Nick looked like he wanted to stamp his foot. “I don’t even like being blooded to my pack members.”
Marcus gave Nick a look of mock sympathy. “Need a hug? Bro?” He received a glower.
Stifling a smile, Shaya laid a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “I think it’s a good idea. We don’t want to lose Roni. And if you connect with Trey, Marcus would be ours as much as theirs.”
“But which Alpha would they answer to?” asked Dante, sliding his arm around Jaime. “It can’t be both.”
Trey snorted. “When has Marcus ever answered to anyone for anything?”
Nick sighed. “Yeah, Roni’s just the same. You won’t get obedience from her.”
“No,” agreed Taryn, “but we’ll get someone who can handle Greta. That makes your sister worth her weight in gold.” Jaime nodded in agreement. “Packs have done it before, including my father’s. As you know, Lance collects alliances, and it worked out well for him.”
Feeling someone fiddle with the back of her top, Roni twisted to see Dominic reading the label inside her collar. “What are you doing?”
He just nodded. “Made in Heaven. I knew it.” Jaime laughed, Marcus growled, and everyone else groaned. “I tell ya, I didn’t know angels could fly so low.” He chuckled when Marcus took a swing at him.
When Roni went to retaliate with a cheesy line of her own, Marcus clapped his hand over her mouth. “No.”
Eli, Tao, and the Phoenix and Mercury enforcers appeared, took in an irritated Marcus covering Roni’s mouth while Dominic laughed hysterically, and instantly summed up the situation. Ryan obligingly cuffed Dominic over the head.
“Ry! Ry! Ry!” To everyone’s amusement, Kye proceeded to climb the enforcer like he was a fence post. Poor Ryan couldn’t have looked more awkward.
Coming to Roni’s side carrying Lilah, Greta lightly kissed Roni on the cheek and gave her a winning, affectionate smile. “Hello, sweetheart, how are you feeling?”
“I’m good. You?”
“Oh, I’m fine. Now that one of my boys has found a worthy female, I couldn’t be happier.”
Taryn leaned toward Roni, her voice quiet. “Roni, I have to know how you do it.”
Greta sneered at the Alpha female. “It’s rude to whisper.”
“And yet, I just don’t care.”
“So,” began Trey, obviously looking to halt the argument, “what do you think, Nick? You willing to blood or not?” As he elaborated on the matter for Greta and the enforcers, Nick thought about it for a moment.
When the Mercury Alpha male finally spoke, it was to Roni and Marcus. “Is it what you guys want?”
Marcus looked at his mate, who was worrying her bottom lip. He could sense through their bond that she was seriously considering it, but something held her back. “What is it?”
“I like the idea of not having to choose between packs, but we’d still have to choose where to live, so I don’t see how belonging to both packs would make much difference.”
“We could just do what we do now: spend a few days a week here, and spend a few days a week at Phoenix territory.” It would mean that Roni had a break from Kathy when she needed it—as Eli predicted, the woman still did her best to taunt Roni and interfere in her life. Nick had eased up a little, but it was still irritating.
“That could work.” The arrangement would allow her to break away from her family’s hold without actually leaving them.
Nick nodded, handing Willow over to Shaya. “Then that’s what we’ll do.”
“You sure?” Roni didn’t want him to do it if he were truly against it.
“I don’t want to lose you to another pack, and I don’t want Fuller here twenty-four/seven. This works for me.”
Marcus chuckled, seeing the humor in Nick’s eyes.
Turning to face each other, the two Alphas sliced their palms and then slapped them together. Roni felt it as the links combined. It wasn’t like the two were one, but like each was an extension of the other. Everyone on the dance floor immediately sensed it and crowded around them. To Roni’s relief, they all seemed happy with the decision. In actuality, though, the only opinion that truly mattered was that of her mate.
Long after the celebrations were over, as she was fixing him a late-night snack in her lodge—their lodge—she asked without looking at him, “Are you sure you’re okay with being a member of both packs? I mean, you don’t feel like you’ve betrayed Trey?” It would be stupid, but she could understand it.
From his seat at the kitchen table, Marcus replied, “Hmm.” He had no idea what she’d asked. Come on, did she really expect him to understand a word she said when she was strolling around in nothing but a tank top and a pair of boy shorts? It was one of the hottest things ever and gave him little peeks of that ass he loved. It didn’t matter that he’d been inside her only twenty minutes ago. He could never get enough of her.
Confused by his response, she looked over her shoulder . . . and rolled her eyes. “Could you stop ogling my ass for just one second?”
“Hmm.”
Placing his sandwich on the table, she repeated her questions. And he looked at her with pity.
“Of course I’m okay with it.” All he’d wanted was a solution that made her happy. She was happy. Problem solved.
Feeling his sincerity through the bond, she relaxed. “Just checking.” By the time she’d cleared the countertop, he was done eating. As she went to take his plate, he lifted her and placed her on his lap, straddling him.
He bit her bottom lip. “I’m still hungry.” But this was another kind of hunger. “Feed me.” The second her mouth opened for him, he thrust his tongue inside. He took what he wanted, gave her what she needed. Fisting a hand in her hair, he yanked her head aside and latched onto her pulse—sucking, nibbling, and marking. Claws pricked into his arms warningly, reminding him he was dealing with a dominant female who would let him lead but wouldn’t let him push. So he bit her hard, reminding her she was dealing with a dominant male who couldn’t be handled.