Because Olivia Kowalski brought the pain to everyone.

The whistle blew and Livy unwrapped herself from the She-lion’s head and landed on the track. She shook the blood off her hands.

Livy glanced up in time to see the She-lion bring her head down. The woman’s forehead smashed into Livy’s face, and blood began to pour from her nose and mouth. The She-lion skated backward, a middle finger raised. If this had happened during the jam, Livy wouldn’t have had a problem. As far as she was concerned, anything that happened during the jam was just what happened. But this was done after the whistle, and that pissed Livy off.

She shot after the cat, ready to tear her apart; Livy’s claws unleashed, her fangs out.

The two teams charged out onto the track, Livy’s team blocking her from reaching the cat, Blayne and Gwen wrapping their arms around her and desperately holding Livy back. The other team simply stood in front of their teammate, ready to protect her from the honey badger that most teams in the league referred to as “that bitch.”

The refs, a husband and wife bear team, ordered the track cleared, and a sixty-second break was taken.

Livy was pushed back to the team’s infield and forced onto the bench.

Blayne crouched in front of her. “You need to calm down,” Blayne slowly explained as if she were talking to a child. “Vic is in the audience.”

Livy blinked and wiped blood from her nose. “So?”

“You don’t want him to see you doing something that will completely freak him out. When I saw Bo for the first time, I was positive the man was a serial killer. It took quite a while to figure out he wasn’t. He’s just a tough player. Like you. But men are less patient than women. He may not hang around to find out the true you. Is that what you want?”

That was when Livy pushed Blayne to the ground. Not too hard, but hard enough to get her point across.

“What was that for?” Blayne demanded.

“Your face was irritating me.”

“Okay.” Gwen motioned the wolfdog away. “Enough.”

“I was just trying to help!” Blayne snarled before skating off.

Gwen sat down next to Livy and handed her a wet cloth. “Clean your face,” she ordered.

“You all right?” Gwen asked when Livy was done.

Livy readjusted her nose until she felt certain all the broken pieces were close enough so that when her nose healed it wouldn’t look hideous, then replied, “Yes.”

“Good. Now let this go.”

“It was after the whistle—”

“Let it go. Understand?”

“Yes.”

“Good.” Gwen stood. “You rest, we’ll bring you in for the jam when we’re ready.”

Livy nodded, spit blood to clear out her mouth, and waited.

“I don’t understand why they don’t use her more,” Novikov said about Livy. “They keep holding her back, only using her for some bouts . . . I don’t get it.”

Halfway through a foot-long hot dog, MacRyrie noted, “We had a honey badger on the hockey team a few years back.”

“Yeah?”

“He’s doing fifteen to life in Sing Sing after an unfortunate post-game situation that took place in front of full-humans.”

“Yeah, but was he good at hockey?”

MacRyrie glanced at Vic before replying to Novikov, “Not as good as you’d think.”

“See, but Livy’s good,” Novikov went on, oblivious. “I wish she could ice-skate.” He leaned forward so that he could see Vic. “Does she ice-skate?”

“How should I know?”

“How can you not know? Blayne says you’re hot for her.”

MacRyrie rolled his eyes. “I think you were supposed to keep that to yourself, brain trust.”

“Did Blayne say that?” Vic asked.

“Yes, but I stopped listening as soon as I realized it was about someone else’s love life. Someone I don’t even really like.” Novikov looked at Vic. “Not Livy. She’s cool. It’s you I don’t really like. Don’t know why, though. But you do irritate me.”

“Shut up.”

“Did you,” MacRyrie cut in, “stop listening to the conversation because you were busy trying to figure out how to get Livy on our team?”

“Someone has to worry about the welfare of this goddamn team. You and that overrated cook certainly don’t.”

“Overrated cook? Do you mean your boss?”

“Whoever. I’m the only one doing the work.”

While the two males bickered, Vic turned to Shen. “How do they know about me and Livy?”

“Everybody knows about you and Livy. Even the twelve-year-old knows. He said something about creating a sculpture of you two that glorifies the wonders of love as well as a paper on the damaging psychological effects of romance on the creative psyche.” Shen ate some popcorn, a needed change from his bamboo, before adding, “That kid’s weird. He freaks me out. He is cute, though.”

Vic, tired of all the idiots, looked back at the track. Livy was skating out for the next jam. So was the She-lion who had struck her.

“This won’t end well,” Shen muttered.

Vic had to agree. Especially when the lioness looked back and grinned at Livy. The honey badger’s lack of response worried him more than if she’d lunged at the woman.

The whistle blew and the pack took off, Gwen and a jammer from the opposing team waiting to start their part of the game play.