âI agree heâs proving a point. I didnât think he would wear it here. The cowboys are giving him a worse time than his SEAL team did.â
Dusty motioned with his thumb to Paul and shook his head. Dusty was smiling, but it wasnât a friendly smile.
âYouâre worried about Paul,â Rose said.
âPaul? He can fend for himself just fine, alpha that he is. I just donât like seeing anyone being picked on.â
âRight. Especially after Paul kissed you yesterday.â
Lori knew sheâd never hear the end of it.
âYouâre not going to tell him that the Cooper brothers were up at the lake cottage, are you?â Rose asked, sounding worried.
âI donât plan to. What we do is our business. We made a mistake and we handled it. Just like weâd do in any case. Not that Paul or Allan are ever around to help out anyway.â
Rose chewed on her bottom lip. âPaul wonât think we handled it well, or that we should have allowed the other wolves to see us.â
âThen he should hang around and not be running off all the time.â
Rose waved at Allan when she caught his eye. âMomâs made a bargain with your grandma. They wonât outbid each other for Paul or Allan.â
Lori was afraid that others would. âWhat if someone else gets them?â
âIf the price goes too high, Mom will go for one of the cheaper prospects. She doesnât need that much work done around the place. But she wanted to help out the OâKeefes in any way that she could.â
Lori settled back in her seat, hoping Dusty wouldnât give them any trouble if her grandma did manage to win Allan or Paulâs services.
âSoâ¦if Emma wins the bid, what is she going to have him do? She just had a bunch of work done on her house. I didnât think she needed anything else fixed.â
âThatâs what I thought.â Lori wondered again what her grandma was up to. She really couldnât imagine Emma paying a lot of money just so that a SEAL wolf could spend more time with her granddaughter. He wouldnât be anyway while he worked on whatever project her grandma came up with.
Yet, Lori reminded herself her grandmaâs animal spirit guide was the fox, because a little red fox had shown her how to watch and wait, how to blend in, and then how to take advantage of a situation. When she was young, Emma was called Little Fox because she was wily and able to work around tricky dilemmas, encouraging action and moving quickly to overcome obstacles.
Sheâd been patient for far too long, and Lori wondered if her grandmother had decided to make her moveâto make some changes in the pack dynamics. Even though her grandma wasnât the pack leader, Emma was the eldest member of the pack, and as such, she truly was both adaptable and at times the trickster.
Chapter 4
When Paul and Allan arrived at Town Hall, they found the parking lot full. Paul had expected to be standing on stage well before the auction began, but all the seats in the town hall were already filled, which was surprising, considering the size of the town. The audience ranged from sweet, silver-haired grandmas to wide-eyed teenage girls and women more his age, like Lori and Rose, all smiles, with a smattering of men. All of them cheered the bachelors on as they walked across the stage and took their places.
Paul felt like a celebrity and couldnât help being amused, his cheeks burning a little because he wasnât used to all this attention. Allan was grinning and enjoying all the interest.
Paul glanced at his competition.
The bank loan officer was a little stocky and had glasses propped on the bridge of his nose. He probably could give anyone great financial advice, and he might be a real handyman of sorts. The high school teacher taught carpentryâwhich meant he would be sought after for that reason alone. The three high school seniors could probably