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A younger version of Gerald stepped in front of her. “Hi. I’m Braden. You arrested me once.”
His dad chuckled. His mother rolled her eyes.
Laura frowned, especially when Gerald planted a kiss on her head. “I think you mean Laura once brought you in for questioning.”
“Yeah, my bad.”
Behind him, several older foxes and a few his own age laughed.
“Sorry,” Gerald apologized. “My mother thought you’d feel more comfortable if we did a family dinner here, at my house,” he ended in a low growl. “So she brought everyone, including the meal, and dumped them all on my door.”
“Mind your tone, boy,” Colleen warned.
Gerald sighed. “Yes, Mom.”
Laura wanted to be annoyed, but seeing Gerald put in his place by his mother amused her. She grinned up at him. “Good answer.”
Then Colleen pulled her away, and she found herself enveloped by small women with questions about her relationship, when she planned on getting married, and what she was doing for the holidays with Gerald. And not in that order.
Too used to chaos to be overly panicked, she answered questions as best she could and hoped she hadn’t ruined any of Gerald’s carefully planned lies.
Gerald would have been better prepared to handle his family falling on him like the sword of Damocles if Laura hadn’t arrived in a red shirt that hugged her curves and brought out the subtle hints of red in her dark hair. The woman was hell on his concentration.
“She’s as pretty as she is capable,” his father mused, sipping a beer.
Uncle Geoffrey, his father’s brother, nodded. “She’s usually the deputy handling any and all crises with the wolves. Can’t be timid to deal with that lot.”
His cousins gathered close, nosy as hell, and just as bad as his younger brother, sticking their noses where they didn’t belong.
“Why are you all here?” he asked again.
“Now, Son, you know we love you.”
He sighed. His father was gearing up for a lecture.
“But you don’t go announcing your plan to mate some woman none of us even know you’re dating at a public party. People knew before your mother knew.”
His uncle winced. “Oh boy. You’re going to pay for that.”
His mother didn’t seem to be taking out her anger out on Laura, at least. In fact, she seemed to be acting a lot nicer to Laura than he might have hoped. Especially given that he was supposed to be cozying up to Vanessa.
He turned to his father. “Dad, the Vanessa thing is not my fault. She—”
“Don’t worry about it.” His dad patted him on the shoulder. “Personally, I wasn’t a fan of you and Vanessa, ah, merging.”
Braden grinned.
“But your mother isn’t too pleased with you. I’d tread lightly.” His father paused. “What were you thinking, Gerald? I like Laura. She’s darned good at her job, but you might have thought about how your mother would react before springing a mating on us.”
His uncle snorted. “Wasn’t thinking with the right head, if you get my meaning.”
“Real nice.” Gerald flushed, though his uncle wasn’t half wrong.
Braden frowned. “I don’t get your meaning.” The twinkle of amusement in his eyes said the exact opposite.
“I let you decorate my house and you turned it into Santa’s workshop. You owe me.”
Braden sighed. “Fine.” He turned and called out, “Mom, stop hogging Laura. You don’t want to scare her off, do you?” Braden joined Laura, his mother, and a host of cousins, hopefully giving Laura a small breather.
