Badger to the Bone (Honey Badger Chronicles, #3)

by Shelly Laurenston

Max had scented the kid coming. Felt his light footsteps coming through the floor. Heard the way he rubbed his nose sometimes instead of twitching it like a normal jackal. So when he put himself between her and Charlie, Max wasn’t bothered or surprised. Charlie, however . . . “Jesus Christ, Kyle! ” she practically screamed, her entire body leaping backward so that she slammed into the oven. “What the fuck, man?” Kyle Jean-Louis Parker blinked a few times as he stared at Charlie. “Sorry you’re so unobservant . . . ?” “Don’t be a smart-ass.” Charlie brushed her jeans off for no reason Max could see, then did that thing she did when she was startled. Barking at the person who’d scared her just like a dog startled from its sleep. “And where the fuck have you been? You’ve been gone for days. For all we knew, you could have been dead!” “Would you have cared?” Kyle wisely asked. “That’s not the point!”

:D