Luna gasped and brushed two scarlet leaves off her thighs. “I’m not mating him.”
“There’s something wrong with me now?” Erik snapped.
Yassi looked from one to the other. “Oh, she is. We either get that tie with your pack now, or she dies. She’s a traitor in our eyes for helping you.”
Erik’s entire body went stiff.
Emily took a step forward. “Erik, I’m formally breaking off our engagement.” She looked from one to the other.
“Em,” Erik said.
Emily held up a hand, looking like an avenging amazon. “Give me a break. We’re buddies, we’ll always be buddies, and I don’t know about you, but I kind of like hot sex in my marriage. Not that you’re not hot, but...”
Erik just looked at her and then shook his head, his lips twitching in an obvious effort not to smile.
Philip Nightsom stepped forward and wrapped his hand around his daughter’s arm. “This is unacceptable. You are not forming an alliance without us. Either you go forward with this mating, Erik, or we’re at war.”
Jackson moved closer. “There’s another solution.”
Emily stiffened and tossed her hair, all those blond waves cascading down her back. “Oh, hell no,” she spat.
Jackson’s grin barely reached his eyes. “Oh, yeah, baby. I’ll mate your daughter, Nightsom. She’s a handful, but I think I can tame her.”
If fury had an expression, it lived on Emily’s face. “Tame? You wouldn’t survive the wedding night, jackass.”
“Why don’t we try it and find out? That’s after I hunt down and rip apart the guys who kidnapped you, of course,” Jackson returned. “I’m a cousin to Seth. If we mate, you have familial ties,” he said to Philip.
“I said no.” Emily shook her head.
“Yes,” Philip said. “We’ll have to figure out pack combinations. We’ll need an Alpha at some point.”
Seth couldn’t help it. He just couldn’t help it. He threw back his head and laughed. “You’re all insane,” he said, more than ready for the explosions coming their way. But no matter what, he’d have his brother’s back.
Mia tapped her fingers on the table. “This is a little out of the norm, right?”
“I don’t know,” Seth said. “Alliances like this have been created for years, but not on my back lawn.”
Philip looked at Kurt, who was watching the interplay with fascination. “He’s human, and I think he saw us shift before we walked out of the forest. You need to kill him.”
Mia gasped.
Seth didn’t mind the sentiment, but he also wanted to keep his little mate happy. “The human is going to mate a female in my pack.”
Colbey jerked. “What? I am—”
“You are if you want to live,” Seth said reasonably. “We can talk about it later.”
Luna pushed away from Yassi and marched over to where Emily stood. The women couldn’t have been more different. Emily was over six feet tall with long, blond hair and cut features, whereas Luna was barely five feet with curly, dark hair and looked more like a pixie. Even so, they presented an interesting front.
“Neither of us is mating anybody,” Luna said, her voice high with authority.
Jackson angled his head to see beyond the women to Yassi. “I say within the next three months. Agreed?”
Yasi nodded curtly. Erik crossed his arms, showing tension in every muscle.
Philip Nightsom frowned. “Fair enough.”
Seth sighed.
