“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t smell different.” Cici stood and stepped away. “I’ll take a shower and we can go.”
“You’re fine. It’s probably all the alcohol messing with my head. I’ve never drank that much. Whenever I come back I forget I’m the hybrid with the dominant human genes. I can’t even drink like the shifters or I end up wasted.”
“Yeah. Let’s just go. We’ll come back and sleep some more after.” Darius blinked repeatedly. It was obvious he needed to rest some more.
Surprise hit her when she realized neither her mother nor her brother had shown up to invite her for breakfast. How odd. One of the things they loved was to spend mornings eating tons of pancakes and talking. For her family, it’d become a tradition whenever she came home. Then again, there’s a wedding being planned, so things were probably nowhere near normal.
Their drive down to the middle of the mountain where most of the town resided had been quiet. She knew Sara and Darius needed peace from too much conversation.
People she and Sara knew came up to chat. All of them stared at her with wide eyes and slacked jaws. Cici started to feel uncomfortable. What the hell was wrong with them? She hadn’t changed that much since the last time she’d been there. She was still a big, curvy girl and her hair was still the same color. Actually, it was longer now. There was no reason for the shocked gasps.
“What’s up with these people?” Cici whispered to Sara.
“I don’t know. If one more person hugs me I will throw up all over them.” Poor Sara rubbed a hand over her stomach. Her skin had taken a greenish color and her shoulders drooped.
“Let’s go. I got the stuff I need and these guys are acting too weird.” Darius helped carry the bags to the car, frowning at the gawking spectators.
“Have you all never seen a man with two beautiful women?” He shouted at a group of women huddled by the store’s entrance.
Cici refused to let the weird reactions of people she hadn’t seen in a while bother her. Most of them were the women who had disliked her as kids. They’d told her repeatedly she was the fat human that couldn’t shift. Darius rolled his eyes and got in the back seat. At the same time Cici opened the front passenger side door she heard her name.
Michelle, her future sister in law hurried toward them. She smiled. Though they had met only once before, Cici found her to be really sweet. Plus, she was mostly human. She hadn’t taken the change when Christian mated her.
Michelle hugged her tight. She smiled at her enthusiastic welcome.
“Oh!” She reeled back, staring at her with shocked brown eyes.
“What?”
She grinned. “Congratulations!”
What?
“She must have heard we’re engaged.” Darius winked at her from inside the car.
Oh.
Michelle frowned. “No…” Her eyes went wide. “You’re marked.”
Chapter Four
“Excuse me?”
“That’s it!” Sara hollered, rushing to her side of the car, almost running into poor Michelle. “I knew I smelled something different about you but I couldn’t put my finger on what. My sense of smell is only a little bit better than that of a human, but not as good as a shifter.”
“You are drunk.” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but she’s not.” Sara turned to study Michelle’s features. “Are you?”
Michelle chuckled. She shook her head, swinging her long brown hair from side to side. “Not even a little bit.”
“So I’m right!” Sara stopped and turned to Cici, her green complexion turned ashy. “Oh my God. How the hell are you marked?”
Unease raced through Cici, settling at the pit of her stomach. She gulped. Her dream. That was the only explanation. She’d never had such a vivid dream about Ryker. But then why was everything so fuzzy? The wine! She’d been drunk as a skunk and thought she was dreaming.
“We need to go see my mom.” The order rushed out of her mouth.
In the deepest parts of her soul, she knew that her mother would be able to tell her if what Michelle said was true. If she did allow Ryker to mark her the previous night, then that meant she was as good as mated. How would Ryker react after that? What would he want from her? They weren’t necessarily close friends. Shit, she’d spent most of her life avoiding him.
Sara hastened up the mountain. Her mind raced around in circles through what Cici remembered of the dream. Dear God. He’d made her come until she’d passed out. And she- Oh no. Please God no. It had to be a dream because she had told him he was hers and ordered him to make her come.