Alec nearly swallowed his tongue. Could the man get any sexier? Oh wait. He mentally took off about fifty pounds, all muscle, from the merman and dressed him in a torn black T-shirt emblazoned with the name of some obscure band. “Marvin?” Weirdo goth-boy from high school? No way! “But you wouldn’t even join the swim team.” There’d been some teasing about that, because Marvin used to come and sit and smoke in the bleachers pretty regularly, watching the swim practice. He’d always taken some secret amusement from it.
“Home surf advantage. We merpeeps aren’t allowed. Can’t have the monkeys getting suspicious.”
“That explains why you always wore gloves. I thought it was some weird Goth thing.”
They were still shaking hands, well, still holding hands. Alec let go.
Marvin lowered his own hand slowly and sidled almost imperceptibly closer. “You noticed what I was wearing?”
Alec’s danger warning system went off and he glanced around at the pack. His father was paying awfully close attention to their conversation and frowning. So was the mermaid. Sorry, merwoman.
Alec backpedalled. “You used to watch me, at swim practice. Never thought you’d see a wolf in water?”
The merman wasn’t going to let it go. “You weren’t a wolf yet. But, yeah, that was one of the reasons.”
Alec’s tongue came out to wet suddenly dry lips. He angled towards the merwoman. That’s what straight men did, right? Pay attention to the hot female. “So, what’s your name?”
“Giselle. And before you ask, we’re siblings.”
Alec wasn’t gonna but, “Oh, good,” slipped out anyway.
Marvin’s grin widened.
“So, you two are the reason for the pack meeting, huh? And the sushi obsession.” Alec grappled for civilized thought.
“You could say that.”
“And don’t worry about the sushi. You can totally take me out for some later.” Marvin wasn’t particularly subtle. Alec glared at him, Don’t you dare out me, that’s the last flipping thing I need right now.
The merwoman glanced around, taking in Alec’s sudden tension and Butch’s avid interest in their conversation. “You can take us out later,” she qualified her brother’s statement.
Alec gave her a grateful look. “So, what’s the meeting for then?”
“Pack protocol,” growled his father, “think we better let Fifi tell us.”
Hearing his name, the alpha looked up from the tri-tip he was tearing into and wiped the blood off his massive beard with his sleeve. “Yeah, let’s get this over with so we can really eat.” The alpha was big and furry even in human form, with a ruddy pockmarked complexion. If he wasn’t a werewolf Alec would have described him as yak-like.
The pack pulled into a loose circle with Fifi, the two merfolk, Alec, and Butch at its centre. This made Alec nervous. He usually tried to stay, as much as possible, out of pack focus. Half the pack seemed centred on Fifi but most of the younger members were looking at Alec. This made Alec even more nervous. It had been happening more and more recently, and he was beginning to wonder if they knew something. If perhaps Jack had told someone something he shouldn’t have.
Fifi gesticulated with what was left of the hunk of meat. “This here’s Marv and Grissy.”
“Giselle, please!”
“Grissy,” said Fifi firmly, “they’s in town on official business. Been ordered to meet with us so as we can provide back-up if needed. We gotta assign them a pack liaison, make sure they don’t fuck-up. Alec here’s closest thing we have to a fish guy, so he’s taking the job.”
A chorus of groans met that statement. Giselle was a tempting liaison prospect.
I am? Okay. Well, there’s that explained. Alec couldn’t suppress a little thrill of his own.
“We,” stated Giselle very firmly, “are not fish!”
“And I specialize in micro-organisms anyway. But I wouldn’t try to explain the difference if I were you,” advised Alec.
Butch casually, and without much attention to detail, backhanded Alec across the face. “Don’t be a smart-ass,” he barked at his son.
Pain blossomed in one cheek. Alec had to clamp down on the visceral response to launch himself at his father. It would be so easy just to morph into his wolf head and tear out his dad’s throat. Butch was stronger but it’d be worth it for that first bite.
Marvin lurched forward, expression shocked.
This snapped Alec out of his violent fantasies. He made an almost-imperceptible stopping motion at the merman with one hand. Then he shook his head to clear it and spat blood. Good thing he’d heal quickly. So much for trying to impress the cute boy with clever talk.
Fifi brought everything back into line. “Now Marv, you tell us what’s going on.”
Marvin crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow. “Think I’ll let my sister do that.”
“What are ya, pussy-whipped?” asked Butch.
That’s my father for you, so fucking classy.
Marvin didn’t miss a beat. He smiled an ironic little twist of a smile. “Nope, fin-whipped. We’re a matriarchal society, four-legs. No point in fluffing your ruff at me.”
Giselle said, “Would you two like to go piss in a corner somewhere?”
Alec hid his own grin at that. This was kind of fun to watch.
His father actually growled. At that, Fifi grabbed Butch by the ponytail and tossed him back towards the circle of other pack members. Butch was a big tough guy, but Fifi was bigger and tougher and everyone knew it. Pack dynamics had some benefit. Butch left, still growling low in his throat.
“So we’re here to follow up a lead from a West Coast investigation,” said Giselle, getting right to the point. “Seems the Irish mafia are in town.”
Alec couldn’t help himself, “There’s an Irish mafia?”
Giselle gave him the same kind of look his father gave him. Apparently she wasn’t used to being interrupted. “Well, yeah. We got a couple of selkie to bark to our song, over in San Francisco. Said there’s some kind of money-laundering scheme going on round this coast. You know, offshore accounts.”
“Selkie! What are they doing mixed up with the Irish mafia?”
Giselle, patted him on the arm condescendingly. “Darling, the selkie are the Irish mafia.”
Alec looked around at the pack. “Great, what are we? A sleeper cell for the KGB?” There goes my smart mouth again.
Luckily, unlike Butch, Fifididn’t seem to mind it much when Alec went off. The alpha grinned. “CIA, pup. Canines In Action.”
Very funny.
The pack laughed obligingly.
“Right, so, Alec, you stick with these two. I trust you’ll tell me anything I need to know.” Fifi seemed to think that was settled.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good, let’s eat.”
Fifi wandered off and the pack went back to milling about the barbecues, gulping down booze and meat in equal measure.
Alec turned to their two guests. “So, sushi and further details?”
Marvin smiled brightly. “Perfect.”
Giselle wrinkled her nose. A number of the pack members were ambling in her direction with leers and puffed-up chests. “Definitely.”
Alec and the two merfolk made their way towards the house.
Alec’s oldest brother, Biff, grabbed his arm and pulled him aside before he’d gotten very far.
Alec tensed automatically. He couldn’t be sure but he thought he saw Marvin start back towards him. Giselle put a hand on her brother’s arm.
“So, Bro.”
“Yeah, Biff?” Biff wasn’t so bad, as brothers went. Almost as big as their father and just as tough but a lot less mean. Didn’t say all that much as a general rule, but he had spent some time as a kid pulling the other three brothers off of Alec’s scrawny ass. Alec always felt he owed him for it.