Home > In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2)(8)

In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2)(8)
Author: Shelly Laurenston, Charlotte Kane

Blayne continued to backflip her way down the hallway. She didn’t know why she felt the need to backflip down the hallway of the Jean-Louis Parker home, but she did! And it felt awesome! Look how in shape she was. Even after giving birth to several giant children, but her shit was still tight, as they say! She should have gone into gymnastics. She would be a great Olympian! A totally positive representative of the United States of America! Why? Because Blayne loved everyone!

She loved animals! She loved shoes! She loved tiny furniture that people put into fancy dollhouses! She loved everybody! She loved the world! The world!

Blayne’s legs slammed into something and she wouldn’t have thought much of it except that she heard an “Oooof!” that surprised her. She landed on her feet and turned to see Shen Li holding his head.

She knew Shen! She loved Shen! He was a giant panda! How cool must it be to be a giant panda? Pretty cool, Blayne bet.

“What are you doing?” Shen asked, rubbing the entire left side of his face and glaring at her.

“Backflips!” Blayne told him. “I love backflips!”

With his hand still pressed against his face, the panda stared at her, eyes narrow. “Are you okay, Blayne?” he asked.

“I’m great!” Blayne turned and spotted someone standing alone in the massive ballroom entrance. She immediately felt bad for that person. They were so small and alone. But they weren’t really alone! Because Blayne was here!

Grinning, Blayne charged over to the stranger and threw her arms around the woman’s shoulders, squeezing her tight from behind.

“Hi! I’m—aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh-hhhhhhhhhh!”

* * *

Shen’s head was still throbbing from where Blayne’s feet had hit him, but in the haze of his pain he knew something was wrong with the always pleasant wolfdog. Her energy level was off the charts, which was saying a lot because Blayne always had a high energy drive.

Still, he wasn’t exactly surprised when she suddenly caught sight of a very quiet Stevie, gazing forlornly into the ballroom. He—sadly—also wasn’t surprised when Blayne ran up behind her and threw her arms around Stevie to give her a big hug. Blayne had become known for her attack hugs. And Shen definitely wasn’t surprised when Stevie’s response to that hug was to scream hysterically.

The girl panicked at squirrels. Squirrels. Non-attacking squirrels too.

So getting grabbed by some random stranger would make her panic, but Shen never, in a million years, ever expected what happened right after Stevie began screaming.

With Blayne on her back—and still screaming—Stevie abruptly turned, her eyes wild and panicked . . . and she began to shift.

But she shifted into something Shen had never seen before. Not ever.

The fangs came first, bursting out of her gums. He’d thought the ones he’d seen in the cabinet were terrifying. But these were worse. So much worse. Because these fangs weren’t just long, they were also wide. Rows on top and bottom. To accommodate those fangs, Stevie’s head shifted next. Her nose growing into a snout; her ears turning into just holes against her head; her neck expanding, muscles rippling.

Orange, black, and white fur exploded over every bit of skin. Giant, lengthy claws burst from her fingertips and her toes. Powerful muscles covered her legs and arms.

When she landed on all fours, Shen thought she was done. She wasn’t.

Stevie’s entire body began to grow.

And grow.

And grow.

In length and width.

In horror, Shen watched as little Stevie MacKilligan grew into . . . something absolutely enormous.

She was the color of a Siberian tiger, but she was still a honey badger. A giant twenty-foot-long and ten- to fifteen-foot-wide orange, black, and white honey badger with humongous paws.

Blayne had fallen off Stevie’s back when she’d shifted, and, in full panic mode, the wolfdog jumped to her feet and turned to run. But Stevie brought her head down and grabbed Blayne by the back of her T-shirt, lifting her off the ground. The wolfdog screamed hysterically as Stevie tossed her into the air, then caught her by the back of her T-shirt again, letting Blayne hang from one of her giant fangs.

Unable to move, Shen watched Kyle slide to a stop in front of the open door.

“Oh, my God,” he gasped.

Blayne, struggling to get loose, yelled out, “Get me out of here!”

Kyle looked at Shen. “What are we going to do?”

Shen glanced around, wondering who the kid was talking to. When he didn’t see anyone and understood the kid was talking to him, he asked, “What do you expect me to say?”

“We have to do something!”

Coop ran down the hall until he reached them, freezing when he spotted what took up most of his family’s ballroom.

And, unfortunately, right behind him was Bo “The Marauder” Novikov. Hockey pro, former child prodigy—of hockey—and well-known rude bastard.

He was also Blayne’s husband.

“Blayne!” he barked when he saw his mate hanging from Stevie’s fang. “What did you do?”

Blayne glared. “You’re blaming me for this?”

“Get down from there right now!” Novikov ordered.

Poor Blayne, still hanging from that fang, threw up her hands. “Are you fucking kidding—”

Stevie suddenly shook her head and Blayne’s T-shirt ripped, sending her flying into the far wall. But when she landed on the floor, she managed to get to her feet and attempted another run.

A giant paw slammed down in front of Blayne. She turned and tried to run the other way, but another paw ended that. Then the first front paw suddenly swiped the air and Blayne went flying again, only to be slapped the opposite way by the other paw.

That’s when Shen understood that Stevie was playing with Blayne like a house cat playing with a toy mouse. Or a live one.

Novikov growled and gold-brown hair suddenly dropped from under his white hair, passing his shoulders. A minor lion’s mane, because Novikov was another hybrid. A polar bear–lion.

The hockey pro shifted, forcing Shen to grab Kyle and Coop to yank them out of the way so the pair didn’t get crushed under the big hybrid’s bulk.

Roaring, gnashing his . . . tusks—yes, Novikov had what could only be called tusks coming from his maw—he charged into the ballroom, destroying the closed second door in the process.

“Stevie!” Shen yelled, pushing the Jean-Louis Parker brothers back before running forward. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he wasn’t about to let Novikov kill—

Shen slid to a stop, then quickly reversed course, turning and charging back seconds before Bo Novikov’s shifted body exploded through the wall.

Tossed out of the room by little Stevie MacKilligan.

“We are so fucked,” Coop said softly.

* * *

Max had stopped on the sidewalk to tie her bright pink Converse sneaker. The color matched her current hair color perfectly and she liked that.

But just as she began to stand, the roar that rattled the windows of the entire block had her head snapping up and she looked at Charlie. Eyes wide, her sister stared back and together they took off down the street to reach the house they knew Kyle’s family was staying at for the summer.

They went up the stairs and started banging on the door to get someone to open it, but then Charlie’s grizzly came up behind them and with one kick, the door flew open.

Max followed Charlie into the house. The first thing she saw was Kyle and his brother Coop. The eldest jackal had his younger brother pushed against the wall and stood in front of him, ready to sacrifice himself for Kyle, should that become necessary.

Standing in front of the damaged entryway to some massive room stood Shen, Kyle’s hired protection. The giant panda was always calm in the face of trouble, but he was definitely out of his depth now. And it showed. His eyes wide, his entire body tense. All those muscles straining and rigid. He was ready to react to anything that might happen.

And a few feet away from Shen was . . . something. Something white and gold with tusks. And out cold.

She pointed. “What the fuck is that thing?”

“Seriously?” Shen barked, abruptly snapping out of his shell-shocked state. “That freaks you out?”

“No need to get terse,” she complained, moving past him. “And at least my sister doesn’t have tusks.”

Having made her point, Max headed to the entryway, Berg by her side. But she stopped him, grabbing his forearm. “Not you.”

“Why not?”

“You’ll just freak her out more.”

“But—”

“Go to the wild dog house across the street,” Kyle told Berg. “Don’t let any of them come over here.”

“Come with me,” Berg suggested to Kyle as he headed to the front door.

“I won’t leave my friend,” Kyle stated dramatically, making Max roll her eyes.

“Now you decide to care about others?” Coop demanded.

Berg headed out alone and Max went to the entryway to stand by Charlie, where they watched their baby sister.

What could they say as they watched her curled in a ball on the floor, a human being caught between her front paws, that she kept . . . gnawing on before she occasionally flipped her prey into the air, caught her, and then rolled to her side again so she could gnaw and toy with her captive.

It seemed the woman was still alive and . . . and . . .

Max narrowed her eyes and stepped farther into the room. She knew that woman. She knew her!

* * *

Charlie was desperately trying to figure out how she could keep her baby sister out of prison for murder when Max suddenly stepped farther into the room and pointed in Stevie’s direction. She thought she was going to order Stevie to put the woman down this instant but instead Max accused, “You hugged her, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”

Not dead—thank God!—the woman yelped, “I was just saying hi! Now get her off me!”

“I should let you burn! You deserve it!”

   
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