Cyncerely Yours Read Free Page A

other guy's hand. “I’ll tell you what happened. He hit me. That damned werewolf walked up and —”

    “Uh, uh, uh!” Cullen said cheerfully, wagging his finger. “Remembe r what I told you about being rude at my wedding.”

    Baxter turned a nice, waxy shade of pale.

    Rule said, “Perhaps you gentlemen would like to enjoy another section of the par k on this lovely summer morning. One a nice, long ways from here. ”His voice was as mild as his words. His face wasn't. After one glance at him, Baxter's two friends decided it was time to leave. They didn't have much trouble persuading Baxter of this change of plans.

    Not surprisingly, all of their guests had turned to watch. Cynna scanned the faces she could see, hoping.

    The other lupi weren't happy with Cullen's decision. Rule was the only Nokolai lupus present, and that wasn't just because they were so far from Nokolai clanhome. But two lupi from another clan, Mendoza, had accepted the invitation, and after a moment Cynna spotted them.

    Good. Her breath eased out. Maybe Cullen wouldn't be completely ostracized.

    She hadn't found another face she was looking for, though. “Gan isn’t here?”

    “I haven’ t seen her,” Rule said, “and she's hard to miss.”

    The former demon had been all excited about attending the wedding, insisting that Edge would be okay without her — and the medallion she wore--if she wasn't gone long.

    Someone might have persuaded her otherwise, though. Or she might have gone swimming and lost track of time in the pursuit of fishies.

    “We’ll take our places now,” Lily told them firmly.

    The plan was for Rule and Lily to precede them down the aisle — which, of course, wasn't an aisle, but a very skilled Wiccan witch had cast a subtle “keep back” spell that discouraged people from lingering in the path the wedding party would take to the front, where Father Michaels waited.

    Cullen gave someone a thumbs up — probably Sherri, the witch who would remove the “keep back” spell. Cynna couldn't spot her in the crowd. “Good grief. Did we really invite that many people?”

    “Looks like,” Cullen said. He held out his arm.

    Cynna linked hers through it. Lily and Rule started for their spot at the back of the crowd, and Cynna and Cullen followed. “So what did you tell Baxter?” Cynna asked.

    “To be polite.”

    “That's not all you said.”

    “I might have added that—”

    Cullen didn't stop speaking. He just became hard to hear over the roar.

    Like a towel snapped by a playful boy, Mika's great, ruby-scaled body shot up, wings spreading, tail stretched for ballast as the dragon stretched forty feet of body into the air .He flung his head back, jaws gaping in a second roar.

    There were only a couple screams from the crowd, maybe because a number of the guests were trained law officers. Maybe because some were frozen and others were too busy running like hell to yell about it.

    “Goddammit.”Cullen stepped forward. “No guns! Put your guns away, you idiots!”

    Shit, yes. Cynna saw that several of those trained law officers were packing, which was kind of rude at a wedding, and had automatically drawn their weapons.

    Which was not too bright. Bullets would annoy Mika, and he was already pissed.

    Ruben's voice rose from the front of the crowd, calm as always. “Holster your weapons.”

    “Mika.” Cullen faced the angry dragon, head tipped back to scowl up at him. Way, way up. " What the hell are you screaming about? I'm trying to get married here.”

    Mika's head swung towards Cullen, jaws gaping, eyes slitted. He looked ready to rip, rend and tear, not chat.

    “Remove yourself,” ordered a clear, disapproving female voice. “You are in my way.” A tiny, erect figure emerged from what was left of the crowd. She wore crimson silk, lavishly embroidered and very Chinese. And she headed straight for Mika.

    “Shit!”Cynna took a step towards her. “Madame Yu—”

    Lily stopped her