None spoke before they turned and shifted, running back toward home.
“So, if you two are these big haunchos, what am I?” Torrance asked.
“You, my dear, are the crazy female saddled with them and their big egos. Now, can we go? I’m starving.” Mr. Bixley clacked his way over to the huge truck, hopping around and making a nuisance of himself.
“Come on, I promise not to have a big ego. Huge dick is enough for you to handle, right about now.” Thadd lifted her off her feet, cradling her in his arms.
Yaro stared at them without moving.
“Come on, kaka mdogo,” Thadd said, calling him little brother, had the younger male’s eyes lighting up with joy.
“Thaddeus Winchester, I think I just fell in love with you.” With her arms wrapped around his head, she knew he was it for her. Her panther purred within her, agreeing.
A deep hum greeted her words. “If we were alone, I’d have you naked and claimed, upendo.”
“Not happening with little ears in the vicinity.” Mr. Bixley twitched his ears up and down.
Thadd growled without heat.
They drove halfway home with her sitting in the passenger seat, wishing Thadd’s truck had a bench seat like hers had. His brother and her goat snored away in the back. The sweet symphony she honestly thought was one she could listen to for the rest of her life. After finding a hotel that was pet friendly, they fell into an exhausted sleep with her and Thadd in one bed, Yaro in the other with Mr. Bixley in the tub where he’d made himself comfortable with several towels and the extra blanket. The following day, they were up early and on the road.
“Are you happy, upendo?” Thadd asked, his fingers laced through hers tightened slightly.
“Deliriously so. Once we get home and get settled, I’ll be even more so.” She was too shy to say the words, but her panther wanted his bite, needed it.
“Annie will love you.”
They’d been connecting more through their mind, but she’d stayed out of his memories for the most part. “What if she doesn’t?”
He brought their joined hands to his lips, kissing her fingers. “You said you trusted me, ma penzi.”
THADD LOVED HIS LITTLE mate with everything within him. If she’d said she wanted to stay in the crazy town she was from, he’d have moved everything he had to in order to make it work. Thank the goddess she had agreed to go with him to Texas where he and his lion didn’t feel the need to show their throat to Hollis, or rather they didn’t feel threatened by the older male, not enough they needed to prove who was the baddest beast.
After twenty hours in the truck with his mate, his brother, who he was still getting used to having, and an infuriating goat that wouldn’t shut the hell up, they rolled into Hollis and Annie’s drive. He’d thought about going to his place first but nixed that idea. “You up for meeting the alpha and his mate?”
Torrance stretched her arms over her head. He looked at her chest, admiring the way her nipples hardened under his gaze.
“Stop that, Thaddeus.” She put her hands over her breasts.
He looked up, grinning. “Stop what?”
“Stop getting her excited, you oaf,” Mr. Bixley muttered, rolling down his window.
Yaro laughed, the sound one that had come more often in the hours they’d driven.
Thadd opened his mouth, closing it on a snap as he spied his Crew in the front yard. “Ah sheot.” He glanced over at Torrance first, then in the backseat wondering how they were going to respond to the menagerie of shifters up ahead.
Torrance slipped her hand over his. “Don’t worry. I think I speak for all three of us when I say we can handle whatever they throw our way.”
He looked back at the road seeing Rylah and her twin Razi, both wolves standing with their arms crossed in the middle, more than likely the chosen speakers. He could’ve saved them the time they probably spent playing rock paper scissors. Losers. Of course, standing next to Razi was Jinx, the little lynx wild cat who liked to try and sneak up on him. Silly kitty, she might have excellent hearing and superior sight, but she had nothing on his beastie. His lion growled as he looked at Jurzee, the red wolf with an attitude the size of the state she was kind of named after. Her all black attire usually matched her mood. Blitz, on the other hand, he was a Bengal tiger who liked to play pranks. If he tried to fuck with Torrance, he’d find out really quick the error of his ways as Thadd swatted his striped ass all the way back to Siberia or wherever his kind came from.
“Why are you snarling?” Torrance asked, her sweet peppermint scent disappearing.
In their time together, he’d figured out she wasn’t masking her scent on purpose, but rather it happened when she was frightened, or her emotions were heightened. Like now. “I’m looking at my Crew and thinking who I’m gonna have to kill first,” he answered honestly.
His brother chuckled behind him, tapping on his shoulder. “I’m thinking that’s a bad thing, kaka.”
Thadd’s chest swelled, hearing the young boy call him brother. “Let’s see if you still think that when Ziggy, that big fucker on the right with long black hair, tosses you around like a ragdoll, or the two next to him jump on your back and dig their claws into you because they think you need grooming. Or better yet, that one off to the side with the striped hair that looks like a really bad dye job? Wait ‘til you see him look at you with one brown eye and one golden eye. You’ll think you’re staring at the devil incarnate, and you just might be right. But make no mistake, they’ll lay their lives down for you.”
“What’s his name, the devil cat?” Yaro
