by Ever Coming
Pizza dough was one of my favorite things to make in times where I needed to burn off excessive stress—energy—anything, really. It required all the physical release of any other kind of bread, but froze beautifully, allowing me to fill my freezer with yummy goodness to be sold to those who liked to pretend they had homemade pizza. All the winning.
“Bad day?” Meemaw popped into the kitchen, just as I’d hoped she would.
“Naw.” I fluffed off as I began to section the dough and ready it for retail packaging. “Interesting day.” It wasn’t a lie. I just didn’t want to lead in with, So I was kissing this bear because—reasons. “Where’ve you been?” She was around less and less lately, her form still not completely fading, but my comfort over the matter was far from strong.
“Miss me?” She sat on the work table, and I struggled not to shoo her away, like I would if anyone else tried it. It wasn’t like she could contaminate the food.
“Every day.” Some days worse than others, not that I wanted her to see just how much her loss impacted me. It was selfish for me to be glad she was still surrounding me when moving on was where she belonged, not that I could change how I felt.
“None of that melancholy garbage.”
She smacked the table with a thump. Huh? When did she become so corporeal, or was she always that strong?
“So, what gives?” She indicated the twenty balls of dough on the table. “I know you’re in the black, so don’t even pretend this is for profit.”
In the black was a subjective term. If we had any kind of mortgage, I wouldn’t be, but she was correct in her assessment. The bakery was getting by...more than.
“Just working out the frustration of having—of Etienne.” Flustered and confuzzled, I just let it out. No sense hiding it from my one confidant. Not like she could go telling the town about it. Stinks. Was I the only one left in town not a bear?
“He turned you down?”
“Seriously, Meemaw? You think there was ever a time I’d be all ‘let’s talk sex’ with you?”
“Then, what is it?” She was instantly serious and just as instantly by my side. I didn’t think I’d ever get used to her bouncing around like that.
“I find out he’s a bear just as his blasted phone rings and he needs to leave. Some emergency.” It felt good to get it off my chest, out there in the open, or open-ish, as the case might be.
“Bear?” She just stared at me, her hand on her chin. “Huh? Who would’ve guessed?”
“Like you didn’t know.” Honestly, from her reaction I wasn’t sure if she knew or not. I had assumed her weirdness about him from the get-go had to do with her knowing his secret. Now? Now, I wasn’t so sure.
“I knew he wasn’t human,” she confessed, and I waited for her to continue. She talked a mile a minute except when she was perplexed, and then you just waited as she thought things out. This seemed to be that kind of moment. “I was leaning towards dragon. Bear. He doesn’t come across as a bear.”
“Right?” I tied up the final bag and piled them onto a tray. “His muscle is too lean.” And his moves far too smexy, but that wasn’t something I wanted to discuss with her.
“Did he say the words, ‘I’m a bear’?”
Crap on a cracker. No. No he did not. What in tarnation was he? Because I might not know a lot about the world of the paranormal, but even I knew dragons were lore.
Etienne
I pretended the call was from the station, but it was from Justice. Someone was on our turf.
Bruno.
The bear was going to get an ass full of teeth if he wasn’t careful. He may be my boss, but only if they could find the body. Other than that, he’d just be another missing person in the swamp.
I doubt anyone would miss his fat ass.
“How long was he around?” I asked Just with my hand around a cold beer. Just was former military, and this incident, along with the tourists getting closer and closer, put him on edge like I’d never seen him before.
“Hour or two. Smelled suspicious—like he was looking for something.”
The smell was concentrated around my house.
“He was sniffing around Tansy earlier.”
“The donut shop girl. Hot as fuck—pretty, too. I’d hit that.”
I smacked the back of his head as hard as I could for that comment.
He laughed and took a long swig of his beer. “That her? Your mate?”
I nodded. It was the first time I’d really acknowledged her for what she was.
“What do you know about mediums?”
Justice shrugged. “They can talk to spirits, right? Why? You been seeing ghosts, my brother?”
I looked around the place to make sure we were out of earshot of anyone. The last thing I needed was to be ragged for my medium mate.
“Not me.” I gave him the ‘I’m not talking about me, but I’m also not going to outright tell you who I’m talking about, either’ stare.
“Oh. Wow. A gifted mate. That’s a plus. Can she talk to my ex-girlfriend? Ask her why she left me and then went with a dragon—a dragon who bit her head off? I’d like to know that.”
“I’m not really going to ask her. She doesn’t even know I’m a shifter. I think she suspects, but the damned phone rang when I was about to tell her.”
“Fuck. How do you even tell a human you get a little grumpy and turn into a cold-blooded killer?”
I shrugged, swallowing down the last of my beer. “Who the fuck knows.”
We sat in silence for a few minutes. “Think she’ll run?” Just said.
“No. Yes. Hell if I know. I’m just hoping she doesn’t run from y’all’s dumb asses.”
Justice smiled. His smile was a little bit sincere and a lot Joker. He always looked like he wanted to stab everyone in the room. “Oh, come on. We’re not so bad. Anyway, you love us. We’re your crew. And if you’d just take your place as…”
“Don’t even fucking say it, Just. We aren’t that kind of crew. Yeah, we live close and take care of each other, but I’m not about to tell y’all what to do and where to shit.”
“Damn, I hope not. So, when are you gonna let us meet your mate?”
I got up from the table, determined to take a second look around my place. “Never. Fucking. Ever.”
Tansy
What was I thinking?
It was one thing to wander around town alone, yet another to take my Meemaw’s beater car into the freaking bayou alone, especially so I could ask someone if they were a freckin’ bear or not. Best case scenario, the car doesn’t break down. Worst? I get my butt chomped on by a bear. A fur-and-teeth bear just like that poor ghost did. It was official, I was a fool.
It was far too easy for me to get directions to his house out of Meemaw, which was the only thing that gave me courage. If she had refused, my fear would’ve been on overdrive. Now? Now I was more worried he’d be upset I was invading his space to confront him over becoming furry or not, as the case might be. And to bring king-nuts. Because king-nuts made everything better.
If he was even there. When I called the station dispatcher, they said he was off duty, but that didn’t mean much since he was off duty when he got that call and left my house.
I was rounding yet another corner of yet another dirt road, crossing my fingers and toes my GPS was correct in telling me I was only one turn away when the car stalled. Again. It was the primary reason why I walked all the places I did. Her car was what a beater aspires to be, and, coming from the city, I had no need for a vehicle before moving here, so I became careless, leaving it my only option. An option currently dying if not dead.
Six attempts to get her running later, the car still hadn’t started. Maybe it was time to make it official and call a time of death for the blasted thing. Chances were all but nonexistent someone was going to drive by with jumper cables even if that would help.
The sun was just beginning to set and, according to my phone, I had less than a quarter mile to my destination. Grabbing
the box of king-nuts and mumbling under my breath about my need to get a gun, I shut and locked the car, because that made sense, before stomping off in the direction of his home, the bugs already attacking me.
I’d never get used to the bugs down here. And sweet tea. Yuck.
The sounds of the bayou were so unlike what I was used to. I could walk through sirens, gunshots, even really bad street music, and not have it faze me at all, but walking here I found myself jumping at every little noise. I nearly dropped the stupid king-nuts when some kind of fly on steroids brushed past my nose.
I felt watched, which didn’t help. Chances were I was sensing some dead dude who didn’t realize I could see him and was just hanging out being nosy. That was oddly a thing. But not one that stopped me from scanning the area every few feet. A ghost couldn’t hurt me, but some things out here could, and those things kept my feet stepping lively.
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.
“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.”
<
br /> 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.
