When he felt calm enough not to yell, “Why is that woman in my house?”

Bannik and Aleksei glanced at each other. Apart, they were two of the brightest men Nik knew. Predators with hearts of gold. But together…Lord, they could be stupid.

“It’s the girl from the airport,” Alek offered. Like that was an explanation.

Reena sat down catty-corner from Nik. “What girl at the airport?”

Ban grinned, “Big brother here practically tackled some poor girl at the airport cause he thought she was cute.”

“I didn’t tackle her.” He looked at his cousin who was really more of a sister to him. Her mother, for reasons no one could quite put their finger on, had shunned Reena when she was barely seven. She stopped caring for her, feeding her, or anything else. Reena wandered over to their territory and his mother took her in, raising her as one of her own. “It was an accident.”

Reena raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure. You are known for being quite clumsy.”

“Shut up.”

“Anyway, we got to this town daddy wants so bad and there she was. Struttin’ around all those wolves like she owned the place. A full-human.”

“Still doesn’t explain how she got into my goddamn house.”

“I’m gettin’ to that.” Ban scratched the scar across his stomach. The price he paid for his daughter. Tiger females were brutal lovers, but Ban loved his daughter and Nik feared for any man who would one day come into her adult life. “See, she has this little store with really nice stuff in it. Me and Alek would go and check it out…ya know…every day or so. Anyway, last time we were there, she left early and when we walked out, we smelled hyena. Which seemed strange, cause it’s wolf territory.”

Nik’s head fell back with a sigh, “I am so bored by this.”

Ban didn’t use less words, but he did talk faster. “Anyway, we go to the parking lot to see if she was okay, and she’s got this hyena female down on the ground and is crushing the holy hell outta her windpipe. Which we would have let her go on doin’, but this Clan of hyenas came out of the trees and she was kinda outnumbered at that point. So me and Alek stepped in. She got banged up a bit, but that was kinda our fault cause we kinda hit her when we leaped over her to get to the hyenas.”

“That still doesn’t explain why she’s here,” Nik roared in frustration.

“Well, we couldn’t just leave her there. Clearly them wolves were not takin’ very good care of her.”

“That’s really gallant, but both of you have quite substantially large, albeit tacky homes, so I’m not sure why her skinny ass is in mine.”

“Well, me and Alek knew you liked her too. So on the way back, we rolled dice forher, and you won.”

“It seemed only fair to include you when we were playing since you saw her first.”

Nik stared at his brothers. He prayed that there were cameras all over his kitchen and someone was going to jump out at him and scream, “You’ve been punk’d!” But that didn’t happen.

“You two do realize you’ve brought her over state lines?”

“Well, how else do you think we got from Texas to here?”

Nik lifted his coffee mug about to chuck it across the room at his brothers, but Reena’s cool hand on his arm stopped him. “What he means, you two Neanderthals, is that it’s now a federal offense. Life in prison mean anything to you?”

“We rescued her. I didn’t see any wolves out there trying to help. Ask me, she should be damn grateful.”

“She is not grateful. She’s crazy. Look what she did to me.” Nik pointed to his still oozing forehead. “And in case you’re wonderin’, yeah, this hurts!”

“Well if you don’t want her, I’ll take her.”

Alek shook his head. “No. We should roll for her again.”

“You’re right. That’d be the fair thing to do.”

“You’re not takin’ her anywhere! The only place she’s goin’ is back to her people.”

“Um…,” Kisa, always painfully shy, cleared her throat. “Actually, the town she lives in, those aren’t her people.”

“Well, that’s because she’s human.”

Kisa shook her head. “Actually, she is considered part of a Pack. Just not that Pack.” She cleared her throat again. “After I cleaned her up last night…”

“You cleaned her up?” The words were out of Nik’s mouth before he could stop himself and his brothers were all over it.

“Don’t worry, big brother,” Ban offered.

“We didn’t see her naked,” Alek finished.

He glared at both of them, “I don’t care if you did.” Yes he did. Nik looked back at Kisa, “Go on, darlin’.”

“Well, I did a little research on her. You know, to find out what we were dealin’ with. And she’s part of Alek’s little girlfriend’s Pack now.”

“She ain’t my girlfriend,” Alek barked.

“What girlfriend?”

“Nessa Sheridan.”

Nik finally grinned, “Sweetie pie Nessa?”

Alek glared at his kin, “Don’t call her that.”

“Is that how you found out about that property daddy wanted? From your little girlfriend?”

“She ain’t my girlfriend!”