“I told Toni I’d keep an eye on him. This is me keeping an eye.”
Cherise’s brother held Livy’s hand, his eyes wide as he stared up at all the females of many breeds and species, even hybrids. As soon as they saw little Freddy, the women surrounded him, oohing and aaawwwing over him. He didn’t seem to mind. Thankfully, he appeared to take more after Cooper than Cherise, loving the attention but not needing to drown in it like Delilah, nor simply expecting it like Oriana and Kyle.
“Can I hold him?” a She-lion asked.
Livy frowned at the feline. “He’s not a puppy, dude.”
The cat sneered and Cherise quickly asked her brother, “Do you mind, Freddy?”
His answer was to raise his arms and the She-lion happily lifted him up, turning around to show him off to the other females. “Isn’t he flippin’ adorable!”
Livy yawned and motioned to Cherise. “So . . . what are you doing here?”
“It was me,” Blayne explained, and Livy’s cold, black eyes locked on the hybrid.
“You?”
“Yeah. I thought it would be great for Cherise to get out of the house. The whole time Bo and I have been at the house, she never seems to go out.”
“Do you want to get out?” Livy asked Cherise.
“Not really.”
“But you haven’t tried yet!”
Livy folded her arms over her chest and looked over at Gwen. “Do you guys have a quota? A certain number of people you have to bring to tryouts?”
“Of course not!” Blayne exclaimed.
“Yep,” Gwen replied. “It’s not required by the team or anything but Blayne insists on having her own quota.”
Blayne glared at her friend. “Snitch.”
“That’s what I thought.” Livy motioned to Cherise. “Do you want to stay or go?”
“I thought you were coming to get me.”
“What am I?” Livy asked. “Your mother?” She thought a moment, then changed it to, “Toni?”
“It’s just us,” Blayne told them. “Just the team and our coach. This isn’t a bout. Just a chance for you to get out on skates and see if you like it or not. No pressure.”
“Once you do what she says anyway.”
“Shut up, Gwen,” Blayne snapped before she smiled again at Cherise. “It’ll be fun! I promise!”
“Well . . .” Cherise looked around, and all the females stared at her. “I am already in skates.”
“Yes!” Blayne cheered. “You won’t regret it!” She hugged Cherise, which Cherise didn’t like because she didn’t really like to be touched.
Gwen rolled around Livy, sniffing her.
“If I feel that nose on me again, feline,” Livy dryly warned, “I’ll start removing pieces of you.”
“What are you?”
“Death.”
“Olivia!” Cherise chastised.
“She asked.”
“Are you a hybrid?” a very large She-liger asked, standing behind Livy.
“No.”
Gwen stood in front of Livy, looked her over. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“You trying out tonight?”
“To be on your derby team?” Livy smirked. “You don’t want that.”
“Is it because you’re a hybrid?” one of the other girls asked. “Because we have lots of those on this team.”
“I’m not a hybrid. And you don’t want me on your team.”
Gwen shrugged. “We’re always looking for potential jammers.”
“She’s not a jammer, O’Neill.” The She-liger shook her head. “She’s a blocker.”
“Her?” Gwen sized Livy up again. “She’s smaller than me.”
“But she’s mighty.” The liger handed Livy a helmet and gestured to a row of quad skates. “Let’s just find out how mighty she is.”
They had food delivered to their room and ate it while lying in bed wearing nothing more than a sheet.
It was wonderfully decadent.
“You seem much better,” Ricky observed before licking the cream sauce from his chicken off his thumb.
Toni shrugged and speared another roasted potato onto her fork. “I finally have a handle on what’s going on, my siblings have been texting me considerably less, and Bo texted that he’s about to finalize a schedule.”
Ricky blinked. “The man hasn’t finalized a schedule yet?”
“The man has moved into our house. With Blayne. My father is completely freaked out. But Bo’s getting the job done. And he’s getting it done without me.”
“Is that the only reason you’re feeling better?”
“Yes.”
Ricky leaned in closer. “You sure?”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
That’s when the wolf moved, knocking their plates off the bed and tackling Toni back.
“The maids are going to hate us!” Toni complained through giggles as she weakly struggled against him.
“We’ll tip them.”
“That’s not the point! Ricky!”
“Would you stop squealing and let me work on this delicious neck.”
“No! I will not stop squealing. And I wasn’t done eating, either.”
“There’s more food on the table. I got us enough to last the whole night.”
“Not if you keep tossing it on the floor!”
Ricky, pinning her to the bed with his body, gazed into her face. “Are you going to keep complaining or are you going to kiss me?”
“Actually, what I’m going to do is thank you.”
“Well, yes, I am good in bed.”
“Not for that, you cretin.” She laughed. “For taking such good care of me while we’ve been here and for getting me to relax. I know I can be kind of uptight sometimes.”
“When did you have time to be uptight? Every time I saw you, you were busy taking care of a bunch of cranky prodigies. So I would not label you as uptight.”
“Everyone else does.”
“That’s ’cause they don’t understand you.”
“But you do.”
“I find you fascinating.” He raked his gaze down her body, his hand pulling the sheet away from her. “And beautiful.” He tossed the sheet down by her feet and kissed her cheek. “And sexy.” Kissed her jaw. “And smart.” Kissed her throat.
“Please don’t say sassy.” She hated that term to describe women. It was like they were talking about a housecat that brought dead birds home for the family.
“I’d only say that to you if I wanted you not to have sex with me.”
Toni put her arms around Ricky’s neck, grinning widely into his handsome face. “Okay. You do know me well.”
“Told ya.”
Gwen O’Neill reached over and grabbed Blayne, yanking her close so that she didn’t get hit with their leopard teammate who’d just been tossed off the track like so much trash.
“Cherry was right,” Gwen admitted.
“She’s always right.”
“I thought the little bitch was just full of bullshit. You know, all talk. But she is as mean as a snake.”
“I know.”
“She’ll be great.”
Blayne frowned.
“What, Blayne?”
“Don’t you think she’s a little cruel?”
“Cruel? Babe, the Marquis de Sade was cruel. This chick is a class-A cunt. I think she’d cut her own mother if the woman got in her way.”
“Then why—”
“Because I like to win.”
Blayne sighed. “God, you and Bo.”
“I still don’t know what you see in that man, but I do admire his focus.”
A big arm slipped around Gwen’s waist and a nose nuzzled the back of her neck.
Smiling, she turned and leaped into the arms of her mate and fiancé.
Lock MacRyrie hugged Gwen and kissed her. She knew he’d come right from his workshop because she could smell the different types of wood he’d worked with that day. Lock
had been able to work full-time on his woodworking business for about a year. It had been a scary transition for him. He liked the security of his software business, but he hated the work. Now he did what he loved and he was like a different bear. Gwen loved seeing him happy, although his desire to up the budget on their wedding was setting her teeth on edge. She knew what was motivating him, too. Not only the extra money he was bringing in from his business, but his uncles, who were goading him into making “the biggest MacRyrie wedding ever!” Something she’d been trying to avoid. Desperately.
Luckily, it was going to be a double wedding with Blayne and Bo, and the one thing Gwen was starting to use to her advantage was that Lock’s uncles didn’t want to go near Bo Novikov. Very few people with sense did.
And Blayne was known to be rather sense-free.
“How did it go today?” Gwen asked once Lock put her back on the ground.
“Pretty good. Sold that marble and wood dining table.” Her eyes narrowed and he quickly added, “For the amount you suggested. I promise. I didn’t give any discounts.”
“They either made you mad or they were full-human.”
“They were snobby . . . and full-human.”
“Whatever.”
“I think I was wrong about Cherise,” Blayne said, rolling over so that she could give Lock a welcoming hug.
“The mouse?” Gwen asked. “I’m surprised she’s not under the bleachers.”
Lock chuckled. “Jess Ward style!”
Gwen glanced at Blayne and then at Lock. “We have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Not bothering to explain, Lock pulled out one of those plastic bottles of honey. The ones shaped like a teddy bear.
“So how much longer?” he asked, motioning to the tryouts.
“Another forty minutes. That okay?”
“Sure.” He opened his mouth, tilted his head back, and squeezed an ungodly amount of honey into his throat.
By the time he was done, Kowalski had skated over to them.
“So,” Gwen said to the freaky little unnamed shifter. “You in or out?” She didn’t bother with niceties with this woman. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t see the point.
“I don’t know. Maybe. I am feeling less aggressive at the moment, which is usually a good thing.” She suddenly faced Lock, and Gwen watched the bitch stare up at her fiancé. Gwen cracked her knuckles and Blayne skated in front of her, briefly stopping Gwen from house-catting the boyfriend-stealing whore’s face.
“Can I have some of that?” Kowalski asked Lock. She sounded almost polite.
“This?” Lock held up the bottle of honey.
When the female nodded, he handed the bottle over and she did what he’d done. Leaned her head back, opened her mouth, and poured an ungodly amount of honey into her throat. When she was done, she handed the now-nearly empty bottle of honey back to Lock.
“Thanks.”
“Yep.”
With that, Kowalski skated back to the track.
Gwen and Blayne moved closer to Lock, each of them on either side of the grizzly.
“Hey,” Blayne whispered, “is she a bear, too?”
“She doesn’t smell like a bear,” Gwen said. “But she doesn’t smell like a hybrid, either. But the honey thing . . .”
Lock looked back and forth between the women. “She’s not a bear.”
“She’s not?”
“You guys really don’t know what she is?”
“It’s been driving me nuts!” Blayne continued to whisper loudly. “I’ve been around her for days and I can’t figure it out.” She began to bounce up and down on her quads. “Please tell me, Lock! Please!”
Lock shrugged. “She’s a honey badger.”
Gwen rolled her eyes. “So now you’re just making shit up? Just admit she did that whole honey thing to flirt with you.”
“That woman doesn’t flirt. She wasn’t flirting. She wanted the honey. She starts off nice because I have something she wants. But trust me . . . if I’d said no, she’d have ripped it out of my hands, possibly taking a few fingers with her. Her claws are longer than yours.”
“These are not claws.” Gwen held up her expertly done nails. “These are a fashion statement.”
“Claws.”
“But, Lock,” Blayne reasoned, “I’ve never heard of a shifter honey badger.”
“They’re unbelievably private. I mean, you think we’re private with the government, but they’re private with everybody. Of course, that could have a lot to do with them being thieves.”
“Like foxes?”
He chuckled. “Foxes are like kids going into a bodega and stealing candy bars. Honey badgers steal real shit.”
Gwen watched Kowalski smash her fist into the face of a six-nine grizzly female. There was no fear in her expression. Just some hidden rage that Gwen didn’t even want to think about. “She does seem mean enough.”
“The meanest animals and shifters in the world,” Lock said. “I realized that when I joined the Marines.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know those military guys who say very little but they’re always standing right off to the side of what’s about to explode into a problem? They’re usually short, powerful looking . . . and smirking. Then when shit does explode, usually in a bar right outside the base, they’re the first ones in the middle of it all, kicking ass and ending up in the brig for doing the worst damage although they always look the least harmed? Yeah . . . those are honey badgers. And the females are definitely worse.”
Blayne happily clapped her hands together. “That’s so—”
“Shut up, Blayne,” Gwen snapped before the word “cool” could come out of her mouth.
Blayne immediately calmed down and they continued to watch the tryouts. Cherise had disappeared for a while, but she came back out at some point and got on the track. Appearing typically terrified.
“We should get her out of there,” Gwen suggested.
“I was thinking the same thing.” Blayne started to skate out when Kowalski cut in front of her. Blayne squealed at the sight of the dangerous female and quickly skated back to Gwen’s side.
“You want me to handle Cherise?” the female asked, appearing unfazed by Blayne’s hysterical response.
“You don’t have to kill her,” Blayne said, panic in her voice.
Kowalski rolled her eyes and headed out to the track. She stopped by Cherise’s side and whispered something. When she was done, Kowalski returned to them.
“Okay,” she said.
The first whistle blew and Cherise, and another girl trying out for the jammer position shot off. A second whistle sounded and the rest of the pack went after the two females. Whichever jammer got out in front first would earn points by passing the girls on the other team. It sounded easy, but trying to bypass a seven-two She-bear with mommy issues was easy for no one.
What blew Gwen away, though, was not that Cherise was screaming every time one of the players got close to her, but that Cherise was moving so fast. Unbelievably fast. While squealing and screaming and slapping bodies, hands, and anything else that came too close to her, out of her way.
It was entertaining in a really horrifying way.
“What did you say to her?” Gwen asked Kowalski.
The female shrugged. “She’s got a thing about germs. I just pointed out that no one trying out today had bothered to wash their hands in the last two hours, not even the ones who went to the bathroom. She’s a canine who runs on fear. You just have to find ways to use that fear to your benefit.”
Appalled, Blayne said, “But you’re like family with her.”
“Yeah. That’s why I know how to manipulate her. That’s what family does to each other.”
And that made Gwen laugh—because the honey badger was right.
“Don’t encourage her, Gwenie!”
“I can’t help it!”
“I think there’s something we need to talk about.”
T
oni sat up and stared at him. They’d somehow ended up on Ricky’s hotel room floor. Toni continued to surprise him, not remotely concerned about little things like having sex with him on the floor.
“I told you I was sorry,” Toni said. “I didn’t even break the skin this time.”
“I’m not talking about that.” Although the pain he was feeling all across his back suggested she had broken the skin, but he wasn’t going to argue the point. It had just been her claws. It would be a different discussion if she’d used her fangs. “I just want something clear before we go see the bears tomorrow.”
“I know. I know,” Toni said with a wave, stretching back out across the floor, her head landing in his sheet-covered lap. She was allowing him to play with her curls, but she’d insisted, “Only before I get into the shower. After that, no touching!” Well, they’d see about that.
“Don’t put my feet on the table,” she went on. “Russians consider it rude. And don’t stand around with my hands in my pockets. They hate that. I wonder why. Does it suggest you’re hiding something when you put your hands in your pockets? I just do it because I like to have something to do with my hands other than play with my fingers. Cherise plays with her fingers and she always looks like a nervous wreck.”
“I’m not talking about that damn meeting tomorrow.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
“I just want it to be clear that when we get back, we ain’t really done.”
“We ain’t?” She blinked. “I mean, we’re not?”
“No. Don’t see why this has to be a one-night stand.”
“I thought that’s what we agreed to.”
“When did we do that? I merely suggested wolves are great for the occasional one-night stand. I didn’t say that’s what we had here.”
Toni sat up again.
“I ain’t done with your hair,” Ricky complained.
“Forget the hair.”
“I can’t. I love it.”
“What if it falls out tomorrow?”
“Why would it fall out tomorrow?”
“It might!”
Ricky could see the panic in her pretty eyes. Knew she was just scared. Didn’t blame her. He wasn’t exactly sure what the hell was going on, either, but he knew he didn’t want to go back to the States and pretend the last two nights had never happened.
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