Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1)(55)

Tansy rolled her eyes and got up from the swing, patting my chest as she passed. “That, my friend, is Fabuloso that my mate cleans with, and it was fabuloso for about two days, and now it’s shitaloso.”

I held up my hand. “No, not that.”

That’s when three things happened all at once. One, I pulled Tansy’s palm to my nose and inhaled deeply. Two, Etienne dropped all his cleaning shit and got in my face like Mike Tyson, even though I thought the rat bastard wasn’t even looking.

And, three, I knew Etienne’s mate was pregnant.

“Get your hands off my mate, you cocky-ass mother fucker.” Etienne had both of his hands around my neck and was squeezing. He pushed me backward so that my head knocked against the siding of his shotgun house.

“Pregnant. Mate.”

Those were the only two words I could mouth to him. I grabbed his wrists, trying to pry his meat hands from my neck before I kneed him straight in the nuts. He didn’t flinch.

“How dare you touch her. I oughta choke you and hang your ass out as gator bait.”

Tansy did her mate right. She lifted Etienne’s shirt slightly and put her hands on his skin. “Eti, honey, calm down. I think Justice has something important to say.” At the sound of her voice, we both turned to see Tansy a particularly pale shade of ghost, and her breathing was shallow.

“What is it, Tansy? What’s wrong.” While I tried to breathe again, Etienne checked over his mate like I’d discovered she had leprosy.

Finally recovering my breath, I bent forward. “She’s pregnant, dipshit.”

Etienne looked back and forth from me to a Tansy like we were playing Ping-Pong with his brain as the ball. Then his eyes locked on his mate.

“You carry my young?”

Apparently, from the lack of coloring in Tansy’s face, she didn’t know either. “Holy gator babies. Shit! I’m not gonna lay eggs, am I? Hell no! I’m out. Nope. Nope. Nope. You put this in me, you get it out.”

Our almost fight and yelling had drawn in the crew.

“So the nesting is about her being pregnant. Good thing. I was this close to calling ole Jackson Asylum.”

Lazare slapped Loic on the back of the head. “That place has been closed for thirty years, dillweed.”

Lazare ran a hand down his torso and further. “Fuck you. There are no dillweeds here. Freshly shaven for the ladies.”

Etienne’s voice boomed through the rest. “Would you assholes pipe the fuck down? You’re pregnant?”

“Smell her, Eti,” I interjected, not knowing if I was still gator bait or not. There’s no denying the smell. He growled at me.

Tansy grabbed Etienne’s shirt and jerked him toward her until they were nose to nose. “Am. I. Laying. Eggs? Yes or no. It’s a simple question.” He took the opportunity of closeness to take a long careful scenting of his female. His eyes darkened when he opened them .

“No, darlin’.” Etienne’s tone calmed to in turn calm his mate who was freaking the fuck out about squatting down and shitting some eggs. Didn’t blame her. “It’s going to be a baby. No eggs. No gators. Just a baby. A beautiful baby with eyes like yours.”

Tansy looked a little relieved—a little. “Well, screw me sideways and call me Nancy.”

Callum spoke up. I hadn’t even realized he was there. “I think that’s how you got here in the first place, Tansy girl. Congrats to the new crew member.”

And Loic again mumbled as he walked away. “We are not crew.”

I stared at the mated pair too long while the others went back to their jobs. Etienne had given us all some disease when he took Tansy as a mate. Like the sickness was spreading to all of us.

’Cause fuck me if I didn’t hunger for a mate of my own.