Rose, Charlotte - Bayou Flood [The Shifters of Alligator Bend 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (3 page)

Sophie could swear she saw the two gators roll their eyes.

“I know, I know,” the blond man continued. “This ain’t an ideal situation. But we’re doin’ the best we can. Anyway, we’re gonna carry you out and then make like we’re headin’ toward the police station on Royal Street. Once they’re outta sight, we’re gonna duck around the corner, and the two of you are gonna shift back. Then we’re gonna head to Café du Monde, get ourselves some beignets, and have a nice little chat about what just happened here.”

The four human men picked up the two gators and started hauling them toward the back door. The two women picked up the gators’ clothes, which had been abandoned on the floor, and crammed the T-shirts, jeans, and shoes into their tote bags.

“Just be cool,” the first woman whispered into Sophie’s ear. “This will all make sense soon, I promise.”

Sophie held her breath as they walked out the back door. The nervous-looking security guard nodded at them. “We sure do appreciate you getting these animals under control. I’ll be in touch next week about following up with a security report.”

“Of course,” the first woman said. “We’ll be happy to assist with that in any way we can.”

Sophie didn’t breathe again until they rounded the corner into an alley and the two gators were set down. After checking around the corner, the blond man turned to them.

“Coast is clear. Go ahead and shift.”

Realizing they’d be naked when they returned to human form, Sophie turned away out of a sense of propriety. As curious as she was to see what they looked like naked, she didn’t even know which man was Gabriel and which man was Virgil. She should at least have their identities figured out before she saw them naked.

Yet she couldn’t resist sneaking a peek out of the corner of her eye as they assumed human form. She tried not to gasp as she caught glimpses of chiseled six-packs, toned biceps, strong legs, and amazing cocks. She could only imagine how glorious they’d look when fully hard.

One of the men caught her staring at them and winked. Sophie quickly turned her face away, feeling a blush rise up on her cheeks.

“Okay, let’s go,” the blond man said.

After being caught staring, Sophie was too embarrassed to look at either of the two gator men. She kept her gaze straight ahead as they walked through the French Quarter.

When they entered Café du Monde, Sophie began to relax a bit. The smell of beignets and coffee overwhelmed her senses, making her temporarily forget her confusion and anxiety. The group pushed three tables together in a quiet corner and pulled chairs around it, and one of the gator men ordered beignets and coffee for everyone.

“Guess introductions are in order,” the blond man said. “We know you’re Sophie Deco, but you’re probably wonderin’ who the rest of us are. I’m Armand, and this is Narcisse, Nelson, Xavier, Adele, and Oscar. And these two guys who are the source of all our trouble are Gabriel and Virgil.”

“Sorry we ruined your show,” Gabriel said. “I really don’t know what happened. I wish I could explain it.”

“Fortunately, the rest of us can,” Adele said. “Sophie here is your mate.”

“Um, what do you mean I’m their mate?”

Virgil sighed. “In case you haven’t figured it out, we’re gator shifters.”

Sophie cracked a small smile. “Yeah, I kind of noticed that. Not that I’m not entirely sure this whole afternoon isn’t a dream.”

“Understandable,” Narcisse said. “Now, just so we’re sure you’re clear, you’re the only full human at this table. All of us are alligator shape-shifters.”

Sophie wanted to let her jaw drop, but just then a waitress came to the table with a tray full of steaming beignets and café au lait. She maintained her composure while the waitress served everyone and then immediately put one of the warm pastries in her mouth, savoring the way the powdered sugar coated her lips. She glanced over at Gabriel and Virgil, whose mouths were also covered in white powder. She wanted to kiss the sugar right off of them, a realization that only made her confused about the sudden sense of attraction she felt.

After taking a swallow of her coffee, Sophie tried to sort things out. “I’m sorry I’m just parroting back what you told me, but you’re alligator shape-shifters.”

“That’s correct,” Virgil said. “Some of our ancestors got cursed ’bout a hundred years ago for improper use of voodoo magic. The voodoo queen who cursed us made it our lot in life to pass between human and gator form. As a result, we live out in the swamps. As you might have guessed, it ain’t good if we shift in public. Still, we do come into the city for special occasions.”

“Okay. I mean, I guess that makes sense. That is, if I can accept that shape-shifters exist, which I’m still not sure I do, then it’s not implausible that it’s the result of a century-old curse. But I’m not sure what it means that I’m their mate?”

“We’ve learned throughout generations that offspring are the strongest when they’re produced between a gator and a human,” Oscar said. “The children are even stronger when they’re the combination of two gators with one human.”

Now, Sophie did let her jaw drop. “So what you’re saying is that fate has decided that I’m supposed to mate with two half-gators to help contribute to strengthening the shape-shifter population?”

Everyone at the table nodded. Sophie gulped down the rest of her coffee to give herself a chance to think.

“And how do you know I’m their mate?” she asked. She couldn’t really deny that shape-shifters existed, not when she’d seen it with her own eyes. But she wasn’t about to accept being anybody’s mate without proof. Nor was she going to let herself believe the sudden stirrings in her body constituted good evidence.

“It’s easy,” Nelson said. “That’s why they turned into gators when they watched you play.”

* * * *

“Wait a second,” Virgil said, running his hand through his dark hair. “You’re tellin’ us that the first time you see your mate, you shift?”

The other gators at the table nodded.

“Well why the hell didn’t someone tell us that before?”

“You know that we keep the mating ritual a secret,” Xavier said.

“I also seem to remember that got Narcisse, Armand, and Nelson in a sticky situation,” Gabriel shot back, his gold-flecked eyes flashing with indignation. “You’d think maybe they’d start cluin’ us into things before somethin’ bad happens again.”

“Don’t worry, nobody got accidentally mated this time,” Narcisse said. “Besides, if it looked as though things were heading in that direction, we wouldn’t have let it happen.”

“Wait,” Virgil said. Things were starting to come together. “Is that why the six of you were all bein’ so weird outside the club this afternoon?”

“Yes,” Oscar said with a sigh. “And this is why
some
of us didn’t want you two going in there in the first place. When you saw her name and had the compulsion to go in, we knew you’d happened upon your mate. Your soul knew even before you laid eyes on her. But we didn’t want you to go through the shift in the middle of a crowded club.”

“Yeah, I would have preferred for that to not have happened,” Gabriel said. “So why did you let it? As you said, shiftin’ in public ain’t a good idea.”

“Because you needed to see your mate,” Adele said. “Who knows when you would have you had that chance again? You needed to fulfill your fate.”

“I still say we should’ve kept it from happenin’,” Xavier said. “We could’ve arranged for them to find her some other way.”

“Maybe if you’d offered a realistic suggestion, we would have gone with it,” Narcisse said. “But you didn’t come up with a single useful plan. They had to go see her. That’s all there is to it.”

Virgil stared at Sophie, who was looking more and more confused by the moment. He reached out and put his hand on hers. She jumped but didn’t pull away.

“Is this okay?” he asked. She nodded.

Virgil flashed a quick, encouraging smile at Gabriel, who then eased his own hand up to rest on Sophie’s shoulder. She tensed up for a second but quickly relaxed. Still, she didn’t make eye contact, keeping her focus on the other gators who were explaining everything.

“So, are they going to shift every time I see them?” she finally asked in a small voice.

Adele laughed. “No, definitely not. There’s no need to worry about that. The sudden shift only happens the first time men find their mates. It’s how you know you’ve found each other.”

“Some warning would’ve been nice,” Virgil muttered. “Just sayin’. I’m glad that we found her, but some indication of what was gonna happen might’ve helped.”

Narcisse shook her head. “We have to keep these things secret for a reason.”

“And what reason would that be?” Virgil asked, trying not to let his frustration show. He didn’t want to intimidate Sophie. She’d been through enough already.

“It’s to prevent false matin’,” Nelson said.

“False matin’?”

Armand nodded. “About fifty years ago, we ran into a problem. We had two members of our congregation, a pair of brothers, who weren’t exactly the most scrupulous folk. They found a human woman they were both attracted to, an’ even though they knew she wasn’t their true mate, they decided they wanted to claim her anyway.”

“How’d they pull that off?” Gabriel asked.

“Well, back then, when you came of age, you were told what was gonna happen when you figured out who your mate was. So these guys knew what to expect. They faked it.”

“As in, they shifted and pretended it was spontaneous?” Virgil asked.

“Yup,” Armand said. “They claimed her one night, but since she wasn’t their true mate…well…”

“Well what?”

Adele spoke up. “You don’t quite understand how intense the mating experience is going to be until it actually happens. It’s exhilarating and beautiful but also makes you think it might tear you apart.”

“You can’t claim someone who ain’t your true mate and have ’em survive,” Nelson added in a suddenly somber tone.

Virgil felt his stomach clench. “So then what happened?”

“Well, they confessed to the whole thing. Serafine banished ’em for doin’ somethin’ so immoral. It was one of her first acts as our voodoo queen, too. It hurt her so much to have to do it.”

“Anyway,” Armand said, “after that, Serafine decreed that we had to keep it a secret to prevent that from ever happenin’ again.”

As much as Virgil reviled the two men who had falsely claimed a mate, he wasn’t pacified. “Still, I think you could’ve warned us, especially considerin’ the situation.”

“Okay,” Xavier said. “We ain’t gettin’ anywhere debatin’ what should or should not have happened.”

“What about what I want?” Sophie asked. “I mean, I don’t want to sound rude, but I didn’t exactly accommodate for this in my five-year plan. Is there an escape clause if I don’t really want to be mated to two gator shifters?”

Her hand was shaking slightly, and Virgil gave it what he hoped would be a reassuring squeeze. Sophie looked up at him. “No offense to either of you. This is all just very sudden, and I feel like it’s something I should have some sort of control over. It’s my entire future, after all.”

Nelson chuckled. “Don’ you worry. We ain’t gonna just steal you off to the swamp forever.”

“Yeah, that didn’t go so well last time,” Narcisse said, giving him a wink. She turned back to Sophie. “As a matter of fact, you have a lot of choice in the matter. You’re not expected to take the mating ceremony lightly. You’re supposed to spend some time with Virgil and Gabriel and get to know them before you decide to be mated.”

“Once you decide, it’s forever,” Oscar said. “You agree that Gabriel and Virgil will be your mates for life. There will be a ceremony, and as part of that, they’ll turn you into a shifter. Due to the nature of the curse, you have to live in the houseboats on the bayou. You can’t be away from the congregation for more than forty-eight hours at a time.”

“So—so I have to give up my whole life?” She sounded as though she was on the verge of tears.

“Of course not!” Adele said. “The congregation prefers if you get involved with the fishing business we run, but not everyone does. I’ve still kept my career. It means a little more commuting than I’d like, but it’s worth it. You can still be a musician. Your touring options will be pretty limited, I suppose, but you can still build up a career here. If that’s something you need in order to decide to be mated, then you can have it.”