Well, I am your bubba, and I'm telling you to let us in.Bubba sounded like he was trying not to laugh.The alphas want to talk to her, and Leo needs to make sure his mate is okay.
All right, but if she gets mad and buries me in an earthquake, it's your fault!I warned him and carefully stood up so I didn't wake the fox.
What makes you think she'd do that?he asked as I unlocked the door and opened it.
"She said she would bury anyone in an earthquake who woke her up." I blinked up at him.
"Did she say anything else, Reau?" Leo pushed past me into the room and dropped to his knees in front of the fox.
"Just her name," I said with a shrug. "Bubba, can we have breakfast now? I'm starving."
"Sure." Bubba scrubbed his big hand through my curls. "The alphas, the witches, Mr. Barlow, and Mr. Price are joining us. Angelo's making a feast of pancakes and bacon."
"Pancakes?" I squealed and clapped my hands. "Oh, boy!"
I moved to race up the stairs, but Leo called me back.
"Reau!" he whined. "What is it?"
"What's what?" I scowled, cranky to be held up when pancakes were in my future.
"Hername," Leo sighed. "What is it?"
"Poppy Torres." I grinned as I looked at him and remembered the rest of what she'd told me. "Oh, and she said to tell you that if you try to run away or reject her, she'll hunt you down and gut you like a fish."
Laughing at Leo's big eyes, I ran up the stairs, hoping Gelo didn't forget to put chocolate chips in my pancakes.
10: Foxy Lady
Leo
I looked down at the gorgeous creature curled up beside me on the couch and felt my heart stutter.
I hadn't seen her human form yet, and I didn't need to. I loved her already.
And I didn't deserve her.
There was no way to know how many shifters had died before they ever found their mates, but I knewexactlyhow many my hands or my orders had killed in the last year. How many people I'd condemned to live without their Goddess-given mates.
So how in the name of the moon did I deserve a mate?Me. A demon-tainted shell of a man whose existence was dependent on a luna's pity and her alphas' charity?
I knew why I was living where I was. The alphas wanted to make sure I didn't have any lingering diabolical influences, hence the Angel of Death as a housemate. The luna, Goddess love her kind heart, wanted to make sure I didn't have any suicidal tendencies, hence the mother hen known as Beta Emerson Jones as a housemate.
And as for our third housemate, Thoreau considered anyone a friend who treated him with the least bit of kindness, whether it was letting him ride a dirt bike or helping him get his shirt buttoned right or just making him a 'peabutter sammich.'
I swear, that kid would live on those if you let him,I chuckled to myself.
A flicker of electricity stirred the hair on my arms as my mate began to shift, and I realized I knew nothing about fox shifters. I didn't even know if the fox was a separate spirit, like it is for us wolves, or only a form, like it is for bird shifters.
Idoknow I should have gotten her some clothes, I growled at myself as I stood up.
Stripping off my t-shirt, I held it out in one hand while keeping my back to her.
"Sorry," I muttered. "I can get you something better to wear in a minute."
I felt her take it from my hand and let my arm drop back to my side.
"This is fine," she murmured, and I could hear a smile in her voice. "It smells like you. Like peaches. Mmm. Yum."