“Hungry?” she asked, pushing her way past him.
“Always.” He watched her go to the baby grand piano that his instructor sometimes used during their practices and drop the bags of food on the bench. “Why are you here? I thought I was covering for you tonight.”
“You were. Yeah. Quarter Pounder or Big Mac?”
“Either. And I hope you brought more than one of each or you’re shit out of luck, Twinkles.”
She flashed those goddamn dimples he kept dreaming about. “Of course. I’ve seen you eat before. Shame is so not in your vocabulary.”
He closed the door, hoping none of the management stopped by since he wasn’t supposed to have food in the room, and walked over to Kristan. “What’s wrong, Kristan?”
“Nothing.” But she wouldn’t look at him. She looked everyone in the eye. Even when you tried to avoid it. She practically turned herself into a pretzel sometimes to get you to look her in the eye.
“Bullshit. What’s wrong?”
She placed napkins down and the food on top before asking, “Did you ever meet your dad?”
“No.”
“Do you ever think about it? Think about what it would be like when you do?”
“Yeah, I guess. Why?”
She ignored his question and asked her own. “When you think about meeting him, do you like him?”
Johnny didn’t really enjoy talking about this. His father was one of those sore points of his—Jess said he had many “sore points”—but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Kristan asked him these questions for a reason. So he answered honestly, “It depends. If I’m thinking about how he treated my mother, then, no, I don’t like him. But if I’m just thinking in general or thinking maybe there’d been a mistake, a misunderstanding between him and my mom, then I think I might like him. Stupid, huh?”
“No.” She turned and faced him. “Not at all. I thought I’d like my father. I dreamed about it.”
“You met your father? When?”
“Couple of weeks ago. I should like him. He’s my father. I should like him, right?”
“Not necessarily. I’ve noticed the majority of human beings are assholes and don’t deserve to breathe, much less procreate.”
She smiled, flashing those damn dimples again. “Not that you have any strong opinions on the topic or anything.”
“You asked me a question. I’m giving you an answer.” He grabbed a fry. “Is that who you’ve been going off to see?”
“Yeah, I didn’t tell my parents ’cause I knew Mom would be pissed. Now I wish I had told her.”
“Why?”
“Because when she finds out she’ll definitely be pissed.” She grabbed one of the metal folding chairs and sat down. “I was supposed to see him and his Pack tonight.” She rolled her eyes. “Not one of my top-ten fun things to do.”
“Wolf Packs are different from wild dogs.”
“I know that. But they weren’t like the other wolves I’ve met.” She looked up at him with those big, light brown eyes. “They weren’t like you.”
Ignore. Ignore. Ignore. “So what are you going to do now?” he asked, grabbing a Big Mac.
“Avoid for as long as I can manage.”
“You’ve gotta tell your parents.”
“I know. I know. Thought maybe I could tell them this weekend. They’re always in a good mood when they get some hunting in.”
“Yeah, nothing says spa-equivalent relaxation like taking down a deer and ripping its throat open.”
Kristan nodded solemnly, seemingly missing his sarcasm. “Exactly.”
Jess sat on the ratty old couch with Sabina on one side of her and May on the other. They sat shoulder to shoulder, thigh to thigh, needing the strength of their Packmate to soothe their rattled nerves. Rattled nerves that got worse as they watched the woman they’d come to see pace around the dingy back office of a hot Manhattan club while reading the documents they’d given her. Jess had to keep reminding herself that being here was worth it. That being around this female was worth it. It would bring in a lot of money to their Pack if this worked out like she thought it would.
Her only problem... the She-wolf she had to deal with. Right now, all three of the wild dogs kept looking at her wondering if they could get out of the room before the She-wolf could catch them. And if she caught them... what would she do?
When this all started out, Jess had only met with the surly Alpha Male of this Pack. He wasn’t friendly, but he seemed sane. Then he’d handed off the fine points of all this to his Alpha Female.
Jess wished she could say the woman was mean to her. She wasn’t. In fact, Jess had the distinct feeling the She-wolf liked her. A lot. Jess wasn’t sure if that was a good place to be or a bad place.
Reading the end of the last page, the female walked over to the worn table in the middle of the room and popped back onto it like a spring. She pulled off her black cowboy hat, shook out her long dark hair, and said, “I’m not real happy about this split.”
Sabina opened her mouth to say something and Jess nudged her with her knee.
Then Jess answered, “Uh-huh.”
“I think we’ll need to haggle on that a bit more. And a few of these other details.”
“Okay.” Don’t startle the rabid dog, she kept reminding herself. Don’t startle the rabid dog.
“But overall... I think this will work. Hot gaming clubs. It’s great music, hot games—It’s a good idea.”
Jess nodded slowly. “Great.”
She stared at them with those cold brown eyes for several excruciatingly long seconds. “Y’all are dogs, right?”
“Yeah, African Wild Dogs.”
Her gaze moved from May to Jess to Sabina and back to Jess. “African? But you’re the only one who’s black.”
May’s back snapped straight and she opened her mouth to say something. Jess slapped her hand on May’s knee to keep her quiet. Letting her know without words... Don’t startle the rabid dog!
Slowly, Jess explained, “Think of Africa as the cradle of all civilization. So the wild dogs encompass a full range of, uh, races.”
“Huh. Is it true you don’t have dewclaws? You know, when you shift?”
“Right. We don’t.”
“Weird. Do you have thumbs?”
Don’t freak out. No matter how weird this gets, don’t freak out.
“Yes, we have thumbs.”
“Huh.” Long fingers scratched the brutal scar that marred one side of her face. She didn’t seem bothered by it, but Jess had to force herself not to stare. Her natural curiosity made her want to ask all sorts of questions about how she got it, but logic told Jess to keep her damn mouth shut. “You know, I don’t like... well... anybody. Except a select few. But I think we’ll get along ’cause I am a dog person.”
Apparently that was all May could stand. She snorted first, her head immediately dropping. But as soon as Jess and Sabina heard that snort, they couldn’t control themselves. The fear taking an immediate backseat to the hysterical laughter.
Jess had been hearing rumors about the Alpha Female of the Magnus Pack for a couple of years now. She’d taken over after completely wiping out an entire Pride of lions. She’d earned a lot of respect from the canines for doing it, but it soon became apparent she might be a couple dog biscuits short of a full box of Milkbones.
She thought the woman would snap, show that ugly insanity Jess kept hearing about. Instead, Sara Morrighan merely tossed her hair back over her shoulder and drank her beer.
“We’re sorry,” Jess said when she’d finally gotten some control back. “That was rude.”