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Joel
Grizzly Groomsmen V
by
Becca Fanning
Lisa had only felt time stop like this one time before in her entire life. It had been when she was eight, and Tom was ten- they were in the car, their parents arguing in the front seat, when the back wheels had caught on a patch of ice and spun out across the empty road, sending the car careering towards a patch of ancient trees standing only a few feet away. It was late, there was no-one else around, and Lisa remembered staring out at the trees speeding towards her side of the vehicle. She felt calm- strangely, totally calm, feeling as if her breath was coming in long, slow gasps, as her brain desperately tried to come to terms with what was about to happen. As it turned out, the car had drifted to a stop a few feet further down the road, leaving her father cursing in the front seat as he tried to get it restarted. She and Tom had exchanged a look- a long, silent stare in which both of them seemed to acknowledge what had just happened, noting their mutual relief and the fear that was still pulsing through their systems. That was the only other time she could remember anything like the feeling she had at the moment she saw one of the wolves lunge towards her brother.
Lisa remembered rolling her eyes when Tom told her that he and Dina were getting married on this island. It was totally something he would do- she knew her brother well enough to be sure that running off to some tropical locale was exactly the kind of desperate-romantic thing he would try to pull off. But she'd been happy for them both, because they were happy- this was what they had wanted, and she supported that. She had been a little suspicious of Dina after they first got engaged- a little too flighty, a little too hung up on that weird ex of her's- but since she'd gotten to know her, Lisa had found herself growing fond of her sister-in-law-to-be. And it seemed like the feeling was mutual, as Dina had invited Lisa to be one of her bridesmaids. Lisa had never so much as caught the bouquet before, let alone becoming part of the wedding party, so she was pretty nervous at first. But Dina had infected her with her passion for dresses and flowers and locations and cake, God, all the cake in the world. So, when Lisa had arrived on the island the night before, she had been pretty confident that she was in for a good weekend. And then…well, all of this happened.
On the scale of stuff that could go wrong at a wedding, being invaded by a pack of psycho shifter wolves was probably a fair few steps higher than the caterers forgetting vegetarian option. Up until that moment, though, Lisa had been impressed with how Dina had been handling the whole affair- she was calm, certain they would figure everything out and get the whole wedding party off the island unharmed. But then…well, as Lisa hurtled towards her brother, all she could think was that she couldn't see a way in hell they were getting out of here unscathed-or even alive.
Grabbing hold of Tom's hand, Lisa dragged him towards the stairs, pushing him in front of her into a small hollow under the steps in the hopes of keeping him out of danger.
"Lisa, I can't-"
"Leave it, Tom!" She hissed in response, backing into the dark with him and praying no-one could see them. She knew what he was about to say- his fiancée, the woman that Lisa herself had found herself growing grudgingly fond off over the last year, was out there. Which would have been terrifying, were it not for the fact that Dina had somehow transformed herself into a wolf and taken on the leader of the pack. Lisa was still getting over that part- how the hell had she not figured it out? How hadn't it come up? Tom hadn't acted surprised at all, so he must have known- were they just planning on getting married and pumping out a happy little flock of shifter children without telling anybody?
Lisa closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, trying to clear her head. Her thoughts had a habit of doing this-piling up on top of one another until she didn't know what was what. She knew it was the shock- well, the shock of finding out about Dina, and the shock of seeing a guy she thought she had the beginnings of a crush on shift into an enormous bear.
In all fairness, though, Joel had given her fair warning about that part of him. Lisa found herself focusing on the memories from the night before- anything to drag her mind away from the current situation. They were chilling at the reception party, glad to have found someone that either of them even half-recognised. He narrowed his eyes at her as he sat down, and she looked up at him with her eyebrows raised.
"Lisa, right?" He held out his hand. "You're Tom's sister, unless I'm much mistaken."
"Yeah, that's me. I'm on bridesmaid duty this weekend." She smiled, taking his hand. "Sorry, I do know you, I just can't place where from."
"I think maybe at Tom's last birthday party?" He suggested. "Frankly, I'm hurt that I didn't make any kind of impression on you."
He feigned an insulted face, and Lisa couldn't help but laugh.
"Well, maybe you'll do a better job this weekend," she suggested, raising a glass in his direction. Was she flirting? Maybe it was the couple of glasses of champagne she'd already had, but she certainly didn't mind finding herself the centre of attention from this exceptionally handsome man. He was right, she had no idea how she couldn't remember him- he had sharp features, a pointed chin, and high cheekbones, and a skinny build that landed him squarely under the "her type" banner.
"I'll do my best," he grinned back, tapping his glass against her's and taking a sip. Lisa found herself admiring him for a moment longer- she hadn't come to this wedding with any plans of hooking up, but look at him. She'd be kicking herself forever if she didn't at least give this a go.
The rest of the evening floated by in the most pleasant of hazes- Joel was fun, one of those guys who wasn't afraid to get up and dance like a crazy person just to keep his date entertained. They drank, they exchanged stories about Tom (Joel had met him in college, so he had plenty of embarrassing stories that Tom had chosen to keep from Dina over the years), and he even convinced Lisa to a dance as the night wore on. She wasn't much of a mover-in fact, she was far more the sit-in-the-corner-feeling-awkward-as-heck type- but she found herself letting go, easing up, and actually having fun. She always associated family weddings with ludicrous amounts of stress and at least three major fallings-out, but now she could drink and flirt and wasn’t stuck at the kid's table picking at her buffet-meal fare, she could see their appeal a lot more clearly.
When the band had pulled out a slow number just after the two of them had collapsed back into their seats after a raucous three-minute jig to some old swing classic, Lisa found herself peering at Joel out of the corner of her eye. He noticed, and dragged himself back to his feet and held out a hand.
"M'lady?"
"Never call me that again," she warned, but took his hand anyway. He led her out on to the sparsely-populated dance floor, and pulled her in close to his chest. She inhaled the scent of his aftershave- she couldn't remember the last time she'd danced with a guy like this. Hell, it was probably at the last family wedding, and it was probably a lot more chaste because it was either Tom or her father insisting that she get involved with everyone else's good time. She certainly couldn't recall the last time she'd had a date quite as
charming as this one. Joel was the kind of old-fashioned but unpatronising gentleman that she could never seem to find on the dating sites she frequented or the blind dates her friends set up for her. Trust Tom to be hiding away the perfect bachelor all this time.
Lisa was beginning to feel pretty exhausted by the time they finished their waltz, so she retired with a chaste kiss on the cheek before she headed over to say goodnight to her brother.
"Tom!" She called, catching his attention. He turned away from the distant aunt he was entertaining towards her, and grinned.
"Hey, sis, off to bed?" He gave her a hug, and she could practically feel the excitement buzzing off him in waves. He was getting married the next day, after all.
"Yeah," she nodded, yawning. "But hey, why didn't you ever tell me about Joel before? He seems really cool, I can't figure out why you didn't introduce us till now."
Tom frowned, and Lisa's mind immediately ran through every possibility in the book. Kids? Secret serial killer?
"He was married," Tom shrugged. "Up until a couple of months ago. They've separated, but I don't know if they're divorced yet."
"Huh," Lisa tried to process the information, and furrowed her brow. "I should be getting to bed, anyway. I'll see you tomorrow."
The words danced round in her head as she got ready for bed, peeling off her dress and kicking off her heels. Maybe it was the champagne, but she found herself feeling a little…what was it? She wasn't angry, necessarily- if they were separated and that was common knowledge then she couldn't really get pissed at him for that. But…she had never so much as dated someone who'd been engaged before, let alone someone who wasn't even technically divorced. And that bothered her. Sure, he seemed cool- smart and funny and with charm coming out of his freaking ears. But that didn't negate the fact that somewhere, he had a wife, a wife that he hadn't thought to mention once the whole time they'd been hanging out. Obviously, Tom had never bothered to introduce them because Joel was married- how long had they been together? What was the wedding like? Didn't being here at Tom's wedding freak him out even a little bit? And why had he and his wife split up? Was it amicable, or had he done something awful that led her to chuck him? As Lisa slid into bed, she tried to quiet the arguing voices in her head, the voices that were making a case for both sides of the coin, half convincing her to see where the weekend led the two of them and half warning her as far away from him as they could manage. She fell asleep that night, her brain brimming over, and hoped the next day wouldn't bring as many questions.
Well, that had turned out to be a futile wish. When Lisa woke the next day- late, and slightly hungover- and made her way downstairs, it looked like a bomb had hit the place. Or at least, that's what the faces of everyone still milling in the lobby told her. Most of the guests had already made it off the storm-whipped island by the time she made it downstairs, and it was a while before she could find Tom to discover why. When she did, her jaw practically scraped the ground.
"Wolves?" She demanded. "Seriously, you're telling me this was freaking wolves?"
"Well, it still is," he mumbled, glancing at the ground and scuffing his toe back and forth like a kid who'd gotten into trouble. "The groomsmen, they're all out there now. They're trying to get it…in hand."
"They know it's a pack of wolves, don't they?" Lisa threw her hands in the air. "Like, the scary, dangerous, probably rabid kind?"
"They're not rabid," Tom shot back irritably. "And trust me when I say that they've defiantly got this under control."
"What, do we have our own pack of shifters to send their way?" Lisa asked incredulously, half-turning on her heel. When Tom stayed silent, she swivelled back and stared him down.
"Tom," she asked quietly.
"Yeah," he muttered. "They're…shifters."
"All of them?" She shrieked, her voice echoing off the empty walls around them.
"Yeah, pretty much," he shrugged, avoiding her gaze.
"Joel?"
"Well, yeah."
"And you didn't think to mention that last night when I asked about him?" Lisa demanded.
"Lisa, we've got more important things to think about right now than that," Tom snapped back, and Lisa immediately recoiled. She wasn't used to seeing her brother like this- in this intense state of stress and panic- and it was only then that it was really brought home to her exactly how bad this situation was.
"What can I do to help?" She asked, placing a reassuring hand on his arm. "Anything. Tell me."
"Just…stay out of trouble," he shook his head, and vanished back into the hotel. He obviously had bigger things to be dealing with than her. Lisa stared after him for a moment, feeling hurt, but soon wandered off to see if she could find someone to catch her up on the situation. By the time she had gone round all the rooms looking for Dina and returned back down the stairs, the room was packed with all the groomsmen and bridesmaids. Lisa's heart dropped through the floor as soon as she laid eyes on the nasty wounds one of the groomsmen was carrying. Shit. This was bad. One of them was hurt, and who was to say they would leave it there? She hurried over to Dina, who turned around with a slightly wild-eyed expression on her face.
"Lisa?" She asked, seemingly a little dazed.
"Dina, please, I need to know what the fuck is going on. Is everyone okay?" The words poured out of her without a filter, and Lisa found herself scanning the room for Joel, against her better judgement. He had been out there too, right? Where was he? Was he hurt?
"The guys…" Dina gestured to the huddle of groomsmen over by door, "They had an encounter with the wolves. We're staying here, and we're just going to keep on our guard until we can get out."
"What about the wedding?" Lisa asked.
"That's the last thing on my mind right now," Dina shook her head, looking a little sad. "The most we can do is keep an eye on all corners of this place and make sure none of them get in."
"Where should I go?" Lisa asked firmly. "Please, let me help. I want to."
"I don’t know, talk to the guys, they're getting it organised," Dina blinked up at her, and fear flashed through her eyes for a moment. "We can't let them get in. That's all I know."
Dina turned away, and Lisa peered around- she finally caught sight of Joel, his brow deeply furrowed as if he'd seen things that he never wished to see again. Probably against her better judgement, Lisa made her way over to him.
"Joel?" Her voice sounded thin, almost reedy, nothing like her. But she was scared- terrified, even- and it was taking it's toll.
"Lisa, thank God you're okay," Relief flooded over Joel's face as he turned to her, clasping her shoulders tightly. She was taken aback by his level of concern, but found herself touched by it too.
"Of course," she nodded. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"No reason, it's just, with all of this…" he cast his eyes around the room, his words trailing off.
"Dina said you needed help keeping a lookout. Can I give you a hand?"
"That'd be perfect," he nodded. "I'm taking the outside, on the courtyard, if you want to join me."
Lisa glanced out- the wind and rain were still thrashing the hotel, and it looked as if she might be blown away if she so much as stepped outside. But now wasn't the time to be selfish, to get caught up in her own desires- she had to do her bit to help, and she would. She pulled her jacket round her shoulders, and set her jaw solid, feeling resolute.
"Lead on," she gestured to the door, and Joel managed a weak smile.
They strode out to the courtyard- the one that overlooked the beach. Lisa had been so admiring it yesterday, before the storm hit and it looked like the place might be underwater in a few hours. Joel gestured for her to follow him, and found them a reasonably dry nook that allowed them a decent view across the hills.
"Is that where they were?" Lisa asked nervously, suddenly realizing with a stab of panic that they could still be out here and she wouldn't know anything about it.
"Yeah," Joel nodded. "They set up a camp over in the caves at the ot
her end of the beach. I think they've gone back there- I'm not sure they're stupid enough to try any of that again."
"You think you scared them off?"
Joel (BBW Bear Shifter Wedding Romance) (Grizzly Groomsmen Book 5) Page 1
