Team Inez (House of Garner Book 2)

by Erin R Flynn

  True, but someone always brought the infection with them.

  The sun rose, and I was up, getting in the shower, wondering what we were walking into or what was coming… Besides my period. It would definitely arrive soon, as I was at the peak of symptoms and that yeah, I know, make your entrance already feeling.

  I went to pick out clothes when I was done only to find an outfit laid out for me. And it was a skirt. A mid-thigh winter skirt. Well, sure, it was cold up there, but to me that said not to wear a skirt.

  Or the stockings with it.

  “Please, please wear it,” Jaxon practically begged when he saw whatever expression was on my face.

  “There aren’t panties,” I noted, swallowing a sigh when they both got fidgety. I let out a slow breath, remembering how much they spoiled me and all they did to make me happy, how much they cherished me. “I will try it today, and that’s it. It’s cold, I’ve never worn a skirt, and commando is ridiculous when I’m about to start my period.”

  “Thank you,” he breathed as he hugged me to him. “I know you don’t get it all, but it’s your first time bleeding with us. It’s—it would almost hurt if you covered it from us.”

  They were pushing it, and Darius seemed to understand. “It’s not like we’re just going to stick our hands or dicks up your skirt at will. It’s the symbolism and will help our reaction if we don’t feel like you’re closed off from us.”

  “You’re both so much work,” I grumbled, knowing that was far from the truth. Well, I worked hard to make sure they were happy and reciprocate their feelings and respect them, but they were both easygoing and made being involved with two men ridiculously simple for me.

  I caved when I saw the black ankle boots that didn’t have much height to the thick heel. At least the outfit was attractive. The skirt was a green and black plaid wrap, and the black sweater looked very soft. I quickly pulled it all on, biting back a smile when I saw they clearly wanted to eat me up and were so thrilled I’d wear what they wanted.

  Everyone else was ready when we came out of the camper, gathered and excited along with nervous.

  “Where are we headed?” Asher asked.

  “The port,” Cerdic answered, shrugging when we gave him confused looks. “I’m fairly certain we’re here for the ship full of non-humans approaching port.”

  “I have no idea, but it’s that way,” I told them, pointing in the direction I knew we needed to go.

  “The port.” He gave me a wink. “You are never boring, love.”

  “I strive for that,” I drawled, glancing at Vance. For some reason I wanted to hold his hand, taking it as he headed to the SUV. He gave me a soft smile and squeezed my hand.

  The drive was short, and Kristof was standing there waiting when we arrived, clearly watching guard and assessing the area. We’d been attacked when we’d arrived, but a lot had been cleared out. I couldn’t even imagine how many he’d taken out before we’d arrived, and Cerdic had gone to help him when we were still a few hours’ drive out.

  I ignored Kristof’s stare as I felt it on me, but I couldn’t help but fidget with the skirt. I’d never worn one, and it was fairly breezy given how strong the wind was. At least it wasn’t the type to flip up, right?

  Yeah, that also meant I had more of a chance of showing too much when I moved. Not the day for this.

  “That’s more than a ship,” Cedric chuckled.

  “Is that a fucking destroyer?” Jaxon whispered. “Why would we want to come meet one of those?”

  “I can’t see it yet,” Callum grumbled, and he wasn’t the only one as I fidgeted with nerves. I had been the one to bring us here after all.

  “It’s an aircraft carrier,” Cedric muttered. “What the fuck, love?”

  “Like I know,” I drawled. “I never know what’s going on.” I had another thought. “How the fuck are they seeing anything? Aren’t those things like cities on water? Did they not get hit and still have all their electrical stuff?”

  “Probably not or it wouldn’t be carrying only non-humans,” Callum muttered. “We have pretty damn good night vision, so raiding enough batteries and LED lights and they could be set. I mean, ships navigated before electricity or all the nav systems.”

  Fair enough.

  “This might be a bad idea,” I whispered as it came into view for me, looking scary as fuck and just massive.

  “The feeling is you’re supposed to be here, right?” Darius checked, sounding a bit nervous as well.

  “Yes, me and my knights.”

  “There are a large number of shifters on the vessel,” Kristof said.

  Okay, so shifters were buddies with shifters? Hopefully?

  That would be nice instead of more problems. Then again, we normally got some headaches when anything worked out well, so really it was a toss-up which was better.

  I was such a positive person most days.

  My mind was circling with a bit of crazy and fear while we waited.

  “Whoever the captain is, they’re incredibly talented, as normally there are guide boats that come out and move it into dock and a whole crew on land,” Kristof told us, his tone sounding impressed instead of its normal cold, bored voice.

  I gasped as several large birds jumped from the ship with huge ropes in their talons. They landed on the pier they were aiming for and shifted back, tying off the lines with practiced ease. I angled my neck when I saw a section of the side opened and a huge wood structure came out.

  “They built their own gangplank given a lot of the ship is electrical lifts and whatnot,” Jaxon surmised. “Smart without a trusted ground crew.”

  “It can’t be,” Vance rasped, rubbing his chest when I glanced at him. I blinked, and he took off towards the gangplank now touching the dock, the vessel no longer moving but only slightly bobbing with the waves. He turned around and came back at us, plucking me up and spinning me around, giving me a loud smacking kiss. “You are a fucking miracle.”

  Then he set me down and raced off.

  “Okay then,” I chuckled, a bit wobbly on my feet for a second, but then we headed after him.

  “No fucking way!” Asher shouted, the other Begleys reacting the same and darting towards the gangplank.

  “What is going on?” Darius muttered as he took my hand.

  I wasn’t sure, but it seemed good.

  We were still about twenty feet out when a man came bolting off the gangplank with a woman hot on his heels. I gasped as they both practically tackled Vance, giving excited shouts and then extra ones when they saw the others.

  “Family, they’re family,” Cerdic guessed. “You brought them to find family they thought gone. Well done, love.”

  “Awesome,” I whispered, smiling widely. There was so much death and pain every time I looked around as we kept moving. It was really nice for that not to be the case for once.

  “How, just how?” the man demanded, hugging Vance again. “You were in New York.”

  “No, we took a trip, and we just landed at the airport and all fuck breaks loose,” he explained. “We were stranded and couldn’t get back and then…”

  “It was gone,” he rasped, pulling the woman in their hug. “Fuck, he’s alive.”

  “Thank the Goddess,” she whispered. Then she turned to the others. “And all of you. This is—come here.”

  They laughed and hugged, touching each other in a way that reminded me of their leopards and how they seemed to need it like they couldn’t believe what they were seeing. It was super sweet, and I didn’t think I was the only one touched when Darius squeezed my hand and Jaxon gave me a half hug.

  “How are you here though?” the man asked when they settled down.

  “Our princess knew we needed to be here,” Vance answered as he turned to me, waving us over. “Come meet my older brother and sister, James and Trisha.”

  “Are we all clear, Admiral?” someone called from the open hatch of the ship.

  “We cleared the immediate area, it’s saf
e,” Kristof promised them.

  James nodded, something unspoken passing between them. He moved over to me and dropped to one knee. “Princess, thank you for bringing my brother and our cousins to us. I will forever be in your debt that you led them here so they may join up with us.”

  I lost my smile, glancing at my leopards. My heart hurt, but then I forced myself to grin. “Of course. Yeah, I’m glad they found you and can be with you now.”

  “No, Inez, we gave you our oath,” Vance said gently. “We won’t just leave.”

  “They’re your family,” I whispered, glancing between him and James who wasn’t as happy as a minute ago.

  “She’s not like other princesses,” Vance told his brother. “We wanted to do it, no one forced us, and it was the right move.”

  Well, we had sort of given them an ultimatum, but even now I knew in my gut we wouldn’t have killed them. It had been meant to be, and most importantly they believed that.

  “She brought them here and looks confused and happy for them,” Trisha said as she moved her hand to James’s arm. “Let’s talk later and not ruin we found them alive when we mourned them for years.”

  “You’re right, yeah, just tired,” James sighed as he stood. He went and hugged Vance again. “It’s nice to get a chance to dock.”

  “Can you vouch for your crew?” Cerdic asked as he and the vampires moved in closer to me as people started coming off the ship. “How did this come about?”

  “We were part of the original carrier group, and we’re all that’s left,” Trisha answered with a shrug. “At first they brought certain high ranking humans that weren’t taken out, but someone was always infected, and we’d handle that round, and then they’d just do it again. Finally it was just us, and we started funneling supplies and fuel to the biggest vessel we could all fit on.”

  “It’s not like we just drive around,” James added. “We’ve been miles from shore this time, but when we start getting low on supplies, we head to a port. We’ve found several with fuel, but we’ve cleaned out all their everything else.”

  “The city’s been pretty picked over, mate,” Cerdic warned them. “It seems like a large amount of survivors tried for here and infected or corrupted came with because there’s not a human for very far around.”

  “And we killed thousands and thousands when we got here,” Kristof added.

  “Thanks, a few days of hunting and getting some fresh meat instead of canned shit will be amazing,” Trisha said. She glanced at me. “And yes, you’re safe with us. We’ve weeded out the crazy, and any non-humans that came aboard we’ve spent time with now.”

  “Oh, love, you are fun,” Cerdic said but then burst out laughing, waving us all off when people started talking and asking what he meant. He gestured to the ship and the people giving me an amused look.

  I gasped as his meaning sank in. I opened my mouth but then closed it. I swallowed loudly before moving over to Vance. He leaned down and moved his forehead to mine, knowing what we were thinking. “I’ll help, I promise.”

  “Thank you, My Princess,” he whispered. “I think he meant you just found the start of your coven.”

  “Oh, did you?” I asked Cerdic as I pulled away from Vance.

  “Aye, I did as these lovely people can’t want to travel on the ocean forever when you can offer them a real future.”

  “What do you mean?” James asked, glancing between us. “What are you talking about? Power’s out everywhere, and nothing’s like it was. All we can do is survive.”

  “This is not a conversation for everyone to hear,” Vance worried as Jaxon and Darius started talking too.

  I lost the thread of it as I locked eyes with a man watching us. I moved over to him, studying him and his very pretty, almost banana yellow eyes. “Undress and shift.”

  His eyes flashed shock, but he nodded. “Yes, Princess.” He yanked off his clothes, and I stood on my toes, as he was much taller than me. He leaned down, and I gave him a chaste kiss before stepping back.

  I gasped as he turned into a lion. An actual fucking huge lion. I smiled and ran my hands over his mane, giggling when I scratched his ear and he purred loudly. “Aren’t you a handsome fella.”

  There was more that I might have said, but it happened again. We had a crowd by then, people seeming to realize something was going on that was worth sticking around on the dock for. The lion came with me, protective as he moved people out of my path.

  I stopped at the man with butter yellow eyes. “Undress and shift.”

  “Yes, Princess,” he breathed, taking off his clothes and giving me a soft kiss before he shifted.

  “And what are you, pretty guy?” I chuckled, remembering the skirt at the last minute when I bent over, squatting carefully as I stared into his eyes and scratched his head. “Gorgeous. You are so gorgeous.”

  “Jaguar,” Darius filled in for me.

  I nodded, petting the shifter’s coat. “Your spots are different, more detailed. You’re soft like my leopards too.” I kissed his head and stood, moving through the crowd as now both cats parted the crowd for me. I met the gaze of a woman but then moved on.

  “So she is a princess,” someone snorted. “She only wants men.”

  I turned back to the woman and frowned. “No, I just know men undress easily and thought it rude to ask you in a group and put pressure on you. I was going to ask you privately later.”

  She smiled at me and shrugged. “I’m a shifter, Princess, nudity doesn’t bother me.”

  “Shift for me?” I asked, smiling when she started peeling off her clothes. She gave me a hesitant look, but I leaned in and kissed her first. Hey, that was something to cross off the bucket list at least. I practically squeed when she shifted into a huge ass cougar. “Do you prefer cougar or mountain lion?” I ran my hand over her soft fur.

  “Normally either is fine,” someone answered for the woman.

  I thanked them and found another gaze I couldn’t seem to look away from. She was willing to strip for me, giving me a kicker peck than the others. I did squee this time as she shifted into a smaller cat. I squatted down and picked her up, giggling when she immediately purred and snuggled with me. “And what are you besides my favorite thing to snuggle?”

  “Hey, I take offense to that,” one of the twins called out behind me.

  “Me too,” Jaxon snorted. “That’s an ocelot I believe.”

  The cat I was holding nodded and went back to snuggling with me.

  Next was a male black jaguar then a female lynx and finally a male margay who looked about my age before he shifted. I smiled as I picked him up, turning to Darius and Jaxon as they snuggled with me.

  “Can I keep them?” I giggled as they licked my cheeks. “They’re so cute!” I kissed each of their noses. “Do you guys want some venison or elk? We have a bunch.” I smiled at the other shifted cats. “You guys must be starved, right?” I laughed when the lion bumped my legs like saying to lead the way. I headed towards my leopards. “I’m cheating on you guys, totally, especially if they’ll play fetch too.”

  “I’m popping the balls,” Wilson threatened, winking at me and then laughing as he glanced behind me.

  I turned to the shifters, seeing them gathered up, and moved in the middle of them so I was practically lying on a couple of them in a big puppy—but jungle cat—pile. They all snuggled with me and gave me gentle licks as I petted them. I realized something was wrong, missing, and turned to James and Trisha. “You guys too.”

  “What are you doing, Princess?” James asked, Trisha hesitating as well.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I just needed to see them and hug them like when I met Vance and my leopards.”

  “She feels like home when we shift near her,” Vance explained. “She’s a miracle, I promise.”

  “You brought your princess around vampires when she bleeds?” a voice demanded loudly.

  I scrambled to my feet, careful of my skirt, as my face flushed lava hot. “Jesus,
dude, nice way to announce my period started.” I watched as every shifted cat I’d been petting turned to the guy and either hissed, snarled, or growled in warning.

  “Holy fuck me, your spirit animal isn’t a cat, it’s all cats,” Jaxon whispered, blinking at them in shock when I glanced at him. “Shit, Inez, I’ve never heard of that before.”

  I opened my mouth but then closed it, studying the cats. “Are there more shifter species on the ship?”

  “Yes, lots,” Trisha answered. “We joke now and again that we’re Noah’s Ark but really James’s Ark, as he was the highest ranking officer when everything started and humans kept getting infected.”

  “It’s a shit way to get promoted,” James grumbled but moved closer, studying me. “Yeah, leopard is your spirit animal for sure. I’ve felt this pull once with a vampire who had the same.”

  “Sorry?” I offered, glancing at Darius. “It doesn’t hurt them, right? I mean, they have a choice if they like me.”

  “They do. Just like you smile and feel comfortable with them, they feel the same. You want to see their other side and meet their animal just as you do the person,” he explained. He cleared his throat. “We need a moment though. How about the Begleys and your new friends come to our camp and we talk?”

  I nodded, taking his hand when he extended it.

  “Wait, there are nobles here who will want to meet her,” that same guy said who had announced my period started. “What house are you from, Princess?”

  “Garner,” I answered.

  “I’ve not heard of the house Garner.”

  I glanced at him and shrugged. “I chose it. I think the apocalypse was a new beginning for all of us, and I’m going to build my coven that way.” I turned away and let Darius lead me through the others. Then he lifted me and blurred us back to camp, knowing the others would run or drive over.

  He brought me in the camper and set me on the counter, moving between my legs. “Please let me be your first again, Inez.”