Free Croc's Return by Eve Langlais Page B

scaly.”
    “So maybe you saw a crocodile or an alligator. They might seem like dinosaurs.”
    Holy fuck, his son could roll his eyes like a pro. “I know what a croc and gator look like. And they don’t walk on two legs.”
    Not usually, but the time Caleb had spent in the military, away from what he knew and immersed in a world where the mysteries of magic weren’t lost, he’d seen things. Impossible things. He’d met impossible shifters. Men who shifted only partially, sporting the heads of jackals. Stallions, with the upper torsos of men, the centaurs of old. Then the scariest thing of all, the naga, a beast thought hunted to extinction. The serpentine monster wasn’t dangerous because of its deadly strength, but because of the poisonous nature of their voice. Whatever the naga asked, a person did. He should know. He’d suffered under the influence of one for much too long. His scar tightened. Fire had severed that slave-like bond.
    These experiences meant Caleb was well aware the world was much more vast and varied than most people, even shifters, imagined. It meant he kept his mind open to the possibility of a gator or even a croc walking about on two legs.
    “Did the thing have two arms as well?” Caleb asked.
    A nod of his son’s head. “With claws. And its face was weird.”
    Face, not muzzle or snout. Interesting choice of word.
    Caleb kept a hold of Luke’s hand as Renny made her way to him, the twins now clinging to their father—who seemed vastly uncomfortable—confronted with his children’s hiccupping sobs.
    What a useless tool, but not Caleb’s problem.
    When Renny got close enough, he asked, “Did the boys mention anything to you after they came out of the woods?”
    “As a matter of fact, they did. Something about a monster.”
    “A dinosaur,” Luke corrected.
    “Yes, one of them said that. Probably a reptile of some kind that scared them, but I can’t see Melanie getting taken unawares by one.”
    He couldn’t disagree. As part of the feline Pantherinae family, even in her human form, Melanie had a very developed sense of smell.
    “I don’t suppose you’ve heard of a two-legged lizard man roaming in the swamp?”
    A brow arched as Renny stared at him. “Is this your way of insulting Wes again? The Mercers aren’t at fault for everything. And, besides, he was standing with us when she went missing.”
    A clamor went up from the far end of the clearing, where a weeping willow draped the shore to the creek in a thick curtain. From between the strands, a man in a purple shirt appeared carrying something crimson.
    Renny squinted, but not for long, as Caleb, with his better eyesight, spoke aloud, “It’s Wes, and it looks like he’s got Melanie.”
    “Is she all right?” A fair question to ask since her friend was being carried instead of walking.
    A moment later, she got her answer as a shrill shriek shot across the field. “How dare you!”
    “I wonder what Wes did this time.”
    “He’s a Mercer. Does it matter?” was Caleb’s reply as he watched a throng of people descend on Melanie and her rescuer. “You wanna go check on her?”
    Before he’d even finished asking, she was striding towards Melanie, she just never made it anywhere close to her side as a cluster of hens, dressed in pastels, swarmed her best friend with a bevy of questions.
    “Oh my God, you’re alright.”
    “What happened?”
    “Is it true you were abducted by a dinosaur?”
    And a lowly murmured, “Attention slut.”
    While Caleb towered high enough to see what happened, Renny had to rely on peeks in between the milling bodies, not that there was much to see. Melanie was still in Wes’s grip, the Bittech guard for some reason not setting her down or passing her off, probably because Andrew was too busy off to the side whispering in his phone.
    Asshat. A true mate would be more worried about his wife.
    Catching her best friend’s eye, Renny pantomimed a phone to her ear and mouthed, “Call me