"You really think you'd lose your job if they found out?"
"Job, hell. What would my mother say?"
I smiled. "So you can't play bodyguard."
He frowned. "You know, I hadn't thought about that. When one of the pack got hurt in public where it couldn't be hidden, Raina always used to ride to the rescue. With her dead, I don't think we have any alphas that aren't hiding what they are. No one I'd trust to guard Stephen, anyway."
Raina had been the wolf pack's old lupa before I took the job. Technically the old lupa doesn't have to die to step down, unlike the Ulfric, or King Wolf. But Raina had been Gabriel's playmate. They'd shared certain hobbies, like making p**n ographic snuff films starring shapeshifters and humans. She'd been helping film while Gabriel tried to rape me. Oh, yeah, Raina had made it a real pleasure to punch her ticket.
"That's the second time you've ignored Nathaniel," I said. "What gives, Irving?"
"I told you Sylvie is in charge until Richard gets back in town."
"So?"
"She's forbidden any of us to help the wereleopards in any way."
"Why?"
"Raina used the wereleopards in her p**n o movies a lot, along with the wolves."
"I've seen one of the films. I wasn't impressed. Horrified, but not impressed."
Irving looked very serious. "She also let Gabriel and the cats punish wayward pack members."
"Punish?" I made it a question.
Irving nodded. "Sylvie was one of the ones who got punished, more than once. She hates them all, Anita. If Richard hadn't forbid it, she'd have used the pack to hunt the leopards down and kill them all."
"I've seen what Gabriel and Raina thought was fun and games. I think I'm on Sylvie's side for once."
"You cleaned house for us, you and Richard. Richard killed Marcus and now he's Ulfric, pack leader. You killed Raina for us, and now you're our lupa."
"I shot her, Irving. According to pack law, so I'm told, using a gun negates the challenge. I cheated."
"You're not lupa because you killed Raina. You're lupa because Richard picked you as his mate."
I shook my head. "We aren't dating anymore, Irving."
"But Richard hasn't picked a new lupa, Anita. Until he does, the job's yours."
Richard was tall, dark, handsome, honest, truthful, brave. He was perfect except for being a werewolf. Even that had been forgivable, or so I thought. Until I saw him in action. Saw the whole enchilada. The meat had been raw and squirming, the sauce a little bloody.
Now I was dating just Jean-Claude. I wasn't sure how much of an improvement dating the head vampire of the city was over dating the head werewolf, but I'd made my choice. It was Jean-Claude's pale, pale hands that held my body. His black hair that curled over my pillow. His midnight-blue eyes that I stared into while we made love.
Good girls do not have premarital sex, especially with the undead. I didn't think good girls had regrets about ex-boyfriend A, when they've chosen boyfriend B. Maybe I'd been wrong. Richard and I avoided each other when we could. Which had been for most of the last six weeks. Now he was out of town. Easy to avoid each other now.
"I won't ask what you're thinking about," Irving said. "I think I know."
"Don't be so damn smart," I said.
He spread his hands wide. "Occupational hazard."
That made me laugh. "So Sylvie's forbidden anyone to help the leopards. Where does that leave Stephen?"
"He went against her direct orders, Anita. For someone as low in the pack structure as Stephen, that took guts. But Sylvie won't be impressed. She'll tear him up, and she won't allow anyone to come down and baby-sit them. I know her that well."
"I can't do this twenty-four hours a day, Irving."