“Don’t be,” she said good-naturedly, the fork poised in front of her mouth. “I love your brother, but I was starting to crawl the walls. Besides”—she gestured to the feast in front of her—“pie.”

Without another word, she took her first bite of pie. Jessie’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she fell back in her chair.

For the first time in hours, Sissy smiled. The girl did have something about her. Goofy in that mixed breed way. And not surprisingly, she wore the ID bracelet Sissy had given Bobby Ray at the wedding. She knew for a fact that Jessie Ann had a diamond bracelet that had probably cost Bobby Ray a small fortune. But it was that silver-plated ID bracelet purchased years ago by a teen Bobby Ray that meant the most to her. And that made Jessie Ann cooler than most people Sissy knew—although she’d never admit that out loud.

After several more bites and rapturous responses, Jessie asked, “Have you guys thought about opening a shop in Manhattan?”

Francine shook her head. “Not really. Think we’d sell well there?”

“I’m relatively certain the wild dogs will keep you in business until the end of time.”

“That’s real sweet of you darlin’—”

“Really, Miss Francine, I’m not just being sweet. Our Pack is always looking for new investments, and you and your sisters could start a pie chain. Kind of like the Van Holtz steak house, only not as snobby.” The Van Holtz Pack was the wealthiest Pack in the States and Europe, and that was due to their family-owned and-run steak houses.

“You really think so?” And Francine actually sounded intrigued rather than just humoring.

“Absolutely. Of course, your flagship store will have to be near our Pack house.”

Momentarily forgetting this wasn’t one of her She-wolves, Sissy automatically teased, “Good thing my brother likes women with meat on their bones ’cause your ass is gonna be gettin’ wide.”

As soon as the words left her mouth, she wished she could take them back.

But without missing a beat, Jessie shot back, “Cool. Now I can start wearing your jeans. I thought that was only going to be possible during the late stages of the pregnancy.”

The milk Ronnie had just taken a big gulp of sprayed across the table, and Sissy almost choked on the piece of pie she’d just swallowed. As Francine clucked her tongue and cleaned up the mess, Sissy and Ronnie howled in laughter, and Jessie grinned around her pie.

It was decided while the males sat out on the porch and drank beer that Gil Warren and his tiny Pack would be pushed out of town as soon as Gil could wheel himself out. It was obvious that the reasons behind the decision varied between brothers. Smitty and Sammy Ray felt Gil had crossed a line with their baby sister, and there would be no coming back from that. He didn’t belong on Smith territory, end of story. For Travis Ray, Jackie Ray,and…uh…the other Ray—Mitch could never remember the man’s name—the reasoning was much more wolflike. Gil Warren had proven he was weak and a bloodline they didn’t want polluting their town’s gene pool. The fact that their sister had almost been forced into a mating she didn’t want didn’t seem to faze them at all, and Mitch easily realized why Sissy stuck with Smitty. He’d ended his honeymoon early and had traveled from New York to Tennessee to check on her. When he’d realized she was in trouble, he’d gone to her aid the same way Mitch would have if it had been either of his sisters.

Travis had gone to Sissy’s aid because he didn’t want Mitch too upset to play tomorrow’s game.

“We’ll deal with all this after the game tomorrow.” Travis looked at Smitty. “You playing tomorrow?”

“Since you actually came to help your baby sister for once, yeah, I’ll play.”

“Good.” Travis didn’t say anything else—like “Congrats on your marriage” or “Sorry I missed your wedding, bruh”—and walked back into the house, his Pack of wolves following.

“Sorry about your honeymoon, Smitty.”

Smitty waved off Mitch’s apology. “Don’t sweat it, son. Sissy did the right thing. She brought both of you some place safe.”

“Yeah.” Mitch smiled, thinking about Sissy. “I wasn’t too happy about it at first, but I’m glad she brought me here.”

“I bet you are.” Then Smitty hit him. Hard.

Mitch stumbled back, trying to keep himself from blacking out.

“My sister? My baby sister?”

Brendon stepped between Mitch and Smitty. “Whoa!”

“It’s not what you think,” Mitch said, shaking his head and trying to keep the blackness at bay.

“Is that right? Then what is it?”

Mitch didn’t answer right away, and Smitty snarled. “I trusted you, boy. And I come here and find out you’re just using—”

“I love her.” Mitch said it quietly, but it might have been screamed the way everything went quiet. Even the night animals stopped whatever they were doing.

Smitty folded his arms across his chest, his sudden rage disappearing as quickly as it had come. “Is that right?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I love your sister.”

Smitty watched Mitch for several seconds, then he pulled his fist back again. Bren tried to block him, but Mitch just sort of waited for the hit.

“You’re just gonna let me hit you, aren’t you?”

Mitch shrugged. “She cares about you, so I’d rather not start a caged deathmatch with you, if that’s possible.” He raised his hands. “You know how mighty my fists of fury are.”