“Is it working?” I asked hopefully.
Julian chuckled. “I love a good crab leg,” he assured me.
I perked up.
“Galen is right, though,” he continued. “You can’t serve only crab legs.”
“I was going to have salad, too,” I replied in pouty fashion.
Galen ruffled my hair. “I was thinking we could have a whole seafood bar. Crab legs, lobster, scallops, shrimp. You name it.”
“Don’t tease me, Blackwood,” I warned him.
That only made him laugh harder. “We also should have salad … and some beef.”
“Ooh, steaks.” Julian bobbed his head. “Steaks are the way to go.”
“That’s your insatiable shifter genes,” I countered. “All you guys want is to shove big piles of beef into your mouths.”
They both gave me some serious side eye, and in the moment, I saw the resemblance between them. It was uncanny. Julian looked a little younger, and wasn’t as brawny, but there was something in their eyes.
“You should probably not phrase it that way,” Galen said.
“Whatever.” I was feeling defeated. “When are the others getting here?” I needed reinforcements and Lilac was my best shot. Well, and Booker, but he would agree with me just to irritate Galen.
“I’m not afraid of Lilac,” Galen warned. “Even if she threatens to go all demon, we’re having more than crab legs at our wedding reception.”
That sounded like a challenge to me.
IT WAS A PLANNED BARBECUE. GALENwanted to get to know Julian’s staff. In addition, he wanted Julian to get comfortable with our friends. If Julian was going to take over the pack, he would need backup. The locals weren’t going to capitulate simply because there was a new alpha in town.
Julian took the lead on introductions.
“This is Flip Dexter.” He gestured to a behemoth of a man. Seriously, he had to be almost seven feet tall, and he was wide. Galen was a huge man, but Flip made him look like a child.
“Flip?” I asked.
Galen gave me a warning look. I ignored him. “Flip is … interesting. Is there a story behind that name?”
Not only was the man massive, he also seemed devoid of a personality. “That’s what my parents called me,” he replied in a rumbling voice.
I pursed my lips. “Good story,” was all I could manage.
Booker ducked his head, amused, and coughed a word into his hand. It sounded like “typical”, but I couldn’t be sure.
“His given name is Phillip,” Julian volunteered. He looked as amused as Booker. “It was shortened to Flip over the years. He doesn’t acknowledge the name Phillip.”
I didn’t know what else to say to that. “What do you eat for breakfast?” I blurted.
“Hadley.” Galen looked the security guard up and down, likely calculating if he could last more than a minute in a fight if I ticked off the huge shifter.
“She’s not asking anything the rest of us aren’t curious about,” Aurora King interjected. A siren, she feared no one, no matter how large. “That dude looks as if he takes poops as big as the rest of us. Do you eat an entire swordfish in one sitting?”
To my surprise, Flip managed a grin for Aurora. “Is that an offer?”
Behind Aurora, her boyfriend Brody hopped from one foot to the other. He wasn’t as big as Galen but was close to Booker’s size. He also was a shifter. A shark shifter, to be exact. His parlor trick wasn’tnearly as impressive as the one the wolves possessed, unless he was in water.
“Um … .” Brody looked uncertain.
