Milla
“Did you get Bruno’s beer?” I pointedly stared at my mate, instantly knowing I was going to need to drag my butt into town to get said beer. I fucking hated T-Mack’s, but a promise was a promise, and they were the ones that carried that pussy-ass beer that Bruno seemed to prefer.
“No. Forgot,” he mumbled not looking up from whatever he was doing on his computer. “Three new orders today. You need to shut that custom-order link down. A man needs some time off.”
“You mean like the week and a half you spent in bed after our wedding?” Bed was a bit of an exaggeration. We’d christened every flat and not-so-flat surface in our house as well as the outdoor kitchen, although I’d deny it all day long to Tansy, quite happy not to piss off the visibly pregnant mate of my cousin.
“Three weeks in bed with you is hardly what I would call resting.”
He so wasn’t wrong on that one. Exhausting, exhilarating, sexy as fuck, many things, but resting was not one of them.
“So I should keep my hands off you in bed so you can sleep?” Not that I could actually do such a thing, but sassing him always seemed to bring out the rawr in him, and that did things to me. Good things. The very best things.
“That’s not what I said, female. Spending time with you naked is always a top priority.”
Best. Mate. Ever.
“Here, pass me the computer.” He handed it to me and, within thirty seconds, I had it set to no longer accept any orders before passing it back. “Done.”
“Just like that?” His wonder at what came naturally to me still amused me, although he probably felt the same when I saw him turn a waterlogged cypress he pulled from the bayou into a piece of magnificent furniture.
“Yeah, just like that.” I shrugged.
“I’d been trying to figure that out for half an hour. Damn, you’re sexy when you are all smart and shit.”
“So, beer?” I asked again, crossing my fingers I didn’t need to go into town. Although a flash of my boobs could probably convince my mate to go—after we had a quickie, which would be counterproductive.
We were having our first get-together since our wedding, which didn’t really count since it was five minutes at the courthouse followed by a three-week period of naked time. We needed it. After the incident, as I now thought of it, the dynamics of the place had shifted. There was something about working together to obliterate an evil entity at the request of a reaper that brought people together.
Together, but not, which was why we’d needed to get back to normal. Back to sitting around fires, drinking crappy beer, tormenting each other for not getting laid, or, in some cases getting laid too much, and eating king-nuts, which Tansy managed to bring home almost daily. That was what we needed, and that meant no quickies until later, much to the distress of my libido, which was never fully sated when Justice was around. He pretty much had my engines revving at all times.
“I sent Loic to get it. He needs to get out of this place.”
I had to agree with him on that. Loic was used to being gone long stretches, working on the oil rigs. It was dangerous, nasty work, but it kept his beast at bay. Being here this long, especially after an event like the incident, had his beast needing that time of hard work and little social interaction. Unfortunately, it was going to be another few weeks due to some court injunction or some shit filed by I didn’t even listen to what. Politics was so not my thing.
“Shall we go out and get this party started?”
“Or we could start the party in here.” His idea had merit.
“Down, boy. You’ll get yours,” I promised. “Later. And if you are really good, I might even take you into the woods and take care of that little problem of yours with my mouth before Lazare gets drunk enough to think bringing out his stupid cannon is a good idea.”
That cannon was the cause of 99 percent of all arguments at the row since he found it two weeks ago. It shot off no balls but exploded with gunpowder loud enough to wake the dead. It was awful but brought endless amusement to the man.
“I hate that fucking thing,” Justice echoed my thoughts. “I keep hoping Bruno will confiscate it, but he seems to find that echoing boom as entertaining as Lazare does.”
“They need to grow up.” Or get laid. I wasn’t sure which was more likely to happen.
Although, if I were looking to get it on, that cannon would be a big-time deterrent.
“They need mates. Mates make all things better.” His arms wrapped around me, just where I liked them.
“You say the sweetest things.” Not often, but it was nice when they made guest appearances.
“Does that mean you’ll suck my cock now?” To be honest, his crass demands were nice, too. Pretty much all things about Justice were what I liked, even his bad taste in beer.
“And your moment of sweetness is officially over.” I stood up on my tiptoes, kissing him soundly until we broke away, breathless.
“So, yes?” he panted, his cock pressed against me very willing.
“Hell no. If I blow you now, you’ll have no incentive to behave during the party.” And we would be very late because he would smell my desire and demand he returned the favor, having me coming until I all but passed out. Nope, sex now was a bad idea. Whereas, sex later was a brilliant idea.
“Describe what this behaving entails.” My mate, Mr. Loophole.
“Let me see.” I ticked off a finger as I spouted off my list. “Don’t bleed people for looking at me. Don’t bleed people for talking to me. Don’t bleed people for offering me a beer. Don’t bleed people for trying to pass me the bag of chips.”
“So, don’t bleed people.” His sad little puppy dog eyes only accentuated the disappointment in his voice.
“Oh, you can bleed people,” I reassured. Heck, I was probably going to bleed someone, most likely Loic because someone needed to set his recent bad attitude back to normal. “But not because of me. I need to not have them too scared to talk to me when they aren’t itchin for a fight.”
“I can do that.”
I believed he would at least try.
“History would say otherwise.”
“Trust me.”
“We’ll see.” I took his hand, hoping to lead him to the door, which he took as my desire to have it settle on his junk, which he very non-subtly hinted by assisting me in doing so. “Although, I think my incentive was solid.”
“No, this is solid, thanks to your incentive.” I laughed at his teasing, dragging him out of there before we once again ended up naked and missing time with the people I now considered my family, my home.
It was nice to finally have my gator at ease, feeling like she’d found her place. I’d never know what caused her to hide all those years. Justice was sure it because she was so strong that I needed to be equally as strong to control her before she’d come out to play. Etienne had another idea. He thought that my subconscious remembered more about that night all those years ago, and the guilt of what Justice endured held her back. Whatever the reason, she was out, now, and I loved it.
I loved feeling whole, knowing I was giving my mate all of me. I loved feeling like I’d finally come home. I loved my life here at Shotgun Row, a life I was building with not only my mate, but also my de facto crew.
We made our way out to the fire. Everyone except Gina and Starr were there. Being a dragon must’ve been very different from being the types of shifters we were because Gina seemed to need solitude as much as we needed to be together. When she declined our invitation, it surprised me not at all, and I understood that sometimes what I needed as a gator wasn’t what other shifters needed as their animals.
Starr was a different story. Even though she wasn’t really like us although she was more than human, which was something we all agreed on. I wanted her to spend less time alone and more with people. Her shop was holding its own, but mostly had once-a-month customers who bought a ton and then stayed away.
When she moved into my place after learning about how extensive the damage was in hers, we started the beginnings of a friendship, one I hoped would grow with time. She had some heaviness weighing on her, my guess was from what happened to her sister and her denial of it, and it hurt my heart to not at least try to help ease her burden, which was how she ended up “house-sitting” for me as I figured out what to do with the property.
“’Bout time you guys showed up. We were waiting for you before firing the cannon.” Lazare, the jackass, already had that thing set up. Just great. “What? You all love it.”
Was he that clueless. The lack of a lie indicated he was. Ugg.
“Holy shit, you believe that. You believe we love it. I can’t even taste a hint of a lie.” Loic stood there, mouth open between words.
“We do not love it,” I added, which was technically the truth but understated. We hated it. So did most of the people in the county, if I were to guess.
“Bruno, I got a box of king-nuts for you if you recite some law that makes him stop,” Tansy offered. Not that it was a huge incentive since she readily supplied all of our king-nut needs anyway.
“Bat those lashes elsewhere,” Bruno teased, earning a growl from my cousin. “I think the cannon is da bomb. See what I did there?”
We all groaned, seeing exactly what he did there. Even Lazare joined in.
“Didn’t you hear our groans? We all heard you.” Callum spat. Eww. No wonder he was mateless.
“Lazare, no cannon tonight,” Loic bossed, his eyes far too animalistic for this not to end in blood. Oh well. Lazare kind of deserved it.
“Fuck you, Loic, you are not the alpha.” And that, right there, was Lazare’s mistake. For whatever reason, us not being crew was a trigger for Loic’s hostility. I never had figured out if he wanted a crew or feared the idea of being in a crew, but whichever the case, anyone using that word got him riled up.
“No shit, Sherlock. There is no alpha. An alpha would make us a crew, and I ain’t part of no crew.”
“Whatever gets you to sleep at night.” Lazare was asking for it. My gator was ready to add to his takedown. Not that I gave her that much free reign, yet. She was a fierce one, and until I knew I had full control, no bleeding it was, only playful wrestling with my mate, whom I knew she couldn’t hurt even if she wanted to.
“I agree. No cannon. It’s loud and obnoxious with no purpose. At least fireworks give you something to look at.” Callum toed off his shoes. Oh, he was ready to go.
Watching this all unfold after having grown up basically a rogue was still fascinating for me. And infuriating, since I had planned to be getting it on now, trying to be as quiet as we could so as to not get caught. It seemed I was totally a closet perv before I got with Justice. Thankfully, that was a quality Justice particularly enjoyed about me,
“Callum, you’re going to be part of the gang-up-on-Lazare party, now, too.” Leon chugged the rest of his beer, his feet bare. Looking around, I noticed Tansy and I were the only ones still with shoes on. Boys.
“No one is ganging up on you. Sheriff boy even agreed with your asinine plan.” Etienne subtly moved in front of Tansy, who looked downright pissed. Never piss off a pregnant woman. Had my cousin learned nothing since he mated?
“Fuck you. You will not call me an ass.” And with that, he shifted.
“Shit. Eti, get your woman out of here. Take mine with you, too. It looks like bleeding is on the agenda for the night.” He sounded so not upset about that as he shucked his clothes.
“Don’t you begin to think about it, Justice. Put your clothes on.” I was supposed to be getting some, not giving stitches. It was my own stupid fault for tormenting him before we left. It backfired, and now he was going to get out his frustrations with a bleeding while I got to watch. No one was taking me anywhere.
“You said I couldn’t bleed people because of you. This isn’t. This is because Lazare is being an inconsiderate boob.” And with that, he shifted, joining the growing pile of biting shifters.
“Oh, he is so not getting laid tonight.” I was such a liar.
“True story, sister,” Tansy agreed, her eyes not leaving her mate who had joined the scuffle as I was arguing with my mate.
“Bruno—fucking A, you, too.” I sighed exasperatedly as his shirt hit my chest before his bear ripped from him. Damn, he was bigger than I’d remembered.
Before I knew it, all the guys were chomping at each other’s asses in what looked like that Rumble Wrestling thing on crack. It was what shifters did, and as much as I found it annoying and juvenile given the reason, I got it, my gator begging to join in.
That was until the cannon got knocked over, a chair went flying, and I had to push Tansy out of the way, screaming—no, demanding, “Shift back!” as I did so. My jaw fell as one by one I heard the crunch of their bones, the crunch that only came with a forced shift until there was a pile of pained-looking naked men in front of the fire. What the actual fuck?
“Whoa, you did that,” Tansy said with wonder.
“No, I didn’t,” I lied. I did. I had no idea how, but I’d done that.
“I think you did,” she said again, holding onto my arm, staring at the naked men still on the ground.
One by one, they stood up, walking in front of me before dropping to their knees and baring their necks, even freaking Bruno and Leon. They were baring their necks to me.
“Fuck,” Loic mumbled as he bared his neck, “We’re fucking crew. Alpha.”
Holy shit, I had a crew, and I was the alpha. Shotgun Row changed in that moment—for the better, all but Loic would argue, all because of a stupid cannon.
My first command as alpha was to get rid of that wretched thing.
Turn the page for a peek at Etienne.