“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Livy smirked. “So emotional.”

“Shut up. I’m trying to help.”

“I know. And thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“But you do understand I have money, right?”

“Not clean money.”

“It’s clean . . . ish.”

“Well, I prefer to think of you as penniless—clean or not—so that I can justify your need to live rent free.”

“I don’t need to live rent free. I just don’t like staying in one place when there’s all these available spaces I can fit into.”

“I don’t want to discuss this,” Toni insisted. “It upsets me.”

“Okay. Okay. So when do I get started?”

“Well—”

The door to her office opened—without a knock—and Ricky Reed walked in, pulled one of the chairs that sat against the wall to her desk—this one wasn’t bolted down at least—and dropped into it.

“Do you ever think to yourself,” he suddenly began, “ ‘How did I not know she was a delusional narcissist?’ ”

Livy stared at the wolf and replied, “Every day.”

Ricky focused on Livy. “Hi. I’m Ricky Lee Reed.”

“I’m Livy.”

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

Livy quickly looked at Toni, eyes wide, and mouthed, Ma’am?

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Toni admitted. She wanted to be annoyed with him about earlier, but she was having a hard time when he looked so despondent.

“My ex-girlfriend is running around telling my Pack that I ran away from her yesterday crying.”

“Did you?” Livy asked.

“No, I did not. I was just chasing her,” he said, pointing at Toni. “And if anyone was crying, it was her.”

“I was not crying. I was merely panicking.”

The wolf suddenly looked around Toni’s office. “I thought you were quittin’.”

“I had to put it off.”

“Why would you quit?” Livy asked. “This job seems tailor-made for you. Taking care of useless idiots.”

“My siblings are not useless.”

“Freddy’s not useless . . . and the twins are too young to know definitely about them yet. But the rest of them . . . pretty useless.”

“Shut up,” Toni snapped.

“You shut up.”

“You shut up more.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Excuse me,” the wolf cut in. “We were talking about me. Not y’all.”

“He has a point,” Livy kindly said, which only annoyed Toni more.

Reece Reed walked into Toni’s office—again, without asking if it was okay to come in—and threw his hands up at his brother. “I was trying to talk to you, Ricky Lee.”

“No. You and Rory were laughing at me, and I’m in too bad a mood now to sit around and listen to it.”

“Look, I told you Laura Jane wascrazy back in high school. Don’t be mad at me now because I was . . .” Reece sniffed the air. “Because I was . . .” He sniffed the air again. Then he dropped to his knees and buried his face into the side of Livy’s neck.

Livy’s body tensed. She didn’t like to be touched . . . ever. “Could you get your redneck nose off me?” she deadpanned.

“What are you?” Reece asked.

Toni briefly closed her eyes, knowing that over the years that particular question had led to all sorts of bad situations.

“Don’t be rude, little brother,” Ricky warned.

“Smell her,” Reece ordered his brother.

“I’m not smelling anyone. It’s rude.”

“Seriously, though,” Reece pushed. “What are you?”

“Your worst nightmare if you don’t get away from me,” Livy said calmly.

“Are you a hybrid?”

“No, Livy!” Toni nearly screamed when she saw her friend’s hand come up and those deadly claws explode from her fingertips. “Don’t you dare. He’s on the hockey team and he needs his eyes.”

“Then,” Livy said, staring right at the much bigger wolf, “he needs to go away.”

“Reece . . . move.”

“Yeah, but—”

“Reece!” Toni pointed at another chair pushed against the wall. “Go sit down. Now.”

Grumbling, the wolf got to his feet and stomped across the room until he could drop into a chair. “I was just asking a question.”

“See?” Livy, her claws thankfully retreating, said to Toni. “You’re perfect for this job.”

“Shut up,” Toni said with a laugh.

“You shut up.”

“You shut up more.”

“I still don’t know what you two are talking about,” Ricky complained. “And we’re supposed to be talking about me.”

“Really?” Toni asked. “Because I don’t remember that being something I agreed to.”

“Would it kill you to give me five minutes of your time after all that Chinese food I bought you yesterday?”

“I didn’t know I owed you for the Chinese food.”

Not getting the response he wanted from the jackal, he turned to her friend. And Reece was right . . . Ricky didn’t know what she was. Unlike hybrids, which were sometimes a combination of scents, this female smelled like something completely different. Not bad, like some hyenas who didn’t bathe regularly could smell. Just . . . different. She was pretty, though, with short, straight, pitch-black hair that had a white streak just off to the side, and dark, dark brown eyes. Her coloring and the shape of her eyes suggested that she was part Asian, and even though she wasn’t standing, he could tell she wasn’t very tall or lean but she was strong with wide shoulders for such a small female. There was a lot of power in that very compact body, which he assumed was why Reece was still staring at her. Well, that and he was still trying to figure out what she was.