Chapter Wilson Family Dinner
Wilson Family Dinner
It was an odd thing, welcoming someone new into a clan. He’d thought so way back when Seamus was born and again with every subsequent sibling’s entrance, but he figured it’d get a little less awkward now that everyone involved was grown.
I guess even I can be wrong sometimes, he thought.
Harrison leaned back in the armchair he’d claimed, a beer in hand, as he observed his littlest brother and his new mate setting out the good plates for their Moonrise dinner. He didn’t mean to stare, but he couldn’t help it.
Nelly was an odd bird.
He’d been away from Montague for years now, but he had no trouble imagining what the tiny town’s reception to the witch must’ve been. She looked hilariously out of place standing next to his grinning little brother — who, for reasons he’d yet to work out, wore a floral button down.
Knee-high to a frog, decked out in a frothy ruffled dress that barely reached mid-thigh, and… witchy, Nelly Ortega was the single strangest thing he’d ever seen in his mama’s kitchen. And that was saying something, knowing that things Clark and Penny got up to.
“I know he said he’d found a mate,” Seamus muttered under his breath as he dropped into the chair beside Harrison’s, “but I still kinda thought it was a prank.”
Harrison sniffed. “Still kinda feels like a prank. A witch in a clan of orcs? C’mon.”
Seamus, a barrel-chested, green-skinned orc who made his living with his hands, rolled his massive shoulders back with a heavy sigh.
“See, I thought the joke was that he met somebody before us. I mean, what’re the odds?
And that story. Ran his truck into a tree only to wake up bonded and have the kohl?
All without having to leave the comfort of his hometown. Fucker didn’t even have to try.”
He couldn’t blame Seamus for his disbelief. The story was fantastical — like the convoluted plot to one of those cheesy films he did his best to avoid.
But the proof was in the kohl, as they said. There was no denying the dark tint to Clark’s hands, which he’d proudly showed off to both his brothers the second they swung into town. A mate was a mate, and their little brother was damn pleased with the one the gods had given him.
“Well, if some bullshit like that was gonna happen, it’d happen to Clark,” Harrison replied, lips quirking in a smile. “I guess it figures he’d end up with someone so…”
Not needing him to finish the sentence, Seamus nodded emphatically. “A-yup.”
A squeal of laughter from the dining room drew their gazes to Penny, who Clark had hoisted up by her underarms. “I’m not a baby!” she cried, cackling madly. “You can’t put me at the kid’s table anymore!”
“You’re barely old enough to drink,” Clark replied.
“So? How dare you—”
“And you’re my baby sister for all eternity. And you just tried to take my spot next to my mate, so you’re officially banished to the kid’s table!”
Nelly, who casually continued to place silverware around the table with her gloved hands, calmly interjected, “Penny, I don’t have any brothers, so I don’t know if this is normal behavior.
Please blink twice if you need me to intervene.
I can also deliver retribution on your behalf later.
Just give me the signal. I know where he sleeps. ”
“Sugar!” Clark exclaimed, giving his mate his patented puppy dog eyes. Setting his still giggling sister aside, he asked, “How could you—”
Arching her brows, she gave her mate a look Harrison had seen his mother aim his father’s way many, many times. “Easily.”
“But I thought you loved—”
Wiggling a shiny spoon in front of her mate’s nose, she drawled, “How quickly you forget eating the last cinnamon roll, Mr. Ortega. Would that I could forget just as easily!”
Seamus let loose a whistle. “Taking food outta your own mate’s mouth? Damn, boy, I thought we brought you up better.” Leaning forward in his seat with a big, shit-eating grin that showed off his large lower fangs, he added, “Wanna switch Wilsons, Nelly? I’d never betray you that way.”
Clark threw up his hands. “Hey! Stop trying to steal my mate!”
“As much as it pains me, I think I’m stuck with the one I’ve got.
” Nelly finished setting the silverware down and sidled up beside Clark, who slung a muscular arm over her thin shoulders without a second of hesitation.
In a coordinated movement that appeared seamless, she tilted her head back as he stooped.
They shared a smiling kiss, like they were passing a secret between them — or perhaps like they’d already shared all their secrets.
Harrison wasn’t all that comfortable welcoming strangers into the clan, but that… Yeah, he could see the appeal of something like that.