Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,31

side and rubbing it while pacing in circles. “What did I do?”

“You exist!”

chapter FIVE

Stevie entered the kitchen just as Max walked in from the backyard. They stopped and stared at each other for a moment before looking at the kitchen table.

Max’s rescued cat was sitting slumped over the table, his muscular arms hanging limply at his sides.

“Is he dead?” Max asked, not appearing as concerned as Stevie felt she should be. Max was the one who’d brought him to their house. She was the one who’d taken it upon herself to tell him that he wasn’t nearly as human as he thought he was. So, in Stevie’s estimation, her sister should be much more concerned about the well-being of her rescue!

“If you’re concerned,” Stevie suggested, “you should check.”

“You check.”

“Max!” she spit out in a harsh whisper.

“If he’s dead, I don’t know why you’re whispering.”

Stevie changed her eye color to the bright gold her shifter form had. She wasn’t about to shift. Not in the house. Especially now that she’d begun to worry her shifted form might be getting bigger. Much to her continuing happiness, however, she had complete control of her animal rage. Still, Max insisted on worrying about whether Stevie was taking her meds or not—of course she was!—so just the eye change alone was enough to get Max to—

“Fine!” Max reached across the table to press her fingers against Zé’s neck to check his pulse, but before she could touch him, she jumped back and yelped. Blood dripped down her arm.

“Goddammit!”

From Zé’s lap, the feral cat that lurked around their backyard popped her head up and bared her fangs at Max.

“Don’t hiss at me, you little fucker,” Max warned, angrily swiping at the bloody wounds the little beast had caused.

The feral cat scrambled up onto the table and onto Zé’s head. With her front paws on the back of his head and her back paws resting on his shoulders, she arched her body and her battered, furry tail became big and fluffy.

“If I were you,” Stevie softly suggested, “I’d move away from Zé. Because that feral cat does not like you.”

“You know, this is all your fault.”

“How is this my fault?” Stevie wanted to know.

“Because you insist on feeding this thing! Now we can’t get rid of it.”

“Do you want her to starve?”

“Yes!”

Stevie, without thinking, leaned over and pushed Max. Max, of course, pushed her back. It was something they’d been doing since . . . let’s see . . . oh, yes! The day they’d met.

Poor Carlie. She’d welcomed Stevie into her home for what was supposed to be a day-long playdate with her unknown half-sisters. Instantly, Stevie had hit it off with Carlie’s eldest, Charlie. But then she’d met Max and was immediately left alone with her while mother and daughter had gone to the kitchen for cookies and milk. In that moment, Max hadn’t actually done anything to Stevie. She hadn’t touched her or said anything or even stuck her tongue out at her. But Stevie just hadn’t liked the way her new half-sister had stared at her. She hadn’t liked it at all. So she’d reached up and pushed Max’s shoulders. Max had responded by pushing her back. And that’s when Stevie had snapped. She’d pulled back her tiny fist, filled with fingers that were currently insured for half-a-million dollars because of her musical career, and punched the older, taller, meaner girl in the nose. When all Stevie got back was a grin . . . she knew she was dead.

Seconds later, Carlie and Charlie had found the pair rolling around the tiny backyard of their Connecticut mobile home. It had rained earlier in the day so they were both covered in mud and blood. Stevie had only been six at the time, had already been deemed a musical prodigy, performing solo piano and violin concerts at the Met in New York City to sold-out audiences. She’d already learned that all those feelings she had roiling around her gut were to be repressed. They were to be beaten down, ignored, kept away from the light of day. Being around Max, however, had brought out everything Stevie’s family had, up to that day, told her to keep under wraps. Carlie—dear, sweet, loving Carlie—had tried everything to stop the girls from fighting, but she was too nice. A sweet, motherly wolf who had immediately come to adore the Siberian tiger–honey badger hybrid prodigy who was in a nasty fistfight with the other girl who’d been dumped