“No!”
She wasn’t surprised when her answer made him laugh anyway.
“I should have known you let Jess ‘Weepy Eyes’ Ward-Smith talk you into this.”
Lock reached up and tugged the ends of Gwen’s hair. “You cut it.”
“What?”
“Your hair.” He ran his hands through her hair. It was much shorter and she’d blown out the curls but…“I like it.”
“Thanks.”
He sighed. “And they ganged up on me.”
“Who?”
“The wild dogs. I didn’t stand a chance.”
“You’re so weak.”
“I know, I know.
“And something else—” Gwen began, but it wasn’t movement that snagged Lock’s attention away from her but a change in landscape from the corner of his eye. One second they had a nice ring of space around them, the next a She-wolf was standing beside them. Gwen hissed and bared her fangs, but unlike the others, canine or feline, this She-wolf didn’t run.
“That’s a very nice how-do-ya-do.” The She-wolf smiled at Lock. “Hey, MacRyrie.”
“Don’t sneak up on me, Dee.”
“Lord, when did you get so sloppy? There was a time nobody could sneak up on you. Now you’ve got your hippy hair—”
“Told you your hair is too long.”
“Let it go, Gwen.”
“—and your feline girlfriend and you have become one lazy bear.”
Chuckling, Lock introduced them. “Gwen O’Neill, this is Dee-Ann Smith. Dee-Ann, this is Gwen. Dee and I were in the Unit together.”
“This?” Gwen asked with a definite snarl. “This is your Marine buddy?”
“Why do you say it like that?”
“We both know why!”
“Hi, Dee-Ann.” Ric smoothly stepped in and smiled at Dee. And with his glass of wine and his Jane Austen-inspired costume, he couldn’t look more wrong for Dee-Ann Smith. Not that that particular fact, Lock knew, would stop a determined Van Holtz wolf. Especially such a wily one. “It’s good to see you again.”
“You, too.” She slapped him on the shoulder and Ric kept his smile until he turned his face away and then Lock saw the poor guy’s expression contort into one of surprised pain.
“What are you doing here, Dee?” Lock asked. “A wild dog party doesn’t seem like your speed.”
“Figured what the hell. They’re family now and all. Nice costume, by the way.”
“Don’t start.”
“Well…” Dee looked back and forth between Ric, Gwen, and Lock. “See ya.” Then she walked off.
“Friendly girl,” Gwen muttered.
“Leave her alone. She rescued me from a bear trap once.”
Gwen threw her hands up. “How can I compete with that?”
“No one asked you to compete with anything—now let it go.” Lock glanced over at his friend and couldn’t help but smile. “And Ric, how’s that shoulder?”
Ric sat down at the table. “Fine. Fine.” He moved it around a bit. “And with some reconstructive surgery and ten to twelve months of physical therapy…I’m sure it will be perfect again.”
The two friends laughed while Gwen just rolled her eyes.
“She’s sitting on his lap,” Jess said, while spying through the partially opened door of their temporary Ye Ol’ Tailor Shoppe.
“Only so she can scare off other She-predators,” Sabina complained while trying to push Jess out of the way to get a better look. “It means nothing.”
“She’s not just sittin’ there,” May noted. “They’re talkin’. Looks deep.”
“It looks like arguing.” Sabina observed.
Blayne went up on her toes to see over all of them. “It is arguing, but that’s not bad.”
“It’s not?”
“Not with Gwen. She doesn’t argue unless she gives a shit about you.”
“I have to admit—” Jess went up on her toes, trying to get a better look “—I never thought your plan would work, Blayne, but it seems that it has.”
“Told you they were perfect together. All they needed was a little nudge in the right direction. And I have to say, ladies, excellent choice on Lock’s costume.”
“It wasn’t us.” Jess motioned behind them to their “Insider.” “That was her idea.”
“Lord knows,” their Insider said, “there’s something about a man in a kilt that just—”
“Ahhhhhh-Haaaaa!”
Screaming and slamming into the door, the wild dogs and hybrid spun around to see Mitch and Brendon Shaw standing behind them, having found the second doorway in the back of the room. Ronnie came in behind the two men and shrugged an apology. “Sorry, y’all. They got away from me.”
“You traitor!” Mitch said, pointing an accusatory finger at Sissy Mae, a.k.a. their “Insider.” “You’ve been helping them all this time! How could you?”
“Now, darlin’—”
“Don’t ‘darlin” me! You’re working with her.” That accusatory finger moved over to poor Blayne and Jess cringed. “She’s already tainted my innocent baby sister with her insanity, now she’s gotten you.”
Jess grabbed Blayne’s arm before the wolfdog could start swinging. “You’re being a drama king,” Jess sighed.
“I’m protecting my baby sister!”
Blayne crossed her arms over her chest. “You know, this is so typical of you, Mitch Shaw. You’re barely in Gwen’s life until you get your ass shot, and then, now that you’re no longer a cop and seem to have way too much time on your hands, you want to roar in and take over like you have a right.”
“And you,” Mitch snarled back, “wanna mind your own goddamn business!”
“I like to see you make me!”
“Y’all!” Sissy stepped between them. “I can’t handle another slap fight. And maybe, Mitch, it’s time you open your eyes and realize that the grizzly out there is perfect for a woman who does that freak thing with her neck. ’Cause let me tell ya, he doesn’t blink an eye when she does it, but it makes me want to call up an exorcist!”
“That’s my sister you’re talking about!”
“And we only want what’s best for her.” Jess stood next to Blayne now, both of them with their arms crossed over their chests. “I’m also telling you as your friend and worshipper of your karaoke skills that you need to give Lachlan MacRyrie a chance. It’s the fair thing to do.”
“Fair?” Mitch pointed at his face. “Lion male. Totally irrational, self-absorbed, all about me. There is no fair in my world. Wake up to the reality, ladies. This bullshit is over.”
Gwen crossed her arms under her chest and Lock looked to Ric for help. “Tell her, Ric. I told her about Dee, so I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Ric was still moving his shoulder, wincing from whatever that She-wolf had done to him. What Gwen found a little scary was that she doubted Dee tried to purposely hurt him. “Actually,” Ric admitted, “you do have a tendency to downplay things.”
“Ha!” Gwen crowed, triumphant.
“Dude! Where’s the Bro-love?”
“I’m not sure what that is…nor do I want to know. But remember in tenth grade, when I wanted to go out with that junior and you said, ‘Eh. I don’t think she’s the right girl for you’?”
“She wasn’t.”
“Because she was setting things on fire!” Ric announced loudly, making Gwen burst out laughing and Lock roll his eyes. “I’m serious, Gwen.” Ric went on. “And when I say setting things on fire, I mean entire buildings. Mostly schools. She’d been setting them on fire or trying to, for weeks. I didn’t find out until the cops came and arrested her during gym class. But does he say to me, ‘She’s setting things on fire! She’s crazy! Stay away from her!’ No. He says, ‘Eh. I don’t think she’s the right girl for you.’ And he’s all calm about it over our chocolate pudding in the cafeteria.”