Standing between Dani and the boys, arms straight out to hold them away from each other if that became necessary, Tock asked Dani, “What’s going on?”
“He—” was all Dani got out before Tock cut her off by asking, without turning around, “Where do you think you’re going with that puppy?”
The three boys froze in the midst of walking away, and the one holding Princess’s pup then proceeded to outright lie! “She said I could have him.”
“You lying little—”
One upheld finger silenced Dani immediately. She didn’t know why she responded like that to her father’s friend. Because, by now, Dani’s mother would have torn someone’s arm off and ripped apart most of the building. Tock, however, remained calm and soft spoken. It was kind of underwhelming.
“We both know,” Tock said to the boys, “that she didn’t give you that puppy. So put it back in the crate and walk away.”
“It’s mine,” the boy insisted. “She gave it to me.”
With her finger still raised to keep Dani quiet and her head turned so she could keep the boys within sight, Tock said in the same calm tone, “Put the puppy back in the crate and walk. Away.”
Then Tock smiled. It was just teeth and gums. No fangs. If Dani saw someone walking down the street with a smile like that, she wouldn’t think anything of it. But coming from Tock the smile seemed . . . weird. Really, really weird.
Dani wasn’t the only one who thought so. With his gaze locked on Tock’s face, the boy slowly walked forward and put the puppy back into the crate. He started to move away, not bothering to close and secure the crate door. Still smiling, Tock tilted her head just a bit and he stopped, waited a beat, then secured the crate. After taking a few steps back, he and the two other boys turned around and took off running.
When Tock faced her, she asked Dani, “Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, Tock. I didn’t mean to get you into that.”
“What are you apologizing for?”
Dani frowned. “For . . . for starting that fight.”
“You didn’t start anything. I heard the entire conversation while I was ordering the food. You were clear, concise, and very direct. And he ignored what you said. That was unacceptable, and you have absolutely no reason to apologize for a damn thing. Understand?”
“Yeah . . . ? I guess.” She shrugged, not really wanting to discuss it anymore. “At least it’s over.”
“Oh, sweetie,” Tock sighed, actually looking sad. “It’s far from over.”
Tock turned away from her just as five women stomped around a nearby wall. They were all tall, had dark blond hair, a lot of makeup, and a lot of big gold jewelry. They also had dark gold eyes like the boys who stood just behind them. But they were adults and very angry.
“Was it you?” the one wearing the New York Rangers jersey and three thick gold chains demanded, pointing at Tock with her forefinger angled from a fist. “Was it you that put your hands on my son?”
Oh, my God! That kid was such a liar!
Still calm, Tock said, “I didn’t do anything to your son. But you should have a talk with him about respecting boundaries. When a girl tells him ‘no,’ he should learn to respect that. Or you’ll be talking to his big lion head through plexiglass.”
The woman took in a breath. “You got something to say about my son?” she wanted to know.
“Yeah.” Tock walked over to the woman until she stood right next to her, tilting her head up so she could look directly into her face. That’s when Dani realized that Tock had her hand behind her back and with the same finger that had silenced her earlier, she now motioned Dani away. It was just a twitch, but she knew what Tock was telling her.
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?”