And that’s when Ricky spotted her. Easing out of the library and floating silently down the hall in her all white summer dress that flowed lazily around her ankles, comfortable sandals on her feet, and a beige messenger bag hanging from her shoulder.
She looked very different from her siblings. Her hair was blonder and long, reaching down her back. She moved differently, acted differently.
He couldn’t explain it, but there was something . . .
Toni went up on her toes and said loudly to the girl, “Where are you going, Delilah?”
It was the way they all fell silent that concerned Ricky. It was like they suddenly froze, suddenly aware of another’s presence.
The one Toni called Delilah stopped walking, and Toni’s parents and siblings all turned and looked down the hall. Slowly, Delilah faced them.
“Sorry?”
“I said where are you going?”
With a small smile that seemed permanently fixed, Delilah moved closer.
“Out for a walk,” she said. Her voice was soft and . . . lilting. Not like her siblings at all. She didn’t even seem canine. If he couldn’t smell the jackal in her, Ricky would have assumed she was a full-human. “I won’t be gone too long.”
“I can come with you,” Toni offered.
“No. I won’t be gone too long.”
“What about Cooper? Just to keep you company.”
“No,” Delilah said again. “I won’t be gone too long.”
Her voice never changed. Her attitude never changed. It was like she had one note and one note only.
“Well . . .” Toni dropped back on her heels. “Just be careful then. Okay?”
With a nod, Delilah turned away and headed off down the hallway.
The family stayed silent until they all heard a doorway somewhere deep in the house open and close.
Toni looked around at her siblings. “All right. Everyone in the living room. Calmly. Quietly. No arguing.”
She started to follow after them, but Ricky caught the back of her shirt.
“Who was that?” he asked.
“My sister.”
“Really?” They seemed unbelievably different to actually be related. “Was she adopted?”
Toni shook her head. “No. She’s one of us. Turned eighteen a few months back.” She started to walk off but stopped, glanced back at him. “I know my sister’s pretty,” she said, her voice very low. “But stay away from her.”
“I’m not interested in her.”
She nodded, then added, “Tell your brother to stay away from her.”
“Because she’s so young? Because she’s family?”
Toni studied him for a moment before replying, “No. That’s not why.”
Without another word, she walked into the living room and Ricky let himself out.
As Ricky walked down the stairs, he noticed another limo sitting in front of the house. The driver opened the back door and a woman stepped out. She was full-human but covered in wolf scent. Some wolf ’s mate. She walked toward him, stopping at the bottom of the stairs and gazing up at him with disturbing blue eyes.
“I know you,” she said. She shook her head. “No. Not you. Someone related to you. You have very similar cheek bones and eyes. That friend of Dee-Ann’s.”
“You know Dee-Ann?”
“I’m Irene Conridge Van Holtz.”
“Ric’s aunt. I’ve heard a lot about you. And I think you met my sister, Ronnie Lee.”
She looked up at the town house. “Is there a problem?”
“Pardon?”
“You work in security, right? That’s what Dee-Ann says. You and your brothers. So if you’re here at my friend’s house with the children I consider family, I’m wondering if you’re here about a problem.”
“No problem.”
“Dee-Ann’s cousin lives across the street with that wild dog pack, correct? That’s what Holtz told me.”
“Holtz?”
“My husband. I call him Holtz. Anyway, I assumed you were here to make sure there were no threats to the wild dogs.”
Ricky smiled. “That was checked out before they put down their first piece of luggage.”
“I see.”
“Anyway, I’ll let you get in and see everybody.” He again started down the stairs. “Maybe you can rescue poor Toni. It’s as if her kin descended on her like the hounds from hell.”
“Have a nice night,” she told him.
“You, too, ma’am.”
Irene watched the wolf head across the street. She had to admit, she’d always thought her mate was unnaturally large, especially around the shoulders and neck. But every one of the wolves she’d met from the Smith Pack had proved to her what unnaturally large truly was. Thick necks. Enormous shoulders and chests. And bizarrely large feet—especially on the women.
Yet what Irene really liked about all wolves was how easy it was to figure out what they were thinking or feeling just by watching the expression on their faces.
And Irene knew what she’d seen when the wolf mentioned Toni.
Irene walked up the stairs and into the house, motioning for the limo driver to put her bags on the floor by the door.
While he took care of that, she headed down the marble hallway until she found the Jean-Louis Parker family in the living room. Toni stood in front of her seated family, a notepad in her hand.
“All right,” she was saying, not realizing that Irene was there. “This will not be hard to manage. I’ll pull together schedules for everyone, and I’m sure there is a way to manage the number of rooms we have in this place for you all to get in your work or daily practices.”
“I should get the ballroom,” Oriana snapped. “I need the most space.”
“And the most mirrors,” Troy muttered.
“Don’t you have a protractor to stick in your mouth . . . pointy side first?”
“Spell protractor.”
“I can spell pathetic lonely loser!”
“Yes,” Kyle dryly cut in, “which when you hit thirty-five and your career is over you’ll so definitely be.”
“Enough,” Toni barked. And it was, literally . . . a bark. “I alone will decide which rooms go to whom and you will suck it up when I do.”
There was some angry muttering but none of the children were brave enough to challenge their sister.
Toni looked down at her notebook. “Now, let’s see . . .”
That’s when Irene realized something: Toni wasn’t going to tell them. Anything.
So it was a very good thing that Irene was known for her cold, brutal, and heartless ability to cut through to the heart of everything. If Toni wasn’t going to say anything, Irene would.
“Congratulations, Antonella,” Irene said from her spot by the big entryway.
Toni’s head snapped up, brown eyes locking on Irene.
“Hey, Reeny!” Paul called out. Since Jackie had dragged that poor jackal home so many years ago, he’d insisted on calling Irene “Reeny.” Irene had hated it initially, but then the nickname, like Paul, had grown on her.
“Hello, Paul.”
“So what are you congratulating my girl for?”
Irene feigned surprise by raising her brows. “She didn’t tell you?”
With the entire family’s attention focused on Irene, they didn’t see Toni bare a fang in warning.
“No. She didn’t tell us anything.” Paul looked at his daughter. “What didn’t you tell us?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Is it about your job interview? Did you get the job?”
And that’s why Paul had grown on Irene. Not a lot of men had that sort of hope and eagerness in their voice when asking an adult daughter about an office job that would mostly involve using a copier.