Briar: Not die, no. But I bet it’d be hilarious to watch while half-naked men and women used him like a stripper pole.
Maddy: No strippers.
Briar: Come on! What about one stripper?
Maddy: Zero strippers. I mean it.
Memphis: I’ve got the cake ordered. I’ll pick it up on the way over to the Dapper Dog.
Cora: Pike is already over there decorating. Everyone better say all kinds of nice things about the decorations!
Beatrix snorted out a laugh. Cora was very protective of her bear shifter mate. Pike was a sweetheart in the body of a giant, similar to Titan. Pike might be a bear shifter and Titan was a wolf, but the two of them were a lot alike.
She could understand Cora’s protectiveness. She felt the same way. Last week, someone had started shouting at Titan because the dog they wanted had already been adopted. Titan had let them rant at him, but Beatrix had gotten between the woman and Titan and cussed her off the property.
More texts appeared.
Tobias: I’ve verified that the local jazz band Titan likes will be there.
Maddy: What about the food?
Mikey: All the food is vegetarian. I double-checked.
Lex: Never thought I’d ever meet a vegetarian wolf.
Imani: Be nice Lex.
Lex: I’m never nice.
Imani: Lex!
Mac: I’ll make sure Lex behaves or no spanking.
Briar: Wait, shouldn’t that be reversed? He gets spanked if he’s bad?
Imani: Maybe in your relationship, but not ours.
That was followed by a flurry of emojis. Big eyes in a red face from Briar. Laughing from Imani. Finally there was an evil devil from Mac.
She got a bad feeling through their bond. Something was causing her sweet wolf distress. That wasn’t allowed.
Shoving her chiming phone into her back pocket, she rushed out of the building and immediately heard familiar voices.
“I wish you’d at least talk to Arthur about moving to New Mexico.”
“The Lobo Gris has several vampires, and the Clover Pack has Jack. Our pack should have a vampire as well. When a vampire mates to a pack's alpha, the pack is more secure.”
“It’s fine if you don't want to fight. When you become the alpha after us, no one will even consider challenging you.”
Beatrix turned a corner and found that Titan’s parents had him cornered in front of the cattery. They weren’t mean people, but Titan was their only child, and they were incredibly disappointed that he wouldn’t take over as leader of their pack.
He’d moved from New Mexico to San Diego specifically to get away from his family’s pack. Unaware of the pressure theyput on Titan, Beatrix had invited the couple to town for Titan’s birthday. She thought the hard part would be keeping them from revealing the surprise party.
It turned out she didn’t need to worry because they didn’t want to talk about Titan’s birthday. The moment they picked Jill and Mathew up from the airport, all they’d done was encourage Titan to move back to New Mexico.
She’d let it go until now, but the look of guilt on Titan’s face made her unbelievably angry.
Marching up to the small group, she put herself between Titan and his parents. Jill and Mathew stepped back and smiled down at her. Both were alphas, which meant they were naturally protective of their pack and those weaker than themselves, which now included her.
