Marrying Her: The Keeping Her Christmas Wedding (The Keeping Her Series Book 5) (8 page)

Eli chuckled at Roxy’s
reaction and shrugged his broad shoulders; his Irish green eyes were full of
their usual good cheer, his smile promised all kinds of chicanery he would be
getting up to if he had half the chance.  “I am never opposed to spending my
lonely holidays with beautiful women.” He shrugged and a dimple that hid most
of the time showed itself in that too handsome face of his.  “I will absolutely
adore spending this one with the cream of the crop.”  He winked at them and
Clytie could not help laughing, any more than Miley or Cassie could. 

Demon growled across from
them.  In fact, all the men gave Eli a glare promising mayhem.  It made Clytie
want to laugh again – which would have been bad.

Eli, as usual, ignored
his imminent death and went on, effectively showing Clytie that Miley had
already talked to him and convinced him to help.  “In fact, as I have been
working myself to the bone, I intend to take a little holiday and help these
lovely ladies with the wedding planning.”

Clytie felt a new
predatory watchfulness in the room that was new.

“And why the fuck would
you do that?” Demon asked with hot suspicion. Mac and Ben seemed to move just
the tiniest bit, as if they were preparing for anything.

“I’m going to have to
second that question,” Lucas added with the same heat to his gaze.  “Since when
do you do weddings?”

Clytie wanted to blow out
the breath of tension that was freezing her lungs, but she did not dare bring
attention to herself.  The predators were circling, and she had the feeling her
secret plans were not going to get off the ground.

Then Eli started telling
the truth and she almost fell over.  “Miley asked me if I could stick around
and drive Clytie to her wedding things.”  He seemed oblivious to the tension,
but there was a bite to his smile that said he found something funny.  No one
else did.

Lucas turned his cold
blue eyes to his mate.  “Miley?”

Miley huffed out a breath
and gave Lucas her wide-eyed look.  “Yes?”

“Something you want to
tell me?”  The voice said she had better have something to tell him.

“The drama,” she muttered
and then huffed, clearly taking her lead from Eli.  “If you must know, Clytie
has a wedding surprise for Demon and Eli has agreed to help her work on it, so
she can do what she has to do and still have a security escort.”  She glared at
the rest of the men.  “One that will not either inform Demon or tease Clytie
about it unmercifully.  Since I know we have to get back to Napa, Cleo and
Shawn have a job, and Logan is off hunting, Eli was the obvious choice.”

Mac opened his mouth to
say something and Clytie stepped in.  “I am not going to discuss what I need to
do with anyone who lives in this house.  It is the only way it will remain a
surprise.”  Clytie moved over that invisible line between male and female to
put her hand on Demon’s chest, her eyes looking way up into his.  He did not
look pleased.  At all.  “I want this Christmas to be special in a lot of ways. 
And I want this to be a surprise you will never forget.  Will you trust me that
much?”

Clytie knew it was a
loaded question, and Demon knew it too.  He grumbled, his eyes flaring with his
exasperation, but finally he pushed his hands into her hair on either side of
her face and grumbled, “Let me see if I get this.  You want Eli to stay and
escort you to secret whatever the fuck, our wedding is to be in two long fucking
months away on Christmas Eve, and the entire pack present for the honeymoon?”

Wow, it sounded bad when
he put it like that.
  She grimaced but what could she say but
a tentative, “Yes?”

Demon dropped his head
back to his shoulders and blew out a breath while communing with the ceiling. 
Then he bent back down until he met her eyes with a narrow look.  “Will I at
least like this secret present you are planning? Or is it some chick thing I
will not get, seeing as I have a dick?”

Clytie laughed and rested
her cheek on his chest, hiding her face which she just knew was about to give
her away in blushes.  Her hands wrapped tightly around his broad back.  “I will
guarantee one hundred percent that you will like your present.  If, on
Christmas Day, you are less than one hundred percent satisfied, you will then
have the right to name whatever gift you want, with no boundaries or exceptions
placed on said request.”

She pressed her hot face
tighter into his chest when he attempted to pull it back and look at her.  She
finally relented when it was obvious he was not going let it go.  She looked up
into hot wolf eyes and forgot her embarrassment and everyone else in the room. 

Demon rubbed a broad
thumb over her heated cheek and smiled one of his rare smiles.  “You got
yourself a fucking deal.”

A few days later, most of
their Lionsgate guests went home.  Eli stayed and took Clytie to her first
official doctor’s appointment.  She decided after the blood tests, which she
was thrilled to hear from Eli were not going to show some crazy abnormality,
the embarrassing questions, and the pelvic exam that if Miley was wrong about
this pregnancy she was going to get coal in her stocking this year.  Luckily,
she found out fairly quickly that Miley was not wrong.  She was officially
having a baby – a shape-shifter baby that might or might not follow the
standard pregnancy rules.  Eli certainly could not answer her questions, and
Miley wasn’t all that sure herself, never having been around a human, shape-shifter
mating. She did give Clytie the number of a friend of hers who was ‘sorta’
human and mated to, not one, not two, but three wolves.  The mind boggles. 
Clytie called her as soon as she could get a private call out at the right time
zone.

“Hello, this is A Bene
Placito.” The voice was friendly and professional on the phone, not altogether
unexpected, since she had called her at the office.

“Hi, is this Rebecca?”

“Yes, how can I help you?”

“This is Clytie Jones. 
Miley told me I could call you.”

The gasp on the line was
sudden and violent.  “Yes!  You’re the one having the secret baby?”  She was
all of a sudden very excited.

“I am, I was just
wondering if you could tell me a little about what to expect from a human, wolf
pairing.”

“When are you due?”

“End of July, you?”

“February.”  Clytie heard
her blow out a breath.  “What do you want to know?”

“I can look up pregnancy
information pretty much anywhere, but what I would like to know is if there is
anything that differs from the norm when dealing with shifters.  When did you
start showing?  Do you have any weird meat cravings?”  Clytie heard Eli snort
from where he was supposedly giving her privacy for this call, which meant they
were parked out in the middle of nowhere and he was standing outside the
vehicle as sentry.  Clytie glared at his back through the window and ignored
him. 

“No weird cravings for
raw meat,” Rebecca said with a little laugh.  “And I expected it, believe me. 
Instead, I wanted pineapple constantly, but that was probably just me.”  She
laughed again.  “Lately, it’s green peppers, so who knows.  I’m not what anyone
would call skinny, so I didn’t show until about ten weeks.  Though my mates
tell me differently, and they were the ones looking for it with enthusiasm
daily.”  Her voice held fond memories and then she was back to business.  “Believe
me, we all inhaled pregnancy books by the shipload.  It’s all been pretty
standard.  What they do not warn you about, what they cannot know, because it
is a shifter’s or their mate’s only curse . . .,”  Clytie held her breath
waiting for the next warning words with a heart that was racing, “is the daddies.” 

She blinked and looked at
the phone in her hand.  “Excuse me?”

Someone else must have
been in the room with her because Rebecca said a muffled, “Quiet you.”  Then
she was back to her usual volume, only with a great deal more passion.  “They
don’t warn you about the overprotective, in your face every moment, shifters
that watch you like a hawk, take away anything that might be remotely
dangerous, like
I kid you not
, an electric toothbrush!”  By the last
words, she was loud enough for Eli to hear her outside the car and turn and
raise a brow at Clytie.  She waved him off.

“Why would they take away
your toothbrush?”  Eli finally turned around with a laugh.

“
I know, right
?!” 
Clytie could hear the glare in Rebecca’s voice when she went on with a great
deal of passion and, it must be said, numerous grievances.  “Apparently,
somebody somewhere mentioned the choking dangers inherent in electric
toothbrushes should they suddenly go berserk and break in your mouth.  And then
there is the danger of sharks that hardly ever bite you when you are wading
to the knees.” 
The sarcasm was getting thicker with each word. “Sand
crabs, wild animals at night, on a
shape-shifter island
, and let’s not
forget
walking
without a big strong alpha to hold you upright!”

Clytie cleared her throat
and spoke calmly to diffuse the situation before Rebecca could go on, which she
was clearly gearing up for.  “So, the worst thing about being pregnant is the
overprotective shape-shifter fathers?”

She heard the other woman
take a breath, trying valiantly to match Clytie’s calm.  “Yes,” her voice had
returned to reasonable lines, then she sighed.  “Though that could be just me. 
It’s also the best thing, besides the actual baby, when they are rubbing your
back and swollen feet, or making sure you have hard to find foods you want. 
And they cuddle really well.  One cannot argue the power of the cuddle when you
ache all over and feel frumpy and waddle everywhere.”  There was a softness to
her words that conveyed a great deal and made Clytie happy for the woman.  It
also made Clytie add mood swings to the mental list she had started.  Then she
kept talking, a snap of temper coming in right behind the words, and the
sarcasm flared interspersed with the sweet.  “If your mate is not a big tough alpha
know it all,
or three
,
who sees himself as the only thing keeping
you alive while you
walk a paved path,
you might be okay.”

Clytie thought about
Demon and his big tough alpha overprotectiveness, and added the thought of a
baby on the way.  She sighed and dropped her head into her hand.  “I am so screwed,”
she mumbled into the phone.

“Yes,” the other woman
was all sympathy now, “and not in a good way.”

Clytie snorted out a
laugh at that.  “You don’t know Demon.”

“Trust me, once you get
so fat they worry about hurting the baby . . . It won’t matter that you’re
hormonal and horny, the honeymoon is definitely over.”  Clytie was thinking
that might have been too much information when someone on the other end took
exception to Rebecca’s words.  Rebecca snorted in answer to something Clytie
couldn’t hear.  “I am too fat.”  Then, “Big talk.  No action,” she said to
someone who had to be one of her mates, if the sexy taunting sound of her voice
was any indication. 

Clytie heard a growl close
to the phone, Rebecca gasped, and then she was abruptly disconnected.  She
hoped for Rebecca’s sake she was finally getting screwed, in the good way. 
Knowing what she did from Demon about how wolf alpha’s took challenges, Clytie
would bet money Rebecca was going to be a little less frustrated, and soon.

Clytie placed her phone
in the seat beside her and thought about what she had learned.  She sighed
again, deeply.  “Maybe it won’t be so bad with just one to deal with,” she
mumbled to herself.  Even she didn’t believe that whopper of a lie.

***

Demon was not happy.  Eli
was with his wife on clandestine missions and when she wasn’t with fucking Eli,
she was looking at pictures of wedding dresses and deciding on menus, or oohing
over shoes with Cassandra and Jordan. He liked Jordan, but she was a constant
presence around the house before the wedding planning began; these days she had
a room of her own.  Now with Thanksgiving the day after tomorrow, the whole
house smelled like pies and she was in the kitchen with Cassandra, Mac, and Ben
planning and preparing for the elaborate feast, while Eli and Crow taste tested
and talked about fucking video games and computers from their semi-permanent
stools at the kitchen island. 

Not that any of that was
a bad thing.  When he was finished with his shift in the control room, he would
switch places with whoever was on next and join them there.  And it must be
said that Clytie could bake, even with Roxy standing on her chair and ‘helping,’
it was always good.  He could also admit that he liked the glow she was
sporting lately, with all the activity and wedding plans.  She was happy, hell
she was sparkling with her happy, so he should be happy.  But he was not
fucking happy for one reason and one reason only.  He could not get any time
alone with his mate.  Sure, they ended every night together in bed, but by then
Clytie was dragging her fine ass around and looking adorably exhausted.  So, he
cuddled her and waited until morning to fuck one or two screams of pleasure out
of her.  Then she was gone again in her happy exhausted funk.  He would likely
not see her alone again until they were back in the bedroom that night.  The
plain truth was he needed more of her, when he could see she was running
herself ragged to get everything done, take care of Roxy, and even Crow when he
let her, finish up the last of her art pieces for the showing in January, and
all the other things she did that made life good for everyone in that house.

Just admitting it made
him sound like a dick, so he didn’t admit it out loud.  He just watched his
glowing happy mate whenever he could, touched her at every opportunity, and
wished every one of their family and pack to the fifth ring of hell.

So, he was not all fired
up to have even more guests.  Watching the taxi pull up to the front gate, he
was seriously hoping it was someone he could ignore or beat down. 
Unfortunately, when the passenger disembarked and stood glaring at the quickly
departing taxi with her hobo bag dumped on the ground beside her, he knew
neither of those plans would work.  “Shit.”

Then his Aunt Essie of
the Bone Crusher clan looked up at the camera with wolf gold eyes and smiled. 
Fucking
fantastic.

Demon bit off a snarl of
supremely unhappy and went to let in yet another unwanted guest that would
likely take up even more of his mate’s time.  This time he didn’t even care he
was being a dick.

A hush fell over the
kitchen when he showed their guest in.  Roxy looked up and saw Essie, and
scooted just a little closer to Clytie on her chair.  Clytie looked up a moment
later, and then had Roxy in an arm lock that said very clearly they would have
to peel the child from her cold dead fingers before she would be parted from
her.  Roxy didn’t seem to mind suddenly being squashed against a determined
Clytie.  If anything, the child moved closer.  It made Demon smile on one hand,
and growl on the other.  Watching his mate go all she-wolf for her cub was
fucking hot.  But it told another story he did not like quite so much.  Did
they really think he would let anyone take one of his?

“See everyone survived
all the shenanigans this pack has been up to.”  Essie’s voice, like the rest of
her, was old and gnarled and caused a sudden hush to come over the room, as the
predators who lived there turned to see what had invaded their territory. 
Essie pointed her cane at Crow, in a move so unexpected it startled a squawk
from the kid, before he shook it off and glared at the old bag.  “Who are you?”

“That’s Crow,” Demon said
moving around the counter so that he was directly behind his mate and cub and
across from Crow.  He stood over them all and he felt the females both relax
just the slightest bit.  That was fucking something anyway.  Crow didn’t take
his eyes off Essie for a minute.

“Taking in strays?” The
voice was mean and the tone derisive, Crow flinched.  Demon took immediate
exception to her words and tone.  And so did every other person who saw that
telling flinch.

Mac, Ben, hell even Eli
stood up while a new tension hit the room.  But it was Cassandra and Clytie who
spoke up first.

“Crow is family,” Clytie
said, her tone as hard as Demon had ever heard, and had the boy turning in
shock to look at her.  “He is more than pack.” 

Cassandra interrupted
heatedly from where it looked like Ben and Mac were both holding her back from
mayhem.  “He is not a stray,” she spat the words at the old lady while her eyes
sparked with her temper.  Since Cassie was not an easy person to rile and
rarely lost her temper, as in almost never, it got the attention of everyone in
the room.  “You do not look at him, or speak to him like
that
!”

Clytie went on, nodding
her head at Cassie’s words.  “This is his home, he has made his place here. 
You are a guest and as such deserve respect.”  Cassie snorted in derision,
clearly not agreeing.  She was beyond pissed.  Essie opened her mouth but
Clytie was not finished.  “Demon’s Aunt or not, if you talk about any of my
family like that again you will no longer be welcome.”  Nobody in that room
doubted her implacable resolve on this issue.  Not even Crow, who looked like
he had been bludgeoned over the head with a bat, he was so shocked by their
defense of him. 

Demon growled drawing
every eye and made sure he had his Aunt’s attention.  “You heard my mate.  You
heard Cassandra.  Now hear me.  Crow is mine, just as Roxy is mine.  And
everyone in this room is pack.  Not a single man here would deny our women if
they called for your blood.  You do not fuck with them.  You do not fuck with our
cubs.  Understand that or get the fuck out.”  He held the old woman’s wolf
eyes, but she said nothing.  He growled.  “Nod if you get me.”

Finally, Essie looked at
the rest of the people in the room and nodded.  Clytie let out a breath she had
been holding, patted Demon’s arm, and smiled at Crow, who was still in too much
shock to do anything about it.  She ducked under Demon’s massive arm and went
over to take Essie’s bag.  “I’ll show you to your room.  You probably need to
get settled a bit after your trip.”