Rose, Charlotte - Bayou Flood [The Shifters of Alligator Bend 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)
Authors: Charlotte Rose
When one of the men seemed to change and then disappear into the crowd, Sophie began to think she was hallucinating.
When the crowd began to part and started screaming, she realized she probably wasn’t.
When the house lights came up and she saw an alligator on the floor where the man had been, she went back to thinking she was hallucinating.
When she saw the other man’s skin change to a leathery green, when she saw his mouth and nose elongate into a snout with dangerous teeth, when she saw him drop to all fours and saw claws sprout where fingernails had been, she fainted.
* * * *
Gabriel wasn’t sure what confused him more—the strange desire he had to go see Sophie Deco’s performance or the way that the rest of the group had acted in response. He knew something was up, but he had no idea what it could possibly be. As he waited for the show to get going, he kept glancing over at his friends, trying to figure out what had most of them suddenly so skittish. Xavier, Oscar, Armand, and Nelson were all glancing at each other with skittish expressions, while Adele and Narcisse couldn’t seem to stop giggling and whispering to each other. Gabriel tried to ignore it, but when the four men started conversing in low tones as well, he jumped in.
“Okay, what’s goin’ on here?” he asked, trying to control his temper. “Are Virgil and I the butt of some sort of private joke to you? Because it ain’t funny. I wanna know what has you all worked up, and I want to know now.”
“Don’t worry,” Adele said with a slight smirk. “If we’re right, you’re gonna figure it out soon enough.”
“Right about what?”
“Adele, c’mon,” Oscar said with a slight groan. “This ain’t fair to anyone.”
Gabriel was about to interrogate further, but then the house lights dimmed.
“We’ll talk about this later,” he said, not bothering to hide his frustration.
“Oh, I’m sure we will,” Narcisse said before bursting into another round of laughter.
“It really ain’t funny,” Armand said.
All of a sudden, Gabriel was captivated by the woman who stood up there, lit by a spotlight, looking more than a little terrified. Her long, dark hair was streaked with red, and her green eyes were illuminated by the glow above her. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen, and he didn’t want to take his eyes off of her for a single second. He knew he’d hate the moment the set ended, because she’d slip backstage, and he’d quite possibly never be able to gaze on her gorgeous face and body ever again.
As she began to play her first number, he could see her nervousness begin to ebb away, and she became even more beautiful as her muscles relaxed and her lips formed into a smile. Before the first song ended, he was already coming up with a list of ways to make contact with her after the show. No matter how much effort it took, he was not going to let her get away.
The more she played, the more entranced Gabriel became, especially once she relaxed enough to start dancing and jumping around the stage. His cock began to creep toward hardness, making his pants more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. He didn’t care, though. As badly as he wanted to touch her, just staring at her gorgeous body was good enough for now. Complete fulfillment could come later.
At one point, a few songs in, he realized Sophie had noticed them. In fact, he was certain that if the light allowed it, she’d be looking him right in the eyes. But this realization didn’t last long before a familiar yet unexpected energy surged through his body. His skin began to harden, and a tail began to grow just above the waistband of his jeans. His nose and mouth elongated into a snout, and his hair began to recede into his body.
Oh, God, no. Not here. Not now. Not after a year of having total control over my shift. This cannot be happening. This is not happening. I will not allow it.
But no matter how hard he clenched his muscles, no matter how clearly he pictured himself in human form, Gabriel couldn’t deny that his gator self was overtaking his body. Before he knew it, he was on the floor, crawling out of his clothes, and everyone in the venue was screaming and panicking. Everyone, that is, except for his six friends, who were trying to keep everyone calm and protect him from getting stepped on.
Turning his body around, he saw that Virgil was in the same shape. But before Gabriel could try to ask his friend what had happened, a jealous rage surged through his body. Virgil, it seemed, was experiencing the same thing, because all of a sudden, he opened his jaws and bellowed.
Gabriel was equal parts confused and angry. But his body and mind weren’t completely his own. He didn’t have the chance to try to think things through or figure out what was going on. Instead, he slapped his head against the hard concrete of the club floor. It was a territorial move and one he felt his body had made for him without his having any real desire to do so.
In response, Virgil bellowed again and then attacked with a whip of his tail. By that point, the venue was mostly clear. The security guards were yelling at his friends in an attempt to make them leave, but Adele was giving them some story about them being wildlife management experts specially trained to handle alligators.
Another swipe of Virgil’s tail distracted Gabriel from the rest of the conversation, and he launched back into the attack with full force, snapping, biting, and bellowing, trying to drive his friend off.
“Okay, enough’s enough,” he heard Armand say.
Gabriel didn’t know what that meant, but as he attempted to retaliate against one of Virgil’s blows, he found himself suddenly bound by Armand’s and Nelson’s arms.
Chapter Two
Armand gripped his hands around Gabriel’s jaws. Still caught off-guard by his sudden shift and completely freaked out, Gabriel didn’t stop thrashing. He kept trying to open his jaws to snap at Virgil, but Armand held fast.
“Chill out, man,” Armand commanded. “Just calm down.”
Gabriel, however, was not ready to settle down. He continued thrashing his tail and scratching his claws on the floor, desperate to get away. Virgil didn’t seem to be in much better shape, either. He could hear Xavier and Oscar trying to talk him down, as well as the scratching of claws on concrete.
Suddenly, Gabriel felt a strong pair of hands grip his tail.
“If you just relax, Armand and I can explain everything,” Nelson said. “There’s an answer to all of this, but there’s no point in trying to discuss it until we get you two back in human form and revive her. So if you want answers, you need to chill.”
Gabriel finally quit struggling.
“You sure you can be calm?” Armand asked.
Gabriel blinked twice.
“Okay, then. We’re lettin’ go of you now. But if you freak out again, we’re gonna take hold of you again. We need to be able to trust that you’re gonna stay in control of yourself.” Armand and Nelson stepped away, and Gabriel resisted the urge to start attacking again.
“Good,” Nelson said with a nod. “Now, I know this change hit you unexpectedly, and it’s the first time in a long time you’ve had that problem. I know you’re tense as hell, and that’ll make it harder for you to shift back. But just close your eyes, relax, and let it happen. Same way you always do.”
Gabriel wanted to demand answers right then and there, but lacking vocal cords, he had no choice but to obey his friend. He closed his eyes and willed his body to relax. Then he pictured his skin returning to its regular tanned smoothness and visualized his teeth shortening. Gradually, he felt his muscles and limbs begin to lengthen, felt himself grow to full height, felt his claws retract into fingernails. He opened his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief, then bent down and hurried to pull his clothes back on. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he glimpsed Virgil, fully human again, zipping up his jeans and then pulling on his T-shirt.
“So what the hell just happened?” Gabriel asked, trying to keep his cool. He wanted answers, but he knew his friends didn’t deserve to be snapped at.
Nelson chuckled. “Just be glad that we were here. Otherwise, things could’ve gotten complicated. You remember what happened to us last month?”
Gabriel raised his eyebrows. “You sayin’ that we got hit by the matin’ instinct? That she’s our mate?”
Xavier nodded. “The one and only.”
“Is that why we felt the need to check out her set, even though we’d never heard of her before?” Virgil asked.
“I imagine so. Congratulations, you’ve found your mate.”
“What do we do now?”
Now it was Oscar’s turn to laugh. “I imagine the first order of business is to wake her up.”
* * * *
The first thing Sophie felt as she regained consciousness was the sting of the guitar string wound on her cheek, as well as a dull ache forming behind her forehead. As she became more aware of her surroundings, her heart began to race as she observed a group of strangers crouched down and staring at her. She started shaking, trying to ignore the pain building in her head as she collected her thoughts. Two of the people in the circle were the gorgeous men she’d seen turn into alligators, but even that didn’t put her at ease. Sexy as they were, Sophie was too frightened and confused to feel aroused. She jumped up and tried to push through the tight circle they had formed around her, but she couldn’t break free.
“Excuse me. I’m not well. I really need to pack up my gear and get out of here.”
One of the women chuckled. “Are you sure that’s what you want? Or would you prefer to get some answers about what you just witnessed?”
Sophie felt the blood drain from her face. “Answers? You mean I wasn’t hallucinating?”
The other woman shook her head. “You definitely weren’t.”
“And you’re sure I’m not hallucinating now?”
“I promise.”
Another strange man came through the door.
“Virgil, Gabriel, you’re gonna have to shift again so we can sneak you two out without things looking even more suspicious.”
The two men from the audience looked up at him and groaned.
“Come on, man, really?” one of them said.
“Look, it’s bad enough that two humans just transformed to gators in the middle of the club. That’s the most public shift that’s happened in decades, and it’s why I insisted we not come to the show in the first place.”
“Then how would they have found their mate?” the first woman asked. “Could we have counted on her running into them boating around the bayou? Would she have gone on a swamp tour like Narcisse? It wouldn’t have been right for us to keep them from meeting each other.”
Mate? Shift? What the hell is going on here?
“Excuse me,” Sophie said, this time forcing her way through the people surrounding her. “I really do need to be off. Thanks for looking after me when I fainted. I really appreciate your help. But I should get home.”
“Please don’t go,” the second woman said, grabbing her arm. “It’s really important that we have a chance to talk to you.”
For a moment, Sophie felt creeped out, but then she looked at the two men she’d been staring at from the stage. Something in the back of her mind commanded her to stay. As much as the rest of her wanted to flee, she found she couldn’t resist.
“Okay. So are we going to do this here or what?”
“Definitely not,” one of the other men said. “It ain’t safe here. But the security guards think Virgil and Gabriel here are actual gators. Guess they didn’t see the shift, thank goodness. Hopefully not too many other people noticed, either. Anyway, we managed to get ’em to back off, but we gotta leave with them in gator form to keep the illusion up.”
Virgil and Gabriel sighed and closed their eyes. Although she’d seen them change once before, Sophie was still shocked to see them transform from chiseled, dark, smooth-skinned men to rough, menacing alligators right before her very eyes. She began to feel woozy again, and spots started appearing in her vision.
“Grab her!” she heard a voice call, and suddenly she was being supported by two well-muscled men. It felt good to have people to lean on, but as Sophie’s mind cleared, she realized she wished she was being held by the two who were currently reptiles.
“I’m okay,” she said as her leg muscles started to feel strong again. When the men released her, she managed to stand steady on her feet.
“Okay, here’s the plan,” the blond man said. “We’re not gonna walk out the front door, ’cause that’s gonna just incite more chaos and attention. Instead, we’re gonna go out the back. One of the guards is back there, so he’ll see us and know we’ve cleared the area. Nelson and I will take Gabriel. Xavier and Oscar will take Virgil.”
