Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,1

of anything.”

“Well, you shouldn’t do it,” Max debated. “You’re getting old.”

“It’s like you want a paw-slap.”

Another raised her hand to silence them, her head turning, eyes closing. She lifted her nose to the air. Sniffed.

“They’re coming,” she finally announced, her voice ominous.

Charles immediately knew who “they” were, and it wasn’t his Pack. It wasn’t more humans. It was a Clan. Not the Klan, of course, with a k. The Klan had come onto their territory once, back in his father’s time to put a stop to the “mixed-race utopia going on over there” . . . and were never seen again. But a Clan with a capital C.

Hyenas. They’d moved into the farm next door to Charles’s Pack a few years back. Thankfully, neither side gave the other much trouble, but a fight this close to territorial lines could cause all sorts of problems if not handled correctly. Especially since one of these basketball players was the half-sister of some of the hyena adults. Although her badger genes overrode anything else inside her, giving her full-on honey badger traits, the Clan still believed her to be their “property.” The way they believed all the male hyenas were their property. At least, she would be until she turned eighteen. Unless she was at basketball practice, the hyenas didn’t take kindly to her hanging out with her honey badger teammates outside of school.

Charles didn’t hesitate. “All of you go to the Pack house. Now.”

“We’re not leaving you here alone,” Max informed him.

Charles wasn’t worried. Not when he had the perfect distractions right in front of him, still trying to drag their broken bodies away. A few had already crossed territorial lines and if there was one thing this particular Clan hated more than howling wolves . . . it was human men.

“You’ll do what I tell you,” Charles insisted.

“But—”

“While you’re under my roof, Max MacKilligan—”

“Oh, God.” Brown eyes rolled dramatically. “Not the speech.”

“Move your asses,” he ordered the girls, before adding, “or I can go get your sister and she can—”

Four of the girls abruptly sprinted off toward the Pack house before Charles had the chance to finish his threat, but Max stood there, smirking at him.

“That was beneath you,” she told him.

“Was it, though?”

Max laughed and started off. But before she could disappear into the surrounding woods, Charles told her, “The new Alpha female has been making some noise about you and your sisters.”

Max stopped, but didn’t turn around. But he could see her shoulders tighten. Just a bit, but enough.

“I don’t want Charlie to hear about it,” he went on. “She’s got enough on her plate right now. There’s some bidding war going on between universities that want your baby sister. Charlie is trying to deal with all that without a lawyer. This will just stress her out even—”

“I’ve got it,” Max said, but she wasn’t standing where she had been. She’d already disappeared into the trees.

* * *

“Hi, Betsey.”

Betsey froze; that voice whispering in her ear. She hadn’t lived in the Pack house for years. She only came home for major holidays and one week during the summer. Otherwise, she stayed as far away from the Pack as possible. Not because they were cruel to her. They really hadn’t been. But as a hybrid, she hadn’t really been accepted either. Tolerated? Yes. Accepted? No.

So she only came when necessary. Like this weekend. It was her mother’s birthday on Sunday. And Betsey did what she always did when she came here . . . stayed out of everyone’s way; kept to the shadows. It wasn’t hard. No one was ever looking for her except her mother, and no one would care when she left Monday morning.

Yet things had been different since she’d arrived Friday night. She knew why, too. It was them. The MacKilligan sisters. She remembered when they’d first arrived. Alone and dirty, they’d managed to secure a spot at the house despite the strong Alpha who always made it clear that he loathed hybrids of any kind. But they’d gotten him out and Betsey had never seen the man again. She used to think that had been down to their grandfather. He’d been so angry that day . . .

But a few years later, out of nowhere, their ex-Alpha had reappeared, very much alive. According to her mother, he’d immediately started making noises, causing problems, had rounded up some lone wolves to create a makeshift Pack in the hope of reclaiming what he still thought was his. It