Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(27)

“Go ahead and look around, if you like. It’s not much, but it’s mine. Was my father’s before me and his father’s before him. My great-grandfather built it.”

She took a couple of steps before extending her hand behind her. What did she want?

“Come with me,” she answered my unspoken question.

“Yes, ma’am.” I took her hand and guided her on the shortest home tour known to man.

“It’s clean. Most men are slobs.”

I laughed, louder than I had in I didn’t know how long. “Well, if you want to see a slob, we can go see Lazare. He’s a coyote. Mess of a person. Mean as fuck, too.”

She turned around quickly, and I realized I’d brought up the elephant in the room. It was so natural with her, to talk about who I was and who my brothers were.

“You ready to finish that conversation?” she asked me, slipping her hands around my waist and again pressing her face to my chest. I loved her there, safe against me. Her heartbeat raced, and she smelled like happiness…contentment.

“I am if you are. You’re not gonna run, are you? If so, I can get one of the boys to take you home. Justice or Loic.”

She moved her hands to her hips and balled them into fists. “Etienne Robichaux, are you telling me you think I can’t handle whatever you are?”

I bent down and kissed the fire out of her lips. “Tansy, I would never think that about you. This shit is hard for anyone. Hell, the first time I shifted, I thought I was dying. Went home and told my mom and dad to take me to the damned hospital.”

“The first time you became a bear?”

I wanted to slap the fuck out of myself every time she called me a bear. It would be the last time.

“Come on, let’s talk.” I dragged her by the hand to the living room, and we sat on my worn-out couch. “I’m not a bear.”

She smiled. “Okay. But you are something. I know that. No more...no more BSing me.”

She almost said a curse word. I was kind of proud of her.

“I won’t. I’m a gator shifter, Tansy. I shift into an alligator.”

Her eyes grew wider than I thought humanly possible, and her cheeks reddened. She liked the thought. I could tell.

“Like a human-sized alligator?”

I hugged her to me, not being able to stand the even tiny distance between us. “No, Tansy, a big eight-foot mother fucker of an alligator. He’s mean and brutal and will take out anyone who ever tries to get you.”

She gasped. “And you? Just you, like this? Will you take out anyone who tries to get to me?”

There was no holding back anymore. I had to tell her everything. “With my life, cher.”

“My grandmother used to say that.”

“It’s a Coonass thing.”

“Did the guy outside mean it? What was his name?”

I let out a long breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, probably since she arrived here in my place, in my nest. It was like nothing else, having my mate here, putting her scent all over my home. Making herself known to any other female who might come around. She couldn’t even know the impact of her presence.

“The naked one is Justice. He’s good people but likes to fuck around. The other one is Lazare. He’s the one who said I was your mate.”

She mulled that around for a while. “Wanna explain that a little more?”

“We shifters take mates. We know who our mates are. It’s in their smell. It’s in our chemistry. We just know.”

“And you know it’s me?”

“I do. You always smell like vanilla and cinnamon to me. My gator knows you’re his mate as well.”

“That’s kind of weird. Like you have a little alligator in your belly, telling you stuff.”

I tipped my chin down while looking at her. “Like I said, darlin’, my gator is one huge mother fucker.”

She got that “I’m somewhere else” look on her face again, but this time it was different. She was so close. She smelled like anger and something even fouler—regret.

“What’s wrong, Tansy?”

When she looked at me again, a tear brewed in the corner of her eye. “Will you leave me? Will you cheat on me? Will you have me waiting for you by myself in a room while you’re with some other woman?”

I’d kill the asshole. There was no helping what came out of my mouth next. “Tell me where he is, and you’ll never have to worry about him breathing again.”





Tansy

What, for the love of Pete, had I been thinking? That’s right—I hadn’t. He had me so disarmed with his honesty, his openness with secrets as dangerous for them as they were for me that I found myself spraying out my every insecurity like a shaken pop bottle.

There was zero doubt in my mind Etienne meant every last word. He would end him for no other reason than he turned me into this mess of a person. Protect. Just like a bear would, except he wasn’t a warm, fuzzy bear, was he? He was a gator. That meant…

“So that gator that nearly had my king-nuts hitting dirt was—”

“Yeah. I should bite Justice’s ass for almost ruining them. Speaking of them, why did you bring them?” He held me close, almost as if afraid I wasn’t really there. I snuggled right in.