Born to Be Badger (Honey Badger Chronicles #5)(68)

Tock was sending her away because she thought things might get bad with that woman, and she wanted Dani to be safe. And it would be all Dani’s fault because she didn’t know how to be nice to idiot boys.

*

Tock knew the second the kid took off because the She-lion’s eyes flickered away from Tock’s face. But she wanted to hold her attention until the kid was gone. She didn’t want Shay’s kid to see what she might be forced to do to this woman. Dani still had that adorable cub-innocence and Tock didn’t want to be the one who stripped it away. Cats and dogs and especially bears were all such cute, sweet pups and cubs.

But honey badgers . . . well, they were born ready for a fight. It was how they survived in the wild. The only other cubs Tock could think of with that kind of edge were the hyenas. Of course, they weren’t born with an edge like badgers; they were just born mean. It was said that twins had to be separated at birth because they’d fight in their crib even though they still hadn’t learned to crawl. Tock once watched a hyena baby knock out another with a left hook when they were both strapped into separate baby strollers.

It was funny, of course, but still . . .

Tock quickly moved her head to keep it right in front of the She-lion so she wouldn’t notice Dani’s escape. It worked, too. The She-lion glared down at her with the irrational rage of a mother with a horrible child.

“What the fuck you staring at?” the cat asked with one of those thick Staten Island accents that Tock found so offensive. Who could listen to that all day?

Of course, Tock’s response to that very New York question would have to keep the She-lion’s and her friends’—most likely sisters’—attention. The problem was that Tock wasn’t like her teammates. She didn’t have Streep’s ability to burst into dramatic tears in less than three seconds. She didn’t have Nelle’s perpetual cool. She didn’t have Mads’s brutal rage. And she especially didn’t have Max’s off-putting good cheer, which could somehow stir a life-ending brawl at a royal wedding.

No. Tock had to go with what she was good at: being kind of weird.

“Oh, I’m not staring at anything,” she said to the She-lion, letting her voice ease out of her like smoke from a chimney. “Just waiting for you to die.”

Yep. That was weird. And the She-lion responded by shoving Tock back thirty feet.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” the female wanted to know.

Sadly, that was a question Tock had heard many times before.

*

Shay was listening to one of Keane’s rants about commitment and loyalty and “being on time”—that last one had been directed at him—when he heard “Daddy!” yelled across the training field.

Although he immediately knew his daughter’s voice, every other father in the arena looked around. It was instinct. A few of them might not be with the mothers of their children, but most of them insisted on being involved in the lives of their offspring. The idea of their exes hooking up with some full-human male who might try to raise their shifter child was too much for any of them to take.

“Dani?” He started to run over to where she stood, asking, “What’s wrong?”

“Tock’s about to get into a fight with a She-lion because her kid wanted a puppy!”

Shay slowly came to a halt and nodded. “Oh. Okay.” He turned back to his brother to hear the end of the rant.

“Daddy?”

“She’ll be fine, D,” Keane called out. “Badgers and She-lions fight all the time. Don’t worry about it. We’ll finish the team meeting and then we’ll go with you. Okay?”

Shay had nearly returned to his team when “Daddy!” was viciously screeched across the field. And it was not a plea. It was an order. One that must be followed. So Shay turned back around and started running toward the exit.

“Burt!” he called out to a black bear sitting on the sidelines, eating spoonfuls of honey from a jar. “Watch my kid.”

“We can watch her,” Keane argued, indicating himself and Finn. “We’re not going any—”

“Go with him!” Dani ordered her uncles.

“Listen to me, little miss—”

“Nowwwwwwww!”

Shay was not surprised when his brothers caught up to him a few seconds later as he ran down the hall, following his daughter’s scent back to the food court.

*

Keane stopped his brothers as soon as they got to the food court. He didn’t want to be involved in this mess. He didn’t want his family involved either.

The Malone name had a bad enough reputation; he wasn’t about to make it worse by entangling himself and his brothers in what his father would have called “a Malone family reunion.”

Tock wasn’t even part of the fight! She’d been pushed aside by her teammates, who had probably just arrived at the sports complex for their own team’s practice but decided it was a good idea to get into a screaming match with She-lions instead.

“I am not getting in a fight with Anya Morozov. We’re leaving,” Keane told his brothers.

“Going back without Tock?” Shay asked. “Dani will have your ass.”

“Then go get her,” Keane snarled between clenched teeth. Because this was embarrassing!

“Okay, okay. Calm down.” Shay lumbered off like he had bear genes or something.