She couldn’t stop herself from laughing—her grandfather would roll in his grave if he even thought she’d contemplate using the term ‘granddaddy’.“Yeah.Grandfather didn’t exactly court popular opinion.”
With her heels sinking into the sodden ground, she grimaced and peered down.“Is this mud?”
“Rained last night,” Shawn told her.“Didn’t you hear it?”
She cleared her throat.“Nope.”Over the screams and the shrieks?Rain hadn’t had a chance of stopping play in her bedroom last night.
Marc chuckled when Trip grumbled, “I’m so jealous.”
“Your turn tonight, baby,” she said with a purr and watched all the men turn to stare at her.
She preened at being at the center of their attention, then shifted her gaze from them to the guards who had shuffled away from their posts to gawk at them.
“What do you want?”The gun-less dude was the one to ask the question.
Ryan frowned.“To talk to your leader.”
The guy crossed his arms over his chest.“You’re talking to him.”
She could sense their surprise—the Pride was accustomed to a lot more formality.She hadn’t been around long before she’d figured that out.
Most of the time, she knew that formality fucked Ryan off, but he dealt with it pretty well.
“I thought Jose was in charge?”
“Jose died.I’m Luis Pantera.Now, what the fuck do you want?”
The way he’d bared his teeth at that comment ‘Jose died’, El figured Luis had something to do with it.
Before she’d realized how Shifters viewed body language, she’d probably have shuffled closer to one of her mates’ side.Now, she knew that would not only draw attention to her but would also look like a sign of weakness.
Considering Luis had pretty much just admitted to murder, she figured showing him a strong front was the way to go.
“We want to know about a female Shifter.”
Luis narrowed his eyes.“Why?”
Ryan pursed his lips.“The name’s Jessa Rodriguez Garcia.”
“Lots of Jessas around here,” Luis said unhelpfully.“We’re predominantly Hispanic after all.”
El refrained from rolling her eyes.Barely.
“Jessa is probably in her sixties.”Though her father had told her mates everything he knew about El’s mother, they’d had to recalculate her age.
Shifters always lied to humans about their ages.
And female Shifters were renowned for never telling their human mates the truth about their real age, a fact El could understand.Sugar daddies were better looked upon than cougars.
Although… El had to stop herself from snickering—her mom had literally been a cougar!
“Again, lots of sixty-year-old Jessas hanging around.”
“She disappeared thirty-one years ago, and was the granddaughter of Enrique Pantera, your not so long ago leader.”
Luis stiffened.Then, his shoulders hunched up in a way that told her his Panther would be bristling.
“You’d better cut out the shit, Pussycats.You come here to my territory and ask me shit about…” He broke off.Cursed under his breath.
