Between Two Crocs: BBW Shapshifter Romance (Safari Shifters Book 2) (4 page)

“You think she’ll stay?” Max asked Finn for the third time that night.

“I don’t know. We’ll have to wait and see,” Finn said.

Max wanted to be chill about it all, but he couldn’t think of anything besides their mate. They’d had a great night together and she seemed to be into them. She had to feel the same bond that he felt after they’d made love.

“Maybe we should have marked her,” he said.

“We have to ask her first. I don’t want to mark someone who doesn’t belong to us.”

“But maybe it would have helped ease her mind. I heard it’s really helpful to human mates.”

Finn pulled on his blazer. “Maybe, but I’m not going to do that. We can wait. It’s only a few more hours.”

Max nodded and followed Finn outside.

The rehearsal dinner was taking place on the yacht used for island tours. They were riding out to the yacht with a big crowd. It was a noisy bus ride over, but Max barely heard any of it. He wasn’t going to be able to get a moment’s peace until he marked his mate and knew she was his forever.

When he saw Lily waiting with the group at the pier, his heart leaped. He rushed over to kiss her hello.

“Hey.” She rubbed his arm. “You look nice.”

Finn kissed her too. “You look great too.”

She was wearing a short purple dress with a flared skirt that showed off her great legs. She spun around once. “What, this old thing? Wait until you see my maid of honor’s dress.”

“Oh, shoot. I gotta find the boss man.” Max looked around for Gummy. He had only been invited to the rehearsal dinner since he was Gummy’s assistant. It wasn’t a hard job at all. Ward had arranged it so Max had the next few days off his job at the airport. He felt bad for his co-workers who were going to pick up the slack, but he didn’t mind the break. Being Gummy’s assistant was pretty easy. He’d spent the day making coffee and checking the marble and feather arrangements for the reception tables.

He spotted Gummy talking to the chef and went over. “Hey, boss. Need me to do anything?”

Gummy put his finger next to his mouth. “Let me think. I guess you can go and make sure the table is decorated properly and the place settings are in the right places.”

Max nodded. He went onto the ship and was surprised to see photographers milling around snapping shots. He’d thought they were only going to take pictures of the wedding.

He tried to stay out of the shots as he checked the room. There were a few seating mistakes but mostly, it all looked great. The giant peacock feathers in the flower arrangements were beautiful. They were discarded choices from the reception that Gummy had decided couldn’t be used. Max had liked them, but he saw why Addison wouldn’t. It would make conversation difficult at the reception venue.

He’d learned a lot about wedding planning from just his one day on the job. At least it was good practice for when they married Lily.

Max went back outside and gave Gummy a thumbs up before returning to Finn and Lily, who were talking with Addison’s parents.

“It’s time to board,” Gummy called out ten minutes later.

The whole crowd filed onto the giant yacht. Max had only been on the boat for one cruise before this. He and Finn were seated on either side of Lily for the meal. It wasn’t exactly what Gummy had planned originally, but Max had convinced him to ease up. Branch had originally been seated between Lily and Addison’s father, but now he was seated between Ward and Chet.

The festivities got started with the captain welcoming everyone on board and giving them a rundown of the safety procedures. Max kept his arm around the back of Lily’s chair for the whole speech. He was a little uncomfortable that the photographers were snapping away, but he supposed he had to get used to it. They were going to be a frequent sight for the next few days.

Before the main course was served, Ward stood up. “Excuse me, everyone. I’d like to say a few words.”

The tables all quieted and everyone in the room turned their attention to him. “Thanks. For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Ward Langston and I work in PR here on Safari Island. I wanted to thank the lovely bride and groom for allowing us to turn their intimate wedding into a circus.”

He paused to allow his audience to laugh before he continued. “Seriously, we can’t thank you enough for letting us use your special day to advertise our new corporate ventures. When I saw that two such attractive people were getting hitched, I knew I could use it to our advantage. So I have to also thank the parents.” Ward raised his glass to the Gallows and Littles. “Thank you, guys, for making such a good-looking pair of people.”

Chet kissed the back of Addison’s hand and raised his glass to Mr. and Mrs. Little. “I have to agree with Ward, here.”

The room clapped. Max had to admit it was cute. Chet was really lucky, and Max had to thank Addison for bringing Lily back to the island. If it wasn’t for their big wedding, he and Finn wouldn’t have gotten another chance with Lily. He would remember to thank her at their wedding.

Ward raised his glass to the happy couple. “Thank you both for allowing us to capture your special day. Pictures of a couple so deeply in love are going to do wonders for our business. I wish you both a lifetime of happiness.”

The room applauded and then the waiters started bringing out plates of food.

“Excuse me.” Lily stood up. “I need to go to the little girls’ room before we eat.”

Finn kissed her before she left. “She’s looking a little queasy. I bet she’s not used to being on water.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Max said. “She didn’t say anything.”

“She took a pill for motion sickness while you were doing work for Gummy.”

Max nodded. “I hope she’s okay.”

“I’ll go look for her if she isn’t back in a minute. I’m sure we’ll find her with her head over the side of the boat.”

Max chuckled. “Maybe we should give her a minute extra. I know I hate throwing up in front of people.”

Finn nodded. “Good idea.”

***

Lily hung her head over the side of the boat and took a deep breath. She hated being sick. When she’d heard the dinner was taking place on the water, she had known to pack her pills. The slow rocking of the boat made her feel awful.

“How convenient.”

She whipped around in disbelief. “Mr. Angelsen?”

Her boss nodded. “In the flesh.”

She couldn’t believe her eyes. A bald-headed hulking figure came toward her. The familiar face’s menacing glare made her stomach turn. Maybe the pills were making her hallucinate. “What are you doing here?”

“I thought I needed to pay my favorite employee a little visit,” Dave Angelsen said sarcastically. He moved closer and grabbed her around the arm. “I was on my way out of the country and I decided to make a quick trip here before heading to the Philippines.”

Lily looked at his hand. “What?”

Nothing was making any sense and her stomach rolled. She hung her head over the side rail and threw up into the ocean.

“I didn’t think it would so easy to get close to you, but this party made it really easy.” He pulled her closer and his black eyes flashed. “I don’t appreciate threats.”

Lily was afraid. She was on a boat full of people, but there wasn’t anyone nearby. Mr. Angelsen was a big man, at least six feet tall and much stronger than she was. Whatever he wanted, he wasn’t going to be good. She thought back to the self-defense class she’d taken in high school and stomped the top of his foot with all her might.

“Ouch!”

Instead of letting her go, Angelsen picked her up and threw her over the side of the yacht. Lily screamed as she hit the water. They weren’t moving fast, but they were already far away from the shore. If she couldn’t get back on board quickly, she could get lost at sea. She could end up dead in a watery grave. She had no idea how long it would take someone to come looking for her. Who knows how far away the yacht would be by then.

To her surprise, a second later, Angelsen hit the water. For a moment, she was elated. Maybe he’d made a mistake and hadn’t meant to throw her overboard.

“What are you doing?” she demanded.

“You’ve annoyed me, Lily, and I want to make sure you don’t contact anyone until I’m very far away.”

“You can just let me go. No one will even know where you’re going. I don’t know anything.”

Lily started to swim toward where she thought the dining area of the yacht was. She needed to get someone’s attention.

“Probably, but this is a personal task for me.” To her astonishment, Angelsen began to transform. “You’re an awful worker. I only hired you so I would have someone to take the fall for me, and you messed that all up. The least you can do is die quickly. I’d feel a lot better if that happened.”

Lily watched in horror as her former boss turned from a hulking man into an even bigger shark. She’d known he was a water shifter, but she’d always imagined he was a turtle or a tuna or something.

A shark? A freaking shark? She started to thrash in the water and scream loudly for help. She turned and swam as quickly as she could.

She could feel the shark getting closer. Suddenly there was a giant splash in the water behind her. She didn’t take time to turn and look. She swam to put as much distance between herself and the shark as she could.

“Lily! Lily! Over here!”

She looked around and saw Max’s friend Shane hanging off the side of the boat on a flimsy ladder. There was thrashing behind her and she turned to see what it was. There were two giant crocodiles snapping at the shark. She was so shocked she couldn’t move. If she’d thought the shark was big, the crocodiles looked like something from a pre-historic era.

“Come on!” Shane called. “Just keep swimming.”

Lily tore her eyes from the fight and swam for Shane. She was exhausted by the time she reached him. He plucked her from the water and she clung to his back while he climbed onto the ship. As soon as she was on board, Addison wrapped her in a towel and Addison’s mother pulled her close. Her teeth were chattering from fright.

“Are you okay? I can’t believe this happened. I am going to sue the pants off this company. Was the railing loose? What happened, honey?” Addison’s father was shaking with rage. “Are you okay, honey?”

Lily nodded. But she was anything but okay. She could hear Max and Finn fighting with Angelsen in the water below. She was too terrified to even look at them, so instead she looked at Shane.

“That shark is croc food. Don’t worry.”

Her own parents were running down the deck toward her. Lily struggled to keep her eyes open. Hearing that her mates had killed her boss was too much for her. The world turned gray around the edges and then black as she lost consciousness.

“Hey.” Finn was stroking Lily’s hair as she opened her eyes. “You’re having a nightmare.”

She sat up fast and threw her arms around his neck. “Is this ever going to stop?”

“Don’t worry,” he soothed. “It’ll get better.”

Even though she had no injuries, Ward had insisted that she stay overnight in the hospital to be safe, with the company covering all the costs. Finn and Max were allowed to stay with her even though it was technically against hospital policy. Max had been able to sweet talk the nurse into agreeing that it was better for Lily if she had her mates close. Since the nurse was a shifter too, she had agreed.

Her crazy boss had made a bad choice when he came after her. Finn was surprised that Angelsen hadn’t just ridden off into the sunset. His stupid vendetta had cost him an arm and a leg, literally. Finn didn’t feel bad that he and Max had done so much damage to the man. He had come after their mate, and he deserved everything he got.

It turned out that he was cheating his clients and was trying to run off with their cash. He was trying to blame it all on Lily, but that hadn’t gone as planned. After she’d quit, she had emailed several of his clients telling them why she was quitting.

Angelsen was recuperating under armed guard in the same hospital. When he was well enough, he would be taken back to the States to stand trial. The twins would have to speak to the police a few more times and give statements, but they weren’t in any trouble. At least not with the law.

Ward was pretty irritated that his grand fairy tale wedding had gotten overshadowed. Someone had gotten a video of the big shark-on-croc fight and it had gone viral.

Finn was ridiculously proud that the video of him defending his mate was so popular. He wasn’t going to tell Ward that, but he and Max had high-fived over it frequently. If anything, Finn thought this would make the wedding even more memorable.

“Go back to sleep,” Finn told Lily. He climbed in bed with her on one side and Max got in on the other. “No one is going to get to you without going through us.”

“Good.” Lily lay back down. “I love you guys.”

There was a lump in Finn’s throat. “I love you too.”

“And I love you too,” Max said.

“This is nice.” Lily closed her eyes. “I’ll never be afraid when you two are around. I’m such a lucky girl to have two strong mates.”

Finn didn’t need to say what he was feeling. From Max’s expression, he was thinking the same thing. They were the lucky ones. It was difficult to find a mate to complete a triad.

He leaned down and gently bit into Lily’s shoulder. “We’re going to mark you now.”

Lily’s eyes popped open. “Okay.”

Max bit into Lily’s other shoulder. They both licked at the wounds until they closed.

Smiling, Lily closed her eyes again. She was snoring a little while later. Before long, Max was asleep too.

Finn was the last to close his eyes. They would need their rest. Tomorrow would be a big day. As soon as Chet and Addison’s wedding was finished, he couldn’t wait to start planning his own.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thank you for reading Between Two Crocs! If you enjoyed this story, please consider leaving a review. Thank you so much for your help :)

Coming Soon

Elephants Never Forget (Safari Shifters Book 3)

Maura Trebel is visiting Safari Island for her honeymoon, except there is no husband by her side. Her fiancé left her at the alter and Maura was forced to come to the romantic resort alone. She quickly makes a new friend and is surprised to see a face from her past.

Branch Dunkin is having a less than stellar summer. His best friends have gotten married and he’s lonely. He’d love to find a mate one day but is content to keep his life single and carefree for now. All that changes when a woman from his past waltzes back into his life.

The two have an instant connection but Maura doesn’t think she can act on it. She’s on the island for more than her honeymoon. The secret is enough to make her keep her distance. Will she go through with her plans or will she be won over by love? Find out in book three of the Safari Shifter series!

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