In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,19
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.
“Ooops,” Max muttered. “This has turned awkward.”
“Ya think?”
“What are we going to do?”
Charlie looked around at the damage to the ballroom. Half the ceiling was on the floor. Parts of the wall had big holes in it, and one section was just outright destroyed. Several windows had been blown out. The floor was scored with claw marks.
Charlie blew out a breath. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep a lid on this.”
“Kill everybody? Burn the house to the ground?”
Charlie knew her sister was just kidding, but still. She shoved the smaller woman before facing the cat toy and tusk dude. Max skidded across the floor about fifty feet and, when she stopped, she laughed, “I was joking!”
Ignoring her sister, Charlie looked at the pair, the woman helping the now-human male up. “I am so sorry about all this.”
“She’s dangerous,” the woman warned. She got the male to his feet