by Thorne, Elle
“Lézare!”
Evie interrupted his musings.
“I don’t care how big the house is, I don’t even want to be in the same state as Mason Martinez.” Her face flamed crimson with fury. “Why did our cousin have to go and mate with his brother? I’m so mad at Veila!”
Lézare did laugh this time. “I’m sure a thirty-thousand-square-foot house is big enough for you to go hide in, since you don’ want to see your former beau.”
Lézare had never left Louisiana, unlike his sisters, who’d spent a lot of their time in boarding schools and out-of-state at college. His accent was far more pronounced for the area, the letter tee often dropping off his contractions. He noticed the differences between their speech most when he was around his sisters.
Could have had something to do with the amount of time I spent with my grandfather, he mused, who spoke the same way.
“It’s. Not. Funny.” She punctuated each of her words with a fist to his arm.
On the last one, he reached out, his tiger reflexes supernaturally fast, and caught her fist in his hand.
“Enough.” He moved her fist to her side, his grip on it firm until she unclenched it. “You can be a cordial hostess or you can be absent. They are family now, too.”
Family mattered to Lézare. It mattered greatly. His father had been a distant cousin to Vax and Veila Tiero’s mother. After her death, Lézare and his sisters had been forbidden to associate with Vax and Veila by Vax’s father Giovanni Tiero. Gio’s orders and mission were clear: He wanted the Tieros to have nothing to do with the Arceneaux, nothing to do with his dead wife’s side of the family, which was open to diversity among shifters. For Giovanni Tiero, tigers belonged with tigers, lions with lions, and so on and so forth. To him, the worst infraction of all was mating with humans, which Gio’s own son, Vax, had done.
The old code brewed bitterness in Lézare’s gut.
“What’s that look about?” Alexa, who’d been quietly observing Evie’s tantrum, finally spoke.
“What look?” He wiped his scowl away.
She shook her head. He and Alexa were the closest of all the siblings. Second in birth order after Lézare, she was also second in charge of the Arceneaux organization. She was an alpha in her own right and brooked little dissension.
“Evie.” Alexa addressed their younger sibling. “You’ll have to figure something out. Mark and Veila are invited, and so is Mason. What you and he had in college, however it may have ended, is in the past. You cannot disrupt this occasion as you did the Shifter Council Meeting.” She softened her diatribe with a smile.
“The Arceneaux Shifter Masquerade Ball only happens once a year. Why do I have to do that? It’s our party. It’s an Arceneaux event,” Evie huffed. Her claws extended as ire pushed her toward a shift. With a slight creaking sound, she shifted into her white tigress, turned back, snarled at her siblings, and left the room in two long jumps, bounding out of sight.
“That went well.” Lézare took a beignet from the tray.
Maylene, the housekeeper, had slipped the still warm concoctions onto the table in the midst of their melee then left without a word, with only a furtive glance at Lézare.
“Real well.” Alexa’s voice held as much sarcasm as his own.
She glanced at her phone then frowned, her brows dipping in a stern vee.
“Nothing?”
“Not a word. Not a text. Not a call.”
“Unlike Valencia.”
Valencia, the youngest of Lézare’s sisters, was en route from Georgia.
“Maybe we should be happy she’s not texting and driving.” Lézare took a bite, careful not to breathe out so the confectioner’s sugar wouldn’t scatter.
“Lézare.” Alexa stared out the front window. “Someone’s here.”
Lézare put the beignet on the plate. “Who is it?”
“I don’t recognize the vehicle.” She frowned. “Change that. I don’t recognize either of them.”
“We’re expecting at least a dozen or so who will be staying on the premises instead of in the city. It’s no surprise vehicles are pulling up.”
By “the city,” he meant New Orleans.
He approached his sister, put his arm around her. “What’s going on? I’m sensing something’s up with you, Alexandria.”
She gave him a mock dirty look at his use of her full name. He hadn’t planned on using her nickname. He simply wasn’t a nickname kind of guy.
“Nothing. I’ve got this feeling. Maybe it’s stress or Evie and Mason.”
“She needs to relax.” He glanced out the window at the sizable staircase leading to the landing at the top of the stairs at the front door. Half a dozen of his security team had already opened the door and were awaiting the new arrivals.
Lézare’s security team was much more than just security. They were his associates, his backup, his muscle. Fiercely loyal to Lézare, they were available in any capacity they were needed. Their lead, Theo, glanced at the window where Lézare was standing and gave him a subtle nod. Lézare acknowledged the nod with a slight inclination of his own head.
“Lézare, I don’t think you understand the depth of their feelings. You’ve never been in…”
She may not have finished her sentence, but he knew what she was going to say—that he’d never been in love.
He bit back a response. Just because he didn’t advertise his feelings didn’t mean he had none. They wouldn’t like his choice in women, anyway.
“If they have feelings for one another, they should act on them.” He was one to speak—he wasn’t acting on his desires or feelings.
The door on one of the Suburbans opened. Alexa squealed and bounced up and down.
Lézare flinched and covered the ear nearest to her.
“It’s Callie!” Her voice was a high-pitched screech of jubilation.
His cousin Vax, Vittorio Tiero, was helping his mate Callie out of the vehicle. She was nearing the final stages of her pregnancy.
“You didn’t tell me Vax and Callie were coming!” Alexa was still squealing in his ear.
He stepped away from her and the din she was letting loose. Who would have thought such a short package of a woman could be capable of such volume?
“He wasn’ sure he’d make it. He said it would depend on Callie and the baby.”
“She looks like she might have it any time now.”
Lézare scowled at his sister. “We’re not equipped to have a birth here.”
Was Vax crazy, bringing his pregnant mate so far from Dallas? She might give birth at the Arceneaux plantation home, a good thirty-minute ride from the city, and who knew how far away from a qualified obstetrician.
It wasn’t like she’d be giving birth to just any child. She was carrying a shifter’s baby. What sort of issues could her delivery be plagued with?
The other doors on that Suburban and the second one opened.
Lézare stepped away from Alexa because he knew if he didn’t, she’d blow out his eardrum.
Sure enough, she started to squeal again, hopping around.
Veila Tiero and Mark Martinez stepped onto the driveway. Right behind them, Cy helped Lila out.
From the second Suburban, Doc and Mae exited. Lézare exhaled a sigh of relief. Doc was here. He could deliver the baby if something happened.
Gavin helped Layla out of the same vehicle Doc and Mae had been in.
Lézare turned to Alexa. “No Sophie?”
Lézare knew that Alexa had a special relationship with Sophie. Alexa had helped Sophie hide her pregnancy, and she had been the only one Sophie had told about it. Of course, when Alexa needed help, she’d had to bring Lézare in, but he’d kept Sophie’s secret—even kept it from her entire family, including Vax, whom he was very close to. It was Sophie’s secret to tell.
“She decided to stay abroad a while. She’ll be back.”
Lézare nodded. “If Gavin, Vax and Veila are here, that means Dane’s running the place.” Lézare was happy
. He liked the black panther. He’d heard rumors about Dane’s early years; the shifter was due a good life.
“Let’s go greet our family.” Alexa tugged on his sleeve.
“Notice something?” he asked her.
She glanced back. “What?”
“No Mason.”
Her lips parted, her mouth making a perfect letter O. “I wonder how Evie’s going to take that.”
“She didn’ want him here, remember?” Lézare shook his head. Women. So confusing.
“Yes, but she doesn’t want that to be his decision, I’m sure.”
He ran his hand over his two-day growth of beard, scratching at the roughness. “She needs to get her head checked.”
“Oh, Lézare—”
He held up a finger for silence. “Please don’ feel the need to tell me I know nothing about love again.”
“Let’s go see our guests,” she harrumphed, but her lips twitched with a smile for her big brother.
Afterword
More hot shifters. More sassy, bootylicious women. More sexy stories!
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Check out ellethorne.com for more of the Shifters Forever Worlds! There are more than forty shifter stories with their wonderful happily ever afters! And wait until you meet the witches of New Orleans, and the elementals of Colorado, not to mention the polar bears of New York and Russia. So many shifters! So many love stories! Enjoy!
The Shifters Forever Worlds
SHIFTERS FOREVER SERIES
Are you ready for it?
I have a whole world full of shifters to share with you. I’m listing them here, in the suggested reading order, though I’ve tried to make it so that you can pick up anywhere in the series as we all have probably done that at one point or another.
Many of these are organized in box sets for savings. Be sure to visit ellethorne.com to see which box sets are out!
* * *
Where’s the best place to start? Well, probably with Shifters Forever.
SHIFTERS FOREVER starts the series off with grizzly bear shifters and their mates that steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.
•Protection
•Seduction
•Persuasion
•Invitation
•Temptation
•Attraction
* * *
ALWAYS AFTER DARK is a spinoff with the white tiger from Shifters Forever: Vax, born Vittorio Tiero. He’s the one that helped Kane out during a shifter battle. Follow the Tiero family, a group of white tiger shifters, as they head to America to find love... and heart-stopping danger. Full of romance, suspense, and gritty drama, this red-hot collection is sure to entertain!
•Controversy
•Territory
•Adversary
•Sanctuary
* * *
NEVER AFTER DARK is another spinoff that takes place in Europe. Here we visit cities along the Mediterranean and meet the old school Tiero white tiger shifters who are resistant to change.
•Forbidden
•Forsaken
•Forgotten
•Foreplay
* * *
ONLY AFTER DARK takes place in New Orleans. The Arceneaux shifters, led by Lézare, Vax’s white tiger cousin—on his mother’s side. The Arceneaux are the black sheep of the family. Lézare doesn’t cave to public opinion. He dictates policy in the area he rules and he shuns old school European rules and regimes.
•Desirable
•Insatiable
•Combustible
•Undeniable
* * *
MORE ONLY AFTER DARK takes place in New Orleans. The Arceneaux shifters and the Matthieu witches wreak havoc and find love within this city set on the steamy Louisiana coastline.
•Inevitable
•Inescapable
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BITTER FALLS FOREVER features Mae Forester’s nephew Dane Forester, a freewheeling, sexy, successful, movie star who uses every role and every woman to escape and forget the heartbreak he left in Bitter Falls.
•Unbound
* * *
BARELY AFTER DARK features more of Mae Forester’s nephews! Grizzly bear shifters steam up the pages in these swoon-worthy paranormal romances. From trespassers with hidden agendas to curvaceous women who are ready to take a chance, the stories in this collection will capture your heart.
•Cross
•Lance
•Judge
* * *
Ever After Dark introduces us to the white tigers you learned to love in Always After Dark, Never After Dark, and Only After Dark. See their heritage. Visit Giovanni Tiero and his brothers Federico and Tito. Get reacquainted with Isabel Tiero and meet her sister Capriana Valenti.
•Stonebound
•Formidable
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Shifters Forever After follows a group of polar bears in New York. Russian and rumored to be mobbed up, they are a powerhouse of shifters, determining the fate of many on the East Coast. Mikhail Romanoff, Layla’s father, runs this outfit with an iron fist. Layla’s sexy cousin Malachi features prominently in this series.
•Complication
•Fascination
•Motivation
•Captivation
•Flirtation
•Infatuation
* * *
Forever After Dark takes place in Denver, Colorado. Enter a world of secrets and forbidden love. Panther shifters who who share their worlds with elementals must decide who they can trust—and who they can’t live without.
•Notorious
•Scandalous
•Delicious
•Perilous
* * *
UPCOMING SERIES:
Shifters Forever More
Finally After Dark
I do hope you’ll be able to join me on this wonderful journey with our Shifters Forever Worlds Shifters and their mates!
Hugs, Elle!
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For sales and news, sign up for the newsletter! Thank you for purchasing and downloading my book. Words can’t express what it means to me. If you enjoyed this read, please remember to take a second to leave a review. I’d love to know what your favorite parts were.
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The fun isn’t about to stop. Make sure you sign up for the link to the newsletter.
Hearing from you means the world to me. The Shifters Forever Worlds would not be possible without you and your love for reading.
With much gratitude, I thank you!
About Elle
Elle Thorne spent almost as much time denying that she wrote romance as she has writing it. It took her a few years to stop being a closet romantic.
Originally from Europe, she wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else but Texas. Unless it was another southern—translation: warm!—state. A southern European by birth, she wants to be near the water and the Mediterranean temperatures if possible.
Where does she like to hang out? Near a lake, a beach, preferably with a latte—extra shot of espresso, please! She’s inspired by the everyday men who make dreams come true. She loves a roughneck, especially one with a callous or two on his hands. A man who knows how to fix a car, please a woman, and protect what’s his. Nothing less will do.
For Elle’s Newsletter put
this in your browser: www.ellethorne.com/contact
www.ElleThorne.com
Elle’s Newsletter
To receive exclusive updates from Elle Thorne and to be the first to get your hands on the next release, please sign up for her mailing list.
Elle Thorne Newsletter
If you can’t click, just put this in your browser:
ellethorne.com/contact
My personal guarantee:
This will only be used to announce new releases and specials. And to give my wonderful special readers a little gift.