In a Badger Way Read online

  “Excuse me,” Kyle interrupted. “Can I speak to my brother for a moment?”

  “Sure!” the wild dog cheered. Then he stood there. Smiling.

  Kyle took a breath. “So go away.”

  “Okay!”

  Coop chuckled as the wild dog went outside. “Why can’t you be nice?”

  “I don’t even understand what that means. Now, have you seen Aunt Irene today? She texted me earlier. Is she still here?”

  “I think she’s upstairs with Mom. Why?”

  “I need her—”

  The rest of Kyle’s words became lodged in his throat when he glanced out one of the windows that overlooked the yard. While Freddy did his best to shepherd the annoying wild dog pups and the adults back to their own home, Kyle saw who stood by one of the tables, his eldest daughter leaning beside him, wearing a hockey jersey six sizes too big for the girl. Although Kyle had no doubt that one day, that “little girl” would grow up to be a very large and dangerous female. Just like her father.

  Her father. Bo Novikov. Homicidal hockey player and great organizer.

  And if Bo Novikov was here with his kids that meant . . .

  “Where is she?” Kyle demanded of his stunned brother, grabbing him by his T-shirt and yanking him close. “Where is she, Coop?”

  * * *

  Wow! That had to be the best soda in the world! The Jean-Louis Parker twins had told her it was when they handed her the bottle. Even though the soda was caffeine and sugar free, it tasted so great! She couldn’t believe how great it tasted!

  Blayne continued to backflip her way down the hallway. She didn’t know why she felt the need to backflip down the hallway of the Jean-Louis Parker home, but she did! And it felt awesome! Look how in shape she was. Even after giving birth to several giant children, but her shit was still tight, as they say! She should have gone into gymnastics. She would be a great Olympian! A totally positive representative of the United States of America! Why? Because Blayne loved everyone!

  She loved animals! She loved shoes! She loved tiny furniture that people put into fancy dollhouses! She loved everybody! She loved the world! The world!

  Blayne’s legs slammed into something and she wouldn’t have thought much of it except that she heard an “Oooof!” that surprised her. She landed on her feet and turned to see Shen Li holding his head.

  She knew Shen! She loved Shen! He was a giant panda! How cool must it be to be a giant panda? Pretty cool, Blayne bet.

  “What are you doing?” Shen asked, rubbing the entire left side of his face and glaring at her.

  “Backflips!” Blayne told him. “I love backflips!”

  With his hand still pressed against his face, the panda stared at her, eyes narrow. “Are you okay, Blayne?” he asked.

  “I’m great!” Blayne turned and spotted someone standing alone in the massive ballroom entrance. She immediately felt bad for that person. They were so small and alone. But they weren’t really alone! Because Blayne was here!

  Grinning, Blayne charged over to the stranger and threw her arms around the woman’s shoulders, squeezing her tight from behind.

  “Hi! I’m—aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh-hhhhhhhhhh!”

  * * *

  Shen’s head was still throbbing from where Blayne’s feet had hit him, but in the haze of his pain he knew something was wrong with the always pleasant wolfdog. Her energy level was off the charts, which was saying a lot because Blayne always had a high energy drive.

  Still, he wasn’t exactly surprised when she suddenly caught sight of a very quiet Stevie, gazing forlornly into the ballroom. He—sadly—also wasn’t surprised when Blayne ran up behind her and threw her arms around Stevie to give her a big hug. Blayne had become known for her attack hugs. And Shen definitely wasn’t surprised when Stevie’s response to that hug was to scream hysterically.

  The girl panicked at squirrels. Squirrels. Non-attacking squirrels too.

  So getting grabbed by some random stranger would make her panic, but Shen never, in a million years, ever expected what happened right after Stevie began screaming.

  With Blayne on her back—and still screaming—Stevie abruptly turned, her eyes wild and panicked . . . and she began to shift.

  But she shifted into something Shen had never seen before. Not ever.

  The fangs came first, bursting out of her gums. He’d thought the ones he’d seen in the cabinet were terrifying. But these were worse. So much worse. Because these fangs weren’t just long, they were also wide. Rows on top and bottom. To accommodate those fangs, Stevie’s head shifted next. Her nose growing into a snout; her ears turning into just holes against her head; her neck expanding, muscles rippling.

  Orange, black, and white fur exploded over every bit of skin. Giant, lengthy claws burst from her fingertips and her toes. Powerful muscles covered her legs and arms.

  When she landed on all fours, Shen thought she was done. She wasn’t.

  Stevie’s entire body began to grow.

  And grow.

  And grow.

  In length and width.

  In horror, Shen watched as little Stevie MacKilligan grew into . . . something absolutely enormous.

  She was the color of a Siberian tiger, but she was still a honey badger. A giant twenty-foot-long and ten- to fifteen-foot-wide orange, black, and white honey badger with humongous paws.

  Blayne had fallen off Stevie’s back when she’d shifted, and, in full panic mode, the wolfdog jumped to her feet and turned to run. But Stevie brought her head down and grabbed Blayne by the back of her T-shirt, lifting her off the ground. The wolfdog screamed hysterically as Stevie tossed her into the air, then caught her by the back of her T-shirt again, letting Blayne hang from one of her giant fangs.

  Unable to move, Shen watched Kyle slide to a stop in front of the open door.

  “Oh, my God,” he gasped.

  Blayne, struggling to get loose, yelled out, “Get me out of here!”

  Kyle looked at Shen. “What are we going to do?”

  Shen glanced around, wondering who the kid was talking to. When he didn’t see anyone and understood the kid was talking to him, he asked, “What do you expect me to say?”

  “We have to do something!”

  Coop ran down the hall until he reached them, freezing when he spotted what took up most of his family’s ballroom.

  And, unfortunately, right behind him was Bo “The Marauder” Novikov. Hockey pro, former child prodigy—of hockey—and well-known rude bastard.

  He was also Blayne’s husband.

  “Blayne!” he barked when he saw his mate hanging from Stevie’s fang. “What did you do?”

  Blayne glared. “You’re blaming me for this?”

  “Get down from there right now!” Novikov ordered.

  Poor Blayne, still hanging from that fang, threw up her hands. “Are you fucking kidding—”

  Stevie suddenly shook her head and Blayne’s T-shirt ripped, sending her flying into the far wall. But when she landed on the floor, she managed to get to her feet and attempted another run.

  A giant paw slammed down in front of Blayne. She turned and tried to run the other way, but another paw ended that. Then the first front paw suddenly swiped the air and Blayne went flying again, only to be slapped the opposite way by the other paw.

  That’s when Shen understood that Stevie was playing with Blayne like a house cat playing with a toy mouse. Or a live one.

  Novikov growled and gold-brown hair suddenly dropped from under his white hair, passing his shoulders. A minor lion’s mane, because Novikov was another hybrid. A polar bear–lion.

  The hockey pro shifted, forcing Shen to grab Kyle and Coop to yank them out of the way so the pair didn’t get crushed under the big hybrid’s bulk.

  Roaring, gnashing his . . . tusks—yes, Novikov had what could only be called tusks coming from his maw—he charged into the ballroom, destroying the closed second door in the process.

  “Stevie!” Shen yell
ed, pushing the Jean-Louis Parker brothers back before running forward. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he wasn’t about to let Novikov kill—

  Shen slid to a stop, then quickly reversed course, turning and charging back seconds before Bo Novikov’s shifted body exploded through the wall.

  Tossed out of the room by little Stevie MacKilligan.

  “We are so fucked,” Coop said softly.

  * * *

  Max had stopped on the sidewalk to tie her bright pink Converse sneaker. The color matched her current hair color perfectly and she liked that.

  But just as she began to stand, the roar that rattled the windows of the entire block had her head snapping up and she looked at Charlie. Eyes wide, her sister stared back and together they took off down the street to reach the house they knew Kyle’s family was staying at for the summer.

  They went up the stairs and started banging on the door to get someone to open it, but then Charlie’s grizzly came up behind them and with one kick, the door flew open.

  Max followed Charlie into the house. The first thing she saw was Kyle and his brother Coop. The eldest jackal had his younger brother pushed against the wall and stood in front of him, ready to sacrifice himself for Kyle, should that become necessary.

  Standing in front of the damaged entryway to some massive room stood Shen, Kyle’s hired protection. The giant panda was always calm in the face of trouble, but he was definitely out of his depth now. And it showed. His eyes wide, his entire body tense. All those muscles straining and rigid. He was ready to react to anything that might happen.

  And a few feet away from Shen was . . . something. Something white and gold with tusks. And out cold.

  She pointed. “What the fuck is that thing?”

  “Seriously?” Shen barked, abruptly snapping out of his shell-shocked state. “That freaks you out?”

  “No need to get terse,” she complained, moving past him. “And at least my sister doesn’t have tusks.”

  Having made her point, Max headed to the entryway, Berg by her side. But she stopped him, grabbing his forearm. “Not you.”

  “Why not?”

  “You’ll just freak her out more.”

  “But—”

  “Go to the wild dog house across the street,” Kyle told Berg. “Don’t let any of them come over here.”

  “Come with me,” Berg suggested to Kyle as he headed to the front door.

  “I won’t leave my friend,” Kyle stated dramatically, making Max roll her eyes.

  “Now you decide to care about others?” Coop demanded.

  Berg headed out alone and Max went to the entryway to stand by Charlie, where they watched their baby sister.

  What could they say as they watched her curled in a ball on the floor, a human being caught between her front paws, that she kept . . . gnawing on before she occasionally flipped her prey into the air, caught her, and then rolled to her side again so she could gnaw and toy with her captive.

  It seemed the woman was still alive and . . . and . . .

  Max narrowed her eyes and stepped farther into the room. She knew that woman. She knew her!

  * * *

  Charlie was desperately trying to figure out how she could keep her baby sister out of prison for murder when Max suddenly stepped farther into the room and pointed in Stevie’s direction. She thought she was going to order Stevie to put the woman down this instant but instead Max accused, “You hugged her, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”

  Not dead—thank God!—the woman yelped, “I was just saying hi! Now get her off me!”

  “I should let you burn! You deserve it!”

  Shaking her head—because Charlie really didn’t know what the fuck was going on—she stepped close to Max and Charlie ordered Stevie to put the woman down.

  “Stevie Stasiuk-MacKilligan! You put that idiot woman down right this instant!”

  “Hey!” the idiot woman complained while she pressed her legs against Stevie’s front fangs so that they didn’t go into her mouth, “that’s not fair!”

  “Shut up!” Charlie and Max said in unison.

  Charlie stepped closer and clapped her hands together several times. “Stevie! Put her down! Right now!”

  Stevie stared at Charlie for several seconds, but a roar from outside the room had their sister scrambling to her paws and rearing up on her hind legs, that idiot woman still in her mouth.

  “Stevie! No!” Charlie cried out seconds before Stevie began burrowing up into the floor above.

  If she got into the walls of the house, they might never find her. The fact that she was twenty or so feet long didn’t mean anything. She was still mostly honey badger and she could burrow like a champ. And if she was freaked out enough, they might not find her for days. Weeks. She could end up living in the subway tunnels!

  Charlie’s grandfather’s house was never quite the same after Stevie had her first real breakdown and burrowed into the walls. It took many days before they could get her out, but they could hear her scratching away inside the walls, and food kept disappearing from inside the cabinets.

  It wasn’t until Charlie had hidden some Xanax in balls of soft French cheese that Stevie finally calmed down enough to come back out and face her fears with her sisters by her side.

  Charlie, however, was in no mood to go through that again. But before she could say anything, Max charged across the room and leaped up, grabbing hold of Stevie’s right hind leg. Of course, Max was only about a hundred and twenty pounds while Stevie, in her shifted form, was nearly two tons.

  Just as Charlie started to follow after Max, a shifter with tusks—Tusks? Really?—came charging into the room and over to Stevie. He leaped up and wrapped his front legs around the lower half of Stevie—all that Charlie could see at this point since the other half had already made its way into the second floor—and yanked.

  Charlie turned her body away as part of the ceiling came down with the two hybrids and poor Max.

  “Max!” she yelled, making her way through the debris. “Max!”

  By now, a raging Stevie had gotten to her paws and was squaring off with the tusk guy. The real problem, though, was the screaming human she had caught between her jaws and didn’t seem in the mood to give up anytime soon.

  But Charlie would have to worry about that after she found out whether Max was dead from having part of a building fall on her.

  Pushing aside the ceiling that was now on the floor, Charlie desperately dug. She was so focused on her task, it took her several seconds to realize that Shen was right next to her. Helping.

  Brave panda.

  “Got her!” Shen suddenly announced while pulling. He dragged Max out from under a giant chunk of plaster. There was blood on her face and she was covered in dust and debris, but with a sudden headshake, her eyes opened and she smiled.

  “That was awesome,” she laughed, still being held up by Shen.

  Charlie started to laugh with her until something hit her in the side and she went flying—

  * * *

  Shen pulled Max into his arms and scrambled back. He wanted to get to Charlie but first he had to get out of the way of the two raging hybrids.

  Charlie almost hit the far wall when Novikov’s big ass slammed into her, but her baby sister’s very long tail reached out and caught Charlie before she could. Then she tossed her toward Shen, and he had to tuck Max under one arm so he could use the other to catch Charlie.

  With both women in his arms, he jumped to the left, trying to get out of the way of the ongoing battle. He wished he could get to poor Blayne, but he didn’t see how he could without being crushed in the melee. Even if he shifted, he still would be no match for these two.

  At least three tons of raging hybrid fighting over a wolfdog that just wanted to get out and away.

  Honestly, he’d laugh if the whole thing wasn’t so terrifying.

  Max pulled his arm off her waist and dropped to the ground. Then she lifted her big sister’s head by the chin. Cha
rlie was unconscious, so Max slapped her. Charlie responded by slapping her back, and Shen let out a relieved sigh, knowing that at least these two weren’t dead.

  Charlie tapped his arm and motioned for him to let her go. When she touched the ground, she rubbed the side that Novikov had hit and winced from the pain. Shen was guessing that something had been broken, but he knew that wouldn’t keep Charlie from stopping her baby sister’s rampage.

  “What are we going to do?” he asked, raising his voice to a shout in order to be heard over all the roaring.

  “Any chance you have a tranq gun?” Max asked.

  “I don’t work for a zoo so . . . no.”

  “We need to get Stevie to drop her prey,” Charlie reasoned. “Once we get that woman back to that thing with the tusks—”

  “Really?” Shen couldn’t help but ask. “Both of you are judging my man’s tusks?”

  “—we’ll be able to calm her down,” Charlie went on.

  “Or we could startle her out of this,” Max suddenly interjected.

  “Startling her was what got us into this,” Shen felt the need to point out.

  “And startling her again might just get her out.” Max gestured to the ruined entryway. “And that woman is the one who can do it.”

  Charlie turned and her frown was deep. “My God, what is she doing here?”

  Shen looked to see what had the sisters so concerned and was surprised to see Kyle’s mother standing in the entryway. She appeared horrified, which seemed the proper response considering what was going on. So he couldn’t understand what the two women were talking about until Kyle’s mother took a step back, revealing her best friend, Dr. Irene Conridge.

  The famed full-human scientist walked farther into the room. She surveyed the damage and then the two battling hybrids with cold blue eyes.

  Crossing her arms over her chest, she waited. For what, Shen didn’t know.

  Charlie grabbed his arm and started to pull him. He knew she was dragging him toward the hybrids, but he didn’t know why. What, exactly, was she expecting him to do?