Wild Invitation

spill blood after seeing that bruise on your neck.”
    As she opened her mouth to point out that the “bruise” was a very welcome love bite and that she’d seen
plenty
like it on the throats of Revel’s various lovers, her sister went off again, so she folded her arms and waited. Pia would eventually run out of steam, or pause to catch a breath. Meanwhile Rev would wait for Grace’s reply to rebut her words. It was an aggravatingly familiar pattern—but she knew the doofuses were freaked out because they loved her.
    Her wolf sighed in exasperation, put its head on its paws, and waited.
    Except the pattern altered in a rush of fury as another man snarled into the clearing. “Are you all right?” was Cooper’s first question, his irises ringed with that distinctive feral yellow that said his wolf was riding him.
    “I’m fine.” Shifting closer, she put her hand on his chest. “What’s the matter?”
    “What’s the
matter
?” It was a snap of sound. “I get a report that two unfamiliar dominants hauled you bodily out of the den, and you ask me that?”
    Suddenly infuriated, she narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you use that tone of voice with me.” She
would not
take it, not from anyone, and especially not from the man with whom she intended to share skin privileges both intimate and precious.
    His response was to shove her behind the wall of muscle that was his body. “You”—his words were snapped out at Pia and Rev—“have three seconds to explain why you dared lay hands on her.”
    “She’s our sister.” All black hair and wolf eyes, Pia was magnificent in her anger—she would also be mincemeat if Cooper took offense at her aggression. “And you have no right to use your position to force her to share skin privileges.”
    Grace wanted to beat her head against a mountain of brick at that ugly statement from her generous-hearted, talk-before-she-thought sister. But she didn’t have time, because Cooper’s claws had shot out, a violent growl coloring the air. Slipping around his body and gripping at his arms with her own claws when he picked her up and attempted to put her back, she raisedher voice to be heard over the cacophony of her siblings’ cries for her to get away, to run.
    “Cooper.
Cooper!
” Twisting her head when she felt Pia and Revel move, she said,
“No!”
    They halted, unvarnished shock in their expressions. Grace never yelled. Not at them.
    Satisfied she’d bought a fraction more time, her feet still dangling off the ground, she leaned forward and did the bravest thing she’d ever done in her life. She bit Cooper hard on the jaw…and got no response aside from a slightly irritated snarl, his gaze locked on her siblings. “Cooper,” she said, digging her claws deeper into his flesh, “you ignore me now and that’s it. We’re done.”
    Her desperate gamble worked, his gaze ricocheting to her, the yellow so bright, it was a shocking kind of beauty. “They challenged me. They said
I hurt you
.”
    “I know.” Allowing her own wolf to rise to the surface, to guide her, she held his gaze…and wasn’t afraid, not of his anger. Because even though she’d bitten him, clawed him, he held her with a gentleness that was a silent rebuttal to any accusation of abuse. “And I know I’m asking a great deal, asking you to go against your every instinct, but please don’t hurt them.”
    His lashes came down, thick and straight and inky black. Lifted again. Yellow eyes stared at her, and she knew the wolf was listening but wasn’t convinced, especially when her siblings continued to yell in the background.
    Blowing out a breath, she concentrated on Cooper and played her ace. “How will you face my mother if you send Pia and Revel home in pieces?”
    A pause, then—“I’d tell her she birthed stupid pups.”
    Dark growls from the pups in question, but she knew the danger had passed. Cooper’s response had been sharp, sarcastic. “Thank you,” she whispered, because it was a gift he’d given her, this dominant wolf whose instinct it was to respond to any challenge with a show of violent force.
    His next words were subvocal, for her ears only. “I like your claws. Next time, use them on my back while I’m inside you.” Wrapping an arm around her waist after that wicked request, he tucked her to his side, ignoring her attempts to check what damage she’d done to his forearms.
    “I should break every bone in your bodies for that display of insubordination,” he