Vic got out of bed and headed to the bathroom for a quick shower.

“Do you even know where she’s going?” Shen asked.

Vic stopped and faced the panda. “I have no idea.”

“I checked your cabinets before I came up here . . . no Livy.”

Disappointed to hear that, Vic said, “I’ll try the Sports Center first.”

“Good plan. You also going to give Dee-Ann a heads-up about what’s going on?”

Vic thought on that a moment before deciding, “Probably not.”

“Probably also a good plan. That woman terrifies me.”

Livy walked into the private dining room of the Van Holtz Steak House in Midtown and dropped into one of the chairs around the big table.

There were already six people in attendance. Blayne, Gwen, two older felines, plus the future grooms, Lock MacRyrie and Bo Novikov, whom Livy knew through her work with the Carnivores hockey team.

Blayne waved at Livy from across the table but before she could speak, the wedding planner, a She-tiger whom Livy had heard was the mother of Cella Malone, leveled bright gold eyes on Livy.

“Well, well. If it isn’t the overpriced wedding photographer. Glad you could join us.”

“Barb,” Blayne said to the feline. “You promised to be nice.”

“I don’t like it when my clients are taken advantage of.”

“Livy would never take advantage of me! She’s one of my closest friends!”

Barb shook her head. “Blayne, you say that about everybody.”

“Because it’s true.” She grinned. “People love me.”

“I can’t believe you’re okay with this female’s outrageous cost, Bo.”

“I know she’ll be on time,” Novikov said flatly. “That makes her worth every cent. Now if I could just get the rest of this wedding on some kind of schedule—”

“This is going to be fun, Bo,” Blayne argued. “I’m not turning it into some kind of nightmare event so you can feel we’re on time.”

“I don’t think I’m asking for a lot for this thing to at least start at a certain time.”

“This thing is our wedding.”

“It sounds like it’s going to be complete chaos. Chaos!”

Livy didn’t really pay attention to the bickering. Instead, she was busy staring down the She-tiger across the table. The lioness beside her—Gwen’s mother, whom Livy had met at one of the derby bouts—watched silently, but Livy could tell she was happily anticipating a good fight.

“You’re being unreasonable!” Blayne yelled at her mate.

“I’m being unreasonable? By expecting some order out of what’s quickly turning into an insane event?”

The She-tiger, stillstaring at Livy, suddenly raised an eyebrow. A move that Livy found . . . offensive.

So, in a calm, reasonable way, Livy scrambled across the table, her fangs out, her claws leaving gouges in the shiny wood.

She nearly had all those fangs and claws embedded in the roaring She-tiger’s face when big grizzly bear arms wrapped around Livy and yanked her off the table. Lock, like most grizzlies, was surprisingly fast and smart, pinning her arms to her sides so that she couldn’t claw at him or anyone else.

As Livy hissed at the She-tiger, and everyone stared at her, Bo Novikov nodded his head. “Livy’s right. This meeting is taking too long.”

Now everyone looked at Novikov, watching as the seven-one hockey player stood up. “I’ve got training.”

He walked out and Livy decided that was a good idea, too. She pulled away from MacRyrie. Picked up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder.

“Send me a schedule of when you’ll need me there,” she told Blayne and Gwen. Then she walked out of the restaurant.

Once outside, Livy debated where she should go next. The fact that she hadn’t been able to get into it with that She-tiger left her feeling . . . empty.

So Livy did the most unreasonable thing she’d done in a very long time . . . she went home.

CHAPTER 10

Livy pushed on her apartment door. She had to push hard . . . because there was a body in front of it.

Using her shoulder, she shoved and one of her cousins finally rolled away, allowing Livy to walk in.

She stepped over bottles of beer, wine, vodka, and whiskey; nearly empty bags of junk food; and puddles of vomit and blood. Yet Livy didn’t understand just how bad this party had gotten until the king cobra slithered across her feet.

They’d brought in poisonous snakes. A honey badger–shifter delicacy, which Livy wasn’t against now and then. Yet she was relatively certain her neighbors didn’t want to go to their bathrooms to find king cobras slithering out of their toilets.

Livy walked through her living room and down the short hallway to her kitchen. She stopped in the doorway. Melly was passed out on the floor, a half-eaten puff adder lying across her stomach.

Crouching down beside her cousin, Livy gently pushed the hair out of Melly’s face. “Melly? Honey? Can you hear me?”

Slowly, Melly opened her eyes, looked up at Livy. She smiled.

That was when Livy punched her in the face.

Melly came up swinging, dragging Livy to the floor with her. The rest of Livy’s cousins roused themselves from their drunken stupor to try to separate them.

Completely sober, however, Livy was able to push her cousins off and grab hold of Melly by the front of her dress. She lifted her cousin up and dragged her, kicking and screaming, to the bathroom.