is no clan territory and no individual territory, so your house becomes your territory. When you're pursuing a female, you're trying to prove that you're clever enough to get in and out of her territory."
"Aha."
"Like I said, people get really elaborate with it. It's a point of pride. And every clan has their own traditions. Rats are all about food. When Robert, the rat alpha, was trying to get Thomas to notice him, he stuffed his mattress with M&M'S. Direct, but it worked. They've been together for twelve years now. Wolves are all about class and propriety. Let's take Jennifer, the wolf alpha. She has all of those sisters - I think there are six of them altogether - and they meet twice a week for tea. They're English. She happened to mention to one of her friends that her dishes were all chipped and mismatched and she needed a new set. Daniel was courting her at the time. Wolves got that perfect memory thing. Apparently he broke into her house and replaced all of her dishes with an antique set in mint condition. She came home, opened the cabinets, and found everything exactly the way she had arranged it, every cup, every plate, nothing even an inch out of place. Except everything was brand new. She had a cup and a plate in the sink, and he even replaced those and filled them with water exactly the way he found them."
Raphael shrugged. "I thought it was a bit dry myself, but wolf girls raved about it for years.
So classy and elegant and so sublime . . ." He rolled his eyes.
I couldn't resist. "What do boudas do?"
"We try to be funny." His eyes sparkled. "My mom had to go out of town, and while she was gone, my dad glued all of her furniture to the ceiling."
I pictured Aunt B walking into her house and finding all of her furniture upside down on the ceiling. Oh God. I couldn't help grinning. "What did your mom think about that?"
"She was pissed about the cat."
I stared at him. "Your dad . . . ?"
"Oh no." Raphael shook his head. "No, he didn't glue the cat to the ceiling - that would be cruel. But she had this wire-cage cat carrier, and he glued that to the ceiling and stuffed the cat into it."
I saw where it was going, but it was too good to interrupt and I tried to hold the laughter in.
"The cat got pissed off and peed all over the place, and because the carrier was upside down, it went straight through the bars. The ceiling fan was on at the time, and the draft made the pee into a sort of mist . . ."
I lost it and doubled over.
Raphael was grinning. "He tried to clean it up, but it got all over the carpet. It was a slight miscalculation on my dad's part. He wasn't a cat person, you see."
"That's hard to beat," I finally managed.
"Yeah."
"Are you going to do something for Andrea?"
His face took on a sly look. "I've been thinking about it. It would have to be really good."
I finally got the last laughter out of my system. "What do cats do?"
Raphael shook his head. "Cats are weird. There is no telling."
We lapsed into silence.
"So what did Curran do?" he asked finally.
I gave him the look designed to communicate the threat of certain and immediate death.
He shrugged it off. "Tell me. You owe me for coming with you on this trip. I could get hauled before Curran for aiding you and the cat."
"I never said I was helping Jim."
Raphael spread his arms. "Come on. I'm not an idiot. So what did the Beast Lord do?"
"This doesn't go any further. I mean it."
He nodded.
"He's been breaking into my place and watching me sleep."
A frown troubled Raphael's handsome face. "A bit straightforward. I wouldn't expect Curran to pull something elaborate, but that's too basic even for him. Has he done anything odd?
Rearrange anything?"
"No."
The frown deepened.
I tapped my fingers on the wheel. "The whole point of the exercise seems to be letting the woman know you're coming into her territory and escaping unharmed."
Raphael nodded.
"I don't think Curran was ever planning on my finding out he was watching me. It just sort of slipped out. So what is the point of being clever if you don't let the woman know you're clever?"
"I don't know." Raphael looked at me helplessly. "I don't have a clue what's going through his head."