by a surprised yelp. But not from Stevie’s sisters. Or the bears. Or even Kyle.
“No,” Stevie gasped, pushing Shen’s arms off her. “No, no, no, no, no, no,” she begged as she ran across the room, sliding the last few feet on her knees until she stopped at Benny’s side. He was panting hard, blood coming from his side.
Slowly, Stevie looked up from the dog to the cold eyes of her cousin.
A smile on her face, Mairi said, “Guess I missed.”
* * *
As soon as Shen realized that the dog had been shot, he was speeding across the room, trying to get to Stevie. But he was too slow.
She shot up and dove at Mairi, the pair breaking through the front window and out of the house.
He immediately turned and charged out of the room, down the hall and the stairs. As he tore through the living room, he heard Kyle yelling after him, “What is going on?”
He ignored the kid, assuming he could take care of himself, and ran to the front door.
It was late, but the local bears loved to wander around the neighborhood at night, in their bear forms, indulging in honey and chasing nocturnal animals. The ones who weren’t out, who were sleeping soundly, would still hear those shots. And they would all move, all be outside.
They would see everything.
Shen made it out of the house, down the stairs, and over the fence that went around the yard.
Stevie was on top of the She-badger, her hands around her throat, choking the hell out of her. But it wasn’t doing anything. This was a badger, and she was smiling. That’s why they were both still alive and conscious after going out of a second-story window and tumbling to the ground.
As Shen neared her, he heard the weird cat sound Stevie made just before she shifted, and her head come up, her eyes a bright and angry gold.
“Stevie, no!” he called out, already feeling the local bears lumbering closer and closer. “Don’t do it, baby! Don’t do it!”
He knew what his words sounded like to the bears. Like he was telling her not to kill the badger. But he could give a shit about that badger. The badger was not his concern.
“Pull it back, baby. Pull it back.”
Stevie’s head turned and she looked directly at him, her fangs not fully out, but already past her bottom lip, her panting so harsh she was salivating. Abruptly, her gaze moved behind him, and he knew she could see the bears.
Bears needed to be slowly introduced to things. Especially things like two-ton, tiger-striped honey badgers. He did think they could accept Stevie’s shifter form, but he knew they wouldn’t react well if she suddenly shifted into that form and then ate her cousin.
That, they would never get over.
“Pull back, Stevie,” he coaxed. “Please.”
Stevie looked down at her still-smirking cousin. She suddenly released her right hand and lowered it so that Shen could no longer see it. He didn’t know what she was doing until her hand came back up clutching a knife. She’d been wearing tiny shorts and a T-shirt that night, so he was sure the blade had been on the badger.
Raising the weapon over her head, Stevie brought it down in one brutal motion into the She-badger’s chest.
“Oh, shit,” Shen gasped when Stevie did it six more times, her grumbled roar turning into a pained—but human—scream.
On the seventh strike, she left the knife in the badger’s chest and slowly got to her feet, stumbling back from sudden weakness.
Shen ran out and caught her in his arms, pulling her away from the body.
When he had her a few feet back, with a group of suddenly naked bears surrounding them—they’d all shifted back to their human forms because they knew their bear form upset Stevie so—the body suddenly jumped up, the blade still sticking out of the crazed bitch’s chest.
The bears exploded in startled roars, a few returning to their animal forms.
The badger ran across the street and when she was on the other side, she turned around and screamed at Stevie, “You missed me heart, you dumb cunt!”
Stevie screamed in rage and tried to run after the badger, but Shen wouldn’t let her go and a few of the older She-bears helped him by holding her arms.
When the badger had disappeared, Stevie let out a desperate gasp.
“Benny!” she screamed and pushed everyone away, returning to the house.
* * *
Mairi stopped when she was a few streets over and took the