Tess’s eyebrows lifted. She opened her mouth, only to snap it shut as the crunch of tires sounded. Dante turned and watched the approach of Lilly’s SUV. Even with the distance separating them, he could clearly see the wide-eyed apprehension overtaking her face as she took in the amount of Morgans camped on his porch. He had to give her credit for not flooring it in reverse and hightailing it the fuck out of there.
Hell, it was probably what he would have done.
A weighty silence descended on the group as Lilly parked her vehicle and made the slow trek toward the porch. Dante’s gaze dipped toward her neckline, where the tag for her sweater was hanging out in plain view. She’d jumped into her clothes so fast earlier, he hadn’t noticed she’d put the sweater on backwards.
His mouth quirked, and Lilly glanced down. A groan fell from her. “Aw crap.” Her motions swift, she tugged her scarf in place to cover up her wardrobe malfunction.
Something about her obvious embarrassment stoked his protective instincts. Cupping her elbow, he pulled her close and dropped a kiss on her forehead.
The collective spell of silence that’d gripped his cousins shattered as they all began talking at once. In his typical fashion, Theo outshouted everyone else. “Holy shit, Shane wasn’t talking out of his ass.”
Shane’s eyebrows snapped low as he glared at his brother. “Why would I have been talking out of my ass?”
“’Cause you’re good at it.”
Ignoring Theo’s smartass crack, Shane transferred his scowl to Dante. “Not two days ago, you were bitching about Lilly swinging by your place. Now the two of you are doing the mattress mambo?”
Dante shrugged. “Things change.”
“That’s a big jump to make, dude,” Theo pointed out.
Tess cleared her throat. “I think everyone is just a little…shocked…right now.”
“You can say that again,” Theo groused before pinning Dante with a penetrating stare.
Theo’s suspicion was expected. As the sheriff of Highland County, Theo tended to not take things at immediate face value. Still, it didn’t stop Dante from grinding his teeth. A retort sprang to his mouth just as Foster’s black Hummer came roaring up the drive.
A grunt fell from Theo. “This is gonna be interesting.”
Hell, that was putting it mildly. Tucking Lilly closer to his side, Dante waited for his father to jump from the car. Foster’s coloring was beet red, hinting that he was seconds away from launching into apeshit crazy mode. He stomped forward, his livid gaze panning from Lilly to Dante. “You better have a damn good reason for the mess you left back in town.”
Obviously the Gifford brothers hadn’t wasted any time sniveling over getting their asses kicked. No doubt they’d phoned their dad right after the fact, who in turn called Foster. Fucking pussies. “Yeah, I’ve got a perfect reason—no one lays a hand on my fiancée.”
His bombshell did the trick of momentarily stunning Foster—and everyone else—into silence. There weren’t many occasions where his dad was caught off guard and left with his mouth gaping open. A full fifteen seconds passed before Foster found his tongue again. Eyes narrowing, he glared at Lilly. “Is this your idea of payback for your grandpap, you little slut?”
A cold, lethal rage speared through Dante. His fist connected with Foster’s face before he fully comprehended he’d thrown the punch. Foster thudded backwards into the snow as a pair of gasps sprang from Jamie and Tess.
The residual knife’s edge of anger still coiled in his gut, Dante eyed the blood trickling from his father’s nostrils. “Call her that again, and I’ll do a lot more than rearrange your nose.”
Foster struggled to his feet before spitting in the snow. “If you think I’m going to allow you to marry her, you’re dead wrong.”
“You don’t tell me what to do.”
“If you want to keep your alpha status and continue leading this pack, you damn well will do what I say.” Triumph twisted Foster’s hard features. “You’re free to fuck her all you want—it won’t satisfy your mate-bond requirement.”
“There’s nothing in our bylaws that demands it be a wolf I mate with.”
A tiny fraction of the victory sputtered in Foster’s gleeful expression. Wiping the back of his hand across his mouth, he glanced at the rest of the Morgans congregated behind Dante. “They won’t accept her as your mate.”
“I’d accept Lilly before I would Anna Gifford,” Jamie piped up.
A trio of harmonizing responses echoed from the others, earning a black scowl from Foster. His hands fisted at his sides. “Hardly a majority vote. Believe me, the rest of the pack won’t be so easily swayed.” With those words of warning, he spun on his heel and stalked back to the Hummer. After banging the door shut, he gunned the engine and floored it in reverse, sending up a shower of snow on either side of the vehicle.
In the wake of Foster’s irate departure, another lengthy silence filled the void. A shiver coursed through Lilly, and Dante tightened his arm around her. He turned and caught the curious speculation of his cousins.
Damn. So much for an uninterrupted repeat performance of the hot and heavy session he and Lilly had engaged in earlier. Not masking his irritation, he journeyed up the stairs and unlocked the door. Everyone trooped inside. While Theo made himself comfortable on the couch, Jamie and Tess offered Lilly awkward hugs and congratulated her on the engagement. A grunt chuffing from Theo, he stacked his feet on the coffee table. Ignoring him, Dante ventured to the kitchen to gather beer and other refreshments for his unexpected guests. Twisting the cap off a bottle of Bud, he chugged down a much-needed swallow. Now that some of the adrenaline was wearing off from the showdown with his father, a host of conflicted emotions took root. Disbelief warred with the feral satisfaction burning in his chest. Bad as things had been between him and his old man in the past, it’d never escalated to the point of outright violence.
He should probably feel guiltier about decking Foster, but the truth was he wouldn’t hesitate to do it again if push came to shove. He wouldn’t stand for anyone calling Lilly a slut, much less that someone being his own father.
A scuffing noise sounded behind him, and he turned as Shane approached. His cousin eyed the bottle in Dante’s hand before grabbing another for himself from the counter and tipping it in Dante’s direction. “To your upcoming nuptials.”
Dante met the skepticism in Shane’s unwavering gaze. “You’re the one who said I need a wife.”
“Hell, I didn’t think you’d take me up on it. And you better believe I never expected the lucky lady to end up being Lilly.” Shane pointed the bottle at Dante again. “So what’s the real story here, coz?”
Dante carefully kept his expression bland. “There’s no story.”
“Bullshit. You couldn’t stand each other two days ago.”
“Maybe I was wrong about Lilly all these years.” Had he been? Truthfully, he’d been all too willing to only see what he’d perceived to be her pain-in-the-ass qualities. And mostly that’d been due to his frustration over her determination to get him to sell the land. But was Lilly’s dedication to the lynchats’ cause any different than his commitment to his pack? Not really, when you got down to it.
Shane continued to give him that shrewd look that seemed to drill right into Dante’s brain. “You haven’t mate-bonded with her yet.”
“Doesn’t mean I’m not planning to.” His thoughts veered to the unexpected mating knot he’d experienced earlier in the truck. Hell, it was plenty obvious his body was five steps ahead of the game in that regard. But the damnable part was while a mating bite was merely a symbolic mark amongst his species, a mating knot was the true hallmark of an emotional bond.