Wolf with Benefits (4 page)

“What are you talking about?”

“You were planning this from the beginning. This was never just a little family getaway to Manhattan.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“You just wanted to make sure the Kuznetsovs were still in town.” Toni glanced around the beautiful room. “This is their property, isn’t it? You rented from them.”

“Who else would I trust but another canine? And how dare you call me that, Antonella Jean-Louis Parker!”

“What are you talking about? I haven’t called you anything.”

“No. But you’re
thinking
it.”

Toni shrugged. “Maybe.”

 

Ricky looked away from the TV baseball game he was watching and up at the She-wolf standing next to the couch.

“Hey, Dee-Ann.”

Dee-Ann Smith. Ricky had grown up with her in Smithtown. She was closer to Rory’s age and to this day they were still best friends. Ricky, however, thought of Dee-Ann as more of a sister. She’d sewn up his head when Rory had rammed it into their daddy’s truck door. Sewn up his face when Reece had chucked a crowbar at him. And held his hand when, at sixteen, he was waiting to find out if his onetime girlfriend was pregnant. His girlfriend hadn’t been, and Dee-Ann had been the first to hug him, then punch him in the stomach, drive him to the local pharmacy, and buy him several boxes of condoms. Something that would have started all sorts of rumors in a little wolf-run town like Smithtown if it had been any other She-wolf but Dee-Ann. She was not a female anyone wanted to start spreading rumors about. She was not a female you wanted to ever notice you.

With eyes just like her father’s—cold yellow like many full-blooded wolves—she gazed down at Ricky. “Shame’s not a big thing in your family, is it?”

“Don’t know what you mean.”

She motioned to the dog kennel in the middle of his hotel room. The Pack had taken rooms at the Kingston Arms hotel, a shifter-run establishment, when they’d first moved to Manhattan with Bobby Ray Smith. A few of the Packmates had gotten their own apartments but most stayed at the five-star hotel. Why? Because Ricky Lee’s sister was mated to the lion male who owned the place. So even though their rooms usually went for several hundred to several thousand dollars a night for the general public, the Pack got their rooms for much,
much
cheaper.

“You put your own brother in a dog kennel,” she said.

“He wouldn’t calm down. Kept trying to rip the front door open. Look at this . . .” He lifted the arm that currently held a can of Coke and showed it to her. “Tried to take my dang arm off at the shoulder. I only got two, Dee-Ann.”

“You’re whining about that scratch?”

“I wouldn’t call it whining . . .”

Dee-Ann stepped onto his couch, resting her butt on the seatback, her hands clasped in front of her. “Did you hear from Sissy Mae?” Sissy Mae Smith, the Alpha Female of their Pack, Bobby Ray Smith’s baby sister, and Ronnie Lee’s best friend.

“Nope. Why?”

“Cousin Laura Jane is coming to town. To visit.”

“And?”

“Everyone knows how she broke your heart.”

Startled, Ricky looked at Dee-Ann. “Yeah . . . when I was eighteen. I’m pretty sure I’ve recovered since then.”

“I don’t know. Your sister and Sissy sure are worried.”

“Great. Just what I need. The pity of the idiots.”

Dee-Ann chuckled. “They do seem to be making a big deal out of it.”

“Because that’s what they do. Make a big deal out of absolutely nothing.”

“Yep.”

Ricky offered his can of Coke to Dee-Ann. She took it, took a sip, and handed it back. That’s when Ricky asked, “Is Laura Jane coming here tonight? Is that why you’re here? To give me a heads-up?”

“No. She’s not coming tonight.”

“Oh. Okay.”

Dee-Ann paused a moment, then added, “But your sister and Sissy Mae are coming here to talk—”

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.