by Dannika Dark
Shortly after having a private meeting with Wheeler, Austin had sat down with everyone—except for the children—and detailed everything. Wheeler dodged the family meeting, but I joined and listened to their questions and remarks.
“I knew it,” Reno said. “Something was never right with Ben.”
It had taken others by complete surprise that his gambling was not just a profession but an addiction. And then there was the history with Wheeler that went back to their childhood. A secret between two brothers. The ultimate sacrifice one had paid to protect the other, and the mistreatment many had thrust upon Wheeler. Maybe he had an abrasive tone and didn’t look like the kind of man a person could trust, but he was fiercely loyal and willing to die for his pack.
The revelation of the cage fights had made Denver uneasy. “Can we trust his wolf?”
“Any reason he’s shown us not to?” Austin asked, ending the discussion.
After that, an awkward silence had fallen over the house, one I’d felt whenever I entered a room. It was understandable for a pack to feel disjointed after losing a member, and in a sense, they were in mourning.
So in my usual Naya fashion, I sauntered into the room and gave them my best smile to brighten the mood. I informed them that Wheeler would join us after he finished brushing Misha.
Then Denver chuckled and said, “You sure have him pussy-whipped.”
When someone tossed a pillow, the tension melted away.
Wheeler would have to come out of that room eventually, but understandably, he needed time. I could be a pushy woman, but this was one instance when I didn’t want to push too hard. Not if it meant losing him.
On the second day after the party, Wheeler left the house for the entire day without telling me his whereabouts. That rubbed my fur the wrong way because we’d promised never to keep secrets from each other.
I never realized until I met Wheeler why they called it falling in love. It hurts. It sometimes takes you by surprise. It scars. But when you find the right person, it doesn’t end. You keep falling in low doses each day you’re with them. It’s in the little things they do, like rubbing your feet without your needing to ask, or waking up to find a pot of coffee brewing and a small heart drawn on the side of the white cup with a black marker.
It gave me something to look forward to—all the days we’d be together and the new things I would discover about the man I chose. Although in many ways, fate had paired us together. The one man who was so wrong for me was the one who fit in my heart so perfectly. Every lock has a key, and all keys have jagged edges and crooked sides. No one is perfect, but we’re exactly perfect for the one person who matters.
Poor man. He’d have to suffer through my opinionated nature, my desire to get a second cat, and my headstrong personality.
So as I stood in the upstairs hall with Wheeler’s hand covering my eyes, my heart was racing. I never knew what to expect with him.
“Okay,” he said. “Open ’em.”
I blinked a few times until the blurriness went away.
“You did not!” I gasped, rushing into the bedroom. I squealed and whirled around with excitement.
“I couldn’t get it all in here, but if it’s too much, I can haul some of it out.”
This wasn’t Wheeler’s bedroom. It was a larger one with a window that overlooked the front yard. A crisp white bedspread covered the mattress, a plush white carpet tickled the bottoms of my feet, and my red chair sat in the right-hand corner of the room. On the left side was Wheeler’s desk and leather chair. It had a rip on the side, and I made a mental note that we were going to have a conversation about that later.
I slowly spun around and jutted my hip out. “When did you do all this?”
He shrugged. “Had to sneak it up last night after you went to sleep. Spent all day yesterday hauling it to the truck. Everything else from your apartment is spread throughout the house; you can figure out what you want to do with it. I talked to your leasing office and told them you moved back home.”
I smiled and brushed my lips against his, standing on my tiptoes. “You forgot Misha’s bed.”
“Nooo, that’s where I draw the line. That cross-eyed cat stays outside.”
I chuckled and we moved toward the door. “She sleeps in here with us. You can either bring in her bed, or she can snuggle on mama’s neck all night.”
Wheeler popped me on the butt. “You’re a handful, Miss Diva.”
“Mmm, that’s what I’ve been told,” I purred.
“But I can still make you blush,” he said sexily against my ear.
I smiled up at him. “As I can you.”
His eyebrows arched. “That so?”
I cupped my hand against his ear and whispered, “I saw what you were trying to hide on my white sofa. I watched you from my bedroom door.”
When I leaned back, his cheeks were aflame.
“Come on, lover.” I took his hand and led him down the stairs. The morning sunshine was past its glory and had faded from a deep orange to pale yellow.
“If you get the cat bed, then I’m putting my license-plate collection on the wall.”
My eyes widened and I turned to face him. “Your what? I don’t remember that in your last room.”
“I keep it in a box.”
I took his arm as we made our way to the kitchen. “Darling, you can put your dirty underwear on that wall and I’ll still love you. I might punish you for it, but I’ll still love you.”
“Mmm, punishment,” he said between kisses. “Makes me want to be bad.”
When I entered the kitchen, my stomach dropped. I recoiled and Wheeler hooked his arm around me.
“The surprise isn’t over,” he said softly.
Austin was sitting at the head of the table with his fingers laced together and his chin resting on them. He had an enigmatic smile on his face, and it had to do with the two strangers at our table. One was an older man in a short-sleeved flannel shirt. He had a short white beard and piercing blue eyes. The other was a dark-skinned man with freckles, and he had a friendlier expression on his face. Two empty plates sat before them, and the older man wiped his mouth with a napkin and smiled up at me.
“Who are they?” I asked in a low voice.
What made me nervous was that the entire Weston pack was in the kitchen, both standing and sitting around the table.
“The local Council. Feel like getting mated today?”
“What?”
“Feisty girl you got there,” the older one said. “Sure you want a wildcat like that?” He chuckled warmly and glanced at Austin. “How are things going with your woman? I still remember the day you signed the papers.”
Austin smirked and glanced at Lexi, who was sitting to his left with her chin tucked in the palm of her hand. “Can’t complain, Turner.”
Wheeler snatched my wrist and led me toward the table. The white-haired man threw his legs over the bench to straddle it, and I sat down next to him with Wheeler standing beside me.
“A pack witnessing a mating ceremony isn’t legal without at least two officials, so there’s me and Romeo,” Turner said.
I smirked, wondering if he was being facetious or if that was the other man’s name.
“Looks like we have a twofer. I have you down for an induction into a pack and a mating ceremony. What’s your name?” he asked, pressing the tip of his pen against a small book.
“Naya James.”
“Full name.”
“That’s it. I don’t have a middle name.”
He sighed quickly and made an audible humming sound with it. “Very well. Sign here to show you’re entering this pack of your own free will. At least until you see fit to leave. If any shifter commits a crime against you, then your new pack has full rights to hunt him down on your behalf,” he recited as if he’d said the words a million times.
I signed my name and handed the book back to him. He pivoted on his seat and gave the book to Austin.
“By signing your
name in that book, you agree to watch over this young Shifter as a member of your pack. You swear to look after her well-being and protect her with your life.”
Austin scribbled his name and handed it back.
Turner squinted at the page. “Uh-huh. Looks good. That’s official. You’re now a member of the Weston pack. Now, on to the second half of our show.”
A fever touched my cheeks. I hadn’t expected it to happen so soon, but I knew how these things went. A member of the Council stood witness and gathered signatures. We didn’t make an elaborate production out of such things, but now I understood what Lexi must have been feeling in wanting to make her mating ceremony more special. It was a beautiful moment I’d never forget. The way the room smelled heavy with bacon and maple syrup, Denver in a faded shirt with a tie printed on the front, Maizy standing with her hands clasped together and watching with wide blue eyes, and the feel of Wheeler’s hand massaging the back of my neck reassuringly. I’d never forget this moment, because it wasn’t just about me finding love, but finding a family. And having everyone here touched me deeply.
I tried not to cry, but when the grizzly old man licked his finger and turned a few pages in the book, I wiped away a tear and leaned against Wheeler, holding the hand he had draped over my right shoulder.
“Here we are,” the Councilman said. “One of these days I need to bookmark this section, but my mate got a new fuddy-duddy book she wants me to use with a bunch of tabs on the side. She thinks I can’t find things.” He leaned in and gave me a funny look.
Izzy giggled from her spot across the table, Jericho standing behind her, his hands on her shoulders.
Suddenly my throat was dry. I kept swallowing and finally took a deep breath to shake away the nervous butterflies.
“You’re not going to puke on me, are you?” he asked with a snort. “Okay, maybe I ought to hurry this along before you get cold feet.”
I didn’t just grip Wheeler’s hand—I clung to it as if it were the last life preserver on a sinking ship.
“I stand witness to the mating of Naya James and Wheeler Cole. Wheeler, do you promise to protect this woman, give her your loyalty, hunt for her, and share your bounty?”
“Yeah. I do.”
Share his bounty? Maybe somewhere along the lines I had missed the part about words exchanged in a mating ceremony, but I almost wanted to burst out laughing.
“Naya James, do you promise to honor this man and do as you’re told?”
“Excuse me?” I gasped, ready to stand up.
He chuckled. “That gets ’em every time,” he said to Romeo. “Sorry, that’s just a little mating-ceremony humor.”
“You’re getting less funny,” I said.
He cleared his throat and took on a serious look. “Naya James, do you promise to honor this man, stand by his side, protect his good name, and always be loyal?”
I frowned. “What about love?”
The Councilman shrugged. “That’s always been optional.”
“Indeed,” William remarked in a judgmental tone.
The man scratched at his white beard. “Not everyone mates for the same reasons. Do you want to negotiate the rules, or shall we proceed?”
“Well, just for the record, I promise to do all those things and love him.”
“Yeah, me too,” Wheeler quickly said.
“Too late,” Denver quipped in a low voice. “You flubbed up on that one, bro.”
Trevor elbowed him in the side.
The Councilman handed us his little book. “Sign your name, and you are hereby officially mated.”
“Isn’t that romantic?” Lexi said in a flat voice, her chin still tucked in the palm of her hand.
I winked at her. “Romance comes in all forms, darling. This couldn’t be more perfect.” I signed my name and handed the book to Wheeler. “Maybe someday you’ll get around to having a nice wedding,” I suggested.
When Austin’s face reddened, I smiled surreptitiously and stood up to kiss my new life mate.
Wheeler pulled his glasses from the pocket in his shirt and put them on. I blinked in surprise, as he hadn’t mentioned it to me, but I had suspected as much. They were sexy—a rectangular pair of black frames that made me want to drag him back to the heat house. He read the page in the book carefully and then signed his name. When he looked up, he folded the glasses and set them on the table. “No more secrets. Call me four-eyes and have your fun with it, but I need them for reading, so get over it.”
With a snap of his wrist, Wheeler flung the book on the table and snaked his arms around me, scratching my chin with his whiskers as he planted a kiss on my mouth. A little tongue action slipped in and I moaned, squeezing his nipples through the thin fabric of his shirt.
He sucked in a sharp breath. Everyone clapped and made noise, and our two guests slowly stood up to leave.
“Let’s save the foreplay for later, kitty cat,” he whispered in my ear.
“We’ll just be on our merry way,” the older gentleman said. “Be good, you two. I don’t want to see you in Shifter divorce court.” He cackled, and I peered over Wheeler’s shoulder to watch them leave.
That’s when I saw someone unexpected. Ben stood in the hall outside the kitchen, watching with a rueful expression. Just as Wheeler caught the direction of my gaze and began to turn, Ben walked out of sight.
“What are you looking at?” Wheeler asked.
“Nothing, my love.”
I held hope that the two brothers would one day mend the rift between them. God knows they had plenty of centuries to figure it out, and who knows, maybe someday Ben would redeem himself. Perhaps he needed this time away so he could stop depending on others to believe in him and learn to believe in himself.
“Got something else for you,” Wheeler said, turning to face me.
“I’m afraid to ask. I’m already on the verge of a fainting spell on your kitchen floor.”
He reached down and peeled off his shirt.
“Now?” I asked with a seductive purr in my voice. “Here? If this is part of the mating ceremony for wolves, then I might have an objection.”
I watched him smile beneath his scruffy beard, and then I noticed it. My eyes traveled down to his tatted arms and then crossed his chest to the scar from the bullet. I reactively reached out and rubbed my finger on the ink.
“Is this real?”
“Yeah, Naya. This is as real as it gets.”
On his right pec near the shoulder, a tattoo of a black panther encircled his scar. Its head was turned with a fierce growl, displaying its sharp teeth. Of all the scars Wheeler had covered, this was one he used his ink to draw attention to.
I looked up into his brown eyes, the color of sweet tea in the morning sun. “I thought you said it was bad luck to get another animal on your body.”
He cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Maybe it is when it’s something that doesn’t matter. You matter.”
“Let’s eat,” Lynn said. “Before everything gets cold. I have three breakfast casseroles in the oven to celebrate.”
“Oh, and I made croissants!” Lexi said excitedly, hopping off the bench and scurrying to the kitchen.
“Music to my ears,” Denver said, straddling the bench. “Come here, Peanut. Did you think that was fun?”
“It’s not like the weddings on TV,” she said.
Denver shook his head. “All that stuff doesn’t matter.”
“Don’t tell her that,” I scolded. “Maizy, someday you’ll find a prince who will sweep you off your feet and give you the dreamiest wedding you’ve ever imagined. Your mama will be so proud, and you can make your big sister your bridesmaid!”
“I think you can only be one of those when you’re single,” Lexi pointed out, setting a casserole dish on the table.
I reached over and pinched off a piece of the cheese, taking a nibble. “Rules were always meant to be broken.”
“Well, I don’t want one of those,” Maizy declared, nodding her head toward Wh
eeler’s tattoo. She put her knees on the bench and leaned forward on the table, peering at the large bowl of biscuits.
“Yeah, well, what do you want?” Denver asked.
“I want my true love to read to me. And a ring.”
“A ring?” he said in an exaggerated voice. “What would you do with a ring?” Denver buttered a biscuit and put it on her plate.
“I don’t know.”
“Maybe it’s because a ring isn’t so important. Don’t you want a good mate to take care of you?”
Lynn set a jar of strawberry preserves in front of him. “My daughter is going to marry, not mate. Isn’t that right, honey?”
Maizy smiled and sat down, smelling the biscuit. “Maybe I won’t get married. Maybe I’ll move to a faraway country and be an explorer.”
“There’s nothing left to discover, Peanut. It’s all been found.”
Lexi came up behind Maizy and hugged her tight. “You can be whatever you want to be, Maze. I can’t wait to see all the amazing things you’re going to do.”
This was too emotional! I turned and wrapped my arms around Wheeler’s neck, standing on my tiptoes. We held each other for a moment while everyone settled in their places and began talking about the next party.
“Don’t ever do that again,” Reno said to Austin.
“What?”
“Put Lexi in charge of costumes.”
Trevor barked out a laugh. “Reno looked like a neutered stray.”
“Say, what if we rotate?” William suggested.
“Then I’m next,” Reno quickly said. “How ’bout that?”
Lexi sat down and scooped a helping of casserole onto her plate. “Scrap that idea. I have no desire to see what kind of biker gear Reno would dress me in.”
“On the contrary, I might like that idea.” Austin winked at her and stole a quick kiss.
“Naya, you’re going to help me again for our next party,” Lexi said decidedly.
I ran my fingers through the loose, silky curls on my head and grinned. “I think I’m going to retire my dancing shoes and try something new for a change.”
Wheeler walked around the table and sat down in his seat. Ben’s absence was strangely felt as Wheeler glanced at the empty spot where he normally sat. But it wouldn’t be empty for long. I decided my mate would always know someone would be at his side. He quickly turned away and smiled up at me.
