Freddy ran into the kitchen, a thick and, Kyle would wager, boring book in his hands. He held it up for their father to see.
“Look what came for me, Daddy!”
“What’s that?”
“Miki sent me a book about my favorite physicist, Henry Cavendish!”
I was right. Boring.
“I’m going to go bury it in the backyard!” Freddy cheered before charging toward the backdoor.
“You haven’t read it yet,” their father reminded him.
Freddy stopped, stared at the book in his hands.
Kyle’s brother was such a canine. If anything was important to him, he buried it in the backyard, which was only really annoying when he panicked, stole something that belonged to someone else, buried it in the backyard, and then refused to tell anyone where. And for such a chatty kid, Freddy really could keep his mouth shut when he felt like it.
“Why don’t you have breakfast first,” their father suggested, “read the book, then decide if you want to bury it or not.”
“It’s from Miki,” Freddy repeated as if that explained his intense desire to bury the stupid thing.
“Miki who?” Troy asked.
“Kendrick,” Oriana replied. “Aunt Irene’s mouthy friend.”
“She’s nice,” Freddy said.
“You think everyone’s nice.”
Their father pulled a chair out at the table. “Freddy, sit. Eat. You always forget to eat.”
“Oriana never forgets to eat,” Kyle joked. Although he wasn’t sure it was worth the trouble when Oriana’s bony elbow rammed into his ribs.
“Ow! Dad!”
“Cut it out.” Their father’s voice was calm, but then again, he rarely yelled at them anyway. He mostly left that to Toni.
Oriana lifted her head, her bowl of oatmeal—and Kyle’s vulnerable ribs—forgotten. Her nose twitched. “I think Toni’s coming,” she whispered to Kyle.
“What do you mean you think?”
“I’m still learning to separate smells. And give me that tone again, runt, and I’ll bite your nose off.”
“Stop it,” Troy snapped. “Both of you. Now look cold and indifferent.”
Kyle studied his brother. “You always look cold and indifferent.”
“Then follow my lead.”
They did. Kyle and Oriana sat up straight—well, Oriana had excellent posture so that part was mostly Kyle—and looked across the room, away from the back door that led into the kitchen. Yes. Toni would notice right away that she was being ignored and it would burn.
The back door opened and Toni stomped in.
“Hey, baby,” their father said while he blatantly fed that flea-bitten mongrel their mother had brought home. What was their father doing with that dog? Didn’t he have actual children of his own to care for?
The door slammed shut, and Kyle quickly saw that his big sister was angry. He immediately ran through anything he’d done in the last twenty-four hours that could cause this response, but he’d been home in his room plotting with Oriana and Troy—and avoiding Aunt Irene.
“My TV?” Toni barked. “He’s interested in my TV. Unbelievable!” She started walking through the big kitchen. “Damn wolves. I hate wolves!”
“I think your uncle Van will have a problem with that,” their father told her as she stormed through, that mongrel pressing itself against his leg. Most likely out of fear.
“Uncle Van can also go to hell.” Toni stood by the swinging door that led into the dining room. “In fact . . . everyone can go to hell!” she suddenly screamed before she threw the door open and marched through it.
After a few moments of silence from a group that was never silent, Freddy asked, “Aren’t you going to go talk to her, Daddy?”
“Oh, no,” their father replied with that big smile he always had. What did he have to smile about? “I know that rage. I’m not about to get in front of that.”
“You’ve seen it before?” Oriana glanced around, then asked, “From Toni?”
“No. Your mother. Of course, I’m usually the one causing it.” His smile kind of grew. “But not this time. Not with Toni.”
“Then who is causing it?”
“It’s not one of you, so don’t worry about it. But you three”—their father said to Kyle, Oriana, and Troy—“if I were you, I’d let that silent treatment plan lie for now. Just let it lie.”
The three of them looked at each other, then at their father and nodded.
Because being brilliant also included knowing when not to risk life and limb by annoying their already raging big sister.
Brendon Shaw kissed the back of his sleeping mate’s neck and slipped out of bed, making sure not to wake her.
Now that Ronnie Lee was pregnant, she slept a lot more and got into fistfights a lot less. Not having to wipe her blood-covered knuckles and pay off some supermodel who got a little mouthy in a bar had been a growing pleasure of his.
Naked, Brendon walked out of his bedroom, quietly closing the door behind him, and cut through the living room of the presidential suite of his hotel, the Kingston Arms. Since shifters hadn’t had one of their own in the White House since 1909, he used the suite for himself and his family.
Unfortunately for Brendon, his “family” had grown beyond what he’d exactly been hoping for.
Stopping in the middle of his living room and, sighing greatly, he looked over at the kitchen bar where one of Ronnie Lee’s worthless brothers stood, eating yogurt and staring at him.
“Mornin’.”
“I thought I made it clear to you and your idiot brothers that you were not to just drop by.”
“Now, now, big kitty. We’re all family. And family is family.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?”
Instead of answering, the wolf held up his bowl. “Yogurt?”
“I don’t want yogurt. And I told the staff not to stock my refrigerator with that crap anymore.”
Brendon had thought by not having the yogurt, he’d have fewer visits from Ronnie Lee’s Pack and family.
“You did ask them,” the wolf replied. “But we just talked to the wolves on staff and they made sure to set us up right. It was either that or we mock them with our howls at night.”
The wolf gestured at Brendon. “Guess you’re going to have to start wearing some pants to bed, hoss, once that baby comes along.”
Which brother was this again? Oh. Yeah. The middle one. Ricky. He was a little less irritating than Reece Lee and definitely not as uptight as Rory, but he was still a male canine in Brendon’s house.
“Eat your food and get out.”
“As ya like.”
Thinking about changing the locks again but knowing it would be a waste since wolves could pretty much unlock anything they wanted to, Brendon started off again. But he’d barely walked ten paces when the front door opened, and a few seconds later, another one of Ronnie Lee’s wolf kin invaded his home.
“There you are,” Reece Lee said when he spotted his brother. He stepped into the sunken living room, briefly stopping by Brendon to note, “Guess you’ll have to start wearing pants once Ronnie’s baby comes.”
“It’s also my baby, though you and your brothers seem to enjoy forgetting that part.”
“Hope your pup—”
“Cub.”
“—ain’t born with a snaggle-fang like Bobby Lee’s mixed-species cousin out of North Carolina. Pretty girl until she shifts, then it’s a whole other thing.”
“Maybe there’ll be tusks like Novikov,” Ricky suggested.
“I hate both of you.” Brendon sneered.
“Ya can’t.” Reece patted Brendon’s shoulder. “We’re all family now. Ain’t we?”