Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(26)

Relief filled me as I rounded the final corner, the road far less road-like than the pathetic one I’d been traveling, but marked enough to know I was on the right track. Faint music filled my ears—some kind of metal thrashing stuff I never got into—which meant I was getting close to people, and dying alone on this wanna-be road was becoming less probable. I was guestimating maybe sixty-forty odds now.

A snap to my left had me frozen. A snap meant a moving animal. Even with the size of the bugs around here, snapping was not doable for them. Slowly, I turned my head and found myself staring at a gator. A monster of a gator at that.

I did the first thing that came to mind—I screamed bloody murder before dropping the box and running like a clown was on my tail; a clown being the only thing I could imagine more terrifying than the beast behind me. At least I hoped it was behind me.

Smack.

My running came to an instantaneous stop, as I slammed into something hard. No, not something. Someone.

“Shhh, Tansy, tell me what’s wrong.” It was Etienne, and all fear scurried away since I knew instinctively he was going to keep me safe.

“Car died, and gator and king-nuts are gone, and yeah that.” Fragments were the best I could do as my body caught up with the fact I was safe in Etienne’s arms.

Laughter poured into my ears, but it wasn’t laughter I recognized. Twisting my head to peer behind me, I saw Lazare holding the box of king-nuts in one hand and a mostly eaten king-nut in his other. He was completely nude, and I buried my head into Etienne’s chest mumbling, “Clothes. He has no clothes.” Sure, he was eating the yummy goodness I’d just dropped alongside a gator, but my shock focused on his attire. Even I could see the crazy in that.

“I assume you are the reason she screamed?” Etienne’s voice was measured.

“Want one?” Didn’t he know not to poke a bear. Not that he was a bear, except maybe he was, but that was beside the flipping point. Lazare was naked, eating the treats I brought for Etienne, and he offered him one. I’d have been rolling my eyes if they hadn’t been slammed shut.

“Tansy, were those for me?” I nodded into his chest. “Give them to me, asshat, and get some damn clothes on. No one wants to see your mini-dong.” His embrace loosened as he extended his hand for the box of confections.

“There is nothing mini about this, is there, Tansy?”

“I’m not looking.” Never. I was never looking at him again. It was bad enough I’d caught a glimpse of him when he first appeared. The darn thing was huge, not that I’d give him the satisfaction of admitting it. That was the last thing someone so needed in his life—more cockiness.

“Leave her alone, jerkwad.” A third and vaguely familiar voice filled my ears. “You wanna piss off her mate and get your ass handed to you.”

“Shut up, Justice,” Etienne growled.

“No flipping way,” I mumbled into his chest as Justice’s words caught up to me, afraid to look Etienne in the eye as I asked for clarification. “You’re a bear and I’m what? A future bear?”





Etienne

“Let’s go inside away from the animals,” I whispered in her ear. If she was going to stick around, she’d better get used to nakedness and brutish behavior or she was never going to last.

You had to be tough around the Shotgun Row beasts.

Justice and Loic chuckled in the background. They weren’t being insensitive. They were just giddy at the sight of a female on our turf, and mostly they were poking me.

Not the bear.

She thought I was a bear.

Alligator would probably be disappointing after thinking I was some kind of cuddly bear.

“Come on in. It’s nothing special, but it’s home.”

She finally let go of her death grip on my shirt and headed inside. Between swipes at her face, wiping her tears away, she looked around the place and, to my surprise, didn’t laugh.

“I can hear the water in here,” she almost cooed.

“Yeah, it’s pretty nice at night. Lulls me to sleep. Well, it did until lately.”

“What happened lately?”

I cocked my head to one side and looked at her like she’d lost her marbles along with the king-nuts. “My thoughts have been preoccupied with someone.”

One of her eyebrows jumped up, and it was the most adorable thing I’d seen out of her yet.

“So, what brings you to Shotgun Row?”

“Do you have guns?” It seemed like a strange question until I remembered she wasn’t from around here.

“No, darlin’. You see this house, how you can see all the way to the back from the front door?”

She nodded.

“Some people say these are called shotgun houses because you can shoot a shotgun from the front door and it would go through the back without ever hitting a wall. Callum has another theory. He’s one of my…the crew. They also say these houses are loved by spirits because they can pass through them easily. I don’t know if that’s good or bad for you. It’s home for me. That’s all.”

I could see the curiosity brewing in her eyes. She wanted to look around, and fuck it all if my gator wasn’t pleased as punch at the fact she wanted to check out my nest and make herself at home.

The greedy bastard.