Rose, Charlotte - Bayou Rescue [The Shifters of Alligator Bend 1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Charlotte Rose

  “Sorry.” Oscar sat down on the couch, but even that didn’t stop his anxious energy. His leg began jiggling as though it had a will of its own.

  “Where’s Adele?” Manuel asked. “I thought you said she was gon’ help us. Don’t tell me she screwed up again.”

  “Adele did not—” Oscar started to say, but he was interrupted by a knock on the door. He got up and hurried to answer it. Adele was standing there, just as expected.

  “What’s the crowd like in there?” she whispered.

  Oscar leaned in and gave her a deep kiss. “Unfortunately, that ain’t the welcoming you can expect from most of the people in there.”

  “I’ll manage,” Adele said, flashing a nervous smile.

  “What’s goin’ on over there?” Manuel called out. “She comin’ in or what?”

  Oscar sighed and opened the door, letting Adele in.

  Andre jumped to his feet. “Okay, she in on the plan? Did you boys brief her properly? I don’t want any mistakes this time. Not one. That clear?”

  “Don’t worry,” Adele said. “Oscar and Xavier did a good job of filling me in last night. We go, I distract the people making the sale, and you bust out the gators. I’m still worried that it’s a trap, but I’m all in.”

  Manuel snorted. “A trap? How could it be a trap?”

  Oscar jumped in. “She’s just lookin’ out for us. Always potential for danger.” He knew Manuel and Andre refused to believe there was anything suspicious about Georgina’s story. Not that it mattered. They’d still all be taking the risk to save their family.

  “It ain’t a trap,” Andre snapped. “And I don’t like the implication that we don’t know what we’re doin’.”

  Adele went pale. “That’s not what I meant. I just—”

  “She’s just lookin’ out for us,” Xavier said. “Which is mighty nice of her, considerin’ how you treated her a few days ago.”

  “Okay, we ain’t gettin’ anywhere,” Oscar said. “Let’s just get going.”

  “Georgina’s kidnapping was staged,” Adele burst out. “I think she’s working with Villemont. They arranged it, and now she’s in on the sale, too.”

  “Your opinions didn’t sit too well with us a few days ago,” Andre said, his tone cool with measured anger. “What makes you think we wanna listen to ’em now?”

  Oscar knew he had to jump in and stick up for Adele. “It would explain how she managed to get free so easily,” he said. “And how she managed to rent a boat without a license or credit card.”

  Andre’s face was rigid. “No. It ain’t possible.”

  Adele turned to Serafine. “You believe us, don’t you?”

  “Back on the boat, I said Manuel was makin’ a mistake by judgin’ you. My opinion ain’t changed.”

  “Then why won’t you convince him?”

  “Won’t do much good to use magic to turn stubborn heads. They’ve gotta learn it for themselves.”

  “We believe her,” Xavier said.

  “’Course you believe her. But I don’t.”

  Andre sighed. “We’re runnin’ out of time. We need to head over there soon. This ain’t the moment for fightin’.” He turned toward Adele. “If you’re goin’ to help, help. We gotta get movin’. No more blamin’ people or bein’ suspicious. Just keep it to yourself and let’s rescue our family.”

  Adele nodded. “That’s fair.”

  “Think you can control your accusations long enough to do that?” Manuel asked sarcastically.

  “That’s enough, Manuel,” Oscar said, trying to control his temper. “You want to get this rescue mission going, let’s move out. If she gotta keep her thoughts to herself, so do you. Xavier and I don’t take too well to someone pickin’ on our mate.”

  Manuel sighed. “Fine. Let’s get goin’. I don’t want to waste any more time.”

  “Thank you,” Adele whispered, taking Oscar’s hand as the group filed out of the hotel room and hurried down toward the Aquarium. It was a smaller group this time than before. Serafine was staying behind at the hotel, as were a few other gators who were on backup. It was just Manuel, Andre, Oscar, Xavier, and Adele. Too many hands would make the situation more complicated. They were all silent as they walked. Manuel and Andre were both fuming, Adele seemed too nervous to talk, and Oscar wasn’t about to risk ruffling any feathers. He could tell that Xavier was being cautious, too.

  As they approached the back doors of the Aquarium, Oscar dropped Adele’s hand. He briefly tested the handle. He wasn’t surprised to find it locked. Channeling all of his strength, he threw his weight against it, and it yielded with such ease that he almost stumbled.

  They heard an alarmed voice from down the hall. “What was that? Who’s there?”

  Adele took off running toward the direction of the voices. “Stop or I’ll call the police,” she called.

  The rest of the group rushed behind her to find a security guard stepping out of a small office with a severe expression on his face.

  “You’ll call the police?” he asked, reaching toward his belt as if preparing to grab a weapon. “Who are you people, and what are you doing on the premises? The Aquarium closed an hour ago, and anyway, you have no reason to be back here.”

  Adele showed no fear, and instead walked even faster. “I’m a biology professor, and I’m here to stop the unlawful transaction happening here tonight.”

  The guard laughed. “What are you talking about, lady? There’s nothing going on here. Everyone has gone home for the night, except me. Now, turn around and leave before I have to be more forceful.”

  “I see Villemont is paying you off, too. Let me through to the alligator exhibit. I am not letting anyone get away with this.”

  The guard grabbed Adele’s arm. “Just a minute, lady—”

  Oscar didn’t let him finish. He reached out and grabbed the guard’s other arm, pulling him away from his mate. Oscar could feel his teeth beginning to change and fought to keep his gator self back. The last thing he needed at the moment was a sudden shift.

  “Not so fast,” Oscar said, accentuating his words with a growl. “You do not touch her, or you will answer to me, understood? Now, we are going to the alligator exhibit, and you are not going to stop us. Is that clear?”

  “I—I can’t do that.” The guard was trying to look tough, but Oscar could feel him shaking.

  “You can, and you will. You’re outnumbered, and you’re not stupid. Now get out of our way.”

  Oscar pushed the guard aside and stormed through the back offices until he reached the door that led to the main floor of the Aquarium. He raced up toward the second floor, where the gator exhibit was. Adele hurried on ahead of him, moving so quickly that he soon lost sight of her. He hung back a moment so the rest of the group could catch up, and as they approached the exhibit, Oscar could hear Adele yelling.

  “This sale is illegal, and I will call the police,” he heard her say.

  Oscar listened for a reply. Instead, he heard a gunshot and a scream.

  “Shift into gator form,” Xavier yelled. “If they’re armed, we have a better chance if we’re gators.”

  “We’ll never take them down that way,” Oscar yelled back. “Humans have the advantage on dry land. We work best in water.”

  “No, we gotta change,” Xavier said as they ran. “We’re safer that way.” He stopped, dropped the pack he had been carrying, took a deep breath, and let the change overtake him. The second the change was completed, Xavier dashed toward the sound of the gunshot.

  “No way in hell,” Manuel said, and kept running.

  Oscar began to realize that Xavier probably had a point. Although he didn’t want to lose his human speed or height, but there were some useful aspects to shifting. In their alligator form, bullets wouldn’t pierce their skin. His powerful jaws and tail would come in handy.

  He decided to let Manuel and Andre handle things in human form and closed his eyes. At first, his mind was racing, and it was difficult to find the focus
he needed to change. So he let his anger take control and send his alligator instincts into overdrive, giving him one of the fastest shifts he’d ever experienced.

  Just as Oscar let the change take over his body, he heard another bullet fly from a gun. This time, though, the following sound wasn’t a scream. It was a groan, and it came from Manuel. Racing toward the display, his stomach knotted when he saw Manuel crumpled on the floor.

  Pausing just briefly enough to take stock of the situation, he found some relief when he realized that Adele had not been shot. Unfortunately, she wasn’t exactly safe, either. Instead, she was pressed up against the glass of the alligator display, Villemont’s gun pointed directly at her.

  Andre seemed to be in the best position. He had a museum employee in a headlock, and Oscar presumed it was the person Villemont had managed to bribe in exchange for his family members.

  Oscar realized he wasn’t the least bit surprised when he saw Georgina standing in a corner, looking terrified and lost. Xavier had his attention focused on her as well, and when she saw them, her skin grew even paler than it already looked. Oscar wished that he was in human form so he could demand an explanation from her, but that would have to wait.

  One of the glass windows containing the exhibit was cracking from a bullet hole. For a moment, he was seized with fear that Armand, Rosaline, or one of the other animals had been harmed. Raising his head, he found that they all appeared to be safe. Whether Villemont had attempted to hit Adele and missed, or simply fired a warning shot to prove a point, Oscar wasn’t sure, and he didn’t have time to mull it over. Instead, he focused on connecting his thoughts to Xavier’s.

  What do we do?

  Xavier already seemed to have a plan. I’ll handle Villemont. You break that glass, get them out of there.

  Oscar prepared himself. His skin was hard, but he had a feeling what he was about to do was going to hurt no matter what. Gathering what momentum he could get, he sprinted toward the display with all of his strength, ramming his long snout through the fragile glass. The bullet had done much of the work for him, and the glass yielded much more easily than he expected. He smashed through in a torrent of shards and found himself in the midst of the habitat.

  Don’t shift.

  We weren’t planning on it, Rosaline replied.

  Rosaline and Armand quickly glided across the pool in their exhibit, climbed out of the water, and followed him through the now-open window.

  Once Rosaline and Armand were free, they immediately joined the fight and joined Xavier in surrounding Villemont. He’d turned from having his gun trained on Adele to having it trained on Xavier, who was staring up Villemont, baring his teeth. Georgina had begun shaking, and tears were rolling down her cheeks.

  “What the hell is going on?” the Aquarium employee screamed, trying to break free of Andre’s hold.

  Oscar heard Adele scream again. He turned to find her staring down the security guard’s gun.

  “I told you all to get out of here before I had to get aggressive,” the guard said with a snarl. “Now you’re going to have to pay. Every single one of you. But I think we’ll start with this troublemaker, right here.”

  Oscar opened his mouth and bellowed, catching the man off guard. He dropped his weapon. The impact set it off, echoing through the exhibit hall. Another scream echoed, but Oscar didn’t dare turn around. He wouldn’t be able to control himself if Adele had been hurt, and he wasn’t about to let the guard go.

  Xavier’s voice came through his mind. She ain’t hurt. Don’t worry. Just turn around.

  Oscar slowly turned to see Villemont crumpled on the ground, blood pooling from his pant leg. Georgina was kneeling above him, her hands getting stained red as she tried to stop the bleeding.

  “Police! Nobody move!”

  Oscar tried not to panic. They couldn’t shift in front of the officers, but being in gator form was always risky around people who would assume they were animals.

  Keep calm, dude. Just keep calm. Xavier seemed completely unfazed.

  “Everyone carrying a weapon needs to place it gently on the ground and then step away with their hands up!” the officer ordered.

  The security guard slowly stepped toward the center of the room, showing his hands.

  “Who else?”

  When nobody else moved, four officers rushed into the room. “What’s going on here?” one of them demanded. The officers moved quickly to put the Aquarium official and the guard into handcuffs, keeping their distance from the gators.

  Adele took a deep breath. “I came here to try to stop the illegal sale of these albino gators. The museum official here was bribed by the man at my feet, and I wasn’t about to let them get away with it. Things got out of hand, though. I wanted to call you, but I ended up on the wrong side of a gun.”

  “What about this woman?” the officer asked, pointing at Georgina, who had started to sob.

  “She was in on it, too,” Adele said. “She was helping him.”

  “I can explain,” Georgina said between gasps. “I was a pawn.”

  “Ain’t nothin’ to explain,” Andre snapped, taking a step forward. “You sold out your entire family. And you don’t look like much of a pawn when you’re bendin’ over tryin’ to keep him from bleedin’ to death.”

  “Sir, please stay calm,” the officer said. “Let’s not make this worse by arguing. We’ll get statements from everyone. Believe me, we have a lot of questions.”

  Georgina surged toward Andre. Oscar thought she was going to try strangling him, but she fell at his feet, sobbing. “I was a pawn! I thought I was going in for a research job, and I ended up in over my head, I swear! Once I realized what was going on, it was too late to get out!”

  “Miss, you need to calm down,” an officer said, pulling her away from Andre. “We’ll get your statement in just a moment.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Andre spat out. “Nobody just gets in over their head and betrays their whole family. That ain’t how it works.”

  “Sir, please do not aggravate her. This will be easier on everyone if you keep to yourselves.”

  “You wouldn’t let me be myself!” Georgina suddenly screeched. “Nobody would! I just wanted to get my own job and live my own life! Ferdinand offered me that! I didn’t mean to betray you. I just wanted the chance to live the life I wanted, and it all got out of control.”

  “Miss, I am not going to ask you again,” the officer said. He grabbed her arm and began pulling her toward the opposite side of the room. “Now calm down, or I’m going to read you your rights without taking a statement.”

  “Somebody needs to go after those loose gators,” another officer ordered. “I don’t want them getting out. And somebody contact animal control.”

  At the sound of the officer’s words, Oscar and Xavier hurried off to a dark corner with Rosaline and Armand following. They lurked for awhile, watching the police begin to take statements from everyone still at the scene. Georgina was pulled away from Villemont and put in handcuffs, and then the officer knelt down to cuff Villemont as well.

  When they heard the ambulance sirens, they retreated further into the shadows, not wanting to be pursued and kidnapped. If he’d been in human form, Oscar would have laughed at the sight of the medic’s face when he realized how quickly Manuel’s wound would already have started to heal.

  At one point, an officer hurried past but didn’t notice them. After several more minutes of waiting, it seemed that he wasn’t coming back around. When he was sure everyone was sufficiently distracted, Oscar took the initiative and shifted. Checking to ensure it was safe, he hurried to put his clothes back on and grab Xavier’s pack where it had dropped. He quickly handed clothing to Rosaline and Armand as they completed the shifting process, and they made a hasty exit out the door they’d broken earlier. Oscar led them around to the rendezvous point near the river. Pulling out his phone, he called Serafine and told her that the mission had been accomplished and that they would be waiting for
her on the riverbank. The second his responsibilities were done, he flopped down on the bench. When he saw Adele, Manuel, and Andre emerge, he could finally breathe.

  * * * *

  Xavier raced toward Adele and scooped her up into a hug as soon as he saw her exit the Aquarium.

  “I’m sorry I ended up trapped like that,” she whispered. “I was just trying to do right by your family. Maybe I shouldn’t have rushed at Villemont like that.”

  Xavier sighed. He hated that Adele felt even the slightest bit guilty. They’d accomplished their mission, and even though things had gotten intense, everyone survived.

  “Adele, I ain’t angry with you, and nobody else in the congregation should be, either. In fact, I’m grateful to you. You did right by Oscar and me today, and you did right by our family. We couldn’t have accomplished this if you hadn’t been there. I don’t know how to thank you for what you’ve done for us today,” Xavier said. “I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive Manuel and Andre for being harsh. Oscar and I like havin’ you around, and we want everyone in the congregation to be on your good side.”

  He was relieved when Adele gave a small smile. “Of course I forgive them. I wish things had been a little smoother between us, but what’s done is done. I’m just glad I was able to help.”

  Manuel and Andre came walking up, with the recently arrived Serafine close behind them. “I suppose we owe you an apology,” Manuel said. His face was stern, but his eyes danced with excitement.

  “We was a little harsh with you,” Andre said. “And you were right about Georgina. We should’ve listened to you about that. Might have made things easier.”

  “We still succeeded,” Adele said. “Thank you for being willing to trust me again.

  Manuel beamed. “Now that Andre and I got our son and our mate back, I’m ready for some celebratin’ in the Quarter. I think we’re all ready to head down to Bourbon Street.” He turned to Rosaline and Armand. “Unless you’d prefer to get back to the congregation and the river. I know it’s been a damn long time.”

  Rosaline smiled and kissed her husband. “I’ve been trapped behind glass for over a year. I’m anxious to get home, sure, but I can’t wait to walk out on Bourbon Street again. But you’re injured, my love. We really should go home and rest.”