Remembering his innuendo, Francine couldn’t deny it. Even funnier, though, she’d enjoyed it.
The combatants rolled off the walkway, still trying to get the upper hand, onto the lawn. Their brawl brought them precariously close to a well-ordered cluster of blooms, hand planted by Naomi.
“Ethan, they’re going to crush my pretty flowers,” Naomi barked, more concerned about her garden than her brother’s now bleeding nose.
With a quirk of his lips, Naomi’s big teddy bear bent over, grabbed the fighters by the arms and yanked them apart. “Enough, or I’ll beat you both,” he rumbled.
Few people were stupid enough to mess with a Kodiak bear, and these two, despite their heated blood, were no exception. Mitchell stumbled to his feet with a glower while Alejandro lay there with a grin and messy hair that made him even sexier. “But we were just getting to know each other.”
Mitchell growled. His fists, clenched at his side, turned almost white in direct contrast to his bright red, extremely annoyed expression.
“Stop pissing off Naomi’s brother or I’ll let Ethan have a go at you,” Javier warned.
“I could use the exercise,” added the bear with a vicious smile that made more than one lacrosse player on the floor run the other way.
Alejandro laughed before springing to his feet. Ignoring a still bristling Mitchell, he headed to Naomi, enveloping her in a gentle hug. “Naomi, my sweet sister-in-law, you look more gorgeous each time I see you. If you weren’t already taken…”
“Yes, I know, we’d fuck like wild animals until the next cutie caught your eye.”
“Ah, but we’d have so much fun until that happened,” he said with a wink.
While Francine found their byplay entertaining, her wolf, for some reason, didn’t, and growled in her head.
Thankfully, she didn’t have to listen to her bitch’s weird pms-ing for long as Javier yanked Alejandro from Naomi’s arms. Javier squeezed him in a hug and said in a low tone, not low enough for shifter ears to miss, “Grab her ass again, and I’ll cut off your hand.”
“Brother, you wound me,” Alejandro replied, hugging his older sibling back before escaping.
“Not as much as I will,” Ethan announced in a cheerful voice. Alejandro blanched a bit, but shook the bear’s hand, grunting when Ethan snagged him in a bear hug.
When he released him, Alejandro looked red in the face as his chest heaved for air.
Naomi laughed. “Javier, you and your brothers almost make my family look normal.”
“God forbid,” her mate replied, rolling his eyes. “I guess I should introduce everyone starting with the little trouble maker here. This is Alejandro, my youngest and most annoying brother.” Facing his brother he said, “The guy who is trying to kill you with his gaze is Naomi’s brother, Mitchell. And the redhead you somehow kidnapped on your way in is Naomi’s best friend, which means off limits, Francine.”
Francine could only sputter. “Javier!”
“What? I’m just making things clear now because I’d hate to have to kick his ass later.”
“Such a good husband,” Naomi purred, patting his arm. “He knows which side of his bread to butter.”
Francine could only roll her eyes as her best friend and her mate gazed at each other sappily. When they exchanged a smooch, she put a finger in her mouth and pretended to gag, which made Alejandro chuckle while Mitchell just frowned. Spoilsport.
“Francine, is that the name of the vision of loveliness I found languishing on the road?” Alejandro threw himself on a knee in front of Francine who blushed as he continued to wax poetic. “It was such an honor and a pleasure for me to be able to aide you in continuing your journey. Might I say, you can ride with me anytime?” He waggled his brows and gave her a suggestive grin that caused her to blush, giggle-and wet herself in a naughty spot all at once.
“A pleasure,” she murmured, letting him grab her hand and kiss it. The tip of his tongue on her skin along with his lips made her breath catch, and butterflies spontaneously came to life in her tummy. She snatched her hand back, her cheeks heating at the reaction of her body, a reaction that didn’t go unnoticed.
Snorting, Mitchell stalked off, muttering, “You’ve got to be freakn’ kidding me. Who the fuck falls for that shit?”
Watching him go, Francine couldn’t stop her sigh of disappointment.
“What is it, baby? Don’t tell me you’re sorry to see that stick in the mud go?”
“That uptight stick is my mate, or will be once he lets himself unbend enough to see it,” she retorted.
With an incredulous look, Alejandro looked at Mitchell’s retreating form then back at her. “He’s an idiot if he can’t see what a prize you are.”
“The idiot gene runs in the family. I should know,” snorted Naomi. “Now, can we go inside? My back is killing me and I want to open presents.”
Francine lingered for a moment, watching the direction Mitchell disappeared in, wondering what it would take to make him claim her. Did his wolf not get agitated whenever they met? Of course, they’d not seen each other in years, through no fault of her own. That man knew how to freakn’ run and hide. But still, seeing him again, all delicious six-foot-three inches of him, her bitch went haywire, her heart sped up, and a tingle swept through her body.
She would have pondered it some more, but she found herself grabbed and thrown over a shoulder, a wide one.
“Um, Ethan, wrong woman.”
“Naomi said to carry your mooning ass inside.”
“I’m sure she didn’t mean that literally.”
“She’s pregnant and extremely hormonal. I’m not taking chances.”
“I heard that!” Naomi hollered.
“See,” Ethan whispered.
A giggle escaped Francine. Some people might have called her nuts for wanting to belong to this family, but personally, she couldn’t imagine anything more awesome, even if most family dinners required a person to wear a helmet and padding for protection. Still, despite the violent tendencies, the love they all had for each other more than made up for it.
Alejandro hit the bathroom first to wash the dust and blood off his face before he grabbed a beer. He needed the bitter brew to help him assimilate what had just happened. Chugging it, though, didn’t give him enough time to wonder why the little redhead he’d picked up on his way made his cat purr. Or why he wanted to beat the hell out of that upstart wolf-and still did. It especially didn’t answer why he wanted to commit suicide by launching himself at Ethan, who carried the little firecracker inside.
Thankfully, he stayed alive, managing to curb his impulse to attack the giant Kodiak when he set Francine down. However, it did nothing to curb the interest of his cat, who prowled in his mind, suggesting he get closer to her for a sniff.
But despite her allure, he needed to stay away. After all, he was simply a guest here for a short time while the troubles back home calmed. Entertaining himself with her, while fun, probably wasn’t worth the hassle because the lady in question was spoken for, kind of. Not that he cared what that arrogant idiot Mitchell thought. It was his sister-in-law, Naomi, that scared him. If he hurt her best friend, chances were he’d end up missing a body part or two.
However, deciding to give Francine a wide berth and doing so proved two completely different things. As if he owned no control over his own body, he found himself immediately going to stand behind her when she sank onto Naomi’s couch beside an older woman. She ignored him, and miffed at the unusualness of it, he did the same back, perusing the crowd in the room.
Alejandro didn’t know most of the people, having only visited once before on a stopover. He’d gotten to know Naomi when Javier brought her home to show off to his family. The visit ended up vastly entertaining as Javier-his
