by T. S. Joyce
“I been watchin’ her,” Morgan’s childhood friend, Cal, said low. “Tracking what she’s doing. She don’t even know she’s bein’ watched, the dumb bitch. Betray us like that? We’ll take every fuckin’ thing she loves.”
Cole clenched his hands and swallowed the snarl in his throat. Morgan was good. She was a swamper’s daughter who betrayed her poacher family to protect Liam. Cole hadn’t trusted her at first, had barked and growled at her, thought about attacking her. But she’d proved her loyalty to the Lachlan’s, to Liam, and in doing so, she’d proved she could be trusted by Cole. And now, whoever fucked with her, fucked with Cole. He couldn’t wait to taste Cal’s blood again. Couldn’t wait to have his teeth on his throat.
Someone slid their hand up his back, and Cole reacted. He turned with his fist clenched, ready to blast one of those poachers in the face, but he pulled back at the last second.
Mae stood there looking startled. “Didn’t mean to scare you.”
“Ha.” Settle down heart, settle down adrenaline. “Girl, you can’t scare me anymore.” Although he had been focused so hard on Seamus and his boys, he’d let a human sneak up on him. A human he cared about, who wasn’t particularly quiet, and who smelled like the same shampoo she’d used when she lived here before. He sniffed the air again.
Across the room, Cal was watching her with icy-blue predator eyes and a beer to his lips.
She sat down next to Cole and looked back over her shoulder. “I see Cal is still creepy as ever.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t have to worry about him.”
Mae leaned her elbow on the bar top and rested her cheek against her palm. Time slowed when he looked at her. That dark hair of hers was wavy and flipped to the side, and her cheeks looked like pink rose petals. Her smile was easy, and those hazel eyes looked blue next to a cleavage-baring black tank top that clung to her curves. Tight jeans and flip flops, exposing cute little hot pink-painted toenails. His gaze got all caught up on her cleavage again, soft tits pressing against the low neckline. She wasn’t wearing a bra. He could just make out the taut buds of her nipples and fuuuuuck. Cole adjusted his hardening dick. “What are you doing here?”
She was grinning at his hand as he pulled his boner upward to give it more room in his jeans. “I still got it.”
“Woman, you got even more now.”
Her cheeks turned a deeper pink. “Really?”
“I’d fuck that,” Cal said to someone. “Spin her around and own her. Show her whose boss and have her begging for more. Fuck her till she can’t sit for a week.”
Cole turned and looked right at Cal staring at Mae with a couple of his friends, a smirk on his face.
“Ignore him,” she said, pulling Cole’s face back to her. “I know.”
The rage inside him was getting hotter by the second. “You know what?” he growled.
“Who you’re hunting. It hit me when I walked in and saw you and them. I saw the news footage of the gators shifting in the parking lot of the used car dealership. Cal and Seamus were doing interviews right before it happened. Saying the gators were dangerous and needed to be hunted. Then the Lachlan boys had showed up and Changed right there in front of all those cameras. And I remembered the dog. I didn’t think about him until just now.” She pulled out her phone from her purse and typed something into it. Fast forwarded through the news footage she found until it came to his part. To Cole’s part. To Fargo’s. He was attacking Liam. “This whole time, I thought that dog was good for attacking the gator and saving those humans. But you weren’t saving the humans at all, were you?” She looked up and searched his face with those pretty eyes of hers. “You were keeping Liam from killing them on camera. You were protecting him, weren’t you? Protecting their futures. Protecting them from the hate the humans would have for them if they watched a gator shifter eat one of their own. You risked your life attacking those gators, and then there was this.” She pointed to the glowing screen of her phone.
Holt had told him, “He’s got control! Off!” and Cole had stopped attacking Liam, because he was right. Liam was listening, was backing off. But he’d been shot up bad and was bleeding everywhere as he backed away. Rage had taken over Cole so he’d attacked Cal, latched onto his arm and yanked it out of the socket, bit him to the bone and shook him hard enough to rattle his teeth. He’d dragged him away from Bre because she was one of his people. She was Holt’s mate and therefore under Cole’s protection. He didn’t stop bleeding that asshole until Morgan told him to. She’d sounded so pissed that he’d given her the space to save herself. And then she’d fallen onto Cal and just raged. She beat the shit out of his face, and that was the moment Morgan became one of Cole’s people, too.
Cole ripped his gaze away from the news footage. “That was one of the worst days,” he murmured low. “We almost lost Liam that night. Cal and Seamus shot him a dozen times. Them Lachlans are strong, but they aren’t invincible.”
“That’s why you’re hunting them?” she asked.
He nodded once. “Best you stay out of all this, Mae. You have a life to get back to. You don’t need to get dragged into what I am now.”
“You’re really different now.”
He didn’t know why, but that hurt like a slap on cold flesh. “I wish I was that person for you still. Sometimes, I really do wish that. You won’t ever have him again, though, Mae.” He looked over at her so she could see the truth in his eyes when he said, “He died years ago.”
She cupped his face and shook her head. “Not all of him.”
****
“Hey Mae Lynn!” Cal called out over the bar. “You want to swallow a real man’s cum?” He and his friends burst out laughing and hooting.
Mae saw the tenderness in Cole’s eyes change in an instant. His face twisted with a terrifying rage as he snarled and snapped his attention on Cal.
“Hey!” she said, grabbing his arm as he stood. She hung on tight, but he was stronger than she’d realized. He didn’t even slow, just dragged her along. “Not here. You’ve been patient all this time. You do it right when you get him.”
A feral smile stretched Cole’s lips as he stopped and rounded on her. God, he looked so different than he used to. There was no softness about him anymore. He leaned down and whispered against her ear, “Oh, I won’t be killin’ him tonight, Mae Lynn. When that happens, I’ll do it slow and out where no one can hear his screaming. But he won’t be disrespecting you either.” He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers.
So stunned, Mae just stood there, lips pursed, eyes open. He was kissing her. There was commotion over in the poacher’s corner, but her thoughts were swirling around Cole. On the taste of him, on the old familiar feel of his lips. She slipped her arms around his neck, and he angled his head more deeply, stood to his full height, and grabbed her waist with both hands. He pushed his tongue just barely past her lips so that she gripped the neck of his shirt. She wished this moment could never end because this was home.
Home.
God, she’d missed home. She’d been so homesick for this place, but it wasn’t the place at all. It had always been Cole.
He pulled away with a soft smack, and she parted her lips to ask him for more, but he shoved her behind him and swung on someone so fast, his arm was just a blur. Cal had come for him, and the swamper went down hard. The floorboards shook as his body hit the ground. There was a surge of bodies as Cal and Seamus’s friends joined the fight, but Cole seemed to be really good at fighting now. He was grace, he was danger, he was power and, God, he was as fast as a snake strike. It was six on one, but Cole didn’t even look stressed.
This was the part where the loyal heart in her sang to “help him!”
But Cole didn’t need anyone’s help.
He took a punch to the face and smiled. Smiled. And then he blasted his assailant in the stomach followed immediately by an upper cut him when the man bent in half and wheezed. The last two, Seamus and old Ricky Jack, backed off with their hands up when
Cole stepped over the bodies and charged them.
The devil’s smile was still on his face as he pointed a finger at Seamus. “Your time’s comin’, too. Bet it.”
The door swung open, letting in the early fall breeze, and Holt Lachlan was there, his eyes glowing gold and his pupils long. His face was monstrous, full of fury. He took one look at the pile of bodies and bolted for Cole, who was in a screaming match with Seamus. Holt got between them and shoved Seamus away.
“That’s right,” Seamus yelled. “Have your bitch-boy save you. Have your pet gator come and save you, you fuckin’ pussy.”
“Hey!” Holt yelled. “You know how lucky you are it’s me who came in here and not Liam? Or your daughter? She fuckin’ hates you. Your own daughter. I don’t know why you’re in here crowing. You proud of the man you are, Seamus? You shitty husband, you shitty father, you shitty man.” Holt squared up to him and growled out, “You can’t even get poaching right, can you?”
“Oh, I’ll get it right soon enough,” the old man said, forehead to forehead with Holt.
Holt smiled. “I can’t fuckin’ wait for the day you grow those balls, Seamus. I can’t fuckin’ wait.” He shoved him back so hard Seamus’s arms flailed out before he slammed against the wall.
Next to Mae, there was a girl taking video with her phone. She yanked the thing out of her hand and deleted the video while the spry little thing scrabbled at her and screamed for her to give her phone back. Mae tossed the cell to the bar top and made her way toward where Cole was waiting by the door, holding it open for her. His eyes were a really light brown right now, so striking and handsome when he was all riled up. Even his bloody lip didn’t turn her off. It just added to the new Cole’s dangerous appeal.
“He broke my nose!” Cal screeched from the floor, curled in a ball, holding his bleeding nose.
“Congrats, motherfucker. He gave your face some character,” she said lightly as she stepped over him. Oh yep, her southern bayou accent was definitely coming back.
She turned before she left. Joe waved to her from the bar and then went back to drying glasses with a rag like there weren’t four giant men recovering on the floor of the bar from Hurricane Cole.
She’d missed more than she’d thought about this town.
Fighting back a smile, she slipped her hand into Cole’s offered one and followed him out of Tacky’s. Holt was outside, leaned up against his Bronco.
“Where’s the girls and Liam?” Cole asked.
“I got a text from Joe saying Cal and Seamus were in tonight. I figured out why you were at Tacky’s, and I wasn’t going to bring the girls into that. We actually wanted a fun night tonight, not a murder-night.”
“All right, well, have a good night,” Cole muttered and aimed them for a black jeep.
“Okay, I’ll see you there.”
“See us where?” Mae asked.
“At Liam’s place. We’re partying in the woods tonight where that one”—he gestured to Cole—“can’t get into fights.”
“I could still get into fights there,” Cole pointed out.
“Mae, you’re invited, too,” Holt called behind him as he got into his rig. “And yes,” he said out of the window, “Bre is making me do this.”
Cole stood there with his mouth partly hanging open as he watched Holt drive out of the parking lot.
“Holt just came in an backed you up,” Mae muttered, “and he ruined all my plans to punch him when I saw him.”
“Punch him for what?” Cole asked, his eyes trained on Holt’s taillights.
“For taking you away from me. I was going to punch him and then forgive him. For you. Because you care about him.”
“I don’t care about him.”
“That’s not true.” She held his hand tighter. “You are Changed right now, and you’re still in a bar hunting the people who could hurt Holt and Liam. You weren’t doing it for attention. They didn’t even know why you were here. It’s not just your job to protect them anymore, Cole. You care about their safety. Loyal man. I wish you could see your face right now. You look so surprised that Holt protects you back. I don’t think you just guard him. I think he guards you now, too. You guard each other. He’s your friend, isn’t he?”
“No.”
“Cole…”
His nostrils flared slightly as he inhaled and then ripped his attention away from the disappearing Bronco. He leveled her with a look, his light brows furrowed low over those glowing brown eyes of his. “I don’t know anything about friends. I just know the first three months I was a dog, Holt came to see me every day, telling me everything would be okay. Bringing me food when I didn’t know how to use my fuckin’ body, talking to me when I thought I would forget how to speak English. He took three months of his life and devoted it to making sure I knew I wasn’t forgotten. And when I learned I could Change back into a man, he was still there. Shifters know one thing well, and that’s loyalty, Mae. They don’t have many people, they don’t want a big circle, and they choose very few. Holt didn’t quit on me. Not the hundred times I attacked or bit him, not the hundred times I ignored him, not the hundred times I ran away. He always found me and he always had that guilt written all over his face. I can’t count the hours he just sat with me so I wouldn’t be alone. I am this thing because of him, and he never forgave himself for it. I didn’t even have to be pissed at him. No one could ever punish him as much as he punishes himself. So yeah, eventually I got loyal back. Some days, when I wanted to just walk into the swamp and drown, he was the only thing there telling me things would ease up someday. I wasn’t ever really alone. Even when I wanted to be, that asshole wouldn’t allow it. I understand loyalty, sure, but I don’t know anything about being friends.”
She bumped his shoulder with hers and smiled up at him. “I think you know more than you realize.”
Chapter Nine
“Here, put this on,” Cole said, pulling a thick flannel shirt with a gray hood out of the back seat of his jeep. “The weather is starting to turn.”
She waggled her eyebrows. “Did your dog senses tell you that? What is it, Lassie? It’s gonna rain again? It’s gonna snow?”
“You know,” he said through a grin, snatching his flannel out of her grasp before she could clench her fist on it. “I take it back. You and your sarcastic little ass can just freeze out there.”
“Fine. I don’t know if you know this, but I’m very tough.”
“Tough like a butterfly.”
“Yes, a leather butterfly with dragon wings and cactus spike legs,” she said, grabbing the flannel from his hand. “But I will wear it because I know what this is really about.”
They were parked in front of Liam’s house near the swamp, and there was a fire pit and four people sitting around it right by the water. Liam and Holt she supposed, but it was pretty dark. Probably their ladies, Morgan and Bre, too.
“Yeah, and what do you think it’s about?”
“You just want to see me wearin’ your clothes.”
“Mmmmm, there’s that accent comin’ back. Good girl.”
Chills rippled up her arms, and she swallowed hard. Oh, she liked when he called her that. She pulled on the flannel that would definitely hang down to her knees when she stood up, then before she lost her nerve, she said, “I know what we’re doin’ is reckless. I know it’s gonna hurt that much more when we have to leave each other again, but I just don’t care tonight.”
His lips thinned into a straight line, but then he nodded once. “I won’t care for tonight either. We can pretend.”
She leaned over and pressed a kiss to his arm, just under the sleeve of his white T-shirt. “I’m fine pretending for a little while.”
And before she pulled away, she felt something on top of her head. She swore it was his lips pressing the softest kiss there, but maybe not. It had happened so fast. She got out and grabbed from the back of the Jeep the six-pack of Bud Lights they’d bought on the way here, because she had remembered something pertinent
. You don’t go to a swamp party in Uncertain without an offering of beer.
She got out and joined Cole at the front of the truck. He’d put on an old Carhartt hat that had been sitting on the dash of his jeep and looked so handsome in a white T-shirt and work boots. He’d cleaned the blood off his lip, but it was still split pretty bad. He wasn’t favoring it, though, the tough man.
“It feels like I have to get to know you all over,” she admitted softly, hugging his flannel around her shoulders tighter.
“Ain’t much the same anymore,” he agreed. “You’re different, too.”
“In good or bad ways?” she asked.
“You’ve just grown. And settled into yourself. You’re not a girl anymore. You’re a confident woman. Knows what she wants. It’s sexy. You were always sexy, but now?” He nodded at her like damn, girl.
She ducked her gaze so he couldn’t see her blush in the firelight they were approaching.
“About time,” Holt said. “We thought you two got lost.”
They all stood, and Cole introduced her. “Mae, this is Holt Lachlan.” He gestured to a behemoth with longer blond hair and bright green-gold eyes. “You probably remember Liam, too.”
She shook Liam’s offered hand. “I do, but you sure looked different when I left town. Been eating your protein shakes?”
He chuckled and rubbed his chin, struck a pose. “Trying to impress a girl.” He waggled his eyebrows at the quiet girl beside him. She had mouse-brown hair that hung down her shoulders in waves, dancing eyes, and an easy way about her.
“I’m Morgan. Holt told us you had a run in with my daddy tonight.”
“Oh, my God, Seamus is your dad,” she breathed, piecing it all together. “You’re Morgan Holland.”