“Yep, close by and owned by a cousin. One big, happy family. We were easy pickings. God. He comes along and sweeps me off my feet. Told me I was just the one for him. But I wasn’t. And I told him so. What about you?”

“The same. Only I wore rose-colored glasses for longer,” Calla said, annoyed with herself all over again. How could she have been so naive?

“Longer than a year?” Ivy asked. “He was pushing for a mating forever. I actually stuck it out for a year, just about. I was busy with my business. We had fun when we got together, but he didn’t want me to associate with my old friends.” Ivy shrugged. “I have several girlfriends and business associates, and I wasn’t about to give them up just because he didn’t like them. What about you?”

“Same with me. It was about a year. I was always scheduling parties, heavily involved in my work. I was so busy that there were weeks when we couldn’t find the time to get together. And he was constantly pushing for us to marry so he could at least be with me at night—he said.”

Calla heaved a sigh, noticing that even though Guthrie was listening to everything they said, he was also keeping a watchful eye out for trouble.

“He’s not coming to the party, is he?” Calla asked.

“He wouldn’t be welcome. But he might try to patch things up with you.”

“Didn’t he try with you?”

“Oh, at first, aye. Once he set his sights on you, I didn’t have any more trouble with him.”

“You mean he was stalking you afterward too?”

“I wouldn’t call it stalking exactly. We would run into each other at some of the same pubs and other places. Hard not to.”

“Until he met me, aye?”

Ivy bit her bottom lip as she seemed to ponder the notion. “Hmm, you’re right. I didn’t see him at any of the usual places after he began seeing you. He must have been taking you to different places. He probably didn’t want you to meet the old girlfriend.” Ivy smiled. “I think he’s more hung up on you than he ever was with me. Maybe it’s because I called it quits before we agreed to actually marry. Even so, that had to have hurt his big ego, not to mention dealing with his pack over it.

“With you, he was so close to making the commitment—at the altar even, and you walked out on him. Now that has to be the ultimate slight. Probably also because Cearnach helped sway you to not marry Baird, and now you’re staying with Cearnach’s family.” She gave Guthrie a smile that said she knew there was more to it than Calla just staying with the MacNeills.

The musicians began to play a waltz.

“I’ve got to greet my guests. Why don’t you get some refreshments, mingle, and dance?” Ivy glanced at the other men with them.

“Bodyguard detail. Baird has been stalking me,” Calla explained. She introduced Guthrie’s cousin and brothers.

“And thank you, Ivy, for telling me all this,” Calla said, grateful to know the truth, even if it hurt.

Ivy sighed. “Maybe Baird will find another woman to harass.” She smiled at Oran, who was grinning at her.

“I’m single, and I love your wolfishness,” Oran told her right away.

Calla wasn’t sure if he was talking about Ivy’s wolfishness as in real wolf or the costume.

“I’ve never gone on a seal trip, but I wouldn’t see the birds and seals anyway if I took you out on the boat,” Oran added. “And I had no idea you even existed before today.”

Calla laughed.

Ivy chuckled. “Then you can come with me.”

“Bodyguard detail,” Guthrie reminded his cousin with a stern look.

“He can stand near the front door, but not under the mistletoe,” Ivy said, with a small smile curving her lips. “I saw that kiss you gave Geraldine.”

Oran’s cheeks turned a little red, though he laughed it off and offered his arm as if he were a gallant, swashbuckling pirate, which, for fun, he was. The two of them left the great hall, Ivy’s faux-fur wolf’s tail wagging behind her.

“Sounds like Baird’s been doing this kind of thing with women for a while,” Guthrie said, slipping his arm around Calla’s waist and pulling her to the center of the great hall where others were already dancing. “I’ve wanted to do this forever.”

He didn’t even wait to pull her close. As soon as she was in his arms, she was firmly against his chest, and she briefly thought of her velvet gown turning into crushed velvet. Though the way he’d packed her skirts into the car had probably wrinkled the fabric a bit already. She couldn’t help noticing how eagerly he had helped her. She had to admit, Guthrie had been hilarious—trying to stuff the billowing gown and underskirts into the small car, his hands “inadvertently” pressing against her thighs.

In his arms, she loved the feel of Guthrie’s hard body against hers, the way he smelled wolfishly excited to be this close to her, the way he seemed to want to be with her and only her. Which reminded her of dating Baird. She didn’t think Guthrie was anything like him personally, but the intrigue was the same.

But she didn’t want her next relationship to be like her last one. She needed emotional support for the last disastrous relationship, not a commitment to someone new. She thought Guthrie knew that too. He’d been pulling away from her in an attempt to keep things on a more even keel, not having unconsummated sex on the sofa around the fire pit again.

So, this didn’t mean a whole lot of anything. Just an alpha male wanting to get close and personal. Nothing that screamed—I want you for an eternity—as in a wolf mating.

If her experience with Baird had taught her one thing, it was that a male wolf would do anything to mate, and she wanted to make sure she was settling down with the right one this time. She-wolves who were born to lupus garous were fewer in number, so she had to remind herself that she was a precious commodity. She laughed at herself over that.

She’d never been popular among humans when she was younger. It had something to do with growling at them when they angered her, or wanting to bite one guy who had started seeing someone behind her back. That was one good thing about being a wolf—she had smelled the other woman on him. Biting him had not been an option. No way had she wanted to turn the jerk and have him as her responsibility.

She hadn’t been around her wolf kind all that much. The few she had known were either mated, just friends, or hadn’t appealed in the least.