In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,2
had disappeared exactly two-and-a-half weeks after the US government had shown up on Pack territory.
And Charles knew where they’d gone. To get their baby sister back.
His granddaughter and her half-sisters were not like the other kids. They weren’t even like the Pack pups. And so instead of intervening, he’d let them handle it themselves.
While the Pack females were busy on the phone, making calls, trying to get information, his granddaughter and half-sister had been holed up in their rooms. Quiet. They’d gone real quiet.
Something so disturbing that Charles had ordered his Pack to stand down. To stop whatever they were doing. They’d thought he’d given up on the little one because she wasn’t his granddaughter by blood, but that was far from the truth. He’d simply learned that sometimes a wolf had to stay hidden in the trees until everything blew over.
That was how one survived.
A limo with two military vehicles in front and two behind pulled onto his street.
He sat on the porch whittling a small unicorn from a hunk of wood he’d found in the backyard and didn’t move until the limo stopped in front of his house.
He stood, dusting the wood shavings off his jeans and Jimi Hendrix T-shirt.
The limo door opened and his granddaughter came out. She looked so much like her mother it made his heart hurt, but he didn’t tell her that. She had enough to worry about.
The middle girl followed. She had a bloody nose and a black eye. She might have gotten it scrapping with some military types, but something told Charles that it had come from her older sister. That little honey badger was nothing but trouble and very hard to control.
And, finally, the youngest. She had her big backpack strapped to her shoulders, and she ran awkwardly to keep up with her bigger sisters.
“Pop,” his granddaughter said as she walked by.
“Pop-Pop,” said the little Asian one.
“Hello, Grandfather,” said the youngest.
“Welcome back.”
She stopped to smile up at him and he smiled back. She’d cried once when he hadn’t returned her smile, so he always smiled back. Always.
He placed the unicorn in her hand and she grinned. “Lovely artistry,” she murmured, studying it before disappearing into the house.
Before he turned around again, he knew that there was a wolf standing within ten feet of him.
Taking his time, Charles looked over his shoulder until he locked eyes with what had to be a Van Holtz. An old Van Holtz, but still, at any age, Charles’s Pack had always avoided Van Holtz wolves.
“What?” Charles asked.
“Edgar Van Holtz.”
“I don’t care.”
He smirked. “You should. I’m the reason your granddaughter and her sisters are back with your Pack and not in maximum detention at some army base. They did do some damage. There are many who think that at least the oldest should be charged.”
Now Charles smirked. “Please. Like you could hold onto any of them.”
Van Holtz nodded, grinned. “Good point.” He looked at the door the three girls had disappeared behind. “My suggestion—”
“Which I didn’t ask for.”
“But you’ll get it anyway. Put the little one out there. Like when she was into music. But now do it for science.” He handed Charles a folder. “Give this to the oldest. Get Stevie signed up for these science competitions and special grants. It will get her name out there.”
“And do what? Make her a bigger target?”
“Our government won’t be able to just take her without every news source in the universe going after them, wondering what happened to Stevie MacKilligan. And other governments will have to deal with the US if they try to take her. Again.”
“Again?”
“Some foreign interests, when they found out she was too tightly watched at the base, sent in agents to put her down.”
Charles’s angry frown was so vicious that Van Holtz raised his hands. “Calm down. It was handled.”
“By you? Or my girls?”
That smirk. “Good luck, backwoods wolf,” Van Holtz said, returning to his limo. “You’ll need it with those three.”
Charles sneered at what he was sure was a tailored suit hanging off that man. Nothing he hated more than snobby wolves.
His eldest granddaughter came out of the house and stood beside him, watching all the vehicles head off.
“Everyone okay?” he asked.
“Yep.”
He handed her the file of information the wolf had given her.
“What’s this?” she asked.
“Competitions, grants, all that stuff. You need to get your sister involved.”
“For the money?”
“For safety. Get her name out there. Get her known. We don’t want anyone doing this to her again.”