“Oh honey,” Skye says.
I take a big breath and feel some tension leave my shoulders at the genuine, concerned looks on all three faces.
“I’m starting to think I was looking to get married like it’d make my life better. But it wouldn’t have. It wasn’t the answer to my sadness. It definitely wasn’t going to make me feel better about what my dad did to my mother. About losing my aunt to cancer. About the things I couldn’t have that I wanted.”
“Normal to look for happiness where you can get it when things are shit,” Cicely says.
“Yeah. I guess. His grampa set us up after being in my care at the hospital and I was just humoring it at the beginning but then his grampa died, and I was suddenly the girlfriend instead of the girl he was casually dating. Up there with the family at the casket and just pulled into their inner circle. And then he drops this proposal on me at a baseball game on the big screen and I was drunk, and happy my team was winning, and he proposed, telling me for the first time that he loved me, and I just… I agreed.”
“Caught in a whirlwind,” Bailey offers.
“Yeah. So, fast forward a couple months to me losing my mind trying to plan this wedding for four hundred guests while working fifty-hour weeks, and then my sister vanishes after we have an argument because I’m so stressed about the wedding planning and then find out she’s been bit by a venomous snake!” I exclaim, then take another gulp of my moonshine punch.
“Oh, that’s right,” Skye says, patting my arm. “I heard about that. Linc tracked down the rattler. Luckily Cat’s clinic had some antivenom. That could’ve been catastrophic.” Skye pours herself a second glass of punch and topping Cicely up before eyeballing my and Bailey’s drinking glasses. “Catch up, lovies.”
I take a big sip, but I’ve still got half left. Bailey looks on in horror. “I can’t guzzle this. If I do, you guys will have to peel me off the floor.”
“Guzzle away,” Cicely invites. “Andy is driving.”
“No need to worry about over-imbibing though; if you get drunk you can run it off,” Bailey says to Cicely and Skye, “We can’t.”
“Run it off?” I ask.
“Drunken she-wolves. It’s kinda funny at first when stagger and shift, but they’ll sober up fast.”
I frown.
“A shift or two with a run helps with drunkenness,” she explains.
“Ah. You’re all shapeshifters then,” I say. “Except you?”
“Wolf shifters,” Bailey corrects. “Shapeshifters can shift into many forms. Wolf shifters just switch between people and wolves. Those two are full shifter. I’m half. Mom is human, Dad’s a shifter. But I don’t shift. I’m stuck in this awkward body a hundred percent of the time.”
“Bailey has shifter senses, though. One of the best noses around,” Skye says.
“And one of the best brains,” Cicely tacks on.
Bailey rolls her eyes.
I look her over. “You don’t seem awkward.”
“Believe me, I am. I trip over my own feet constantly.”
“Me too,” I say. “I’m the most unathletic person I know. Doesn’t help when you’re trying to run away from a fit shapeshifter sex god, either.”
Skye chokes on her moonshine punch.
“Sorry!” I exclaim. “Ugh. I guess I really did forget you were his mom for a second. See? You have persuasive powers.”
“Why you runnin’ sister? That man is one of the hottest men in the pack,” Cicely says.
“Every man in the council is hot,” Bailey adds. “Maybe she runs so he’ll chase her. That’s what I’d probably do.”
I guzzle back another sip of my drink. “He’s intense. It’s instinctual to run from that, I guess.”
“Well, it’s instinctual for him to chase, so… sounds like you two will be having all sorts of fun acting on your instincts,” Bailey says.
“Are either of you married?” I ask, dunking a baby carrot into some dip before I take a bite.
“Nope,” they both say in unison.
“I used to hook up with Linc sometimes,” Cicely says. “But I started catching feelings, so I pulled back. He’s a council alpha, too.”
“Linc?” I ask. “Is that the lumber-snack guy or the one that looks like a Tyson-doppelganger before the doppelganger went wild?”
She smiles. “Yeah. Linc’s the snack and a half.”
“Mm hm,” Bailey agrees, sipping her drink. “Riley is Ty’s cousin.”
“You don’t do feelings?” I ask Cicely.
“I don’t do feelings with alphas,” Cicely corrects. “Or I try not to. But sometimes a girl gets convinced.” She smiles a Cheshire cat smile.
Bailey giggles.
Cicely goes on, “And not just because I’m an alpha female. Mostly because though they’re lots of fun – if you catch my drift, and I’m sure you must, given you’ve been with Mase a few days – any unmated alpha in our pack obviously hasn’t identified me as their mate, so I let myself play until the last year when I hit the big two-nine. I decided I wanted to grow up and only invest in a guy who might be long-term.”