Freddie groaned. “You can call Bright that if you get the chance to meet her glorious green behind, but call me Freddie. Just hearing the word ma’am gives me hives.”
“Yes, ma— Freddie.”
With way more important things to handle, namely Zenobia Petalblast, Freddie put dealing with Dino Dave on her to-do for another day. Following the sounds of a fight, the glowing trail she knew was from Buck, which was right before her eyes, and Bright's directions, Freddie made a right, an immediate left, and another even sharper right in quick concession.
Flying through the enormous arched entrance of another massive cavern, Freddie skidded to a stop with Dino Dave right beside her. Blinking her eyes, needing to be sure she wasn't suffering the delayed effects of electrocution, the thought of laughing out loud literally danced through her mind.
Seeing Zenobia pointing a dinky remote at Buck and threatening, "I'll blow you up. I swear it. I'll do it," was priceless.
Of course, Bright threatened, “If you do, I’m moving out and leaving no forwarding address.”
Declining to comment, Freddie shuffled to the right. Giving two sharp jerks of her head the other way, she smiled when Dino Dave got the message and mirrored her movements while heading left.
Eyes back to her sexy honey badger, she instantly noted that the wide gray-white stripe she glimpsed on the very top of his head stretched across his back and went all the way to the tip of his tail, and oh Lordy, what a tail it was.
“Mind outta the bedroom, Freddie,” Bright grumbled. “There’ll be time…”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…” Eyes darting across the room, she added, "And just who the hell is the ginger-feathered chicken? Is she Team Badger Tree Frog or Team Zany Zenny?"
Before Bright or, for that matter, Dino Dave—’cause she could still feel him in her mind—could answer, the six-foot-six Rhode Island red spread her wings wide, shoved her very long, very scary beak out as far as she could, and took off running at a high rate of speed right for Zenobia.
Flashing from short, thin woman to short, plump yellowjacket in the blink of an eye, Zany Zenny shot into the air like she'd been launched out of a slingshot. Something was wrong. Yes, it had been a long time since Freddie had seen her, but something about Zenobia's shift was all funked up. Her head was a weird mixture of bee and woman, not the usual partial shift mixture. Nope, this was an all-the-way deal, but it just wasn't right. And her midsection, well, it was okay in that her boobs were a damned sight larger than the human version of those delicate appendages ever had been. But what was horror-movie weird was the way what had been her pelvis, but post-shift was her stinger, had rolled forward from between her fifth and sixth legs and forced Freddie to scream, "Watch out. Her ass is poisonous!"
Knowing there were at least a million ways to better convey her message, Freddie breathed a sigh of relief when her honey badger and the big-ass hen understood. Watching them both spin and slide to escape the barrage of stingers Zenobia was firing, she called to Bright, "Let's do this. After all, it's us the crazy bitch wants to kill."
“And far be it for us to not be accommodating.”
"Damn, I love it when you get sassy, Princess Raeanna Bree. It almost makes me giddy."
11
Green had just become Buck's favorite color. Never in all his years had he seen anything as beautiful as his mate in the form of her winged tree frog. Same gorgeous curves, same striking green eyes with ravishing red rings around the outside, even some of those same black curls on the top of her slightly flatter head, but every inch of glorious skin in vivid, eye-catching green with magnificent, flowing, rainbow wings.
“Spectacular,” he and Harry breathed in unison, so lost in awe of seeing Freddie flying across the ceiling of the massive cave that they barely missed being shot with no less than four of Zenobia's poison stingers.
Ducking one way and then the other, ending up on his knees before rolling to the side and jumping right back to his feet, Buck hated that he wasn’t up there with his mate. What if she got hurt? What if she got killed? What if…?
"What if you shut the hell up and pay attention?" Harry snarled.
Jerking himself out of the spiral his thoughts had taken, Buck's eyes met Freddie's a split-second before she literally took a kamikaze run right at Zenobia. Expertly avoiding the flying stingers, cutting through the air like a fighter pilot, his mate slid right behind the yellowjacket's razor-sharp wings.
Watching Freddie's descent and her return back to the stunning, sexy woman he was already in love with, Buck was utterly confused. Not wanting to shift back, sure he would need Harry's long, impressive front claws, he couldn't deny the need to talk to his mate. To understand what was happening.
Then he smelled it. A sweet, almost tangy scent that burned the inside of his nose and made him need to sneeze. Poison! Tree frog poison. Damn it all to hell, Freddie was a genius. She hadn't missed her mark. Hadn't made a mistake by flying behind the yellowjacket. Nope, not his mate. She'd wiped her venom on Zenobia's back and let the sticky gel do the rest.
Buzzzz–buzz-buz-buzz-buz-buz-bubububuzzzzz…
Searching for the deafening roar that sounded like an engine on its last legs, the honey badger’s head flew back, his eyes locking onto Zenobia’s spinning freefall toward the center of the cavern. Making it back to human form before she landed with a single thud, the yellowjacket shifter didn’t even get the chance to groan before Freddie was there.
Back to human form from one running step to the other, Buck swung around to the opposite side of the prone perp, dropping to his knees. Hand on Zenobia's chest, he nodded to Freddie, so proud he could've burst when in a calm, relaxed demeanor he knew she didn't feel, his mate questioned, "Why, Zenobia? Why now? After all these years? Why come after me? After my mate? After my coffee?”
Biting his tongue to keep from laughing out loud, loving Freddie all the more because she was evidently just as addicted to coffee as he was, Buck gave his mate a quick wink when her gaze flashed to his. Eyes back to Zenobia, her wheezing cough and gushy gurgle making him cringe, Buck refused to move his hand, even as her broken sternum poked at his palm.
“Why?” Zenobia croaked. “Yo-You *cough-gag-cough-spit*…” Blood splattered on her drawn lips and pallid chin. “Be-because… *gag*… You-you always wi-win.”
Hands slapping on the top of her head, her eyes open so wide Buck feared they might just pop right out and roll across the floor of the cave, Freddie yelped, "I what?" Sliding her hands off Zenobia's shoulders, her palms landing on either side of the yellowjacket's head, she got so close he wondered if his mate was going to head-butt the perp. Not that he would've blamed her. Hell, he wanted to do it himself. It was just that he was going to need to come up with one helluva reason if ever asked to explain why Zenobia had two black eyes and a broken nose.
But that wasn’t what happened at all. Nope, not even close. As he’d already figured out from reading her file, Freddie would always show ultimate compassion, even toward the woman who’d attempted to kill her.
At least, Freddie would try.
“Have you lost your freakin’ mind?” Answering her own question without taking so much as a breath or pausing the tiniest bit, Freddie rapidly rambled, her rage fueling every syllable. “Yes. Yes, you have. You need to be committed. There has to be paperwork unequivocally stating that Zenobia Petalblast is nuckin’ futs, out of her mind, completely off her rocker, and never coming back. You… YOU…” She gave a sharp nod with her head. “You are crazier than 207,352 bedbugs, the number of those little biting beasts that can fit on the tip of your stupid skinny little finger. Do you seriously mean to tell me that you have spent all these years, faked your own death, created an army of dino super soldiers—?”