Grayslake: Furrever Yours (Kindle Worlds Novella) (10 page)

It was a beautiful day to go dress shopping for a wedding. Heather and a group of women from the Sugar Creek Pack were sitting at the tables at a café next to Blushing Brides, waiting for a few more friends to arrive before they swarmed into the store.

“You know how to make ice cream?” Margaret said to Lark, looking amazed.

“Yep. Thirty-two flavors. And I’m going to teach you.” Lark was so excited at having a new best friend who was the same age as her that she could barely keep from dancing. The two girls were going to share a room, and they were getting bunk beds.

“Look at that little girl. Just think about the fact that they tried to force her to marry a man in his thirties,” Janet said with disgust. “I’d like to kill them.”

“We did kill them,” Heather pointed out. “All of them.”

“Well, I’d like to bring them back to life and kill them again.” Janet scowled at her coffee.

Wilfred patted her hand affectionately. “That’s my girl,” he said to Janet, beaming with pride.

They’d been married sixteen years, and they still looked at each other like newlyweds, Heather thought. She had the feeling that she and Knox would be the same. She couldn’t imagine ever tiring of gazing at his handsome face, or seeing the loving look in his eyes every time he smiled at her.

There was huge upheaval in the Northeast now, with the death of the Territorial Alpha and his son, and the news of what had almost happened to Margaret. New rules were being put in place to verify that all intended brides were of legal age, and willing. There was a scramble to replace several Alphas at once.

But here in the Southeast, things had calmed down again. It had been agreed that Margaret would live with Knox’s pack. She would be Wilfred and Janet’s foster daughter. Heather was officially claimed by Knox, and they were planning a wedding for next month.

Roy, the hyena who’d taken Margaret to the hospital, had been forced to flee Sugar Creek and go into hiding from Eugene’s men, but now he had returned. He and his family were no longer on speaking terms, so Knox’s pack had offered him a job at their dairy, and their protection.

“Hey, everybody! Are we ready to pick out some sexy bridesmaid dresses?” Amelia called out, walking up to their coffee table. “Just kidding, there’s no such thing.” She plopped down next to Heather. “Can’t wait until you’re back at work. Vern was back last night, by the way.” She whispered in Heather’s ear, “Zucchini.”

“Dear God. I’m so, so sorry I missed that.” Heather laughed behind her hand. She’d told everyone at the hospital that she needed a little time off for wedding preparations, but she was going back to work the following week.

“And it’s so exciting that you get to live here and go to school here and everything,” Amelia added to Margaret. “Are you excited?”

“I’ve never been to a real school before,” Margaret said nervously. “I was, uh…homeschooled. Do you think they’ll like me?”

“They’ll like you or I’ll bite their faces off,” Lark announced.

Olive patted her arm. “They’ll love you,” she said.

“Bite their faces off! I love it,” Amelia laughed.

Janet gave her daughter a reproving look. Lark cleared her throat and tried to look wide-eyed and innocent. “Just an expression!” she said brightly.

“Oh, look, Kerry actually came. I didn’t think she would,” Amelia said, pointing at their nurse manager. Kerry looked like a different woman when she was off duty. Her hair fell around her face in soft waves and she wore a blue flower print dress and blue espadrilles.

“Sorry I’m late. Slept in a little this morning and then I just got Amelia’s text. What did I miss?” she asked. She looked at the bridal shop. “Is someone getting married?”

“Me!” Heather beamed. “Knox and I are getting married next month.”

Kerry shook her head as she sat down at the table. “Good lord, it’s about darned time. Everybody wondered what took you so long.”

“It’s true,” Amelia nodded. “They’ve only spent the last year molesting each other with their eyes.”

“You hush!” Heather said, embarrassed. “There are impressionable teenagers present. Anyway, Kerry, I want you to be one of my bridesmaids,” Heather said. “And by the way, you know Knox’s deputy, Clarence? He’s been wanting to ask you out for ages, but he’s shy. But I am seating you two next to each other at my wedding. So, you know. Get a couple of drinks in him and I think he’ll work up the courage to ask you on a date.”

Heather had finally convinced Clarence that if she and Knox could work out, there was no reason he couldn’t ask Kerry out.

“Really?” A strange expression appeared on Kerry’s face. Her mouth twitched. Then it curled upwards at both ends. It was an expression that Heather had never seen before.

“My God, she’s smiling,” Amelia whispered.

“And you owe me twenty bucks.”

“Heather!” Knox called out from the window of his patrol car; he’d pulled up when she wasn’t looking and now he was idling at the curb.

Heather hurried over to him and leaned in to kiss him briefly on the lips.

“Can I join you lovely ladies?” he asked, grinning at her.

She kissed him again, then shook her head. “No, light of my life, you can’t see me picking out wedding dresses, because it’s bad luck. Please tell Clarence that Operation Kerry is a go, so he’d better dress up real fancy for the wedding and he should start thinking of first date ideas. And now, I must reluctantly send you on your way.”

“You love me but get the hell out?”

“Something like that.”

“It’s okay,” he said, with that delicious look of promise gleaming in his eyes. “You’ll make it up to me tonight.” And her mate gave her a jaunty wave as he drove off.