“Yes well, I nearly died and all, which sort of gives me a get out of tulle free card.” Nina rolled over and sat up.

“Whatever. You can’t live off that one forever. You’re like the queen of the Pack now so stop whining. Anyway, you snuck off four or five times to call home. And by the way, calling home does not include hanging out having ice cream on the other side of the pool.

If you’re going to skive off, at least hide it better.”

Nina wandered into her room grumbling and returned some moments later, yanking a dress on and turning her back to Megan. “Zip me, sister.”

Megan zipped the dress and swatted Nina’s rear. “Zipped. And you know? I mean, silly tulle and twelve shades of purple aside, she was totally happy to be getting married.

That’s pretty cool even if she works my nerves. You should be that excited to be uniting your life with your partner. Sure, sure, in a less annoying fashion would be my preference, but when I finally sniff out Mr. Right, I’d like to be that flipping into it.”

Nina smiled. “Yeah, you’re right. But if we have to do anything like that tomorrow I’m faking appendicitis. Do werewolves have appendicitis?”

Megan laughed as they left to meet the rest of the group.

After the three-hour dinner where yet more exclamation-point-littered conversation about tulle and purple ribbon took up nearly every last bit of oxygen, Megan escaped and fell into bed, exhausted.

At least she’d managed to have a quiet word with Tee about heading off for shooting and shoes, two of their favorite things. They hadn’t schemed together like that in a while, so that had made her heart lighter.

Visions of targets and the perfect pair of heels danced in her head as she finally dropped off to sleep.

But she should have known it was too good to be true.

As she and Tegan quickly and quietly made their way down the back stairwell and through the side of the lobby to escape for their day of freedom, they halted at the sight of their mother blocking the doors.

“There you girls are! You two look so pretty today. It’s funny,” she said, grabbing them both and turning them away from freedom and leading them back toward the interior of the hotel, “you two look so much alike when you’re together trying to outmaneuver me like you did when you were little. You weren’t leaving were you? Because Layla is over with the groom’s mother and sister at the fitting and I just caught Nina and sent her to go ride along with Sherry to take one last look at the flowers. Isn’t it nice we had an expert?

AndTracy is sleeping in this morning, she says she’s not well after the trip, poor dear.

But you two and Grace can help with errands.”

Tegan looked over the top of their mother’s head at Megan and they both rolled their eyes. It’d been a long time since the two of them teamed up to outwit their mother and it’d been fun while it lasted. At least she wasn’t off with Sherry looking at roses like Nina was.

Chapter Two

Well, at least she wasn’t tying bows to chairs.

Instead she sat in the bar at LAX, sipping a club soda with lime, absently watching a baseball game on the big screen across the room. Her mother had sent her to pick up a

relative from the groom’s side, who also happened to beLayla’s anchor, Shane Rosario.

Shane the doctor. Shane the purported pretty boy who practiced medicine inLas Vegas and lived like a human, outside a Pack. Which was why she’d never met him. In a culture where an anchor was like a member of your family, it was common for anchors to spend good chunks of time with the pair he was bonded with.

But not Shane. Aside from the one weekend he’d come up from medical school over a decade before to perform the tri-bond with Layla, he’d not ever been to Cascadia territory. He’d met her family once and Megan had been away on a high school ski trip and wasn’t there.Tracy talked about him for years afterward though.

Lay and Sid traveled to Vegas at least twice a year to see him and they often emailed and spoke on the phone but he didn’t have a close relationship with the kids.

Frankly, Megan thought it was strange and sort of offensive. But Layla defended him, saying he was raised to be suspicious of werewolf culture by his mother who’d never made the change from human to werewolf. What sort of mind f**k would it be to be raised by someone who hated what you were? She couldn’t even begin to imagine.

And in the end, what difference did it make? If it was all right with Sid and Layla, her feelings were irrelevant.

Shane hefted his overnight bag and headed toward baggage claim. The plane had arrived early so he’d just get his suitcase and call Layla to let her know he was there. She was probably here already anyway. He smiled, thinking about her. If it weren’t for her presence at this wedding he’d have never agreed to come.

As it was, his paternal aunts would be there and would pester him relentlessly about when he planned to settle down and live within a Pack. His father had given up years before and Shane ignored the twinge of pain he knew he’d caused by his rejection of half his racial identity.

He was doing just fine inLas Vegas . He dated human women and one day he’d find one

he liked enough to marry and then they’d adopt children. He didn’t want to raise a child like he was, part of he didn’t understand or want to accept. He shuddered to think how his mother would react anyway.

Once he’d exited the security area, he passed by a small bar. The Dodger game on the big screen caught his attention first, but nearly immediately he stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the honeyed blonde sitting alone, sipping her drink. Slow green eyes, heavy lidded but sharp, slid from the game to his face and recognition hit, holding him rooted to the spot.