Echoes of Fire (The Mercury Pack #4)(62)

“I’ll bet your cat wants to claw Kathy’s eyes out, though.” He shot Madisyn a dirty look. “I can’t believe I had to find out what breed of shifter you are from CCTV footage.”

She just snorted at him. Dominic was gorgeous. Seriously gorgeous. He knew it too. There were flirty undertones to their conversations, but they’d never crossed the friends line. He’d have driven her crazy. Driving people crazy was her job.

She’d heard that he and Bracken had had a threesome with a female once. Madisyn had envied the lucky bitch. Not her cat, though. She liked Dominic in a sisterly way.

“Why don’t you just tell people you’re a pallas cat?” he asked. “Why are you so mysterious about it?”

“Who doesn’t want to be a little mysterious?” Honestly, it wouldn’t surprise her if Makenna was right that Dominic had already correctly guessed what Madisyn was. Hearing panting, she looked to see the pack’s Labrador, Bruce, meandering around and giving everyone puppy-dog eyes, hoping for scraps. “Sorry, big guy. I got nothing left.”

“Greedy bitch,” Dominic muttered. So she shoved him off the arm of the sofa.

He laughed, the weirdo. “Don’t be mad, kitty. You know I want you.” Settling back on the sofa’s arm, he said, “Hey, I’ll give you a nickel if you tickle my pickle. I’ll even chuck in a dime if you take your time. Ow! Why do you always go for the nipple?”

The small crowd near the buffet table parted as Bracken headed to the cooler. His jaw hurt from how hard he was clenching his teeth. He couldn’t fucking believe that Kathy had pulled this shit. It wasn’t so much what she’d done as why she’d done it. In trying to cause his mate discomfort, Kathy had betrayed him. Everything in him longed to go and confront the bitch, but he didn’t trust himself not to grab her by the fucking throat—especially when his wolf just wanted to rip said throat right out.

The barbecue wasn’t simply a subtle welcome party; it was a step toward gradually bringing Madisyn into the pack. It was important to him that she felt relaxed and at ease on his territory. How the fuck could she ever feel either of those things when she had Kathy working against her?

“You okay?” asked Eli.

Bracken plucked two beers out of the cooler. “What do you think?”

Eli winced. “Shit, I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault.”

“I know, but we’re all aware of how wary Madisyn is of joining the pack. The point of this barbecue was to get rid of that wariness.”

“Which Kathy knew,” Marcus pointed out, rubbing his mate’s back. Roni still looked ready to leap at the woman and tear her a new one. “Lucky for us, Madisyn’s above this shit.”

Cutting his gaze to Kathy, Eli sighed. “Only my mother could walk around with a smile on her face while pretty much everyone in her general vicinity is glaring at her.”

“I have to say, Madisyn’s acting remarkably restrained,” said Jaime, the Phoenix Beta female.

“You saw her on the CCTV footage,” Roni reminded the Beta. “You don’t get warnings with Madisyn. No posturing or glaring. She just lunges. She might look calm, but she’s probably far from it.”

Greta shook her head in disappointment. “Pulling a stunt like this on the mate of a man who likely thinks of her as a mother . . . disgusting.” She put a hand on Allen’s arm. “I tell you, it’s important to make new members feel welcome and at ease. Especially if they’re someone’s mate. Moving to a new pack, leaving behind everything and everyone you know best is a difficult transition. People need to be respectful and supportive. The kind of behavior that Kathy demonstrated tonight . . . I just don’t understand it.”

Jaime blinked at her. “Don’t you?” She, Taryn, and Roni were all looking at the old woman in utter amazement.

Greta’s eyes narrowed just a little.

Oblivious, Allen said to Greta, “It’s the older members like us who need to really step up when new people join. We need to be the ones helping them integrate themselves into the pack, teaching them what they need to learn, and making them feel a part of us.”

Greta nodded. “I completely agree.”

Taryn raised her finger. “Can I get that in writing, Greta?”

Marcus leaned closer to Bracken and said quietly. “I can’t help but respect how perfectly convincing she sounded just now when she spouted that load of shit.”

Bracken nodded. “I could almost think she believes what she’s saying.” His gaze drifted back to his mate. Bracken tightened his grip on the beers when he saw her laughing with Dominic. Before Madisyn, jealousy wasn’t an emotion he’d been very familiar with. He’d felt twinges of it, but not this dark, venomous emotion that made his blood boil, his scalp prickle, and his stomach harden.

He found himself envying the easy way she and Dominic had with each other. It spoke of an uncomplicated friendship. That was something that Bracken had never had with her. His wolf wanted to charge at the other male, despite knowing that Dominic would never poach.

Roni eyed Madisyn and Dominic. “You don’t have to worry about him,” she told Bracken. “I once wondered if those two would get together, but I quickly realized it wouldn’t happen.”

Marcus nodded. “Dominic doesn’t shit where he eats. As Makenna’s BFF, Madisyn is on Phoenix Pack territory a lot.”