Page 64 of Hell's Gator

“Let’s get this meeting started. No need to go over the whole thing again, I updated everybody. What are we going to do about it?” Maverik asked.

“We have to stop them. Take them out to protect the animals, so they don’t start it up somewhere else,” Brandt said.

“They’re shifters?” Barron asked.

“Yeah. Badgers, mostly. A Panther. A couple of Bears. Whoever else they might have brought in since they ‘killed’ me.”

“I hate a damn Badger. They’re some killing bastards. Psychotic fuckers,” Bane said.

“Without a doubt. I’m talking hundreds of animal carcases rotting in the sun,” Lucien said. “Only thing that slowed it even slightly was when I started taking them out one-by-one. I’m sure with them thinking I’m gone, it’s right back to where it was before.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard to find, then,” Kiernan said.

“You’d think not, but that’s not the only thing they’re moving. So, they do try to at least keep the evidence off the shores and in the less inhabited areas,” Lucien said.

“How many you take out before they got you?” Havoc asked.

“Eight. There’s at least twice that left,” Lucien said.

“Don’t see any reason we can’t handle this ourselves,” Daniel said.

“Yep. Gotta stop it. Fucking shifters having absolutely no respect for nature and the wildlife in it,” Kaid said.

“We already know there’s bad shifters just like there’s bad people, bad dogs, bad everything,” Bam said. “But there’s good, too. We got to protect the good, especially when they can’t protect themselves.”

“Amen to that,” Vince said.

“What about the females?” Barron asked.

“I can’t see any reason to lie to them. Tell them what we’re going to take care of,” Brandt said.

“I second that,” Kaid said. “Some of our females are as strong if not stronger than we are.”

“Except Hellen. We can’t tell Hellen,” Maverik said.

“Hold on; what?” Lucien asked, not liking that they wanted him to keep a secret from his brand new mate.

“She is a Wild Life and Fisheries agent. What part of getting herself in ass deep don’t you get?” Maverik asked.

“It’s her job. It’s what she does,” Lucien said, defending his want to tell her about it.

“Yeah, it is. And she’s not a rule breaker. She’s strong as hell, but she’s not like Havoc. She will follow every damn rule down to the nth degree! She’ll have the damn place crawling with human authorities before we get a chance to clean it up and they’ll either get killed, or we risk the fact that shifters exist will be found out, but regardless, Hellen and all of us will get caught in the crossfire. We do not need that,” Maverik said. “I love my girl, but damn, why couldn’t she play a little looser with the rules on any damn thing.”

“She told y’all the other day, she’s not the problem child, she’s the good child,” Bam said, grinning.

“That she is,” Maverik agreed. “I give her a hard time, act like I did, but I never had to give her a second thought.”

“I’m not sure, but I think I resent that,” Havoc said, having not been there to hear the context of the conversation that might have implied that he was the problem child.

Chapter 14

The sound of tires crunching on the gravel alerted the guys to the fact that they were about to be questioned. Daisy’s jeep came into view and they thought for a moment that she was going to take a right and drive past Kaid’s house on her way off the property, but at the last moment, she slowed to a stop, then proceeded toward them. She pulled up next to them and the darkened window of her jeep rolled down. Instead of Daisy looking at them from the driver’s side, it was Janie in the passenger side, with Daisy sitting in the driver’s side, allowing her mother to do the talking.

“Well, this isn’t disturbing at all,” Janie said, her lips pressed together like a disapproving librarian who just told a group of kids to remain quiet for the third time.

“Disturbing?! Why does it have to be disturbing? We’re just a bunch of males hanging out and passing the morning,” Maverik said.

Janie glanced at Daisy.

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