So letting Cooper and Cherise—the two oldest when Toni wasn’t around—manage him for a little while was most likely a good idea.

Unfortunately, it changed everything for Livy.

“Well, as long as you make sure Toni doesn’t get mad at me when she comes back,” she said to Coop.

“Don’t worry. I’ve got you covered.”

“Good. Thanks.” Livy walked around Coop to leave through the front door, but Coop caught hold of her arm, held her.

“Wait. Why are you here?” He raised a brow. “And why are you coming through the front door? You know . . . I don’t think I’ve seen you do that in a decade. Maybe longer.”

“It’s nothing.” She tried to walk away, but Coop gently tugged her back.

“Livy?”

“What?”

“Do you think only Toni can read you? What’s wrong? Why are you here?”

Livy lifted her free hand and dropped it. “It’s . . . it’s been a long week.”

Coop frowned. “And I’ve been tasked with taking care of Kyle. We all have problems, so just tell me.”

“It’s complicated. And I don’t have time to really tell you. I need to find a place to—”

“You can stay here.”

“It’s not just me, Coop. It’s my family. And with Kyle and Cherise here, I can’t bring them—”

“Your family is coming here?” a voice from the doorway eagerly asked.

Livy snarled. “Kyle—”

“Honey badgers? Honey badgers are coming to stay with us?”

“Kyle—”

Kyle clapped his hands together and turned in a goofy circle. “I’m so excited!” he cheered. “Honey badgers! Honey badgers! Honey badgers!”

Livy looked at Coop, but he could only shrug in confusion.

“Kyle, what are you going on about?” Livy demanded.

“Tell me your mother’s coming. Please! You think this time she’ll sit for me? I promise not to ask her to do it naked this time. But she has to wear red. She looks so amazing in red. She has those razor-sharp cheekbones.” Kyle stopped crowing long enough to look Livy over and add, “Guess you get your looks from your father, huh?”

Coop grabbed Livy’s arm again before she could go over there and throttle the kid.

“Honey badgers are coming!” Kyle yelled again. “Honey badgers!” He charged down the hallway and to the stairs. “I need to get my pencils and pad! Because honey badgers are coming!”

Livy and Coop stared at each other for several long seconds until Coop admitted what they were both thinking. “I really never saw that coming.”

Jessica Ann Ward-Smith, Alpha Female of the Kuznetsov wild dog Pack and wife and mate of theAlpha Male of the New York Smith Pack Bobby Ray Smith, was trying to get her daughter into the little T-shirt she’d purchased for her, but somehow that attempt had turned into a tugging match. A tugging match the little wolfdog was winning.

“Give it to me, Lissy!”

Laughing hysterically, her daughter dug her little feet into the kitchen table and kept pulling.

“Lissy, come on. Mommy has to go.”

But her daughter was in what Blayne called the “wolfdog zone,” where she became hyper-obsessed with just one thing. And that one thing, at the moment, seemed to be playing tug with her goddamn T-shirt.

“Auntie Jessie?” one of the other pups asked as he walked into the kitchen.

“Yes?” she growled out, still trying to snatch the T-shirt back.

He climbed up on a chair and reached across the table to grab an apple. “There’s a bunch of limos outside the house across the street.”

“Yes. Some of the Jean-Louis Parkers are coming to stay.”

“I remember them. But the ones outside don’t look like Jean-Louis Parkers.” He bit into the apple, chewed. “They’re . . . wider.”

“Tall and wide?”

“No. Just wide. Like short linebackers.”

Confused, Jess stared at the boy. The Jean-Louis Parkers were jackals, a lean breed of canine like the wild dogs. Actually, all the smaller breeds were relatively lean. The foxes, the cougars. She could only think of one small shifter breed that one would consider wide and that was connected with the Jean-Louis Parkers, and that breed was . . .

Jess gasped, her hands going to her mouth—which meant her daughter, who was still desperately pulling on the T-shirt, went flying back.

“Lissy!” Jess ran around the kitchen table. “Are you okay?”

Lissy got to her feet, threw the T-shirt at Jess. “Tug!”

Sighing, Jess turned away from her daughter and quickly

walked to the front of the house. By the time she was stepping outside, the majority of her wild dog Pack was already out on the stoop.

A few of the pups came outside, as well, but Jess snarled and the children ran right back inside.

“I do not like,” Sabina growled beside Jess, her Russian accent always getting thicker the more uncomfortable she became.

“Is Cherise still with Johnny?” Jess’s adopted son, a brilliant young violinist, always found time to perform with the musical Jean-Louis Parkers.

Sabina nodded and ran into the house. A few minutes later, she returned with Cherise and Johnny.

“What’s going on?” Johnny asked.

“Back in the house.”

Johnny, now nineteen, sighed. “I think we both have to admit I’m a little too old to—”