Wyatt: The Stanton Pack—Paranormal Cougar Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  Entering the kitchen, he saw that it was devoid of people. As far as he could see, there hadn’t been anyone in the big room for days. The meal that was on the table more than likely had been there since the day of the bombing. There were bugs on the food, and everything was turning moldy. Opening the refrigerator, he saw that no one had bothered to empty anything out of it either.

  Wyatt, not finding anything about the family in the kitchen, decided to head up to the child’s room. He didn’t know what to expect there, but he knew that this room was just as it had been left that morning. Clothes were strewn all over the bed and chair. There was makeup open and left lying on the vanity. The bed wasn’t made, and the towel that Porsche had presumably used was still lying on the floor. Picking it up, for no other reason than he couldn’t stand it being there as such a reminder, his mind was flooded with information about Porsche and someone by the name of Ricky Sams. He reached out to Dane to ask her who that was.

  Sams’ nephew. I don’t have a lot of contact with him. He’s usually in trouble and spending a great deal of time in jail. Why do you ask? He told her what he’d gotten from the towel. So, Ricky was banging Porsche, and she thought that she was pregnant. Okay, I can see where he’d want that taken care of. But according to the report from the examination, she wasn’t. Do you get any threads to the butler? I mean, why he’d want to help?

  Not yet. I’m going to look for a diary or something. She told him that was what she was going to suggest too. Is there a way for me to take it out of here? I mean, we didn’t try that out.

  I don’t have the foggiest idea of what you can do, to be honest with you. I’m just as much in the dark as you are. Wyatt almost felt sorry for Dane. For the first time since he’d met her, she didn’t have a handle on everything. Put it in your pocket, and we’ll take it from there. If it comes with you? Great. If not, then I’ll see about having you read a few pages. Also, check the master bedroom. Perhaps Mommy might have kept one as well. Stranger things have happened to blow open a case.

  As he searched for anything like a diary, Sidney joined him. He’d only been with her for one day, and he felt like they’d spent a lifetime together. Not in a bad way at all, but as if he’d been waiting for her to fill the void in his life. Not only did she fit right in, but she seemed to fill him up in ways that no one had before.

  I just realized that I didn’t need to be in your pocket. I mean, I’m doing fine here. She nodded at him. Then why did you do that? I mean, were you just wanting me close to you?

  That was part of it. When I first learned that I could blend into the things around me, not be invisible, it took me looking in the mirror to figure out that I wasn’t steady with it. I would be all right for a moment, then I’d fuzz to myself. You were doing the same thing. I think you were nervous about doing this. So, once you were here, I noticed that you were doing just fine. I think it takes actually knowing that you can do this before you feel like you can hold onto the shapes surrounding you. Next time you might be perfect at it.

  Sidney found the diary—or diaries, as it turned out to be. Being a girl, she told him she had a better idea of where to hide them. However she did it, he was happy when she was able to find them under the rug in her room where a board had been pulled up to hide them.

  They were all dated by years. It looked like the young girl had been keeping one since she’d been old enough to write. Sidney told him that the first one was from her mom, so she more than likely kept one as well.

  Dad did too. They were on his computer, however, not in a physical book. I sent them to Dane so that she could get a start on reading them. They entered the master bedroom and looked around. This is the saddest thing I’ve ever done in searching for something. I mean, usually, there is some grief going on, but it looks to me like they’re just waiting to die. And sent their staff away so that no one tells on them. I saw the mother. I don’t think she’s moved off that place she’s sitting in days. She smells like urine.

  I didn’t get that. Do you think we should make a call? Have someone come by and do a wellness check on them? Sidney said that they’d do that when they left. He told her what he’d found on the towel in the bathroom. She thought that she was going to have his child. For some reason, though, I don’t think that is what got her killed. Because why would they do it on the bus? I mean, I know that Meadow was in on Bryn being killed. How does that fit together?

  Sidney said that she’d have to think on it. Nodding, they both looked around for anything that they could find that would help the case. Just as they were ready to give up, Wyatt found another diary. It was hidden in a plastic bag in the back of the toilet. Along with the diary, he found a pregnancy test that read positive and a picture of Porsche and a man together. He tucked it in his pocket with the rest of the stuff, not even bothering to touch it. This, he thought, could make or break something, and he wanted people with him who could figure out the clues better than he could.

  He checked on the people of the house once more and did notice the smell coming from the wife. Wyatt didn’t know these people at all, but his heart broke for them. If he found out that their daughter was an innocent pawn in all this, there would be hell to pay. Children were not to be used as retribution. Or anything else that people would use them for.

  After returning to Dane’s home, Wyatt told Dane that he needed to take a run and stripped down to his skin and took off for the woods. For some reason, Wyatt felt dirty. He’d invaded someone’s personal life, and he didn’t feel good about it. After an hour, he went back to the house and saw Sidney sitting on the deck to his...their home, and watched her carefully as he approached her.

  “I’m assuming that you can understand me, correct?” He nodded and sat on his ass in front of her. “I wanted to brain you when you first left me at Dane’s house. I couldn’t figure out what made you leave me there without a word. Then I spoke to your brother. Brayden? Does anyone call him Brady?”

  There was a woman once that called him that. She’s dead now. Sidney asked him if Brayden had killed her over that. No. I’m sorry. She was a nutball of the worst kind. I’ll tell you about her sometime. Why are you here and not working on the case?

  “After talking to your brother, I realized that you aren’t the pussy Dane said you were. Nor are you any of the million and one things I called you for leaving me there. You hurt for them. Brayden said that you had a tender heart. He also told me he thought that was why you were giving up your practice. Is it?” Wyatt told her that was part of it. “And the other part? It’s not because I’ve come around, is it? I’d hate to think I had anything to do with a good doctor like you giving up his job.”

  You do have a little to do with it, but I was thinking about it before you came around. I’m not really bored with my job. I love helping people. I’m just pissed off with all the shit I have to go through to do the things I want. Such as just being able to get a child out of a dangerous situation without having to wait until the police or whoever is in charge of such things get up off their asses and realize what I already know. She asked him the child’s name. Cassio Smyth. He was seven when he was murdered by his parents because they sold him off for the cash. But he’s not the only one. Hailey’s two stepbrothers and her stepsister were killed when their parents fed them drugs to keep them quiet. No one stepped in soon enough for them to be saved. It’s like that all the time.

  “I’m so sorry, Wyatt.” He sat down at her feet. “I’d like to see the house if you don’t mind. Like you, I need something to distract me from this shit. Oh, before I forget, Dane called in the police to go to the Humphrey house. They’re going there now under the guise that no one has heard from them in a while.”

  Thank you. When he sat up, Sidney watched him. Shifting from beast to man, dressed as a result of the magic he had, he knelt before her and took her hands into his much larger ones. “I’m in love with you. I think I have been since you jumped my bones in th
e airport.”

  Her face heated up, and he had to laugh. “I don’t usually do that sort of thing, just so you’re aware. But for you loving me? I love you too. I don’t know how that happened, but I’m so very glad that it did.” He kissed her on the mouth. “Wyatt, there are some things about me that you should know before this, whatever we have here, goes much further. I’m a journalist. I would take on the dirty jobs that no one else would because I didn’t care if I came out alive or not. I get into more trouble than most people. I’m also a loner who is alone. I have...had no one before Bryn. She and I were like sisters.”

  “I’m sorry about that, you being alone. But you have to realize that you’re not any longer, don’t you?” She nodded, then shook her head. “Believe it or not, I understand what you’re saying. You’ll still be alone, but now you don’t have to be. I’m here for you. And I will be forever.”

  “I love you.” He kissed her again, and when she shoved him back on his ass, she stood up. “If we continue on this route here, you kissing the daylights out of me, I’ll never see the inside of this house. Which, I must tell you, reminds me less of a house and more of a grand hotel. Where the hell did you find this thing? Huge Fucking Houses are us?”

  Wyatt was still laughing when he opened the door for her. She would forever keep him on his toes, he thought. Not only that, but he thought that he’d enjoy it even when she was bashing his brains in, as she had mentioned before.

  “I got this house a while back. I hoped that someday I’d have a mate, but I never really considered what she might want. I was happy that it was close to my parents and figured that if you, in this case, didn’t like this place, we could sell it and build. I’m easy either way. I want you to be happy.” She snorted at him. “You don’t think I want you to be happy?”

  “Oh, I think you do. But more than that, you want to get lucky. As for being close to your parents, I’m all right with that, so long as they know boundaries.” Wyatt told her that none of his family knew what those were. “Yeah, I’m beginning to learn that about them as well. Oh well, I guess we’ll figure that part out as we go along. But I love this room. I might have to wrestle you for it as my office. Christ, it’s fucking huge.”

  “So long as I’m naked when we wrestle, I will let you have the room. But don’t expect me to just give in every time. Especially when you’re naked too.” She smacked him on the arm as he took her into the next room. “Actually, this is my office here. But I’ll fight you for it too. Even if you don’t know if you want it.”

  Showing her around the house, he could see things now that he’d not noticed before. Not bad things, but things that Sidney pointed out that she liked. The staircase wasn’t carpeted, something that had never occurred to him before. And the house had central heating and air. He just knew that he was warm when he wanted it, and cooled off when he needed that as well. Wyatt also decided, after just two of the rooms they went into, that he needed a staff. And soon. The place had a layer of dust on it, and he was surprised that his mom had never mentioned it before.

  By the time they were headed to the kitchen, he knew that she loved the house as much as he did. But she told him, in no uncertain terms, she was not going to be responsible for keeping the place clean. Since it was obvious he wasn’t either, he decided to ask his mom for help staffing their home.

  Chapter 3

  Sidney looked around the master suite. It was the biggest bedroom in the house, which she supposed was the point of it being called master. Laughing at the mattress on the floor, she wondered what other corners he’d cut in waiting for the right woman to come along, and looked in the bathroom. There wasn’t a shower curtain.

  “I’m pretty sure you could have found a shower curtain that would have suited us both.” He laughed and said he’d just thrown it out. “Why on earth would you throw it away? You do know that they can be washed, don’t you?”

  “I do. I got the curtain as a gag gift from one of my colleagues. It was of a naked woman down on her knees. And if I were to stand just right, it looked as if she was doing her business on me. I didn’t think you’d appreciate something like that.” Sidney didn’t really care and told him that. “I did. It wasn’t like it was something I got off on. But it was all I had when I decided to live here when I was home for a while.”

  “You didn’t live here all along?” Wyatt told her how he’d had an apartment in the city, Columbus, where he stayed when he had to do any work there. Otherwise, he stayed here or at his parents’ when he was close by. “I love this house. I mean, it’s a little barren, but I can see its potential. Why did you buy it if you didn’t want to fill it?”

  “I have a lot of furniture that was bought when Ray’s grandmother died. Also, I have a great many medical books, very old ones, as well as some of the old equipment that was used by Alma Spencer’s husband. That was Ray’s grandmother. She gave them to me.” Sidney said that was very nice, but where were the books? “In storage. I should have gotten them out a while ago, but I’ve been in a funk. Still am, as a matter of fact.”

  “Is it about your job? You’ll notice that I didn’t ask if it was me. I think I know better.” He said it was his job, never her. “Thank you. So, what about your job has you in a funk? According to everyone in town, you’re quite the catch for me, being a renowned doctor and an all-around good guy.” They both laughed.

  “It’s like I’ve been saying all along. I want to be able to help out when I deem it’s necessary, and not have to wait for some committee to tell me that it’s all right. Which doesn’t happen all that often even when I do follow the rules.” She nodded and watched him. “I’ve been doing some things that aren’t considered legal to help out with a few families that needed help now, not when it was too late.”

  “Good for you.” She had a thought that he’d not expected her to say that. “I’m all for helping people that have no other way of getting help. I’d love to help you out with that too.” She looked in the closet, then came out. “There is nowhere at all for you to make love to me in this place except for that mattress, which is too small by half. That, my dear mate, is poor planning on your part. Whatever am I going to do with you?”

  “We can use the wall. Or the counter. I’m even game for the floor if you are.” She went to the wall and leaned against it while taking off her shirt. “I’m going to watch you if you don’t mind. There is something so erotic about you that makes me stiff as a rock when I’m around you.”

  “Oh yeah? Then why have we never made love yet? I mean, I even threw myself at you when we first met. You’re a little slow on the uptake there, Wyatt.” She laughed when he lunged at her. Before she could guess his intent, he had her pants and panties shredded and on the floor. “Are you going to eat me? If you do, I’m going to come all over your face.”

  It didn’t take him long to have her screaming out his name. Christ, if he kept this up, she’d never want to have conventional lovemaking again. As soon as he pulled her ass closer to him, she felt his teeth over her clit and nearly begged him to nip her. When he did, Sidney came hard enough that she was sure that windows had shattered somewhere in the house.

  He made love to her pussy like no one had ever done before. Just when she thought she couldn’t take his tongue and hands anymore, he’d make her come again. The way his tongue, somewhat rough, seemed to fill her made her think that he’d allowed his cat to take a little of him to give her as much pleasure as he could.

  Weak in the knees, Sidney begged him to allow her to rest. She thought that he was when she found herself on her back on the floor. Watching him as he moved up her body from her toes to her pussy again, Sidney had to remind herself to breathe, or she would pass out.

  “You’re very good at this. Has anyone ever told you that before? Never mind. Don’t answer that.” His mouth was at her navel, his tongue swirling around in the tiny hole like it had the rest of her body. “Wyatt, if you don�
��t fill me with your cock soon, I swear to you that I’m going to murder you.”

  “So violent. Don’t you want a little more pleasure? I can give it to you.” She started to tell him no when his tongue touched her navel. Never would she have thought that something so small could set off her body in such a way. “I think you love that. Want some more?”

  “No. I want you.” But it didn’t make him take her. He teased and played with her body until she was limp with his ministrations.

  Wyatt had suckled at her breasts, one at a time, then both of them together. His cock touched her pussy several times, but he never entered her. Everywhere he touched her, with his mouth, tongue, or his hands, she felt like she was coming apart more and more. Lying there, not sure she could ever move again, she gasped when Wyatt slid into her. Sidney didn’t just come, but she imploded several times when all he did was fill her.

  “Don’t move.” He did anyway. And when he did, she felt her body hype up for another climax. “You’re killing me. I never thought a person could actually die from coming. But if you move now, I will surely die, and you’re going to be left hanging.”

  “You’re an immortal. The same as me.” He made love to her slowly, never letting her mind or body relax at all. When Wyatt leaned down and bit gently on her throat, Sidney pulled him back and bared her entire throat for him. “If I bite you now, I’m going to come hard. Are you ready for that?”

  “Yes. I’ve been ready for you my entire life.”

  He took her harder then, his body moving in and out of hers with quick hard strokes that took them both across the floor. When he bit down on her neck, everything in her body simply stopped. Even her heart, which she could hear beating, didn’t pump blood to the rest of her body as she waited to fall over the edge of reasoning from what was happening to her.

  When she did fall, it was like she was floating on an air current for what seemed like forever before she fell to the earth. The fall was amazing, seeing her life pass over her eyes. Not the past, but the one that she wanted with Wyatt. Then there was nothing.