Born to Be Badger (Honey Badger Chronicles #5)(27)

But those were thoughts for another day. Right now . . . Mira had to admit something to herself. Unlike pacts between warring countries and taking down dictators, she finally had to accept that she couldn’t handle this situation on her own. Because now civilians were being harmed. True, it was just an oversized house cat but it was the principle of the thing. She had no desire to harm the undeserving. Mira kept her ire for those who had earned it. House cat or not.

Which meant only one thing . . .

Letting out a long sigh, she hit redial on her phone and waited.

“What?” was the reply she got, and she rolled her eyes at the massive disrespect.

“You were right,” Mira grudgingly admitted. “And I think you should get involved.”

“Me?” was the response, and Mira could easily imagine the smirk on that face when the question was followed up with, “Or me and my friendsssss?” She drew the S out on “friends” so that the word sounded like it was coming from an actual asp.

Mira gritted her fangs—because they were out now, in annoyance—and said, “Yes. You and your”—she let out a sigh—“friends.”

“Hey, guys,” Tracey Rutowski yelled away from her phone, “she wants all of us!”

And the annoying, undisciplined badgers drunkenly cheered back, “Friendssssssss!”

Unable to tolerate another moment, Mira ended the call and snarled so viciously, her half-conscious granddaughter on the other side of that thick, protective medical glass raised her badger head and hissed back.





Chapter 5


When Shay opened his eyes he knew three things . . .

It was morning.

He’d almost died.

And someone’s head was resting on his penis.

If he hadn’t almost died, he would simply go back to sleep and be just fine with someone sleeping on his dick. But this was weird because he had almost died. He could see all the hospital equipment, smell all the shifter breeds that were roaming around, and feel the wound that was still healing on his neck. This was not a time when he would go out and get himself a girlfriend. Maybe the fever had gotten the better of him, but he didn’t think so. Shifter nurses didn’t let their feverish patients run around hospitals trying to fuck each other. So then what the hell?

Carefully, aware he didn’t want to undo the work that had been done on his throat, Shay lifted his head just enough so he could view the end of the bed . . . but all he saw was an amazing bare ass. Just resting there. Within touching distance of his hand, but he knew better. Shifter females were like any full-blood predator. They didn’t like to be touched without their explicit permission, and a guy was taking his life in his claws if he tried anything else.

The problem at the moment was that the owner of that perfect ass was waking up and rubbing her face against the very thin sheet covering his dick.

Closing his eyes, he tried to get control of the one uncontrollable thing about him, but nope. It got hard. Because she wouldn’t stop rubbing her face against it or growling.

The growling! It was definitely the growling.

Unable to stand another second without embarrassing himself, Shay barked, “Hey!”

He immediately realized that perfect ass was attached to Tock Lepstein, whose gorgeous curly hair briefly covered her face as she turned to look at him. With a quick twitch of her head, the hair moved and she blinked dark brown eyes at him.

“Shay?” she asked, frowning in confusion.

“Hi, Tock.”

She placed her palms on his thighs and used her arms to raise her torso so she could look around.

“Where are we? What happened?”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“No.” She made a smacking sound with her mouth and glanced back at him. “Why do I taste cobra?”

“The snake? That kind of cobra? I do not know why you would taste that. I also don’t know why you would know what king cobra tastes like.”

She shrugged. “It’s a little gamey. But with a nice sauce and fileted—”

“I can’t listen to this now,” he cut in before she could keep going. He didn’t want to start retching while his neck was healing. “I am asking you nicely to please get off me.”

“What?” She looked down and, after a brief pause, began crab-crawling away from the raging hard-on making a tent of the sheet. But that meant her ass was backing up right toward his face.

“Tock . . . Tock!” he barked, a little panicked.

She stopped, looked at him over her shoulder. All he had to do was widen his eyes and she quickly realized that he was inches away from having his nose buried in that ass. Something neither of them were comfortable with at the moment.

Gasping, she scrambled off him, which he appreciated. But then she grabbed the sheet and yanked it off. Leaving his hard dick exposed.

With a growl, he grabbed the pillow out from under his head and slammed it over his crotch.

“You’re killing me, Tock,” he told her, using the device draped over the headboard to lift the top half of the bed so he could sit up without moving his head or neck.

“Why am I naked?” she demanded.

“I don’t know.”

She looked him over, which made him feel even more naked. Like he didn’t have a very convenient pillow covering his junk.