Dante Johnston ripped the decoration off the end of the wooden pew and pointed the long wire stem of one ruby-red rose at the man in front of him. He jabbed the flimsy weapon under the guy’s nose and tried to ignore the curling tails of thick, white ribbons flapping about. Man, the shit he went through since he and his cousins had decided to pursue finding their true ones.
“Back away from my family!” Respectful quiet for the church flew out the window when the guy started harassing his family and demanded to know who had the birthmark.
All around, the church’s heavy wooden pews had been knocked back or tipped over in the melee that erupted while the families waited for Cameron Kodiak and Keaton Johnston to come out of the back room and get married.
Dante couldn’t think of a more stupid idea than having a wedding where the only guests were Kodiak grizzly shifters and human Johnstons. Hadn’t anyone gotten the memo? Kodiaks make it their business to kill Johnstons!
He didn’t recognize the aggressive Kodiak in front of him. In truth, Dante didn’t care who the fool was. The man better back off, or he’d soon be dead meat. Oh hell, who needed to wait for the imbecile to back off? Time to call in the cavalry.
“Charlie,” Dante yelled to his cousin. “You must be packing a gun somewhere. Shoot the bastard.”
“Dante,” Charlie sputtered. “We’re in a church. Watch your mouth.”
“Charlie, these shifters want to kill us,” Dante pointed out. “Who the hell cares about my mouth?”
“I believe that mouth is mine.”
Dante looked up to see that the front doors of the church were standing wide open. Silver, the Kodiak family’s alpha, stood inside the entryway with Dante’s cousin, Mikey, secured under one arm. Their infant son lay in Mikey’s protective embrace.
Mikey’s running abilities must be rusty. He had taken off a while ago after Silver announced another child was calling to be conceived. Dante didn’t blame Mikey for going into avoidance mode. The poor man had given birth only a few months before while being trapped in a hole. Dante wrinkled his nose and sniffed. Mikey shouldn’t have gotten caught. He was better than that. The man had made evasion his life’s work for as long as Dante could remember.
Silver’s fast return could be a good thing. Maybe the alpha would show some muscle and control these crazy-ass morons in his family. Dante could only hope a miracle happened. If not, Charlie better have a machine gun under his dress coat. The thick hostility coming from the Kodiak side of the church jabbed at Dante’s thin thread of control.
Dante’s attention shifted to the man standing behind Silver. Damn. Never before had he seen a larger or scarier dude. Okay, Dante admitted this guy was a handsome mixture of shiny dark brown hair, high cheekbones, and tempting lips. The man stood taller and more muscular than Silver’s impressive seven feet of dreaminess. Wow! Dante squinted. Did that dude have dark gray eyes with brown around the pupils? Nice. He liked different.
Those eyes narrowed and glared at him.
Dante blinked, and shifted his thinking away from the physical yumminess. He now realized this oversized, epitome of dangerous gorgeousness was the guy who had spoken. Shit. Invisible steel bands wound around Dante and pulled him toward the giant. Double shit. Dante’s crescent moon birthmark on his thigh blazed to life.
“Come over here,” the man ordered.
The deep gravel roughness of the man’s voice sent a shiver down Dante’s spine. Desperate, he jerked, trying to loosen the connection between them. Dante was in TROUBLE, with oversized capital letters. Triple shit.
Before he could either run away or, heaven forbid, obey the man’s order, Silver’s voice boomed throughout the high-ceilinged room.
“We are here for a wedding.” Power crackled, as sharp as the alpha’s anger. “Clean up this mess. The groom and groom will be here in minutes.”
Dante retreated against the far wall, letting the others restore the order. He made sure to keep the room between him and the giant with the mesmerizing eyes. Those eyes never stopped staring at him. Yikes. Prickles traveled along the edge of his hairline. He had a sudden itch to drag his fingers through the French braid holding his hair back.
Not about to let on that nerves were getting to him, Dante lifted his chin in defiance and ducked behind a group of Johnsons lifting one of the heavy pews upright.
Fingers dug into his upper arm. Dante’s gaze followed the length of that unfamiliar arm up to the face of the dweeb who had originally tried to attack him. Didn’t this guy know that Dante was a favorite cousin of the alpha’s mate? He was part of the in crowd. The cool dudes. Dante sighed. Heaven help him from the fools of the world.
Dante lifted one sculptured eyebrow. He worked hard on those eyebrows every week.
“Are you fonder of any finger in particular? I suppose I could leave one or two unbroken.”
“What are you talking about?” The man jerked Dante closer. “You’re coming with me.”
Before Dante could respond, the man’s eyes widened. The hand leaving multiple bruises on his arm released him. Dante puffed out his chest, pleased with how his eloquently stated threat had intimidated the lowlife. Go him.
An arm slid around Dante’s chest and pulled him against a wall of warm concrete. The hardness rumbled against his back, and a deep bass rang out above his head.
“Go away.”
The man moved back but didn’t leave. “I saw him first. Grizzly honor says he’s mine. I’m not giving up a double bounty.”
“What are you talking about?” Silver appeared next to Dante.
“He has golden eyes,” the man explained. “If he has the jackal’s mark, the bounty is double.”
“Where did you hear this?” Silver demanded.
“Everyone was talking about it over at Cameron’s bar last night.”
Silver grabbed the man by the throat and lifted him until the tips of his shoes dangled inches off the floor. Dante was impressed. The guy had to be close to six feet tall.
“Who started this rumor?” Silver demanded.
When the man’s flushed face turned a stunning shade of purple, Silver set him down. Too bad, Dante was enjoying the color show.
“I don’t know.” The man pulled a flyer out of his pocket. “These were lying on the windowsill next to the front door of the bar.”
Silver grabbed the paper and studied it for a moment, before shoving it into his pocket. Dante tried to catch a glimpse of what the flyer said, but the anaconda impersonating an arm wrapped around his chest stopped him from moving closer.
Dante wiggled, trying to loosen the grip. The arm lowered, locked around his waist, and picked him off his feet.
“Kneecap or balls.” Dante pushed at the arm. “Put me down or lose one of them.”
“Settle.”
One word. One stinken word and Dante’s body went limp. What the hell?
“Go home,” Silver ordered the troublemaker. “If one Johnston disappears or is injured, I will be coming after you.”
Dante could see the shifter wanted to object at the unfairness of Silver’s order. If a whole bar saw these flyers, there would be a bunch of Kodiaks after this bounty. Dante snickered at the man’s distress. He’d discuss the unfairness of the situation when the man developed a birthmark that made uber-strong shifters determined to kill him.
The man glared. Dante glared back. The arm tightened around his middle and took away what little breath he had left. Jeez, Mr. Giant Octopus really should lighten up.
“Okay, I give,” he wheezed out between gasps.
The arm loosened, letting Dante breathe, but stayed clamped around his torso. Dante was starting to get pissed that his feet still didn’t touch the floor. He contemplated the balls or knee issue again.
Dante watched the man leave. Yeah, the shifter would kill him in a heartbeat given a chance. Too bad Dante had other ideas. Such as living to a ripe old age. Good riddance, sucker.
“You guys better get into position.” Mikey walked over and slid his hand into Silver’s. “The wedding is about to start.”
Dante tipped his head back and looked up at the man holding him. Pure male musk tantalized Dante’s senses. The sharp wildness gave the rebel inside of him the fix it craved. He touched a finger to the short beard covering the man’s jaw and found the dark hair soft. From what he had experienced so far, Dante figured the beard was the only soft thing about this intense man.
“I’m one of Keaton’s witnesses.” Dante trailed his finger through the man’s facial hair. “I’m thinking he might have a fit if I stand at the altar with you attached to me.”
Dante watched the huge man study the front of the church. Silver stood on one side of the white runner covering the center aisle that ran up to the altar. Behind Silver stood Owen, followed by Titan. On the other side of the runner, mirroring the shifters, were Mikey, Charley, and an empty spot at the end for Dante.
The big man grunted and walked over to where Dante was supposed to stand. He let Dante slide down the length of his body until his feet touched the floor. Once Dante regained his balance, the man released him. Dante watched the newest hiccup in this crazy adventure move to the front pew where Keaton’s mom and dad sat, and settled his giant body on the pew next to them. The poor couple looked ready to lay an egg or two. The big man crossed his arms, never taking his gaze off of Dante.
Before Dante could do more than straighten his black suit and adjusted the two white carnations and rose bud boutonniere pinned to his lapel, the organist in the corner started pounding on the instrument’s keys. In a crazy dance that reminded Dante of sheep, everyone in the pews jumped to their feet and turned toward the back doors. The crowd waited in anticipation of the groom and groom’s appearance. Dante’s gaze was drawn to the man still sitting in the front pew and still watching him.
Leaning back, Dante whispered out of the side of his mouth, “Who is that guy?”
“I’d say your true one,” Charlie whispered back.
“Ha, ha,” Dante sneered. “I need a name.”
Mikey leaned forward and whispered, “That’s Silver’s big brother, Sasha.”
Dante whipped around and faced Mikey with his hands on his hips. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That giant of a man is named Sasha?”
“Well, I for one won’t be questioning him about it,” Charlie stated. “To me, he looks as if he snacks on humans when he’s bored.”
“Dante, turn around,” Mikey ordered. “Keaton is making his grand debut.”
Sighing, Dante swung back to see Keaton and Cameron about to walk up the aisle. Everyone was smiling at the two men dressed in black tuxes and standing arm in arm. Everyone except the large man in the front row. He still hadn’t taken his gaze off of Dante.
The organist changed tunes, and the grooms started forward. A few sniffs could be heard from the Johnston side of the congregation. Dante wanted to cry, too. First, Cameron and then Mikey had gone down for the count with a grumpy Kodiak. Now, he had a shifter sniffing around. Getting knocked up and being glued to the side of a self-important bohemian of fur and teeth didn’t bring Dante to a happy place.
What had the cousins been thinking when they found the scroll in their grandfather’s attic and decided to follow its advice to find their true ones? Dante had told them it was a bad idea. But no, they wouldn’t listen to him.
“Dante,” Charlie bitched. “Quite growling. The shifters will think you’re trying to challenge them.”
Taking a deep breath to calm his dancing nerves did nothing. Dante glared at Keaton as he passed and received a snarl from Cameron. A vicious roar echoed through the church. People screamed—all Johnston’s—and Silver leaped from the altar area to land in front of a scowling Sasha, who was standing tall and imposing. Dante’s dick hardened. Magnificent didn’t begin to describe the guy. Only after a heated whispered conversation—mostly Silver doing the talking—did Sasha sit back down, and Silver returned to the altar.
A gray-haired, now gray-faced, preacher moved to stand before Keaton and Cameron. Dante got ready. If the man trembled any harder, the book in his hands was going to go flying. Dante would take up the task of catching the thing. He had nothing better to do.
Alas, nothing exciting happened except for his cousin signing his life away to a Kodiak bear shifter. Oh, wait, that had already happened when the two mated. His poor cousin must have lost his mind to do the deed twice.
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