Page 138 of Let Us Prey

I chuckle, shaking my head. “Any idea how we’re keeping everyone safe in this giant, drugged up clusterfuck?”

They blink, tilting their heads at me eerily similarly. Finally, Aubrey speaks. “We’re alpha tier, apex preds. Scent mark her and only the stupidest motherfuckers on the planet will even approach.”

Well, shit. I suppose that’s true for any horny college kid or random cradle robber.

“What about those dumb enough to intrude?” I ask, arching a brow.

“Fitz will kill them. I doubt we’d have to lift a finger,” Chess says as he walks out. “Any of us could, but his ADHD is going to be off the charts once that music and light show starts.”

The tiger in question comes running out of the crowd in front of us, and my jaw drops. He’s drinking some weird pink concoction in a fishbowl with flashing lights and fruit and various shit sticking out of it. They adorned his limbs in enough glow bands to make him look like a ‘My Little Pony’. Then someone painted his face and chest in neon paints around the weird strapped harness he’s wearing instead of a shirt. The psychedelic shorts he’s wearing are barely there and the look in his eyes is just as crazed as the pattern on his pants.

Turning my head slowly to look at my friends, I mutter, “Who let him bring pred-stasy?”

“No one, big bro! I’m making friends everywhere I go. Look at this baller fucking drink! It tastes like magical unicorns, like my baby girl!”

I can feel the hyperactivity vibrating off of him.

Holy Mother of eight-legged horses, this is a red level emergency.

Before I can tell the others, I see our young counterparts exiting the other tent. They dressed the bear in straps and tutus with high boots and sparkles. Her badger friend is wearing some sort of electric cowboy contraption that leaves way less to the imagination than I’m comfortable with. But the silence I can’t seem to surmount is for our princess as she strides over.

Delores is barely covered, and it makes my tiger snarl possessively inside of me. Her outfit consists of a pink, shimmering two piece bikini with pastel rainbow flowers adorning the cups. Her bunny tail is out and under it, a matching light rainbow train of sparkling tulle trails to her feet. Holographic platform boots that meet pink thigh harnesses with bunny shaped rings adorn her legs. To top it off, she’s sporting adorable ponytails, her bunny ears, and matching day-glo rabbit makeup.

She’s a bunny shaped, glow-in-the-dark, fantasy lovers’ wet dream.

“Holy fuck,” Aubrey says in a reverent whisper.

Fitz turns and runs over to her with a whoop. “Baby Girl, you got Saucy McStuffyshirt to say ‘fuck’! It’s a festival miracle!”

“Fitzy, maybe tone down all the yelling? I feel like we’re in a cheerleading movie,” Chess says as he walks over to them. He leans in and pecks the princess on the cheek. “You look sexy as hell, Angel.”

Her face lights up as she basks in the attention of my twin and his consort before she sashays over to the rest of us. Doing a smalltwirl, she looks at the ancients and me. “Is Fitz right? Do I look okay?”

Renard uncurls his body, stalking over to her before leaning in to whisper something in her ear. Our girl turns bright pink, smacking him lightly, and he laughs darkly. “Keep that in mind,ma petite.”

I wait as she walks over to Aubrey, who seems to have lost his ability to speak entirely. Finally, she comes over to me and I tug her into my lap. “You’re playing a very dangerous game, Princess. That’s less clothing than you wear in the lake for class.”

One of her ears wiggles at me and she shrugs. “I’m no one’s victim, Felix—not anymore.”

Arching a brow, I cup her cheek with my hand, pride shimmering in my eyes. “That’s right, Princess. You’re learning to take care of yourself and if that fails, you have all of us behind you.”

“Thank you, Sir,” she murmurs with a playful grin and I groan.

Of fucking course she did.

Popping off my lap, she bounces over to her friends, gesturing at everyone but my twin. “Now all of you get yourselves together before it gets dark. Come on, Fitz… join us while they get ready.”

I watch my hyper, drunken, likely high brother take our girl’s hand as they follow the bear and the badger into a writhing crowd of people.

“Fuck, we’re whipped.”

Chess shrugs and continues watching them leave. “I can’t find it in me to care, Raj.”

Pondering the outfit Dolly is wearing, I pause before I reply. “Truth, brother.”

Seize the Day

Delores

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