I could hear the ghost of my friend in her sing-song voice as she started teasing me, and sure enough, she was grinning like a loon. Didn’t erase the tears, though. When one rolled down her cheek, that got me started, forcing me to throw my arms around her. She hugged me right back, because that’s what best friends do.
“I owe you,” I growled. “You have an ingrown hair on your bikini line that needs fixing, I’m your girl.”
“After you made such a fuss last time? No thanks.”
“I’ll do your laundry for a month. No, three months. I’ll wash your delicates by hand like a Victorian housemaid, if that’s what it takes.”
“Weird way to say you wanna get into my pants.” Daria shrugged. “But whatever.”
“I’ll name my first-born child after you,” I swore.
“First. Born. Child?” I ignored the guys’ choked off response because Daria burst out laughing. Somehow, I needed that.
“You? A mother? Are you sure that’s such a good idea? Remember the goldfish?”
“Oh my god, are you ever going to get over that?” I spluttered.
“My Goldy?” She grinned. “More like Mr. Mouldy, because you left him floating belly up in his bowl, dead for days, then walked around wondering why the apartment stank.”
“OK, fine?—”
“Then there was that rotating carousel of house plants that died.” She held out a hand. “Overwatering, underwatering, wrong fertiliser?—”
“Yeah, but if Harper decides she wants to be a mother.” Kieran’s arm went around me, pulling me back against his side. “She’ll have us and the entire bear community?—”
“Tiger community,” Tor said with a sigh. “Like try and keep the women of my family away. You’d be fighting to hold your own child around them.”
“And me.” Everyone went quiet at Mack’s input. “I’ll never let another thing happen to my girl.” He snorted, then shook his head. “Or hypothetical daughter, Daria Two.”
“Daria Two?”
The name was utterly ridiculous, but it didn’t stop my bestie from grabbing my hands. We both tried to smile, failed, quickly becoming a blubbering mess. I cried, for her, for me, for Mack, for everyone who had to deal with this kind of shit, and Darcried along with me. The guys gave us some space, just quietly waiting for the emotional storm to blow over. After we cleaned our faces up, they followed at my heels as I escorted Daria to her parent’s front door.
“OK, well, I’d love to say this was fun,” Dar said, forcing herself to smile. “But it sucked.” She pointed a finger at me. “You, me, a bottle of tequila for a catch up in a week.” Her hand went to her cheek. “That way the swelling will have time to go down.”
“Dar—”
“Go home, Harper,” she told me in an uncharacteristically gentle voice. “Be with your guys.” Her hand moved so fast I yelped when she swatted me on that arse. “Get that weird shifter dick and be ready to report back.”
“Oh my god, did you just spank me?” I spluttered.
“A precursor for what’s to come.” Daria’s eyes went wide as Mack pulled me into his arms. “I told you I’d smack your bum raw for what you pulled today and I meant it.”
“Hey, can I stay at your parent’s place too?” I asked, trying to lunge forward, only to be hauled back. “Daria, help me out here? Dar?”
Of course, with all the noise we were making, the front door opened and Daria’s mum stood there.
“Sweetheart?” She opened the screen door, then gasped when she saw her daughter’s face. “Daria, what happened?”
“I want all the details of that spanking too,” my best friend told me, winking before walking inside. “All of them. If I am not satisfied with your answers, I’ll ask the guys.”
“Done,” Mack said, before taking my hand and marching me right back to the car.
“So, maybe I should go home?—”
“Nope,” he said, slapping his hand down just above my head.
“I mean, there’s probably a mess?—”
