“I thought you would have been here a couple months back.”
“I told you I’d think about it.”
“And why didn’t you tell me you were in town as early as last week?”
Dee smiled. She had her momma’s warm, pretty smile, but her daddy’s eyes. Eyes like the wolf she shared her body with. And although when Smitty shifted to wolf he had the same eyes, Dee’s and Eggie’s never seemed to change, whether they were human or wolf. They remained as watchful. As cold.
He loved his cousin, but Smitty would never cross her. Because the older she got, the more like her daddy she became. Just as dangerous, just as lethal.
“How did you hear I was in town?” She asked, watching him closely.
“A Van Holtz said one of my cousins was in town. He didn’t give me any names, but I figured it was you.”
She studied him for a moment. “You want me to leave?”
“No, darlin’. I want you as part of the Pack.”
“I don’t like feeling hemmed in.”
Smitty had to smile. “And the one thing my daddy always taught me was to never hem in Eggie Smith—or Eggie Smith’s daughter. You join the Pack on simple terms. We’re always here for you and, when I need you, you’re there for us.”
Dee-Ann nodded. “Give me a few days.”
“If you like.”
Dee-Ann swung her long legs off Smitty’s desk and stood.
“And there’s a party this weekend. You’re more than welcome to come.”
“I’ll think on it.” She walked to the door, stopped. “And which Van Holtz told you I was in town?”
Smitty glanced back at his monitor, an e-mail from Jessie Ann with a silly subject line making him smile. “Uh…one of the younger ones. Um, Ric? Ulrich? He’s a friend of—”
Staring at the empty doorway, Smitty let out a breath. How his cousin always did that whenever the mood struck her, he’d never know.
Gwen pulled open the door to her office and stepped inside. Only to get slammed back into the wall by a five-eleven wolfdog.
“Paaaaaarrrrrrrttttttyyyyyy!”
Not entirely in the mood for this, Gwen snapped, “What?”
“Party! Party! Party!”
“I’m not going to any party.” Gwen pushed past Blayne and headed toward her office, but she was yanked back by her hair and a thick envelope held up in front of her.
“Party! Party! Party!”
“Would you stop saying that!” Gwen snatched the envelope from her. Both their names were on the front, the letters raised, the paper thick and high quality. Opening it, Gwen pulled out the card inside.
You are viciously invited to the most bloodthirsty party of the century. Dress as the most ghoulish, most frightening, or most terrifying fiend of the known world and dance the night away with other like-minded terrors. Costumes are mandatory. Drinks are free. And chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate!
—The Kuznetsovs
“Is it really hard for them to be normal?”
Blayne yanked the invite from her. “We’re going.”
Again pushing past Blayne, Gwen at least this time made it in to the office. “You’re going. I’m not.”
“Why not?”
“Not in the mood.” Why would she go to some goofy Halloween party with a bunch of goofy dogs? Her life was too short and getting shorter every day. She didn’t plan to spend a minute of it bored out of her mind, if she could help it. “But go. Have a good time.”
Gwen slipped off the straps of her backpack and she was pulling out her chair to sit down and get her paperwork together before they headed out to the snake farm, when Blayne tossed in, “Your mother’s going.”
Gwen froze in midsit. “What?”
Blayne shrugged. “She was invited and you know how she—”
“Dammit!” Gwen dropped into her chair. Now she had to go. Her mother at a party filled with predators and an open bar…Gwen couldn’t even stand to think about the damage the woman could do. And the damage would be around all of Lock’s friends.
“If you’re really not going to go, let me know now because I have to R.S.V.—”
“I’ll be there,” Gwen snarled, opening drawers as if she was looking for something, but really it was simply so she could slam them shut again.
“Okay.”
Blayne stepped into the hallway and walked around the big pillar that blocked the view of their office from people wandering through the lobby. Jess stood at the front desk with the receptionist, Mindy. When she saw Blayne, Jess faced her.
She gave Jess a thumbs-up, then raised her brows in silent question.
Jess lifted her hand, her thumb and forefinger in a circle, her three other fingers raised, letting her know that Lock was…well…a lock.
They grinned at each other like goofballs and then Blayne headed back to the office. She’d only opened the door when she heard Gwen roar, “Where the fuck are the receipts from the construction site?”
When it came to the task of babysitting her mother, Gwen would have only one volume level until it was all over. Thankfully, Blayne only had to put up with it until Saturday night.
Jay Ross reached into his girlfriend’s car and yanked the keys out of the ignition. He quickly stepped away as the car door flew open and Donna stumbled out. She might be drunk off her ass, but that didn’t make her any less strong.
“Give me my fuckin’ keys!” Normally he would, never in the mood to bother with her when she got like this, but he had something else in mind. The timing was perfect.
He held the keys over her head. “Okay, so your mother popped you in the face—” again “—but why go storming off when I got a better idea of how to get even with the one who is really to blame for this?”
Trying to reach her keys, “I ain’t goin’ into Philly to get into it with a whole Pride. I ain’t stupid.” He wasn’t so sure about that, but she gave a hell of a blow job, so he was willing to overlook her major flaws.
“You wanna hurt the mother…you hurt the kid.”
Donna slowly lowered her arms and stared at him through the eye that wasn’t swollen shut, although it was pretty glassy from all the Jack Daniel’s she’d guzzled. “What are you talking about? Beatin’ her up? We already did that.”
“Nah. I’m talking about something a little more…permanent.”
She turned away from him. Donna tried to pretend she didn’t know what he did for cash, but she knew. They all knew, they just liked to pretend they didn’t.
“Both?” she finally asked, no longer sounding nearly as drunk.
“Yeah. Both.” He could practically feel the money in his hands. And Christ, it felt good.
Jay put his arms around her shoulders and nuzzled her ear. “Trust me, baby. They’ll both get what they got comin’.”
“How? The bitch isn’t stupid. It’s not like we can call her up and tell her to meet us somewhere.”
“Gotta start thinkin’ different, baby. Gotta start thinkin’ a little more human.”
Donna’s lip turned up a little at that, but then she asked, “When?”
He smiled, his mind already turning. “Soon. Real soon.”
She felt wonderful against him, all sweaty and soft, her exhausted body pressing down on his. He dragged his hand down her spine and across the curve of her ass.
“Use your claws,” she murmured, snuggling closer.
He did, carefully dragging them down her back and up again. He didn’t know if she realized she fell asleep like that, with his claws caressing her back while they lay on his kitchen floor.
They’d just arrived home after she’d met him at the training rink and he’d taken her to the diner down the block. They’d eaten dinner but decided to have dessert back at the apartment. He’d been heading for the ice cream in his freezer when she’d wrapped her arms around his waist from behind. She had his jeans unzipped and her hand inside his boxer briefs in less than five seconds. After that their clothes went flying and they ended up abusing his kitchen floor.