Page 37 of Manix
“He told me I was going to make him a shit ton of money and cement his position in North America. I couldn’t understand why I was worth anything at all. I’d seen hundreds of beautiful women come in and out the doors of the mansion, although some came and never left. But he held Luisa over me like a proverbial gun to my head. Said I could take her with me, but if I didn’t do what he asked, he would shoot her in the head himself.”
I shuddered as the memories surged back to the surface, the raw wounds that would never heal, the residual fear that would plague me forever.
“He knew you were Manix,” Gatlin growled, and I nodded.
“He must have, though if he told me or even said the word, I must have blocked it out. I guess, from what you guys told me, my mom must have been Manix too, but she never said anything about it. I saw her in her tiger form hundreds of times.”
Now it was Raiden’s turn to frown. “That can’t be right. Luisa isn’t Manix, she’s one hundred percent tiger shifter.” He paused, his brows pulling even more tightly together. “Your uncle, he’s tiger shifter too?”
I nodded. I’d seen his Beast more times than I’d have liked.
“Your father? Did you ever see him shift?”
I shook my head, though I only had vague memories of the man. He’d had dark, sad eyes, like mine. His front tooth was slightly crooked. Other than that, he was a blur. I couldn’t even tell you what the rest of his face looked like. Only those two small details.
Ellar, who’d been silent up until this point, looked between me and Raiden. “You think the father was Manix?”
Raiden shrugged. “At least in part. Even if it was a recessive gene, he could have passed it on to Naja.”
I wanted to cry. All those years of fucking pain and suffering as my uncle had tried to breed anothermefrom my mother, and she hadn’t been the special one at all. My exhale was choppy and I could feel myself losing it. I should go, hide, not bring this bullshit to the doorstep of these men who’d been nothing but kind to me. Anxiety made my chest feel too tight as I panted to draw air, and suddenly I was in a lap, my head pressed tightly to a chest as it vibrated softly against my cheek.
“Hush, Omega. Hush.” Gatlin’s voice was just as soothing. Normally I’d be outraged at being hushed like a child, but whatever he was doing was chasing away the panic attack. “You have us now. We will protect you both.”
I wanted to laugh in his face because he didn’t understand. Maybe the cartel’s reach didn’t spread this far up, but he’d already found me. “He knows where I am.”
Seven growled, then hushed himself as Luisa stirred. “The fucking flower.”
I nodded. The fucking flower. “Mexican marigold. It symbolises grief and despair. He said my mother was the embodiment of the marigold. Only celebrated when she was dead.”
My body began to shake, and Gatlin held me tighter. Tears threatened to leak from my eyes but I held them back with sheer lady balls. I was tougher than this fucking shaking mess. But being safe and happy for once had made me realize how generally miserable the rest of my life truly was.
Finlo was pacing back and forth now. “We’ll have to tell the Legion.”
I froze in Gatlin’s arms, already shaking my head. “You can’t, Finlo. You don’t understand—this is not someone to fuck with.”
Finlo gave me a truly predatory smile. “You don’t understand, baby. You are the last living Omega female. The Manix will fight for you even if they don’t know you.We’dfight for you, even if we didn’t know and respect you already.”
“You don’t stand a chance.”
Finlo grinned, looking at Gatlin for something. Gatlin tensed, shifting me on his lap. “Show her.”
Finlo began to strip, shedding all his clothes except his boxers that I definitely didn’t stare at. But in the end, he shed those too. He started to shift, his bones stretching and morphing. He got taller, though I didn’t know how that was possible considering he was huge already. His flesh sprouted fur, and I’d seen this camouflaged form before, but the dappled calico shade of his fur kept darkening and hardening, until he had what appeared to be scales, or maybe armored plates. Fangs dropped and pressed into his full lower lip. Ears which were kind of round, fluffy Mickey Mouse ears popped out of his head, and a laugh burst from my mouth.
Finlo looked outraged. “Is she laughing at the most fearsome predator on the planet?” he growled. His voice had dropped so low that I could almost feel it more than I could hear it.
I swallowed my laugh and swiped my arm across my eyes, removing the stray tears. “I’m sorry, but the cute fluffy ears kind of detract from the scary exterior.”
I could imagine how this eight foot tall, armored, fanged Beast charging at me would be absolutely terrifying. I looked at his hands and noticed that barbed spikes had erupted from each knuckle.
“He also has training that is the equivalent of Special Forces training in the human world,” Gatlin whispered.
Seven snorted. “Only better.”
Gatlin nodded. “Indeed. We are a weapon, Naja. We’ve been trained like warriors since the time we could walk. Trust me when I say that threats have come against us, but none have survived yet, and they were a lot scarier than humans with guns.”
I stood and walked toward Finlo. I recognized I should be terrified, but when I put my hand out and touched his—I wasn’t sure what the hell they were, scales? Plates? They reminded me of a pangolin maybe, the scales smooth and small, overlapping to create an impenetrable armor. They were shades of brown and black, like a wild dog or something, something designed to blend into the scenery. I stroked my hand down his arm to his fists, to the sharp claws and those barbed knuckles. Then I looked at his cock because the guy was like eight feet tall in this form, and I was barely five on a good day. I was basically at perfect blowjob height, so yeah, I was going to look.
His dick had gotten bigger too, and while it didn't have scales, it did seem to have two rows of ridges that ran up his shaft, a little like a Jacob's ladder. It looked... intriguing.
