In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,59

moment? That he suddenly hated Cooper Jean-Louis Parker. A lot.

“What do you want?” Shen asked. Or maybe he barked that at him. He probably barked.

Coop noticed, too, his eyes going a little wide, his head rearing back a bit in surprise. “Um . . . thought I’d catch a ride with you guys.” He held up his phone. “Oriana said you were heading to the house to see the wild dogs.” He grinned and Shen wanted to punch his lips off. “Well, you’ll be happy to hear, I’ve got a way with the wild dogs. They really like me. So I’m sure I can help.”

Unwilling to reply, Shen looked at Stevie. She was the one who wanted to go over there and try to reason with the canines.

Logically, he knew this. Yet he was still annoyed when she said, “Sure. Sounds great.”

The group started off again, moving toward the elevator, and Coop moved up next to him.

“Everything okay, Shen?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“I don’t know. You seem tense. I’ve never seen you tense. Even when you want to kick Kyle’s ass, you never seem tense about it.” He glanced at the back of his siblings’ heads. “Is it the two of them together? They don’t usually hang together, so I’m sure I can stop it. I can only imagine how obnoxious they can be as a working pair.”

That’s when it hit Shen. He was jealous of the handsome Coop. With his strong, chiseled jaw but without the round head that goes with being a giant panda. He was jealous of Coop because of Stevie. He saw the male as a threat to his interest in a female. There was a part of him at this very moment that wanted to challenge the piano player to a good old-fashioned animal fight. He wanted to take the male on to prove to Stevie MacKilligan he was worthy of her.

That he was a worthy mate. Good God! What was happening to him?

“Shen?”

“Huh?” He realized he hadn’t answered Coop’s question and now the man looked really worried. “Oh, it’s nothing. Nothing. Just some stuff on my mind.”

“Anything I can help with?”

Christ, he was being a friend. A good friend. And Shen wanted to tear his face off.

They stood in front of the bank of elevators, waiting for one of the doors to open. Shen placed his hand on Coop’s shoulder.

“Thanks. But I’m cool. Just a long couple of days.”

He chuckled. “I can imagine.”

“Hey,” Stevie said to Coop. “Did you hear Markinov was planning a concert in Romania? When did he crawl back out of the woodwork?”

“I can’t believe anyone would ever work with him again. He’s the absolute . . . ow. Ow! Ow! Ow!”

“Shen!”

Shen blinked, looked at Stevie. “What?”

“Let him go!”

Unsure what she was talking about, Shen looked at Coop and quickly realized he’d gripped the man’s shoulder so tightly with his hand that he’d brought the famous musician to his knees.

“Oh, shit!” Shen released him and quickly leaned down to help Coop up. “Sorry. Sorry about that. I . . . was thinking about something. Got lost in my thoughts.”

The worst part of it all was Oriana. She stood behind everyone else, a smirk on her face, one eyebrow raised. And in that moment . . . Shen hated her too.

chapter TWELVE

They stood in front of the big wood door, all of them staring . . . and wincing.

“How many children do they have in there?” Stevie finally asked. “It sounds like they’re running an orphanage.”

“I’ve never gotten the real count,” Oriana admitted. “But they do have a lot. From what I understand, that’s normal for wild dog packs.”

“So is dragging their asses across the carpet,” Max stated, reaching around Shen and pushing the doorbell, “but that doesn’t make it right.”

The front door opened and a pretty teenage girl with long blond hair and big brown eyes gazed at them for several seconds. Then she turned her head and yelled, “Ma! Jackals at the door!”

Surprised by the yell, Stevie took an instinctive step back and moved into Shen.

“You okay?” he asked, his voice low, one hand pressed against her lower back.

“That’s a very loud child.”

“I know,” Kyle sighed. “And they’re all like that.”

Screaming children ran past the open doorway and another set of screaming children ran the opposite way.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Coop asked.

“It’s my fault. I’ll deal with it.”

A blond woman appeared. She looked a lot like the teenager, so Stevie didn’t think she was going out on a limb