Of course, that was before she put on that damn dress. Now he was all distracted and horny, and Sissy had no one to blame but herself and her good-size ass.

“Did you say my ass was talking to you?”

“Yup.”

It had talked to him all through the ceremony and now while they were being forced to take pictures under the burning Long Island, New York, midday sun. A simple thing like taking pictures had turned into a good hour for Mitch to stare at her ass some more.

The whole event was out of control really. Such a huge wedding for two people who could care less about marriage. There were fifteen people on the groom’s side and fifteen on the bride’s, an interesting mix of males and females—and breeds. Cats and canines comingling. Maybe not happily but politely. Sissy stood up with her brother, and Mitch had ended up on the bride’s side.

It had taken him by surprise when the bride had asked him. Why would she want him in her wedding? And that’s exactly what he’d asked her. She’d smiled up at him, those big, brown wild dog eyes of hers making him feel all protective of her, and then she’d told him, “Because, dude, you’re our karaoke king, and we worship at your altar.”

The bride was an odd girl. But adorable as only a canine could be.

But really, how many shifter weddings would he ever be invited to? Unlike many full-humans, his kind kept their commitments once they made them so wasting money on a big wedding or bothering with all the paperwork usually amounted to a complete waste of time. Of course, getting shifters—male and female—to make the commitment was often like pulling teeth, but once trapped, they were in for the long haul.

Of course, Bobby Ray Smith, Alpha Male of the New York Smith Pack and local hillbilly, wasn’t marrying just anybody. He was marrying Jessica Ann Ward, Alpha of the Kuznetsov Wild Dog Pack and worshipped geek hottie. And a wedding like this didn’t happen every day…or millennia, for that matter. So to be part of it was kind of an honor for Mitch. Add in that Jess’s Pack was as rich as Bill Gates, and you had a wedding on par with a Kennedy event.

In fact, the wedding was taking place at an actual castle. And Mitch didn’t even have to pay for anything. His tux, shoes, the attempted haircut—already grown back out to his full mane in less than twenty-four hours—all paid for. Rooms in seriously expensive hotels down the road had also been booked. He knew the food would be stupendous, and there was apparently a room called the Chocolate Room. Chocolate was the theme for the entire wedding, but there would be desserts of all kinds in that one room. There was also the Gambling Room, the Gaming Room, and the Sing Your Heart Out Room for the karaoke fans.

Yeah. He liked how these wild dogs lived. They knew how to enjoy life and felt no shame when caught chasing their tails.

But now he had to get through all these pictures. One after the other with a goofy smile on his face.

While the bride and groom took pictures with the groom’s parents, Sissy Mae turned to face him. “Did you just say my ass was talking to you?”

“Again. It’s talking to me again.”

“Again. I see.”

Standing next to him, Sissy leaned her shoulder against his. With those heels on—that she’d been complaining about for days—she was nearly as tall as Mitch. “And what does my ass say to you exactly?”

“I don’t know. It’s speaking in tongues.”

Sissy’s laugh rang out across the Long Island acreage surrounding the castle. But it quickly faded when a voice snapped beside her, “Sissy Mae, try not to embarrass your brother today. If you can manage that for once.”

Yup, there went that twitch. It was a small one, right in the corner of her left eye, and most people probably never noticed it. But Mitch had been hanging out a long time with Sissy, and he’d learned her facial expressions because a certain expression would probably be the only warning he got before she started some shit. But that twitch was new and only seemed to happen when her mother was around.

“Think you can do something useful,” her mother went on, “and help Jessica Ann change her gown now that we’re done with the photos?”

“Why? Has she lost the use of her arms?”

The thing that was kind of scary about Sissy’s mother was that she didn’t get hysterical and mad like most mothers who fought with their daughters. Instead, she got this frightening little smirk on her face and stepped close so that she was only inches from her daughter.

Softly, she said, “Get up them steps and help your sister-in-law before I make you wish I’d left you at the pound.”

Sissy sighed. “If only not being your daughter was remotely true, there would be a reason to live.”

“Well, Lord knows I wouldn’t want to give you that spark of hope.”

“I’ll take her,” Mitch volunteered, grabbing Sissy’s hand and pulling her toward the door the rest of the females had gone through.

Most of the time, Mitch loved watching family strife from a distance. But he knew when two deadly predators were squaring off, and if someone told him to put money on who’d win between Sissy and her mother…well, Mitch wouldn’t know.

Sissy had youth, and she was wicked fast when she wanted to be. He’d worked with her long enough to know the damage she could do. Especially if you pissed her off.

But there was something in her mother’s eyes. Something hard and dangerous that Sissy didn’t have. At least not yet. And since Mitch had actually been invited to the bachelorette party, he felt a certain loyalty to making sure Jess’s day stayed perfect. He didn’t want her having to worry about blood on the walls of her lovely wedding venue.