Wolf with Benefits

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

She got lost trying to find Toni. That’s what she got for trying to understand that phone message rather than calling to confirm everything. But she’d been sleeping when her phone went off and she was not the friendliest bitch when someone woke her before she was ready. So she’d ignored the call and listened to her messages later.

Now here she was, wandering around this goddamn Sports Center. She’d never been here before. Had no interest. She hated sports on principle. It didn’t matter to her who was playing. Full-humans. Shifters. Whatever. Sports was just something that bored her into a rage.

Pulling open the doors, she walked through what turned out to be an ice rink. That probably meant hockey. She hated hockey.

She walked across the ice, stopping by some lion male and another female who were talking.

“Excuse me,” she said, stepping close. “Do you guys know—”

“Hey,” the lion male said, glaring down at her, “do you see I’m in a conversation?”

She nodded. “I do. And I’m sorry to interrupt. But I’m lost and I just need you to—”

The lion leaned in, sniffed her. Confused, he leaned back. “Great. Another hybrid freak.”

Actually, she wasn’t a hybrid. She was simply a shifter breed that wasn’t much talked about. Her kind kept to themselves, avoided most other shifters, and didn’t take kindly to being sneered at.

Just like she was being sneered at by this lion.

“Look, freak, I’m busy,” the lion said, waving her away with his big, strong, overly tanned hand. “If you want help . . . go find it somewhere else. ’Kay?”

She nodded. “Sure.” Walked about ten feet away. Then she carefully placed her backpack on the ice, cracked her neck, her knuckles, spun around—and charged.

Toni was heading to the Starbucks in the food court to get herself another much-needed coffee when she saw Cella Malone and Dee-Ann Smith.

“Did you find that photographer yet?” Cella asked.

“Lord, Malone,” Dee-Ann snickered. “Can’t you even say ‘hi’ first before you jump down the girl’s throat?”

“I didn’t jump down her throat. Did I jump down your throat?” Cella demanded.

Kind of fed up with the woman’s general bitchiness, Toni admitted, “You’ve been jumping down my throat since I started and this is only my second day on the job.”

Dee-Ann snorted, and Cella turned and slammed her fist into the She-wolf ’s shoulder. Toni was sure that if Cella had hit her like that, she’d have a demolished shoulder. But Dee-Ann was a She-wolf, and most She-wolves were built like NFL players anyway, so the wolf just readjusted her shoulder and said, “Don’t know why you’re gettin’ so testy.”

“Because you’re irritating me.”

“The wind blows and you get irritated, feline.”

“Shut up.” Cella pointed at Toni. “Look, I’m sorry if I’ve been hard on you, but I’ve got a lot to get done and no time to fool around with this bullshit.”

“Then let me handle it.”

“You?”

“Yeah. Me. If you’re going to get all annoyingly psychotic, I’ll just handle it my damn self.”

Cella and Dee-Ann glanced at each other and back at Toni. “I think the little jackal has grown some balls since yesterday,” Dee said.

“I think it’s the clothes,” Cella remarked. “I told you that suit was a bad idea. Besides . . . it made you look hippy.”

Insulted by that—she was not hippy—Toni said, “Just e-mail me a list of things that need to get done. I’ll take it from there.”

“And the photographer?”

“I already have a call in with someone who should be able to do the job. If you’re around later and she comes in today, maybe you can meet with—”

A pained roar exploded from the training rink, and ten seconds later, the newly hired lion burst out of the double doors. But what had Toni sighing in exasperation was the female who’d attached herself to the lion’s back and dug her exceedingly long front claws right into his face, a mouthful of fangs biting into the back of his head.

“Goddammit,” Toni muttered.

“Hey,” Dee-Ann said. “Isn’t that your—”

“Yes.” Toni sighed, typically appalled.

“She’s the photographer you called in for the team?” And that’s when Dee-Ann Smith, She of the Few Words and the Scary Eyes—as the Van Holtz pups had named her—threw back her head and laughed. Why? Because she also knew the female attached to the lion male. Knew her well. Probably too well after that fistfight at the Christmas dinner they all had in the Van Holtz Washington compound.

“Who is that?” Cella asked.

“Olivia Kowalski,” Toni said. “We grew up together. She’s a brilliant photographer. She’s worked for AP, Reuters, National Geographic—”

“But?”

“But what?”

“She’s worked for Reuters, AP, National Geographic, and yet she’s here to do sports shots for her friend?”

Toni shrugged. “She has issues.”

Cella glanced over at the grappling female and lion. “Really?” she said with great sarcasm. “I find that so shocking.”

“She’s like my siblings. She’s an amazing artist, but as a human being she needs a little work. But I know how to handle her.”

“Handle her?”

The three females looked over just as the lion finally pried Livy off his head and threw her across the lobby. Livy hit the floor hard, rolled, and slammed into the wall. For anyone else being tossed around by an angry and terrified lion male, Toni would have been on the phone dialing nine-one-one. But this was Livy. She was . . . unique.

After Livy hit the wall, she rolled back and got to her feet. She spun, bared her fangs, and charged, ramming her entire small body into the lion and wrapping her arms and legs around him as she attacked his face with her fangs.

“Get her off me!” the lion screamed, no longer annoyingly smug and condescending, but terrified and in pain. “Get her off me!”

Realizing how stupid she’d been to suggest Livy for this job, Toni tried to repair the damage as best she could with Malone.

“Cella, I’m—”

“She’ll work,” the tigress said.

Toni blinked, shocked. “What?”

“Yeah. Hire her.” She glanced at her watch. “Smith, we better go if we’re gonna meet up with Crush and Dez.”

The pair stepped away from her, but Toni still couldn’t believe . . .

“Are you sure?” she asked Cella’s back.

“Yep. Something tells me that one won’t be running off crying like the last photographer we had.”

The “last photographer” being the guy Malone had beaten up herself, but whatever.

Kind of proud of making her first hire, Toni bellowed, “Livy!”

Livy pulled her sharp fangs out of the lion’s skull and stared at her.

Toni motioned with her hand. “Let’s go.”

Livy unwrapped herself from the lion and dropped to the ground. At only five-one, she was tiny for a shifter, but her size never stopped Livy from accepting a challenge. It had made for entertaining times at school.

Livy spit the lion’s blood out of her mouth and calmly walked around the still screaming cat. She went back into the training rink and came out a few seconds later with her worn backpack.

Once Livy was by her side, Toni gestured at the cat, who now had several people around him trying to help. “Was there a reason you did that?”

She shrugged. “He was rude,” she said flatly. “You know I hate rude.”

Toni didn’t bother trying to get Livy to not attack at the slightest provocation. She’d stopped lecturing her long ago. Her friend would never change, because Livy loved who she was and, if she were to be honest, Toni loved who Livy was, too.

Most importantly, Toni’s entire family adored Livy, although Livy never seemed to understand why.

“So what’s going on?” Livy asked after spitting out a bit more blood.

“Got a job for you.”

“Will I be whoring?”

“Not this time. I’m sorry.”

“You know how I love to whore,” Livy stated with that flat tone that freaked people out, because no one ever knew whether she was joking or not. It had caused some awkward times when the police were involved, but Toni could usually talk the cops out of actually arresting them.

“I know.” Toni tugged the sleeve of Livy’s light, black denim jacket. “Let’s go get you cleaned up, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

“Are you sure?” the She-tiger asked. And like two well-trained monkeys, Lou Crushek and Desiree MacDermot nodded in unison.

Dee took the piece of paper from Malone, studied the mug shot of Whitlan’s former cellmate. “I’ll handle it.”

“No,” all three said in unison.

“You know,” Dee told them. “If I were a sensitive gal, I might be insulted right now.”

“It’s nothing personal, Smith,” Malone told her. “And trust me when I say that you must be there. But . . .” She looked at Desiree.

“You’re our . . .” Desiree thought a moment, “. . . last resort kind of girl.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You’re the one we turn to when all bets are off.”

“I think we should move on this as soon as we can set it up,” Crushek told them. “If Whitlan finds out that we know, trust me when I say he’ll find a way to get to this guy.”

“Fuck,” Malone suddenly hissed. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”’

“I’ve gotta go to Russia. To meet with the coach for the Siberian team.”

Dee sighed. “Now?”

“Yeah. Now. Ric just told me to handle it.”

“Let’s not get in the way of what Cella needs to do for Ric,” Crushek, the hockey fanatic, chastised. “It’s team business.”

“And I can’t go,” Desiree announced.

“Why can’t you go?”

“Cap won’t let me. I’ve had bad experiences with clinically diagnosed sociopaths.”

“Bad experiences?”

Desiree scratched her neck. “I may have shot a couple. Totally in self-defense, of course.”

“But the Captain would prefer answers first,” Crushek kindly explained.

Not understanding the boundaries that the NYPD had to exist under, Dee re-focused her attention on Malone. “Don’t you have an entire staff to help you?”

“Yeah, but . . .” Malone’s gaze suddenly moved off and then she grinned. “As a matter of fact, I do have a staff.”

Ricky was sitting on the stairs by one of the exit doors with Reece when Rory came up.

“Well?” their brother asked.

“Humans have been all over here,” Reece said.

“Did they get in?”

“Nah,” Ricky said around a yawn. “But tightening security really couldn’t hurt.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, little brother,” Rory sneered. “Is this boring you?”

“A little.” When Rory’s eyes narrowed on him, Ricky quickly held up his hands. There wasn’t a lot of space in this stairwell, and that made it harder to fight his brother.

Rory looked off. “What about cameras?”

“They don’t have any in the stairwells, but I’d suggest we tell them to put some in here.”

“And full-time monitoring,” Reece added.

“Twenty-four-seven and guards trained by us. Right now the Center only has a couple of old leopards watching the place after hours.”

“Yeah. That sounds good. I’ll write the report.”

Nodding, Ricky and Reece got to their feet. Rory’s phone went off and he pulled it out of the back pocket of his jeans. He answered it and was quiet for a moment; then his eyes suddenly locked on Ricky.

“I’ll ask him,” Rory said.

“Ask me what?”

“It’s Ronnie Lee on the phone. Laura Jane is running around telling the other She-wolves that you were so disturbed by her very presence yesterday, you ran off after some jackal. Ronnie wants to know if there were really tears in your eyes when you made a break for it.”

While Reece laughed so hard he was bent over at the waist, his hands resting on his knees, Ricky took off his Tennessee Titans cap and scratched his head. Because his day had just gotten crappier.

Livy held up a color print of Bo Novikov trying to force a smile. “This is what nightmares are made of.”

“I know,” Toni agreed while she licked her spoon free of Greek yogurt. “That’s why we need you.”

“This isn’t really my thing, Toni. I—”

“If you say you’re an artist, I will hit you.”

Chuckling, Livy tossed the picture back onto Toni’s desk and ate more of the French fries she had purchased. After spending some time catching up, they’d gone to the Sports Center food court and had picked up their lunches. Fish and chips for Livy. Yogurt, salad, and a burger big enough to choke a rhino for Toni. She’d bypassed the fries, but now she was regretting it while she watched Livy eating hers.

“I was not going to say that. At least not to you.” Livy shrugged. “But I hate sports. I hate sports guys. I hate people. I hate dealing with them. Talking to them. And portrait photography means talking to people. I also hate—”

“Yes, Livy. I know. You hate . . . pretty much everything.”

“Pretty much.”

“But this will be good money. Clean money, Liv. And God knows you can’t even think about trying to do another office job.”

“Why? I’m a fast typist.”

“Yes. But then you throw the computer at the office manager and I’m bailing you out of jail . . . again.”

“He was rude.”

“You think everyone is rude. But with shifters, you’ll be right and they can fight back. At the very least they’ll be fast enough to duck a flying PC.”

“That hard drive did ram right into his head. He was out for, like, ten minutes.”

“Is that restraining order still in effect?”

“I think it expired last year. But I wasn’t planning on going back to Utah anytime soon.” Livy took a handful of her fries out of the newspaper they were nestled in and dropped them on the plate with Toni’s burger. “Honestly, though, how much money could this really get me?”

“A lot.”

“Really?”

“You should think about it. You’d be able to live some place you’re paying for rather than just crashing on someone’s couch . . . like the couches of people you don’t know.”

“It’s called squatting and it has its place in society. And one paycheck isn’t going to—”

“I realized that. So I talked to a few of the other teams’ promotions people here and in Jersey.”

“Which means what?”

“I’ve got you other jobs with the local shifter teams.”

Livy smirked. “So you’re my agent now?”

“If I have to be. Clearly your agent doesn’t understand your true needs and skills.”

Livy thought a moment. “Well . . . it would be nice having a place of my own eventually.”

“Where are you living now?”

“Some guy left his window open on Thirty-Second Street and Fifth, so I—”

“Okay. That’s enough.” Toni shook her head to remove the image of her best friend climbing into some guy’s temporarily vacant home so she had a place to sleep for the night. It was in Livy’s nature, Toni understood that. But it was in Toni’s nature to put her siblings in burrows . . . she didn’t actually do that, though, now did she? “The family is in Manhattan for the summer, so you can stay with us. But come end of August, you’d better have your own, rented apartment, Olivia. You can’t keep living this way. It’s not right, especially when you don’t have to be homeless!”

“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Livy smirked. “So emotional.”

“Shut up. I’m trying to help.”

“I know. And thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But you do understand I have money, right?”

“Not clean money.”

“It’s clean . . . ish.”

“Well, I prefer to think of you as penniless—clean or not—so that I can justify your need to live rent free.”

“I don’t need to live rent free. I just don’t like staying in one place when there’s all these available spaces I can fit into.”

“I don’t want to discuss this,” Toni insisted. “It upsets me.”

“Okay. Okay. So when do I get started?”

“Well—”

The door to her office opened—without a knock—and Ricky Reed walked in, pulled one of the chairs that sat against the wall to her desk—this one wasn’t bolted down at least—and dropped into it.

“Do you ever think to yourself,” he suddenly began, “ ‘How did I not know she was a delusional narcissist?’ ”

Livy stared at the wolf and replied, “Every day.”

Ricky focused on Livy. “Hi. I’m Ricky Lee Reed.”

“I’m Livy.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

Livy quickly looked at Toni, eyes wide, and mouthed, Ma’am?

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Toni admitted. She wanted to be annoyed with him about earlier, but she was having a hard time when he looked so despondent.

“My ex-girlfriend is running around telling my Pack that I ran away from her yesterday crying.”

“Did you?” Livy asked.

“No, I did not. I was just chasing her,” he said, pointing at Toni. “And if anyone was crying, it was her.”

“I was not crying. I was merely panicking.”

The wolf suddenly looked around Toni’s office. “I thought you were quittin’.”

“I had to put it off.”

“Why would you quit?” Livy asked. “This job seems tailor-made for you. Taking care of useless idiots.”

“My siblings are not useless.”

“Freddy’s not useless . . . and the twins are too young to know definitely about them yet. But the rest of them . . . pretty useless.”

“Shut up,” Toni snapped.

“You shut up.”

“You shut up more.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Excuse me,” the wolf cut in. “We were talking about me. Not y’all.”

“He has a point,” Livy kindly said, which only annoyed Toni more.

Reece Reed walked into Toni’s office—again, without asking if it was okay to come in—and threw his hands up at his brother. “I was trying to talk to you, Ricky Lee.”

“No. You and Rory were laughing at me, and I’m in too bad a mood now to sit around and listen to it.”

“Look, I told you Laura Jane was crazy back in high school. Don’t be mad at me now because I was . . .” Reece sniffed the air. “Because I was . . .” He sniffed the air again. Then he dropped to his knees and buried his face into the side of Livy’s neck.

Livy’s body tensed. She didn’t like to be touched . . . ever. “Could you get your redneck nose off me?” she deadpanned.

“What are you?” Reece asked.

Toni briefly closed her eyes, knowing that over the years that particular question had led to all sorts of bad situations.

“Don’t be rude, little brother,” Ricky warned.

“Smell her,” Reece ordered his brother.

“I’m not smelling anyone. It’s rude.”

“Seriously, though,” Reece pushed. “What are you?”

“Your worst nightmare if you don’t get away from me,” Livy said calmly.

“Are you a hybrid?”

“No, Livy!” Toni nearly screamed when she saw her friend’s hand come up and those deadly claws explode from her fingertips. “Don’t you dare. He’s on the hockey team and he needs his eyes.”

“Then,” Livy said, staring right at the much bigger wolf, “he needs to go away.”

“Reece . . . move.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Reece!” Toni pointed at another chair pushed against the wall. “Go sit down. Now.”

Grumbling, the wolf got to his feet and stomped across the room until he could drop into a chair. “I was just asking a question.”

“See?” Livy, her claws thankfully retreating, said to Toni. “You’re perfect for this job.”

“Shut up,” Toni said with a laugh.

“You shut up.”

“You shut up more.”

“I still don’t know what you two are talking about,” Ricky complained. “And we’re supposed to be talking about me.”

“Really?” Toni asked. “Because I don’t remember that being something I agreed to.”

“Would it kill you to give me five minutes of your time after all that Chinese food I bought you yesterday?”

“I didn’t know I owed you for the Chinese food.”

Not getting the response he wanted from the jackal, he turned to her friend. And Reece was right . . . Ricky didn’t know what she was. Unlike hybrids, which were sometimes a combination of scents, this female smelled like something completely different. Not bad, like some hyenas who didn’t bathe regularly could smell. Just . . . different. She was pretty, though, with short, straight, pitch-black hair that had a white streak just off to the side, and dark, dark brown eyes. Her coloring and the shape of her eyes suggested that she was part Asian, and even though she wasn’t standing, he could tell she wasn’t very tall or lean but she was strong with wide shoulders for such a small female. There was a lot of power in that very compact body, which he assumed was why Reece was still staring at her. Well, that and he was still trying to figure out what she was.

“She dragged me to her new apartment last night—” Ricky began.

Toni’s friend—Livy, was it?—abruptly looked at Toni. “You have your own apartment?”

“No.”

“But—”

“No.” The jackal suddenly dug her hands into her curly hair, making it look kind of wild and even sexier. “First off, I don’t think it’s even my apartment.”

“What does that mean?”

“And second, even if it was my apartment, as much as I love you, Livy, I’d never let you stay there.”

“What kind of friend are you?”

“One that knows her boundaries.” Toni took a small slip of paper from a stack on her desk and wrote on it. “Here.” She slapped the paper on the desk close to her friend. “The address of where my family is staying. You will stay there,” she ordered.

“You let her stay with your defenseless kin, but you won’t let her stay at your apartment?”

“Because she’s messy.”

“I’m not messy.”

“Oh, my God, Livy!”

“If you got a maid it wouldn’t be an issue.”

“I’m not getting a maid just so you can be a slob.”

“Fine. I’ll pay for one, you cheap heifer.”

“I’m not getting a maid!”

Realizing that these two were like sisters and sensing these weird little arguments of theirs could go on forever, Ricky decided he had to take action. Pulling out the cash he had stuffed in his front pocket, Ricky handed over a couple of twenties to Toni’s friend.

Livy stared at the money before asking, “I usually charge more for blow jobs.” She said it so flatly that it took Ricky a second to realize she was being sarcastic.

“You can take that up with your momma and the Lord, but I’ve given you cash for you to take a cab and go away.” He took the slip of paper with the family’s address off the desk and put it in Livy’s hand with the money. “Nothing personal, but I want Miss Toni focused directly on me so I can whine in peace, like a proper wolf. Can’t do it with an audience. My kind considers it a sign of weakness.”

Reece had eased up behind Livy and, once again on his knees, asked, “What does your kind consider weak?”

“Your face,” Livy shot back before she got to her feet, picking up her backpack and swinging it onto her shoulder, which caused it to slap into Reece’s head since he was in the process of standing to his full height. “See you later,” Livy told her friend, then walked out. There was no chatter about calling each other or what are you doing later or anything about going shopping. None of what Ricky’s daddy called “lady stuff.” Nope. She’d said “see you later” and walked out.

Ricky had to admit . . . he liked that in a female. He especially liked that Toni didn’t seem bothered by her friend’s abruptness.

“So,” Reece began as he started to sit in the chair Livy had just vacated.

“That ass,” Ricky warned, “better not hit that seat or your face will be hitting the floor.”

Reece stood back up. “You know, big brother, there are nicer ways to tell me to go.”

“But none of those will you actually listen to.”

Reece grunted and walked out.

Now that they were alone, Ricky looked at Toni.

“You’re pouting,” she noted.

“Because my entire Pack is pissing me off.”

“I thought the problem was your ex-girlfriend.”

“My ex-girlfriend is just a giant pain in my ass. But my Pack actually believing her . . . ? Their loyalty should be to me. Don’t you think?”

Toni leaned back in her chair, her brows pulling down into a fierce frown. “What are we doing?” she suddenly asked.

“Chattin’.”

“Are we friends now?”

“We’re not enemies.” He raised a brow. “Are we?”

“Don’t threaten me with your eyebrows.”

“I’m not. I’m interrogating you with my one raised eyebrow. If I was threatening you, I’d use both eyebrows. Like this.” He leaned forward and raised both brows while widening his eyes. When she burst out giggling, Ricky leaned back in his chair and said, “See the difference?”

No. Toni didn’t see the difference, but the fact that he had the balls to actually give her a demonstration of something so ridiculous did impress her. Other than Cooper and their dad, there wasn’t a lot of deliberate silliness among the Jean-Louis Parker clan. There was unintentional silliness, of course. How could there not be with Kyle and Troy around? But you’d never convince them of that.

“All right.” Toni finally sighed. “Go ahead and tell me about your—”

“Oh, good. You’re still here,” Cella said from the doorway. Dee-Ann was beside her, leaning against the doorjamb.

“Where else would I be?” Toni looked at her watch. “It’s not even two o’clock yet.”

“You could have left for the day.”

“I could have? Wait . . . am I only supposed to be working half-days or something?”

“I don’t know.” Cella waved her hand around, almost hitting Dee-Ann in the face. “Discussing your schedule is not why I’m here.”

“Okay.”

“You said you’d help me out, right?”

“Sure.”

“Great.” Cella walked into the office and tossed what appeared to be an itinerary on Toni’s desk. “This really helps. Thanks.”

“Wait.” Toni looked down at the paperwork, then at Cella Malone. “You want me to go to . . . to . . . ?”

“Yeah.”

“Why am I going to Russia?”

“I can’t go. I have to take care of something here. And you said you’d help.”

“I thought I’d help with non-coaching-related stuff. Or, I don’t know . . . organize your files or something.”

“This isn’t necessarily a coach thing. Besides, it’s about Novikov. You like Novikov.”

Exasperated, “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Actually, this is team travel-related, which is your job.”

“Yes, but—”

“So go over to Russia and get them to let the team in with Novikov but not in a cage. But remember, no Novikov, no game, and then we never get a chance at the title of best in the world.”

Ricky smirked. “Did you just make that title up, Cella Malone?”

“Shut up, Reed.”

Desperate, Toni asked, “But is it really that important that he goes?”

“He has to go,” Ricky piped up. “The team can’t win against the Russian teams without Novikov. There are mostly bears on the Russian teams.”

“I don’t care.” Toni stopped, took a breath. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for me, a jackal, to go to a bear-populated area to argue for the rights of Bo Novikov.”

“It’s better you do it than me.”

“How is it better, Cella? You’re the team coach and you’re a Siberian tiger . . . so aren’t the Russians your people?”

“Not really. Siberian tigers in Russia are not fans of the Malones.”

“Is anyone fans of the Malones?” Dee-Ann asked.

“Shut up, hick.”

“But,” Toni pushed ahead, still desperate, “what am I supposed to do with Russian bears?”

“Do what you do.”

“What does that even mean?”

“Look, kid,” Cella said, sounding annoyingly exasperated, “you managed to control and calm down Bo ‘The Marauder’ Novikov without use of a stun gun or a tranquilizer dart. So if you can manage him . . . I think you can manage a couple of frickin’ bears.”

“Yes, but—”

“Just do it. God! Take some initiative. Woman up!”

“I just don’t think I’ll feel . . . safe. You know? Unsafe work situation or whatever.”

“She has a point,” Dee-Ann drawled. “Get her mauled by some damn Russian bears, Malone, and Ric will have your ass. She is considered family by the Van Holtzes.”

“You and I have other things to handle, Smith.”

“First off, don’t snarl at me, hell cat. And second, just get her some dang security.”

“I would send Bert . . . but he hates flying and he’s still in Alaska.”

“Lord, woman, don’t send a player with her,” Dee-Ann snapped. “Get someone actually trained in security.” And that’s when she pointed at Ricky. “He’ll do it.”

The wolf, who’d been staring off during most of this conversation, suddenly looked alert. “What?”

“Like you’ve got anything better to do.”

“That’s not the point, Dee-Ann. I’m just one wolf—and these are bears. Russian bears. Smith Pack and Russian bears do not mix, or do you not remember Pack lore?”

“That was like a hundred years ago. I’m sure they’re over what happened by now.”

Toni put her elbows on her desk and dropped her face into her hands. “This is going to be a nightmare.”

“Oh, buck up, kid,” Cella told her, reaching across the desk and patting Toni on the shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Just don’t get any of them angry or let the polars sniff you or allow yourself to be left alone with any of the Kamchatka bears who haven’t eaten.”

Slowly, Toni lifted her head and looked at the head coach of the New York Carnivores. “Really? That’s the best you can do?”

“Pretty much. Good luck!” Cella walked out the door. “Come on, Smith. Let’s move.”

Dee-Ann looked between Toni and Ricky. After a moment, she said, “Take good care of her, Ricky Lee. Make your momma proud.”

She left and Ricky jumped up. “I’ll be right back,” he said before he quickly walked out of the room.

Less than a minute later, he was back, dropping into the chair he’d just vacated.

“That was fast,” Toni said.

“Yeah.”

“What did Dee say?”

“Before I could say a word, she said I could go with you and deal with bears or stay here and have long, meaningful talks with the females of my Pack about Laura Jane.” He smirked. “Guess which one I chose?”

“Ricky?”

“Yeah?”

She leaned forward a bit and whispered, “I don’t want to go to Russia.”

“Come on, darlin’, it won’t be that bad. And unlike my younger sibling, I do know how to handle bears. Besides, with all the places you’ve traveled, you can’t tell me you’ve never been to Russia before.”

“Sure I have. But I’ve been to Russia Russia. You know, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Omsk.”

“Omsk?”

“Yeah. I went there with my brother. Coop’s big in Russia. Which means these are all places where my mother and brother would perform before dignitaries and royals. But I’ve never been to bear territory in Russia. And do you know why?” Ricky shook his head. “Because my parents told me to never go to bear territory in Russia! In fact, their exact words to their offspring were ‘you will die if you go to bear territory in Russia.’ ”

“It won’t be that bad. I’ll be there, and I’ll have your back the entire way. Promise.”

“Do you know what’s really going to be the worst part of this, though?”

He gave her a one-sided smile. “Telling your family you’re going to Russia?”

Toni dropped her head on the desk, not even bothering to use her hands this time.

“This is going to be a nightmare,” Toni said again, this time directly into the desk. Not that doing so helped any.