“...the first time he snarled, I had a bit of a panic attack.” “She screamed and threw him at me.” Dez scowled at Mace. “I did not throw my son at you. I just handed him over and walked quickly from the room so I could scream into a pillow in our bedroom.” “I found her under the bed with the dogs.”

“It’s just taking some getting used to. The snarling, the hissing, the purring. Then I have to deal with it from the baby….” “Ha, ha,” Mace stated dryly.”

“Smith shrugged and came over to Cella and Crush. Another shifter, a black bear, waited to lead them out, the security cameras conveniently and temporarily turned off.“What did you really do to him?” Cella had to ask her.“Nothin’.”“Smith,” she said, stopping by the bear. “The man shit, pissed, and vomited after spending less than thirty minutes with you. There has to be a reason.”“Got me. All I did was stare at him until he told me something I could use.”The bear looked Smith over. “Did you stare at him with those eyes of yours?”“I have my daddy’s eyes.”“Annnnd, we now have our answer,” Cella announced before they made their way out of the maximum security prison and headed home.”

“Smiled at Smitty. Leered at Dez. And practically spit at Mace. Man, the staff at this restaurant really didn’t like him.”

“This conversation" - Dez rapped her knuckles against the Formica table- "is over.""Be careful, Dez," Jimmy stated earnestly."And don't sleep with him the first night," Vinny warned. "We know what a slut you can be."Dez turned to Sal. "Do you have anything to add to this bullshit?""Yeah." Sal looked down from the ceiling he'd been staring at. "Based on the structure of this building, if we removed that pillar back there, we could take out this whole block."Dez sighed.”

“He didn’t. But I didn’t beat him up,” Lock quickly added. “I…I simply threw him five…or maybe it was fifty feet into a tree.”The two friends gazed at each other for a long moment.Finally, Lock shrugged. “That does make it all kind of awkward, doesn’t it?”

“What the hell was that?” one of them asked. “Jackal,” Irene stated quietly while watching city streets turn to suburb. They weren’t taking her to a main airport but a small airstrip. One built exclusively for private planes. “Did she just call us jackals?” one of them joked. Irene grinned which wiped the smile off the man’s face. “No. I said the howl you heard was jackal.” She looked at Jenny. “They’ll be coming for you.” Jenny glanced at the men and back at her. She looked terribly concerned she had a lunatic in the car with her. “The jackals will be coming for me?” “No. The wolves.” Jenny sighed. “Why oh why do I always get the nutcases?” “Oh!” Irene pointed excitedly. “See that spot up there?” “What about it?” “That’s where it all started. Where I crossed the Rubicon.” Exasperated, Jenny snarled, “What the fuck are you talking about?” “It’s feeding time,” Irene whispered. “That’s it.” Jenny threw up her hands. “We’re so medicating her.”