Thanks. While I’m already talking to you, me, Emelise, and Shelli are up in Baton Rouge at the Mall of Louisiana, and we keep running into the same three guys. We got close enough for me and Eme to catch their scent. They’re jaguars. Dunno if we need to be worried or not but I wanted you to know.
Keep an eye out, cher. If they figure out she’s leopard, they might harass you. A few of our females have had some run-ins with the jaguars, and they’ve been pretty belligerent with them. Watch your backs.
Lily bit back a growl at his text before she responded.Will do. I’ll let you know when we’re headed back to NOLA, just in case there are any problems.
I appreciate it, cher.
“What’s wrong?” Emelise heard the noise Lily made, even if no one else had.
“Remy said to watch our backs. Some of the women from the group have had trouble with their Clan,” she said and pointed in the direction of the trio, “and he’s worried if they figure out you’re a leopard they’ll harass us. I told him we’ll keep an eye out and we’ll let him know when we’re headed home.”
“Lovely, just what I fucking need. You know what, fuck them. I’m not letting the day get ruined. Let’s get out of here and head over to the Farmer’s Market before we go home.”
“That’s the spirit.” Lily laughed softly. They dumped their trash, grabbed their purchases, and headed out to Lily’s car. As she was opening the trunk, Lily noticed they’d been followed and decided she wasn’t going to cower. “Hey, dickheads, a little obvious, dontcha think? I mean, seriously, if you’re going to be all creepy stalkers, you shouldn’t make it obvious that you’re following us.”
All three jaguars froze at her words. “What makes you think we’re following you?” one of them asked.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You watched us when we first walked into the mall, you were outside damn near every store we went into, you were in the food court while we were eating, and now—surprise, surprise—you’re out here in the parking lot at the same time we are. If you’re trying to work yourselves up to ask us out, let me just tell you now, you blew it four stores ago. Even if we’d been interested, if a man doesn’t have the balls to step up and ask a woman out, he’s not worth the time. Buh-bye, now,” she said, slammed the trunk closed, and slid in behind the wheel. All three women laughed as she pulled out of the parking lot and headed to the Farmer’s Market.
“Oh my gods, Lily, that was fucking priceless!” Emelise said once they were on their way. “The looks on their faces when you pretty much said they had no balls—I wish I’d had my phone out to take a picture of it.”
Shelli snickered. “You have got one hell of a harsh tongue when the mood strikes you. I was trying to figure out how to tell them to go the hell away, and you did it perfectly.”
Lily laughed. “Yeah, well, I was tired of them following us. Besides, after what Remy said about the jaguars harassing some of the female leopards, I wasn’t going to give them the chance to pull that on us. I know they were headed to my car; I saw the way they’d picked up their pace when I went to close the trunk while you two got in the car.”
“What if they figure out where you work and show up there?” There was worry in Emelise’s voice.
Lily shrugged. “I’ll just send Remy a text and he’ll come deal with them.”
Emelise looked at her. “Okay, but I hope that’s the last we see of them.” She shook her head. “No more gloomy thoughts; let’s just enjoy the rest of the day.”
Hours later, after they’d exhausted themselves with shopping, they’d returned home without any further run-ins with the trio of jaguars, and Lily put the incident out of her mind. She put her purchases away, made herself a light dinner, then spent the rest of the night doing something she loved but hadn’t given herself the chance to do in ages. Paint. She needed the cathartic release that she got from pouring her emotions out on canvas. By the time she finally collapsed into bed, she felt better, calmer than she had since the night she and Declan’d had sex.
