CHAPTER TEN

Toni eventually forced herself out of the bedroom where she’d changed clothes and into the dining room. An array of Chinese food covered the long wooden table as well as white plates; knives, forks, and spoons; and linen napkins.

“Are you expecting company?” she asked the wolf as he came in through the swinging doors with a bottle of wine and two crystal wineglasses.

“Nope. Why?”

“This seems like a lot of food.”

He studied the table. “Really?”

Shaking her head and deciding not to pursue it, Toni asked, “Did you get the plates and silverware from a neighbor or something?”

“This stuff was already in the cabinets.”

“You’re kidding.”

“This apartment is ready to go, darlin’. Stuff for the bed, towels for the bathroom, soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, even that really soft toilet paper. Anything you could want is here.”

Toni pulled out one of the dining chairs, dropped into the seat, and planted her face on the table. She heard another chair being pulled out, and the wolf sat down next to her, turning the chair so he could face her.

“All right. Talk to me, darlin’. You’re not insane. A little crazy, but not insane. And this . . . everything you’ve gotten in the last few days . . . do you know how many people would kill for all this?”

“But,” she said, slowly lifting her head, “those people would be qualified.”

“You are qualified.”

“I’m not.” She finally admitted the truth that embarrassed her. “I’ve never had a job.”

“What do you call taking care of your family?”

“Not a job. There are loads of women and men in this world who help raise their younger siblings. There’s absolutely nothing special about me.”

When the wolf laughed at her, Toni’s hands curled into fists and she snarled, “You know what? You can take this Chinese food and shove it up your goddamn—”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not laughing at you. I’m laughing at how you don’t think what you do is work. You know, I’m part of a Pack. And when you’re in a Pack, you help take care of the younger pups. That’s just how it is. Me and my brother Rory had to manage twenty pups under the age of eleven during a Reed family reunion one summer. It was only for an hour and it was the longest gosh-darn hour of my life. Especially since the Reeds fight really rough when they’re pups. But you know what? Still easier dealing with those mean little bastards than you having to deal with your siblings. Do you know why?” She shook her head. “Because most pups are kind of stupid. Cute . . . but stupid. It’s just about keeping them from doing any permanent injury to each other. You, however, have prodigies.Mean, determined little prodigies. Ten of them. Darlin’, that’s a job.”

“Okay, yeah!” she exclaimed. “I’m the world’s best babysitter. But this job ... I was on the phone with some Russian guy who wanted Novikov in a cage and then there are all these rules about the hotel situations when the team travels. Some guys can’t room together. And every time I see the coach her knuckles are bloody and I can’t figure out if that’s a subtle threat of some kind. And then they gave me this big office and an assistant and she’s really nice even though she’s mated with a hyena and I got this laundry list of stuff to do from at least six of the players and now I’m confused because I feel like I’m their assistant and Ric isn’t even in town so I can’t ask him anything and it seems that coach doesn’t want to be asked about a goddamn thing she just keeps yelling at me because I don’t know anything and apparently that’s just not acceptable even though it’s only my first day and—”

“Okay. Okay!” The wolf took her hands and held them. “Take a breath.” He paused, then added, “Let it out. I want you breathing.”

He leaned down a bit and kept staring at her until she looked him in the eye.

“I’m going to be direct with you right now. All right?”

Toni nodded at him.

“And I’m going to say what my momma said to me once . . . you need to balls up.”

Blinking, Toni leaned back.

That hadn’t been exactly what she’d expected . . .

“Balls up? That’s your recommendation to me?”

“I’m giving you my momma’s wisdom.”

“Thanks. That’s great. I’m going to eat now. Can you hand me those egg rolls?”

“Now wait, don’t just dismiss this.”

“I’m not. I’m just deciding to eat rather than locate my missing testes.”

Ricky took the egg roll out of her hand.

“I was eating that,” she protested.

“I took it anyway.”

“Whatever.” She reached for another egg roll.

“And that’s your mistake,” he announced.

Her mouth around the egg roll, Toni muttered, “Wha?”

“Do you know what happened when I took a pork chop from my sister?” He held up his forearm and Toni winced at the scar there. “That’s from where she took a chunk out of me. Then she took her pork chop back and ate it while my mother tried to stop the bleeding. You know why?”

Toni swallowed her food. “She’s psychotic?”

“Some might say. But really she’s just a predator. That’s what predators do.”