Catching sight of Blair, Finley slowed. A calculating glint entered her gaze as she said, “I was going to step in but as you’re here, well, I’m assuming you want to handle it.” She folded her arms, clearly fighting a smirk.
“Ooh, she thinks she’s setting you up to fail,” said Kiesha, her face hard. “We need to definitely play with her at some point.”
“We will. But first …” Blair stalked toward the arguing cats, who now looked mere seconds away from unsheathing their claws and taking swipes at each other. “All right, enough, break it up.”
They spared her the briefest of glances before going back to yelling at each other.
Her eyelid twitching, Blair licked her front teeth. “I can’t tell you how much I dislike repeating myself. Break. It. Up.”
They didn’t. In fact, they completely ignored her this time. Blair’s inner female snapped her teeth, slicing out her claws.
“What the hell’s going on?” asked a male voice from somewhere behind her. Isaiah.
Blair sighed. She’d hoped to take care of this without an audience—having Kiesha and Finley present was quite enough—but she suspected she’d soon have one. “Last warning,” she sang.
Lucille tossed her a sneer.
“Mind your own business, bitch,” snarled Rhonda, who then promptly went back to shouting at Lucille.
Blair coughed, annoyance clogging her throat. She really loathed being dismissed. Her equally affronted inner female demanded retribution. Oh, she could have it.
Blair flexed her fingers. And then dislocated the tip of one. Then another. And another.
The arguing began to ease off, but she continued. There were pops and clicks, followed by a loud crack as she dislocated her shoulder.
Lucille cringed away from her. “Oh my God, please stop!”
One hand covering her mouth, Rhonda gagged as she took in all the unnaturally angled bones. “I think I’m gonna be sick.”
It wasn’t the first time Blair had garnered that reaction. “Now, if you’re quite finished letting down not only yourselves but our entire pride by disrespectfully engaging in a confrontation at a celebratory event, maybe we can have a little chat.” She began sliding joints back into place, enjoying the women’s winces and shudders. “Had you just stopped arguing when I told you to, you could have escaped this situation with a verbal slap on the wrist. But you didn’t do that, did you? In fact, Rhonda, you called me … What was it again?”
“A bitch,” Kiesha helpfully supplied, her voice cheery.
“Thank you, Kiesha, yes, that was it.”
Rhonda grimaced. “I was pissed at Lucille, and you just wouldn’t butt out.”
Blair took a slow step toward her. “I don’t have to butt out. In fact, what with my being the pride’s Beta, it’s the very last thing I should do. If you’d wanted to keep things private, perhaps you shouldn’t have caused a public scene. Just a thought.” Blair ate up her personal space. “And you really, really shouldn’t have called me a bitch.”
She snapped out her fist, catching Rhonda on the temple. The cat’s head whipped to the side, her eyes glazed over, and she hit the floor with a thud. Knowing she needed to make a statement, Blair delved into her purse, fished out a few items she kept for such occasions, and then got to work.
She wrote “dumb but pretty” on Rhonda’s forehead with a sharpie, wedged a tampon in each of the cat’s nostrils, and dipped a third tampon in a pot of stale crusty moisturizer, which she then stuck it into the side of Rhonda’s open mouth cigar-like.
Blair looked at Kiesha. “Gonna need some water.”
Her friend nodded and then hurried off.
Blair lifted her hand, unsheathed her claws, and then coated them with sanitizer gel. She didn’t look at the murmuring crowd, aware courtesy of her peripheral vision that some were snapping photos. Not one person addressed or approached her. Not even Luke. She knew he was there; sensed him watching; felt his amusement through their bond and … something else—a low buzz of arousal.
Kiesha reappeared. “Here ya go. I unscrewed the cap.”
Blair took the offered bottle. “Thank you.” She tipped water over Rhonda’s crotch, leaving a nice big stain in her jeans, and more photos were quickly taken by the crowd.
As expected, the pallas cat began to stir, her eyes fluttering open.
Blair squatted in front of her and smiled. “Hi, welcome back.” She shoved her sanitizer-coated claws into the cat’s thigh.
Rhonda arched with a loud cry, lines of pain streaking across her face.
“Stings like a mother, doesn’t it? Well, hearing you call me a bitch stung. Okay, not really. It’s not actually that easy to offend me. But it did piss me off nonetheless, and I can’t let your behavior go unaddressed. No Beta would.”
Tears welling in her eyes, Rhonda spat out the tampon, grimacing at the taste of the moisturizer. “I-I’m sorry,” she said, yanking the other tampons out of her nose.