In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,144

of a Park Avenue apartment building.

Shen knew where they were. And Britta had been right. This was going to be bad.

* * *

Matt sat in his Pride’s living room, listening to his mother roar at him—she was using words, but all Matt could hear was angry roaring—about how stupid he was. How he didn’t think of others. How he was an embarrassment to the family. To the Pride. Why couldn’t he just be normal?

But how was he supposed to know that the person he’d been talking to about the awfulness of the artwork was the actual artist? How was he responsible for that? And how was he supposed to know that the artist was the one with the family trust fund that gave huge amounts of grant money to important medical and science research.

How was he supposed to know? And why wouldn’t his mother stop roaring at him?

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and stood.

“Where do you think you’re going?” his mother demanded, following him.

“I’m going to my room! And you’re not allowed to come with me!”

He’d just entered the hallway—his aunts, sisters, and cousins laughing at him as they liked to do—when the front door was kicked open.

The very secure, thick, metal door on a secure apartment in a building with a twenty-four-hour doorman. Where the fuck was the doorman?

He watched Charlie MacKilligan storm into his home; her smaller, psychotic sister right beside her. Then there were bears and a panda. That panda! But when the group of honey badgers charged in, hissing and running at the She-lions, forcing them away from Matt, he knew he was in real trouble.

He tried to stand his ground and be brave. He was six four, two hundred and sixty pounds of muscle and a lion! But then that hybrid’s hand wrapped around his throat and she pinned him to the wall.

“Hi, Matt,” Charlie said softly, Max grinning behind her.

* * *

They wanted to strap her down onto some table but Stevie shook her head.

“Not necessary. Just do it.”

Stevie knew that Charlie would lose her mind about this. That she was sacrificing herself. But it just seemed right, didn’t it? For years, she’d been talking about fucking with her genes so she could stop shifting. Her sister had forbidden it each time, but she knew it would save a lot of people. Did she want to do this now? No. She’d wanted to try it on her own terms, with her own work. But she wasn’t going to let her prey . . . er . . . Blayne—and her friend go through this. No way. And the thing was, she knew she just had to delay Wells. Because her sisters would come. They would come for her and the others, and no matter what James did to her, it wouldn’t matter because the others would be safe.

Stevie sat at a table and one of James’s assistants pulled her left arm out and prepared it for injection.

James sat down catty-corner from her, smiled.

“Is all this because I dumped your brother?” she asked.

“I know why you broke it off with him. He’s an idiot. You had no choice really.”

“Then what is it? Because you seem a little obsessed.”

“I saw you once,” he said, gazing at her. She could see the fanatical light in his eyes.

“Saw me?”

“Change. Into that thing.”

It felt like her heart dropped, but she didn’t let those feelings show on her face.

“It wasn’t normal. It wasn’t right.”

“I don’t know about right or wrong,” she said, feeling a needle slip into her skin but refusing to react to the pain, “but it’s definitely not normal. But Blayne and Gwen are normal. Blayne’s a wolf-dog. Gwen’s a tigon. Both are found in nature.”

“Those things aren’t found in nature. They’re found in foreign zoos. And Novikov? You going to tell me he’s found in nature?”

“Yeah, I can’t really say that about him.”

“You, all of you, are a danger to our society. But instead of wiping you out as some would like to do, I’ve created something that will allow you to become more like us.”

“But not too much like you,” she said with a teasing smirk, pointing her finger.

“Think about it. You’ll be able to keep that brilliant mind of yours but you’ll no longer be ashamed of what you are. Won’t that be a relief?”

A week ago she would have said yes, but now . . .

“So how long does this process take?” she asked.

“Well, for your safety and the safety of my guards