Page 7 of Delivered to My Beasts
“No.”Only every chance I got.“And maybe I was avoiding you today because I’ve been trying to find another dress. Not from her, which makes it hard here in the sticks.” I rested a hand on his chest, swallowing the bile that the contact brought into my throat. “Mateo, I was so scared. You will be true to me,right? I’ll be your luna, and your greatest supporter, as will be my duty.”
“I’ll take you to find a dress,” he asserted. “And I’ll deal with Phyllis.” He did know her real name. “Let’s go.” We walked hand in hand back to the alpha house, but when we got there, I pulled free.
“I just realized. You can’t come with me to see the dress before the ceremony. Matings it doesn’t matter, but I’ve been reading all about weddings, and the groom cannot see the bride in the dress or even the gown on a hanger. It’s a firm rule.” Never mind the fact he’d picked out the one I destroyed.
“Then what will you do?” This might be our first civil conversation. What a shame. If I’d realized how much I could play on his vanity, I might not have been so afraid to marry him. Of course, if that were the case, I would be living a lie and being a person I’d grow to despise.
“I told you I’ve been searching. That’s what I was doing on my phone, just now. The thrift store in town has a dress I like. Brand new, tags still on it,” I hurried to say, knowing his pride might not allow me to wear something used in case someone recognized it. “My size. You are so very busy with everything you have to do, getting ready to take over the pack.”
“Your father has mismanaged it for years,” he agreed.
“Sure. I’ll just borrow one of the cars and dash into town to get the dress.” I rose on tiptoe and whispered, “I think they have something for our wedding night as well. The clerk is holding it for me to see. Very see-through.”
Nudity mattered not at all ordinarily to shifters, since we all saw one another naked when we stripped, but when I guessed sheer fabric would be a hit with this male?
“I’ll have one of the betas bring a car to the kitchen door for you. You don’t want them to drive you? A luna should have a driver I think.”
“Oh no, you know how those males are. They will tell you all about my dress and ruin everything.” I tried to look excited. “I can’t wait to go!” That much was true.
He smiled at me. “Do you have enough money?”
I let my face fall. “I didn’t ask the price. Oh my gosh I don’t know.”
The bastard gave me cash.
Chapter Six
Crew
We didn’t have a lot to do. Jax had all but flown into the house after we got the message from Imogen and told us all to get to work. But Duke was three steps ahead of him, on the way upstairs, to the mate suite. It was called that by the Realtor when we bought the house, and we’d liked the moniker.
Duke was already in the process of cleaning the room and adjoining bathroom before Jax could freak out. Again. He’d gotten up and walked out of the room when Imogen didn’t answer us immediately. I could practically see the steam coming out of his ears.
He wasn’t angry but frustrated.
Our home was always clean. Not because we were super clean people but because we had a chore chart on the wall that kept us in check. I thought it was a little childish when Duke first insisted on it, but it had become routine and kept the peace in our home.
Peace was a priority for us.
Still, we cleaned the house again, some places twice over. Our parents coming over wasn’t a cause for any upheaval, but our mate coming to stay with us for a week? That was a reason to clean twice.
It was my turn to cook dinner, so I chose to make spatchcock chicken along with roasted vegetables and a fresh salad. I had no idea what Imogen preferred, but wolves liked chicken, right?
I’d checked our dinner for the hundredth time when my shifter senses picked up the crunching of tires against the gravel. I peeked out the back windows to see the sun barely settling in for the day. Hardly anyone came up our driveway. Even ourpackages were routed to a pickup center in town, one of those lockers.
So there could only be one person coming up our driveway.
Our mate.
“She’s here.” Duke barreled through the back door. He was planting trees outside our home, singlehandedly reforesting the entire state on his own. Even our backyard during his time off.
“I heard.”
Jax came in next, from the side door, nearest his shop. “Do we play it cool and stay here and wait for her to knock, or do we go outside and greet her? Fuck! I don’t know what to do.”
I chuckled at his verbalizing what I—and no doubt Duke—was thinking.
“Just be yourselves,” I said. “Let’s go out there and greet the wolf. Make her feel at home.”
