And just like that, shit got really real.
3
“Come on, Buck,” his mother cajoled, her voice carrying that mom tone that meant she was about three-point-three seconds from demanding he tell her everything. Even her hand was cocked at the ready to bop him in the back of his head.
Running his fingers through his hair for what seemed like the hundredth time, the honey badger took a deep breath and slowly let it out. Preparing to spill the beans, ready for the piles of shit his family would shovel—all in good fun—his prayers were answered. Just like that, he was saved.
The huge wooden double doors at the front of the bar swung open. The scent of grizzly bear and saber-toothed bunny filled the air. Head popping up, eyes opening as wide as they would go, he’d never been happier to see two people in his own long life.
“Look what the cat dragged in,” Buck teased with loud laughter as he planted his hands on the bar and vaulted the scuffed wooden top in one easy move. Holding out his hand, the heels of his boots hitting the hardwood as he crossed the room, he greeted his friends with a cheery, “Long time, no see.”
"Hell, yeah," Chase Brownsmith, the huge, usually grumpy and always direct grizzly bear, agreed. Grabbing Buck's hand, he added with a glare that had his bushy eyebrows completely covering his eyelids, "So long that you forgot my phone number."
"Huh?" Buck was momentarily confused.
Then it hit him like a ton of bricks, making him backpedal so fast his whole family started laughing and his brother Jack shouted, "Kick his ass, Chase."
“Oh, shit, no…” Shaking his head, trying to extract his hand from the unrelenting grip of the grizzly bear, he scrambled to explain to the old family friend. “It’s not like that. It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I mean ever since Shauna joined that other Agency, I’d been thinkin’ about doin’ somethin’ besides sittin’ around here and runnin’ a bar.”
Nervously scratching at the stubble covering his jaw as he wondered if Chase was ever going to let go of his hand, the honey badger’s rambling explanation continued, getting faster with every word. “You know how it is. I missed the action. Wanted to be doing something that made a difference.”
Snapping his head to the side and looking right at his mother and brothers, he winked. "Goddess knows, Mom, Jack, and Spence have got this place under control. They only put up with me ’cause they’ve got to.”
Turning back to the couple only when his mom smiled and nodded, Buck looked to Miranda, Chase's wife, and a saber-toothed bunny shifter for support. "It all happened so fast. I made a call. Talked to a recruiter, and within two hours, they emailed me all the entrance stuff. Said that I was fast-tracked because of my extensive military background."
"Guess they needed somebody to blow shit up," Spencer heckled from the background. "Isn't that what you did, bro? Make bombs out of your own stock of ladies' panties?"
Ignoring his brother, Buck was happy to see Miranda nodding and smiling. His hopes took a serious upswing as she laid her hand atop her hubby’s and snickered. “Chase, honey, I think you better give Buck back his hand.”
“And don’t be too pissed, big guy,” Shauna chimed in, walking up beside Buck but talking to the grizzly. “The butthead didn’t tell me either. I had to find out from Mom. So, y'all aren't the lone strangers. Dumbshit left us all out."
“Sure as hell didn’t text me,” Buck’s brother-in-law added, appearing beside his mate and holding out his hand to Chase. “Abe Silverblade, good to meet ya.”
“Oh, shit, sorry,” Buck jumped in. “Where are my manners?”
"Lost, right along with my phone number," the grizzly grumbled before smiling and chuckling as he took Abe's hand. "Chase Brownsmith, and this is my wife, Miranda."
“Nice to meet y’all.” Abe chatted away like he’d known the couple forever.
Something is up. I can feel it…
"We're about to cook up half a cow, a half-dozen chickens, and pretty much all of a pig. Certified non-sentient, of course. Y'all wanna join us for dinner?"
"Hell, yeah, they wanna join us," Janice hollered from where she stood behind the bar. "The more, the merrier." Setting frosty bottles of beer in a line down the bar, the matriarch continued. "We've got all the meat you could want, Chase. I've even got two Alaskan salmon back in the cooler with your name on 'em."
“Sign me up, Janice,” the grizzly said, grabbing a bottle of beer and drinking it down in one swallow.
Watching his mom head toward the kitchen, sure things were about to get back to normal, Buck held his breath when Janice stopped with both hands on the swinging gray door, her head turned to the side. Eyes shining with a whole lot of mischief, he was sure his momma was about to out him for having a mate, when thankfully she only yoo-hooed, "And, Chase, I have four fresh strawberry pies, a fresh batch of honey buns, and homemade ice cream for dessert."
"Janice, you have always been and always will be my favorite honey badger in the whole wide world."
Laughing as his mother disappeared into the kitchen, Buck finally let out the breath he’d been holding since Shauna said the word “sister-in-law” nearly ten minutes before. Grabbing a beer and tipping it back, he didn’t get to enjoy even a drop as his sister crooned in the way only a little sister who’s up to no good could. “Hey, Buck, time to fess up. You’ve made us wait long enough. Tell us all about your mate. I bet Chase and Miranda know her.”
Spitting beer so far and with such force that it flew across the bar and splashed dead center on the huge antique mirror that had been his great-great-granddad's, Buck coughed and wheezed, sputtered and spat, barely getting out, "Wh-What th-the hell, Shauna?"
“Oh, hell no,” Chase growled, a smile crossing his face from one side to the other. “Don’t you go yellin’ at your sister there, big guy.” Poking Buck in the chest with the end of his meaty index finger, the big grizzly went in for the kill. "You've got a mate at FUCN'A and you didn't call me to get the details on her?"
“Well, umm… no?” Buck shrugged.
“What is wrong with you? I know your parents raised you better than that.”
"Now, honey," Miranda intervened, "give Buck a break. Maybe he was just waiting for the right time." Looking at him with big bunny eyes open wide as she gave a tiny, jerky nod toward her hubby. "You know how it is when you find your mate. Everything kinda goes haywire and you—"
"Blow up the fucking explosives lab?" The words were out of Buck’s mouth long before his muddled brain ever engaged.
“You what?” everyone in attendance blurted out in perfect unison, laughing like he was Red Fucking Skelton.
“You?” Jack guffawed so loud he had tears running down his face. “Please, dear Goddess, tell me that you were building a bomb with ladies’ panties again and this time you ended up with them on your head.”
“No,” Buck groaned, pissed at himself for being a total nincompoop and especially for answering his brother’s stupid question.