Giving him a mock frown, Shaya turned and waltzed back into the house. She had only just switched on the coffee machine when she picked up Amber’s scent. Her wolf growled.

“I just wanted to say congratulations once again,” said Amber as she appeared beside her. Her eyes bulged as she added excitedly, “We have to get started on the plans for the mating ceremony!” Not only was she effectively inviting herself to the ceremony, but she was doing the BFF thing. Shaya had had enough of it.

As everyone was still outside and the music was blaring enough to keep the conversation private, Shaya figured that now would be as good a time as any to get things straight with her and Amber. “Listen, I appreciate the offer, but we both know that it wasn’t made out of the kindness of your heart.” Amber looked appropriately offended. “You don’t want to befriend me. My guess is that, on the contrary, you hate me…because you want Nick and I have him.”

Amber’s expression darkened, and her eyes became diamond hard, no longer hiding the hatred she had. At least she wasn’t going to play the “Oh, you’ve got it all wrong” game.

“I can’t be pissed at you for wanting Nick—it would make me a huge hypocrite. But if you care about him, you won’t try to mess things up for him. I say ‘try’ because it’s not something you’ll succeed in doing if you do make an attempt at it. But hopefully, you won’t want to.”

In a sickly sweet voice full of contempt, Amber said, “Of course I wouldn’t mess things up for Nick. I want him to be happy.”

Shaya gave her a beaming smile. “Great. I’m glad that’s settled.”

Amber turned on her heel and marched away, but then she suddenly halted and pivoted to face Shaya once more. Deviousness twinkled in her eyes. “I really do hope you two will be happy. I know a few mated dominant/submissive pairs. They’re all happy. Even the ones whose bond hasn’t completely snapped into place. Not totally happy, but happy enough, given the circumstances. Oh, did you not know that fully mating can be a problem for dominant/submissive pairs?”

No, Shaya hadn’t, and her expression must have given that away because there was a glint of smugness in Amber’s gaze.

“No one knows exactly what the issue is,” she said as she did a cocky strut around the room, “but it seems to be that taking the very last step is hard because it requires both shifters to accept what that means. Dominants often have to give up any ambitions of being Alpha or holding positions of authority within their pack. Submissives have to accept that they hold their mate back and that their strength will never match that of their mate. Some dominants are okay with that, but the submissive of the pair isn’t always so okay with it because knowing they hold their mate back is hard. Especially if it’s the guy who’s submissive, or if the dominant of the pair is a born alpha. But hey, don’t worry, it doesn’t mean that will happen to you and Nick.”

But Amber would try her best to ensure it did happen, Shaya understood. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for jealous ex-partners or shunned pursuers to try to stop the shifter they wanted from fully bonding with their mate. It was the ultimate form of revenge and, in a lot of cases, it could work. In this case, it had a high chance of happening without Amber’s help because the difficulties Nick and Shaya faced were exactly those she had described.

“Can you imagine how hard that must be to have your mate so close but for him to never totally want and accept you? That would be a hell like no other, wouldn’t it?”

Yes, it would. If a bond seemed to be taking too long to click into place, resentment and anger and depression would build—not a good combination. That combination would then make it more difficult for the bond to fully form. Shaya had seen it happen. But she wouldn’t let it happen to her and Nick. “I guess I should make it clear to anyone who thinks of trying to interfere with the development of the bond that I won’t stand for it.”

Amber gave a short laugh, regarding Shaya like she was ridiculous. “What is it you will do to these people? Other than cower and submit, I mean.”

Shaya smiled. “I’d warn them that they really don’t want to find out the answer to that.”

“But for them to defeat you…all they would have to do is this.” Amber’s dominant vibes crashed into Shaya, attempting to force her to submit. When that didn’t happen, Amber’s eyes widened in both surprise and anger.

“Hopefully that would be enough to make those people think twice about coming at me. What do you think?”

Clearly too infuriated to remember to keep up her sweet, friendly-friendly act, Amber curled her upper lip at Shaya…and it was apparent exactly what Amber intended to do. Before the dominant female had the chance to charge at her, Shaya quickly grabbed the knife block beside her and whipped out a knife, hurling it in Amber’s direction. Just as quickly, she threw another, and another, and another, and another…and smiled at the end result.

As Nick walked into the kitchen in search of Shaya, he came to an abrupt halt at the sight he found. There was Amber, plastered against the wall with five knives stabbing into the wall and framing her body. And Shaya…well, she was smiling cheerily and somewhat sweetly. “What’s going on?” he asked dubiously. His mate shrugged, still the image of innocence.

“I was just showing Amber my knife trick,” Shaya told him, pulling the knives from the wall. “Cool, huh?”

Pretty certain there was a lot more to this, Nick narrowed his eyes at Amber. But then Shaya was in front of him, kissing and holding him…and he decided that if she didn’t care, f**k it. Having shot Amber a cautioning look—which received a gulp and made her quickly depart—he locked his arms tight around Shaya. “Are you sure everything’s okay?” Her smile wobbled slightly. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Or, at least, nothing I want to talk about right now.”

Pleased that she wasn’t trying to blow him off, Nick planted a firm kiss on her mouth. “Then we’ll talk about it later.”

As Taryn then entered the room with Roni close behind, she smiled awkwardly at Shaya. “We might have a problem. A problem other than that Greta’s still alive and kicking, that is.”

Shaya rolled her eyes. “What?”

“When I spoke to Caleb on the phone yesterday, I told him about how Nick tracked you down—he was harassing me and making me feel guilty, saying we were leaving him out of everything.”