Keira tipped her nose in the air and sniffed. “Not pregnant,” she declared. Rude. Mercy smirked.It was out of choice, you idiot woman.But at least I had the choice. She was too busy sniffing up my mate’s ass to notice she wasn’t getting any.
“Are you moving here full time?” Jessy asked, the alpha of everything with wings. That branch of shifters weirded me out, although I didn’t know why. Beady eyes, maybe? Luckily, there were no arachnid shifters. You wouldn’t catch me anywhere near here if there were.
“No,” Dave rumbled. “Just let the man speak.”
Hudson grinned, and I took a sip of wine to avoid my smirk being seen. “Our mating ceremony will be this quarter.”
I choked on the wine. Sorry, what? That’s not what we discussed. The alphas burst into a million questions. The males got up and embraced Hudson in some kind of manly hug withthe heavy back pat. Mercy rose from her chair, and I lasered her with my gaze. Fucking try it. Her top was nothing more than a twisted piece of thin purple silk crossing over her breasts. That was it. It was January, and that was what she deemed appropriate. Now, I can’t make her wear normal clothing, but I could stop her from rubbing her hard nipples all over my mate.
“Sit down before I make you my snack,”Indigo rumbled in my mind as a warning to her. Mercy froze, as did everyone else. Indigo regularly snarled something in my head when Mercy was around. They couldn’t hear her, but on some deep animal level, they knew something bigger was prowling in my psyche, and they weren’t sure what to make of it.
“Last chance, cat. Take one step toward my mate, and it will be the last thing you do before I bury my claws in your chest and tear your heart out. I don’t even think I’ll take your soul. Something tells me you’d leave a funny aftertaste, like kale.”
Mercy’s ass bumped back down onto her chair.
“Kale? When did you have kale?”She went silent, ignoring me, but kept her focus on Mercy.
Hudson cast me a quick glance before taking his seat. His hand snaked around mine, and he squeezed it before linking our fingers together. The shifters got distracted with food, and resumed filling their plates.
I tried to pull my hand away. “I kind of need that to eat,” I muttered, giving it a harder tug.
He shook his head. “I’ll feed you.”
“We are not that couple.”
“Your choice, but I’m not letting you go.”
Oh, he was worried about Indigo. The crazy bitch preened at his attention. Save me now.
The rest of the meal was general chit-chat about mating ceremonies, some pack drama, and a situation with a newhousing estate that needed Hudson to visit in the morning, which probably meant I had to go. I was curious about what they were building.
I stood once everyone had cleared their plates and began picking them up. Hudson shadowed me around the table, collecting the empty serving dishes and probably making sure I didn’t accidentally suck out Mercy’s soul when she blatantly pushed her chest out as he passed her. His gaze, however, was all for me. He had a knowing smile, one that said he knew what I was wearing, had plotted how it was going to come off, and I was about to get schooled in how cats did it. I couldn’t wait.
His heat rolled down my spine as he followed me to the kitchen, where Aunt Liz was slicing up the torte onto plates. Dangerous Dave blinked at us as we sauntered in. There was a little chocolate on the side of his lip, and my aunt had a matching smudge. Aww, they were so cute.
The house phone hanging on the wall beside us rang. I was a little weirded out that Hudson still had one. When I asked, he told me shifters constantly lost their cell phones in the forest, and that ninety percent of the time, someone was available at the pack house to answer the phone. So rather than calling around all the alphas until one picked up, they used this landline, knowing it would get through.
Hudson picked it up. “Yes?” The heat in his gaze faded as a frown formed. That wasn’t a good sign. He nodded and snapped his fingers at Dave, who opened a drawer and retrieved a pen and pad of paper. Old school, indeed. Hudson scribbled on the paper and showed it to Dave, whose shoulders tensed. I shared a look with my aunt, who shrugged. After a few more snarled questions, Hudson hung up the phone.
He swiped a hand through his hair and caught my gaze. “There’s been a fire near Huntsville, Alabama.”
“Is everyone okay?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No.”
“I’ll grab my bag.”
He squeezed his eyes closed and sighed. “There’s nothing you can do for them, Cora. They aren’t injured. They’re dead.”
Oh. “Tell me how I can help.”
Dave turned and whispered something to Liz, who nodded her head. He kissed her and swept out of the room.
“Stay here with Dave, comfort the pack, be a liaison. I’ll update you when I can and you pass it on to them, saving me time having to call ten different people.”
I blew out a breath. Okay, I could do that. He wrapped his arms around me and kissed the top of my head. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. They just need a little comfort from me and their alpha.”
That made sense. He released me and strode into the dining room as Dave finished relaying details to the alphas. Mercy was out of her chair again. What did she think she was doing?
