Xavier tried to think of something to say as Adele turned and walked off into the night.
“I won’t do it again!” he called out.
She turned to face him with sad eyes. “I wish I could believe that.” She looked away and continued walking.
Chapter Four
After Adele took off the night before, Oscar had refused to speak to Xavier, or even look him in the eye. Xavier knew he deserved his friend’s anger. He knew his behavior had been completely unacceptable. Still, Oscar’s silent treatment made him feel even worse.
Xavier barely slept that night, tossing and turning in the motel room they’d rented so they could stay out late carousing and not have to worry about taking a boat back while exhausted. Oscar had silently unlocked the door, walked over to his bed, and passed out with his clothes still on. Xavier showered and then tried to sleep. No matter what he did, though, sleep wouldn’t come. Even the meditation techniques he’d been practicing for years, which he’d learned as part of his training to control his shape-shifting, didn’t help. His mind kept settling back on Adele, how perfect she was, and how horribly he’d screwed up. He didn’t drift off until four a.m., and Oscar shook him awake at six.
“Just another hour,” Xavier muttered.
“You know we need to be back at the congregation by eight. There’s a lot of work to be done today.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Whose fault is that? In my opinion, your guilty conscience deserved it.”
Xavier opened his mouth to respond but found he didn’t have an adequate response. Guess I did deserve it.
Oscar didn’t initiate conversation as they took the speedboat back out to the congregation, and Xavier was too tired to put forth much of an effort. He wasn’t in the mood for talking, anyway. He knew if he opened his mouth, Oscar would just fire back with some angry retort about how he’d behaved last night. Xavier didn’t want to hear it. He knew he’d made a huge mistake. He didn’t want to have Oscar reinforce the point over and over.
As the congregation’s boats began to appear on the horizon, Oscar finally spoke.
“What are we gonna tell ’em about last night?”
Xavier shrugged. “Guess I should tell ’em the truth.”
Oscar shuddered. “Serafine ain’t gonna take that well.”
“No, I don’t suppose she will, but she’s also gonna know if we’re lying.”
“Maybe we just don’t need to say anything,” Oscar said. “Does anybody really have to know?”
“Serafine probably already knows. I mean, she’s the one who had the vision of Adele being in the Quarter last night. She’s the one who convinced us we should take the night off and go. Who’s to say that she didn’t also get a vision of me ruining everything?”
Oscar sighed. “Okay. If Serafine makes it clear she knows something happened, we’ll talk. If she doesn’t, let’s just play it cool. Far as I’m concerned, nobody needs to know. It ain’t their business.”
Xavier looked at his friend in shock. “Nobody needs to know that I probably ruined our chances with our mate?”
“You fucked up, man, I ain’t gonna deny it. The way I see it, though, you’re feelin’ pretty bad about it, and I’ve done plenty to make you feel worse. You don’t need the grief that everyone else would give you, unless it’s already too late.”
“So you forgive me for what I did?”
Oscar shrugged. “Not quite, but there ain’t no point in holdin’ a grudge about it. The congregation ain’t gonna survive if everyone stays mad at each other all the time. I’ll get over it eventually.”
“So we’re cool?”
“We’re cool.”
Xavier couldn’t help but feel nervous as they hopped out of the speedboat and entered the main houseboat. As they met up in the kitchen and grabbed what was left of breakfast, everything seemed normal. By the time Xavier finished his breakfast, he was beginning to feel better. At least he was, until he put away his plate and coffee mug and caught Serafine’s furious glare.
“I thought you knew better, boy.”
Xavier felt himself go pale. He might have been twice her size, but Serafine was nonetheless a very powerful woman and always managed to intimidate him when she was angry. Her long, dark hair was streaked with severe bolts of pure white. Even when it hung loose at her shoulders, the contrast sharpened the angles of her face. As voodoo queen, she was the only one of them whose eyes could change color. When she was angry, the gold flecks overtook the green in her irises, giving her entire face a molten glow. And her petite frame belied an intense resource of inner strength. Xavier knew that although Serafine focused on using her power for good, with one false move she could curse him to a week of bad luck to ensure he knew his place.
“Serafine, look, I already said I was sorry. But Adele don’t want to accept my apology.”
“Hey, what’s going on here?” Xavier’s mother, Dominique, asked.
“Your boy was behavin’ like a fool last night and might’ve just ruined his chance for him and Oscar to be with their mate.”
Xavier could feel every eye in the room fall on him. “Look, I’m sorry. What more can I do but apologize?” he said, frantic to get out of the situation. “Serafine, can’t you put a love spell on her or somethin’?”
Serafine’s eyes narrowed. “I will do no such thing, boy. I ain’t gonna make her fall in love with you. That wouldn’t be right. She’s gotta choose you and Oscar out of her own free will. And anyway, I’m not sure you even deserve her, based on your little stunt last night.”
“What did you do?” Dominique asked. Her voice had a fierce edge.
Xavier averted his gaze, focusing on the stove. “I–I tried to mate her last night. Without telling her that’s what I planned to do.”
He winced as the whole room gasped. “I–I didn’t really—Shit, I just couldn’t help myself. I feel damn awful about it. But she don’t want me to contact her to apologize. I don’t know what I can do about it.”
“All right, all right.” Manuel banged his hand on the table, interrupting the tension in the room. “Xavier, he screwed up. He screwed up bad. But us standin’ around bein’ mad at him ain’t gonna get the fish caught, it ain’t gonna get the chores done, and it ain’t gonna help us make plans to rescue my son. So everybody get to work. We got bigger things to worry about right now.”
The crowd slowly dispersed, many of them casting dirty looks Xavier’s way as they shuffled out of the kitchen to go about their day.
Saturday mornings were always busy for the congregation. Xavier met up with Oscar at their fishing boat.
“Sorry, man,” Oscar said. “Wish there was something I could have done.”
“Let’s not talk about it,” Xavier said as Oscar revved the engine. “In fact, let’s not talk about anything at all.”
Xavier threw himself into fishing work, and as he focused on casting nets and securing their catch, he stopped thinking about Adele and the mess he’d made. By the time they’d met their quota and turned to head home, he found himself in good spirits. Still, one thought nagged at his mind.
“I just wish she’d give me the chance to really apologize,” Xavier said as they pulled up to the houseboats and began securing their vessel. “I mean, she doesn’t owe me anything, but I really do feel sorry for what I did, and I’d like to tell her that.”
“You might actually get your chance,” Oscar said. He pointed out toward the horizon, where a small boat was speeding toward the congregation. “She’s heading her way over here. Looks like Georgina knew just what to say to convince her to come over.”
* * * *
Adele woke up the next morning with a splitting headache.
“Never again,” she muttered to herself as she walked to the shower. “No booze, no French Quarter, and no gator men, no matter how sexy they are.”
She was relieved to find that the hot water pounding out of the showerhead started to relieve the headache. Toweling off, she realize
d that she almost felt better. Gulping two aspirin and chugging a glass of water helped even more. After eating a real breakfast for the first time in days, Adele realized she felt fantastic. At least until she looked at the clock and realized she needed to be on campus in only thirty minutes if she was going to get there to take care of some time-sensitive tests she’d been running.
“Shit,” she grumbled as she hurried to dress and rummaged through her briefcase to make sure she had everything that she needed for the day.
Between rushing to the lab and focusing on the sensitive cultures she was studying, Adele forgot all about Oscar and Xavier. Nothing was a better distraction than a series of protocols that demanded her total attention. If she screwed up, she would have wasted hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars of materials, none of which could be replaced or replicated. Adele’s troubles vanished as she nurtured her samples, observed them, made notes, and prepared for the next round of testing.
When the last of the experiment was complete for the day, Adele breathed a sigh of relief and went to her office to type up her lab notes, as well as to catch up on a literature review that she still hadn’t completed. She hoped her workload would continue to distract her from the thoughts that wanted to fill her mind the moment she stepped away from her work. But as soon as she sat down at her comfortable desk, she found that she was uncontrollably exhausted. It was as though all of her adventures from the previous week, which had distracted her from both work and sleep, had suddenly hit her consciousness full force.
She glanced at the clock. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a short nap. Besides, it’s a Saturday, it’s not like many people will be here looking for me. She folded her arms to make a pillow, laid her head on top of them, and fell into a deep sleep. She didn’t wake up until half an hour later, when the sound of a steady knock emerged from behind her door.
“Hey, Adele? Are you okay?” the voice asked.
Adele hurriedly lifted her head from the desk, cursing herself for forgetting to lock the door. Georgina was standing in the doorway, looking concerned. “I’m fine, Georgina, really. I’ve just had a long day, and I was resting my eyes. It’s unusual to see you on campus on a Saturday. What can I do for you?”
“I was hoping you could come out to visit the congregation. We’re making more plans for the rescue mission, and I know you want to be involved.” Adele felt herself hesitate and was ashamed by her reaction. She’d spent the entire past week confused yet willing to do whatever the congregation needed of her to rescue their family. But because of the way Xavier had behaved the night before, she was suddenly willing to give up on the entire family. She hated herself for hesitating at all. Even though things had not gone as planned down in the Quarter, that was no reason for her to refuse to help Rosaline and Armand. They deserved better than lives in an aquarium.
Georgina frowned slightly. “What’s wrong? You seem scared all of a sudden.”
Adele sighed, searching her mind for a plausible excuse. She didn’t want to offend Georgina. And despite how things had gone, she didn’t want to make Xavier and Oscar look bad, either. Things might have gotten out of hand the night before, but that was no reason to badmouth them to their families.
“Sorry. I do want to help. This whole week has just been a really confusing one. Part of me still can’t believe this is happening. It’s still a head trip to think that I’m about to ride out through the swamp to meet up with a group of shape-shifters.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in, but you seem to be handling this remarkably well.”
“That’s not even the half of it,” Adele groaned, suddenly feeling bold. “To make things even crazier—”
“I know what happened last night. You don’t need to explain the whole thing.”
Adele blinked. “They told you what happened?”
“Serafine confronted them about it this morning. It would have been almost impossible for us not to have overheard what was going on. Those who weren’t around picked up the news secondhand. Word travels fast in the congregation.”
“How did Serafine know?”
“Most of the time, the ESP can only be used for direct communication. We can talk but can’t read the secrets in each other’s heads.”
“Serafine is different, though. I can tell.”
Georgina nodded. “Since she’s our voodoo queen, Serafine is more powerful than the rest of us. She gets a sensation when someone in the congregation is hurt, or scared, or happy. Strong emotions resonate with her, and she can tune into someone’s head and find out exactly what happened. As soon as Oscar and Xavier arrived, she knew that something was wrong. She could feel it resonating in their bodies. There are no secrets from her. It didn’t take her long to get the full truth out of them.”
Adele groaned. “Ugh. Now I’ll be totally humiliated when I go back. Everyone knows. I won’t be able to look anyone in the eye.”
Georgina gave a small smile. “You don’t have to feel embarrassed. Xavier got carried away last night, and nobody blames you. They’re all pretty mad at him for driving you away, actually. The congregation wants you to accept them as mates.”
Adele sighed. “I just—I’m sorry, but last night really freaked me out. And, quite honestly, I’m not sure I want to see Oscar and Xavier ever again. I was really upset by their behavior last night.”
Georgina looked hurt. “But you promised to help me, no matter what happened between the three of you. You said you wanted to help Rosaline and Armand come home. Has all that changed in light of Xavier making a mistake? Was what they did really so awful that you want to give up on all the rest of us?”
Adele instantly felt guilty. “I’m sorry. That’s—that’s not what I meant.”
“I guess—I guess I can understand if you’ve had it with all of us,” Georgina said. “I mean, they did behave poorly. I just wish you could see that them screwing up isn’t representative of all of us as a whole. I’m sure if you could see how frustrated with them everyone is right now, you’d understand. That’s not how we do things. We don’t try to turn our mates before they’re ready.”
Adele knew that Georgina was right. “I’m being completely irrational. I’m sorry. They did make mistakes, but they’re ones I should be able to forgive. And besides, I shouldn’t hold my frustrations against the congregation as a whole. I can help your family without letting my troubles with Oscar and Xavier get in the way.”
Georgina smiled. “Who knows? Maybe working with them on this will help you reconnect with them.”
Adele smiled back. “Maybe.” She hated to lie, but she didn’t want to make any more trouble. There was no point in making Georgina upset over something that Xavier had done. But she had decided on her true feelings. She was not going to become Oscar and Xavier’s mate. She could overcome her so-called biological destiny.
* * * *
Oscar hadn’t expected to see Adele again, much less that night. He wondered how she had found her way out there. Getting to Alligator Bend was easy enough, but navigating the particular route that would lead to the cluster of houseboats was another matter entirely. She would have needed someone from the congregation to guide her, and, as far as he knew, Georgina was the only person who wasn’t there. He hurried out to meet the small boat with Xavier in tow.
“Hey,” he said as Adele secured her boat. Oscar offered his hand to help her on deck and was relieved when she accepted. Xavier provided the same courtesy to Georgina, who shot him a wink as she steadied herself on the deck.
“Hey yourself.” Adele wore a tight smile but still looked him in the eye, which Oscar took as a good sign.
“Wasn’t expecting to see you anytime soon.”
Adele shrugged. “I came to help with the plans to rescue Rosaline and Armand. What happened last night doesn’t change the fact that I want to keep Ferdinand Villemont from getting to them.”
Oscar smiled. If Adele didn’t want him as a mate, he’d settle for having her as an ally. “We sure do appre
ciate that. So Georgina managed to change your mind?”
Adele blushed slightly. “She reminded me that whatever happened between us didn’t have to affect my desire to help the congregation as a whole.”
Georgina laughed. “Just don’t expect me to clean up the rest of your messes.”
“Don’t you worry, Georgina,” Oscar said. “I promise that’ll never happen again.”
“I’d like to think that, but it’s hard to say with the two of you,” Georgina countered, giving him a playful jab in the ribs. “I might know how to sweet-talk your girlfriend here, but that isn’t going to convince her to be your mate.”
Oscar rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rub it in.”
They turned to go into the main boat, where people were gathering to plan the rescue. Oscar stepped back to allow Xavier and Adele some semblance of privacy and saw his friend whisper something in her ear. Oscar was tempted to eavesdrop, but he knew better. He hurried inside with the rest of the group before his curiosity got the better of him.
* * * *
“I’m sorry,” Xavier whispered.
The words shot through Adele’s ear and went straight to her heart. His breath on her neck sent prickles of pleasure bursting out down her back and arms.
“I shouldn’t have acted like that last night,” he continued. “I should’ve just let it go. You’re my mate, Adele. I’m supposed to put your needs first, even if it means waitin’ for what I want. It don’t matter that you don’t want to be turned yet. I’m supposed to do what’s best for you anyway. I hope you can forgive me.”
Deep in her heart, all Adele wanted to do was throw herself into Xavier’s arms and kiss him. But her brain still resisted.
“How do I know that I can trust you? How do I know that you won’t ever try that again?”
“Baby, I know we don’t know each other well yet, and I ain’t given you much reason to trust me. I know my words don’t carry a lot of weight right now. I won’t blame you if you don’t wanna forgive me. But I promise, I’m gonna do right by you from now on.”
Rose, Charlotte - Bayou Rescue [The Shifters of Alligator Bend 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 5