietly. “I think she’s gorgeous, like her mom. I want to keep her.”
At that moment, Taryn and Trey joined them. “Oh, Kye, you can’t eat Uncle Marcus’s cake,” Taryn gently admonished. “He’ll sulk for, like, ever.”
When his father held out his arms, Kye practically jumped into them. Trey’s gaze danced from Roni to Marcus. “Have you decided which one of you is switching packs?”
Sighing, Marcus exchanged a look with Roni before replying, “We can’t choose.”
Taryn pursed her lips. “Well, we have a suggestion.”
Unable to guess where this was going, since he’d considered every possible option, Marcus frowned. “What’s that?”
“Instead of switching packs, you could belong to both.”
“That won’t work,” said Roni. “Our wolves would feel confused and unsettled.”
“It’ll work if Trey and Nick blood. That would join the packs. Not unite them into one, but connect the pack links on a psychic level through the Alphas.”
“That would be awesome.” Jaime’s eyes went wide with excitement. “Please say you will!” Kathy suddenly appeared, scowling, and Jaime laughed a little awkwardly. “Oh, there you are.”
“Give me back my granddaughter.” Kathy reached for the baby, but then Nick was there—an amused Shaya in tow.
“Why does everyone keep disappearing with Willow?” he grumbled, taking the baby into his arms. Shaya placed a soft kiss on the baby’s head.
Kathy placed her hands on her hips, complaining, “You’re always holding her.”
“Of course I am.” Nick stroked his finger over her cheek. “She’s my baby girl.”
“And she’s my grandchild. I suspect she’ll be my one and only grandchild, unless you and Shaya decide to have more.” Kathy cast Roni a meaningful glance.
Instead of being annoyed, Roni was amused. “Be as bitchy as you like, woman, I saw you crying when I nearly drowned.” Kathy just huffed.
Brushing his lips over her temple, Marcus said, “Don’t remind me of that day.” The fear and anxiety hadn’t quite left him yet. As if she sensed that, she fleetingly rubbed his lower back. His mate still wasn’t a touchy-feely person, and he knew she never would be. But she was slowly becoming more and more tactile with him.
“I was just telling Roni and Marcus our little alternative to them switching packs.” Taryn repeated her proposal to Nick and Shaya.
“You would be willing to do that?” Shaya asked Trey.
The Phoenix Alpha male shrugged carelessly. “I don’t want to lose Marcus to another pack. He’s my friend as well as one of my best enforcers. Besides, Roni would make a valuable addition. That makes this a logical move.” And Trey was all about logic. When Kye struggled to get down, Trey placed him on the ground before turning to Nick. “What about you?”