Marrying Her: The Keeping Her Christmas Wedding (The Keeping Her Series Book 5) by Kelly Lucille Page B

he was not all fired
up to have even more guests.  Watching the taxi pull up to the front gate, he
was seriously hoping it was someone he could ignore or beat down. 
Unfortunately, when the passenger disembarked and stood glaring at the quickly
departing taxi with her hobo bag dumped on the ground beside her, he knew
neither of those plans would work.  “Shit.”
    Then his Aunt Essie of
the Bone Crusher clan looked up at the camera with wolf gold eyes and smiled.  Fucking
fantastic.
    Demon bit off a snarl of
supremely unhappy and went to let in yet another unwanted guest that would
likely take up even more of his mate’s time.  This time he didn’t even care he
was being a dick.
     
    A hush fell over the
kitchen when he showed their guest in.  Roxy looked up and saw Essie, and
scooted just a little closer to Clytie on her chair.  Clytie looked up a moment
later, and then had Roxy in an arm lock that said very clearly they would have
to peel the child from her cold dead fingers before she would be parted from
her.  Roxy didn’t seem to mind suddenly being squashed against a determined
Clytie.  If anything, the child moved closer.  It made Demon smile on one hand,
and growl on the other.  Watching his mate go all she-wolf for her cub was
fucking hot.  But it told another story he did not like quite so much.  Did
they really think he would let anyone take one of his?
    “See everyone survived
all the shenanigans this pack has been up to.”  Essie’s voice, like the rest of
her, was old and gnarled and caused a sudden hush to come over the room, as the
predators who lived there turned to see what had invaded their territory. 
Essie pointed her cane at Crow, in a move so unexpected it startled a squawk
from the kid, before he shook it off and glared at the old bag.  “Who are you?”
    “That’s Crow,” Demon said
moving around the counter so that he was directly behind his mate and cub and
across from Crow.  He stood over them all and he felt the females both relax
just the slightest bit.  That was fucking something anyway.  Crow didn’t take
his eyes off Essie for a minute.
    “Taking in strays?” The
voice was mean and the tone derisive, Crow flinched.  Demon took immediate
exception to her words and tone.  And so did every other person who saw that
telling flinch.
    Mac, Ben, hell even Eli
stood up while a new tension hit the room.  But it was Cassandra and Clytie who
spoke up first.
    “Crow is family,” Clytie
said, her tone as hard as Demon had ever heard, and had the boy turning in
shock to look at her.  “He is more than pack.” 
    Cassandra interrupted
heatedly from where it looked like Ben and Mac were both holding her back from
mayhem.  “He is not a stray,” she spat the words at the old lady while her eyes
sparked with her temper.  Since Cassie was not an easy person to rile and
rarely lost her temper, as in almost never, it got the attention of everyone in
the room.  “You do not look at him, or speak to him like that !”
    Clytie went on, nodding
her head at Cassie’s words.  “This is his home, he has made his place here. 
You are a guest and as such deserve respect.”  Cassie snorted in derision,
clearly not agreeing.  She was beyond pissed.  Essie opened her mouth but
Clytie was not finished.  “Demon’s Aunt or not, if you talk about any of my
family like that again you will no longer be welcome.”  Nobody in that room
doubted her implacable resolve on this issue.  Not even Crow, who looked like
he had been bludgeoned over the head with a bat, he was so shocked by their
defense of him. 
    Demon growled drawing
every eye and made sure he had his Aunt’s attention.  “You heard my mate.  You
heard Cassandra.  Now hear me.  Crow is mine, just as Roxy is mine.  And
everyone in this room is pack.  Not a single man here would deny our women if
they called for your blood.  You do not fuck with them.  You do not fuck with our
cubs.  Understand that or