It’s not—”
“Mitchell. Shaw.”
The cat flinched. “Fine. It’ll wait.”
“Good. Thank you.” Sissy stepped away from them and took a breath. Lord, this mediator thing was a hell of a lot of work and she was glad she didn’t have to do it too often. As Alpha Female it was all about keeping her calm and appeased. Much easier.
“Hey, Sissy,” Ronnie said as she walked closer. “Why don’t I leave y’all—”
It happened so fast that if Sissy still hadn’t been looking in the feline’s direction she never would have seen it. But as soon as Gwen heard Ronnie’s voice, her entire body went airborne like a suddenly uncoiled spring, her claws unleashing on both her hands and bare feet, as she flipped off the table and away from Ronnie. She caught hold of the drapes and, to Sissy’s horror, Gwen’s head snapped around about 180 degrees so that her nose aligned with her spine.
Then she hissed at Ronnie like a terrified house cat.
She kept hissing, too, until Mitch finally walked over, grabbed Gwen by the waist, and pulled her free of the drapes. It wasn’t easy and she shredded up the drapes something awful, but he finally managed it and took her to one of the bedrooms. He tossed her inside and closed the door.
With her hand to her own throat, Sissy asked, “That thing she does with her neck—”
“She’s a hybrid,” Mitch snapped. “We don’t ask those questions.” He turned to Ronnie. “Did anything happen between you and my sister while we were gone?”
Ronnie glanced between Mitch and Sissy, her eyes wide. She shrugged. “Not that I know of.”
The smile Blayne had on her face faded as Gwen stormed into their tiny, one-room office. And she cringed when Gwen’s backpack hit the floor and then Gwen dropped into her office chair as if it had physically harmed her.
Blayne placed the printed job sheet back on her desk. “What’s wrong?”
It took Gwen a minute to answer as she seethed, but Blayne could only cringe when she did. “Mitch is home.”
“I thought he wasn’t coming back until Christmas.”
“That’s what I thought,” Gwen spat out between visibly clenched teeth. “But apparently, their plans changed. And now he’s home.”
“What did he say?”
Gwen’s expression said it all, and Blayne could only shake her head. “We both knew he wouldn’t take this well. We both knew he was going to be an asshole. That’s what Mitch does when it comes to his baby sister. But this doesn’t change anything, Gwenie. You’re here, contracts are signed, there’s nothing he can do.”
But instead of Gwen agreeing with her, she only sat up and said, “I need that job information for today.”
Blayne covered the job order with her hand. “Forget it. You can do it tomorrow or something.”
“No. I’ll do it today.”
“It’s in Jersey.”
“I don’t care.”
“Sweetie, wait until tomorrow. When you’re in a better mood and don’t look so pissed off and you’re maybe wearing a little bit of makeup—”
“Just give me the goddamn job!”
Blayne held the job order out and Gwen snatched it out of her hand. “I’ll see you later,” she said before she picked up her backpack and stormed out of the office.
Waiting until she knew Gwen was definitely gone, Blayne picked up the phone and dialed the in-building number. She waited until she got an answer. “Hey. It’s me. We have a problem.” A six-four, two-hundred-and-fifty-pound, big-haired problem.
“So what else haven’t you told me?” Mitch snapped at his brother as they walked down a quiet side street about four blocks from the hotel.
“Huh?”
“Don’t ‘huh’ me. You didn’t tell me Gwenie had moved here. So what else have you been hiding from me?”
“Hiding?”
Mitch stopped and faced his brother. “All right, bruh. You better…”
The brothers blinked at each other and then, slowly, they turned their heads to look down the street. There were seven wild dogs standing on the corner, facing them. Mitch recognized them. He’d had enough karaoke nights with them. They were all from Jess’s Pack.
The brothers looked back at each other and then down the opposite end of the street—where there were more wild dogs from Jess’s Pack.
But before either brother could say anything about it, Jess Ward was there, circling around them and glaring.
“What are they doing?” Bren asked out of the corner of his mouth.
“Trying to scare us,” Mitch replied.
The brothers looked at each other again, and this time they laughed. They laughed and laughed until…
“Long time no see, Mitch.”
“Aaaaaah!” both brothers screamed before Mitch spun around and glared at the pretty little wolfdog smiling up at him. And to say he didn’t trust that smile was an understatement. He and Blayne had always had a strange relationship. She was like his second baby sister. He’d protected her, bailed her out of jail, and loved to make her laugh just like with Gwenie. But he also knew that Blayne was the kind of woman who, if he were writing a horror novel, would always be the one shoving Mitch down the stairs, cutting the brake line to his car, making it look like he’d killed one of his girlfriends, while in the story none of the other characters would believe it was her because she looked so damn innocent, but Mitch would know. And although he knew Blayne would probably never do those things, he also knew, in that deep-in-his-bones way he had that he had to watch Blayne Thorpe closer than he watched those enemies who had actively tried to kill him.
“Blayne,” he said, watching her close—like always.
She nodded at his brother. “Hi, Bren.”
“Hi, Blayne. You startled us.”
“What are you doing here?” Mitch asked her, the hair on the back of his neck rising up.
“Came to see what the fuck you’re up to.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“It means my best friend was upset and you upset her.”
“I wouldn’t have upset her if she were home, in Philly. Where she belongs.”
“She belongs right where she is, and who are you to say different?”
“I’m her brother.”
“Barely.”
