Shelly Laurenston - Howl for It

Darla pulled away from her sister again, this time moving out of arm’s length. “You’ll do no such thing.”

“Darla—”

“Eggie Ray saved my life and he has been a complete gentleman.”

“Yeah,” Janette muttered, “he seemed real gentleman-like on his bed with you two all twined together like that.”

“There’s only one bed in the entire house.”

“And a couch.”

“Did you see that couch? I couldn’t let him sleep on that thing. Might give him nightmares.”

“You and your thing about ugly furniture,” Roberta sighed.

“The man saved my life. I’m not about to allow him to spend the night on ugly furniture.” She snapped her fingers. “That reminds me. I need to help him take that ugly furniture back to his aunt. I’m afraid if I don’t help him, he’ll just let her get away with it.”

“Listen to yourself,” Janie ordered her. “Helping him return furniture? Not telling us the truth about how he took advantage of you last night?”

“He didn’t take advantage of me last night!”

“Poor thing,” Roberta said sadly, patting Darla’s shoulder. “You’re just so innocent.”

She slapped her sister’s hand off. “I am not innocent.”

“You mean that loss of virginity story?” Janette asked.

“Yeah,” Francine sighed. “None of us really believed any of that. But it was a nice try.”

Fed up, Darla asked, “Did you bring me clothes?”

“Your bag is downstairs but—where are you going?”

“Away. From you .”

Her sisters followed behind her, Janie Mae leading the way.

Just before she reached the stairs, Janie caught Darla’s arm and swung her around. “Now wait one second, little miss—”

“I don’t report to you, Janie Mae.”

“I’m trying to protect you.”

“From who? Eggie?”

“You don’t know anything about him.”

“I know enough.”

“Let me guess,” Janie said with the tone that always set Darla’s teeth on edge. “You looked into his soul and saw he was pure of heart.”

Her sisters snickered and Darla took a moment to get a little bit of that Southern control she was so proud of. “I know y’all don’t believe me when I say that Great Aunt Bernice taught me the way of—”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Janie cut in. “We’ve heard this all before, Darla Mae. But you can’t see people’s souls, you have no fancy mystical powers, and you are not going to spend another second around that murdering hound dog!”

Darla pointed her finger in her sister’s face, something she knew for a fact Janie hated. “You will not talk about him like that,” Darla warned her. “Not around me.”

“Y’all.” Roberta stood between them. “This does not have to get nasty. Let’s just go on home and talk this over with Daddy.”

“I’ll come home when I’m done.”

“You’re coming home now, ” Janie ordered.

“No, I’m not.”

“I’m done with this.” Janie gripped Darla’s arm and pulled her toward the stairs.

Fed up with her sister’s ridiculous—and downright rude!—behavior, Darla slapped her sister’s hand off. And Janie pushed her back.

“You get downstairs and get your ass out of this house, Darla Mae.”

“And you stay out of my business, Janie Mae.”

“Y’all,” Roberta warned.

But Roberta should have known better. Instead of soothing the situation, her words acted more like a starter’s pistol. Darla and Janie grabbed each other’s hair as soon as Roberta spoke, both screeching and stumbling down the stairs while their other sisters tried to stop them.

It was not what their momma would call the proper way a Southern lady acts.

They all heard the She-wolves bickering at the top of the stairs but they kept eating their cereal. Whatever the rest of the shifter world might think, Smiths weren’t stupid. They lived as long as they did—and some of them lived a very long time—because they knew when to fight and when to fade into the forest. And the one thing every Smith male learned was don’t get in the middle of a She-wolf fight. Especially one that involves sisters.

So they ate their cereal while standing in Eggie’s kitchen and listened to all the bickering.

Eggie wasn’t hurt by what he heard either. He was kind of used to it. Janie Mae had never really liked him. Eggie didn’t know why, but Janie Mae must have heard enough to make up her mind and she’d never hid her feelings about . . . well, about anything . But definitely not about how much she didn’t like or trust him.

Then again, a lot of people didn’t like Eggie, but that wasn’t something he allowed to keep him up at night.

Nicky Ray, the first to finish eating because he didn’t really eat so much as inhale, asked, “So why did you kidnap her?”

“Didn’t. Rescued.”

“Not as far as everyone in Smithville is concerned.”

“Don’t care what everyone in Smithville thinks.”

“And thanks for leaving those bodies,” Bubba Ray complained.

“Sent clean up.”

“Why didn’t you clean it up?”

“Not my specialty. Sent hyenas.”

“Yeah. Thanks for that.”

Frankie Ray frowned. “Cleaning up bodies is considered a specialty?”

“If you want to get in and out in less than thirty minutes—yep.”

Benjamin stared into his empty bowl. “Got any more cereal?”

Eggie was reaching into his cabinet for the cereal box when the bickering stopped and the screeching started. When they heard what sounded like a body—or bodies— falling down the stairs, the brothers tossed their bowls into the sink or onto the kitchen table and ran into the hallway.

Thankfully, no one had fallen down the stairs—especially not Janie who was pregnant with Bubba’s baby—but the sisters were fighting their way down, Janie and Darla right in the middle of it.

Without a thought for his own safety or the safety of his major arteries, Eggie grabbed hold of Darla and Bubba grabbed Janie. They tried to pull them apart but the She-wolves had such tight grips on each other’s hair that it was damn near impossible. Thankfully, the other sisters stepped in and managed to get them free long enough that Eggie and Bubba could drag the two away from each other.

Yet now that they no longer had hold of each other, the screeching stopped and the yelling began.

“You are coming home, Darla Mae!”

“I’m not going anywhere! If I want to stay here with Eggie Ray, I’m staying!”

“That son of a bitch will kill you while you sleep!”

Insulted, Eggie snapped, “Hey!”

“Shut up, murderer!”

Darla pulled out of his arms and charged her sister. Eggie had just gotten his arm around her waist again when she pulled her hand back and slapped her sister’s face. The sound of it cracked across the room and the fight turned to shock.

“How dare you,” Darla hissed at her sister. “How dare you come to this man’s house and insult him.”

“You slapped me,” Janie said, her hand resting on her now red cheek.

“Because you were rude. Now get out.”

“You expect us to just leave you—”

“Get out!”

“Come on,” Bubba coaxed the mother of his children, “let’s go. We can talk about this when everybody calms down.”

Janie Mae pulled away from Bubba and spun on him. Eggie watched his brother lean back from his crazy mate. Lord, that woman....

“I blame you for this, Bubba Ray! You! ”

“Me? How is this my fault?”

But Janie was already storming away from him and out the front door. Her sisters followed right behind her. Throwing up his arms, Bubba hurried after her, with all Eggie’s brothers following except for Benji.