“Not sure.”
“Because I’m gonna be honest with ya, Vic. I’m not sure how much longer she’s going to—”
Ricky abruptly stopped, his gaze moving to Vic’s. They moved together, both of them heading for the doors that separated Ricky’s room from Toni’s. Vic opened the first door and Ricky kicked in the second, assuming it would be locked. They went through and immediately stopped.
“Holy shit, Rick.”
“I know.”
It was like a tornado had come through the room. Everything in it had been ripped apart. The comforter, the sheets, the blankets, the pillows, the bed, the dresser, the desk, the TV, the stand the TV had been on. All of it. And it all hadn’t been smashed, or tossed aside in a pouty little girl rage. No. This was dog damage. Claws and a canine body had done all this.
And now . . . that canine was ripping at the bedroom door, trying to scratch and bite her way out. It was as if Toni had forgotten she had thumbs.
“Now can I say it?” Vic asked.
Ricky sighed. “Yeah. Go ahead.”
The hybrid leaned closer. “Separation anxiety, dude.”
Ricky, as a fellow canine—but like Toni, not a dog—was ashamed to say it, but yes. This was clearly separation anxiety. She was having separation anxiety because she was away from her family. And the longer the bears made her wait, the worse it was getting.
“So what are we going to do?” Barinov asked.
“The only thing we can.”
Toni knew she was losing it, but she couldn’t help it. But what surprised her was that Ricky let her continue losing it without actually doing much more than keeping her away from the front door.
When she went for the bed again, digging her way down until she hit springs and wood—he didn’t stop her. Even when she started chewing up the wood and springs and spitting them across the room—he didn’t stop her.
When she began to attack the glass doors that led to the balcony, he didn’t stop her then, either.
But when it got dark later, sometime after eight that evening, the wolf suddenly picked up her jackal body, pushed her into his empty duffel bag, and left the hotel. Maybe they were going home! Maybe the bears had said they refused to meet with some lowly canine. Maybe . . . maybe . . .
Still in that bag, Toni was unceremoniously dropped into the backseat of the car and they began moving. After about forty-five minutes, the car pulled to a stop, the bag with Toni still in it was dragged out of the backseat, unzipped, and turned over.
Toni landed on her back. She gazed up at the wolf.
“According to Vic, we’re now in canine and cat territory. This is your opportunity to run. Run your little heart out. Get it out of your system. Because maybe once you do that, you’ll be able to think straight and get this goddamn job done.” He threw up his hands. “Look what you’ve done to me. Now I’m blaspheming as bad as you!”
Toni turned over and stared into the dark but lush Siberian landscape near Lake Baikal. God, she did want to run. She wanted to run until everything in her hurt.
She started to get to her four feet when a large, bushy tail flicked her snout. Once, twice. Ricky had shifted into his wolf form, and he had his ass in her face. Rude!
Toni jumped to her feet, onto the wolf’s back, and over him. She tossed her tail into his face before she took off running. She glanced back, saw the wolf right behind her.
Laughing, Toni picked up speed and ran her heart out.
Reece was ordered to the main floor of the shifter area so that he could be photographed. He didn’t mind being photographed. Unlike his brothers, he was real photogenic. Still, having to sit here, waiting to be primped and probably oiled up like some porn star did make him a bit uncomfortable. And when Reece was a bit uncomfortable, he started to look for things to do. Things he probably shouldn’t do but couldn’t keep himself from doing because he bored so easy.
It wasn’t his fault, he’d just been born that way. According to his momma, he was like that as a baby, too. “Couldn’t leave you alone for five minutes, Reece Lee Reed,” his momma still said to this day. “Because once I turned my back, you’d find something to get your dumb ass into.”
Yet what many didn’t understand was that Reece didn’t always have to look for trouble. Sometimes trouble found him. Sometimes trouble slinked its way right up next to him and sat down on the bench beside him.
Like now.
“Well, hi, Reece Lee.”
Eating his cheesesteak sandwich, Reece said, “Hey, Laura Jane.”
“Heard your big brother left town.” She pressed her hand against her chest, her tight, white V-neck T-shirt showing off her cleavage. “I hope that’s not because of little ol’ me.”
“Huh . . . Rory left town?”
Laura Jane’s left eye twitched the slightest bit.
Reece knew that Laura Jane had always thought he was stupid. And sometimes he could be. But mostly he just liked to irritate people by being dense. It was one of the main reasons Bo Novikov insisted on beating him up at every opportunity. Honestly, Reece should leave the short-tempered hybrid alone, but he couldn’t help himself. The man was just so uptight!
“Not Rory,” Laura Jane said, still managing to keep her voice sweet and sultry. “I’m talking about Ricky Lee.”
“Oh. Yeah. He’s in Russia.” He took a big bite of his sandwich, chewed a bit, then added, “I’m sure it had nothing to do with you, though.”
Laura Jane cleared her throat and wiped away the bit of cheesesteak that had hit her cheek. Lord, he was rude. Rude!
The She-wolf tried again, moving closer to him on the bench, making sure to lean in so he could see down her top. Nope. No bra there. Although one was sorely needed.
“You know, Reece Lee, I’ve been hearing such good things about you on the hockey team.”
“Really? Because most say I’m just a big ol’ battering ram. ‘No technique,’ I hear a lot. No style. All abuse.”
“That’s kind of sexy.”
“Really? My momma says it’s sad that she’ll end up taking care of me when I become brain damaged.”
Reece could see Laura Jane’s patience beginning to wane, but she was on a mission, so she’d hold it back if she could. He wondered what she was up to. Was she really so desperate that she thought getting between the Reed Boys was a good idea? Or, more important, even possible?
The title “Reed Boys” was not given out lightly to just any Reed males. Siblings had to earn it and then keep it, and they kept it with loyalty. Reece might torment his brother on a daily, sometimes even an hourly, basis, but that didn’t mean he’d ever screw a woman Ricky was interested in.
What Laura Jane didn’t realize was that Reece could fuck her on this bench, in front of God and everybody, and he was positive Ricky Lee wouldn’t give a damn. He wouldn’t have given a damn two weeks ago, but he especially wouldn’t give a damn now. Not with that little She-jackal in his sights. He knew what had Ricky fascinated, too. It was probably that hair. All wild and curly, it always looked like Toni had just rolled out of bed after a great night of sex. There were few men who could resist that sort of thing.
Still, Reece did want to know what Laura Jane was planning. As it was, she’d effectively wound up his sister. So much so that Ronnie Lee had actually called back to Tennessee to complain. Ronnie Lee did not call back to Tennessee for much. Even when she got pregnant, it was Reece who told their daddy, who told their momma, who called Ronnie Lee to yell at her about not calling home herself. See? That’s how families were supposed to work. In a nice, complete circle of annoyance.
“You know, Reece,” Laura Jane softly suggested, her boob now brushing his arm. “Why don’t you and I go somewhere and talk. I’m worried about Ricky Lee. I swear I didn’t come here to cause him any problems.”
To be honest, Reece would rather throw himself off a mountain, but to find out what this self-centered little twat was up to—
“Hey,” a low voice snapped at him. �
�Hillbilly. Are you coming or not? I’ve been waiting for you.”
Reece looked up at the tiny female who smelled like nothing he could remember scenting before. She wasn’t a hybrid, but she wasn’t any breed or species he’d been around. And she wouldn’t tell him what she was. So what was she? It was driving him nuts!
“You have?”
“I’m taking your picture. Remember?”
“You’re the photographer, huh?” Reece shrugged. “Okay, uh . . .”
“Livy.” She motioned with her head. “Come on.”
Reece began to stand, but Laura Jane gripped his arm with surprisingly strong hands. “Excuse you,” the one-time debutante practically barked at Livy. “But we were talking.”
“And we have an appointment, so fuck off.”
Laura Jane slowly stood. “Are you really coming at me?”
“Lady, I’m trying to be nice to you. But I wouldn’t push your luck with me.”
“You? Tiny little hybrid freak? What are you going to do?”
“Morally reprehensible things that most good people would be appalled by.”
The She-wolf gawked at Livy, unused to not only the flat tone but the weirdly phrased threat.
Laura Jane looked at Reece, but all he could do was shrug. What did she expect from him?
Disgusted by his lack of reaction, Laura Jane glowered down at Livy. “Get out of my sight, freak,” she ordered.
Reece didn’t know Livy well, but something told him it wasn’t the words that had upset her, but the shove Laura Jane added to those words, her hands harshly pushing at the smaller woman’s shoulders. Because that’s when the butterfly knife was expertly flicked open and sliced across Laura Jane’s arm.
Shocked—shifters fought shifters only with fangs and claws; never weapons—Laura Jane stumbled back from Livy. The pint-size female slashed the blade again, this time cutting across Laura Jane’s chest. Reece saw blood from both wounds.
The blade was flicked closed and slipped into the back pocket of Livy’s jeans, and then she pulled back one hand, claws out, and slapped Laura Jane across the face and neck. Livy kicked the She-wolf to the ground and landed on top of her, her hands slapping Laura Jane over and over again until the She-wolf was out cold and covered in her own blood.
Livy got up, cracked her neck, and walked over to Reece. He stared at her, wondering whether she was about to slap him around. But she grabbed the other half of his cheesesteak and began eating.
“So are we going to do this or what?” she calmly asked.
“Yeah,” he said quickly, trying to ignore the blood-covered claws that were still out and wrapped around that bread and meat. “Yeah. Sure.”
Reece got to his feet, but he looked over his shoulder to see Ronnie Lee, Sissy Mae, and the New York Smith She-wolves standing there watching them. Lord, this wasn’t good. Laura Jane was a Smith, after all. And Smith loyalty meant everything, even when a Smith didn’t necessarily deserve that loyalty.
Yet if Livy was worried . . . she didn’t show it. In fact, she showed no fear at all. Eating his delicious sandwich and staring back at the She-wolves, she waited.
When Livy ate the last bit of the sandwich, she swallowed, burped.
“You ready?” Livy finally asked him.
“Yeah. I’m ready.”
“Good. I’ve got a list of other meatheads to do, too.”
She walked off and Reece looked back at his sister, wondering what she’d do.
Sissy Mae walked over to her cousin, looked down at her, stared for a moment, turned on her heel, and walked off. Without a word, the other She-wolves followed, including Ronnie Lee.
That’s when Reece knew they’d been watching what Laura Jane was up to even before Livy had arrived—and they hadn’t liked it. Slapping her around themselves wouldn’t have been too cool, but letting someone smaller and meaner do it . . . the males of the Pack wouldn’t get in the middle of that. So, as far as the New York Pack was concerned, it was over.
Reece blew out a breath, stepped over Laura Jane’s still unconscious body, and walked into the room Livy was using to shoot the photographs.
She was adjusting lights when he came in—her claws now gone, her hands clean—and she motioned to a metal stool.
“We’ll take a few safety shots first before I try some different stuff.”
“Okay.” Reece sat down, watched the female move around the room. Finally, he just had to ask her.
“What the hell are you?”
She glanced at him. “None of your damn business,” she told him mildly. “Now take your shirt off and look pretty.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
They ran for over three hours. Three hours of nonstop movement through lush, gorgeous wilderness.
Ricky wondered what the land looked like when it was covered in the snow and ice Siberia was famous for. But this would do for now.
They finally came to rest by the Range Rover, both collapsing next to the tires, both panting with tongues hanging out. They stayed that way for a while until Ricky realized that other canines were roaming in the dense forests. Not wanting to get into a territorial spat with Russian wolves and foxes, he got up, put on his jeans, and tossed the rest of his clothes in the car. He held the door open and Toni leaped into the backseat. She rested on her side while Ricky got in the driver’s seat and headed back the way he’d come. When they returned to the hotel, he went in through the front doors, topless and shoeless. The front desk staff watched him but no one said anything. Maybe they thought the American had drunk too much of the local vodka.
He cut through the hotel until he reached the back. Completely unfazed by the locked doors there, Ricky got them open and let Toni in. Still in her jackal form, she trotted up the stairs until they returned to the ninth floor. She went to her door, but Ricky shook his head. “You can’t stay in there, darlin’. That poor room has been through hell and back.” He jerked his head at his own door while he pushed the keycard into the lock. “Come on. You can crash in here tonight.”
Toni followed after him and once inside, she charged across the room and dove headfirst into the couch. She rolled around there for a good minute, wiggling her back against the cushions. Ricky went into his bathroom, grabbed a towel, and took it out to the now-happy canine.
He tossed it at her so that it covered her completely. A few seconds later, she’d shifted back to human and now he had a damn sexy woman wearing only a towel in his room.
This was one of those moments his daddy would say, “Proof that life is good, son. Life is very good.”
Toni put one hand behind her head and gazed up at the ceiling.
Okay. She’d admit it. She was having a bad case of separation anxiety. Only wolfdogs admitted to having this issue, but all canines suffered from it now and again.
But after tearing apart her hotel room and then that wonderfully luxurious run through the woods, she was feeling damn good. Not only that, she had to admit she was feeling a little . . . well . . . worked up.
Usually, she spent so much time worrying about her siblings that Toni didn’t focus too much on that side of herself. She simply didn’t have the time or the inclination. Yet lying here on this couch, wearing only a towel, with a very cute, bare-chested wolf standing over her, she was having all sorts of thoughts she didn’t normally entertain.
And, they were thousands of miles away from her family. Just the two of them in this room . . . alone.
“Darlin’,” the wolf practically growled, “you keep looking at me like that and we’re gonna have a problem.”
“Looking at you like what?”
“Like you could eat me alive.”
She shrugged, her gaze moving across the room. “Maybe I could.”
“Uh-uh,” Ricky said, stepping closer to the couch. “If you’re gonna hit on me, Antonella, you need to look at me.”
Toni did and they ended up staring at each other for a long moment.
Finally, Toni admitted, “I have no idea what
to say next.”
“Why do you have to say anything?”
“Don’t I need to?” she asked honestly. “To entice you into bed?” She’d always had to work harder than the pretty full-human girls at school and in college. Toni always had to engage men first with her intellect and then let them find their way into becoming sexually interested in her.
But Ricky Lee only laughed. “Darlin’, you really have been hanging around too many full-humans.”
He slowly dropped to his knees beside the couch. “Do you know what I need to entice me to bed?”
“What?”
“You looking at me the way you’re looking at me and . . .” Ricky carefully pulled the towel off her body. “This.”
Toni knew she had scars. It was hard to grow up a predator and not have scars, but she also knew it was something fellow predators didn’t give a shit about. Ricky would never suggest medicinal pads she could place on her scars to make them fade or kindly suggest a good plastic surgeon who could help her out. Her scars didn’t matter to him, and that had her toes curling.
Ricky studied her body for a long moment, his gaze moving from head to toe and back again. When his eyes focused on hers, he said nothing because there was nothing to say.
Raising herself on her elbows, Toni leaned in until their faces were only inches apart. “I think,” she teased, “I’m still a little anxious. Being away from my family and all.”
“Really?” Ricky said, his grin wide. “You know, darlin’, I think I can help ya with that.”
“I really hope so, because I am desperate.”
“Oh, yeah?” He leaned in closer, but still didn’t touch her. “Then you better prove it before I get scared off and make a run for it.”
So Toni did. She proved exactly how desperate she was.
Ricky wouldn’t lie. He’d kissed a lot of women over the years. Many of them predators. Quite a few who were full-human. But there was something about this passionate, but shy kiss that made his knees weak and his heart race. Something he didn’t remember ever happening before. At least not like this.
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