Authors: Danica Avet
Lifting her hand out of the moss, Colette prayed the gun was
loaded and fired the first shot.
The woman disappeared into the woods, the leaves barely
moving as she slipped away, running exactly as he’d told her to. The shifters
were shocked by the shot fired at them. It struck a hyena that fell to the
ground with a screech of pain. Several others ran to aid the male, except it
wouldn’t do any good. Roscoe could smell his death. Colette was an excellent
markswoman, but that wouldn’t help her with the other shifters on her tail.
Which was why he’d prepared as best as he could for this moment.
He waited for his team to show themselves, waited for the
backup he’d requested a week before to step out of the shadows, but no one did.
Duet turned to one of the shifters who’d come up beside him, a cougar by the
smell of him. “The hunt begins,” he said in a lethally quiet voice that had
every shifter freezing in place. “Kill her.”
Roscoe wanted to howl, his wolf pawing at his mind, wanting
out. That woman had trusted him to protect her. Maybe not as well as he would
have liked, but she’d listened to him, found the gun he’d hidden for her and
now she was running. Yet the backup he’d promised her was nowhere to be found.
Which could only mean one thing.
“Did you honestly think you could hide men here without me
knowing?” Duet asked as he slowly removed his robe and handed it to one of his
disciples. “Son, I’ve been doing this long before you were even a twinkle in
your daddy’s eye. Did you really think we’d let someone in on a hunt this soon?
The minute you started pressing for more, we knew we’d have to get rid of you
at the same time we did our little huntress.” He turned away. “Horace, shoot
him.”
Turning, he found himself facing the barrel of a gun held by
the sheriff of Caillou Parish. The shifter who was supposed to have been
helping Roscoe and his team close the net around the mysterious group.
“Motherfuck—”
Pain exploded in his body and as he fell to the ground,
Roscoe’s last sight was of Duet shifting to his tiger form. He turned around
and used his back claws to rake dirt over Roscoe’s body the way a domestic cat
would cover its waste in a litter box. With a chuff at the sheriff, Duet
slipped between some bushes, following the human who’d foolishly put her life
in Roscoe’s hands.
* * * * *
Zach slowed, crouching low to the ground as he crawled
forward. Several more shots had followed the first, but they’d been spaced
apart. And each time there was a gunshot, he heard a scream of pain. It made
his heart leap to his throat. Colette was out there. He told himself she was
fine. Fate wouldn’t have let him get this close to her and then let something
happen to her. Besides, he tried to reason, his mate knew how to take care of
herself. She was kicking ass and taking names. He hoped.
Then his sharp hearing picked up the sound of someone
running. They were being stealthy and quiet, but not enough to avoid detection.
Then he caught the muted scent of his mate, a smell so faint he almost didn’t
catch it until he saw her dart behind a tree.
Zach sprang after her, desperation and hope making him
foolish. She whirled around, a gun in hand, violet eyes narrowed on him. It was
so reminiscent of the way he’d first seen her, Zach didn’t even realize she was
about to shoot him until she suddenly relaxed, the gun dropping to point at the
ground.
“Zach?” she whispered in a shaky voice that spoke volumes.
He shifted to his human form, arms reaching out to catch her
as she fell. “Are you hurt?” he demanded even as his hands roamed her naked
skin looking for injuries. She was filthy and covered in blood, but it didn’t
smell like hers. “Baby, God, are you okay?”
“They’re coming,” she whispered, pulling away from him to
look into his face. “They’re coming after me.”
She was covered in mud. If he hadn’t recognized her eyes and
her scent, he wouldn’t have known it was her. “How many?”
“I don’t know.” She reached up to rub her face. “I shot
five. Maybe fifteen? Twenty? I didn’t get to stop and count how many there were
at the warehouse. Roscoe said his people were out here, but no one stepped up
to help.” She looked around. “You didn’t come alone, did you? God, what are we
gonna do?”
“Shh,” he ordered, pulling her tight against him, the closeness
soothing his tiger some. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you. We have
a date to make up for.”
Her arm looped around his waist, the butt of the gun digging
into the small of his back, but he wasn’t worried. His mate hugged him tight,
her shaking subsiding after a few heartbeats. “I love you,” he blurted with a
hard squeeze of her petite body. “Woman I love you so fucking much and I didn’t
think I’d get to tell you.”
She looked up at him, eyes wide in her mud-stained face. “I
love you too,” she said and kissed his chin. “But your timing sucks.”
He nodded, his heart eased by her small joke. “We’re getting
out of here right now,” he said and picked her up. But when he turned to carry
her out of there, a man stepped out from behind a tree, a smirk on his handsome
face. Zach blinked, frozen in place by sheer shock. “Senator Duet?”
Several more shifters stepped forward, the mud streaking
their bodies proving they’d been the ones after his mate. And several of them
wore faces he recognized from his business. Sheriff Horace Billiot, Father
Becnel from St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Germantown, Carol Voisin, the
principal of Petite Caillou High School and several more Zach had seen over the
years of catering in the tri-parish area. They were all shifters in power
whether it was large or small. They were trusted officials giving power over
humans and shifters in their territories and they were monsters.
“It was my hope you’d join us, Mr. Trahan,” Dustin Duet said
as he stepped forward with confidence. With the gun the sheriff had pointing at
Zach, he probably felt as though he was untouchable. “This female is a perfect
example of what’s wrong with the world today. And your feelings,” his lip
curled on the word, “for her are unfortunately exactly the kind of thing we
abhor.”
“It’s disgusting,” Carol Voisin snarled, her green jackal
eyes glinting.
“Sick.”
“Perverted,” Father Becnel added. “Birds of a feather flock
together, son. They don’t mate with their prey.”
Zach tried to keep them all in his sights, clutching Colette
tighter to his chest. She still had the gun, but it wouldn’t be enough to take
all of them out. And with the sheriff’s pistol aimed at him, they were looking
at a losing situation. Except for one thing.
The Robicheauxs.
“I would’ve liked to add you to our group, but we can’t
condone your actions with this filth,” Duet continued. “Consider this your last
date, Mr. Trahan. It pains me to kill one of our own, but your weakness for
human flesh can’t be allowed to spread.”
“Well now, look what we have here, Frog,” Willis said
conversationally as he stepped out behind the sheriff.
“Looks like we got ourselves a bunch of backstabbing,
two-faced politicians, is what it looks like,” Frog agreed as he stepped up
behind a local councilman.
“And men of the cloth,” Tudu stated from somewhere behind
the rotund Father Becnel. “That’s a shame.”
Sheriff Billiot’s face darkened with rage, his cougar
flashing in his eyes. “Put your weapons down,” he ordered the humans who
suddenly appeared, surrounding the circle of shifters who’d planned to kill
Zach and Colette. “I will arrest every single one of you. This man and woman
killed an FBI agent.”
“Shut your mouth, Horace,” a brand-new voice joined the
group and Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish Sheriff Picou appeared with a full contingent
of his bear-shifting deputies. “Roscoe?”
Zach stiffened as the wolf shifter appeared between a couple
of bears, his arm in a sling, his naked skin pouring out blood. “Dustin Duet,
you have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used
against you in a court of law.”
But it appeared Duet wasn’t about to go to jail without
taking a few people with him. He shifted faster than they could blink and
launched himself at Roscoe. A single shot rang out before he could hit the wolf
who hadn’t had a chance to shift yet and the massive tiger fell to the ground
with a thud.
Zach looked down at his mate as she lowered the gun in her
hand. Everyone in the clearing glanced from the tiger with a hole in the back
of its head to the small woman cuddled in Zach’s arms.
She shrugged. “I’d say I’m sorry, but I’m not.”
Her words seemed to release the spell everyone fell under.
Sheriff Picou pointed his service gun at his counterpart from Caillou Parish.
Billiot seemed to realize he was strongly outnumbered, not just in numbers but
in weaponry when every Robicheaux male raised their guns at him. He lowered his
weapon, letting it fall to the ground near his feet and placed his hands behind
his head.
As though that was the signal they’d been waiting for,
Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish’s finest surged forward and began cuffing the shifters
who’d made a mockery of their power. Zach faded to the background with his
mate, letting the police do what they needed to while Roscoe helped organize
them with the help of more people who poured out of the woods, all of them
carrying FBI badges.
Willis ran forward, his eyes skipping over his daughter’s
nudity to search her face. “My baby, you okay?” he asked, reaching up to touch
her cheek, his hand shaking as though he had palsy.
To every man’s surprise, especially the Robicheaux men,
Colette began to sob, her tears cleansing the mud from her face. Zach allowed
her to go to her father’s arms, grabbing the shirt Alcide had taken off and
handed to him, covering her up as she buried her face in her dad’s chest.
Willis looked at Zach. “I don’t know whether to shit or go
blind here,” he muttered as he awkwardly patted his daughter’s back. “She ain’t
never really cried before.”
Although he wanted to be the one she cried on, the one she
leaned on right now, Zach had enough confidence in his mate’s heart to know she
loved him despite reaching for her dad. “You’re doing just fine,” he told the
human. He stroked a hand over Colette’s wild hair. “We’re all doing just fine.”
Willis relaxed, one arm curling around his daughter’s back
and he extended the other to Zach. “Welcome to the family, boy.”
Three weeks later
Colette stuck to Zach’s side like glue, unable to help
herself. He looked so sexy with his tie loosened at his throat and his shirt
rolled up to his elbows. And he didn’t seem to mind her close proximity,
leaning over now and then to kiss her as they watched the dancers.
Her wedding hadn’t been as big as her mama would’ve liked,
but it’d turned out perfectly as far as Colette was concerned. They’d had to
wait until alligator season ended to make sure everyone could make it and she
was glad they’d postponed it. Zach hadn’t been happy about it at all,
especially since her dad made Colette move into her parents’ house until the
vows were spoken.
“Your father was trying to drive me crazy,” Zach muttered
under his breath as he stole another kiss. “Making me wait three fucking weeks
to get my hands on you again.”
“
Pauvre bête
,” she teased as she stroked his cheek.
“I’ll make it all better tonight.”
His eyes gleamed, the tiger peeking out at her. “How about
we slip away for a few minutes? I have something to show you,” he said with a
leer, pressing his groin against her hip.
She laughed. “Uh-huh, I can just about imagine what you want
to show me.”
He dipped his head, his tongue lapping at the tender skin
over her throat. “I can’t wait to mark you permanently,” he breathed against
her pulse. “Right here.” When his human teeth sank into her just a little, she
shivered, her nipples tightening. “You’re mine, baby.”
Colette nipped his throat as well, showing her mate she
wasn’t the only one who’d be claimed tonight and was rewarded with a loud,
rumbling purr. “Damn, straight. And you’re mine.”
“Ahem.”
Zach stiffened at the interruption, but it wasn’t until he
snarled that she realized it wasn’t one of her family members. Glancing over
her shoulder, she saw none other than Coltrane Roscoe standing before them.
Except he didn’t look like the slimy game warden anymore.
He’d ditched the uniform for a pair of jeans and a button-up
shirt. Colette turned in Zach’s arms to get a better look at the wolf who’d
saved her life. “Roscoe. Roscoe P. Coltrane,” she said with a smile. “From
The
Dukes of Hazard
.”
The wolf smiled at her, causing Zach’s arm to tighten around
her waist. Her mate knew she loved him, knew she wouldn’t even think about
looking at another man, had said so himself, but this wolf bothered him.
“Miz Robicheaux,” the wolf drawled then blushed after Zach
growled. “Sorry, Miz Trahan. It’s good to see y’all again.” His glance included
Zach in the greeting. “My name’s actually Coltrane Davies.” He tipped an
imaginary hat. “Of Caper’s Hollow, Tennessee.” His teeth flashed for a moment
in a bright smile. “I hope y’all don’t mind that I crashed y’all’s wedding.”
“Actually—” Zach began, ending when Colette sank her elbow
into his ribs.
“We’re glad to see you. How’s your shoulder?” Because
although the wolf had taken charge of the clearing that night, she hadn’t seen
him once since and her last sight of him had shown an ugly wound.
He shrugged. “It’s healin’.” Then he got serious. “I wanted
to thank y’all for the statements y’all made. I know things have been very
quiet, but until yesterday, we didn’t have all the information we needed to close
this case.” Satisfaction gleamed in his pale eyes. “The Bureau wasn’t able to
connect all of the disappearances until about eight months ago. I worked my way
into the group trying to crack the case, but it wasn’t until they homed in on
you that I knew we could finally catch them in the act.”
A shadow passed behind his pale eyes. Colette’s heart went
out to him because he had to have known what was happening to those women, but
hadn’t been able to stop them. He seemed to know where her thoughts were because
he nodded. “I lost three of them,” he said in a tight voice, throat visibly
working. “I had to keep up with the ruse, but every time I went to save those
women, to catch Duet and his people, they were already gone. We were able to
give closure to a lot of families because of the help you and your family gave
us. If it hadn’t been for your menfolk providing support to the local
authorities, I think there’s a chance we would’ve lost our lives out there.” He
scratched his cheek. “’Course I had to say I’d deputized them all because of
the amount of ammunition they had, but the end result is all my superiors were
concerned with. That and ending Fang and Claw’s reign of terror.”
Her heart broke for him. She wanted to know how he’d gotten
involved with the taskforce to bring Fang and Claw down, but didn’t feel it was
her place to ask. Remembering the way he’d marked several people with his gaze,
Colette thought there was a lot more to the charming wolf than he’d let anyone
know.
But she still asked, “What about the group? Were all the
members arrested?” Because that was her biggest fear. That she’d hear those
screams in the middle of the night, or that she’d wake up in that cage again.
Zach hugged her to his side, lending her his warmth and
strength and she didn’t feel the least bit weak for accepting it. That’s what
partners did, leaned on each other when they needed it.
Coltrane nodded, a deep understanding on his face. “All the
members of the group have been arrested. Luckily, Sheriff Picou, in conjunction
with the Orleans, Jefferson and St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff
Departments, was able to do a sweep of all known members’ houses from records
Senator Duet kept on file. And the next few days we caught the members we found
out when some of the others gave us leads. Duet was the real focus though,” he
said with a twist of his lips. “I’m glad he’s dead, but I’d hoped to be the one
to kill him. He was a dirty son of a bitch, pardon my language.”
“It’s over, my mate is safe and so are other humans who
aren’t as strong as she is. That’s all we can ask,” Zach said, and to Colette’s
utter shock, reached out to slap Coltrane’s shoulder in a consolatory gesture.
The wolf’s face drained of blood on contact and her mate froze. “Shit, man, I’m
sorry.” He let go of Colette to catch Coltrane in case he fell. “I forgot about
your wound.”
Coltrane moved out of Zach’s reach, one hand out to ward him
off. “No, no, it’s okay. I’m fine. What doesn’t kill you and all that.” He gave
Colette’s husband a tight smile. “Just thought I’d thank y’all for all the help
and let you know I’ve left the agency to join Sheriff Picou’s department. So
I’ll be seein’ y’all around.”
For some reason, that warmed her heart. “That’s great,”
Colette said with a broad smile. “Welcome to Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish.”
Zach glared at the wolf. “Yeah, welcome to the parish,” he
muttered.
It was going to take some time to get over his resentment
toward the guy. Mostly because the bastard had kidnapped her. Sure, he knew
it’d been because of an FBI sting and if it had happened to any other woman, he
would’ve appreciated the necessity. But Colette wasn’t any other female. She
was
his
female. Strangely enough, it’d been Colette’s father who helped
to calm Zach in the days and weeks since the abduction. Willis had turned his
considerable focus on his future son-in-law, taking him under his wing.
That’s how Zach had found himself standing next to Colette’s
father, fighting eight-hundred-pound alligators with nothing but a hook at the
end of a rope and a .22 rifle. It’d been the first time he’d gone after the
reptiles without claws and fangs, but pitting himself against the big beasts
had helped bleed some of his aggression off. That and reorganizing his
businesses had acted as release valves for the pressure and anger he felt when
he saw the darkness in his mate’s eyes. She’d told him everything that happened
while she was in the warehouse and it’d made him want to kill Duet all over
again.
But the miracle that was his mate, his Colette seemed to
know the depths of his love for her. She hadn’t believed the lies Duet told
her, or if she did, she’d risen above her doubts to believe in him. And that
meant more to Zach than anything. It showed she belonged to and trusted him as
much as he belonged to and trusted her. Theirs was a true partnership. He
didn’t fool himself into thinking they’d have a life of smooth sailing. His
mate was hardheaded, stubborn and had a trigger finger that would’ve made a
lesser man twitchy. And he loved every bit of it. Their arguments would be epic,
and the make-up sex would be legendary.
Colette continued chatting with the wolf, but moved closer
to Zach until she was wedged up against his side again. He kissed her temple,
his eyes closing as he breathed in her scent. It’d been hard staying out of her
bed for three weeks. It’d been even harder when he imagined how scared she had
to be of shifters, but she’d surprised him. Her love hadn’t grown cold and she
hadn’t once scented of fear. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to rest easy with her
out of his sight, not for a while yet, but the one comfort he had was that his
mate had taken care of herself. The predator hiding beneath her deceptively
frail appearance was as strong as his tiger.
He opened his eyes, looking over her head straight at her
father, who watched them with a bittersweet smile on his face. They weren’t
best friends yet. But now that Colette belonged to him in the eyes of her
family and the law, Willis Robicheaux appeared happy. He nodded in Zach’s
direction, raising his cup of beer in a silent toast. Zach inclined his head at
his father-in-law. Everything was settled as far as the Robicheaux clan was
concerned, but it wouldn’t be until he put his mark on her that every shifter
who ever came across her would know she was well protected by a tiger. And he
couldn’t wait to sink fang into her unblemished skin.
“Oh,” she said with a chirp that sounded completely unlike
her, drawing Zach’s attention. “It’s Kanda!”
His mate broke away from him without a backward glance,
hiked up her skirts to reveal her bare feet and ran across the hall where a
tiny, fragile-looking woman stood in the doorway.
“Who’s that?” Coltrane asked in a weird voice.
When he glanced over at the wolf, the poor bastard looked
love-struck, his eyes glazed and his mouth slack. Zach grimaced, wondering if
he looked at Colette the same way and then shrugged. If he did, she was worth
it.
“That’s her cousin from New Orleans. She didn’t think she’d
be able to make it since we didn’t give her much notice about the wedding.” But
he was glad she had. Colette needed her best friend and cousin here. “She’s an
itty-bitty thing.” And she was.
If he had searched for any woman to be the complete opposite
of his mate, Kanda Banthao would have been it. Where his mate looked
uncomfortable in her dress, slapping at the material when it got in her way,
her cousin wore pink with a confidence that came with a love of the color. But
it didn’t end with the pink, no, it was the pink 50s-style dress topped with a
parasol. She looked like a bit of fluff, not the smartass shifter his mate
always talked about with such affection. He shuddered. Granted, the style
suited Kanda, giving her a dainty, fragile appearance that was only enhanced
when she stood next to Colette. There wasn’t that much difference in their heights,
but the shifter female seemed a lot smaller than her human cousin.
Yet the more Zach studied her, the more he realized she did
it on purpose, using makeup and fashion to give off the vibe of helplessness.
Black hair with outrageous yellow streaks was piled high on top of her head,
adding to her height, but there was no disguising the fact the woman looked
like a china doll. Definitely not Zach’s cup of tea. But the wolf looked like a
bird dog on point, staring at the cocoa-skinned woman with longing.
Zach’s mate grabbed her cousin’s arm and began towing her
across the room, her face glowing with happiness. “Zach, look! It’s Kanda,” she
announced in a near bellow. He couldn’t fight his smile at her excitement, but
what he really loved was how she stomped in her dress as though she was
sloughing through mud. She stopped in front of him and Coltrane, beaming at
them. “Zach, this is Kanda Banthao, my cousin. Kandy, this is my mate, Zach
Trahan.”
It was sad how much his chest swelled with pleasure at the
obvious pride in Colette’s voice as she introduced him to her cousin. He
grabbed her arm and pulled her to his side again, kissing her until she went
slack against him. Unable to help himself and now that she belonged to him, why
should he? She tasted sweet and perfect and all his.
“Aww, y’all are just too cute,” a husky feminine voice
sighed after a few mind-numbing minutes.
Zach lifted his head, his ears finally taking in the sound
of cheers and Cajun yodels bouncing off the walls of the Bayou Ange Swamp Tour
building. Lust-dazed and more than a little uncomfortable, he glanced over to
see Kanda watching them with starry eyes.
She smiled at him, her strong Asian features softening. “I’m
so happy for y’all,” she told Zach in a voice as sweet as sugar, clasping her
tiny hands together. She was miniscule, barely clearing five feet and probably
weighed less than Zach’s wedding cake. Then she said, “But if you break her
heart, I’ll kill you.” Kanda’s dark, nearly black eyes gleamed bright green for
a moment, showing she, and her inner animal, meant business. She smelled
strongly of cat and roses, looked as if she could pass for a child’s toy, but
there was no hiding the predator lurking beneath her cute face. “But I’m sure
Colette would take care of that herself.”
Zach’s jaw dropped. He’d never been so sweetly threatened.
Before he could say anything though, the little woman turned to Coltrane who
watched her with that pathetic look on his face.
“And you must be the wolf who kidnapped my cousin and let
those bullies chase her through the woods.” Her breathless, husky voice,
coupled with the wide, dark eyes made her appear weak and insubstantial. And
then she reached out to grip Coltrane’s wounded shoulder, digging her thumb
into the gunshot wound. “If you ever think of doin’ something like that again,
I’ll make sure there’s so little left of you to find, your own family won’t be
able to identify you. Ya hear?”