They walked through to a large dining room dominated by a large table. At their entrance, everyone in the room stood up.

Nina could feel the surprise ripple through the group as they took in the way that both men were holding her hands and she supposed they got her scent. She also couldn’t help but be impressed at how everyone seemed to view Cade with deep respect and Lex with deep fear. She chuckled inwardly and thought about what a big pu**ycat he was deep down.

Cade stood at the head of the table, Lex and Nina to his right. “Everyone! We have had much sadness of late. Losing two of our own in such a short period of time. But there is reason to celebrate tonight. Lex, your Enforcer, has found and performed the Claiming with his mate. Better still, she is Nina Reyes, our Gabriel’s sister. We have lost him, but she is here with us now.”

The room got very quiet. Nina wasn’t psychic but she could read people really well. She saw faces that were happy and faces that were not. She snorted inwardly when she noted that most of the unhappy faces were female. That didn’t worry her as much as those faces she could not read at all.

She wanted to talk to Lex about it but she knew that their hearing was very sensitive and it would have to wait until they were out of there before she could bring it up.

“Well, let’s eat shall we? And raise our glasses to Nina and Lex.”

Nina saw Tracy there and grinned in her direction. She really did like her sister-in-law and she felt a bit more comfortable with a few friendly faces in the room.

Everyone in the room raised their glass and took a drink. A happy buzz of conversation filled the room once Cade nodded to Lex, who pulled out a chair for Nina, and they sat down.

Heaping platters of food were passed around and Nina watched with awe as they loaded their plates. Several of the Pack smiled at her, sending waves or tips of their glass in her direction.

Her eyes goggled when Lex tipped three pork chops onto her plate. “Whoa! One will do there, Hoss.”

“You need to eat to keep your strength up. You’ve had a rough few days,” Lex murmured and then frowned as she forked two of the chops back onto the platter and passed it to Cade.

“Lex, thank you for worrying about me but there’s no way I can eat three pork chops. Hell, if I did that, I wouldn’t have room for that pie I see over there.” Nina tipped her head toward the sideboard that was heavy with desserts.

Melissa heard that and laughed. “Lex, you need to remember that humans don’t have the same kind of metabolism that we do.”

“Why on earth are we discussing humans at the dinner table? Don’t ruin my appetite, please!”

The entire room’s attention moved to the doorway where a blond man was standing in a very nice suit.

“Sorry I’m late, Alpha. I had to go to Issaquah earlier and traffic was nuts on I-90.” He swept into the room.

Nina felt a wave of irritation bordering on rage and turned her head to see Cade stand up. He growled low in his throat. All the other wolves except Lex and the studly dude with the black hair across from her, Eric, lowered their heads and sat very still.

Nina’s skin crawled with the power that rolled off Cade and that buffeted off Lex as well, who’d risen, shielding her with his body. Nina picked up her steak knife and held it, not knowing what was going on.

“Carter, would you like to apologize for that remark or choke on your teeth?” Lex said in a menacing tone and Nina stifled a squeak of fear as she thought she saw the flesh of his forearms ripple.

Cade, feeling her fear, put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “Stand down, Lex. Let me handle this,” Cade said softly.

Lex remained standing and Nina peeked around his body and saw the blond looking up at Lex in confused terror. His eyes then moved to her and he jerked in surprise and he blushed furiously.

“Oh, man! I didn’t know!” he stuttered.

Cade moved next to Lex. He turned and looked into Lex’s face. “Alexander, I will handle this. Attend to your mate.” Cade’s voice was steel, his eyes unblinking and Lex let out a breath with a tremble and after several long moments, he sat down and turned to Nina, putting an arm around her shoulders.

Nina though, only had eyes for the exchange between Cade and the blond, even as she snuggled into Lex.

“Alpha, I apologize.”

Cade looked at the other man without speaking. The tension in the room was thick as the moments ticked by.

“I’m waiting, Carter.”

Carter? Oh! Blondie was one of the suspects and a bigot, too. Lovely. Well, Nina had to admit she’d had a few of her own ignorant thoughts about wolves herself. She made a mental note to really work on that.

Blondie nodded quickly and fell to his knees. He bent, forehead to the floor. “I apologize most sincerely for my ignorant remarks about humans.”

Cade nodded once and looked down at Lex, who narrowed his eyes and then gave a very slight shrug.

“Get up, Carter and get some dinner. Then you can meet Alexander’s mate, Nina. Rey’s sister,” Cade tossed this back over his shoulder as he turned and moved to his seat.

Carter’s eyes widened as he stood up and looked at Nina. She couldn’t tell if the shock was more than just, oooh, shit I just talked smack about the boss’ wife, or her being Rey’s sister or that he was guilty over something.

“I do apologize. It was stupid and insensitive of me,” he said to Lex. Nina wondered if the reason he wasn’t apologizing to her was another werewolf thing. Whatever the case, she didn’t like this guy at all.