“Maybe.” Minnie calmed. “We’ll see. At least he has a job and a house.” Omar nodded before he looked at Mika. “How is the house? I sent a cleaning woman in to clear out the dust.”

“Perfect.” She nodded. “Thanks for the food in the fridge too.”

“Make sure you lock all the doors and windows,” Minnie said softly. “You’ve never been here during mating season. We have a lot of strange men running around Bartock because it’s the largest shifter city within a few hundred miles so they all come here to hook up with women. Some of them aren’t picky if she’s Other or human.”

That drew a frown from Omar. “I didn’t think of that. I’ve been busy trying to keep the peace and then Mika just showed up so I didn’t register that she might be in danger.”

“Duh,” Minnie muttered. “She’s good looking. Did you never think one of them might see her and want to jump our girl?”

Omar stood. “I’ll assign her a guard. Shit. I’m so used to our pack following the rules about leaving humans alone that I didn’t think about all the visitors we have.” Mika was half tempted to tell him what had happened last night but she kept her mouth shut, figuring she and Grady were even. He didn’t need to be rewarded by her uncle for saving her ass after that marking stunt he’d pulled. Besides, if she told her uncle what had happened, she’d have to tell him every detail, from the moment she left her house until she’d arrived home. She wasn’t going to share what had happened between her and Grady with him. No way. Her uncle would blow his top. An angry Uncle Omar was a scary Uncle Omar.

Minnie sighed and stood. “Who can you trust with her? Really? I can’t think of one strong male in the pack who wouldn’t let his dick get the best of him. A young, strong, mated male isn’t going to leave his mate at home when there are randy wolves sniffing around.”

“She’s human.” Omar frowned. “She’d be safe from our pack.” Minnie rolled her eyes. “She’s attractive. That’s all a hard-on sees, love.” She snorted. “A turned-on guy doesn’t care if she’s an alien from space. If she’s good looking, a man would do her. You can handpick one of the best of our single males and maybe they’ll hit it off. No vacation should be complete without a little sex.” Minnie winked at Mika. “It would probably be your best trip here yet. I might hate the idea of a mate but you were ready to get married to a man. Our males don’t cheat.” Omar softly cursed. “No. She’s not hooking up with a wolf.” Minnie frowned. “You raised her to know about us, Omar. When your sister married a human, you could have kept her oblivious to our kind.”

“I saw you change from a dog into a na**d man.” Mika chuckled. “You had to explain what you were to me at that point.”

“Dog.” Omar rolled his eyes. “I’m a wolf.”

Minnie chuckled. “Ruff.”

Omar growled. “Not funny. It was cute when she called me doggy when she was tiny but it’s not cute anymore.” He puffed up his chest. “I’m a timber wolf. We’re fierce.”

“You told her for a reason. I thought you wanted her to hook up with one of our males.”

“I told her so she wouldn’t hook up with one of ours.” Omar sighed and studied Mika. “You were too young to remember how hard your parents had it, being of mixed race. Your mother always had to hide what she was from your father’s family and friends. Our kind gave them shit because your dad was a mere human. I hate to admit it but wolves can be ass**les about that. We’re stronger and we can be pretty damn snobbish. I want you to marry a human and avoid wolves. You’ll be happier that way.”

“Okay. So what’s the plan, fierce wolf?” Minnie asked.

Omar’s attention fixed on Mika. “You will stay here at the house this visit. We’ll change the bedding in the guestroom.”

“Oh no,” Mika shook her head. “I’m scarred from the last time I stayed here.” Minnie laughed. “We were just having sex.”

Mika’s eyebrows shot up. “It sounded as though Animal Planet hit wolf land during a dog fight. No thanks. No way.” She frowned at her uncle. “I couldn’t sleep between all the thumping noises and the howling and the growling.” Minnie laughed again. “And now it’s mating season. We were tame then. We broke our bed last night.”

Omar flushed a little. “She’s a child, Minnie.”

Mika shook her head. “I’m not a virgin at twenty-eight years old. I haven’t broken a bed yet but I’ve sure fallen out of a few of them a time or two when we lost track of where the edge was.”

Omar growled, narrowing his eyes at Mika. “You’re a damn virgin until you get married. That’s final.”

Chuckling, Minnie walked over and sat on Omar’s lap. She winked at Mika. “It would probably be impossible for you to hook up with a guy and get laid if you were staying here. Your uncle would kill any guy who wanted to nail you under his roof.”

“Enough,” Omar growled. He shot Minnie a dirty look but he rubbed her h*ps with his hands. “She doesn’t get laid. She’s an innocent virgin. That’s how I want it and damned if either of you are going to blow my illusions. I’m much happier this way.” Mika laughed and stood, grabbing breakfast dishes. “Okay, Uncle Omar. I’ll remove my virgin ears and go do the dishes since Minnie cooked. I’m not staying here though. I’m fine at my house. I’ll lock up tight at night.” Mika slowly washed dishes, her mind drifting to the stranger from last night.

Grady. She was tempted to pull Minnie aside and ask her if she knew who he was. It was doubtful though. She’d met a lot of pack males over the years. She’d never met Grady. Minnie had said lots of werewolves showed up in town for mating season.

Grady was probably one of those males who traveled far to meet up with his own kind.

She dried the last dish and walked out of the kitchen. She heard voices coming from the living room. Minnie stormed into the dining room. Mika froze, seeing the pissed-off look on Minnie’s face. Minnie clenched her teeth.

“Men!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Your uncle called some of the pack males here and he wants you in there.”

Mika blinked. “Okay,” she said slowly.

“He’s going to parade you around and see who looks at your body. He’s going to pick a guard for you from the man who looks least interested.”

“No way.”

Minnie jerked her head in a nod. “I tried to tell him, but will he listen to a mere female? Hell no. It’s insulting. We’re not meat to dangle in front of men. He’s using your body to see who is interested in f**king you and who isn’t. It’s disgusting.” A chuckle escaped Mika. “I see.”

“I don’t know what you find amusing.”

Mika looked down at her clothes. She bit her lip and unbuttoned her shirt. She tugged at it until a hell of a lot of cle**age showed. She gripped her cotton skirt and tugged the waist up to under her bra, securing it there. It hiked her knee-length skirt up to her thighs at an almost indecent height. She lifted her head and smiled at Minnie. She put her hands on her h*ps while pushing out her br**sts. She winked.

“Unless one of them is g*y, they’ll all look. I don’t want a guard.” Minnie suddenly laughed. “If you’re going to teach him a lesson on bad plans going wrong, go all out. Mess up your hair after taking it out of the ponytail. Our men love wild, long hair.”

Mika tugged out her ponytail and shook her blonde hair. Minnie moved to her and put her fingers in Mika’s hair, giving it a good tussle. Minnie was grinning when she stepped back.

“Suck on your lips and rub your teeth over them. It makes them redder and kind of pouty.”

Mika did it and smiled at Minnie. “What do you think?” Minnie grinned. “Don’t move.” She ran in the kitchen and in seconds she came back holding up a small dark brown bottle. Mika eyed it and arched her eyebrows. Minnie laughed, uncapping it. She put her finger on it and turned the bottle. She stepped closer to Mika and then gripped Mika’s shirt. She reached in and wiped her finger on the bottom of Mika’s bra. When she pulled out her hand she adjusted Mika’s shirt down low again to expose maximum cle**age.

“Vanilla. All that was missing to turn on a wolf was you smelling like something edible and sweet.”

“My uncle is going to kill me, isn’t he?” Mika chuckled.

“It will serve him right.” Minnie closed the small bottle and shoved it into her back pocket. “He’ll bellow for you in a minute. I’m going back in there. I have to see this.” Grinning, Mika waited. She edged toward the door and listened, keeping out of sight. She didn’t want to get caught spying but she was really interested in what her uncle was saying to his men.

“So I want one of you to guard her while she’s visiting. She’s human.”

“Human?” One of the men almost spat the word. “I thought you said she was your niece.”

“She is.” Omar growled. “She’s not blood though. She’s my sister’s adopted child.

My sister was unable to birth children so they adopted Mika when she was four weeks old. She knows she was adopted so it’s no secret. We are blessed to have her in our family and I consider her to be my daughter. She’s off limits. Is that understood? If one of you touches my girl, I’ll castrate you myself. There’s no rock in this world that you can hide under that I won’t find you if you lay a finger on my Mika. Now, I’m going to call her in here. She’s known about us since she was five years old so you can be yourselves.”

“Great,” one of the men snarled. “This should be fun. Does she decide who guards her or do you?”

“I do,” Omar growled back softly. “Be polite.” He took a deep breath. “Mika! Come in here now,” he bellowed.

Mika grinned. She waited a few seconds and then pushed away from the wall. She walked into the room and kept her gaze locked with her uncle’s. She ignored the men.

“Whoa, it’s hot in that kitchen.” She waved her hands at her chest. “You should turn on the air conditioner.”

Mika fought a laugh as she watched her uncle take in her clothes. His jaw dropped, his eyes widened as he paled and sucked in air sharply.

“Mika, we have company. Fix your clothing, damn it.” Mika ignored his demand and turned. She let her gaze go over Minnie, who was grinning widely and obviously fighting a laugh. Mika studied the first man, a blond, about six feet tall, who stared at her chest so hard she could almost feel it. She turned to look at the man about three feet to his left. He was shorter, stocky, with a crew cut of dark brown hair. He was gaping at her legs. The man next to him, openly leering at her br**sts, had blond hair and wore a suit. The last man was over by the door so Mika had to turn her head to get a good view of him.

Oh shit, she thought. She stared into a pair of dark, familiar eyes that were staring right back into hers. He broke eye contact to glance up and down her body and then his gaze locked on her face again. For a few seconds there he paled just a little. She saw Grady’s Adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard and his hands at his side flexed into fists and then opened. Mika spun away from him quickly.

“You bellowed?” She was proud that her voice didn’t shake as she faced her uncle.

She was in shock. He’s one of my uncle’s men. Shit, this is bad, she thought . Her uncle had just warned his men that he’d castrate any of them if they touched her so if he found out about last night he’d have a damn fit over what Grady had done to her. She bet her last dollar that right now Grady was silently freaking out too. Her heart pounded but she took deep breaths to calm herself as she met her uncle’s furious look.