Toni’s mouth dropped open. “You made him buy you a Mercedes limo? Damn cats!” She swiped her arms to the side. “Get out of our way!”

“I’m here for you.”

“So you can show off the new limo you stole from a very nice canine!”

“No,” the cat snarled back. “I’m your new driver . . . bitch.”

Toni smirked. “That is such utter bullshit.”

“You sure are saucy today,” the wolf teased.

“Quiet.” She refocused on the cat. “The Carnivores are giving me a new car. Ric wouldn’t waste money on a limo for me, too.”

“You’re still getting a new car for your personal time. The limo is so you won’t have to worry about traffic and can work and take phone meetings. By the way, your new phone is in the back and I think you’re supposed to be on a call right now with one of the Russian teams. Something about arranging a security detail because of what Novikov did to their coach when he was on the Minnesota team. I heard it was really ugly and the team had to sneak out of Russia.”

“Isn’t it called the Soviet Union now?”

“Good God,” the cat sneered. “Russia hasn’t been called the Soviet Union since they disbanded in the nineties.”

“Well when they keep changing their name how am I supposed to keep track?” Ricky shot back. “I’m an American! Our country has only had one name!”

Toni rubbed her eyes. “I have to go.”

“You okay?” the wolf asked her softly while simultaneously giving the cat the finger.

“I’m fine,” she lied. “Today’s going to be great. You’ll see.”

“Okay.”

She forced a smile and walked to the limo. “You going to open the door for me?” she asked the cat.

“Just get in the damn car, canine.”

“Bastard,” she muttered before getting in the limo and answering her new phone.

Ricky walked into the Llewellyn Security offices and barely ducked a fist to the face.

“Bastard!”

Laughing, Ricky backed away from his irate baby brother. “Mornin’ to you, too, hoss.”

“You left me alone with them,” Reece accused. “You left me alone with She-wolves who were worried about you. Who spent the entire time talking about you and that girl you fucked ten thousand years ago. And I, big brother, was trapped in a cage—and unable to get away!”

Mindy, the cheetah receptionist, giggled but quickly turned away when Reece glared at her.

“I’m sorry,” Ricky said, and he really meant it. “I’m sorry. I panicked, and I ran. Just like Daddy taught us.”

“Don’t blame our dear, sweet daddy for this.”

“Healways said, when you hear the click of a gun, the growl of a momma bear, or the concern of a She-wolf . . . you run. You run like the Devil himself is on your ass. And that’s what I did. And you would have done the same.”

“You’re still a bastard.”

“I know. But I also know you understand.”

Ricky patted his brother on the shoulder and headed to his office. He stepped inside, ready to get to work, when a voice from the corner of the room stopped him cold.

“Hey, big brother.”

Hearing his sister’s voice, Ricky headed right back to the door, but Reece was there, grinning, as he yanked the door closed. Grabbing wildly for the doorknob, Ricky desperately pulled on it, but a strong hand gripped his shoulder and dragged him over to a chair, shoving him into it.

Sissy Mae Smith, younger sister of Bobby Ray Smith, stroked his cheek. “You poor, poor thing. How hard this must be for you.”

Ricky glowered at the Alpha Female of his Pack because he was aware that while his sister was honestly concerned, Sissy Mae knew better. But like many of the Smith She-wolves, she was a vicious little instigator. He’d never known anyone who loved tormenting a body more than Sissy Mae Smith . . . except maybe her momma or that lion Sissy Mae was mated to.

“You can’t avoid this,” Ronnie Lee said, stepping forward. Only a few weeks pregnant, she wasn’t even showing, but her emotions had been a nightmare of love and concern since she’d conceived. Ricky knew this wouldn’t last once the pup was born, but the thought of putting up with “concerned Ronnie” as Rory called her, was beginning to make Ricky Lee panic.

He loved his sister, couldn’t wait to meet his nephew, but he wanted the baby sister who, when a few years ago he was kind of sad about breaking up with some girl he couldn’t even remember now, told him, “Get the fuck over it, Ricky Lee. She’s probably already fucking somebody else by now.”

Lord, he wanted that Ronnie Lee back! Not this one who was stroking his head like he was a wounded dog she’d found on the side of a busy highway and needed to rush to a vet to have his leg removed.

“I know this is hard, Ricky Lee. I know how you felt about Laura Jane.”

“You mean when I was eighteen? And lived by my dick?”

“It’s all right. We’re here for you.”

Then his sister was hugging him. Ronnie Lee was hugging him.

Someone kill me now.

“They want what?”

Toni looked at the notes she’d barely managed to scribble as the interpreter for the Russian coach had rattled off the Siberian shifter team’s demands for the international game. She read the demands out loud again, stopping when Cella Malone said, “That one.”