Milla
I needed another beer like nobody’s fucking business. When Marie had given me the task, no, the responsibility of shutting down and ending Louie, I’d had no idea how evil he was. I mean, I saw the evil, but that side of him was only a fraction of the true evil he was.
In less than twenty-four hours, I had managed to divert almost a billion dollars to various children’s charities around the globe, shut down his cyber child-porn ring while simultaneously making sure every agency who could use the information to both press charges and help the children got the information, and managed to ensure three shipping containers full of drugs were searched.
I’d have felt like I was on top of the world if I didn’t already know that for everything I uncovered and stopped, he had three more evil things still hidden.
The next day would be the hard one. It was the day I needed to tell Justice what I was doing and why, before leaving the bread crumbs trail directly from Louie to me. Sure, he probably suspected I had something to do with some of his earlier difficulties, but that was nothing compared to what I’d accomplished within the past twenty-four hours.
“I got it,” Justice bellowed like the overbearing male he was. Good on him.
“Thanks,” I said as he looked me up and down, his eyes not finding what he was looking for. “What?”
“You’re not wearing pink.”
I barked out a laugh. How long had he known Leon and yet not known him at all?
“No, my sexy gator, I’m not.” I pulled him by his shirt, slamming his body into mine as I brought my lips to his ear. “Leon meant our fucking auras or some shit. He said we were meant to be.” I nipped his earlobe because it was there and sometimes a girl can’t control herself.
“I hate you less, now, Leon,” Justice sniped before slamming his lips into mine, exploring them as if discovering them for the first time.
“This is a family event,” Loic bantered a second before a bottle cap bounced off Justice’s head.
“Family event, my ass,” I hollered back, pissed he ruined my kissing time.
“Etienne and Justice are cousins,” Callum added, ever unhelpful.
“One point to Callum,” Tansy shouted from her perch on her mate’s lap. “Is the food ready?” She faux pouted. Although, to be fair, chances were good she was carrying a gator, and they needed all the food to grow big and strong, even in utero.
“I’ll get it,” Etienne said as he tried to move her to the seat beside him. She was having none of that.
My gut clenched. Wanting what they had instead of this we-are-mates-but-haven’t-bitten-each-other limbo I was currently wading through.
“I’ll get it.” Lazare grabbed a bowl and filled it with the yummy goodness that was cooked best only in the bayou. “You want some, too, Milla?” he added, looking directly at Justice. Jerk was hoping for some bleeding and, with a non-crew of freaking shifters drinking in the bayou, the odds were good he was going to get his wish.
“No. I’m thinking more along the lines of dessert at the moment, but thanks.”
“Tansy didn’t bring home any king-nuts today, if that was what you were thinking.” Poor, oblivious Loic. So insightful, yet somehow so blind. I didn’t envy his mate training him.
“I was thinking of something different, but thanks.” I winked at him before turning to Justice. “Show me the house? I heard you have dessert in there,” I whispered but not fucking softly enough for we only got three steps before Lazare added his two cents.
“Justice is getting a blow job. Lucky fucker. How come no one ever gives me blow jobs?”
Before I could turn around and give him the what for, Tansy started in. The guys said she used to be all sweet mouthed but then discovered Eti liked her a little naughty, so I never heard that side of her, even though she did do a much better job of watching her eff bombs than I did.
“Because you announce blow job giving, possibly?” she spoke as if she were actually problem solving with his foul-mouthed self. It wasn’t going to get her far.
“Girls don’t like that?” Lazare said, all shocked, as we reached Justice’s steps. Screw that. I was listening to the end because this train wreck was worth the stop.
“Not so much, Lazare. Except when you are alone with them. Then they like it very much.”
I was facing away from them, but even so, I knew her cheeks were burning bright at her admission. Huh? My friend’s mate was all bossy sexy in bed. And, ewwww, my cousin was all bossy and sexy in bed.
“Wait, so are you telling me that announcing I’m to get a blow job when a female I like is in the room is the key to all the blow jobs?”
“It is official. Lazare is never getting laid,” Justice rumbled in my ear, every bit as enthralled by their disaster of a mating-advice call-in show impersonation.
“Yeah. Fine. You do you.” She finally gave up. I had to give it to her, she kept it going longer than I would have.
“And if you could stop talking to my pregnant mate about blow jobs, that would be fucking fantastic,” Etienne bellowed just as my stomach rumbled.
“When was the last time you ate?” he growled.
“Lunch.” Yesterday, but lunch nonetheless.
“Lunch, when?” He must have tasted my half-truth. Darn shifters.
“Yesterday,” I whispered, the rest of the crew now silent because, of course, we were the spectacle of the night.
“Damn, female. You were going to turn down food I cooked when you hadn’t eaten in over a day. Guess what my gator’s doing right now?”
I didn’t have to guess. I could see him pushing at Justice through his eyes which were barely holding onto human.
“Chomping at your ass,” I mumbled, sorry for being the cause of their conflict. It had to be hard for Justice, having a gator as powerful as his and not bowing to his need to mate. It was the best decision for human us, but our gators hated us for it.
“That.” He reached down, smacking my ass as he pointed to a seat near the cooking food. “Go. I will feed you food I prepared with questionable shrimp.”
“You are so sexy.” I sighed at his insanely bossy crap that had my need for him growing. What was it about this man?
“Don’t you forget it.” He winked before grabbing me a heaping bowl of food and watching as I ate every bite. I knew his instinct was to feed it to me himself, but, given the crowd, that would only end with taunting. When I finished the first serving, he grabbed it from my hands, refilling it before I could begin to argue. Not that I had planned to; it was yumminess in a bowl.
“Bruno’s here. That makes just about everyone except Gina,” I mumbled between bites. It wasn’t everyone, but it was the entire shifter crew, and that was as close to crew as I’d been since a child, and my gator loved it. “What’s the occasion?”
“You. Me finding you.” He pointed to the bowl. “Now eat or I will feed you.”
“Caveman,” I teased, loving every word.
“Hey, guys.” Bruno came up, grocery sacks in hand. “I brought beer. And these are for you, Justice.”
“Me?” Justice asked, as a bag of marshmallows just missed his head. “Oh, you fucker. Very funny.”
It was, and the entire crew started to belly laugh. Arson wasn’t something to joke about, except in this case it was necessary, and lightening it up was good for all of us.
“Ohh, looks like I get my dessert.” I leaned into Justice, grabbing the marshmallows from him. There were so going to be some toasted confections on a stick if I had anything to say about it.
“Please tell me you didn’t bring that Abita pussy shit.” Callum bro-smacked Bruno on the shoulder as he pulled out his beer. It was nice to see Bruno fitting in a bit more. The first few times I’d seen him with the guys, it had been awkwardness personified, but that night, it finally felt like he fit in. That was good because shifters were meant to be alone even if that was the bullshit gators taught their young. We just weren’t built that way.
“Fine. I won’t tell your sorry ass.” His smile broadened as he slowly pulled out his case of beer like it was some fancy-ass shit.
“Great. More Abita,” Loic groaned as he threw a bottle cap at Bruno. “If I’m all hungover tomorrow, I’m gonna blame your cheap asses.”
“Because stopping after a few beers isn’t an option.” Tansy stuck her tongue out as she spoke. She was becoming more and more shifter-like each time I knew her. Probably the gator in her belly. Part of me wondered if she was ever gonna go shifter, but that was a question too personal for me to ask. Something about asking your friend if she was thinking about being bled to near death so she could become a monster just didn’t go with girls’ night chitchat.
“Exactly. This is a fucking party,” Loic pronounced.
“Mate number two.” Callum smiled, tipping his beer to me. “Who knows, by the end of this year, maybe even Lazare will get laid.”
Everyone, including Lazare, laughed and laughed.