“Well, supportive friend, what the hell should I do?”
“How the hell should I know?”
“I knew it! You send me off into the desert then leave me alone to die. I should have never listened to you and Angelina. As soon as those fangs started coming out, I should have run for the hills.”
Miki glanced up when the room fell silent. “What?”
“What do you mean his fangs came out?”
Damn. She really needed to watch what she said and when. Of course, that only took her twenty-nine years to discover.
She cleared her throat and shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Sometimes his eyes would change and his fangs would come out.”
Sara leaned forward. “During sex or when you pissed him off?”
She again glanced around the room filled with Pack females. They all seemed to be waiting for her answer. “Um…well, both. Sometimes.”
Miki reared back when the chanting began. “Mi-ki! Mi-ki! Mi-ki!”
Now she was completely confused. “What? What?”
Sara jumped out of her chair. “Dude. You got the guy to extend his fangs during sex. That’s amazing!”
Kelly appeared equally impressed. “We’re trained from preteen years to control that since a lot of us have relationships with humans without them ever knowing. We fuck ‘em, but we don’t necessarily mate with ‘em. Anyway, it’s really rare for us to, you know, ‘bust out’ during sex. Even with each other.”
“So, if you actually got him to lose control that much…” Mindy shook her head.
“And this is Conall we’re talking about. He doesn’t lose it. Ever.”
The females actually high-fived each other.
“Wait. Wait.” Sara quieted them all down. “So, Mik. What about you?”
“What about me?”
Sara placed her hands flat against the wood table and raised an eyebrow. Miki had the feeling her friend was getting even with her for the rave comment from four days earlier. Bitch. “Was your reaction equally as enthusiastic as his seemed to be?”
Miki stared at the women, then buried her head back in her arms.
She heard Kelly’s voice announce, “Ladies, I do believe we have a screamer.”
Her cheeks were burning so bad she was sure they were about to burst into flame. “I hate all of you.”
“She’s a prime piece of ass, but once she pumps out a kid, that ass is going to go.”
Conall glared at Jake. He wondered whether it would really be morally wrong to kill the man.
“I don’t care.” Conall moved his glare to Zach. He blamed him for this. “If it was only about her ass, trust me I would have fucked her and walked away by now.”
“How could any wolf walk away?” That from Dunwich. “The woman took on a hyena clan. She set them on fire. Personally, I’d rather have her on our side.”
Zach shrugged. “Then it sounds to me like you love her. And if you love her, then tell her she belongs to you and she needs to get over it. Show her who’s in charge. That’s what I did with Sara.”
Zach seemed less than pleased when they all laughed so hard Conall actually fell off the bed.
Miki glanced up as Patty put a glass of milk in front of her. She stared at it in confusion because she hadn’t asked for milk.
Patty shrugged and answered her unasked question. “Well, if you’re going to keep it, I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to drink milk and stuff.”
“We’ll have to get books. You know. On pregnancy and shit,” Kelly suggested.
“And I’m in for the delivery room.”
“Yeah. Me, too.”
“Me, too.”
Miki couldn’t believe it. These women were volunteering to be in the delivery room with her. To help her without her even asking. So this was what it meant to be part of a Pack. She felt that sudden urge to cry again, but it disappeared as soon as the wolf females looked at Sara.
She knew what her best friend was going to say before it left her mouth. Miki wasn’t wolf, but she could smell the panic and fear coming off the woman.
“You must be fuckin’ kidding me! Sorry, Kendrick, you’re on your own once that water breaks.”
“You know. This is bullshit.” Conall didn’t like the sound of that as Zach straightened up and headed for the door. “I’ll tell her she’s staying.”
The males looked at each other then they charged after Zach. As Conall followed, he could see his future with Miki slipping through his hands.
“And what about my career? Conridge offered me a teaching position.”
Sara smirked. “First off. You hate teaching. You hate college kids. And second, Northern California has gotten really progressive and they actually have a few colleges. Some universities, too. This state is making quite a name for itself academically.”
Miki gave Sara the finger as the females began laughing. But when Zach, Conall, and a group of Pack males walked in, all conversation stopped.
Zach looked at Sara. “What?”
Sara’s eyes narrowed. “Just wondering what you want.”
“What makes you think we want anything? This is my fuckin’ kitchen, too.”
“Uh-huh.”
Zach went to the fridge, and tossed each of the men a beer. Once they each had one, he headed toward the swinging kitchen door, pushed it open, then stopped. “But if I were going to say anything—”
“I knew it!” Sara stood up. “You just can’t stay out of it, can you?”
“Sara, wait.” Miki stood up. “I wanna hear what the brain trust has to say.”
Zach glared. “Look, Tinker Bell, I tolerate you ‘cause I have to. But Conall, against my better judgment, loves your psychotic ass. I don’t know why. I don’t understand it. But he does. And I have to figure if he loves you, and Sara—who I trust with my life and the life of my Pack on a daily basis—loves you, then there must be something about you besides that big mouth and those tiny elf feet.”
Miki’s eyes narrowed as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
Kelly leaned in between the two. “Why don’t I just take this for now.” She plucked the gun and its holster off Miki’s sweats.
Conall sighed. He’d had some big plans for his life with Miki. House. Kids. Gun shows. But his best friend was blowing that all to hell and back.
But he’d forgotten about his Alpha Female. She was in Zach’s face so fast that everyone, even Miki, stepped back.
“Was that supposed to be nice!”
“She doesn’t get nice. She gets barely tolerated.”
“You need to back the fuck off. Now!”
“All I’m saying is if she loves him she should just fuckin’ stay!”
“And it’s none of your business whether she loves him or not. Whether she stays or not.”
“Sara, she’s already part of the Pack. She protected Conall. You. And now she’s carrying a Pack baby…”
Miki cut in then. “Never call our baby that again.”
“…But if she doesn’t want him for the love of all that’s holy, put the poor guy out of his misery.”
Conall could still hear them going at it, but he hadn’t taken his eyes off Miki. He was waiting for her to realize what she’d just said. It took her all of thirty seconds. He knew the exact moment, too, by the look of pure panic on her face when she looked at him.
He smiled. A big, leering, Viking smile, he was sure. And Miki was none too happy.
“That meant nothing!” she practically screeched.
Sara and Zach snapped out of their argument as Conall moved in front of Miki.
“That meant everything, Miki-baby. Absolutely everything.”