Breaking Badger

by Shelly Laurenston

  “Trust me. It’s him.”

  “Why doesn’t he shift them?”

  “You tore a man’s dick off. I think he’s freaked out.”

  “He deserved it!” Streep screamed, fighting to get Tock’s hand off her face. “They all deserve it! Look at my hair!”

  “Would you calm down!”

  “Just look at it!”

  “Which Malone?” Max asked, ignoring Streep.

  Tock glanced at him. “The one that always smells like dog.”

  Annoyed now, Shay remembered who he was, where he was, and why he was there. He immediately shifted back to human simply so he could snarl, “There is nothing wrong with being nice to dogs!”

  Gawking at him, Tock replied, “Never said there was.”

  “I heard tone.”

  “That sounds like a personal issue. Ewww! She licked my hand!”

  “You wouldn’t get off my face!” Streep accused.

  “We need weapons,” Max announced. “We’re totally outnumbered. You. Rude brother number three.”

  “I said I liked the Danish.”

  “Whatever. Do you know where they keep the weapons?”

  “No idea.”

  “We need to grab somebody, then.”

  Tock gestured toward the end of the hallway. “What about him?”

  It was Tock’s victim. She’d only severed his spine. She hadn’t killed him. And he was desperately dragging himself down the hall, attempting to get away from the crazy badgers, while leaving a trail of blood and piss in his wake.

  Not that Shay could blame him.

  * * *

  Deng debated again whether this was the life for him. He’d had two choices after making his way to America: working here with his cousin in the gambling hall, or in the restaurant with his uncle. His cousin was from his mother’s side of the family and, to be blunt, those relatives were a little more comfortable with the criminal way of life. Especially when it involved full-humans. But the money from working here was so much better. If he worked at his uncle’s restaurant, he’d have to work harder and longer before he could ever earn as much as he was earning now.

  He still had responsibilities back home. Family members relying on him. He had to think about . . .

  Deng stopped as he saw one of the lieutenants of the in-house gang attempting to crawl out of the hallway that led to the incinerator. He was sobbing, which was just strange, because one didn’t become a lieutenant among the Yuns if one cried over anything. Only the strongest and meanest tigers ever made it that far up the ladder.

  Suddenly the lieutenant looked over his shoulder, and whatever he saw must have horrified him because his sobbing became worse and he began begging.

  “No, please! Noooooo!”

  Something dragged the male away and Deng stood there, too shocked to move. A few seconds later a tiny mixed-Asian female stepped into the hallway. Shrewd eyes looked up and down the other hallways but when she saw Deng, she quickly sized him up, then grinned. That’s when he realized that she was burned. From the incinerator? No one who went into the incinerator ever came out again. Mostly because when they went into the incinerator they were already dead. But even if someone was into torturing and threw a live human inside the incinerator, there was no way they could get out of it. It was made of metal to contain the flames so that it didn’t set the building on fire and was something even strong tigers couldn’t dig their way out of. So then how did she . . . ?

  Still smiling, she waved at him and he . . . well . . . he waved back.

  With that, she returned to the hallway with the lieutenant, and Deng turned and made the final decision that restaurant life was the life for him. His uncle would be happy.

  And Deng would be alive.

  * * *

  Nelle glanced at the phone, then at Yun.

  The badger’s heels were even more ridiculously high than Yun’s, so she looked directly into the She-tiger’s eyes.

  “Tell your daddy to send that twenty-five million to the account I give him, princess,” Yun pushed. “Or I’ll make this really ugly for you.”

  Finn and Keane weaved their way through the crowd of cats surrounding the three females. They moved slowly and carefully, making sure not to draw attention to themselves.

  “Fine,” Nelle said on a long sigh. She held her hand out, wiggled her fingers. “Give me the phone.”

  Yun began to comply but abruptly stopped, staring at Nelle’s hand in confusion.

  “Hel-lo?” Nelle pushed.

  “Your . . . your hand . . . ? Weren’t you cuffed?”

  “You mean these?” Nelle held up the handcuffs that she’d somehow slipped out of.

  “What the fuck?”

  “Want them back?” she asked, tossing the metal cuffs at the She-tiger who was supposed to be guarding her before she turned and head-butted Yun.

  Yun dropped the phone so she could grab her bleeding forehead and scream curses at Nelle in very Bronx-tainted English.

  The guard grabbed Nelle’s shoulder and Nelle responded by punching the She-tiger in the throat, grabbing her arm, and flipping her over her hip. Once she had her on the ground, she buried the tip of her right heel in the female’s eye.

  Brutal but effective.

  When Nelle looked up from the damage she’d done, she had a room full of Yun-related tigers and tigers employed by the Yuns glaring at her.

  And that’s when she threw her arms out in challenge and snarled, “What?”

  * * *

  They found the weapons easy enough and Shay watched in fascination as the badgers silently pulled out what they needed, quickly and efficiently checked the equipment, then proceeded to ready themselves for war. If he didn’t know better, he’d swear they all had military experience, but he was positive they had none. From what he knew, they’d been playing pro basketball since they graduated high school. So where these military-like skills came from, he had no idea.

  Once they had the weapons and ammo they wanted, they found clothes to replace the ones that had been damaged by their time in the incinerator. They were just finishing tugging on the boots that were so small, they were probably for any visiting Yun cubs, when a sound at the front of the room had the females all turning, weapons locked and loaded, and Shay plastering himself against the wall in the hopes of not getting accidentally shot.

  But thanks to what had to be some kind of training, not one of the badgers fired a shot at Charlie MacKilligan as she stood in the doorway with a shaking white male Shay didn’t recognize.

  Max lowered her weapon. “What are you doing here?” she asked her sister with a tone of annoyance that seemed unwarranted considering the situation they were in.

  Instead of answering that question, Charlie nodded toward the shaking male. “This is Balinski. Dad owes him money.”

  “Dad owes everybody money.”

  “The Yuns used him to lure you here.”

  “Why me? What did I ever do to the Yuns?”

  “Nothing. From what I can tell. I think they’re working for someone else. We need to find out who.”

  Max jerked her chin at Balinski. “What about him?”

  Charlie barely glanced at the man she was holding by the arm. After a moment, she released him and ordered, “Go away.”

  He did, sprinting from their small group. Shay had no idea what had happened between Balinski and Charlie but the way the man ran from her . . .

  “You need to be more careful,” Charlie told Max.

  “Are we really going to do this now?”

  “Stop being so reactionary.”

  “Really? This coming from you?”

  Charlie studied the badgers for a few seconds before asking, “Why are you all burned like that?”

  “The Yuns broke our necks and tossed us down the incinerator.”

  Tock cringed and glanced at Shay, giving him a little head shake. He just didn’t know why.

  “Where’s Nelle?” Charlie asked.

  “They k
ept her,” Max replied. “We can only assume they’re trying to sell her back to her father. You know her family is very wealthy. They’re going to try and milk that.”

  “And Mads?”

  “The people who tried to murder us told us she got ambushed, stabbed, and thrown off the roof.”

  After a disturbing grunt, Charlie walked off and Tock slammed her fist into Max’s shoulder.

  “Oww! What was that for?”

  “Why would you tell your terrifying sister any of that?”

  “Because she gets madder when I lie.”

  “She should know,” Streep snarled. “Let her kill ’em all.”

  “If this is still about your hair—”

  “Look at it!” Streep practically screeched, pointing at her head. “Look at what they’ve done! They should all burn!”

  Tock faced Shay. “If I were you . . . I’d warn your brothers.”

  “Warn them about what?”

  “That Charlie may not be able to tell one tiger from another.”

  “Especially if her allergies are acting up.” Max suddenly smiled. It was not friendly. It was mean. Really mean. “She won’t be able to smell a thing.”

  * * *

  Keane leaped from where he stood until he was in front of Nelle and roared. Some of the others shifted to their cat form and roared back. But others pulled out guns and knives. Ready for a more human way of fighting.

  Out of any other option, Finn charged through the crowd toward his eldest brother and Nelle but he saw Shay coming through the double doors, heading right for them. It wasn’t just his brother running into the room that caught Finn’s attention. It was the way his brother was moving. It was a full-blown panic run. But this was not the first time Shay had seen a shitload of guns pointed at one or both of his siblings. He knew better than to panic.

  Panic led to shooting. Shay knew that as well as anyone. So the sight of him sprinting across the room had Finn bringing all four paws forward to stop his momentum as Shay tackled Keane out of the way. Nelle didn’t budge. She simply stood there. Even when the shooting started.

  The badgers came into the hall like they had military training and with enough weapons and ammunition strapped to their bodies to take down an entire village.

  Max burst in through the open double doors and Tock through a side door that led from the kitchen. Streep announced herself by kicking a ceiling panel out and unleashing a volley of shots that cleared space between the cats and a still-unmoving Nelle.

  That’s when Yun finally entered the fray. Calmly, Finn had to admit, but still with that fucking accent.

  “All right, all right!” Yun called out. “Y’all calm the fuck down! Before everybody does somethin’ stupid.”

  The growling and snarling simmered down but the weapons and claws weren’t put away; the fangs weren’t retracted.

  Yun continued to rub her forehead where Nelle had head-butted her; a nice lump was already expanding across that smooth skin. Nelle’s forehead, however, appeared perfectly fine. Not even a red spot.

  “I know you think,” Yun continued on, “that you have some kind of winning position here. What with our guns”—she gestured to the weapons the badgers now held—“and the fact that you somehow managed to survive our incinerator. It’s my fault, really. I underestimated the warning when they told me your kind was hard to kill. But you have to see”—she gestured around the room—“that you’re outnumbered. No matter how many guns you have. Or additional badgers,” she said after Mads pushed her way out of a wall panel, desperately brushing herself off and yelping, “Don’t eat anything out of this place’s kitchen. There’re rats everywhere!”

  “Or how many bears you may have,” Yun added when the Dunn triplets entered through the fire exit, still in their human form, but with their guns drawn.

  Yun continued on, although she clearly saw the potential problem, “But I’m sure we can come to some less dramatic approach than an all-out war.”

  Finn glanced at his brothers and the three of them almost laughed. Because not for a second did they believe that Yun really planned on letting any of them out of here alive. But she was strategic enough to know that losing a bunch of her people in the process of killing her enemies wouldn’t do her any good with the rest of her family or her employees, so she was being calm and rational.

  Smart. And, if she were up against other cat shifters, this would be a hell of a chess match to see who’d get that checkmate.

  But Yun wasn’t up against cats. Or dogs. Or even bears that could drop their guns and shift to ten-foot, thousand-pound killing machines at any moment.

  She wasn’t even up against badgers. Not really.

  Because what she was really up against were MacKilligans and the friends of MacKilligans. And who the hell knew what that would lead to? Finn certainly didn’t know.

  Especially now, with Charlie coming through the double doors, seven cats behind her. One tried to grab her arm as she got close to Yun, but Charlie did something that had the tiger yelping. He snatched his hand back and cradled it against his chest, snarling at the badger as she stood before Yun.

  “You must be Charlie MacKilligan,” Yun said, smirking. She sized up the smaller but larger-shouldered female and appeared completely unimpressed.

  Mads stepped closer to Finn, her face grimacing a bit as he and his brothers shifted back to human.

  “Uh-oh,” Mads said in a whisper. “Don’t smirk, woman. Please don’t smirk.”

  “I was just telling your sister Max,” Yun continued, oblivious, “that I was sure we could work this out without further bloodshed.”

  Charlie gazed at the big cat with a blank, unfriendly expression. After a moment, she asked, “So you’re saying we can just walk away?”

  “Well—”

  “We can just turn our backs and you’ll let us go.”

  “Uhhhh—”

  “Let’s test that theory.”

  Charlie turned away from Yun and began to walk away.

  “What is she doing?” Keane asked, shocked.

  “Testing that theory,” Mads replied.

  “She has to know,” Finn gasped, horrified, “you never turn your back on a tiger. Never.”

  Tigers ambushed from behind. It was instinctual. Especially when they were already planning to ambush their prey.

  So Charlie was only a few feet away when Yun moved on her; arms outstretched, going for Charlie’s shoulders or neck. But Charlie turned fast and caught Yun by both her wrists.

  They locked gazes. Yun was still wearing that smirk, Charlie continuing to appear blank and unfriendly. But as they remained stuck in position, Charlie holding Yun away from her, they kept looking at each other. Both refusing to look away. Like a lethal staring contest.

  Eventually, Yun became frustrated. Finn could see that she tried to push forward, but she couldn’t get Charlie to budge. Next she tried to pull away, but Charlie wouldn’t release her.

  As seconds moved on to minutes and her team watched her closely to see what her next move would be, Yun’s nose began to twitch and her eyes narrowed dangerously before changing colors. Then, within seconds, she shifted. From stunningly beautiful woman to stunningly beautiful She-tiger. Seven feet long and six hundred pounds, standing on her hind legs and towering over Charlie MacKilligan, her forelegs still held by Charlie’s hands.

  A Charlie MacKilligan who couldn’t shift.

  Yet she didn’t back off. She didn’t release Yun. She didn’t do anything but stand there, holding onto those thick tiger legs that were now too big for Charlie to get her hands around.

  The situation grew increasingly tense, especially when Charlie didn’t let Yun go and didn’t show any signs of fear or weakness. She simply kept her grip and held on. Eventually Yun put her full strength into resisting and so did Charlie, muscles beginning to pop under her black T-shirt.

  Finn didn’t like this. All Yun had to do was lower her head and she could bite Charlie’s face off. So he started to m
ove forward, but Mads’s arm shot out and blocked him.

  “Don’t.”

  “Yeah, but—”

  “Don’t.”

  There was something in Mads’s voice. The way she said that one word.

  He took a step back and waited.

  Then he saw it. Shockingly, Yun’s hind claws were forced back as Charlie shoved the bigger, heavier shifter across the hardwood floor of the gambling hall. Yun tried to stop her. Tried to fight her off. Tried to yank her forelegs away from the hybrid holding onto her, but Charlie refused to let go. The worst part now, though, was that Charlie was the one who was smirking. Which made it seem as if holding onto a snarling, snapping She-cat was no strain on her.

  How was that even possible?

  Finn had known hybrids before. His baby sister was a hybrid. He’d seen her struggle to open a jar of pickles. He’d never known any hybrids with superstrength. Instead, they’d all been . . . quirky. They all chased lights only they could see. The wolf hybrids didn’t always know how to howl properly. Bear hybrids could be so easily distracted by butterflies that the Malone brothers made a game of how many in a day or week they could entice into walking face-first into walls, doors, or windows. The cat hybrids sometimes tore up a friend’s new wood flooring because they were convinced they heard a mouse underneath—when they didn’t. Hybrid antics were always hilarious—especially when they happened to one’s teammates—but not remotely terrifying.

  Yet watching a non-shifting hybrid shove a She-tiger that was five times bigger across the floor like she was moving an empty refrigerator box by herself . . . ? That was terrifying.

  Livid and frustrated, Yun leaned forward and snapped her massive jaws at Charlie’s face, again and again. But Charlie managed to dodge and weave out of the way without ever losing her grip on Yun’s forelegs. She also managed to keep the two of them moving around the floor.

  Yun tried to rear farther up and take Charlie with her, but Charlie held her down. No matter how much the She-tiger pulled and heaved.

  Then, at some point, Yun seemed to get her right paw free from Charlie’s grasp. It shouldn’t have surprised Finn, but there was a part of him that felt Charlie had let her go; he just didn’t believe the hybrid had run out of steam.