“Don’t go mentioning any of that around her, thanks.”

Jack laughed. “I’m pretty smooth when I want to be, dumbass.”

He dropped them off and headed back home to get his mate.

He got home and breathed in deep. Her scent, her magick hung in the air, mixing with his.

She wandered out and smiled at the sight of him, though her eyes were still puffy from all the crying, and that sense of sadness over the loss of her friend still emanated from her. “Everyone get in okay?”

He nodded, moving to her to kiss her. “Everything is much better now that I’m here with you. How is Kathy?”

“Really sedated. She did understand what I said when I told her about the delay in releasing Allie. She’s not happy. But Allie’s aunt did convince her to have a funeral home up here handle things. They have the number here and my cell. I didn’t go into a lot of detail about moving up here, but I mentioned I’d reconnected with you and that we were together.”

“What about your mom?”

She made a face but he felt a twinge of her sadness. “I left a voicemail. She’s not in town. But I can’t imagine she’s going to care much one way or the other.”

“Her loss. We’re family now.”

She nodded.

He followed her back to the bedroom where she’d already unpacked several boxes. “You’ve gotten a great start. Can I help unpack?”

“No, I’ve got it. I took over the dresser in the other room. Yours is too full.”

“I told you to take three of the drawers in here.” He frowned.

“You have a lot of clothes, Josh. It’s okay. The dresser in the other room was pretty much empty. I did take a few of the drawers in your closet for my underwear. Do I have to dress up for this thing tonight? I mean like cocktail stuff or what?”

“A dress would be good, but not like black tie. We have people in from another pack so it’s good to look nice. But you’re gorgeous so that’s already handled.”

She held up two dresses, a bright green one and a red one.

“The green one, definitely.”

“It’s a bit more low cut than the red. Is that okay?”

He barked a laugh. “Am I okay with your boobs being visible?”

She blushed. “Not all of them! Just my cle**age.”

“I’m always okay with cle**age.”

She looked over at the clock. “When do we have to be there?”

He took one look and groaned. “We need to leave here in about half an hour.”

“Shit!” She grabbed the dress and headed into the bathroom where he could see she’d taken over half the space, and the sink on the left. “You stay back with your sex eyes, mister. I have to get ready and we don’t have time for what you’re after.”

“I can make it good and quick too.”

She snorted, rolling her eyes. “You are not a quick type. And I’d have to shower afterward or everyone would know exactly what we were up to before we arrived.”

She shucked her clothes, and he leaned back and watched, fingers itching to touch all that skin.

“They’re going to assume it anyway.”

“I already took a shower. I want to look good for this, Josh. All the females you took for a ride will be there, and I want people to think you made out okay instead of oh bummer, look what poor Josh bonded with.”

He moved to her, pulling her in for a long slow kiss. He licked his lips, taking one last taste of her before he stepped away a little.

“You could show up in a garbage bag and they’d still think I was a very lucky wolf. As for those other females? They know who you are and what you are. And that’s everything. You understand?”

She gave him a smile. “Yeah, yeah.”

He grabbed a quick shower and got dressed as she got ready, putting on makeup and doing her hair in tousled curls around her face.

At least the party thing was stressful enough to give her something else to worry over beside the awful weight of Allie’s loss. It was strange to have so much happiness in her life even as at the same time she drowned in crushing, horrible sadness.

She’d spent the hours driving back to Portland alternating between tears and happiness. But he helped. Being around him helped, soothed her. Though she also understood he realized she was in pain and that she had every right to feel like crap because of it.

But life went on and she had to do all this stuff. The tri-bond thing especially. Gina had talked to her a little about it when she’d called to ask her opinion on what to wear that night. Gina’s anchor lived in Portland, and they had dinner with him a least twice a month. He and Damon were good friends. Michelle didn’t want to say she thought it was weird. Though she did. But who was she to judge? It was someone else’s culture, and she’d have to find her own peace with it because in a big way, it was her culture now too.

So she sucked it up because there was nothing else to do but suck it up and try to move forward.

Tracy came out as they pulled up, the girls practically bouncing at the sight of Josh. When he got out of the car, they clapped and started calling his name. He grinned at them but moved to get Michelle’s door first.

“Wow, Michelle, you look great!” Tracy laughed as the girls leapt into Josh’s arms. They giggled and kissed his cheeks as Tracy made her way over. “Welcome. To Pacific and to the house and all that. I wanted to tell you how sorry I am about your friend. Anything we can do to help is yours. I know you’re starting over up here, so please know you’ve got a shoulder and an ear whenever you need it. You don’t know me well, but I’d like us to be friends. I moved here and didn’t know anyone either.”