Wolf with Benefits

CHAPTER FOUR

Ricky Lee had fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV, but he wasn’t annoyed when a young pup woke him up by tapping on his forehead with a tiny little fist.

“Morning!” the pup said with a whole lot of doggie cheer. “The moms are making breakfast. Do you want them to include you?”

“Depends. What’s for breakfast?”

The pup leaned in and whispered, “Waffles, I think. Because you’re here and Aunt Jess likes you, which she says is surprising because your sister still gets on her d-word nerves. But I wasn’t supposed to have heard that part.”

Ricky snorted and whispered back, “Well, I’m glad you told me. I like to know everyone is happy I’m here. And I love waffles. So yeah, I’m up for breakfast.”

“Okay!” the pup cheered and charged out of the room.

Chuckling, Ricky swung his legs off the couch, stood, stretched, and yawned. Then he gave himself a good, once-over shake and headed to the kitchen. The wild dog adults—male and female—were busy getting the kids fed. The wild dogs always fed their pups before they ever ate. Honestly, nothing entertained Ricky more than to watch the wild dogs and lion males dining together. Lion males did not wait for anyone before they ate, and in the wild, Ricky was sure that always held true. But here in Manhattan, with the wild dog Jessie Ann in charge, the lion males had learned to wait their turn or suffer her wrath. Of course, her wrath mostly involved lots of yelling, threats, and nipple twisting, but whatever she did, it was effective.

“Morning, y’all.”

“Hey, Ricky!” Jessie poured him a cup of coffee and handed it to him. “Sleep well?”

“Yep. Also got to watch a Xena: Warrior Princess marathon on DVD. Which one of y’all is the big fan anyway?”

The adult wild dogs shrugged and said in unison, “All of us.”

Of course.

“I’m going to go out on the stoop for a bit,” he told Jessie Ann.

“That’s fine. We’ll call you when we’re done feeding the kids.”

Scratching his head and yawning again, Ricky made his way down the hall, out the front door, and sat on the fourth step of the stoop. It was real early for most wolves. They’d get up to go to work on time but not just to greet the day. They were mostly nocturnal. But Ricky liked early mornings, even in New York City. The sun just coming up and the people usually friendly. So sitting on that stoop, drinking that coffee, and waiting on his waffle breakfast was what he’d call a good way to start off the day.

Actually, he really couldn’t think of things getting much better . . .

Toni was up, dressed, and walking down the stairs by six the next morning. Her appointment with Ulrich wasn’t until around ten, but she was used to getting up early because of her siblings. Mostly, because classes started very early in the day and she needed to be around to mediate and moderate. Already, she could hear Kyle and Oriana arguing about which of them was more important and more talented, and which should be allowed to use one of the rooms on the first floor as their art studio /practice room.

Toni knew she’d not only have to find out exactly what classes the kids were taking, but she’d have to start working on a schedule as soon as possible. When dealing with so many pups at one time, schedules were critical to managing the insanity. This, of course, applied to any large family. But a family of focused, driven little nightmares needed schedules the way breathing beings needed air. It was the only way to survive without unnecessary bloodshed or jail time.

And that was what Toni did best, wasn’t it? She managed the schedules of her family, negotiating agreements and timelines, while threatening important body parts when necessary.

For instance, she already had figured out how she was going to end the argument, but Cherise suddenly charged past her on the stairs. “I’ll handle it,” the twenty-year-old cellist promised as she ran by. “I’ll handle it!”

Although she probably wouldn’t handle it well. Cherise, the sweetest of their brood, was also the most sensitive next to Freddy. As it was, she was a borderline agoraphobic. Getting her out of the house was an unbelievable task. Funny thing was, those who booked her into concert halls all over the world thought her reluctance to travel was a negotiation tactic. It wasn’t, but her agoraphobia at the very least paid well.

Still, if Cherise wanted to try managing their siblings, Toni wouldn’t stop her. The way to learn was to do. Toni knew getting everyone handled today with little to no drama would not be easy, but she was ready and alert.

“Morning, sis,” Coop said as he fell into step beside her.

“Hey, Coop. Did you get any sleep?”

“A little. Jet lag is kicking my butt. But you know me. I do love a nap, so I’ll just sleep later.”

“Great rooms, though, right?” Toni asked. “I love my bed.”

Together they headed down the second-floor hallway to the last set of stairs.

“Me, too. But I have to admit,” Coop continued, “I expected to find Livy asleep under my bed last night. I think I was a little disappointed when she wasn’t.”

Toni stopped in the middle of the hallway and focused on her brother. “Why would Livy be under your bed?”

It wasn’t a question Toni asked because she was concerned that her best friend, Olivia Kowalski, was found under her brother’s bed. Livy was nearly as close to Coop as she was to Toni. So Toni didn’t care if Livy was asleep under Coop’s bed or hers or Cherise’s. It wouldn’t be the first time that happened, and it wouldn’t be the last. No. That wasn’t why Toni was asking the question.

“Is that little bitch in Manhattan?” Toni demanded.

“You know,” Coop said, turning to face her, “she’d probably be more likely to keep you up to date on her current locations if you didn’t call her ‘that little bitch.’ ”

“I only call her that when she’s clearly avoiding me. I texted her last night and told her what was going on. She didn’t even call me back.”

“Livy hates talking on the phone. You know she’s not good at it.”

“Of course I know that. I know all of her quirks and foibles better than anyone else. But if she’s in Manhattan—”

“She won’t tell you that if you’re just going to yell at her for not having an actual place to live while she’s here.”

Toni stamped her foot. Three times. “It is not okay to just crash at someone’s house because they make the mistake of leaving the window cracked when they leave for a vacation. Who does that?”

“Livy does that. Livy’s mother does that. Livy’s entire family does that. All of Livy’s kind does that. If there’s one thing we can all agree on, sis, it’s that her people are not like our people. So instead of ranting about it—”

“Oh, forget it! I don’t want to talk about this anymore.” Toni pushed past her brother and continued down the hallway. Coop, taller than Toni, quickly caught up.

“Are you pissed at me now?” he asked.

“I’m pissed at the world right now. I should be back in Washington, starting a boring office job while I worry about what temporarily abandoned home my best friend has recently placed her camera bag in. I should not be stuck in Manhattan hoping to beg a job off the cousin off my mother’s best friend’s mate.”

“Come on now, you know Ulrich loves you.”

“Shut up, Coop.”

Her brother laughed and the sound of it made Toni smile despite the fact she didn’t really want to.

“Speaking of which, did you see Mom and Dad yet?” she asked him.

“Nope. They were sleeping by the time I went to bed.”

“I haven’t seen Mom since before I took Freddy to Aunt Irene’s hotel room yesterday . . . which makes me nervous.”

“Why?”

“Don’t know. Just feels like she’s up to something. She wanted me out of the house for a reason last night. I mean, she’d normally take Freddy over to see Aunt Irene herself.”

“You have a point.” Hearing the latest argument from their siblings, Coop’s head cocked to the side as they hit the top of those last stairs and started down. “Kyle and Oriana?”

“Of course. But Cherise is going to handle it.”

“She is?”

“She needs to try,” Toni reminded him.

“I wish her luck.”

“Look, it could be worse—” Toni began as she and Coop reached the last step, but Toni’s words were cut off when she saw her mother. Dressed comfortably in loose jeans, a B-52s T-shirt that was older than Toni, and her favorite battered “rehearsal” tennis shoes, Jackie headed toward the front door. Normally this was nothing for Toni to notice or remotely worry about . . . normally. But now Toni understood why her mother had avoided her and Coop last night—because her mother wasn’t alone.

“Mom?”

Still walking, but not turning around, Jackie said, “I know what you’re thinking, Antonella.”

“You have no idea what I’m thinking or you’d probably pop me in the mouth.”

“Trust me. I have a plan.”

Of course she had a plan. Jackie Jean-Louis always had a plan. She was a plotting little jackal who was always up to something as long as it benefited her career or her children. But unlike some musicians, who could be downright psychotic about their careers, Jackie was just sneaky. She never did anything to take someone else down. Jackie didn’t have to because she had full confidence in her skills as a musician. Ever since she had picked up her first violin at the age of three, Jackie knew that she was unbelievably talented and no one would ever be able to bump her out of the spot she’d earned as one of the world’s finest violinists. No one.

But Jackie wanted to take that next step. She wanted to be the mentor of the next “world’s finest.” She’d had lots of students over the years, many of whom had gone on to wonderfully successful careers. But none that were quite in her league. They’d never be quite as successful as she. Quite as well-known. She wanted that student who would turn her into The Great Master.

And that, Toni knew, explained the dog walking beside her mother. Not a shifter but an actual dog. The family hadn’t had a pet since the feral cat they’d found under their home that kept hissing at them. They’d give it food and, after a few years, it wandered away. It was the perfect pet for the Jean-Louis Parkers because they only paid attention to it when they felt like it. It didn’t need to be walked or taken to the vet or dealt with in any way except to toss it some food and gaze at it for a few minutes when one of the kids needed “inspiration.”

But real dogs needed lots of things that no one in Toni’s family was capable of providing at the moment, including her and especially her mother.

Yes. Her mother. Who opened the front door and told the dog, “Go take your walk, sweetie. When you’re done, come back and scratch on the door. I’ll let you in.”

The adult dog, appearing to Toni’s eyes to be a rescue her mother had picked up somewhere, saw that open door as a bid for freedom. It bolted and Toni’s jackal ears immediately picked up the early-morning traffic barreling down the street.

Running purely on instinct, Toni jumped off the last step and bolted out of the house, following that dog right into the street. Moving fast, she tackled the dog, wrapping her arms around its slim body, and made a wild leap for the opposite sidewalk.

Toni had almost made it, but the truck speeding down the street still clipped her with its fender, sending Toni flipping over the hood of a parked car to land hard on her back in front of a stoop.

When she finally got her breath back, Toni opened her eyes and saw the wolf she’d met yesterday staring down at her. He was holding a coffee mug. With an annoying amount of calm, he sipped his drink and remarked, “Darlin’, at this point, I’m startin’ to think you’re sweet on me.”

The She-jackal’s eyes narrowed dangerously but when she opened her mouth, all that came out was a little “yip” sound. Ricky quickly rested his coffee cup on the wide stone handrail and rushed down the stairs to the prone female.

“Darlin’, I’m sorry to waste time teasing ya. I’ll call an ambulance.”

She shook her head no, but when she tried to take his hand, she cringed something awful and put her hand right back down.

That’s when two jackals came running over from across the street. One was an older female. Her momma, Ricky would guess. They had the same eyes. And a male, close to the She-jackal’s age.

“Toni!” the older female barked. “What the hell were you thinking?”

There went those eyes dangerously narrowing again.

“Mom,” the male warned, and that’s when Ricky realized this was Toni’s brother. He ignored the sense of relief he felt. “Not now.”

“This isn’t my fault,” the older She-jackal argued. “It isn’t.”

The male tried to take the dog that Toni still held with one arm, but the animal lay flat against her, its entire body shaking.

“Poor thing.” The male sighed. “It’s terrified.”

“Also not my fault.”

The glass and metal security door behind Ricky opened, and several adult wild dogs rushed down the stairs and surrounded the jackal.

“Are you all right, hon?”

“Been better,” Toni squeaked out.

“Not my fault,” the She-jackal pushed.

“Grit your teeth,” Ricky told Toni as he slipped his arms under her. “I’ll take you back to your house.”

“Oh,” the older She-jackal said, suddenly looking around. “That’s such a long trip . . . can’t we just bring her inside here?” She smiled sweetly at the wild dogs. “You guys don’t mind, do you?”

The wild dogs might not have minded, but from the way the She-jackal’s two children gawked at her, Ricky felt certain they did mind. A lot.

Toni knew her mother was sneaky, but holy hell, this was some hinky shit!

Using her own daughter’s brush with death to ease her way into the wild dogs’ home was beneath even Jackie’s usual depths. Maybe even Kyle’s!

The wolf easily carried her inside the wild dogs’ home and down the hallway until he reached an enormous kitchen.

Why the wolf was here at all, Toni didn’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to know. All Toni did know was that her life was getting weird.

The wolf placed Toni’s butt on the stainless steel kitchen island so that she was sitting up. “So what hurts the worst?” he asked.

“Shoulder.”

“That’s what I thought. Because it’s not really in its socket.”

Toni sighed. “Great.”

“The dog is doing well, though,” one of the wild dogs pointed out.

“And that’s what’s important!” Jackie cheered, but when both her children gawked at her again, she quickly added, “You’re a hero! My daughter, the hero!”

A blond female wild dog pushed her way closer through the other dogs until she stood in front of Toni.

“Wolf is right,” she said in a thick Russian accent, “about this shoulder. But we can fix. Hold her, wolf.”

“Now wait a—” Toni protested.

The wolf scrambled up behind her, both legs around her hips, hanging well past her own long legs, and his arms around her waist, holding her tight.

“Got her!” he announced

The wild dog pulled her fist back. “I make this quick, jackal.”

“Hey! I don’t want you—owwwwwwwwwwwwww! You Russian cow!”

“See?” the Russian noted. “She’s better already. Who knew jackals were so tough?”

Coop leaned in, her brother cringing in sympathy. “Are you okay?”

“No!” Toni snarled.

“Make her sling,” the Russian ordered the others. She looked at Toni. “You’ll be fine tomorrow. I’m impressed you don’t cry like sniveling cat.”

“It’s not that I don’t want to.”

“All that matters is that you don’t. I loathe weakness. Like I loathe cats.” Then without another word, the wild dog walked out of the room.

“I’m weirdly freaked out,” Coop muttered, “and turned on all at the same time.”

Toni nodded. “I know.” Glancing down, Toni said, “Why are you still holding me?” she asked the wolf.

“I’m giving you my invaluable support, and my immense charm.”

“More like your immense bullshit.”

“Now, now, darlin’,” he teased, annoying her more. “No need to get so nasty just because you’re confused by your feelings for me.”

“I do not have feelings for you, other than pity for your mental illness.”

The wolf laughed while Coop suddenly raised his brows at her, and Toni shook her head at her brother. Tragically, she recognized that expression. Recognized it all too well.

“Don’t even—” Toni began.

“I’m Cooper,” Coop announced to the wolf, grinning at him. “The younger brother. Brother. Not boyfriend.”

Horrified, Toni snapped, “Cooper, stop it!”

“How y’all doin’? I’m Ricky Lee Reed. So glad you’re her brother. I’d hate to have to fight you for her.”

“No worries there,” Coop volunteered. “My big sis is very single and not even thirty yet.”

“That is nice to hear.”

“And you already seem to know my very single sister.”

“I will kill you,” Toni warned. “I’m not afraid to.”

“I’m glad to know she’s single,” the wolf said, “but she’s playing hard to get while stalking me all at the same time.”

“I am not stalking you.”

“I feel like a little ol’ gazelle calf without its momma.”

Toni’s eyes crossed at that pathetic visual.

“Are you interested?” her idiot brother asked. “Because as I said, she’s very single, but she only deserves the best. I won’t hand her off to just anybody.”

“Hand me off . . . what is wrong with you?” Toni demanded of her sibling.

“I’m trying to help.”

“I don’t need help.”

“I tried to chat her up,” the wolf explained, “but she used y’all’s other siblings to confuse me.”

“Oh, the ‘are you my daddy’ move? Yeah. She’s been using that one for years.’

“You both are aware that I’m sitting here, right? In front of you?”

“She had a bad breakup,” Coop went on. “About a year ago. I was hoping she’d get over it sooner.”

“I can help with that.”

“That’s what I thought. I’ve had a few She-lion benefactors over the years, and they all say that wolves are great for that sort of thing. The casual hook-up, I mean.”

Toni looked around the kitchen. “Am I dreaming? Tell me I’m dreaming this conversation.”

“We’re real good for that until we find mates of our own,” the wolf explained.

“See, that’s what I’m thinking. Because her ex . . . not worth all this angst. Our father, who is a really great guy, still calls that man the ‘pimple on the cock of humanity.’ ”

“Fathers love me. I’ve got this winning smile.” And Toni didn’t have to turn around to know the wolf was showing that smile to her idiot brother. “Perfect Southern manners. I never cuss. I rarely get sloppy drunk and that’s only around my Pack if I do. And I treat my momma right at all times, and not just ’cause I’m afraid of her. Even though I kind of am.”

“That’s perfect.”

“Would you two stop it!” Toni, to her horror, started laughing, hating both males for making it happen. “I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”

“Not a boyfriend, darlin’. A hook-up.”

“I don’t need that, either from you or anyone else.”

“But—”

“Shut up, Cooper!”

The males fell silent for a few moments until the wolf noted, “You do seem tense, though.”

Toni’s brother, tall and lanky, stepped away from his sister. “You know what?”

“Cooper,” the She-jackal practically hissed. “Don’t you dare.”

“I should check on the kids. They’re probably worried.”

“About what? I’m sure they’re blissfully unaware anything has happened.”

“No, no. They could be very concerned. Yeah. I better check.”

“I’ll go with you,” she said, and tried to slip out of his arms, but Ricky had a real good grip on her and no intention of letting her go. He was just too damn comfortable.

“Absolutely not! You need that sling the wild dogs are getting you.”

“A sling? We can make a sling at home.”

“You’re right! I’ll go get you one!” Then the jackal took off, leaving his sister all alone.

Yep. Ricky liked that boy.

“This is a nightmare.”

“Now, now. Don’t be hard on him. He only cares.”

“By handing me off to a wolf he doesn’t even know?”

“He probably has a good sense of things. Besides . . . my charm speaks volumes.”

“Your charm makes me want to punch you in the nose.”

That made Ricky chuckle. “I’m not trying to piss you off, darlin’. Just trying to get you to give me a chance.”

“Why?” she had to ask. “I’m really not that interesting. I’m cute but not stunning. I’m not excessively tall. And sexually, I’m rather vanilla. So then what is it?”

Ricky decided to be honest with her. “I like your hair.”

She suddenly went tense. “You don’t have to be mean.”

“I’m not. I like the curls. If we have sex, can I play with them?”

“I don’t even know how to respond to that.”

“Just say yes and I’m in.”

She shook her head. “Look, I really have to go. I have an interview in a few hours.”

“You need a sling and someone needs to keep an eye on you to make sure you don’t get the fever.”

“From a thrown-out shoulder?”

“It could happen. My brother got the fever last night. But that was from the crushed jaw and nicked artery. He’s probably still passed out at the hotel.”

“If your brother got the fever, why are you here?”

“I had to escape. My sister wanted to talk to me.”

“Good God,” she said flatly. “What was she thinking?”

Ricky heard the sarcasm but chose to ignore it. “Exactly! What was she thinking?”

Toni tried to move away again, but Ricky held her a little tighter.

“I’ll make you a deal,” he promised. “We hang out together today so I can make sure you’re really all right. And if we get along . . . you go out with me.”

“For sex?”

“Hopefully, but I was thinking dinner to start.”

“And if we don’t get along?”

“You can hit me in the nose if you’re still inclined.”

Toni gave a little snort. “Something tells me I will be.”

“You forgot your dog outside,” a black female standing in the kitchen doorway stated. Toni looked to see the thirty-pound dog she’d yanked from in front of that truck sliding to a stop by the cabinet she was on. He tried to leap onto the top of it but couldn’t quite make it, so he seemed to take pleasure in grabbing Toni’s foot between his two front legs and trying to chew her running shoes off.

“Oh,” Toni replied. “Yeah. My dog.”

The female snorted a little and held up a strip of cloth. “I have your sling.”

“Thank you, uh . . .” Although she could kind of guess who this was.

“Toni,” Ricky said from behind her, “this is Jessie Ann Ward-Smith.”

“And you’re the daughter of my son’s stalker,” the wild dog shot back.

“Uh-oh,” Ricky softly muttered against her ear. “Watch yourself, darlin’.”

Now it was true that Toni didn’t need to involve herself in any of this. It was her mother’s thing, not Toni’s. But if Toni didn’t get involved, then she’d be forced to hear about this situation all goddamn summer. It would involve scheme after wacky scheme until her mother got what she wanted. Like most geniuses at Jackie’s level, she could focus on a problem and work it until her last breath. There was no getting bored for Jackie Jean-Louis. No “getting over it.”

So Toni did what she had to do.

She looked the wild dog over, quickly sized her up, and went right for the superior but straightforward approach.

“Let me tell you something”—and Toni felt the wolf behind her tense at her high-handed tone—“you’ve got two choices. You can let your son settle happily into life as a second chair in the Ice Capades orchestra, or you can let my mother work with him for the summer and open the door to not only first chair with the New York Philharmonic but more likely a solo career. My mother,” Toni went on, “is internationally worshipped. She doesn’t waste time with artists she thinks are really nice or cute or will stroke her ego. If anything, that’s what my dad is for. So what you need to know is that, yes, your son is talented. I know this not because I’ve heard him play but because my mother wouldn’t waste time with him if he didn’t have a substantial amount of talent. Substantial. There are people who’d do bodily harm to others just to have a quarter of the chance she’s offering your son. And, lady, if you don’t think having my mother’s name on your son’s résumé as his teacher, his mentor, is going to help him achieve unimaginable heights—then you’re an idiot.”

The wild dog stared at Toni and Toni stared back. When that went on for a bit, it seemed Ricky Lee began to get uncomfortable.

But as soon as Toni heard him begin, “What I think she means, Jessie Ann—”, she cut him right off.

“I don’t need you to clarify my statements for me, wolf, thank you very much.”

“Yeah, but—”

“I don’t even know you,” she reminded him.

Toni refocused on Jess Ward. “Look, if you really want to find out how my mother will deal with your son on a regular basis, you might as well go upstairs and check it out, because even I can hear he stopped practicing and I highly doubt she left your house.”

“Dammit.” Jess Ward spun around and faced the kitchen door. She started to go through it, realized she still had the sling in her hand, and stopped long enough to toss it across the room. The white cloth hit Toni in the face and sort of hung there, blinding her.

She didn’t bother taking it off.

Ricky Lee finally released his hold on the little She-jackal and slipped off the counter. He stood in front of her and pulled the sling off her face.

She had her eyes closed, and he left her that way while he fashioned the cloth into a proper sling for her.

After a minute or so, she eased one eye open and leaned around him to see if Jessie Ann had actually left the room. Once she knew they were completely alone, she leaned back, looked at him, and said something that Ricky Lee had never heard from a shifter female before. Not ever. Not once.

“I am so sorry,” she whispered.

Ricky froze, thought he’d misheard her.

“Pardon?”

“I said I’m sorry.” She continued to whisper, although with wild dogs and their oversized ears, they could hear anything they wanted to in their house. It made it impossible for their kids to get away with any of the crap that Smith pups managed to pull off back in Smithtown. “You know, for snapping at you.”

Ricky Lee looked the female over. She seemed sincere. And he didn’t see a weapon on her that would suggest she intended to cut his throat or anything when he turned around.

“Um . . . that’s okay.” He began to fit the sling on her, careful not to move her shoulder too much since he knew it still hurt her. “You do know,” he felt the need to point out, “that what just happened could have easily blown up in your face.”

“Yeah. It could have. But I didn’t think it would. She was already waiting for me to try to relate to her on her level. You know, talk about the Lord of the Rings movies or how my little brother Freddy is a baby hacker. This Pack might live in the lap of luxury now, but they had some rough years on the streets when they were younger. I had to go with a straightforward approach.”

“And how did you know all that about Jessie Ann’s past?” he asked.

“Oh,” she said while Ricky leaned in a bit and reached around her to tie the sling at the back of her neck. “There are these things called comp-poo-tors and when you ask the comp-poo-tors questions, the box gives you answers!”

Ricky stepped back and saw her wicked little smile.

“Look at you, darlin’,” he teased back. “Flirtin’ with me.”

She laughed and Ricky knew then he’d just been charmed by a She-jackal. And the good Lord knew it had been a long time since Ricky had been charmed by anyone.

Jess Ward peeked around the open door to, she’d admit, spy on her adopted son and that jackal. In the relatively short time she’d had Johnny in her home, she’d fired two music teachers, punched another one in the face, and threatened to set another on fire. The last two her mate, Bobby Ray Smith, had handled paying off himself because he refused to visit her in prison. But some of these teachers were just rude! She got it. Okay? She understood. This was a tough business and one needed a thick skin. Blah blah blah.

Yes, she understood all that. But what these teachers didn’t get was that Johnny had already had a hard life. His biological mother had died when he was thirteen. Then he was bounced around from foster home to foster home until he landed with Jess’s Pack. So yeah, she was protective of him. And although she’d appreciated the honesty of the damaged-shouldered She-jackal in her kitchen who had one of the Reed boys wrapped around her like a boa constrictor, that still did not mean Jess was okay with Toni’s mother. Especially when she was pretty damn sure the woman only got that dog to finagle her way into Jess’s good graces.

Jess hated tricky shit like that.

So yes, she was spying. And sure, Johnny was eighteen now so she should be able to trust his judgment. But boys were stupid, something she’d learned at a very young age.

Jess could see the pair sitting on the floor of Johnny’s practice room. For a fifty-something internationally known musician who’d played on the Tonight Show, and before the Queen of England, Jacqueline Jean-Louis sure was casual. She had on ripped jeans and a band T-shirt . . . oooh. The B-52s. Okay. So she had good musical taste outside of the classical stuff. That was nice to see. She also wore sneakers that had seen better days. She sat Indian style, her elbows resting on her knees while Johnny stared at her like Marilyn Monroe was in the room.

“When did you first start playing?” the She-jackal asked Johnny.

“My mom got me my first violin when I was five.”

“Why? Did she just want you to learn an instrument?”

“No. I asked for it. I saw Itzhak Perlman play on PBS and I wanted to learn to play like that.”

“How often do you practice?”

“Every day. This used to be my mom’s bedroom. My adopted mom, I mean. Jess. But when she mated with Smitty, she took one of the rooms downstairs and turned this into a practice room for me so I could practice whenever I want rather than worrying about booking time in practice rooms away from the house.”

“This Pack, your Pack, has been super supportive of your music, haven’t they?”

A small smile curled the corners of Johnny’s mouth. “Yeah. They have.”

“What if they hadn’t been?”

He shrugged. “I’d play anyway. I got thrown out of one of my foster homes because I practiced too much. Well . . . that and I snarled at one of the other kids when he was trying to take my Twinkie, but my God, it was my Twinkie.”

She laughed. “Don’t feel bad. I was performing with a quartet in Australia once and I ended up hitting the cello player with another player’s flute because his nose was making this high-pitched whistling sound. Full-humans have no idea how those kinds of noises irritate sensitive dog ears. It’s like nails on a chalkboard.”

“Can I ask you something, Miss Jean-Louis?”

“If you call me Jackie, you can ask me.”

“Why are you here?”

“I know you’re starting Juilliard in the fall and I thought maybe I could work with you this summer. Get you ready. You’ll be dealing with some serious competition at Juilliard. And those full-humans can be mean. I get that they are competitive, but telling me I have birthing hips? Who says that to a woman? I mean, I do have birthing hips but that’s not the point. What I want to do with you is teach you to control your natural and correct instinct to tear out the arteries of someone who says you have birthing hips and instead, calmly blow them away with your talent. Because let me tell you—the full-humans hate that.”

Johnny leaned back a bit, big brown eyes blinking. Jess saw him swallow before he asked, “You want to work with me?”

“Yes.”

“Me?”

The She-jackal grinned. “Yes. You. Is that really so hard to believe?”

“Yes. Yes, it is.”

“Johnny, you’re good.”

“I know I’m good. But you’re . . . you’re . . . you’re friggin’ Jacqueline Jean-Louis. The Jacqueline Jean-Louis. I have all your CDs. I’ve watched every documentary PBS has ever had on you and your CBS Christmas special three years back.”

“And I’ve heard you play,” she said, keeping it simple. Jess liked that.

Jacqueline got to her feet and Johnny scrambled up to his own. Now he towered over the jackal, like the big wolf he was growing into.

“Look,” she told him, “think about it. Talk it over with your mom. I’m right across the street for the rest of the summer.” Something Jess had argued against. But her Pack wouldn’t let her ignore the amount of money the Jean-Louis Parkers were willing to pay to rent the place across the street. Although, to be honest, Jess couldn’t ignore it, either. It was truly a shitload of money.

“And I’m talking a casual thing,” the jackal went on. “We get together, we play, we talk. We exchange ideas. I listen.”

“Well . . . um . . . I’ll talk to my mom.”

“That should be easy enough since she’s standing right outside the room, along with a good chunk of your Pack.”

Jess spun around and yes, at least ten of her Pack, including Sabina, May, Danny, and Phil, were standing right behind her.

“You guys!” Jess snarled.

They all shrugged and Jess rolled her eyes, then slowly eased into her old bedroom. Johnny lifted his hands and dropped them. “Ma.”

“Don’t be mad at her.” The She-jackal smiled. “She loves you. She’s just watching out for you. I’m like that with my own kids—oh, my God!” she suddenly burst out, startling every canine in the room and the hallway. “My daughter! I completely forgot. And she takes it so personally when I do.” She turned and rushed toward the door. “She’s gonna kill me!”

While the jackal ran downstairs, Jess walked over to Johnny. “Sorry if we embarrassed you.”

“What’s this ‘we’ shit?” came from the hallway.

“Shut up, Phil!” Jess yelled back.

“She wants to work with me,” Johnny whispered to Jess. He gripped her hands tight. “Me.”

Jess still didn’t know if she trusted that jackal—although because of her honesty, she did trust the jackal’s daughter—but none of that mattered. Because she wasn’t about to destroy her son’s obvious happiness and excitement. It was something he seemed to experience so rarely that Jess knew in her heart this was an important moment for him. One of those life-changing ones.

So if Johnny was happy about this, then Jess would be happy for him.

Grinning, Jess asked, “Now can I get you that Stradivarius violin they’re going to auction in Milan?”

Laughing, Johnny dropped her hands. “Ma, no!”

“Stop talking to me, Mom.”

“I said I was sorry!” Jackie told Toni. “What made you go diving in front of a truck anyway? The dog had cleared it.”

Ignoring her mother, Toni marched up the stairs of their rental home toward her bedroom. Coming down the stairs, her father stopped and stared at her. “Baby, what happened to your arm?”

“Ask your mate.”

“How can you blame me for this?” her mother called up.

“Still not talking to you!”

“I see you met your mother’s surprise.”

Toni glanced down and realized that the dog her mother had gotten was following Toni up the stairs.

“Why is this dog following me?” she called down the stairs.

“If you don’t want her, I’ll just take her back to the pound,” her mother replied. “Of course . . . they were about to put her down. But that shouldn’t bother you.”

“Oh! You are just . . . Oh!” Toni began up the stairs again. As she moved, her siblings were coming down, but one look at her face and they all glanced away and kept going. When she got to her bedroom, she stopped and turned. “Why are you following me?” she finally asked the wolf behind her.

“Because we agreed. I’m hanging with you today.”

“My father just let you come up here to my room?”

“Yeah. I think it was my charm.”

“More like Coop ran over here and told my dad about you.”

He shrugged. “Whatever works. So what are we doing today?”

“I’ve got to get ready for an interview at ten.”

“Okay.”

She stepped into her room but faced him once more before he could invite himself in.

“Why don’t you go downstairs and wait until I’m done.”

“Okay.” He stared at her a moment, and asked, “Any chance your momma is making waffles for breakfast?”

With great relish, Toni replied, “Not a chance in hell.”

Then she closed the door on his disappointed face and got ready for her interview.