“I’m a margay shifter; we hate cold water!” Her cat’s lips pulled back in a snarl.
“Stop whining. It’s scorching hot out here; you’ll be dry in no time.” Jesse jerked as water soaked the back of his shirt and jeans. “Hey!” he growled, spinning to face a laughing Eli, who was holding his own water blaster. “That’s cold!”
“That’s karma,” corrected Harley. Giving her a playful scowl, Jesse whipped off his wet T-shirt, so she said, “Maybe I should take off my own shirt—”
Jesse growled, unwilling to let anyone else see those luscious breasts that belonged to him. He pulled her flush against him. “You do that and I’ll spank your ass.”
“Then I’d have to smack the shit out of you. Would you like that?”
“You wouldn’t hurt me.” He rubbed his jaw against hers; there was no stubble, since she’d shaved him that morning. It had become their regular thing, and he liked it. “You adore me too much.”
Harley snorted. “Whatever.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her slightly off her feet. “My kitty’s all cranky.”
“Because you got me wet,” she clipped.
“Come on.” He settled them both on a double sun lounger. “You’ll be dry in minutes.” It was such a hot day that most of the pack had placed deck chairs and loungers near the play area to soak up the sun.
Derren and Ally were sleeping, the enforcers were placing bets on whether or not Bracken could eat his cake faster than Marcus could eat his, Caleb and Kent were each pushing a pup on the swings, and Kathy was lecturing Eli about his wolf’s habit of destroying her flowers. Nick and Shaya were disputing the benefits of following Shaya’s idea and opening some businesses on the neighboring land they now owned. After Hector’s death, his board of directors had voted to sell the territory to Nick. Jesse figured they’d done it because they would rather have Nick as an ally than an enemy.
Nick was still completely opposed to building any businesses on it, but Shaya didn’t appear to be backing down. Jesse had initially thought that the Alpha female wasn’t serious about her business idea. Maybe she hadn’t been initially. In any case, she was set on it now. It made sense for the pack to make use of all that land and to contribute to the community. Granted, they would probably need to hire outsiders, but that didn’t have to be a bad thing.
“Think about it,” Shaya said to Nick. “If we had a motel set up, both Ally and Harley could have stayed there instead of the guest lodges when they first arrived. Not that I’m complaining that they’re here. My point is that you moan about having outsiders on our territory. If we needed to provide anyone somewhere to stay in the future, a motel would be a good place for them to go. They would have our protection and be on our territory, but they wouldn’t be so close to the main lodge and the pups.”
“Yeah,” said Nick, rubbing his nape, “but . . .”
“But what?”
“But I don’t want a motel!”
“You’re being unreasonable!”
Stifling a laugh, Jesse pulled Harley closer to him and watched as the pups ran around, squealing, while Bruce playfully chased them. At least Nick had grown to accept the wisdom behind branching out, because there was no way Harley would have given up the club. She was due to open it under a new name in a week’s time. Most of the pack had played some part in getting it ready, treating it as their own.
“Keep doing that,” Harley purred.
Jesse smiled, increasing the pressure as he massaged her scalp. It reminded him of the night of their mating ceremony when she’d done the exact same thing as they sat on the porch swing. The day had been special for him but absolute torture for Nick, since so many outsiders had been on his territory: the Phoenix wolves, some shifters from the shelter, Harley’s cousins, Shaya’s father, Cain, Tess, Ally’s uncles, Lily and Shawn—who had actually been pretty well behaved—and, to Jesse’s extreme surprise, his parents.
Unfortunately, Jesse couldn’t go so far as to say that his parents warmly accepted Harley, but they had passed on their congratulations. She hadn’t cared about their lack of warmth as long as they accepted that he didn’t need to answer to them. It was only then he’d learned that she had paid a visit to his old pack with Ally and Roni. Not only had his mate confronted his parents, she’d given Kim a verbal smackdown just before delivering the news that the female was permanently banned from their territory.
He hadn’t been pleased to hear she’d done all that without telling him, but he’d been too happy that day to care. He’d silently laughed his way through the ceremony, amused by how she’d kept glancing at the nearest tree, looking so very tempted to escape. Neither he nor his wolf had been offended, well aware that she simply disliked being the center of attention.
The party had been . . . interesting, since Ally’s uncle, Dan, had taken a single look at Tess and declared that she was his mate. The human had been a little befuddled, but she hadn’t panicked. A month later the couple was happily mated and Tess had joined the guy’s pack. Harley was ecstatic that her aunt was no longer alone. To Tess’s shock, her parents hadn’t disowned her the way they had Lily. Harley suspected it was for the simple reason that Dan was loaded—something the snobs could respect.
“You bitch.”
Pulled out of his thoughts, Jesse looked to see Eli stomping toward Roni and Marcus, who were now snuggling on one of the loungers.