Wolf With Benefits

  Ricky leaped off the couch and faced the She-wolf. “What do you mean they’re coming here? I thought they were still out of town.”

  “Got in earlier today. Figured they didn’t call you because they wanted to make sure you’d stick around so they could sit down and have a real heart-to-heart about Laura Jane and how you really feel about—where are you going?”

  “I don’t do heart-to-hearts, Dee-Ann,” Ricky told her as he grabbed his backpack from the floor and headed toward the door.

  “What about your brother?”

  “Babysit him until they get here. Ronnie Lee can handle him. He’s almost through the worst of it.”

  Studying his brother, Dee-Ann’s head tipped to the side. “He’s trying to chew through the gate . . . with his human teeth.”

  “Just deal with it!”

  Ricky slammed the door behind him and started toward the elevators. But the doors were opening and he could scent his sister and Sissy Mae. Panicking, Ricky charged the other way and into the nearest emergency stairwell. The heavy metal door was nearly closed when he heard his sister yell from his room, “Reece Lee Reed! What the holy hell are you doing in a damn dog kennel?”

  As Ricky headed down the stairs, he knew he was running away. Not from an ex-girlfriend that to this day his brothers still called, “Good Lady Self-Obsessed,” but from his sister and her best friend. He loved Ronnie Lee. Loved Sissy, too. But that didn’t mean he wanted to sit around with them all night talking about feelings. It would be worse now, too, because the word was out that Ronnie Lee was pregnant. That meant no more liquor for his baby sister, and, knowing Ronnie, she wasn’t about to let anyone drink around her when she couldn’t. She hated that.

  A long conversation with a sober Sissy and Ronnie Lee was too horrifying for words. So when Ricky Lee finally made it out onto the street from one of the hotel’s side doors, he was simply relieved.

  Ricky headed down the street, crossing in front of the hotel. He stopped when he saw an older She-wolf walking toward the hotel doors. She wasn’t from a Pack he recognized, but his momma had raised him right. So he pulled open one of the swinging doors, smiling at her as she passed, and tipped his baseball cap.

  She grinned back and nodded at him, flashing a bit of fang as the universal shifter sign of, “I know what you are!”

  Once the She-wolf had made her way inside, Ricky was about to release the door when another female caught it and held it open.

  “Sorry about—hey!” He smiled in surprise at the She-jackal he’d met at the rink. Uh . . . Toni! That was it.

  She looked up at him. “Oh . . . hey.”

  “Look at that. Meeting each other again. Kind of random. Granny Reed would call that Karma. Actually what she’d call it is the devil’s work, but whatever.”

  “Okay.”

  He saw that she held the hand of another little boy. He raised a brow. “You sure have been busy.”

  That’s when she smirked and gave a little shake of the boy’s hand. With big brown eyes, the boy asked, “Are you my daddy?”

  Laughing, Ricky stepped back and allowed the pair to walk through. He started to follow, but saw one of the females from his Pack. She was on the phone and clearly looking for someone. On the tips of her toes, trying to look over everyone’s head.

  “Good Lord,” Ricky muttered, “she’s sent out scouts.”

  He instinctively crouched, the She-jackal taking that moment to look back. She stopped, turned, and gazed down at him. “Really?” she asked.

  “One day I’ll explain it to you. I’m sure you’d understand.”

  “Somehow I doubt it, but whatever.”

  The little boy shook his head. “I’m glad you’re not my daddy.”

  “That’s very wise, Freddy,” the She-jackal said in agreement. “Let’s be glad he’s not your daddy.”

  Ricky saw that his Packmate was getting closer.

  “I’d make a great daddy for any child, but I can’t discuss it now.”

  “Because you’re running away?”

  “Wolves always know when to run, darlin’.” And that’s exactly what Ricky Lee did. Released the door, eased away from it, and took off toward his truck.

  The hotel door opened and Toni smirked at the full-human who answered. She began to chastise, “That took you long en—”

  “Freddy!” Giving a very rare smile, Irene Conridge Van Holtz leaned down and picked up Toni’s seven-year-old brother. “How is my favorite brilliant boy?”

  “My ulcer’s acting up.”

  “You don’t have an ulcer,” Toni reminded him as she stepped past her mother’s best friend and walked into the four-room suite Irene Conridge shared with her mate, Niles Van Holtz, Alpha of the Van Holtz Pack.

  “Based on recent research, there’s a seventy-three-percent chance I will,” Freddy informed her.

  “Only if you keep worrying about getting one.”

  Irene carried Freddy into the living room, closing the door with her foot.

  “Where’s Uncle Van?” Toni asked, using Niles’s nickname.

  “At Ric’s restaurant showing off.”

  “That man does love to cook.”

  “Although I normally don’t believe that sort of thing can be passed down, I must say the Van Holtz bloodline seems to prove me wrong.”

  “You’re going to miss him while he’s gone.”

  Irene sat down on one of the couches with Freddy beside her. Showing a rare moment of affection, Irene put her arm over Freddy’s shoulder. Irene must be in a good mood. Because even though she’d known seven-year-old Freddy since hours after his conception, she wasn’t known for her loving warmth.

  To be honest, it was something that used to worry Toni. That Freddy would end up equally as uptight as Irene. Not a surprising worry. The reason the pair was so close was because they both loved science, and they were both prodigies. Irene had met their mother at a summer camp for gifted children. That was the same summer that her mother experienced her first shift. A sometimes harrowing event that could have exposed Jackie to the world if she’d been seen by the wrong people. Although most full-humans were considered “the wrong people,” Irene had turned out to be anything but. Instead, she’d been fascinated by the process of shifting and that there were others like Jackie. She’d kept her friend’s secret then and now, so it was no surprise Irene had found love with another shifter.

  That fact was so very important to Toni. Because although to most of the world Irene Conridge Van Holtz seemed a cold, indifferent bitch—and most of the time she was—she had another side to her. The side that loved Niles Van Holtz. The rich and talented wolf had caught her heart and managed to hold on to it for more than two decades. Uncle Van loved Irene despite her flaws, and that showed Toni there was hope for her little Freddy.

  If he had friends and love, he’d be okay. She just had to make sure to keep him out of trouble now. Not easy. The more brilliant Freddy turned out to be, the more issues seemed to arise that concerned her. It didn’t concern anyone else in the family. “He’s only seven!” they’d say. Or “He’s brilliant! Of course he’s being a little weird!” Toni’s concerns were often dismissed as those of an overprotective jackal sibling, but she knew better.

  So when one of the bedroom doors opened and her brother’s little face lit up, Toni felt good.

  “Miki!” he crowed, then charged off the couch, across the room, and right into the open arms of Miki Kendrick. Onetime mentee of Irene, brilliant scientist, another full-human mated to a wolf, mother to a beautiful little girl pup, and a still-off-the-grid secret hacker stalked by scary government types.

  “There’s my handsome boy!” Miki hugged Freddy tight, giving him a smacking kiss on his cheek that had him giggling. “Did you have fun in today’s master class with us?”

  “Yes. Although I realized you dumbed it down for the laymen.”

  “We had to. Average nuclear scientists can’t always grasp what we’re talking about.”

  “
I liked when Aunt Irene made that one man cry.”

  Toni quickly looked at her aunt, who stared blankly back at her.

  “What?” Irene asked. “He started it.”

  “There was mucus coming from his nose.” Freddy giggled.

  “I thought I told you not to be a bad influence on my brother,” Toni reminded her aunt.

  “I said I would not mock people in front of Freddy for merely being idiots. For instance, I didn’t say a word about the fact that the man wore black pants, black shoes, and white sweat socks. But I refused to simply ignore his opinion on the elements of—”

  “I don’t care,” Toni cut in. Mostly because she knew that whatever her aunt was about to say, she probably wouldn’t understand. “Just don’t turn Freddy into Kyle, Part two.”

  “How can I? Even my level of arrogance doesn’t quite reach Kyle’s. Although,” Irene added with that serious tone, “I think Mussolini’s did.”

  “He’d make an interesting dictator,” Miki added.

  And they both looked at Toni as if that information should somehow make her feel better.

  Ricky knocked on the bulletproof glass of the thick security door and grinned down at the pup staring at him. “Hello, darlin’. Is Bobby Ray home?”

  The pup stared at him a moment longer before turning and screeching, “Mooooooom! Wolf at the door!”

  The pup’s mother didn’t show up at the door but the Alpha of the Kuznetsov Pack did. A wide smile on her face, Jessie Ann Ward unlocked and opened the door. “Hey, Ricky Lee.”

  “Hey, Jessie Ann. Your mate home?”

  “Upstairs in his lair. I think he’s avoiding the kids. They’ve been in overdrive all day now that school’s out. Is everything okay?”

  “Oh, yeah. Just avoiding my sister and Sissy Mae.”

  That made Jessie laugh. “Something I understand completely. Don’t worry. If they call or stop by . . . I haven’t seen you.”

  “Thanks, darlin’.” He stepped inside and headed down the hall. “I see you’ve finally rented that place across the street.”

  “Mhmm,” Jessie Ann grunted.

  “Somethin’ wrong?” He leaned in and whispered, “You want me to go over there and give ’em a Smith welcome?”

  Jessie laughed. “Don’t you dare, Ricky Lee Reed. They’re paying a fortune. I mean a fortune, just to stay there for the summer. But I think they have motives.”

  “Something illegal?”

  “No. Nothing that interesting.”

  “Then it must involve Johnny.” The young wolf, Johnny DeSerio, was Jessie’s adopted son. An eighteen-year-old kid with a gift for the fiddle. Could play a mean “Devil Went Down to Georgia” while Jessie Ann sang. But a strong, street-smart boy, so Ricky didn’t know why Jessie Ann worried about him so.

  “It does, but I don’t want to discuss it.” She glanced into the living room and giggling pups ducked behind the couch. “Too many big ears around here.”

  “Not a problem.”

  He kissed her cheek and headed up the stairs to the third floor, where the Pack had given Bobby Ray his own office, and there were bedrooms for visiting wolves.

  The door to Bobby Ray’s office wasn’t closed, and Ricky walked in to find the strong, powerful Alpha Male of his Pack tickling the ribs of his baby daughter and blowing raspberries on her belly while the little darling just laughed and laughed.

  “Well, hello, Daddy!” Ricky cheered from the door.

  Bobby Ray froze in mid-raspberry, but Ricky Lee was dang impressed when Bobby Ray’s baby girl angrily barked at him for the interruption.

  “Now is that any way to talk to your godfather, brat?” Of course, she might not remember he was her godfather—the girl had six of them. Smith males believing their all-important daughters could never have enough protection.

  Bobby Ray stood, lifting his daughter with him. “Where’s her momma?”

  “Downstairs.”

  With that, Bobby Ray tossed the child to Ricky Lee, who easily caught her. Not surprisingly, Jessie hated when they did that, but the tomboyish little girl adored it. Laughing, she clung to Ricky’s neck.

  “How’s my favorite girl? How’s my little vampire?”

  “Stop calling her that.”

  “Hey. It wasn’t my idea to name her after Dracula’s first wife.”

  Bobby dropped into his chair. “It’s the price I pay for love . . . I married a geek. And,” he added, annoyed, “these dogs may run around calling her Elisabeta all day long, but to me she’s just my Lissy Ann.”

  “I wouldn’t worry.” Ricky sat at the desk across from Bobby. “She’s a hearty little gal. Look at these little legs. Sturdy. She’ll be out huntin’ and campin’ with the rest of us before you know it. Won’t need any fancy tents or generators with her.”

  Bobby shuddered a little, most likely remembering that joint Pack camping trip they’d taken with the wild dogs in Alaska. It had not gone well. No. Not well at all.

  Putting his big feet up on his desk, Bobby studied Ricky a moment before stating, “So . . . guess you heard about Laura Jane.”

  Miki sat on the couch, but unlike Irene and Freddy, she sort of flopped on it, her bare feet landing dangerously close to Irene’s thigh. How these two had become friends, Toni didn’t know, because although equally brilliant and both full-humans mated to wolves, they were still quite different as women.

  “So what brings you here?” Miki asked, unaware of the way Irene moved away from her extremely tiny feet. Irene was not a big fan of feet . . . or of being touched by anyone but her children and Uncle Van.

  “Freddy wanted to see you before you two left tomorrow.”

  Irene’s head tilted to the side, her brain working. She said, “I thought you guys were leaving tonight, too.”

  Toni kept her face blank and, after a moment, Irene sighed. “Don’t tell me that woman has decided to stay here.”

  “That woman is your best friend and of course she decided to stay here. How hard can it be to move your entire family of thirteen to Manhattan at the very last minute?”

  “When you have money? Not hard at all. But why?”

  “Because of Johnny DeSerio.”

  “Is he a mobster?”

  Toni sighed. “Aunt Irene, we’ve had this discussion. Not everyone who is Italian is a mobster—”

  “I know.”

  “—or on a Jersey-based reality TV show.”

  “That I’m still not sure about.”

  “And he’s that young violinist she met at one of her master classes last summer.”

  “Oh, yes. I remember. She’s been going on about him for months now. Did she finally snag him?”

  “Before I decide whether to be morally superior,” Miki cut in, “what are we talking about your mother wanting to do with this person? Have sex with him or just—”

  “No.” Nope. Miki was not like Irene at all. “She wants him as a student. Kind of like you and Irene. A mentor-mentee kind of thing.”

  “Except Irene was my thesis adviser when I was going for my PhD. Are you talking about that?”

  “No. But as an artist—”

  “Please. No. No ‘as an artist’ discussions. I’ve had them for two days now with your family. I’m done.”

  Toni had to laugh. Over the years, she’d learned to tune the “as an artist” discussions out. But those not used to it . . .

  “How hard can it be to entice this boy into your mother’s tutelage?” Irene demanded. “She’s Jacqueline Jean-Louis, not some desperate wannabe who still dreams of having a music career.”

  “I love how you manage to sound arrogant for other people. And I don’t think the problem is the kid. It’s his mother. She’s one of the Kuznetsov wild dog Pack and extremely protective of him. Word is she decked some teacher that tore into him after a competition. Her mate had to drag her off the guy. So Mom’s proceeding with caution.”

  “Actually . . . that sounds like a solid plan.”

  “Yeah. I thought so
.”

  Holding his goddaughter on his lap, Ricky asked, “Perhaps you can explain to me this obsession women have with talking things out? I mean, what is there to talk about?”

  “You know how your sister is. She assumes you’re still broken up over being dumped by Laura Jane.”

  “I was eighteen. She was nineteen. And kind of a,” he covered his goddaughter’s ears with his hands, “whore.”

  “Now, now. That’s my cousin, Ricky Lee.” When Ricky just stared at him, Bobby shrugged. “Who is kind of a whore.”

  Ricky dropped his hands. “She was seeing at least two other guys when she was going out with me. At the time, it broke my heart . . . but also at the time, when my momma didn’t make blueberry pancakes on Sunday mornings like she promised, that kind of broke my heart, too.”

  “Not really a deep wolf, are ya, Ricky Lee?”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “The worst part is that now I’ve got to call your friend tomorrow, Aunt Irene, and tell him I can’t take that job after all.”

  Irene frowned. “My friend?”

  “Mr. Weatherford. Who hired me to work in his office this summer.”

  “Oh. Right.” Irene dismissed that with a wave of her hand. “I told him chances were extremely high you wouldn’t take the job and he should have a ready backup because he would probably find out last minute.”

  Toni sat up straight. “Wait. You knew Mom was going to stay here for the summer?”

  “No. Not at all.”

  “But then why—”

  “You always have to cancel your plans because of your family. Last summer it was because you went with Cooper and Cherise to Italy and then China for their concerts. The summer before that the entire family stayed in England because of Oriana’s scholarship with the Royal Ballet. And the summer before that—”

  “Okay. Okay.”

  “You always take these jobs and you can never actually do them—even though you so clearly want to—because of the loyalty you have to your family.” She shrugged casually. “When you think about it, you’ve given up your whole life for your family.”