That Rex Gotta Roar - Julia Mills Page 0,16

everything in her own made-up, rhyming songs? Was it imperative that she made me and my hunka-hunka-prehistoric hotness the subject of her latest composition?

You guessed it. The answers were Yes and yes and yes.

Up on her toes, spinning her way across the vast, open room, she caterwauled, "Open those pretty peepers wide. The girl of your dreams is on the other side."

“Bea Bea,” I ground out through gritted teeth. “Bea Bea, honey, shut the hell up.”

Stopping mid-twirl, one hand over her head and the other stretched out towards me, the silliest, goofiest, most endearing sanity-challenged Shifter in all the Parish, threw back her head, and with notes that had Hound Dogs howling all over Tallulu Parish, most of them relatives of Max’s Mate, Bea Bea screeched, “Oh, Clementine, Sweet Clementine. Your Tankity-Tank is so fine. Your fino Dino is heres. Listen to my song, just open your ears. Clementine, my darling Clementine…

"Bea Bea, there you are," Opal, an Ostrich Shifter and a nurse who'd just relocated to Tallulu Parish and started working at the Hall, who was also a new addition to our Flock, lovingly groaned. "What are you doing down here? It's snack time."

“Singing to Tank and Clemmy. Are the cookies lemmy?”

Placing her hands gently on a still singing Bea Bea’s shoulders, Opal chuckled, “A for effort, my girl.” Steering the Bat Shifter back the way she’d just come, Opal went on, “But it’s a C- for rhyming. Lemmy just don’t cut the mustard, Sweetie.” Looking back over her shoulder before disappearing up the front stairs, she mouthed, “Sorry, Clem.”

Letting my head fall into my hands as my butt flopped into a chair, I groaned, “It’s a damned good thing I don’t have Van Helsing’s phone number, I might just call the bastard myself.”

Chapter Five

I couldn’t move. Couldn’t think. Hell, it was taking all my focus and energy just to keep breathing. How had this happened? What had just happened? How in all that’s holy did Bea Bea even know that Tank was my Mate?

“Clementine?”

The low rumble of his sexy voice sent shivers down my spine. It made my insides quake. My palms were instantly sweaty, and Cassandra was fanning herself with her own wing. My man was lethal in all the right ways.

But I couldn't look up. Wasn't ready to face whatever look was on Tank's handsome face. What if he thought I was crazy? What if he thought what Bea Bea sang was all a joke? What if…

“Clementine Cooper?”

Oh shit, he was closer. Way too close for me to run. Not far enough for me to play dead. What to do? What to do?

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. The first real idea I'd had in forever. Or, at least since I realized I really and truly had a mate out there. (FYI: Finding your one true love, the man made for you by the Universe, the T-Rex to your Canary – or whatever the case may be – will not only mess with your libido and your hormones. It quite literally screws with every single brain cell you ever had and the very magic running through your veins.)

Concentrating on that part of my brain where the power given to me by my dear old dad resided, I pushed out the breath I’d been holding and forced my rigid muscles to relax. Letting go of as much tension as was Canarily possible, I let my hands drop until they hung between my legs with my head following suit. (Well, almost. Come on, people, I'm a Canary, not a Giraffe, my head wasn't all the way between my knees, but you get the picture.)

The familiar feeling of floating on air, of my wings opening wide, gliding on a cool breeze, not a care in the world, filled me with a sense of peace and calm. Opening my Inner Eye, at least that was what my dad called it. Cassandra referred to what we see when 'working my mojo' as ClemTV and says we should stream that shit and make a fortune. Who knows which one had the right terminology? I tend to think we should keep what bits and pieces of the future we divine to ourselves. All magic has a cost, and I fear the cost of letting the bird outta the nest, so to speak, would get us bitch-slapped into next year from the Goddess of All and her best buddy, the Universe.

Focusing on the baby pink bubbles and light blue sparkles