Home > In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2)(9)

In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2)(9)
Author: Shelly Laurenston, Charlotte Kane

Shaking her head—because Charlie really didn’t know what the fuck was going on—she stepped close to Max and Charlie ordered Stevie to put the woman down.

“Stevie Stasiuk-MacKilligan! You put that idiot woman down right this instant!”

“Hey!” the idiot woman complained while she pressed her legs against Stevie’s front fangs so that they didn’t go into her mouth, “that’s not fair!”

“Shut up!” Charlie and Max said in unison.

Charlie stepped closer and clapped her hands together several times. “Stevie! Put her down! Right now!”

Stevie stared at Charlie for several seconds, but a roar from outside the room had their sister scrambling to her paws and rearing up on her hind legs, that idiot woman still in her mouth.

“Stevie! No!” Charlie cried out seconds before Stevie began burrowing up into the floor above.

If she got into the walls of the house, they might never find her. The fact that she was twenty or so feet long didn’t mean anything. She was still mostly honey badger and she could burrow like a champ. And if she was freaked out enough, they might not find her for days. Weeks. She could end up living in the subway tunnels!

Charlie’s grandfather’s house was never quite the same after Stevie had her first real breakdown and burrowed into the walls. It took many days before they could get her out, but they could hear her scratching away inside the walls, and food kept disappearing from inside the cabinets.

It wasn’t until Charlie had hidden some Xanax in balls of soft French cheese that Stevie finally calmed down enough to come back out and face her fears with her sisters by her side.

Charlie, however, was in no mood to go through that again. But before she could say anything, Max charged across the room and leaped up, grabbing hold of Stevie’s right hind leg. Of course, Max was only about a hundred and twenty pounds while Stevie, in her shifted form, was nearly two tons.

Just as Charlie started to follow after Max, a shifter with tusks—Tusks? Really?—came charging into the room and over to Stevie. He leaped up and wrapped his front legs around the lower half of Stevie—all that Charlie could see at this point since the other half had already made its way into the second floor—and yanked.

Charlie turned her body away as part of the ceiling came down with the two hybrids and poor Max.

“Max!” she yelled, making her way through the debris. “Max!”

By now, a raging Stevie had gotten to her paws and was squaring off with the tusk guy. The real problem, though, was the screaming human she had caught between her jaws and didn’t seem in the mood to give up anytime soon.

But Charlie would have to worry about that after she found out whether Max was dead from having part of a building fall on her.

Pushing aside the ceiling that was now on the floor, Charlie desperately dug. She was so focused on her task, it took her several seconds to realize that Shen was right next to her. Helping.

Brave panda.

“Got her!” Shen suddenly announced while pulling. He dragged Max out from under a giant chunk of plaster. There was blood on her face and she was covered in dust and debris, but with a sudden headshake, her eyes opened and she smiled.

“That was awesome,” she laughed, still being held up by Shen.

Charlie started to laugh with her until something hit her in the side and she went flying—

* * *

Shen pulled Max into his arms and scrambled back. He wanted to get to Charlie but first he had to get out of the way of the two raging hybrids.

Charlie almost hit the far wall when Novikov’s big ass slammed into her, but her baby sister’s very long tail reached out and caught Charlie before she could. Then she tossed her toward Shen, and he had to tuck Max under one arm so he could use the other to catch Charlie.

With both women in his arms, he jumped to the left, trying to get out of the way of the ongoing battle. He wished he could get to poor Blayne, but he didn’t see how he could without being crushed in the melee. Even if he shifted, he still would be no match for these two.

At least three tons of raging hybrid fighting over a wolfdog that just wanted to get out and away.

Honestly, he’d laugh if the whole thing wasn’t so terrifying.

Max pulled his arm off her waist and dropped to the ground. Then she lifted her big sister’s head by the chin. Charlie was unconscious, so Max slapped her. Charlie responded by slapping her back, and Shen let out a relieved sigh, knowing that at least these two weren’t dead.

Charlie tapped his arm and motioned for him to let her go. When she touched the ground, she rubbed the side that Novikov had hit and winced from the pain. Shen was guessing that something had been broken, but he knew that wouldn’t keep Charlie from stopping her baby sister’s rampage.

“What are we going to do?” he asked, raising his voice to a shout in order to be heard over all the roaring.

“Any chance you have a tranq gun?” Max asked.

“I don’t work for a zoo so . . . no.”

“We need to get Stevie to drop her prey,” Charlie reasoned. “Once we get that woman back to that thing with the tusks—”

“Really?” Shen couldn’t help but ask. “Both of you are judging my man’s tusks?”

“—we’ll be able to calm her down,” Charlie went on.

“Or we could startle her out of this,” Max suddenly interjected.

“Startling her was what got us into this,” Shen felt the need to point out.

“And startling her again might just get her out.” Max gestured to the ruined entryway. “And that woman is the one who can do it.”

Charlie turned and her frown was deep. “My God, what is she doing here?”

Shen looked to see what had the sisters so concerned and was surprised to see Kyle’s mother standing in the entryway. She appeared horrified, which seemed the proper response considering what was going on. So he couldn’t understand what the two women were talking about until Kyle’s mother took a step back, revealing her best friend, Dr. Irene Conridge.

The famed full-human scientist walked farther into the room. She surveyed the damage and then the two battling hybrids with cold blue eyes.

Crossing her arms over her chest, she waited. For what, Shen didn’t know.

Charlie grabbed his arm and started to pull him. He knew she was dragging him toward the hybrids, but he didn’t know why. What, exactly, was she expecting him to do?

Novikov threw himself at Stevie, but she turned and her tail caught him around the throat. She wrenched the pro hockey player one way, then the other. Then she began banging him against the floor. Over and over.

Shen grimaced, wondering if there was any way to stop Stevie when she suddenly glanced in Conridge’s direction and froze, mid-slam; poor Novikov hanging from her prehensile tail.

There was nothing but silence in the room, everyone sort of waiting. Waiting for Stevie to do something. And she suddenly did.

She flicked her tail, sending Novikov sailing across the room to crash into the wall at the far end, leaving a healthy dent before sliding to the floor and landing on his face.

Blayne, who’d been caught in Stevie’s maw all this time, was spat toward the other end of the room. Then Stevie turned her big body and opened her maw.

Shen girded himself for another one of her destructive roars, but before she could do anything, Irene Conridge spoke.

“Well, well, well.” Cold as ice. That was Dr. Conridge. Cold as ice. “If it isn’t the little prodigy that couldn’t.”

Shifted Stevie jerked back as if Conridge had punched her. And, in that second, she shifted back to human.

Naked and pointing her finger at Conridge, Stevie marched forward. “You . . . you!”

Conridge laughed. “Eloquent as always, I see.”

Stevie started running toward Conridge, and Shen pushed past Stevie’s sisters and caught up to her before she reached the unmoving full-human, grabbing Stevie around the waist and lifting her up. He prayed she didn’t shift again. Her weight alone would crush his sturdy panda bones to dust.

“You evil cow!” Stevie spit out, her wiggling naked body over Shen’s shoulder. The only way he could hold on to her was by gripping her bare thighs and, sometimes, her ass. “Did you really think you’d stop me? Did you really think you’d block me from getting into CERN?”

“That was a pity hire,” Conridge mocked.

“Pity?” Stevie screeched, sounding not like the emotionally wrecked female Shen had seen the last hour or so, but more like a crazy person he’d avoid on the Manhattan streets. “You arrogant cun—”

“Time to go!” Shen yelled over Stevie’s next insult, carrying her out of the ballroom. He stepped into the hallway, and Kyle—still being held back by his older brother—pointed at the stairs a few feet away.

Shen carried the still-screeching Stevie up the stairs. Although now her screeching was indecipherable. It was just angry yelling. There might be words in there somewhere, but he couldn’t make them out.

He carried her into the first empty room he found and kicked the door closed. Then he placed her on the floor and pushed her away from the door, afraid she’d try to charge it. She didn’t. Instead, she yelled, “Pity? I was a pity hire?”

Shen thought a moment before replying, “Soooo, we’re just not going to discuss the fact that you can turn into a one-ton, tiger-striped honey badger?”

“That’s right!” she immediately barked back. “We’re not going to discuss that! And it’s closer to two tons.”

Shen nodded. “Okay then.”

chapter FOUR

Charlie helped Stevie’s cat toy to her feet. “Are you okay?” she asked, wincing a little when dark brown eyes lashed over to her.

“No,” the woman snarled. “I am not okay.”

“You’re still alive,” Charlie said, trying to sound helpful. “That’s good, isn’t it?”

The woman started to speak, stopped herself with a grunt, and turned away from Charlie. She went over to help the dude with the tusks, and Charlie faced her sister.

   
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