Half wolf, half honey badger, Charlie was Max’s eldest sister and a very atypical shifter because she couldn’t shift. She could unleash claws and fangs, but that was it. She never shifted fully into wolf or honey badger or something in between. But what she lacked in shifting ability, she more than made up for with massive strength, brutal determination, and an obsessive focus on protecting her siblings.
Tock, Mads, Nelle, and Streep did their best to avoid Charlie. Four females who weren’t scared of much, they’d learned early to be scared of the slightly older hybrid. Not because she’d ever hurt them but because there was just something about her . . . something terrifying. Predators knew predators and did their best to avoid them. At least that’s what the smart predators did. Sure, a Kamchatka brown bear could fight a Siberian tiger in the wild, but why would he? Wasn’t life hard enough without having to pry the massive jaws of a fellow predator from one’s throat? Wild animals knew that and shifters knew that.
And when honey badgers found someone to be scared of . . . they listened to their instincts.
Since the first time they’d seen Charlie MacKilligan interrogate her sister over why she’d been thrown off a school bus on her first day of junior high, they’d all known they were dealing with someone—something—very dangerous.
Although when it came to Max, Charlie’s biggest job was to keep the troublemaker in line; when it came to Stevie, her job was keeping her sister safe. Keeping her from being used. Keeping her from becoming obsessive and possibly mentally snapping from the pressure to perform. Keeping her from accidentally destroying the world with a random physics equation.
Anyone who tried to get around Charlie so they could use Stevie was merely asking for a knife to the chest. It would not be the first time.
Which was why panic really set in when Charlie’s angry face appeared right next to Stevie’s.
She’d never admit it out loud, but Tock would kind of miss her grandmother . . .
*
Shay felt better seeing somewhat familiar faces. Keane had problems dealing with “the sisters” as he called them, but not Shay. Stevie was sweet and friendly, trying her best to make them all get along for his kid sister’s sake.
And Charlie . . . ?
Well, he couldn’t think of better protection for Tock among all these strangers. Family or not.
Of course, Charlie did look particularly pissed. And she only said one thing when she entered the room:
“Where’s Mira Lepstein?”
Shay didn’t know that name but something told him it was the grandmother.
“She wasn’t with us when we got here.” He motioned to the nonmedical personnel in the room. “This is Tock’s family.”
Moving only her eyes, Charlie looked down at Tock. “What’s wrong with her?”
“Someone poisoned her, but I don’t know what they used.”
Stevie shrugged. “Neither do we, but I’ve been trying to find out.” She walked around the bed, studying Tock. “It’s man-made and they’ve been modifying it—making it stronger and more specific.”
“So it’s for shifters,” he stated.
“It’s for honey badger shifters,” she replied. “It’s for our kind.”
“Who’d want to kill honey badgers specifically?”
Lips pursed, Charlie turned her angry graze over to a male lion standing in the corner, writing in a chart.
It took the cat a moment to notice, but when he did, he snorted and said, “Oh, puhleeze. Get over yourselves.”
*
“If we were going to destroy anyone, it would be hyenas,” the lion male went on. He glanced off, eyes narrowing. “We hate them.”
“Full-humans?” one of Tock’s family asked.
“If you mean inside the government, or any government, doubtful.” Stevie shrugged. “Our people are everywhere. They’d let one of our organizations know about anything like that. But outside the government . . . ? Maybe.”
“Maybe one of our kind knows but is like him about hyenas.”
They all looked at the lion male again and he tossed his hands up in exasperation. “Seriously? Look, I may bite the heads off hyenas when they get on my nerves, but I’d never lower myself to poisoning them or you. We are lions. Proud. Beautiful. Amazing hair.” He motioned to Tock’s family. “Besides, the only shifters I know that do hinky shit are the honey badgers.”
“We fight to survive,” Charlie coldly explained. “So if that means putting a bullet in your head . . . we’ll do it. And it’s not our fault if you’re not faster than a bullet. Or a knife. Or a club. Or snake venom powerful enough to take down a herd of rhino. But that being said, we’d never poison each other.”
“Why not?”
“It’s tacky,” the badgers all said as if that answer was somehow obvious.
Shay shook his head and said, “Look, I appreciate all this, and I know it’s important to find out who is doing this, but right this moment, we need to help Tock.”
“Who?” the lion asked.
“Your patient,” Shay spit out between gritted teeth.
“Oh. Yeah.” He nodded. “No. We’ve got nothin’.”
“What does that mean?”
“We have no idea how to treat this poison.”
“You can’t leave her like this.”
She was just lying there. Eyes closed. It was breaking his heart.
“We’ve had subjects that have regained full movement in three days.”
“The latest victims are taking six days,” Stevie explained to the lion from behind Charlie. She’d probably moved there because the lion had talked about biting off heads. She was easily frightened. Despite being half tiger and half honey badger, she had none of the savage bravery that both her species possessed. It was as if in combining, the two had cancelled each other out.
“Every time they use this poison,” Stevie continued, “it’s been stronger and stronger.”
“And you still don’t know what it is?” one of Tock’s cousins demanded.
Before Stevie could reply, Charlie gave a low snarl and warned, “Watch how you talk to my sister.”
The badger took a step forward, clearly not enjoying that warning from a hybrid. Especially since honey badgers didn’t usually get hybrids, no matter who or what they bred with. But the MacKilligan sisters, including his own baby sis, were different. So very different. Not only from the breeds of their parents but from one another.
Another cousin stopped her angry relative and said something in a language Shay didn’t understand. With a nod, the badger took a step back, but Charlie was still tense and ready for a fight. Then again, from what Shay had seen in the short time he’d known her, she was always tense and ready for a fight.
“There is something I can try—” Stevie began.
“Then do it,” Shay said.
She glanced off, appearing uncomfortable. “I don’t know if it’ll work. It’s really just a guess, and I haven’t had time to try it out on any random test subjects to make sure I’m right. So if it goes wrong, it’ll go very wrong and—”
“Just try it!” they all barked except Charlie. She just gave a louder warning growl, and Shay lifted his hands, palms out, and added, “Please, Stevie?”