Badger apparently received the answers he needed and then darted off, making a beeline for Imani. She was talking to Davy’s wife, Anisha. Badger reached over, placed hands on Imani’s and Anisha’s shoulders, and their faces went blank. Then he started talking with Imani.
Beck popped up behind Carl and Mateo. “What’s going on?” he whispered so low Lu’ana wouldn’t be able to hear, also watching Badger while Mateo continued talking with Lu’ana. “Why does Badger look like he just swallowed a badger?”
“Tell you later,” Carl whispered back.
It looked like Badger Primed Imani next, and he started talking to Anisha.
From there, Badger looked around and headed off around the side of the house and out of sight.
“Do I need to go help him?” Beck asked.
“I don’t think so,” Carl said. “He’ll be back.”
Less than five minutes later Badger returned, his brow furrowed and single blue eye hooded and dark. He touched Lu’ana’s arm. “As always, been great chattin’ wi’ ye, sweetheart. I think ye need a trip to the bathroom.”
“If you’ll please excuse me,” she said. “I need to run to the little girl’s room.”
The men nodded, and as she left Badger herded them farther across the backyard and well away from others.
“What’d you find out?” Mateo whispered.
The old shifter looked grim. “That I need to make tracin’ out all these families my top priority. Not sure which side it’s on, but there’s gotta be an Alpha wolf close in the past. Mebbe even a Prime. They all experienced the equivalents of mate bonds when they met. All three brothersandtheir parents.”
“What’s that mean for Bebe?” Carl asked.
Badger was about to answer when a sudden, vicious snarling from the other side of the backyard and Tamsin’s cry of shock made them whirl around.
Bebe, in her wuff suit, and Dania were rolling around in the grass, snarling and barking and—
“Are they…bitingeach other?” Mateo asked.
“Aw, fer feck’s sake!” Badger groaned, moving faster than Carl thought possible for his age. “Oi! Ye two pupsknock it off!” Badger roared as he hustled toward them.
Even Carl felt the force of that Prime order as he and Mateo sprinted after Badger.
By the time they arrived, Badger already had the two girls pulled apart, one scooped under each arm, as Dewi and others charged over while the rest of the kids stood there in obvious shock.
“What’s going on?” Dewi asked as Duncan jogged up.
Mateo and Carl helped Tamsin up off the ground. “They were all playing,” she said, obviously shaken. “And suddenly they—” Her mouth clicked shut and her eyes widened as she remembered they were surrounded by clueless humans. She looked at the growing number of humans and then back to Badger and making the universala little help here, pleaseface at him.
“Badger grimly nodded. “Right. Here, ye each take one o’ them.” He handed the girls off to Carl and Mateo, immediately grabbed both Lu’ana’s and Leila’s arms, and apparently sent the two moms a silent Prime order because they relaxed and headed back to the house immersed in laughing conversation.
Badger pointed. “Dewi, Duncan, help everyone back to the house and assure themnothin’ to see here, if ye please. Just wee ones having a perfectlynormal, friendly little scrap. Everything’s fine. We got ’em. We’ll bring ’em along in a minute.”
He waved Dewi and Duncan toward part of the gathering behind them, while he immediately started making his way through the kids and family members on his side—minus the ones who knew about wolves—and Primed them all to return to the house or porch or wherever they were and forget about what just happened.
Once it was back to only Carl, Mateo, Badger, Tamsin, Beck, Dewi, Duncan, and the two girls, Dewi turned. “All right. What the fuuu-udge just happened?” she asked, staring at the two kids.
“They started fighting,” Tamsin said. “Like two shifter pups! They were all playing with a ball and tossing it to each other, then the next thing I know, Dania and Bebe were having a row.”
Duncan looked over each girl. “They don’t look hurt. Just scuffed a little from rolling around in the grass.”
“Ye say Dania went after Bebe?” Badger asked.
“Well, that’s just it,” Tamsin said. “I believe it was Bebe who started it. It happened so fast. Bebe wanted the ball, I tossed it to her, and Dania leaned over and caught it. Then it was a flurry of snarls and—” She gasped as she stared at the girls. “They bothare, aren’t they? They’re…youknow.”
Nami, who’d apparently been in the house, hustled down, now out of breath. “What the hel-eck happened? Are they all right?”
