Page 95 of My Big Fat Shifter Wedding

“When did you get so wise?”

He tossed his hair over his shoulder and flipped the ball up with his foot again, bouncing it into the air with his knee. “I’ve always been wise, sciocca. I just had to pretend not to be because I’m so handsome. It’s unfair to be both.”

“And humble too,” I said after a sharp bark of laughter.

“Demure even. A virtuoso in many regards.”

“Right, well, I’ll leave you to all your excellence while I go find Keith. Don’t forget to drink water between those glasses of wine. We may be shifters, but we can still get dehydrated.”

He smirked. As I walked off, I heard him mutter something about me being a big sister through and through.

Next I found Paulie, who seemed distracted, but once I got his attention, he was equally mystified as to my fiancé’s location. According to him, Keith had been right behind him when the game had ended.

“And how long ago was that?” I asked, my stomach dropping right out of my body and descending to whatever level of hell us shifters were sent to when we were naughty.

“Huh, I dunno. Maybe half an hour? Forty-five minutes?”

Forty-five minutes ago!

“Thanks,” I said quickly, feeling utterly hollow. Something was wrong. My brain was screaming it so loud, it was almost impossible to think anything else.

“Are you okay? You look kind of gray.”

I didn’t answer. Not because I was ignoring him, but because I smelled blood. Human blood.

I took off at a run. I didn’t have the sharpest nose in my entire pack, but I did know Keith’s scent like the back of my hand. It filled my nose when I fell asleep in his arms, soothed me whenever the world grew a bit too fraught, greeted me every morning when I woke up in his place.

But as I sprinted, fighting my inner wolf’s instinct to shift and protect her mate, I could only obsess over the idea that my mate was both missing and that I could smell his blood.

I threw the gate open, then skidded to a stop. Keith came stumbling toward me out of the tree line. His clothes were ripped, one of his shins was sliced open, and his blood-soaked pants were sticking to his thick leg. He was practically covered in dirt.

“Oh my god! Keith! Are you okay?”

I closed the distance between us, my hands hovering awkwardly around him because I wasn’t sure what he needed, what he wanted. But I was so full of relief, horror, and rage that more words wouldn’t come to me.

He didn’t answer. Although the corners of his eyes softened upon seeing me, the rest of his face was pure steel. He was in pain—I could smell it—but he was trying to be brave for me.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” I blurted, finally wrapping my arms around him. But when he winced, I let go.

That was when his gaze flicked to the side. I followed it to see none other than Vinnie and the various Tonys, who had been sitting and laughing among themselves while being far too drunk moments earlier.

But now they were silent. Silent and trying to look anywhere but at my injured fiancé.

Understanding hit me like a freight train, and rage surged through me.

“You!” I cried, turning to glare at my cousins. Instantly, they all started spouting excuses at once, but it only fueled the tempest inside me. “Shut! Up!”

Surprisingly, they did.

“Baby, it’s okay…” Keith murmured, and God, now I could hear the pain in his voice. I knew I had issues with boundaries and had spent far too many years trying to prove my worth by being the most helpful wolf in the world, but this went so far beyond that.

“No, it’s not! What the hell is wrong with all of you?! First, you pressure my baby brother into drinking so much that he’s sick for over a day, and now you purposefully abandon my guest, my future husband in the woods, after attacking him?”

“We didn’t attack him! He fell!”

I swore, if I was a witch instead of a shifter, the glare I sent Antonio would have caused actual lightning to hit him.

“And tell me, how exactly did he fall? Was he pushed? Tripped?”