to avoid your sister having to deal with a lot of people.”
“There was that,” she admitted. “But Derek knew I wanted to avoid this stuff just as much. It’s a freak show, and I’ve never been any good at dealing with it.”
“At least Sera and Kat humiliated Alec’s dad into hiding. Did you hear what Sera said to him?”
“She called him Grandpa Jacobson,” Carmen supplied as she slid onto the bar stool on the other side of Nick. “It was sheer perfection. The man is such a creeper.”
“Hey!” Nick patted her hand. “Did you get your—whoa.”
Carmen’s face had collided with a cosmetics counter—and her wry smile showed she knew it. “Geraldine says they have to lay on the makeup for the pictures. I’ll need a hammer and chisel to get it off my face.”
At least the makeup looked expensive, if too liberally applied. Mackenzie pulled out another beer. “Need a drink? Or something stronger?”
“Thanks, but I’m good.” She looked almost mellow.
Nick stared at her. “You didn’t self-medicate, did you, Carmen?”
She laughed. “No, I’m fine. And sober.”
Mackenzie gripped her beer and studied Carmen. “She doesn’t look like she had a psychotic break. Does she?”
Carmen traced her fingertip over the bar in an absent circle. “I had...a realization. I’ve been getting through all of this by telling myself it’ll be over soon...”
“But it won’t,” Nick finished quietly.
“No,” Carmen agreed. “No, it’s just starting. So I had a good, long talk with myself about what I’ll do when every day is like this.”
Mackenzie leaned in. “Can you take it?”
“It won’t be fun.” She closed her hands into fists. “But I’ll have Alec. That’s all that really matters to me. Everything else is beside the point.”
“You’ll have Alec.” Mackenzie slid her hand over Carmen’s and fought to find some word of comfort. “It’ll get better. Maybe it won’t get great, but the new fascination’s got to wear off eventually.”
“Even if it doesn’t, I don’t care. We’re going to make it work.”
It made Mackenzie feel a little guilty, that Carmen was facing down a life of judgmental wolves and she was still running scared from one Southern mama. “You’re going to make it work. So tell us how to make this easier on you. Or, at the very least, tell Nick how many strippers she can rent for your party.”
Nick smiled wickedly, and Carmen burst out with a laugh. “Is that why my brother called and asked if it was okay for them to hire a few for Alec’s party?”
“Guilty,” Nick murmured. “What can I say? It’s tradition.”
“No firemen,” Mackenzie promised. “Considering Julio’s former occupation, that might be creepy. But hey, hot cops or cowboys?”
Nick made a face. “Assless chaps and a too-small fringed suede vest? Hell yes, that’s perfect.”
Carmen heaved an exaggerated sigh. “Fine. But there go all my best costume ideas for the honeymoon.”
T-5 Days
“Jackson? You got a second?”
Kat was sitting at her desk. Only moments ago, she’d been concentrating on paperwork. Now, she fiddled absently with a sheaf of invoices as she waited for him to answer.
He set aside his pen. “Sure, what’s up?”
She didn’t look at him, which was the first sign of trouble. “You’re keeping an eye on Mac, right? Because this wedding stuff... It’s making her a little squirrelly.”
Plainly put, it was freaking her the fuck out. “I’ve been talking to her. Is there something specific you’re worried about?”
“All the strange wolves piling into town.” Kat winced. “Hell, it’s making Sera defensive and snarly, and she’s pretty laid-back. I talked to Zola about it during my last self-defense lesson, and she said it’s why she and the other non-wolves have been staying away. But Mackenzie’s right in the middle of it.”
“She hasn’t had it easy,” he admitted. More often than not, her encounters with Alec’s parents had ended with her wanting to smack them, though he’d chalked it up to the fact that they were both assholes. “She’s hanging in there, though.”
“Sure she is. Because she’s Mac.” Kat dug about in her desk and surfaced with a binder-clip. “Just... Well, sometimes I think the rest of them forget that she’s new to this. I’ve gotten the vicarious empathic experience of Miguel’s transformation to a full shapeshifter, and I’ve got a new appreciation for how fucked up the changes can be.”
“I’m paying attention,” he said gently. “Don’t worry so much.”
“I know.” Papers secured, Kat dropped them on the desk and turned to give Jackson a wide smile. “I always worry. But not about Mackenzie so much. Not when she’s got you.”
“That she does,” And he knew what was really worrying Kat. “How’s everyone else doing?”
He’d seen her play dumb with a dozen other people. Avoid the topic, change the subject. To him, she told the truth, her pain and confusion clear on her face. “I don’t know. Andrew will barely look at me, much less talk to me. Alec’s too busy to pay attention, and I don’t know if Andrew and Julio are that close. I’m afraid no one’s looking out for him.”
“What if I promise Kenzie and I will?”
Kat gave him a dubious look. “Will Mackenzie be nice to him?”
He had to laugh at that. “She likes him, Kat. Really.”
“Uh-huh.” Kat leaned back and bumped the drawer shut with her foot. “Five more days, and life can go back to normal. I can’t believe they pulled this wedding together this fast.”
“Funny what you can do with copious amounts of money, huh?”
“It seems like a waste,” Kat retorted. “All that money to throw a party for a bunch of people they don’t like anyway. If I ever get married, it’s going to be in Vegas. Elvis or bust.”
“Hey, I’m with you,” he agreed. “But Carmen and Alec don’t exactly have the luxury of owning this day all by themselves.”
“Sucks to be Alec and Carmen.”
“Yes, it does.”
T-4 Days
“I hate this.” Alec’s backyard was overflowing with important wolves from around the country, and instinct had just about decided that climbing to the roof was the best way to hide—or get into position to pounce. “God, Andrew. I really, really hate this.”
“You’re not the only one.” He finished his beer. “So do half of the rest of them. Oh yeah, and me.”
“I figured.” Mackenzie picked at the label on her own beer, uninterested in drinking it. “Kat’s worried about you. This is a lot to deal with, all at once.”
He didn’t seem particularly bothered, aside from a general lack of enjoyment. “This? It’s nothing.”
“Really?” It was hard to believe, when the assembled wolves made her skin crawl. Then again, he was a council member now. Dominant over the rest of them—and they knew it, if the way they seemed to skirt around him was any indication. “I guess it’s different because I’m not one of you.”
“Maybe.” He flashed an insouciant grin. “Or maybe because you’re not me.”
Mackenzie laughed and swung her elbow toward his side. “Great. You’re as pigheaded as Alec already.”
