The Otter's Tale

by Charlie Richards

  Aziel saw him several times a year and spoke to him on the phone a couple times a month. He’d thought about asking Aaron if he remembered momma’s stories, but had decided against it. He’d given his word to Chieftain Maelgwn—leader of the gargoyles—that he’d never breathe a word of their existence to anyone.

  As Aaden laid back on the bench and began his reps, Aziel focused on his friend, counting with him.

  “Six,” Aaden mumbled. Meeting Aziel’s gaze, he asked, “Barbeque at the estate tonight. You coming?”

  Aziel nodded. “Seven. Yeah, I’ll be there. Can’t beat Roman’s cooking.”

  “Got that right. Eight.” Aaden grinned even as his eyes went a little vacant, obviously concentrating on lifting the bar. “I love Roman’s chili.”

  “Damn. Glad I don’t share a room with you,” Aziel teased. “Nine.”

  Aaden snorted, fumbling the bar. Aziel flexed a little, helping him right it. Then the smaller man resumed his reps.

  “Asshole,” Aaden snapped, although there was no heat in it, and he was smirking. “Ten. And I’m talking about his spicy no bean chili. Yum.”

  “I’ll have to look for it. Eleven.” His stomach grumbled just at the thought, and both men chuckled. “One more. Hurry up so we can get out of here. This is your last set, right?”

  Aziel had noticed Aaden walk into the weight room shortly after him, so he was pretty sure it should be.

  “Yep. Done with weights after this. Twelve.” Aaden settled the bar in the rack and exhaled deeply. “Just gonna jog the track for thirty minutes, then I’ll hit the showers.”

  As Aziel took a swig from his water bottle, he thought about doing the same. Instead, he decided he’d do a little exercise at the estate. He loved walking through their woods. It was so much more interesting than jogging in a circle.

  Plus, he liked to stop and do extra exercises amidst the trees. It was why he was working toward a major in botany with a minor in plant studies. His buddies didn’t know that, of course. He kept all the extra classes he took to himself.

  “I plan to do that at the estate,” Aziel told Aaden. “So I’m gonna hit the showers.”

  Aaden chuckled softly. “Yeah, if I tried to do that, it wouldn’t work out.” He winked as his grin turned lascivious. “Grigoris would insist on coming with me, then he’d distract me after about five minutes.”

  Barking a laugh, Aziel nodded. He waggled his brows at his friend. “It’d be a good distraction, though.”

  “You got that right,” Aaden responded, grinning widely.

  Aziel returned the grin as he nodded. Turning around, he headed toward the exit. He offered greetings to a couple other guys on the team as he passed them.

  When he reached the locker room, he quickly stripped. He stuffed his dirty items in his bag, making a mental note that it was time to do laundry. After wrapping his towel around his waist, he grabbed his shower kit and headed toward the showers.

  Since he shaved his head on a regular basis, Aziel didn’t have any hair to wash, but he still bought and used shampoo. He enjoyed using it to give his scalp the occasional massage. After that was done, he scrubbed himself down with his body wash.

  The first time the guys had seen him pull out his bottle of rosemary-scented body wash, he’d gotten a little ribbing. He’d just laughed and told everyone how much the ladies loved it. Of course, he didn’t bother to tell the guys that he didn’t get lucky much anyway.

  Aziel was far too busy with his studies and football to worry about girls. Most of the time his right hand worked just fine. If the odd mood struck, it was simple to go to a bar and pick up a chick for a little backseat fun.

  God, when was the last time I did that?

  He wasn’t certain.

  “Hey, Aziel!”

  Aziel turned to find his good buddy Mitch joining him under a nearby shower head. “Need a favor, man.”

  “Sure, man. Shoot.” Aziel returned to scrubbing himself down as he waited for Mitch to tell him what he needed.

  “Candace finally agreed to go out with me, but only if you come, too,” Mitch told him. He grinned widely and waggled his brows at him. “Guess her Beta Thi sister, Mindy, has a thing for you. It’ll be a double date.”

  Aziel paused in scrubbing his chest and furrowed his brows. “Mindy?” He didn’t recognize the name. “Who’s that?”

  “Just some sorority sister,” Mitch replied. He winked. “But don’t you worry. I’ve seen her, and she’s fine.”

  While it was nice to know that Mitch wasn’t trying to set him up with a dog, Aziel wasn’t really concerned about that. He’d rather date someone for their personality. “A sorority sister?” he began slowly, doing his best not to cringe.

  He knew it was stereotyping, but he’d always thought of sorority girls as prissy, snobby, bitchy even... and way too into appearance than anything else. Why did they even go to college? Did most of them even graduate?

  All right. Now I’m being an ass.

  “Yeah? What’s Mindy’s major?” Aziel asked before stepping under the water fully and rinsing off his soap. “Do I have anything in common with her?”

  Even as he asked the question, he realized Mitch probably wouldn’t know if they had anything in common, anyway. Guess it’s time to come clean to the guys. He wasn’t certain why he hadn’t before then anyway.

  He knew though. As much as he thought of the guys as family, it wasn’t until they’d all shared in the knowledge of the gargoyle clutch that he’d truly felt as if they had something in common. They were all part of the paranormal world.

  Family.

  Mitch laughed. “Who gives a shit,” he responded, staying true to form. “If she wants to take a ride on your big pole, ya won’t be talkin’ anyway.” He reached over and smacked Aziel’s arm. “Right?”

  “Guess not,” Aziel conceded, turning off his water. “When were you thinking?” He grabbed his towel off a nearby hook and began drying himself. “I have one last final project that I need to finish, and exams are the week after next.”

  “All our projects were due last week.” Mitch turned and looked at him, scowling. “Weren’t they? Or did I bust my hump for no reason?”

  Aziel shook his head. “I’m taking a couple different classes than you,” he revealed as he wrapped his towel around his waist and gathered his shower supplies. “The due dates are different.” Reaching over, he bumped his fist into Mitch’s upper arm. “Text me when you were thinking, okay? I’ll check my schedule. I’m headed out to the estate to do some cardio and research for that last project. Talk to you later.”

  “Sure, man,” Mitch responded, nodding. “Then you gonna tell me what extra classes you’re taking?”

  Pausing, Aziel focused on his friend. He shrugged as he admitted, “I switched to a botany major last year.” Grinning, he started walking backward. “I’m collecting various plant specimens and writing up information on each.”

  “Well, shit, dude!” Mitch rested his fists on his hips, glaring. “Why didn’t you tell us? We’ve been out there hiking so many times, we could have helped.”

  “It’s my project,” Aziel responded, turning away with a wave.

  Seeing as Mitch was still naked and had the water flowing over his muscular body, the view had been sort of hot. Not that Aziel would ever tell his friend that. Still, he could acknowledge that his friend was a good looking guy. He just happened to be a womanizing hound dog most of the time.

  Aziel, Aaden, and Andre ever-so-subtly steered their friend away from what they considered nice girls. No point in allowing Mitch to leave a string of broken hearts or jealous exes behind. Fortunately, they’d only had to do that a couple of times. Mitch seemed to enjoy rolling in the hay with ladies that knew the score and wanted the same thing that he did—uncomplicated sex.

  Reaching his locker, Aziel whipped off his towel and hung it over the door. He dressed quickly, then shoved his kit and towel into his bag. Yep. De
finitely time to do laundry, he realized, knowing his other two towels were dirty, too.

  Heading out of the locker room, Aziel strode swiftly across the commons area between buildings. He nodded a greeting to a few people he knew but didn’t stop to chat. Entering his dorm, he waved to a couple guys, then went to his room.

  Aziel unpacked his bag, sorting his clothes into piles in the process. “Tomorrow, I gotta hit the laundromat,” he muttered to himself. “Tonight, cardio and project.”

  Grabbing his backpack, Aziel quickly packed it with a textbook on plants as well as a couple he’d found at the bookstore that described plants in detail—with pictures. Those were the ones he found the most helpful. As much as he found he wanted to be able to differentiate between plants, he truly struggled at recognizing the differences between certain things and the picture books were a godsend.

  Once Aziel had everything he needed, he headed back out of the dorm. He’d just exited the door when he heard a female voice call his name. Pausing, he turned to find a buxom blonde sauntering toward him, her hips swinging in what she must have thought was a provocative way.

  Aziel did as his momma had taught him, even at a young age, and focused on her face. “Yes?” he asked, peering into her blue-green eyes.

  “Hi, Aziel,” she purred, coming right up into his space and resting a red-nail-painted hand on his forearm. “I’m Mindy. Mitch just told Candace the good news. I’m soooo excited for our date.” She batted her thick, black eyelashes at him, a simpering smile curving her red-painted lips. “Candace says we’re going to Angelo’s.”

  As Aziel glanced from where Mindy continued to touch him, then back to her face, he couldn’t help but notice that her nails matched her lips. Both appeared almost blood red. He took in her heart-shaped face and thick blonde hair. Aziel found her pretty, for the most part. It certainly wouldn’t be a hardship to sit and look at her over a meal.

  Still, Angelo’s? Who’d picked that out?

  Aziel figured it must have been the girls. Mitch knew he didn’t care for Mexican food. Too many beans or too much cheese messed up his system. Plus, refried beans just tasted so bland.

  He and the guys had actually had a long conversation about foods, their favorites and what they loathed, one evening after too many beers and way too much pizza.

  Yeah, he’d been more than a little constipated over the next couple of days.

  “Uh, if that’s what you decided,” Aziel slowly hedged. He wanted to pull away from the girl, but instinct told him to stand his ground. “Mitch didn’t really say. He just talked to me about it today.”

  How long had the girls been plotting?

  “It’ll be soooo much fun,” Mindy continued as if he hadn’t spoken. She rested her free hand on his chest and scraped her fingernails over his t-shirt covered pectoral. “After dinner maybe we can head to the park. I know a great spot, very secluded, where we can stare up at the stars.”

  Aziel’s skin tingled where Mindy petted his chest. His mouth went dry as he struggled to come up with an appropriate response. He knew she was practically throwing herself at him, and he didn’t know how he felt about that.

  Mitch was right. She expected him to bang her.

  Why? Why would a girl want that?

  He didn’t get it, but then he wasn’t Mitch. Not that there was anything wrong with how his buddy behaved, he supposed. It just wasn’t his style.

  “I’ll talk to Mitch,” Aziel told the woman. He stepped to the side, severing the contact as he pulled out his phone. “What’s your number? I’ll text you once I talk to him about it.”

  Evidently, being asked for her phone number pleased Mindy. She smiled widely as she rattled off her digits. Aziel nodded and smiled as he inputted the information into his phone, hiding his irritation at her pushiness.

  “Great. I’ll message you then,” Aziel claimed, holding up his phone. “Gotta head out.” He began walking backward, putting more distance between them, forcing himself to keep a smile on his face. “Project to complete, after all. See you soon.”

  Mindy giggled. “Sounds good,” she called, lifting her hand to her neck. “See you soon!”

  Her move drew Aziel’s attention to her tits, which had probably been her intention. She wore a low-cut, form-fitting shirt. The tops of her large cream-colored mounds were on blatant display.

  Yanking his gaze from Mindy’s chest, Aziel spotted the coy look on her face. Yeah, she knew exactly what she was doing. He suddenly felt like prey, as if he were a conquest to her.

  Hell, maybe he was. Maybe Mindy was a female version of Mitch.

  As Aziel drove to the gargoyles’ estate, he tried to decide if he wanted to be Mindy’s conquest. Sex with the woman wouldn’t be a hardship, that was for sure. She was beautiful, after all.

  Parking his truck to the left of the massive garage, Aziel decided to think about it later. He grabbed his backpack and headed toward the front porch. Entering the estate, he called greetings to those he passed, grinning and waving.

  Aziel headed straight through, barely resisting a stop in the huge dining hall for a bit of chow. Passing the double doors, he did his best to ignore his growling stomach and salivating mouth. He promised himself at least a half hour of working out and another half hour of researching plants before he returned to eat.

  Plus, by then, Aziel would bet that Roman had moved some of the food to the back deck. Seeing as they were coming on the summer months, the gargoyles that were not bonded with a mate, giving them the ability to remain awake during the day, had much shorter days. Roman wouldn’t put food on the deck until the unbonded gargoyles had woken from roost—what the gargoyles referred to as their daytime sleep cycle when they were living stone statues.

  The real feasting would begin after that.

  Aziel could wait. He exited the back and crossed the wide deck. Spotting Enforcer Einan and the gargoyle’s mate, Cornelius, he waved to them. It seemed Einan was taking his once again pregnant mate for a walk in the garden.

  Smiling, Aziel kept going as wonder filled him. Men having babies. Go figure. It still boggled his mind that gargoyles could impregnate their male mates.

  Striding into the woods, Aziel took a well-used trail that led toward the estate’s several acre pond. He planned to get several samples there, ferns and other plants that grew on the ponds’ muddy banks.

  Aziel broke into a jog, using the opportunity to work on his cardio. He stepped carefully, dodging tree roots and rocks. Ducking under one branch, he had to hop the next stride to clear a recently downed branch.

  He made it to the pond without mishap. His chest heaved just a little and, walking in place, he took a second to check his heart rate. Just high enough to get a good burn.

  Happiness filling him, Aziel grabbed a book from his bag and flipped it to a page he’d marked the evening before. He started a swift pace around the pond, searching the banks for the fern he wanted. It took a good ten minutes, but he finally spotted it.

  Aziel crouched, placing his bag and book on the ground. He pulled out the necessary supplies to bag a sample of the fern. Just as he tucked everything back in his bag, he heard a loud splash.

  His curiosity piqued, Aziel shifted left and peered around a bush. He swept his gaze over the area, wondering what could have caused such a noise. Around thirty yards away and to his left, ripples on the surface of the water caught his attention.

  Gaping, Aziel watched in awe as a massive animal swam through the water. He knew it wasn’t the alligator shifter, Tristan. The alligator was albino, and this creature was a deep brown.

  Aziel watched in wonder as the creature dove under the water, resurfaced, then dove again. After a few moments of that, it flipped over to float on its back and began eating a fish it must have caught. It suddenly hit Aziel that what he watched was an otter... although it was bigger than any otter he’d ever heard of.

  Was it a shifter?

  To Aziel’s shock, Tristan
’s alligator surfaced a few feet next to the otter and hissed. The otter squealed in obvious shock, then swam as swiftly as it could toward the closest bank. That happened to be only a few feet from where Aziel still stood.

  Seeing Tristan following, Aziel crouched, then leaped, landing in the shallows between the otter and Tristan. Pain seared through his left leg as he scraped it along something sharp under the water. His leg buckled, and he lost his balance, splashing face-first into the water.

  Chapter Three

  The shock of having an albino alligator appear only feet away combined with the appearance of a shouting human caused Jerome to act on instinct. He struck out with his sharp hind claws. Connecting with the thick flesh of the human’s leg caused the man to cry out and fall.

  That was good. It gave him a chance to get away from the alligator. A second later, the smell of blood flooding the water filled the air. An instant after that, two things hit Jerome at once.

  The albino was a shifter... and the human was his mate.

  Swinging around, Jerome searched for both figures. All he saw was the churning of water. Fear speared through him, and he turned back, intending to head into the water and find the human.

  Instead, up popped a pale-skinned male, water dripping off his lean torso. He swished around in the water before gripping something and pulling up a gasping, sputtering human. The pale man easily heaved what turned out to be a massive black man to a standing position, betraying who was the shifter and who was the human.

  “Damn it all, Aziel,” the pale man grumbled, scowling at the much larger man. “What the hell? I wasn’t actually going to hurt him.” Without waiting for a response from the human—Aziel—the smaller man turned his attention to Jerome. “And you. Shift, goddammit. You can explain what you’re doing in Chieftain Maelgwn’s territory.”

  Chieftain Maelgwn? What kind of shifter leader didn’t call himself alpha? Who were these people?