Toni raised her hand toward Oriana, palm out. “Maybe you should calm down.”
“I want my jeans back.”
“How about I buy you a new pair of jeans?”
“I don’t want a new pair. I want the pair that belongs between these two!”
“You need to stop yelling!”
“I’ll yell if I want to!” Oriana screeched, her voice so high that the twins began to yelp and howl in response.
“I’m sorry,” Kyle interrupted, unable to help himself. “You notice your jeans are ‘displaced’”—he said with air quotes—“but not that there’s a giant hole in the middle of the grand ballroom?”
“Did my jeans cause the giant hole?” Oriana asked.
“No.”
“Then I don’t give a fuck! I just want my jeans back!”
Now the three oldest siblings muttered together, “Wow.”
* * *
They walked into the Panda Garden restaurant and all the employees called out, “Shen!”
Stevie took a step back, ready to bolt, but a moment later she knew she wasn’t in danger. These weren’t grizzlies and black bears. These were giant pandas. The cutest of all bears! As far as Stevie was concerned.
But she knew when she said that, it always annoyed Shen, so she kept the words to herself.
Shen greeted everyone in the restaurant with a wave of his hand before walking to a table and pulling out a chair for Stevie. She sat down and he took the seat catty-corner from her.
“Hiya, Shen.” Dorie, the waitress’s badge said. She had two menus in her hands.
“Hey.” He took a menu, but began rattling off a list of food without even looking at it. And all of it involved bamboo. Bamboo lo mien. Bamboo chow fat. Stir-fried bamboo. Steamed bamboo. Sliced chicken and bamboo.
“And you?” Dorie asked Stevie.
“Three orders of chicken with mushrooms and steamed rice. No honey anywhere near my food.”
“Three orders?” Shen repeated, smiling.
“I’m hungry,” she admitted.
Dorie took the menu back from Shen and walked away, then she returned and asked Stevie, “I know what he wants, but what do you want to drink?”
“Oh. Uh. Water, please. Bottled.”
“Sure.”
When she was gone, Stevie added, “I really want a beer, but . . . I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“With new meds? Probably not.”
“Exactly.”
The water arrived and, once the waitress had again gone away, Stevie pulled the bottle of new meds out and took two pills. Her doctor wanted her to take two for her first dose. “To do a hard reset of your system,” she’d said. After that, it was once in the morning and once in the evening. Always with food and lots of water.
After gazing at the pills for a long moment, Stevie blew out a breath, popped them in her mouth, and drank several gulps of water.
She put the bottle down, carefully placed her hands on the table, and looked up to find Shen watching her closely.
That’s when her head hit the table and she went completely limp.
* * *
“Holy shit!”
Shen reached across the table to lift Stevie up and get her to the closest shifter-friendly hospital he could find. But as soon as he had hold of her shoulders, she began laughing.
“Are you joking around?” he demanded.
Stevie sat back, still laughing.
“The way you were looking at me,” she said around her laughter, “it was like you were waiting for me to die.”
Shen sat back down. “Stop fooling around.”
His grumbles, though, only made her laugh harder.
Dorie came back to the table, gaze bouncing back and forth between them before she asked, “I forgot, do you guys want soup?”
“Sizzling rice with chicken,” Shen said automatically, abruptly realizing Stevie had said the same thing at the same time.
They smiled at each other and Shen felt . . . something he wasn’t used to feeling. Like this “zing.” Her smile gave him a zing. He didn’t get a lot of zings.
Stevie pulled out a folded piece of paper and slowly opened it. She sighed, gazing at it.
“What’s that?”
“A list from my doctor,” she said, smoothing it out on the table. “Things she wants me to do as well as taking my medication.”
“Tough stuff?”
“No, but ridiculous. Like she wants me to meditate.”
“I heard meditation is great.”
“It’s awesome. I make Charlie do it to help with her anxiety. But I already meditate.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.” She stared at him for thirty seconds. Shen kept waiting for her to say something and she finally did . . . “Bam! Just meditated.”
“Right. Of course.” Shen cleared his throat. “What else is there?”
“Make friends.” She looked up at Shen. “Make friends? I have friends.”
“Do you?”
“Yes. They’re all forty- and fifty-year-old scientists from China and Russia and South Korea . . . but they’re my friends.”
“Do you see them when you’re not working?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Okay. What else?”
“Casual time with my sisters.” She gave a hard shake of her head. “Is she kidding? I spend all my time with my sisters.”
“Yeah, but do you spend casual time with your sisters? Like, going out to dinner at a restaurant or binge-watching movies while lounging on the couch? Or do you only spend time with your sisters when they’re either protecting you or you guys are running for your lives?”
Again, she stared at him for about thirty seconds. Not to meditate, though. “Fine!” Stevie snapped. She again looked down at the sheet of paper. “Okay, what about this? She wants me to start exercising.” She threw her hands up. “Exercising? Me?”
“Why not you?”
“First off, I don’t need to. I’m a shifter.”
“But you have no muscle tone.”
“I do too!”
“No. You don’t. And you come from two very muscular species. Look at Max. She’s honey badger and she is one big muscle, from her head to her toes. Like a pit bull. And Charlie has those wolf shoulders. I’ve seen smaller linebackers in the NFL. But you . . . like a twig.” He tapped the table with his forefinger. “You know, this is a great place to start. Exercise. We can do that.”
“We?”
“You need friends and you need exercise. I can provide you with both.”
She grinned. “Sex?”
“Why would anyone want to have sex with a stuffed toy?”
Stevie blew out a breath. “You’re really not letting that go, are you?”
“That you referred to me as a stuffed toy? No.”
“As cute as a stuffed toy. It was a compliment!”
“I’m not going to let you make me feel bad because I’m super cute. The survival of my species relies on our super cuteness. Do you think the Chinese government would be fighting to protect us if we weren’t so damn cute?”
“Shen’s right,” Dorie said, carefully placing the big bowl of steaming soup onto the table, followed by two smaller, empty bowls. “The Chinese government adores giant pandas. Both shifters and full-bloods. In fact, there’s a port city right outside of Shanghai . . . panda only. No hunting allowed. Or bamboo stealing. Death penalty offense.”
Dorie held up a bowl of rice. “Ready?” she asked.
Shen nodded and Dorie poured the rice onto the soup. The sound of sizzling rice filled the air along with the fragrant scent of the soup.
“My absolute favorite,” Stevie sighed out.
And there went that smile again. And the zing.
That goddamn zing.
* * *
“And that was my morning,” Irene finished with a one-shoulder shrug.
Van blew out a breath. “You know, I really thought being threatened with an actual skinning would be the more interesting story. I was wrong.”
“I have to agree. And she threatened to flay you. That’s the correct terminology.”
He placed his elbow on his desk and rested his chin on his raised fist. “Because that’s the most important part of this conversation.”
“It is.” Irene leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs. Van, unable to help himself, growled.
Irene smirked. “Stop that.”
“You started it.” He lowered his arm. “So did you tell my cousin?”
“Ric?” she clarified, since Van had a lot of cousins. “Of course not. Because I knew he’d tell the psychopath.”
“He calls her his wife.”
“The biggest mistake we could make would be to eliminate Dr. Stasiuk-MacKilligan simply because she’s a giant freak of nature that could destroy half this city in record time.”
“But you’re essentially trying to turn her into a honeypot. Is that really any better?”
“Than dying at the paws of Dee-Ann Smith? Yes. And I am not turning her into a honeypot. I didn’t tell her to have intercourse with him.”
“Do you really think Wells will tell her anything?”
“You know all about wolves and bears and cats, but I know male scientists. If he thinks for a second he can impress her, he’ll tell her anything.”
“And if her sisters find out what you’ve talked her into?”
Irene shrugged. “Then we get Dee-Ann and her Irish cat friend involved. But not until we have to. As a last resort.”
She brought her hands to her face, rubbed her forehead. “I’m afraid we will have only one chance at this.”
* * *
After they gorged themselves on some of the best Chinese food Stevie could ever remember eating, they walked down the street to stop at a local ice cream place.
Stevie had been here before. Bears came here a lot but there were lots of full-humans, too, allowing her to feel much safer.