Under the Bayou Moon

by Gynger Fyer

  “So, besides owning part of the Tiki and a river boat that’s seen better days, what do you do, Jacques?”

  Their waitress arrived at that moment and took their orders. She decided on the crab cakes with remoulade sauce, and he ordered the rabbit fricassee.

  After she’d gone, Angel looked back at Jacques and waited for him to answer her questions. During all the times they’d spoken she hadn’t asked him anything personal. It was time for her to remedy that.

  “Well, I have casinos in New Orleans, Biloxi, and now Vegas.”

  He held up his glass in mock salute to her. She should have been angry that he owned what should have rightfully been hers. Hell, she had been angry. She’d been thinking of ways she could buy him out. In fact, that had been one of the reasons she’d agreed to come to New Orleans. If she cooperated with him, perhaps he’d be more open to accepting her buyout offer. Now, hearing about his other casino ventures, she knew it’d be a long shot for him to accept. New Orleans and Biloxi were great places to have casinos, but there was only one Las Vegas, and she couldn’t see him giving that up. At least she wouldn’t were she in his shoes.

  “I also have silent interest in several restaurants and other businesses, including my family’s foundation that helps women and youth entrepreneurs. In fact all of the proceeds from the opening of the Bayou Moon will go into the foundation and be handed out as grant awards to support innovative entrepreneurs, especially those who seek to employ single mothers.”

  “Wow. That’s great. I never would have thought.”

  “Why, because I don’t dress flashy like Michael?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  Angel held up her hands to stop his next sentence.

  “Listen, I think it’s great. You really seem so down home and relaxed, it’s just hard to reconcile when most millionaires wear their money on their sleeve.”

  “Well, maybe it’s because we’re so close to nature, most gators don’t indulge in a lot of flashy luxuries that’ll make us stand out. Not to say that we don’t like nice things. We buy the very best but keep it simple.”

  At that moment a tray of raw oysters was set on their table. They looked delicious. Jacques picked one up, added a bit of Tabasco sauce to it, and held it to her lips.

  “Ladies first.”

  “How did you know I wanted Tabasco on mine?”

  Her eyes connected to Jacques’s and the air of intimacy at the table flared to life.

  “Just a guess…was I wrong?”

  Instead of answering, Angel opened her mouth and allowed the cool, slippery meat to slide between her lips. The hot sauce burst on her tongue but was cooled down by the freshness of the oyster. She closed her eyes and moaned in pleasure.

  Smiling, she shook her head.

  “No, you were right.”

  A low growl had her opening her eyes in surprise. Jacques was staring at her intently. Angel wanted to look away but seemed trapped.

  In her mind she heard the word mine echo, but she quickly shook it off.

  “Good, I’m glad I followed my instincts.”

  Angel wasn’t sure if it was instincts or not. She didn’t want to admit it, but she felt something with Jacques she’d never felt with any other guy.

  He’s our mate.

  The words spoken were insistent in her mind. Was this how being someone’s mate felt? He’d said several times, but she still wasn’t sure what it all meant. The way he described it, being a mate was like being born already destined to marry someone. Yet she knew nothing about him.

  “So, you said you researched gators. What’d you find?”

  Jacques picked up his glass and took a drink. Angel relished the change in conversation.

  “Well, for starters, you guys…I mean we, are at the top of the food chain in our environment.”

  Jacques paused and then nodded.

  “Good catch, cher, what else did you find?”

  “Gators live in bayous, swamps, wetlands, and everglades. They said there are two species: American and Chinese.”

  “That’s true; there are a few pods in China. Sovereigns from the U.S. and China meet at an annual summit in the summer.”

  “I thought there were only six pods.”

  “Oh no, cher. There are six in Louisiana. Wherever gators live, there are pods and sovereigns who rule them. There are pods in Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, the Carolinas, and even in Arkansas and Oklahoma.”

  “I read about gators living in those areas. I guess I just figured the bayou was the only place that had shifters.”

  Before she could grab another oyster, Jacques had one held to her lips. She wasn’t used to a man feeding her. It felt so intimate. She briefly glanced around to see if anyone was looking, but the rest of the patrons were into their own meals and conversations. She again allowed him to feed her the delicious, briny shellfish. It seemed that everyone he picked was fresh, meaty, and flavorful.

  She looked at him, but all of his attention was on her mouth and the way she chewed. Angel found herself getting turned on by the look of raw want in his eyes. There was an intimacy between them that played havoc with her libido.

  To switch up the mood, she decided to pull out a fact that had surprised her.

  “I also learned that alligators weren’t monogamous. One male can service up to ten females.” She arched one eyebrow in challenge.

  Jacques coughed a bit, his face turning red.

  “Where did you get that from?”

  “It was on one of the sites I pulled up.”

  “Well, that may be true of wild gators, but shifters are different.”

  Angel was lost.

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Not every alligator possesses the ability to shift. All shifters were created in the bayou, but they disbursed hundreds of years ago. Because we’re part human, we have rules that full-blooded gators don’t have. Unlike full gators, we’re very monogamous. Every shifter has a soul mate. Each pod has a priestess who tells us who and where our mates are.”

  “Then why did it take so long for me to be found?”

  She couldn’t help the note of resentment in her voice. It wasn’t his fault, but she was angry at the time she’d lost with her family. Now she would essentially be a stranger to the two people she shared genes with.

  Jacques took her hand and held it firmly. She immediately started to calm down.

  “The connection is strongest in the Bayou. The farther out of the bayou you go, the less your vibrations can be felt. Getting upset won’t turn back time, cher.”

  “I know, it’s just…”

  “I know how you feel. To you I’m a stranger, when by now we would already be mated.”

  “When you say mated, do you mean married?”

  Their waitress came back with their food, again interrupting their dialogue, or so she thought. She could feel Jacques pressing her consciousness like pressing on a doorbell. She let him in with a smile on her lips. Would she ever get tired of their hidden ability to communicate?

  “Married yes, but there are steps to mating. The first step is the promise. Our families would have done this when we were babies. Next would have come our engagement session. Usually this is done when the shifters are between sixteen and eighteen. At that age they are considered sexually mature.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?”

  The waitress filled up her glass before finally leaving the table. Jacques continued.

  “Well, gators that’ve matured are allowed to physically mate prior to their official mating ceremony at twenty.”

  “So they can have sex but not get married. That doesn’t make any sense.” She scoffed at the absurdness.

  “I know it can seem odd if you’re not familiar with the custom. But there’s a reason for the engagement. You see, a shifter female can be sexually mature but is not granted with the honor of being able to bear children until she turns twenty and goes through the official mating ceremony.”
>
  “Wait. You mean I can’t get pregnant right now.”

  “Well, technically no. You would have to go through the mating ceremony first.”

  Angel doubled over with laughter as she thought of all the false pregnancy scares she’d had, and all along she couldn’t get pregnant! She was the paranoid type. Even when she’d used protection, she thought she was pregnant. Shit! She could have used that information a lot sooner.

  “Am I missing something?” Jacques looked skeptical.

  “No, no, just thinking.”

  Her laughter wound down as another thought came to her.

  “Hey, wait a minute. What if I choose not to go along with this mating thing? Are you telling me I’ll never be able to have children?”

  That thought scared her. She’d been focusing on her career for the last several years, but one day she’d fully intended on having children. What if she couldn’t?

  “Why wouldn’t you want to go through with the mating? You’re my mate.”

  “Look, Jacques, I like you, I think you’re a good guy, and you’re obviously attractive, but I can’t promise that at the end of these three months, I’ll be ready or willing to go through this mating ceremony with you.”

  “I see.”

  She could tell he didn’t see at all.

  “I’m not trying to hurt you, Jacques. I’m just trying to be honest.”

  “And I appreciate your honesty. I guess I’ll need to do all I can to make you want to stay.”

  He flashed a toothy grin worthy of any gator before winking and digging his fork into his food.

  They ate in silence for a while, each savoring their own dish. Angel snuck glances of him from under her lashes. She didn’t know what was happening to her. Even now she was wet for him. A man she barely knew. Her nipples were drawing into hard peaks, making her ache to massage them or have him do it.

  As if hearing her thoughts, Jacques looked up at her, catching her in the act of ogling him. He inhaled deeply and she could have sworn his green eyes had changed to gold. Angel bit and sucked her bottom lip before picking up her drink and taking a healthy swallow.

  “Tonight, we’ll need to do our engagement ceremony.”

  “Wh-what?”

  “We should have done it long ago, cher. A few of the other sovereigns will be at dinner tonight, and they’ll expect to see your markings. Once your markings are certified, everyone will expect us to do the engagement ceremony.”

  “I don’t know, Jacques. That seems so permanent.”

  “It’s really just a formality. Nothing between us has to change.”

  Angel’s mind began to swim. If she did the engagement ceremony, it meant she’d be able to sleep with him and no one would bat an eye. But she’d also be formally announcing that she’d mate with him. She couldn’t be engaged to him knowing full well she might not stay.

  “Jacques, I don’t plan on staying here, my home is in Vegas. I don’t want to go through a ceremony knowing I might not be here to officially mate with you.”

  “The engagement doesn’t bind you to me, cher. And you’re under no obligation to stay. It’s a formal acknowledgement that you carry my mark. It’s a really easy process. We’ll allow the sovereigns to see the mark and then the priestess from my pod will bless our union. That’s it.”

  It sounded easy enough and he looked sincere. Deep down something told her Jacques was not the type to force her into doing anything she didn’t want to do. She decided she’d do it. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how long she’d be able to hold out from falling prey to his smooth Cajun accent and that fiery stare of his. As it was, she wanted to swipe his plate off the table, spread herself in front of him, and beg him to have her for lunch. It was crazy, it was insane, but something about him had her twisted in knots, and at the moment she was more than willing to put on the straitjacket.

  “I guess I can do it. As long as you don’t think this means I’m going to stay.”

  “Don’t worry, I heard you loud and clear. But just so you know, I’m not going to make it easy on you.”

  That Cajun accent coupled with the downright sexy look in his eyes had her squirming in her chair with her legs crossed. It was going to be a long day.

  Chapter Six

  Jacques paced the spacious living room of the home his family kept in the Old French Quarter, or as the locals called it, Vieux Carre. It was spacious and decorated in a relaxed yet modern style. His mother had welcomed Angel nearly an hour ago, and the two were now upstairs doing whatever women did.

  She’d been quiet since they’d left VingtEt Un. It killed him that he couldn’t put her at ease about meeting her parents and going through the ceremony. The look on her face when he told her about the mating ritual made his gut twist. For the millionth time, he cursed the Monreuxes. If they’d exchanged Angel as planned, he would’ve been raised with her. Their connection would have been absolute. They would have performed their mating engagement at eighteen, which was common among gator shifters in his pod. Then they would have had their official mating ceremony. By now they might have been on their second or third hatchling.

  Just the idea of Angel carrying his seed made his heart quicken. Mine. He heard his gator growl. If he were back in Lafayette, he would have rushed home and gotten into the water, allowing his gator to burn off some steam while gliding through the calm waters of the bayou. Right now Jacques felt like a time bomb waiting to explode. He wanted Angel, but he was sure he’d scare her if he got too close right now. No, what she needed was someone who’d quiet her fears about meeting her parents and performing the engagement, not some over-sexed mate wanting to claim her as his own. He knew she was nervous about meeting her parents. So nervous, in fact, that she hadn’t asked him a single question about the engagement ceremony.

  “She’s perfect!”

  His mother sailed into the room like a hurricane. Jacqueline Bertrand was in her late fifties. She was tall and curvy and her hair was a beautiful strawberry blonde, which she kept cut in a short hairstyle his father had often called “sassy”. She was wearing black slacks and a black and white striped sweater that made her blonde hair stand out even more.

  “To tell you the truth, when I saw her, I thought I was seeing her mother Sofia. She looks like her twin. I know it’s formality to check her, but like I told her, anyone looking at her can tell she’s Tom and Sofia’s hatchling.”

  “I told her about having her markings checked and about the engagement ceremony.”

  “I already know. She asked me about it. I told her what to expect in both cases.”

  “Don’t you think that’s something her mother should have had the privilege of doing?”

  “Well, Jacques, what would you have me do, stick my head in the sand and let the woman go into this thing blind? I laid it out for her. I wanted her to know why it’s important for her to be checked tonight, especially with Henri and Diane Dubois present. I swear that Diane Dubois can be like a barracuda at times. She’s your mate, so she needs to get used to the tedious formalities of being the mate of a sovereign bull. And one of those tedious formalities is dealing with ‘the mouth of the south.’ It’s not always easy being the sovereign cow of the Lafayette pod.”

  Jacques gave a brief grin at the moniker she’d given to the sovereign cow of the Orleans pod.

  “Mom, Angel’s been through a lot in the past few weeks. When I told her about her family, she was happy, but I can tell she was upset too. I don’t want her worrying about…”

  “She’s tougher than you think, Jacques.”

  “I know, but she wasn’t raised in the bayou, she doesn’t know our rules and traditions. She might not even choose to be mated to me.”

  Jacques said the last part of his statement nearly to himself, but his mother’s hearing was just as good as his.

  “Not choose to be mated! She doesn’t have a choice. She’s your mate! You and I both know full well what will happen if the two of you don’t mate. You have from February fourt
eenth to March first. That’s it.”

  Jacques knew the stakes. There was a very strong possibility his family could lose their sovereignty if he and Angel didn’t mate.

  “I know what’ll happen, but I won’t force her. She has to be willing or…”

  “Or what? I’ll see my grave before I let that slimy bull, Philip Boucher from the Acadia pod, reign sovereign over the Lafayette pods. It’s bad enough your father allowed him to sit in Acadia as sovereign in the first place.”

  “Well, it was either that or continue to fight him. We’ve been battling them for nearly a decade, and it hasn’t done any good. Better to call a truce than to keep losing shifters. There used to be hundreds of thousands of us in the U.S. and now look at us, we number less than one hundred and fifty thousand. Since Katrina, it’s important that we stick together, and that included making a truce with Boucher.”

  Jacques stood his ground. He didn’t like Philip Boucher nor did he trust him, but his father always said it was better to keep your enemies close.

  “Nobody knows how devastating that hurricane was better than me, but that man’s certifiable.”

  “Let me guess, we must be talking about Philip Boucher.”

  Jacques watched his brother Charlie walked into the room. He was just a bit smaller than Jacques and had long, dark brown hair. His attitude was playful and laid back. They always joked that Charlie was a lover not a fighter. He was the fun loving joker of their family. His mate had been one of the ones who’d lost their lives in Katrina. They hadn’t had a chance to get engaged. Charlie seemed to have taken it well, but Jacques saw loneliness in him every now and then.

  “You guessed right. That man…”

  Jacques’s mother didn’t get a chance to finish because Charlie spun her around and gave her a big hug and noisy kisses. Jacques watched in amusement as he teased her out of her tirade.

  “You were saying.”

  “Charlie, you know good and well I can’t remember a thing when you act like a clown.”

  “Good. We only need good thoughts for tonight. How’s our guest?”