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I groaned. “Can we just drop it?”
“For now.” But the look on her face said otherwise even as she changed the subject. “Before Luc and Jill get here, have we thought more on what we’re going to get them for their wedding?”
“Jill’s getting married?” Becca said, spilling more wine on the couch. “Ah!” She got up and took the glass to the kitchen and came stomping back with a towel.
“You doing okay there, Becca?” I asked, which was the wrong thing to ask.
“I’m fine,” she snapped. “How come I’m the last to know Jill is getting married? She hasn’t even told me.”
“Probably because in a normal human situation, Luc would have proposed and that has not happened yet,” Brandon said, looking at Becca and taking her hands into his.
“Then why—?”
“They’re mates,” Sandy said. “It’s assumed they’re already married.”
“Oh, but—” This time Becca looked at Brandon and gasped. What she saw had us all smiling.
Brandon was holding up a ring and kneeling in front of Becca. “Becca, sweetheart, the love of my life.” He smiled. “I will never get tired of saying that. I should have said it as soon as I met you, but you know how it went.”
“I sure do!” Becca said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
“Will you finalize our union by marrying me?”
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” she said, jumping into Brandon’s arms.
“This calls for celebration!” Mom said. “Theo, go get the nice champagne.”
“Oh, I’ll go grab that cake I made last night,” Sandy said, jumping off her seat and already halfway to the door.
“You made a cake just because?” Becca asked.
“A little birdie might have mentioned something to me a couple of days ago,” Sandy said, winking at Brandon.
“You’re the best,” Becca said, and pressed her lips to Brandon’s so hard he almost toppled over.
While everyone laughed, I headed to the kitchen. I was happy for them, but witnessing their love-fest was the last thing I wanted to see. The others might be joking around with me but finding a mate had been bothering me more than usual recently. It felt like my wolf had been running in circles trying to get my attention. I didn’t know why. As far as I knew, I hadn’t met her yet. There was no reason for my wolf to be so antsy.
“Jacob.”
I turned to see Becca standing behind me.
“Sorry for snapping at you,” she said. “Sandy explained that Luc just hasn’t thought about proposing yet. He hasn’t hung around humans as much as Brandon has. I’ll have to give him a little nudge.” She smiled.
“No problem. You didn’t know.”
“By the way, Sandy said one of the ideas you guys had for a wedding gift for Luc and Jill was a piece of art for their new house.”
“Yeah, Luc would never decorate his house with anything if he had a say. His apartment used to have only a four-by-six photo of the family in the living room. The rest of us kept adding photos and random things to his place just to annoy him, but that’s the only reason why he has decorations—and color for that matter—in his home.”
Becca laughed. “Sounds like Jill can have her pick of decorations then.”
“She sure will.”
“Well, I know the perfect place you can find a high-end art piece for their home.”
“You do? The bigger the better. We want Luc to be able to see it every day.”
“My friend, Millie, is the daughter of an artist. And she’s been looking for a gallery that will take her dad’s art because he can no longer stockpile it at home. He’s world renowned but prefers to sell to private collectors.”
“That sounds perfect.”
“Great! I’ll get you two in touch with each other.” She smiled in a way that had me questioning why she had come to tell me all this and then walked back to join the family.
I shook my head. It was now Becca and Brandon’s celebration dinner, and she was excited and probably wanted a painting from this gallery too. Hint taken, Becca.
I started toward the cabinets Mom kept her special dishes in and felt a tightening around my chest—a pull I had never felt before. It was throbbing within me, and my wolf started to howl. I rubbed my chest and shook my whole body to loosen up my muscles. That seemed to do the trick. All this talk about mates and me being next in line was getting to me.
I laughed, thinking if anybody was next in line, it’d be Dredge, not me. I still had a long way to go before I would be ready for a mate.
* * *
