In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,61
True, she bared her fangs and her eyes changed to a bright, bright gold. But then she charged across the room and threw herself at her sister.
Shen did his job first. He got Kyle and Oriana out of the way of the two flying women. He put them into the hallway.
“Run if you have to,” he told them before wading back into the fight. He pushed Coop aside, not sure the musician could really wrangle two battling predators.
He reached for Max. Had her around the waist. But Stevie yanked her free without much effort and flipped her up and over, slamming Max’s back against the big wood table. Most of the wild dogs made a run for it, except Jess and her second-in-charge Sabina. Not surprising. Jess was the Alpha female of the Kuznetsov Pack and was mated to the Alpha male of the New York Smith Pack. You didn’t go into that life with a weak spirit.
Max reached up and grabbed Stevie’s hair, pulling her head and shoulders forward. She raised her legs and wrapped them around her baby sister’s neck. Then she flipped over, leaving her sister now on the table. And that’s when Max sat down, pressing her butt against her sister’s face. Not for some weird sexual reason either. She did it to suffocate her!
Growling, Max ground her butt against her sister while Stevie’s arms swung wildly, legs kicking. She couldn’t breathe and her sister knew it!
“What the fuck is going on here?” a low male voice bellowed.
Jess Ward’s adopted son stood in the kitchen, a violin and bow hanging from one hand, and Coop standing behind him. The two were friends, so Coop had probably known where in the enormous house to find him. Thank God.
John DeSerio was an orphaned wolf that the wild dogs had taken in to their family when he was a teen. It had turned out he was also a brilliant violinist and his career had just started to take off under the tutelage of Kyle’s mother, Jackie.
Yet no one answered him as Max continued to smother her sister.
Finally, John stormed over to the two women and reached for Max. She bared her fangs and her claws, let out a nasty hiss. John replied with a growl that had the hairs on the back of Shen’s neck snapping to attention. John reached past the slashing claws and grabbed Max by the back of her neck with his one free hand, then yanked her off her sister.
Stevie instantly sat up, gasping for air, eyes wide in panic. Shen went to her side, stroked her back.
She glared at her sister and screamed, “She farted on my face!”
Jess’s lip curled in disgust as she eyed the honey badger in her wild dog kitchen. “E That’s just nasty!”
* * *
Stevie allowed Shen to lead her out into the wild dog’s backyard. There were lots of pups out there, but they were mostly silent. Staring at her. They appeared terrified.
She didn’t blame them. She’d just been in a vicious fight with her own sister. But they weren’t around her for long—the adults scurried them away in seconds.
Shen disappeared back into the house and Stevie looked down at her hands. They were shaking and she hated that.
“You do make an entrance, Dr. MacKilligan.”
Stevie slid her gaze a few feet away to Irene Conridge, who was standing there, looking as haughty as ever.
“You did lure me here.”
She shrugged. “I knew you’d come running to help.”
“So this is all bullshit.”
“No. The wild dogs are pissed. Whether you still want to help, though, is up to you.”
“Then what do you really want?”
Conridge walked to her side. She handed her a cell phone. “Take this. You’ll be able to contact me directly.”
“Okay.”
“And here’s the information I have so far. I think you should look at it. See if I missed anything.”
“I doubt you did.”
“Then see if there’s anything in there that I would not notice. You and your sisters are much more on the . . . outskirts of society than I am.”
Stevie nodded and pulled off the gym pack strapped to her shoulders so that Conridge could put the thick file inside, along with the phone.
“Next time,” Stevie said as the woman began to walk away, “don’t lure. Just text me if you need to see me. That’ll concern my sisters much less.”
“Understood.”
By the time Conridge disappeared around the corner of the house, Shen returned from inside, a first aid kit in his hand.