The leaves in the big tree behind her rustled and—
“Ow,” she growled when the big-boned bear cub landed on her back. He was alive but crying. Something she didn’t have patience for.
She grabbed the kid’s arms and was trying to politely remove him when a shot of black zipped past her peripheral vision—and a bunch of bears tore off in pursuit.
Unable to take her time, she yanked the kid off her back and tossed him to his father.
“Sorry about that, Mr. Kapowski!” she yelled, running after the mob trying to take down her rescue cat.
* * *
“What’s going on?” Charlie asked Stevie, her eyes narrowing when Stevie jumped at the sound of her voice. Now she knew something was going on.
“Uhhhh.” Stevie stood in front of the house, twisting her fingers the way she used to before a big recital. Her eyes were unnaturally wide and she was moving around as if she had to pee, but Charlie knew that was simply one of her sister’s nervous reactions to an uncomfortable situation.
“You might as well tell me, Stevie. We both know I’ll find out anyway.”
“Well—” she began just as a black jungle cat shot across the street, turned down Everest Drive, and headed directly into cat territory. Five streets ruled by the Ako lion Pride that even the hyenas didn’t fuck with.
“Was that—?” Charlie started, only to stop when a gang of bears raced across the street after the cat. So pissed off it seemed as if they were blindly running right into lion territory. Something none of them did except when they were in their cars, trying to avoid traffic. But to actually walk into that neighborhood. . . in their bear forms?
A few seconds later, after the bears went down the street, Max came into view. She was still human, but only because she ran much faster as human than as honey badger. And right behind her . . . that idiot. Although Charlie did have to stifle a laugh when she saw that Dutch was bleeding profusely from his face, meaning he’d ended up on the wrong side of those bears.
“I’ve got it!” Max yelled, waving at Charlie and Stevie as she headed down Everest. “I’ve got it alllllll under control!”
Stevie looked at Charlie, shrugged. “Do I still need to answer your question?”
* * *
“Talk to us,” Malone pushed. “We need your help.”
“If you’re going after the de Medicis, you need more than help. You need a mental hospital. For a thousand years, Katzenhaus did not have anything to do with the de Medicis. We didn’t help, we didn’t hinder. They kept their territories and we kept our own. And all that was for a very good reason.”
“Pretending they don’t exist is no longer an option for us.”
“Then let the full-humans take them down.”
“That’s not something we should let full-humans handle. We’ve seen what happens when they get involved in situations we should have managed from the beginning. They always make it worse.”
Imani shook her head. The She-tiger could say whatever she wanted, but going against the de Medicis was a fool’s plan. She knew that from past experience. From nightmares she still had. From the therapist she still saw.
“Forget it, Malone.”
“But—”
“Ma!”
One of Imani’s daughters strode up to her, with Imani’s toddler granddaughter in her arms.
Imani waved her off. “It’s all right. I can handle this.”
“Cat,” was all her daughter said, but she knew her daughter didn’t mean Malone. So Imani looked down the street and saw the black cat streaking toward them.
One lone cat was not something Imani would ever worry about, but the zoo-sized crowd of bears behind it . . . that was definitely a bigger issue.
“Bearsssss!” one of Imani’s neighbors roared. Cubs retreated into homes, some females going with them, while others shifted to their She-cat forms and made a half-circle behind Imani. The Pride’s male lions joined Imani on either side.
The cat was running toward them, looking over its shoulder at the bears behind it. But when it saw the cats, it tried to stop, turning into a rolling jumble of paws and claws.
Confused, because she’d never seen a cat as inelegant as this one, Imani kept her eye on him—she now knew it was a “him” from his scent—while her Pride watched the bears.
The bears grotesquely lumbered to a stop. They wanted the interloper but they weren’t sure they wanted to fight a bunch of cats to get to him.
The strongest of her males took several steps forward and unleashed his roar. A sound that must have traveled to other nearby neighborhoods because the wolves a few blocks over barked and howled in response.
One of the grizzlies, the oldest of the Kapowski brothers, stepped forward and roared at the lion, but before jaws snapped and claws slashed, a honey badger appeared.
An actual honey badger. In basketball shorts, tank top, and high-top sneakers. Because that was the kind of weird day Imani was having. First Malones and Smiths and now honey badgers.
The honey badger jumped between the two groups, standing close to the interloper cat. She spread her arms out and opened her mouth to speak . . . but all she could do was pant. Hard.
Putting her hands back on her waist, she bent over. How far had she run? From Utah?
“Sorry,” she finally got out. “Sorry.” She pointed at the jaguar. “He’s with me.”
They all gazed at the She-badger for a moment, processing that information. Because it was weird information. Why would a badger be hanging around a cat? Ever? In this universe? Before any of them could figure that out, a wolverine showed up. Bloody and bruised, limping as he joined the badger.
“I think we can all calm down,” the wolverine suggested when he finally made it close enough for all of them to hear. “This is not a big deal.”
The bears didn’t seem to like that sentiment at all and one of the grizzly males roared at the wolverine.
“Hey, hey, hey!” the badger bellowed. “Don’t you yell at my friend!”
“Max, it’s okay. It’s okay,” the wolverine soothed. “Let’s just discuss this like reasonable, civilized—”
With one swipe of his paw, Kapowski sent the wolverine flying down their street. And they all watched him go before refocusing on the She-badger.
“That,” the honey badger announced, “was unnecessary.”
Kapowski pointed his paw at the cat she was standing in front of.
“No,” she immediately replied. “He doesn’t know what he is. He’s still learning. And he didn’t know that chubby kid was your nephew. So I’m telling you to leave him alone.”
The bear took two big steps toward her and the badger held her hands up. “Don’t make me get nasty, Kapowski.”
The bears laughed at the tiny female. Harsh because bear laughter was always particularly mocking in its tone.
But as the bears laughed, the woman slid one hand behind her back and carefully lifted her shirt. She had a knife sheath strapped to her back and with deft fingers pulled the weapon from its holster. Imani had done a lot of work for Katzenhaus. They had trained her from the time she was fifteen with the blessing of her mother and grandmother. And if there was one thing Imani knew, it was a fellow trained combatant. This badger, no matter how small, wasn’t going to let her claws and fangs do her talking for her. Not when she could open arteries and remove eyes without working up much of a sweat.