“Miss Janie... I... uh... ”

“Lord, stop your stuttering, girl.” She smiled... sort of. “I always did make you nervous. The dog in you just wants to run away, don’t it?”

She was right. Where Jess ran from the other She-pups because they’d outnumbered her and she’d gotten tired of getting her ass kicked, she outright avoided Miss Janie. Even though the female had never been anything but polite and somewhat kind, there’d always been something about her—that lone lioness separated from the Pride because she threatened the others’ cubs.

“My, my. Jessie Ann Ward. Look at you.” She took a long drag on her dwindling cigarette. “You’ve always been adorable but now... ” She smiled... sort of. “I wasn’t surprised to hear my youngest boy locked on to you. He’d always had a mighty hunger for little Jessie. Went out of his way to protect you, course it always backfired. Set some of them girls against you somethin’ fierce knowin’ he wanted you and not them. At least he didn’t want them for the long haul. Just a quick fuck in the back of that old pickup truck he used to drive. But you were special. He wanted to give you much more than that.”

Oh, God. Please make her stop. But she knew Miss Janie wouldn’t stop until Miss Janie was damn good and ready.

“Daddy.”

“Boy.”

Must he continue to call him that? The older four at least had adequate nicknames—“Stupid,” “Idiot,” “Fuckhead,” and Smitty’s personal favorite, “Shit for Brains.” But Smitty always remained “Boy.”

“So is it true?” his daddy grumbled.

“Is what true?”

“That you’re too much of a pussy to take your woman? To take what’s yours?”

The old man had been saying that to him since the day Smitty had graciously—at least he’d thought it gracious—let Rory Reed take his Big Wheel. He knew he’d get it back, but he didn’t see a point in dragging the boy off it and beating him to death for spending more than five minutes on the damn thing. But his daddy had a fit. Calling him weak and telling him, “What? You’re too scared to take it, you big pussy?” Yes. Every seven-year-old boy should be called “pussy.”

Smitty didn’t “take it” because the Reeds were like family. Especially with Sissy Mae and Ronnie Lee being thick as thieves. But reason and logic meant nothing to Bubba Smith. Never had, never will.

“Exactly how do you think you’ll grow this Pack when you don’t even have the guts to claim your woman? Do you think them Reed boys will let you lead when they know they can take it from you at any time?”

Smitty had two options here: tear his father’s throat out and do twenty-five to life in a state-run prison like his UncleEustice, or spend the rest of the day arguing with the man for no reason.

As Smitty wondered how tough Sing Sing prison could really be, it suddenly occurred to him that he did have a third option. An option he’d never tried before.

“I don’t have to explain a damn thing to you.”

His father stared at him blandly. “What?”

“You heard me. I don’t have to explain anything to you. I don’t answer to you. Or anyone. This is my Pack. My woman. I can handle this any damn way I please. So you need to move your fat ass out of my way.”

Smitty didn’t wait for his father to do that; instead, he calmly walked around him, heading toward the elevators. Even as he felt rage, he also felt like he’d turned a corner. Like now everything in his life was different.

He needed to find Jessie Ann. He needed to find her now.

“You know, boy,” his father said behind him and Smitty didn’t stop to hear the old coot out, “it’s about time you figured that out. I guess the Navy smarted you up some, huh?”

Smitty didn’t turn around until he got on the elevator. His father still stood there, watching him. Then, the old wolf grinned at him and winked before ambling away.

The doors closed and Smitty snarled, “Bastard!” Completely terrifying the rich couple standing next to him.

The older female dropped her cigarette to the ground and pulled out papers and tobacco to roll another.

Not knowing what else to say, Jess went with polite. “And how are you doing, Miss Janie?”

“Can’t complain. Not that anyone would listen if I did.”

“And you’re just visiting? Here to see Bobby Ray and Sissy?”

“Darlin’,” she said on an annoyed sigh, “must we really stand around in this cold bullshittin’ each other. I am so not in the mood.” A surprisingly dainty tongue lashed out and swiped along the paper before she sealed it. “We both know why I’m here.”

“Uh... we do?”

Those cold wolf eyes sized Jess up in a heartbeat. “I thought by now you would have gotten my boy to mark you. What exactly are you waitin’ for?”

Feeling her temper—and that desire to throw things at Miss Janie’s big, fat head—sliding out of her, Jess said softly, “I am so positive this isn’t your business.”

“All my sons are my business, little girl. Don’t you forget it.”

“Smitty’s taking his time,” Jess finally answered in the face of those cold wolf eyes daring her for a challenge. “Apparently he’s not big on rushing.”

Miss Janie gave one of those sorta-smiles. “No, he’s not. He likes to think. Likes to plan, my boy does. Still... ”