Etienne (The Shifters of Shotgun Row Book 1) Page 3

  “Star. So what kind of critter do you have?”

  “None,” I confessed. “I’m not really an animal lover.” My reply was met with her belting out in laughter, not at all the response I’d been expecting. “What?”

  “Nothing.” She schooled her face, unable to completely remove her amusement at my lack of love of the furries. “Just thinking about something from earlier. Miss Marie used to come and watch the fish.”

  And talk to a dead little girl.

  “Not for nothing, but she was an odd duck. Loved her and her king-nuts, but she was odd.” Star wasn’t wrong. She was amazing and kind and funny and very very odd.

  “People say that about me, too,” I confessed, not meeting her eyes, my voice cracking slightly. Something about Star had me sharing that insecurity with her, something I never admitted to anyone. She had this aura of safety surrounding her. Yeah, she was odd, too, but in a good way. Or, at least, I thought in a good way. Time would tell.

  “Then we shall get along famously.” She held her hand out, the parrot jumping on it before stepping off onto the stand beside them. “Trust my animal expertise?”

  “I have no reason not to?” It came out as more of a question than it should’ve. I spent the next hour there chatting with Star, the young ghost following along happily.

  I was going to be good and leave with nothing. I wasn’t lying about my lack of love for furries. I was pretty all set with birds, too, but when she showed me the reptiles, I found myself mesmerized. The ghost kept pointing to one aquarium in particular, and I eventually caved, becoming the proud owner of an alligator lizard. At least now I had an excuse to come back to the store, being a bona fide lizard mama.

  Etienne

  There wasn’t a lot of crime in Juneau. Once in a while a rebellious teenager would steal something from the hardware store, or maybe a pack of gum from the Texaco, but, other than the random call, my job was pretty boring.

  We had a crew meeting at night, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I didn’t even understand the point, but Callum thought it necessary to keep the order in our little group. It was tough without an alpha. Shifters like us needed an Alpha. They need a hierarchy where everyone keeps the others accountable and keeps their asses out of trouble.

  Order, as in making sure humans didn’t get too close to our nests.

  And making sure no one was screwing around with human females.

  We didn’t have anything against human females, it was just usually they weren’t really down with their men turning into animals.

  And we weren’t really down with squealers.

  We had to take precautions.

  From the front door of my house, I could see something taped to the back door. That’s why we shifters liked the shotgun houses. One glance out of any room and I had full visionary access to both entrances.

  I didn’t like other people in my nest, and neither did the other boys.

  The note on the back door was a reminder of the meeting. I hadn’t ever missed one, so I’m not sure why Callum got some kind of micromanaging feather stuck up his ass this time.

  Changed into a pair of shorts and a gray T-shirt, I went out for the meeting. I was already a little behind schedule, since I’d sat in my cruiser and at my desk most of the day, reeling over all the shit Tansy had said to me.

  Every syllable made me respect the fuck out of her.

  Man, she was a beauty all riled up. Made me want to do things to her I had no business doing—or even wanting to do. She was human, and a girl like her would never go for a beast like me.

  Except none of it diminished my need to protect her. It was uncomfortable and anxious, the raw need to make sure she was okay. It had to be my oath to her grandmother that made my animal so protective over this woman I’d just met.

  I refused to believe anything else.

  “What the hell are you growling about, Eti?” Just called across the fire that Callum insisted on having for these meetings. It was fucking a hundred and ten degrees out here, but he wanted to have a fucking kumbaya in front of a fire.

  Asshole. He was our acting leader, but my gator wasn’t recognizing him as Alpha—at all.

  “Nothin’. Just shit at work. What’s on the agenda other than Justice eatin’ some nasty-ass shit in the woods this morning?”

  Justice squared off his shoulders. “Didn’t taste like shit.”

  Callum chimed in, throwing more wood to feed the flames, all too happy with his campfire. “I had to turn off my fucking air conditioner because that rotten smell was coming into my bedroom.”

  I shrugged. “At least something was coming in your bedroom.”

  “Fuck. You. Etienne,” Loic said. He was probably still pissed about me making him get out of town as his gator.

  “No thanks. I got a good enough look at your dick today. Not impressed.”

  “Enough.” Callum wasn’t amused by our antics. “There’ve been some tourist boats getting a little too close today. All humans. We need to put up some more barriers.”

  The rest of us agreed. The tourists on their airboat journeys through the swamp were annoying, and they got too close for comfort. We had to protect ourselves. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if one of them approached while we were shifting.

  “Etienne, can you and Just handle that this week?”

  We both nodded. It wouldn’t take much time between my gator and his bear.

  “Anything else? Anything anyone wants to tell us about someone who may have just moved into town?”

  Callum and Loic had been gossiping.

  I sighed. For some reason, telling even my crew about Tansy seemed like peeling off my skin.

  “Fine. Her name is Tansy. She is Marie’s granddaughter. And she’s not to be touched.”

  Loic laughed. “By us or by you?”

  “You especially.”

  “Etienne, you know our rules. We have to keep this place sacred.”

  “Shut up, Justice. I was here when the rules were made.”

  My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I picked it up. “Yeah?”

  At the sound of the voice on the other end of the line, every hair on my body stood on end.

  “I’m on my way.”

  ***

  I knocked on Tansy’s door, nervous like a kid picking up his first date. I didn’t know why or how she called me, but I didn’t care.

  “Come in but quick, or it’s gonna get out!”

  “What’s gonna get out?” I stepped in, and she nearly took off my ass shutting the door behind me. Tansy had a broom in one hand and some kind of measuring cup in the other. There were kittens all over her pajamas. Her hair was in a knot on the top of her head, and damn it all if she didn’t look downright adorable.

  “Curtis!”

  Blood rushed to my face. I hadn’t even thought about this woman already having a male in her life.

  “Who is Curtis?” I was looking on the floor like she was. I don’t know why Curtis would’ve been on the floor. Maybe he was a small man.

  Fuck, I’m not making any sense at all.

  She stopped all movement and shook the measuring cup at me while she spoke. “I somehow ended up buying an alligator lizard at that pet store today. Look at me. I’m franzzled.”

  I didn’t know what in the world franzzled was, but it was something between wild cougar and flailing Muppet. At least, that’s what it looked like to me.

  Tansy

  Meemaw was going to pay. When she made me put her “friend” into the phone in case of “emergency,” which she assured me was even if I just needed someone to pick up aspirin if I was under the weather, I assumed cute little old lady, possibly her flea market friend, but noooooooo...she had to give me Yeti’s number.

  When he answered the phone, it was all I could do to not hang up. It wasn’t like I had any other numbers to call. I tried the stupid pet store five times before giving up. It was after store hours, but wasn’t that the kind of business where you
were always on call? What if someone needed advice on their stupid new pet? Something like leave the lid on their transportation container while you tried to figure out how to adjust the heat lamp in their new home.

  How she convinced me being a lizard mama was the right move for me, I was never going to understand. Not that it mattered since I probably sentenced the little bugger to death by letting him out in the wrong climate. Finding him would be far less miraculous if I wasn’t 86 percent terrified of him.

  Etienne showed up far quicker than I thought possible. Not that he needed to follow traffic rules, given his being the traffic enforcement and all. Not that I had a true means of judging since for all I knew he lived the next block over. Although I doubted it since I hadn’t seen him until he came to the bakery that day, and in a town this tiny, I would’ve.

  “You have a pet alligator lizard.” Why was he sounding so amused while I was so franzzled.

  “No, I had one.” I handed him the measuring cup to capture the mini-gator. “Now, I have a missing one.”

  “And you named him Curtis?” He was already on his hands and knees, looking for him.

  Fingers crossed he was a lizard whisperer.

  “After Lizard Man.” Duh. Was the man culturally illiterate? “Can we move past the formalities, and can you help me find him?” Completely ruderific of me, given the fact he was actively looking for the little man while I stood there, broom in hand, wearing…I was wearing my kitty jams. Kill me now.

  “Here he is.” He stood up holding the thing as if it were...well, a pet. “Is this what he got out of?” He nudged the side of his new habitat with his elbow, and I shook my head. He placed him inside. “You know the heating lamp, here, is not set up right.”

  “Which was how I lost him,” I confessed. “I was trying to fix it.”

  He picked up the container Curtis arrived in.

  “With him in this?” He held the thing up as if it were exhibit B in the trial of who is the worst lizard mama in the parish. Spoiler alert: It would be me. I nodded. No use pretending I wasn’t stinkified in the pet owner compartment of my life.

  He went to work fixing the light, which apparently had a piece I failed to remove from the packaging, making its assembly much easier. He then opened the crickets I bought for Curtis, placed them inside, and closed the lid.

  “You can get down now, you know.” His smirk…why did it have to be so yummerlicious? It wasn’t like I liked him or anything, because I totally didn’t, but that smile, those lips made me want to kiss him a little bit. Except those lips were connected to the rest of him so...

  “I...yeah...thanks.” I hopped down, nicking the side of the chair with my heel and fumbling forward. The only things preventing me from hitting the floor were his arms, which were now wrapped around me. I jumped back as if they were made of fire, which I wasn’t entirely sure they weren’t, the way they set my body ablaze. Not good. I was here to start a new life, not mimic my old one with bad choices of even worse men. Nope. No matter how lickable and kissable his lips looked as he smirked at me so, I was not going there. I so wasn’t going there.

  I was so frecking lyin’ to myself. I was so goin’ there, and regretting it later was going to be my motto because the way he was eyeing me, waiting for me to break the silence was too much. Especially since he still smelled like flippin’ bacon.

  “What’s up with the bacon?” I growled out of frustration. If it weren’t for the bacon, I’d have some self-control. Fine, some is an exaggeration. A smidge was more like it, but I still blamed him.

  He took a predatory step forward as the word bacon escaped my lips. He was almost feral, but good fairies, I liked it.

  One more step.

  Without thinking of consequences or having the right mind to fear the animalistic look in his eye, I threw myself at him in the truest sense of the word. My lips collided with his as my legs wrapped around his middle, all sense of decorum runnin’ screamin’ from the window.

  He immediately responded to my act of lustful crazy, taking over the kiss and turning me until I pressed against the wall, his body pressed against mine, his lips dancing with mine, his tongue exploring my mouth.

  The chiming of my phone somehow broke the spell, for the next thing I knew, he was placing me on my feet and stomping out the front door, asking over and over again why I had to smell bacon.

  As his car tore out of my drive, the phone began again. A quick glance at the screen told me Star’s caller ID must’ve let her know I called incessantly. Great. Best kiss of my life ended too soon because I panic called a pet store.

  Etienne

  It isn’t the bakery. It’s her. It isn’t the bakery. It’s her.

  She didn’t smell like vanilla and cinnamon and sugar because she worked all day with dough and donuts and cakes.

  It was because cakes and donuts were my favorite thing.

  And she smelled like my favorite thing because Tansy was my…

  No, I refused to say it. Something was wrong. We alligators swam solo. I had gone through most of my life content with the fact I probably wouldn’t have a mate. I was a gator, and we gators were notorious for dying alone—maybe we would impregnate a female or two along the road, but mates and families and those things just weren’t on the table.

  So how come one kiss with Tansy had me shoveling it all back onto the table?

  Because I was nuts and had been in my human skin for too long. That was it. It must be. I simply needed to get back home and push myself down into the shadowy bayou as a gator should, waiting for prey, resting in the secure shallows, inches below the cloudy waves.

  Everything would be clearer in the darkness.

  My truck’s tires skidded up to my house. It needed a paint job. I could see the chips and missing chunks even in the moonlight.

  “This will all be fixed in a few minutes. Just need to get into the fucking water.”

  I shook free of my pants and shirt in seconds flat. The smell of the tangy water already penetrated my nostrils and filled my senses. I could almost feel the waves gently rocking me to sleep as they patted the shore tenderly.

  Shifting into a gator was tough. It hurt. My skin rose into peaks and stiffened into a leathery hide. My body doubled in size, my torso stretched and pulled me into a form much like my prehistoric ancestors. My jaw elongated into a gator’s muzzle. Then my human side took a back seat. I was always there, like looking through a mask, but I was someone else on the outside. He took over, his senses sharp and lethal.

  My gator was a monster, and while I was in his skin, I was the king of this swamp.

  Finally.

  I relaxed into my animal form, reveling in his simple thoughts. Hearing was piqued, smell acute, all of my senses on point.

  He let me be for only a few minutes until he made his opinion of that night’s events show.

  Mine.

  His growly voice rumbled through me.

  I refuted him, blocking the images he was sending me out of my mind, and focusing on what he could feel through the gator.

  He was wrong.

  He must be hangry or something.

  He’s confused.

  Something.

  Mine. Mate.

  His booming voice rumbled through my body, causing splashes and ripples of brown water to give away our location at the surface.

  Smell. Taste. Mate. Mine.

  My argument with his caveman logic didn’t even reach him. He’d made up his mind, and I was afraid I’d been overruled by the three-hundred-pound version of myself.

  A smell, pungent and almost rancid, caught my nose, and with tail wagging back and forth, I went toward it. Maybe a belly full of meat would change his mind.

  ***

  My stomach growled as I typed in a report I should’ve done the day before. I’d been too busy following Tansy around town to do what I was supposed to be doing.

  Idiot.

  I’d avoided the donut shop this morning. I was actually avoiding Tansy. The
conflict inside me felt as real as a hurricane down deep in my chest. The churning and chaos grew stronger as my human side and my gator were locked in a battle—neither giving the other an inch.

  I looked up from the computer as a smell touched my nose. Someone was brilliant enough to bring donuts into the police station—so original. I stood, bound to either steal or swindle one from the owner.

  “Is Etienne here?” I heard her voice at the same time I recognized my nose had lied to me. It wasn’t my favorite breakfast waiting in the wings somewhere, but that Yankee woman and her sugar smell.

  Ducking back into my office, I could almost hear the walls calling me on my cowardice. I kept the door open a crack, desperate to hear what my co-workers told her.

  Bruno answered her sweet voice, and my gator gnashed at me, demanding to get out.

  “He’s around here somewhere. Maybe I can help you.”

  The tone and slithery quality of his voice made my skin crawl. When she answered, her voice changed.

  “No, I appreciate it. I would really like to talk to him. I’ve tried his cell a couple of times, but there was no answer.”

  At the mention of it, I almost tore my pockets open searching for my phone. She was right. I’d missed calls from her and from Loic.

  “Let me check his office.”

  I fully expected Bruno to blast into my office and berate me for ignoring such a beautiful female.

  Except, he didn’t. I pushed my head out of my office to check, and Bruno was a big lying bastard. He stood in the hallway, looking at his watch. Whatever amount of seconds he was waiting for passed, and he went back out and claimed I wasn’t in the office.

  “Oh, okay. I will check back later.”

  He chuckled. I knew that sound from the bars and late-night sheriff’s dinners. It was his “oh, there’s a female near who I want to bang” sleazy laugh. The one he continued to use no matter how many women were instantly turned off by it. “Well, I could always drive you around to look for him if you really need him.”

  The ooze dripped from his tone.

  He wasn’t going to drive her anywhere except somewhere he could make a move on her.