Breaking Badger

by Shelly Laurenston

  He tried to pull her off his cock, but she held on and he came in her mouth. He shot three times into her and when he was done, he yanked her off and slammed her onto the bed. Before she could say a word, he was buried face-first between her legs, his tongue taking long, deep strokes. She gripped his hair and planted her heels in his back.

  She’d been licked before but never like this. And it took her a few minutes to figure out why. Why she felt wild and overwhelmed and almost afraid of how hard she was going to come. It was his tongue. It was rough. It wasn’t a full tiger tongue. That would rip the flesh off. But he’d shifted it enough to give her a rough ride, so to speak, and since she was honey badger anyway, the whole thing was making her toes curl and her body shake.

  What was driving her to the edge was that when he reached her clit, his tongue curled around it before letting go. It happened each time. Bottom to top. Curl. And rough.

  Nothing. Nothing had ever felt this amazing. And he kept it up for ages. Toying with her. Teasing her. Until she knew he was hard again. He didn’t stop, though. He swirled that amazing tongue around her clit, rammed three fingers inside her, slipped his free hand under her ass and squeezed off and on. While all that happened, Mads played with her nipples and let her mind go. Just let her body feel whatever this amazing male was doing to her. When her legs began to shake and her back arched, she didn’t fight it. She just let go and came so hard, she cried out and possibly went blind for a few minutes.

  When she could see again, Finn was lying next to her and he growled, “I need to fuck you.”

  “Then get over here and—shit. Condoms.”

  Finn suddenly sat up. “Shit. Condoms.”

  Mads scrambled to her knees. “You didn’t bring condoms? Not even one in your wallet?”

  “I didn’t want to look presumptuous.”

  “Idiot.”

  “Wait.” He raised his brows. “Nelle.”

  “Oh, no. You don’t think . . .”

  Together, they both looked over at the end table next to the bed.

  * * *

  Finn had never prayed so hard that a woman he barely knew was truly obsessive. But he was praying.

  Mads, beautifully naked, a tattoo of a spear on her left side, crawled across the bed to the end table. When she opened the drawer, she let out an annoyed growl and Finn wondered how fast he could get to the pharmacy and whether it would be faster if he ran rather than driving his SUV.

  Then she held up a big box of condoms.

  “Oh, my God! She’s so insane!”

  “Why are you complaining?” he demanded.

  She tore off the sticky note attached to the box and handed it to him. He read what was carefully printed on it.

  We both know this will be used by you and Finn.—N.

  “Do you see?” Mads demanded. “Do you see how crazy she is?”

  Still holding the note, he turned and grabbed Mads’s face between both his hands. “Can we obsess over the insanity of your teammates later? Please? And instead just be happy there are condoms? Think we can do that? Because you may not have noticed . . . but I just realized, I’ve never kissed you.”

  “Because neither of us thought of it before now or because I had your come in my mouth?”

  She was a woman willing to deep throat him right out of the box, and he wanted her to have no doubt that he was willing to kiss her before and after she had his come in her mouth.

  Still holding her head between his hands, Finn leaned in and pressed his mouth against Mads’s. She reached up and gripped his wrists, turned her head, and easily opened up to him. Her tongue slid against his and his cock got even harder, which he hadn’t thought possible. It was the way Mads met him on his own ground. He hadn’t really expected that. She was so quiet, he’d thought maybe she’d be subdued in bed, too. Not that he would have had a problem with that. Everyone had their own pace, and it could be hard to find someone who was your match. Especially when they were a different species.

  And yet, here she was, still kissing him while reaching out for the condom box. He could hear her tearing it open and before he knew it, she had the condom on him.

  They were still kissing when she put her arms around his neck and straddled him. She didn’t pull her mouth away until she started to settle herself onto his dick and that was only so she could gasp out as she took him inside her.

  “Fuck! Yes!” she cried out with a smile as she rocked onto him.

  Finn could feel her squeezing him and his eyes crossed from the power of it. To distract himself, he sucked her left nipple into his mouth and began playing with it. He then moved on to the right while Mads got into a nice rhythm riding his cock. When he was sure she wouldn’t expect it, he slapped her ass.

  That’s when her pussy turned into a vise, locking around him each time he slapped her ass again and getting wetter. Her big smile was awesome, too.

  What he loved was that he didn’t need to go too hard. He liked things light and fun. Not dungeons and darkness. Everyone had their thing and he had no problem with that, but it wasn’t for him. Knowing that Mads seemed happy with light fun had him ready to come again. Not until he got her off first, though. He desperately needed to see her come.

  Sucking on her breast, he pulled his hand away from her ass and brought it around to the front. He slipped it between them and searched out her clit. He pressed his thumb against it and began to move it in tight circles.

  Mads’s head fell back and her fingers dug into his hair.

  “Oh, God,” she groaned. He sucked harder on her nipple. Stroked harder on her clit. And she rode his cock harder. For a little extra, he began flicking his tongue back and forth while sucking on her nipple, and picked up the speed of stroking her clit.

  Before he knew it, she was gasping and gripping him tight as she came hard. Her body spasmed at least four times before she finally slumped down on him.

  Finn rolled her onto the bed with him on top and began to fuck her hard. Mads’s eyes opened and she stared straight at him. She raised her hands and pushed him off. But not to stop him. She grabbed pillows and put them under her waist. “Fuck me from behind,” she ordered him, rising up on her knees.

  He pushed his cock inside her and she said, “Grab my tits.” He did as he began to mercilessly fuck her.

  Not only did she pound back against him, ordering him, “Fuck me harder. Harder!” but she played with her clit the entire time so that when he finally came, she came with him. Finn roaring. Mads growling. Both of them collapsing on the bed in a sweaty, snarling mess.

  chapter NINETEEN

  “I understand that you’re upset—”

  “Upset? Badgers killed my daughter.”

  “Your daughter lured them there. She was planning to kill them. You can’t now be pissed because they didn’t let her. But if you start a war—”

  “You’ll what?”

  The bowie knife slammed into the leather cushion of the office chair, right between Kang Yun’s legs.

  Niles Van Holtz watched Dee-Ann Smith lean over the head of the Yun mob family, her hand still wrapped around the hilt of her favorite knife. Although he would never understand what his favorite younger cousin saw in the She-wolf as a mate, Van did appreciate the female as a natural killer. Van was born as part of a pack. He never hunted alone. He never fed or lived alone. And he only killed non-prey as an absolute last resort.

  But to Smith, everything was prey.

  Including a six-hundred-pound tiger and his equally large gangster brothers.

  Actually, the only creature Van had ever seen Smith wary of was Charlie MacKilligan, which told him a lot about Charlie MacKilligan.

  “I don’t think you’re listening real well to Mr. Van Holtz here, big kitty. He’s asking you nice not to make this worse than it already is. We’ve got cops and feds looking into this—full-human ones—and if you keep this going, they’re just going to keep looking more. And considering all the illegal shit y’all do on a daily basis, I’m p
retty sure you don’t want full-human feds anywhere near your businesses. So do as the man says and stay away from the MacKilligan sisters. Understand?”

  Yun glared at her. “Yes. I understand.”

  “Repeat it back to me. I wanna make sure.”

  “Stay away from the MacKilligan sisters.”

  “Perfect.”

  Smith yanked the blade out of the chair and stepped away.

  Yun and several of his brothers and sisters stormed out, the door slamming behind the last one.

  Smith sat down in the chair Yun had vacated, placing her elbows on the armrests. She flicked her hands. “What do you think?” she asked.

  “I think it’s going to cost a lot to replace that leather chair you just stabbed with your tacky knife.”

  “Hey!” She pointed at the bowie knife. “My daddy gave me this knife.”

  * * *

  She was kneading his back with her claws, which had Finn hard before he was even fully awake.

  So he couldn’t even begin to describe his disappointment and rage when he turned over and found that goddamn coyote lying between him and Mads . . . panting.

  “Why is this . . . animal . . . in bed with us?”

  “He snuck in a little while ago.”

  “You didn’t throw it out?”

  “Didn’t want to. He was so sweet and cuddly. I think he may be more coydog than coyote.”

  Finn didn’t care if it was more rabbit—he didn’t want it in the same bed he was sleeping in. Especially when he was sleeping in that bed with Mads.

  “I’m getting in the shower,” he grumbled, swinging his legs off the bed. “And I’m throwing it off the bed next time. Until it learns it’s not welcome.”

  Or at least until it learned not to get between them.

  Finn was halfway to the bathroom, feeling strongly he’d made his point about the coyote, when he heard, “Next time, huh?”

  He stopped mid-step and spun back around, made his way to the bed, and with one hand tossed the coyote off. It yelped but it was fine. Whiney baby. Reaching across the mattress, he grasped Mads’s ankle and yanked her to him.

  Finn thought of a thousand things he could say. Should say. He ended up not saying any of them. Just kissed her instead. Long and hard, slipping his tongue inside her, putting his arms around her and lifting her off the bed. What he really loved about kissing Mads was the way he could still feel her smiling. She didn’t smile often, the Viking. But she did when they were together in bed. Fucking, sucking, or kissing, Mads loved to smile. Which only made him smile. Two of the meanest, angriest predators on the planet finding a reason to smile in each other’s arms. Almost romantic if it wasn’t for the panting . . .

  They both turned their heads at the same time to see the coyote back on the bed, gazing at them.

  “I’m going to find out how you’re getting in this house . . . and I’m going to block the way, you little fuck,” Finn warned him.

  “Awww, leave him alone. He’s so—oh!” Mads gasped when Finn coldly dropped her back on the bed and made his way to the bathroom and his much-needed shower. “That was bitchy!” she laughed.

  When Finn finished showering, he came out to find a new toothbrush on the counter, still in the packaging, and a just-opened tube of toothpaste.

  “Did it say ‘for Finn’ on the toothbrush, too?” he called out to the bedroom.

  “You and Nelle can just fuck off!” Mads snapped as she marched past him and into the shower.

  Wrapping a towel around his waist, Finn brushed his teeth, combed his wet hair, and headed back into the bedroom. He was expecting to have to go another round with that stupid coyote but, much to his horror, what he had to deal with was his brothers. The pair of those idiots peeking their giant heads into the bedroom.

  Were they being creepy? Were they trying to see Mads naked? Was Finn going to have to kill them and tell their mother that their bodies had fallen off the Staten Island ferry?

  “What are you doing here?” he whispered, praying that Mads’s honey badger hearing didn’t pick any of this up over the shower noise.

  “Where’s Mads?” Keane asked.

  By the ancients . . . he was going to have to kill his brothers and dump their bodies off the Staten Island ferry.

  “You perverts,” he accused.

  “No, no!” Keane leaned in. “Her friends are all dead!”

  After what had happened with Mads’s cousins the night before, Finn wasn’t so ready to dismiss Keane’s statement as he normally would be.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Charlie sent me here to meet Max. But we found them all dead. In the living room.”

  Now Finn was feeling dismissive. “Are you sure?”

  “I know dead. I’m an always hungry tiger. Trust me . . . they’re dead. But check it out for yourself.”

  Finn followed his brothers down the stairs and into the living room. The TV was set to a channel that seemed to be playing one of those shows where women coldly kill their husbands for the insurance money. Bags of junk food and cans of high-octane soda littered the floor. And in what resembled one of those circa 1970s photographs of Alphabet City, Mads’s four teammates were strewn across the living room floor appearing . . . dead.

  “We checked vitals,” Shay said. “No heartbeat. No pulse. No breathing. I know they’re hard to kill, but . . . they really seem dead.”

  “And cold.”

  That caught Finn’s attention. It wasn’t cold in Mads’s house. She had the air-conditioning on low. He’d been planning to turn it up but kept forgetting because he’d been buried so deep inside her, he’d forgotten anything else actually existed.

  Now her friends were dead. Maybe . . . ?

  Shit.

  “Let’s get them to a shifter hospital,” Finn reasoned. “If nothing else—”

  “We tried.”

  “What do you mean you tried?”

  “We were going to put them in the car,” Keane explained. “But . . .”

  “But . . . what?”

  Shay shrugged. “We think rigor mortis has set in.”

  “What?”

  Keane walked over to Nelle. Wearing her designer dress, with her arms and legs spread out, she looked like a sparkly starfish. Putting his hands around her waist, Keane lifted her up but she stayed in the exact same pose . . . appearing like a sparkly starfish.

  “See?” Shay said. “Rigor mortis.”

  “If we try to put them in the car now, we’re going to have to break their arms and legs first,” Keane pointed out. “And if they’re not really dead, they’re gonna be pissed.”

  At that point, Finn knew he had no choice. He had to tell Mads. If nothing else, she’d know whether her friends were really dead or not. And if they were dead, she’d know what to do about the bodies. But before he could move, he and his brothers heard a hissing from under one of the couches. Then it was coming at them. Moving with such speed that all they could do was shift to their tiger form and do what cats do when they panic. Something weird.

  Finn jumped onto the back of a couch, accidentally knocking a prone Streep onto the floor. Shay made it to a chair. But Keane was looking for a way out, backing up as fast as he could, paws scrabbling across the hardwood floor. The snake came at him with such ease and speed that Finn and Shay were both about to launch themselves at the damn thing until a pale, wet foot landed on the snake’s back, holding it in place.

  Mads reached down and picked the snake up by the tail. It started to turn so it could bite her on the hand, and Finn was already thinking about how he was going to have to break her bones to get her into his SUV when she began to beat the reptile against the floor. So fast and so many times that Finn lost count. When it was limp and blood had splattered all over Mads’s feet, she lifted it and began to eat.

  Head first.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  * * *

  It had been ages since Mads had feasted on Inland Taipan. It was consider
ed the world’s most poisonous snake. In theory, it could even kill an elephant. Could have dropped these tigers easy. Plus, it was aggressive. So it wasn’t like you had to startle it. The taipan would come for you.

  And also, in theory, it should be able to put her down just as it had clearly put down her friends. All four crazed bitches fucking up her living room. There was just one difference between her and her friends: Solveig.

  When Solveig realized that her daughter and granddaughter had lost any maternal interest in Mads, she’d taken responsibility for her. But she knew next to nothing about honey badgers. Since she’d never seen badgers as a threat, she’d felt no reason to learn anything about them. They meant as much to her as full-humans. It wasn’t until she’d gone to the library and gotten a librarian to pull a few books on the subject that she began to understand what she was dealing with. She also understood that Mads could one day protect herself, but only if she got the care and training she needed now.

  That’s when Solveig had tried to give Mads to her father, but Tova had found out and put a stop to that immediately. Completely out of spite and for no other reason. Solveig knew then that preparing Mads to live for the next hundred years would be on her. That was why she’d thrown Mads into that small vat of scorpions. It was true badger mothers let scorpions sting their offspring to get them acclimated to the poison, but only one at a time. That, however, was not Solveig’s way. She just purchased a bunch of scorpions and tossed her great-granddaughter in. When Mads began to cry, she told her, “Toughen up!” When Mads vomited and passed out, Solveig was briefly worried she’d gone too far. Panicked, she’d gone to retrieve the child and rush her to a shifter doctor who could help, but instead she was hit in the face by a scorpion. Because Mads had thrown it at her. Out of rage.

  That’s when, according to Solveig, “I knew you’d be just fine.”