In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,73

you and them? Someone who might offer you a future.”

“Like the future of living with a momma’s boy who doesn’t take a shit unless his mother tells him he can? Which, by the way, my sisters didn’t point out to me. I pointed that fact out to them.” Stevie folded her hands on the table. “Aren’t you supposed to leave a pride at some point? So you don’t end up having sex with your cousin? Unless that’s your thing.”

“Perhaps you should watch what you’re saying to me.”

“Or what?” Stevie pushed. “You’ll call your mom and tell her that girls are being mean to you again?”

Wells slammed his hand down on the table, making the full-humans around them jump. But before the lion could say a word, Shen leaned around Stevie, placed one finger on the table, and calmly said to the male, “No, no. We won’t be doing any of that.”

Eyes that had suddenly turned bright gold looked at Shen, and Shen didn’t like what he was seeing. Stevie had him so crazy the man didn’t even have control of himself in the middle of a full-human restaurant. If he wanted to pull this bullshit with an ex, there was a Van Holtz Steakhouse a few doors down.

No longer feeling that Stevie was safe, he grabbed the back of her chair.

“I think it’s time to go,” he kindly but strongly suggested.

Stevie didn’t argue with him, just let him pull her seat out. But before Stevie walked away, she stopped and turned back to Wells.

“How’s your brother?” she asked.

Wells glared up at her, but he managed to force a smile. “He’s doing great.”

“Still a perpetual student?”

“He has his own lab now, thanks. His own lab, his own backers.”

“Really?”

“Like I said . . . he’s doing great.”

“And I’m sure he did all that on his own without any help from you or your mother.”

Shen gently pressed his hand against Stevie’s back, trying to prompt her toward the door. And she did go, but not before mouthing at Wells, Momma’s boy.

* * *

Well, that had gone poorly!

As Stevie and Shen waited for the valet to get the car, she couldn’t help but silently beat herself up. She’d let Wells’s idiocy get to her yet again. They used to have the same kind of vicious fights when they were dating. So bad that Max was the one who eventually took her aside and asked, “Is this really what you want?” She’d said it with no judgment, with no directive. She hadn’t pushed Stevie to make a decision one way or another, but Stevie knew what her sister had been concerned about. Because what was going on between Stevie and Wells had seemed like the kind of relationship their dad always had. With dramatic fights and hateful statements and just being general dicks to each other.

Realizing that, Stevie had made the decision that the relationship had to end. Wells hadn’t handled it well, though. Despite his need to constantly put Stevie down as a scientist, he loved bragging about her to other scientists. Because she was a prodigy, she was worthy of being with him. So her walking away had really pissed him off, and he clearly wasn’t over it. Just as she wasn’t over his cheap shots.

“Stevie, wait,” Wells said, coming out of the restaurant.

As Wells moved in close, Shen automatically stepped in front of Stevie. He was just doing his job. Protection was what he did for a living. But the simple move set Wells off.

“Move,” the lion male ordered Shen, towering over the panda.

“Sorry, no,” Shen said. And Stevie loved how calm he was. He hadn’t raised his voice once. Hadn’t flexed his muscles. Hadn’t flashed his fangs. He just kept his tone calm and even. As if they were in a concert hall.

“I said move!”

Shame Stevie didn’t get that same calm behavior from Wells.

Instead, he moved in even closer, glowering down at poor Shen.

“I need you to step back, sir.”

Wells brought his head down so that their faces almost touched. “Make me.”

And in that same calm, cool manner, Shen opened his mouth . . . and bit down on Well’s nose.

It looked like a little nip, but Stevie heard the hard “crunch,” saw the quick snap of his powerful jaw. Stevie covered her mouth with her hands when Wells stumbled back, blood pouring down his face and into his mouth.

“You insolent bastard!” Wells bellowed.

Shen, still wearing those sunglasses, smiled, blood staining his teeth. “You did get a warning, sir. The rest