Happiness wasn’t something he was worried about at the moment. “Already done. I’m content to read books and work on my English. And play with my new dog.”

She shrugged. “Okay. But you’ve gotten rid of enough of your accent already. Chicks dig that, you know.” She winked at him.

“Kotyonok, I have no interest in chicks. This dog is all the companionship I need right now.” And he did not want Pandora trying to set him up. He wasn’t in the right head space to even think about a relationship.

“If you say so.” She waved at one of the rescue workers. “Can we go into a room with the big tan and black one?”

A few minutes later, Van maneuvered himself into one of the chairs in the visitation room, careful of the brace that kept his right knee from bending. He set the crutches against the wall as Pandora took the chair beside him.

The worker, a young man named Tim, came in with the dog. “Okay, this is Pup. Pup is a three-month-old Doberman. He’s a great dog.”

“Doberman. Huh.” Pandora nudged Van. “Told you. Big dog.”

Big was good, Van thought. He studied the dog, who seemed to be studying him right back. “Pup is no name for this dog.”

“Well, whoever adopts him can change that.” Tim shrugged. “People change the names all the time.”

“Sure,” Pandora said. “How did Pup end up here?”

“He’s from a litter rescued from an animal hoarder. He’s the only one that hasn’t been adopted yet. Probably because he’s a little on the timid side, and most people want dogs like this for protection.”

Van held out his hand to the dog. The animal stretched his neck and sniffed Van’s fingers, then tentatively licked them and gave a nervous wag of his tail.

Eager, but fearful.

It was enough to make up Van’s mind. “I will call him Grom.”

“Gum?” Pandora asked.

“Grom,” Van corrected.

“Grom?” Pandora looked at him. “You mean Gromit, like in Wallace and Gromit?”

Van scratched the dog’s head. Grom closed his eyes. “Grom means thunder in Russian.”

Tim laughed softly. “That’s a lot of name for this dog.”

“Good dog,” Van whispered as he patted Grom gently on the head. “He will grow into it.”

Tim nodded. “Does that mean I should get the paperwork together?”

“Da,” Van said, then he corrected himself. “Yes.” He smiled. “Grom is a Tsvetkov now.”

“Great,” Tim said. “I’ll be right back.”

“You’re sure?” Pandora asked after he’d left. “An animal is a commitment, you know. It’s like marriage. For better or worse, sickness and health and all that.”

“I know. And I am sure,” Van answered. It was also the only commitment he wanted, because if he was going to hole up and pretend the world didn’t exist, he didn’t really want to do it completely alone. But he also didn’t have the time or the patience for female companionship.

A woman wouldn’t like how he was right now. Sour. Unhappy. Mopey. Cranky. Purposeless. The list went on.

Pandora tolerated him, but she also knew him well enough to let him be.

He imagined someday his mood would change. But that day was not today. And it was not tomorrow either.

The flight to Georgia had been long, but it had given Monalisa a chance to skim the e-books she’d bought on physical therapy and life coaching. If rehab therapist was going to be her cover story, she had to know enough to fake her way through however long it took to convince Ivan “The Hammer” Tsvetkov to honor the contract he’d signed.

A dragon shifter. Such was her luck. Which was nonexistent. There was some irony in that, considering her father owned a casino called the Shamrock and was a leprechaun, supposedly one of the luckiest creatures alive.

So much for any of that getting passed down to her.

Finding the dragon’s house had been tricky. The Ryde driver had gone past the driveway twice. It was easy to see why. The place sat up in the hills, surrounded by trees, and set back at the end of a long, winding drive. There was no indication from the road that there was even a house at the end of the dirt road.

Well, it wasn’t truly a dirt road. As soon as it made the bend, the road was paved smooth. Almost like the visible part had deliberately been left to look abandoned.

Which was how she was feeling right now. Abandoned. She would have much rather rented a car and driven herself, but her father thought that would make it too easy for Ivan to turn her away. That she’d have a better chance of getting into the house if Ivan thought she had nowhere else to go. Maybe, but she couldn’t help but watch longingly as the Ryde driver disappeared into the trees.

Her easy out gone, she turned her attention to the house. It was nice. Really nice. And bigger than she’d expected. More like the fancy chalets at high-end ski resorts than a cabin in the hills. But then, a dragon shifter would want room.

She carried her rolling bag up the steps to stand on the front porch. Her heart in her throat, she lifted her hand and rapped on the door.

Barking erupted on the other side.

She jerked back. His file hadn’t said anything about a dog. And this one sounded large. She wasn’t super happy about that. She’d never had any kind of pet growing up, and the thought of a big dog scared her. Please don’t let it be trained to attack. But then, what other kind of dog would an MMA fighter have than something big and mean and looking to gnaw on her?