Rex stared around the living room in disbelief then roared. The sound was loud enough to rattle the artwork right off the walls.

“Carly!”

Carly opened the door and stared at him, managing to look both bored and pissed-off at the same time. “What?”

“It’s twelve-thirty, and my breakfast isn’t here!” he ranted. “And neither is Stefanie! We’re leaving for Detroit in six hours, and my mane is frizzy! Tell Al to get her ass out here right fucking now!”

His daughter stared at him with all the disdain a teenager could muster. “She’s not in my room.”

“Then, where the hell is she?”

“Maybe she finally got tired of putting up with your crap and left.”

He stared at her as if she had lost her mind. “Impossible! The woman adores me!” Even if the vexing female did like to pretend otherwise.

Carly rolled her eyes and turned to go back into her room.

“Wait. Are you being serious right now? She’s not in your room, helping you with your schoolwork or brushing your hair or some other girlie shit?”

“No. I haven’t seen her since you told her to leave.”

He stilled, quieting his rumbling, hungry lion while rewinding the prior night’s conversation in his mind. “I never told her to leave.”

“Yeah, Dad, you kind of did.”

“I told her there were plenty of females who would kill to be in her shoes.”

She rolled her eyes again.

“What? It’s true. You heard them.”

“So did Alice.”

If his cub was trying to make a point, she was failing spectacularly.

“So?”

“So, you let her think she doesn’t mean any more to you than those starry-eyed, empty-headed ho-bags who scream every time they see you.”

He gaped at her. “Yeah. That’s what fans do.” He was a fucking rock star; what did she expect? For a kid who was supposed to be so smart, she was woefully ignorant sometimes. And as far as her guessing what Alice was thinking, well, she was just way off base. Alice knew she was different, for one very important reason.

“She refused to sleep with me, and I still kept her around. What does that tell you?” he shot back.

Carly made a noise of feminine disgust as she closed her door.

Rex turned around and stalked back to his room, his frown deepening with each step. He would never, ever understand females. Not his daughter. Definitely not Alice. In fact, the only ones he did understand were his fans. They adored him. Wanted to please him. They appreciated the fact that he sang for them. Played for them. Wanted to do all kinds of things to express that appreciation.

But Alice? She pretended she didn’t want to climb him like a tree and have her wicked way with him. She was his personal assistant, the most coveted position a female could have. She got to spend every day with him, taking care of him, and all without having to give him any sexual favors in return! Clearly, she had no idea the lengths he was willing to go to keep her around.

And Carly ... Carly had everything a kid could ask for. Clothes. Shoes. Jewelry. Tech. She was the envy of every teenage girl, shifter or human. She was his daughter, for fuck’s sake. But was she appreciative? No! Instead of basking in the glory, she preferred to stay in her room, reading, of all things. Studying. As if any of that stuff was important.

Ingrates, both of them.

His daughter, well, she could just sit and scowl in her room until it was time to leave. That was what she did most of the time anyway.

But not Alice. Alice needed to get over herself and get back to doing her job. Namely, taking care of him.

He grabbed his high-tech phone and stabbed at the screen. His scowl deepened when it reached a second ring, then a third, before it was picked up.

“Where the fuck are you?”

Alice’s exhale from the other end of the connection was clearly audible. “You didn’t read the note I left for you, did you?”

“What note? I didn’t see a ...”

His gaze landed on a folded note card sitting atop a notebook-sized laptop on the dresser. Alice’s laptop. She was never without it. What was it doing here? An odd feeling, one he wasn’t used to experiencing, tightened his chest.

“What does it say?”

“Read it.”

He didn’t want to. “Tell me.”

She exhaled. “I’m sorry, Rex. I just can’t do it anymore.” Then the call was disconnected.

He stared at the phone in shock. She did not just hang up on him. Stunned, he reached for the card and opened it, growing increasingly incensed as the words leapt off the paper ...

Resignation ... Effective immediately ... Schedule on laptop ... Goodbye ...

He roared again, shredding the card with the sharp claws that had extended from his right hand.

Alice really was gone. She had left him. She had left him, after everything he had done for her!

He grabbed the laptop and threw it against the wall with enough force to bury it in the plaster. Then he swiped out with a hand that had now gone full paw and sent the massive dresser crashing to the ground.

This was the kind of shit he got for being lenient. For letting her get away with things he wouldn’t tolerate from anyone else. He should have just fucked her, given them both what they wanted.

Lesson learned. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

She would be back. She didn’t realize how good she’d had it, but she would. And when she did, he wasn’t going to make it easy. No. He was going to make her beg for her job back. Crawl on hands and knees. And there would definitely be cock sucking involved.