“Dad.”

“I’m just saying that you take a risk when you start mixing breeds.”

“This from the man who used to spend entire nights outside bars so he could get tickets to Dead Kennedy concerts? Where did my soulful, liberal dad go? Besides,” she added, “we both know that being a purebred doesn’t ensure anything, either.”

And to illustrate, she looked over at the best friend she’d entrusted her siblings to the last few days.

Livy had shifted and was now high up in the tree, fistfighting with a squirrel. Livy’s shifted form was huge compared to a full-blood honey badger, but a hundred-pound ratal shifter was still tiny compared to the lion, tigers, and bear shifters. Of course that difference never stopped Livy from taking all of them on at one time or another.

Honestly, Livy would fight the Queen of England if she thought the woman stared at her too long.

“That’s not a fair comparison,” her father argued, but he winced when Livy lost interest in the squirrel and discovered a beehive a few branches higher.

“Uh-oh,” her father sighed out. “I’ll get the Benadryl cream from the first aid kit.”

He headed toward the back door, but stopped, faced her, and smiled. “I love you, baby.”

Toni grinned at her father’s warm words, ignoring the sound of a breaking tree limb as Livy slammed into the ground, the hive caught between her claws.

“I love you, too, Dad.”

He started off again, giving a wave. “Good luck at work today.”

As her father walked into the house, Ricky Lee was walking out.

“Mornin’, Mr. Parker.”

“Whatever,” her father growled, before moving around the wolf and going into the house.

Ricky Lee looked at her and grimaced. She felt for the guy. No one wants to face down a canine father after he knows you’ve been fooling around with his daughter.

“Guess he’s mad, huh?” Ricky asked once he stood in front of her.

“Just worried about me. I tried to tell him it’s not serious, but he doesn’t believe me.”

“Of course he doesn’t. I don’t believe you.”

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not hung up on you, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“I wasn’t. But what if I’m hung up on you?”

Toni took a step back. “But you’re not.”

“I told you he was.” They both looked over at now-human Livy, her hands still claws, her naked body covered in marauding bees while she gorged herself full of larvae-filled honeycombs. “You canines never listen to me, even though I’m always right.” She held her claw out, opened it. “Larvae?”

Toni shuddered. “No. But thank you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Ricky led Toni and Vic Barinov down the hallway to his hotel room. “A quick shower and change of clothesand we can head over to the Sports Center.”

“Or I can just go by myself and meet you two there lat—”

“No,” both men said.

Ricky opened his door and walked in, holding it open for Toni and Barinov.

“Until we find out why someone broke into your house,” he told her, “you might as well get used to both of us tailing you around.”

“I don’t need protection. My siblings do.”

“And they have it.”

Toni faced him. She’d been a little short with him since he’d told her he might, possibly, just be getting kind of serious. Whew. It was a real good thing he hadn’t told her he was definitely serious about her. She would have really been pissed then.

“Look, I don’t know these people watching my brothers and sisters. I don’t know what kind of job they do, if they’re the right fit for the particular sibling they’ve been placed with—”

“The right fit? They’re bodyguards.”

“I found that lion male crying.”

Ricky cringed, but Vic said, “It’s not his fault.” He shook his head. “It was those weird little twin girls.”

Toni glared. “Those weird little twin girls are my sisters.”

“Well, their Russian is excellent, but using it to convince that lion they are speaking in tongues and the End of Days are upon us does seem cruel.”

Toni rubbed her forehead. “I’ll talk to them and tell Kyle not to keep showing them The Omen!”

Ricky threw his bag aside before asking, “The original or the remake?”

“The original,” she replied, walking around his couch and dropping back onto it. “The remake just didn’t work for me. Although my favorite Gregory Peck movie will always be Boys from Brazil.”

“I never saw that movie,” Ricky said as he wondered why Vic kept silently motioning to the other bedroom in Ricky’s two-bedroom suite.

Toni gasped. “Seriously?”

Vic made an hourglass motion with his hands, and Ricky realized that the hybrid was telling him there was a woman in his other bedroom. He immediately thought of Laura Jane and began quickly moving toward the room so he could get her out. Now.

“It’s such a great movie,” Toni went on. “You’ve gotta see it.”

Ricky was only a few feet from the bedroom when a voice from inside said, “It is a good movie.”

Ricky stopped, froze really, and stepped back. “Momma?”

Toni stood as the She-wolf walked out of the bedroom. She was tall, powerfully built just like her son with a face that would be pretty if she smiled more. Something told Toni this woman didn’t bother to smile. The question was why. Was she miserable for a reason? Or did she just like being miserable? Toni wasn’t quite sure . . . yet.