“But Jake said he would. And I won’t feel right until it’s done,” Alicia insisted, determination in her voice.
Jake wrapped his arm around her shoulder, but before he could defend their decision, Lelandi raised her brows at Jake, smiled, and patted Alicia on the shoulder. “What I meant to say is that if we’re going to go against tradition, we’re going to do this right. We’ll have a proper wedding.”
Proper wedding?
Jake groaned before he could catch himself. Tom chuckled. Peter grinned but wisely didn’t say anything. Even Alicia didn’t look pleased with the notion.
“First, we need to get you a wedding dress. You’ve been married before, so a cream-colored dress would probably be better. Although, what the heck, since we don’t do weddings, you can wear whatever your heart desires. No sense in sticking to a tradition we don’t even have.”
Lelandi took Alicia’s arm and pulled her away from Jake and headed for the sunroom. “We do have a bridal shop for the humans in town. And the owner is a wolf, of course. She will be ecstatic to be our consultant. Her shop also carries formals for special occasions and Victorian ball gowns for our Victorian festival. The men rarely dress up except for that, so this will be fun.”
“I didn’t want to go through a whole lot of pomp and ceremony,” Alicia said. “I just wanted to make sure we had a marriage license. And I have been married twice already so it’s not like I feel the need to go through any kind of ceremony.”
“Nonsense. It’ll be fun. Silva and I can help you decide about the festivities afterward. Darien can give you away. We’ll have a ball.”
Jake felt for Alicia. She clearly didn’t want to go this far.
Tom shook his head at Jake, his mouth curving in a small smile. “Darien will love to hear he’s been volunteered to serve as the bride’s father in a wedding when we’ve never taken part in one before.”
“I’m not certain Alicia’s any more excited about it than I am.” Jake glanced at Peter, expecting news about the calls he made earlier.
“I called about the autopsy. The report on Ferdinand Massaro’s body showed no signs that he’d had intercourse prior to his death,” Peter said. “In other words, he couldn’t have raped Alicia shortly before he died.”
Jake felt a little light-headed and sat down on one of the couches.
“The triplets are yours,” Tom said, smiling. “Who would have thought you’d find your mate before me, as picky as you’ve always been. And now you have a whole family on its way in record time. You’re the first one to have a wedding, too. I mean, for any members of the pack.”
“They’re mine,” Jake said softly, still not believing it. He glanced up at Peter, who was smiling at him, too. “You’re absolutely sure?”
Peter spread his hands in a way that said there was no other possibility.
“I’ve got to get cribs and all that stuff. Everything that Lelandi’s been stocking up for her babies when they’re born.” Jake had thought all her purchases and the way she’d been stressing over the upcoming event had been unnecessary. That half of the stuff she’d bought was not even needed.
But now he was rethinking his position. Now when he had his own triplets on the way. He rose to his feet, wondering why he was sitting around when he had so much to do.
“They’re not going to be here for several months. You’ll have time,” Tom said, looking immensely amused. “My advice to you though is, don’t make the nursery pink just yet.”
Jake dragged his fingers through his hair, ignoring his brother’s teasing, and then took a deep, steadying breath. Hell, now he had to get married. In a real wedding, of all things.
Peter said, “The other news is that I had some men check out Danny’s place. You should have seen the way he rigged up the place. Strands of hair stuck to drawers in the event anyone opened them.”
The guy was nuts.
“We replaced them, though. Found a gun in a desk drawer and some papers having to do with racketeering that we sent to the Feds—in a surreptitious way. They’ll probably get a search warrant and nail the bastard.”
“He’s not a wolf?” Jake asked, surprised. If Ferdinand Massaro had been and Mario might be, he’d thought for sure Danny was. But Peter wouldn’t have sent the Feds incriminating evidence if Danny had been a wolf.
“Nope. And no wolves had been in the house. So unless someone changes the equation, Danny’s free to go to prison—for as long as he should live.”
Darien entered the house with his cell phone to his ear, his expression grim and his brows raised as he acknowledged Jake, Tom, and Peter. Jake had the sneaking suspicion that more bad news was on its way.
Darien signed off with whomever he was talking to on the phone. “The police in Denver want to speak with Alicia about Ferdinand Massaro’s murder again. They believe she witnessed the murder and want to put her in the Witness Protection Program.”
“They can’t,” Jake said.
Darien sighed. “I know that, Jake. But you, Tom, and Peter will have to accompany her to Denver. Along with some men for backup guard.”
“What if she shape-shifts?” Jake asked.
“Just pray she doesn’t,” Darien said, glancing in the direction of the sunroom, undoubtedly hearing some of Lelandi’s conversation and probably wondering what that was all about.
Lelandi must have been talking on the phone as she said, “Oh, yes, a real wedding. What do you think for bridesmaids’ gowns, Silva? Alicia says she wants you to take part, too, and wanted your opinion.”
Darien gave Jake a questioning look.
“We’re getting married.” Jake spoke as if he didn’t want any discussion about the matter.
“Married? Bridesmaids’ gowns?” Darien asked, his voice low.
“We were all set to just go to a justice of the peace, but Lelandi wouldn’t hear of it.” Jake shoved his hands in his pockets, almost wishing Darien would make Lelandi cease and desist. But he knew Darien wouldn’t. “Guess who gets to give the bride away.”
Darien looked at Tom, who was grinning big time now.
“Don’t look at me,” Tom said. “You’re the pack leader.”
Darien groaned. “Hell, if it wasn’t for Lelandi’s temperamental condition, I’d put my foot down and say absolutely not. So when the hell is it scheduled?”
Jake sighed. “What do I know? The women have taken over.”
“That’s what happens when the women are pregnant,” Peter said, although since he wasn’t mated, he hadn’t had to deal with all the ups and downs himself.
Darien’s gaze swung back to Jake.
This time Jake couldn’t contain the delight in his expression or tone of voice. He sounded like a kid at Christmas. “Alicia’s pregnant, Doc says. With triplets.”
Darien was still frowning. “Yours?”
“Appears that way.”
That’s when Darien’s smile first appeared. He said to Tom, “You’re next, little brother. We’ll have a boomtown here before we know it.”
The next morning, on the drive to Denver to see the police about Ferdinand Massaro’s murder, Alicia had a panic attack. Although it wasn’t really a panic attack because the panic was for real. The moon was at its fullest, and although it was daytime and the moon wasn’t easy to see, it was there all the same.
And Alicia knew, despite trying to stop it, that she was getting ready to shift. She was worn out from the discovery the day before about her father and learning she was pregnant with triplets, as well as Lelandi’s rush to help her find a gown before Alicia couldn’t wear one unless it was a maternity gown, and Jake loving her all night long. She’d been sleeping with her head in Jake’s lap as Tom drove the SUV to Denver, while Peter sat in the front passenger’s seat and remained quiet. Another SUV filled with four more pack members followed, making her feel safe and protected and totally overwhelmed by all of the events of the past couple of days.
But all of a sudden, she began to get really, really hot. That brought back into focus how she wasn’t herself anymore. The first thing she did was worry about the babies. Would the shift hurt them? Then she realized that werewolves had lived like this for a very long time, and they’d survived all these years, so everything would be all right.
But Alicia still had little control over her shifting, and she desperately needed to get out of her clothes. Lelandi had explained that stripping out of their clothes in front of other pack members was a natural process, and the shift happened so quickly that no one got much of a look at anyone else anyway. But none of that made it any easier to swallow.
Alicia bolted upright, and immediately Jake stiffened. “What’s wrong, Alicia?”
Peter glanced over the seat at her. Tom looked in the rearview mirror to see what the matter was.
“I’ve got to shift.” She climbed in none too ladylike a way over the back of the seat to get into the rear seat, more hidden from the view of the bucket seats that Tom and Peter were sitting in up front. And then she began stripping out of her clothes.
Darien had tried to convince the Denver police that Alicia had been feeling too poorly to see them right away, due to her pregnancy, but because the police were investigating a murder and had no clues as to who had done the crime, they wouldn’t hear of any delays.
They would treat her with care, they assured Darien. Jake and the rest of the pack hadn’t been worried about her pregnancy but this business with shape-shifting. By the time she got her clothes off, she was shape-shifting.
Jake said, “You’ll be fine when we’re speaking to the police officers, Alicia. You can get it out of your system for now…”
She growled at him. She meant for it to be a grumble, but she wasn’t sure how to make a grumbly wolf sound. It just came out an irritated growl and was a lot harsher to her ears than she had intended. Peter and Tom smiled. Jake reached over the back of his seat and scratched her between the ears.