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The mom with the lupine vibe looked in my direction, our eyes locking. She squinted, then frowned. Picking up my feral vibe? Worse, she tapped Ivan on the shoulder and pointed at me.

“Really?” he asked, turning in my direction.

The woman nodded. Now, they both squinted at me, suspicion in their eyes.

I froze, debating between continuing forward to talk to them and springing toward the elevator to flee. But I wasn’t, I told myself, doing anything wrong. I had an invitation to the party.

That didn’t keep me from breaking out in a sweat when they walked toward me, the mom gripping her daughter’s hand. The girl complained and waved her phone, a game open on the screen. But when she noticed me, she lowered it and grew quiet.

“Good evening,” Ivan said. “May I get you a drink refill?” He waved to my glass, which I’d barely sipped, then lowered his voice to add, “Or something to eat? A raw steak perhaps?”

The woman’s eyebrows didn’t so much as twitch. She eyed me up and down, as if she thought we might fight later and wanted to gauge my strengths and weaknesses.

I hoped that wouldn’t be necessary. I couldn’t imagine that turning furry in the middle of a cocktail party would help me get a new property-management job. If anything, I needed a kitchen faucet to spontaneously spring a leak, giving me the opportunity to fix it in front of everyone.

“I only eat raw food that I’ve hunted myself.” I kept myself from glancing to the side to check on Jasmine. If the werewolf mom hadn’t noticed my niece yet, I didn’t want to draw attention to her.

“What’s your favorite prey?” The woman had a sultry voice.

“Elk.” I eyed her. “What’s yours ?”

“Javelina is delicious.”

I blinked. Where was she hunting javelinas? “I haven’t tried that before.”

“It’s a sweet, mild, pork-like meat. Javelinas are common in Arizona.”

I didn’t know what to make of the factoid until Ivan said, “My half-sister, Izzy, is visiting from Scottsdale.” He tilted his head toward her. “I got her into real estate a few years ago, and now she owns more than two hundred units in the Phoenix metro area.”

“I bet she doesn’t have any trouble collecting rents,” I said.

“I don’t.” The mom—Izzy—flashed her teeth, including canines as sharp as mine.

The kid looked back and forth between us.

“What brings you to my little event…” Ivan trailed off, prompting me for my name.

“Luna Valens.”

“You haven’t been here before, have you?” Ivan gave his sister a significant look.

Only then did I realize he might believe I’d had something to do with the theft. A werewolf might naturally be interested in werewolf artifacts, after all.

“I haven’t, no. I work for the Sylvans.” I looked around and was relieved to spot Rory and Kashvi stepping off the elevator with Bolin.

I lifted a hand toward them, but Bolin beelined straight for Jasmine without noticing me. Fortunately, Rory saw me and returned the wave. Some acquaintance of Kashvi’s intercepted her and drew her off, but Rory walked over.

“Evening, Ivan, Luna. Bolin said you might come.” He nodded to me before looking toward the host.

“This is my half-sister, Izzy,” Ivan said to Rory. “Good of you to come. Davenport is pitching your property to his syndicate. You might be amused and also offended by what he sent out in his email.”

“That it’s at under-market rents, poorly maintained by uncaring and inexperienced management, and a candidate for an easy value-add resulting in a huge profit?” Rory asked dryly.

“It’s also haunted, I understand.”

Rory snorted. “Luna has been our property manager and on-site maintenance person for more than twenty years. It’s a cash cow. If anything, new ownership may have trouble keeping it quite as profitable.”

“Is she also the reason it’s haunted?” Izzy twitched her eyebrows.

A touch of panic welled up in me as I realized this woman whom I’d never met—this werewolf from Scottsdale—could out me to my employers.

I’d considered before that Rory might already know about the lupine aspect of his property manager, especially since he had paranormal blood himself, but he didn’t radiate as much druidic power as his son, so it was possible he’d never detected my magical nature.

And Kashvi… She was completely normal. I couldn’t imagine her stern no-nonsense business acumen approving of something as mercurial as a werewolf working for the family business.

“It’s not haunted,” I hurried to say. “Those are rumors started by some of the tenants. They walk around at night with ghostometers.”

“But there have been incidents there.” Ivan raised his eyebrows. “People killed.”

“It’s near the freeway and not in the best neighborhood.” A bead of sweat slithered down my spine. “But the police are helping out. There’s been a patrol car there lately.”

Rory looked at me. Maybe I should have shut up. This wasn’t the kind of networking I’d wanted to do here.

“I handle what I can myself,” I added, feeling self-conscious since others around us had stopped talking to look over. “When thugs on motorcycles come by, I’m not above hurling the landscaping rocks at them to keep them from vandalizing my tenants’ cars.”

Izzy surprised me by laughing. “I’ll bet.”

“Motorcycles, you say?” Ivan’s eyes had sharpened. Had parking-lot footage here caught his thieves departing on Harleys?

The girl tugged on her mom’s sleeve, pointed at Bolin, and walked off in that direction. Great, the rest of my paranormal allies were going to be outed as well.

“Davenport tends to email his people the same spiel no matter how well-run a complex is,” Ivan said. “He’s better at gathering money from his LPs than actually improving properties and giving anyone great returns.”

“I’ve noticed,” Rory said.

“What brings your property manager here?” Ivan looked at me, though he directed the question to Rory.

“She wants to start investing in real estate herself is what my son said,” Rory said, surprising me. Was that what Bolin had told his parents to snag invitations for us? Maybe people fishing for jobs weren’t encouraged to come.

“Investing in what?” Izzy asked. “Suitable lairs for her pack?”

I was starting to dislike her. “I’m hoping to start with a four-plex so I can get a conventional thirty-year loan.”

“You’ll have plenty of experience with leasing and maintaining it.” Rory gave me a friendly nod. “And keeping it secure.”

I kept my face neutral, but was that an implication that he knew about my werewolf status? It made me uneasy. How many of the newspaper articles had he seen? The one that hypothesized a wolf might have killed those thugs?

“I do live there,” I said. “It’s important to watch out for your home.”

“Indeed,” Rory said.

“Security?” Ivan looked me up and down. “Because of your heritage? Or do you practice martial arts?”

“I… absolutely.” I’d had those six lessons at the dojo, after all. “I’m becoming an expert on keeping apartments secure, and I have allies who can help me find those who do my tenants wrong.”

At the least, Rue could give me dreadful-tasting potions to assist in that capacity.

“Oh?” Ivan’s eyes sharpened with interest. “Like a skip tracer?”

He seemed to have gone from suspecting me to wanting to know more about my abilities for some other reason. Was he looking for someone to get his stolen artifact back? If only I could. But I’d yet to retrieve even my own sword.

“She probably tracks them through other means.” Izzy touched the side of her nose.

“I can find people,” I said, not going into my means. “I’m mostly the muscle, but I have an acquaintance who can make all manner of things that assist with the finding.”

“The muscle?” Ivan asked with amusement, eyeing me again—specifically my five-foot-three inches and one-hundred-ten pounds, I had no doubt.

“Our businessman, Ed, has seen her carry one-piece toilets up flights of stairs,” Rory said. “He remarked on it some time ago.”

I didn’t know if that was his way of backing up my assertion or letting me know he’d been aware for a while that I had paranormal attributes.

“Carrying toilets ?” a woman whispered, catching the conversation as she and a friend passed. They wore enough gold and diamonds to make Mr. T sigh with envy. “Is she the plumber?”

“I don’t know, but someone should tell her that mock turtlenecks are deserving of mockery.”

They giggled as they continued on. I rolled my eyes. I’d come to a party of high-school cliques, not a real estate networking event. So far, I’d hardly heard anyone speaking of available properties, tired landlords, and capitalization rates.

“Could I consult with you on something, Ms. Valens, was it?” Ivan asked.

“One moment.” Izzy gave me an edged smile and pulled her brother aside. No doubt to fill him in more deeply on my lupine nature—and what all that entailed.

“Don’t listen to them.” Jasmine appeared, stepping close enough to poke me in the arm, a new mocktail in her hand, this one colored Jello-green. “Turtlenecks are back in style this winter. Those girls aren’t as trendy as they think they are.”

Rory arched his eyebrows. Jasmine offered me a discreet thumbs-up. I didn’t know if it was to encourage me to feel better about my fashion choices or because she approved of the high-powered people I was networking with. Too bad Izzy was about to get me kicked out.

“Evening, ma’am,” Rory said to Jasmine.

I realized they probably hadn’t met before.

“Mr. Sylvan, this is my niece, Jasmine Marino.” Taking a cue from the earlier conversation, I didn’t mention that she hoped to score a job. “She works in real estate financing.”

“Here looking for clients?” Rory asked.

“I don’t have my own lending business yet. I mostly help out my mom. And Luna.” Jasmine smirked at me.

“She needs financing assistance?”

“She needs all kinds of assistance.” Jasmine straightened my hem and flipped hair off my shoulder.

“I can imagine. I—” Rory noticed something across the room.