“Why?”
“I want to know what it’s like to be tall.”
Bo was about to explain that the chances of a jackal being as tall as him—a lion-polar bear hybrid—were impossible but decided against it. In fact, he could actually hear Blayne in his head telling him
not
to tell Freddy that. So, Bo instead crouched down and held his arm out. The boy grabbed it with both hands and Bo lifted him, placing his small feet on his shoulders. When he had the boy secure, Bo’s hands wrapped tightly around Freddy’s ankles, Bo stood tall.
“Wooooooow,” Freddy sighed out. “I can see the entire
world
from here.”
That made Bo grin a bit.
“I bet you love being this tall, Mr. Novikov.”
“I don’t mind. It makes it easier to find Blayne in a crowd. She tends to bop around when she walks. Like she’s on springs or something. So I just look for the top of her head to suddenly appear and I can usually track her down in a timely manner.”
“I like Blayne. She smiles a lot.”
“She does.”
“And she’s good at keeping me calm.”
“That’s very important for you, isn’t it, Freddy?”
“It is. Otherwise I do things I’m not supposed to. Toni’s excellent at keeping me calm but Blayne’s good at it too.”
Of course, Blayne’s calming abilities probably came from the years of anger management classes she’d been forced to go to—usually by court order.
Bo didn’t know how long the pair stood there, but it was a nice, easy way to start the day.
“Bo?”
Hearing his fiancée’s voice, Bo glanced over at Blayne. “Hey. What’s up?”
“Everything all right?”
“Just staring at the world,” he replied.
Grinning, Blayne walked over, clapped her hands together, and held her arms out to Freddy. “Your mom is looking for you, Fredster.”
“Okay.”
The boy leaped from Bo’s shoulders and into Blayne’s arms. Thankfully, Blayne was on a derby team, so she managed to easily catch Freddy and not fall on her ass even though he was leaping from such a great height.
She placed Freddy on the ground, and he charged toward the back door. “Thank you, Mr. Novikov!”
“You’re welcome.”
Blayne smiled up at Bo.
“What?”
“I’m just so—”
“Is there a reason you came out here,” he cut in before she could tell him once again how proud she was he had managed to not kill any of the Parker children, “or was it just to make sure I hadn’t stomped on the small ones?”
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You don’t always watch where you walk. But that’s not why I’m out here.”
Bo sighed. “Then why?”
Taking Bo’s hand, Blayne led her mate and future husband back into the Jean-Louis Parker house and to the ballroom on the first floor. Right where Kyle had had workers set up a giant block of white marble. And standing right by that were an arguing Kyle, Troy, and Oriana. Those three argued all the time. Really. All. The. Time.
“You are such a little shit, Kyle!” Oriana yelled at her brother.
“I need the space!” Kyle barked back.
“So do I!”
“What about me?” Troy demanded.
“You do equations,” Oriana reminded her brother. “What could you
possibly
need all this space for?”
“Wall space. So I can put up my equations,” he said, his hand gesturing down the long hall, “and see them in one long stream.”
“You’re an idiot,” Oriana sighed. “Just a big-headed idiot.”
“And you’re an uptight little—”
“That’s it,” Bo cut in, impressing Blayne with his no-nonsense approach to children cursing at each other. “Enough of this.”
“You might as well forget it, Novikov,” Kyle said, rocking back on sneakers that lit up when he walked, reminding Blayne that this confident little kid was only eleven. “The workmen have already gone. So the marble stays put.”
Bo snorted. “Really?”
Walking over to the enormous piece of beautiful marble that Blayne assumed Kyle was planning to whittle down into a statue, Bo gazed at it a moment. He moved around it. Then he grasped the marble from behind and, with a grunt, dragged it across the floor like he was moving a filled refrigerator.
Blayne covered her mouth with her hands when she saw that Bo was leaving deep gouges in the hardwood floor.
Once across the room, Bo released the marble and came back over to the kids. They were gawking at him, fear mixed with envy mixed with admiration.
“Do not bring any more giant pieces of marble in here, Kyle. Understand?”
“Do you know how much that weighed?” Kyle asked, still gazing.
“In fact,” he told all three, “no more trying to claim this room for yourselves. I’m taking it over for now. I need more space than the library.”
“It took ten full-humans to move that,” Troy added. “Ten.”
“Full-humans are naturally weak. You shouldn’t hold that against them.”
“We’re not,” Oriana muttered. “You’re just freaking us out.”
“Then you better not piss me off.” Bo looked at each child before asking, “Understand?”
All three nodded.
“Good. Now, I’m hungry. Let’s feed.” He walked out, winking at Blayne as he passed by.
The two boys followed after him, Kyle noting that Bo was “Magnificent.”
Oriana stopped by Blayne. “I know,” she said about her brother. “I know.”
“Well . . . Bo
is
magnificent.” She’d just never expected an eleven-year-old boy to be comfortable enough to say that out loud.
C
HAPTER
N
INETEEN
B
y the third day, Toni truly thought her head might explode. For three days she’d been forced to sit in this room. For three days, she’d been forced to wait for hours until someone came in to tell her to “try again tomorrow.” And for three days she’d been forced to keep her temper under control.
Although Toni hadn’t realized she had a temper quite like this. The more they made her wait, the worse it was getting. What made it even worse were the two males she was stuck with.
She looked across the room. First at Vic Barinov. He was reading a book on the Teutonic knights and their battles.
Really?
Really?
Was reading about Teutonic knights seriously that important? When her entire life was falling apart around her?
Knowing she was moments away from biting the man’s nose off, Toni turned her gaze to the wolf. Unlike the hybrid, he wasn’t reading anything. He was just sitting there, placidly staring at the wall. How did he do that? How did
anyone
do that who was not already in some sort of catatonic state?
This whole situation was insane! And making her absolutely crazy. Even worse were the regular texts from her family. Text after text after text with just enough information to have Toni seriously worried for their collective safety.
And did any of that concern the bears? Well, she had no idea because she hadn’t spoken to any of them. Instead, a bear led her into “The Room” as she now called it, left her there for hours, and then another bear led her out.
Well you know what? Today was going to be different. Today she was going to stand up and say, “I’ve had enough!”
But before she could, the door opened and some bear looked at her and said, “You can go now.”
With a yip that made the black bear stumble away from the doorway, Toni got to her feet, grabbed her backpack, and stormed out of the room. She didn’t look back to see if the two males with her were following, because she no longer cared. She no longer cared about them. Or this job. Or these bears. Or anything else in the universe. She was fed up with everyone and everything.
Toni reached the car first and tapped her foot while the two males ambled up. Barinov remotely unlocked the doors and Toni got inside. She tossed her bag to the floor, pulled her legs up on the seat, and wrapped her arms around her calves. She worked to control her breathing because she knew a panic attack was coming on. Yes. Like Freddy and Cherise, Toni did get panic attacks, but she’d worked hard over the years to control the problem since she couldn’t afford to have panic attacks while her siblings were.
And just a few days around bigoted bears seemed to have ruined all the good work her therapist had done. This was unacceptable!
“How ya doin’, darlin’?” the wolf asked her from the front passenger seat.
Toni dug her fingernails into her hands and lied, “Fine.”
Ricky turned on the TV in his room, then quickly turned it off again. He didn’t know Russian, wasn’t about to start learning it now, and there was just something upsetting about watching a John Wayne movie dubbed into any other language but good ol’ American. Or, as his sister liked to correct him, “You mean English, dumb ass?”
So Ricky grabbed his laptop and fired up one of the movies he had on his hard drive. He was just getting into the original
Ocean’s Eleven
when Vic knocked on his door.
“We both know you have a key,” Ricky called out.
A few seconds later, the hybrid was in his room. “Of course I have a key, but that doesn’t mean it’s right for me to just walk in without asking. I’m not a housecat, ya know.”
“You’re actually talking about lions, aren’t you?” Ricky took his Titans cap off and dropped it on the side table. “All right, how long is this going to go on?”
“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.