The Moonlight Breed 8: Leap in the Dark by Gabrielle Evans (chrysanthemum read aloud .txt) 📕

It was confirmed. Braxton’s head was going to explode from information overload. Most of it didn’t pertain to him, however, so he decided to focus solely on the parts that did. “Okay, Jacobi, Mihail, and Nikola are the new pack members. They’re all Moonlighters, and they’re all former Desirables, right?”

“Right-O,” Jacobi answered with a bright grin. “Hit the nail right on the head, ya did.” His painted fingernails raked down his cotton-covered chest, and he rocked his hips suggestively. “Although, I think I’m still desirable.”

The room exploded into a chorus of laughter, and Braxton had the sneaking suspicion that Keeton and Jacobi were going to become fast friends. “Now, what kind of shifters are you?” he asked the new guy directly. “I’ve heard you’re a Shenhari. Is that true?”

Jacobi puffed out his chest and inclined his head. “That’s me.”

“Ya know, I’ve been wondering something.” Keeton smacked his new friend on the ass as he walked by, eliciting a cute giggle from Jacobi. Then he settled into the seat next to Braxton and folded his arms over his chest. “If you guys can shift all these different body parts and stuff, why can’t all of you shift into any animal you want?”

“I dunno,” Oscar answered as he fiddled with his water bottle. “It just doesn’t work that way. The D-212 enhancers only work with our human forms.”

It made sense to Braxton, but then again, he didn’t understand anything about genetic manipulation or biological engineering. “Okay, what about the other two?” It might sound like he was being nosey, but that wasn’t the case. Knowing what kind of creature their new pack members transformed into was important since each species had different requirements on the full moon.

“Nikola is a wolf,” Demitrius answered. “Nothing uncommon there. Mihail…” He glanced at Oscar, and the duo shared a look that Braxton couldn’t decipher.

“Mihail is tiger-shifter like Xander,” Oscar finally answered after a long, pregnant pause.

Braxton blanched at the information, but he didn’t say anything. Until this point, Xander had been the indisputable alpha of their pack as the largest and most badass in both human and beast forms. He didn’t want to jump to conclusions before he had more information, but he truly hoped this Mihail guy didn’t have thoughts of taking over their pack.

Xander wasn’t just the fiercest, he was also the most suited to the job. He took care of them, made the hard decisions, and treated everyone with respect. Though he’d often said that he’d never wanted the role, Braxton knew his lover wouldn’t take kindly to a stranger coming in and trying to step into his position.

He was fair almost to a fault, and if he felt Mihail was better suited to be alpha, better able to take care of the pack, he’d step down without a fight. After all that had happened in the past weeks, though, Braxton wasn’t sure how his mate would cope with something like that.

The back door swung open, interrupting his depressing thoughts, and three men stumbled into the kitchen, pushing at each other as they laughed their fool heads off. The trio were covered in sweat and stunk to high heaven, but the leader of the group still looked good enough to eat.

“Hey, Brax.” Xander took two long strides to reach him and jerked Braxton up from his seat in a one-armed hold. “Did you miss me?”

“Xander!” Braxton chastised. “Gross! Put me down. You smell like you rolled around in something dead.”

“Hello, angel,” Logan purred.

Keeton jumped up from his chair and backed away, holding his hands up to fend off his prowling mate. “Oh, no, you don’t. You stay right there.”

“Ah, no kiss?”

“Shower first, and then we’ll talk.”

“You don’t mean that.” A devilishly cocky grin stretched across the guy’s face, and he leapt forward, snatching Keeton off his feet and crushing him to his sweat-soaked chest. “See? Isn’t that better?”

“Logan Edward Cartwright!” Keeton squealed like a stuck pig as he jerked around, trying to free himself from Logan’s arms. “Crap, I’m going to have to burn these clothes.”

“Well, hello, handsome.” Jacobi sashayed up to Talon and scraped a fingernail down the shifter’s forearm. “And what’s your name?”

Talon arched a disbelieving eyebrow and cocked his head to the side as though he wasn’t quite sure of what he was seeing. “Taken.”

“Well, hell.” The seductive grin fell from Jacobi’s mouth, and his lower lip protruded into a pout. “Are there not any single blokes in this entire damn place?”

“Mmm, you smell good.”

“Well, yes,” Braxton answered his mate with a huff. “I happen to use this little thing called soap.” Giving in to his mate’s searching lips, he held his breath and pressed their mouths together for a brief kiss. “You really do smell like roadkill, love.”

“Shower with me.”

The evidence of his lover’s desire was bulging behind his zipper and pressing against Braxton’s butt. How could he possibly pass up an invitation like that? “Well, you probably need supervision.”

“I was thinking more of a helping hand.”

Braxton’s heartbeat accelerated, and his breath caught in his throat when Xander pushed a healthy dose of his lusty feelings at him. “Yes, there is that.” Damn, he didn’t even know what he was saying anymore. The blood that was supposed to be helping his brain function had traveled south to pool in his groin, swelling his cock until it throbbed and ached inside his jeans. “Now?”

The look Xander gave him was pure wickedness. “Oh, yeah. Right now.”

Chapter Five

“You still need to greet the new pack members. We have to find out if they have those damn chips, and if they do, we need to get Dr. Woods to remove them. There’s supposed to be a Council meeting soon to talk about the issue of Enforcers carrying guns. I don’t remember when, though.” Braxton ticked the items off on his fingers as he listed them.

Xander was paying attention, but he couldn’t wipe the smug grin off his face. Braxton