Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles #3) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,32
on her for no other reason than that Carlie was just too damn nice. Unable to get the two girls under control herself, Carlie had left it up to her daughter. Charlie, always up for a challenge, had gotten Stevie and Max to stop fighting by grabbing them by the extra skin at the back of their necks and twisting with all the strength she had.
The pain had been so horrible, Stevie and Max had immediately separated, but Charlie still took a moment to lift both girls in the air—one hand on each—and shake them. So that they “understood” that what they had done was not okay.
They hadn’t learned that, though. Instead, they’d learned to keep their fights away from the watchful gaze of their big sister.
Like now. In this kitchen with just the two of them, a possibly dead male, and a feral cat. It was the perfect time for them to get a good fight on. But before Stevie could make a solid move, that feral cat charged across the table and launched her seven-pound body at Max’s face.
Stevie gasped, horrified, watching the pair hit the floor, stunned by all the snarling and hissing for several seconds before she realized she should do something.
“No, no, no!” she yelped, attempting to pull the pair apart. But there was so much resentment and hatred between the two, neither was willing to give up.
The feral cat had her front claws dug deep in Max’s face. As if she was hoping to rip the skin off completely. Max struggled to her feet with the cat still attached. She gripped the angry beast with both hands and pulled and pulled.
Stevie cringed, watching as her sister’s skin was stretched by the deeply imbedded claws.
Terrified about how this would end, she reached in between the pair, ready to separate them with a hard push. But Max abruptly pulled the cat off her face and slammed it down on the table. Angry beyond reason, Max kept the animal pinned to the table with one hand and lifted the other, unleashing her claws.
“Max!” Stevie screamed. “Noooo!”
Max, ignoring her as usual, brought her claws down toward the hissing animal she had trapped on the table. But a black paw slammed into her arm, holding it in place.
The black jaguar that had replaced the possibly dead man who had been sitting unconscious at the table glared at Max with bright gold eyes. Then it bared its fangs and let out a roar that had Stevie doing the only thing she could think of . . .
* * *
Max gazed into the gold eyes of the big cat glaring at her. He had his back paws in the chair his human form had been sitting in and the front paw not warding off her unleashed claws was on the kitchen table.
Shocked that the dude she’d thought was dead was quite alive and had just shifted into a very big jaguar, Max didn’t know what to say or do . . . until she realized that her sister was no longer standing behind her.
Looking over her shoulder . . . and up, Max let out a little growl.
Max pulled her hands away from both cats and turned. “Get out of the ceiling!” she ordered, using that phrasing because her sister was hanging by her claws.
“Nope.”
“Stevie!”
Stevie crawled into the closest cabinet over the refrigerator, slamming the door behind her.
Satisfied that at least her sister wouldn’t come crashing to the ground—Charlie got really bitchy when their rental house was damaged—Max turned back to the table to find only the feral cat standing there, glaring at her. The jaguar . . .
“Shit!”
Max ran toward the front of the house.
“What’s wrong?” Stevie yelled from the cabinet, but Max didn’t have time to answer her. Not when she scented that the big cat had gone out the front door. Someone had left it open, probably the triplets since they would most likely head back this way from their house across the street at any time.
Max ran out on the porch and stood at the top of the stairs, gaze searching the street.
“Max?” Dutch came around the side of the house, still rubbing his side from where Charlie had hit him with the basketball. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s out. He’s out.”
“Who’s out?”
They heard screaming from down the street. A kid screaming, “Dad! Dad! Daaaaaaaad!”
Running down the steps and through several neighbors’ yards, Max stumbled to a stop, and Dutch crashed into her.