To cap all that off, Eugenia was still hanging around. Whenever I saw her, she did or said inappropriate things to get a rise out of me. Not that I mentioned that to Anders, since I was still in the doghouse. If I rocked the boat too much, he might call off the mating ceremony and banish me.
That thought wasn’tquiteas terrifying as it had been before. My relationship with Levi had improved exponentially over the last week or two, and he would probably allow me to live in Hidden Grove, but I would have to leave my grandparents, Beatrice, the store, and all my other friends and acquaintances. I would be removed from the modern world once and for all.
All this stress and tension was coming to a head today because the other packs were arriving for the mating ceremony. As Anders’s mate, I needed to be with him to receive the other alphas. The elders had arranged for accommodation for the other visiting pack members at local hotels. Every room within twenty miles of Idlewild was booked, and still a few people would need to bunk in guesthouses and spare bedrooms around town. This was going to be the largest gathering of packs in atleastfifty years. Anders hadn’t been lying when he’d said he wanted to make this the biggest event in recent memory.
“Are you ready?” Anders asked.
“Yes,” I said, giving him the best smile I could muster.
We stood on his porch. The first scheduled arrival was Hakeem Jones and his mate Tamara from the Ravenhill pack. Blaise Boucher and his mate Courtney, from Fallbrook, were scheduled to arrive at the same time as Hakeem. Levi and I had exchanged a few texts since our encounter in the forest, and we’d decided this was our best chance to get an item that had belonged to his great-grandfather Hugo.
In the distance, I heard the faint rumble of an engine. Hakeem and his mate livedmuchfarther away and had opted tocome by car instead of running. I was sure Blaise and Courtney would arrive in their wolf forms.
Anders flicked the top button of my blouse. “Undo that.”
“Excuse me?” I said, frowning at him.
Anders rolled his eyes and undid the button himself. “Show a little skin,” he said. “Flaunt what you got. If we can get the other alphas a little off balance, it might help negotiations for the alliance.”
“I’m not going to whip my tits out to get another alpha horny.Especiallynot in front of the man’s own mate, for God’s sake.”
The fact that he wanted to use me as eye candyright beforeour own mating ceremony was really gross. Though, Anders wasalwayscapable of figuring out a new way to be inappropriate, so it shouldn’t have surprised me.
He let out an exhausted sigh. “Ugh. Lame.”
Thankfully, any other argument would have to wait. In the distance, sun glinted off the windshield of a car, and behind it two wolves raced along, all of them heading up the hill toward us.
“Damn.” He chuckled. “Good timing. Both groups at once.”
The SUV pulled up in front of us, and Hakeem Jones exited the driver’s side and waved.
“Afternoon,” he said.
The man was built like a linebacker, with a thick chest, broad shoulders, and legs as large as tree trunks. His hair was twisted into dreadlocks and held back from his face with a hair tie. A single scar marred the dark skin on his forehead, but otherwise he had no distinguishing marks.
“Hello there,” Anders said, using his best politician voice. “Welcome to Idlewild.”
Tamara exited the car and joined Hakeem as they walked up to us. The woman was imposing. As tall as Hakeem himself, she towered several inches above me and looked like she spent alotof time in the gym. Her blonde hair glimmered in the sun as she walked. Her entire face lit up when she smiled, revealing perfect, brilliant white teeth.
“You must be the lucky lady,” she said, shaking my hand.
“That’s me,” I said, trying to sound chipper and excited.
“Hakeem and I are really excited about this ceremony,” Tamara said. “It’s been a long time since anything this big has happened around here.”
“Very excited,” I agreed, though I really wasn’t. With each passing day, I kept thinking I’d made a terrible, irrevocable mistake.
The Bouchers trotted up, then shifted to their human forms. Blaise looked nothing like his great-grandfather. Hugo had been a hefty, barrel-chested man, while Blaise had the figure of a swimmer or sprinter, with long, lithe muscular legs and arms. His black hair did match his ancestor and hung around his head in a curly mop, framing his face along with the goatee. His mate Courtney was less stunning than Tamara but still beautiful, with brown hair that hung to her lower back, and a round face that was accentuated by voluptuous lips and striking blue eyes.
Blaise lifted his chin in greeting to our small group. “Howdy, Burnell, how’s it going?”
“Doing good, Blaise,” Anders said, and extended a hand. “Glad you could make it.”
“How did all your people do getting in?” I asked, playing the good hostess.
Hakeem shrugged. “Pretty good. We only brought twelve people with us. My beta and his mate, then the elders and their mates. Some drove, but some are running in, so they’ll be a while yet.”
“My pack’s already set up at the hotel,” Blaise explained. “Seems like a nice place. Haven’t been to Idlewild since I wasa kid.” He grimaced. “My family doesn’t really have the best history with you folks. Been trying to change that, though.”
