“I love my women with fire. You were always too much cow for that husband of yours. There’s always room for you in my bed.”
Jacques punched Philip in the face, and the man stumbled back, allowing his mother to be released. Jacques grabbed her before she could lunge again.
“
Enough
!” Jacques bellowed.
“Mom, Charles,
out
!” His voice was as cold as ice.
“And take Max, Jake, and Monica with you.”
After a few tense seconds, Charles waddled out. Jackie, who'd partially shifted, went back to human form with a growl.
“Jacques…” Jackie started.
“Leave,” Jacques gritted out between his teeth.
“Yes, follow me hatchlings. There’s dessert in the kitchen.”
The three teen shifters followed without question, eyes wide.
Angel had never seen Jacques so furious. The anger and frustration she was feeling rolled off of him in waves. She wondered if anyone else could feel it.
“Okay, Philip, we all know why you’re here. Let’s get this over with so you can be on your way.”
Philip ran his hands through his long, silver hair and smoothed down his goatee.
“I don’t mean any of you disrespect, but although she looks like Sofia, I’d prefer to see her markings with my own eyes.”
Jacques moved to face Angel. Her breath immediately caught. His mother had told her what to expect. She’d have to bare her back to the room. Jacques would run his palm over the mark, and it would respond by darkening and pulsating. She might partially shift with the act; each shifter responded differently to her mate’s “caress”.
Even knowing what to expect, when Jacques moved in front of her, staring into her eyes, the breath still became trapped in her lungs. She looked around, getting a reassuring nod from her parents. The priestess stood to the side, a tiny woman with tan skin and her natural hair flowing down her back in a puffy cloud. She appeared to be concentrating.
Jacques rubbed her arms, focusing her eyes on his. Angel started to relax. She placed both palms flat against his chest as his strong fingers went to the zipper of her dress. As he slowly lowered the zipper, she could feel the coolness of the air in the room. Her nipples tightened in response to the draft. She leaned farther against Jacques, who was looking at her with heated green eyes. Inch by inch her skin was revealed to the room. Angel didn’t feel as exposed as she thought she would. Instead, the room’s occupants faded away. All she could see was Jacques. Feel his big, warm hands smoothing down her sides and then pulling the dress from her shoulders down to the crook of her arms. Her breathing was shallow as she trembled.
Mate.
The worded ebbed and flowed in and around her, caressing her like a warm blanket. When the zipper could go no farther, she felt her dress tugged down slightly and then opened to bare her lower back where she knew the round, rough skin of her marking lay. She hadn’t worn a bra with the dress, so her back was bare.
“Are you ready?” he whispered.
His husky voice caused her to shiver. Angel swallowed and nodded jerkily.
Feeling his fingers trail toward the base of her spine, Angel leaned into Jacques until there was no space between them. When his fingers brushed her marking, indescribable pleasure ripped through her. She’d never felt anything like it before. Jacques moaned and gritted his jaw. Angel’s head fell forward against his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, strong and sure. His fingers strummed her marking and the entire area throbbed. She could feel the skin on her back stiffen and itch. Panic started clearing her mind. She was going to shift. She could feel it. The tightening began to spread. She knew her skin was changing. Murmurs could be heard behind them, but she was still focused on the fact that she was going to shift.
“You can control it, Angel. Look at me.”
Angel’s eyes searched and found her mate’s. Instead of the green eyes of her mate, she met the yellow ones of his gator. He too was affected by the touch. Her fingers clutched his shirt, wrinkling the soft fabric.
“Breathe, focus on my heartbeat.”
“I’m trying,”
she said mentally.
“Take your time, there’s no rush.”
Angel had never been so wild and aroused. She fought the urge to let go. Her beast tugged to be let go, but she did as Jacques requested, she focused on the cadence of his heartbeat. After a brief moment, the itching abated and the tightness gradually loosened.
Jacques nudged under her chin, making her look at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
There was a loud, single clap in the room that brought her attention back to its occupants. Angel nervously fumbled to get her dress back into place.
“Bravo, bravo! Hell, all I needed was some popcorn and a goddamn diet Coke and I could have kicked up my heels.”
Angel’s father moved to address the room’s occupants, blocking their view of her.
“I think we’re all satisfied that she’s our daughter and Jacques’s mate. With four of the six pod rulers in attendance, there’s no need to do this again.”
Angel was grateful as Jacques helped her pull the crimson dress into place and pull up the zipper.
“Yes, we’re satisfied. Congratulations.” Henri and Diane Dubois nodded to them both before turning to the others and saying good night.
“Well I guess that’s my queue,” Philip said, approaching them. Jacques growled under his breath when Philip was directly in front of them. He held up both hands innocently.
“Down boy, I’ve seen what I came here to see.”
He held his hand palm up and waited for Angel to put her hand in his. Reluctantly she did so. His hand was warm and a bit damp as it closed around hers. He brought the back of it up to his lips and gave it a kiss.
“Welcome to the family. I can see you are indeed an angel. If you ever get tired of this one, give me a call. Tom, Diane.”
He nodded to her parents and then turned and left the room.
“Well, now that things have settled, let’s get on with the mating ceremony,” the priestess, said clapping her hands.
Angel’s heart went to her throat. Was she doing the right thing?
“If you want, we can wait,
cher
. I don’t want you doing anything you don’t want to do.”
Jacques’s look was sincere. He’d put a stop to it right now if she said so. That gesture was enough to seal her resolve.
“Let’s do it.” She gave him a shaky smile.
“Join hands.”
“Jacques Bertrand, sovereign bull of the Lafayette pod, do you accept Angelique LaFleur as your divine mate, acknowledging that you have seen her markings and shall one day allow her to bear your hatchlings?”
“I acknowledge.”
“Please show your markings.”
Jacques removed his coat with a smirk. He tossed it on a chair and then started unbuttoning his cuffs and then his shirt. Each bit of skin he bared had her heart racing and her clit throbbing. Jacques was all cut muscle and tan skin. He looked amazing. He removed his shirt, and she saw a tribal tattoo of a gator coming over his shoulder. Without thinking, she reached out and touched the marking. Jacques inhaled at her touch. His skin warmed beneath her fingertips, and the pattern started to form rough patches on his skin. He looked healthy and virile. Her beast wanted to grunt in appreciation, but she quieted it down.
“Angelique LaFleur, daughter of sovereigns Thomas and Diane LaFleur of the Baton Rouge pod. Do you accept Jacques Bertrand as your divine mate, acknowledging that you’ve seen his markings and shall one day allow him to be the father of your hatchlings?”
“Yes.” Her word was breathy and light.
She turned to Angel’s parents.
“As witnesses, do you acknowledge that Jacques and Angelique have followed all engagement protocol, and at the appointed time, you will allow them to complete the mating ceremony?”
“We acknowledge,” was her parents’ reply.
“Jacques and Angelique, you are now engaged mates, allowed the rights of mating until such time as your official mating ceremony.”
And that was it. Things moved quickly. Her parents left, the priestess was shown to her room, and Angel went back to the room she’d previously occupied. For most of the night she kept expecting Jacques to tap on her door. She rehearsed a gentle let down if he wanted to consummate their engagement. She never got the opportunity to use it because he never showed. She slept in a state of sexual frustration. She finally woke up early the next morning and masturbated with thoughts of green eyes and a Cajun drawl whispering in her ear.
It had been nearly three weeks since Angel arrived. After the night of her verification and their engagement, all hell started breaking loose. It started with several gator traps being found in his territories, and one of the traps contained Boucher’s nephew, Steven. Jacques had his own men looking into who’d set the traps and murdered Steven Boucher. Of course Philip was threatening retaliation if someone wasn’t turned over for the crime. And in typical Boucher fashion, he’d given him until New Year’s day to hand over the culprit, or the skirmishes in the parishes surrounding Acadia would start back up in earnest. Jacques refused to go on a witch hunt within his pod. He had his best bulls looking into the trapping situation, but so far their search had yielded little.
To further complicate matters, two of his most faithful pod commanders were found extorting money from the poorer residents in the Lafayette parishes. Christmas was just days away, and Angel was spending her weekdays working on the
Bayou Moon
from dawn past dinner time. The weekends were reserved for family bonding with her parents, and it seemed as if Chloe was seeing more of her than he was.
He wanted to spend more time with Angel. It was vitally important for her to see him and the life he had in Louisiana as a place where she, too, could belong. So far it’d proven to be just an opportunity to connect with her long lost parents and to finish off the casino job.
There was one upside; ever since he’d touched her, the instincts of being a mate had become more pronounced. She was more attuned to his moods and vice versa. Right now his mood was stressed. He needed to leave New Orleans and go to his house in Lafayette. The bayou was calling to him, and his beast needed to be free.
“Some of the contractors the construction company hired are threatening to strike if they aren’t given Christmas off, and Chloe is driving everyone nuts with her pickiness.”
Angel trudged into his office and plopped down into the chair in front of the table doubling as his desk. He’d be happy when he had a proper office. As it was, the items for the interior would not be brought aboard until the shell of the ship was fully complete, which wouldn’t be until next month.
“And what do you think we should do?” Jacques said, pushing his laptop away. His eyes were crossing from looking at the figures for the riverboat renovation.
“I think it’s Friday, and we have six days until Christmas. We should close up shop for the next two weeks and come back fresh the day after New Year’s.”
“That might throw us off schedule,” he warned.
“These guys have been working nonstop since November. The bulk of the heavy stuff’s done. Some of these guys are coming all the way from the north in Monroe and Shreveport.”
“Clyde’s a fair contractor, he uses bulls from all over, and his wife sets up accommodations for his men.”
“It’s not about that. It’s the holidays, these men should be able to go home to be with their families without having to turn right back around and work the day after Christmas.”
Jacques sat back and regarded Angel for a moment. She was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. Her hair was in a messy ponytail and the only makeup she wore was lip gloss. In short, she was beautiful. She’d stopped wearing her casino manager attire once she’d nearly broken her ankle tripping over a two-by-four. Chloe had taken her shopping for more sensible clothing, so now she didn’t stick out like a sore thumb and she could access more of the boat with relative safety.
“Okay, tell Clyde and Chloe we’re closing up shop until after the New Year.”
Jacques started working again. He had at least another hour of work to do. Knocking off for two weeks might work to his advantage; he could get Angel on his turf and show her some of the parishes in his pod. He could also meet with the parish leaders to see if they’d found the culprit of the traps. Sometimes people moved quicker if you were in front of them. That was one of the downsides of being sovereign over so much territory; he had to rely on others to carry out things for him. It still chafed that he hadn’t known two of his commanders were dirty.
He
should have been the one to figure it out. The fact that he’d found out by accident didn’t sit well with him at all.
“Um, excuse me. Earth to Jacques, are you there?”
Jacques looked up as Angel came around his desk. She placed one curvy hip on the edge next to him, crossing her arms over her ample chest.
“What’s going on with you? You seem a thousand miles away.” Her voice was joking, but he could see her concern. The last thing he wanted to do was worry her.
“I’m just busy, that’s all. I have a lot on my mind.”
“Yes, I know.”
Jacques sat up a bit; there was no way she could know. He hadn’t spoken to anyone about the issues in his pod except for his mother and Charles, both of whom were back in Lafayette.
“You do?” he asked cautiously.
Did he have a mole, was there a leak within his pod that he didn’t know about?
“Well, for the past week I’ve been getting bits and pieces of information randomly popping into my head. Names, images, sometimes conversations, you name it, I’m seeing it. Not to mention you’ve been giving off frustrated energy. I thought I was going crazy until I told my mom. She said the same thing happens to her when my dad gets really stressed. He…”
“Projects.” Jacques finished her sentence in mild surprise.
“I’m sorry; there are still things about mating that I’m not aware of.”
“You don’t have to apologize, Jacques. I just want to let you know that you’re not alone. I’m here and maybe I can help, if you let me.”