Margaret panted as she felt him slide his thumbs into her entrance and open her wide. She was ready, more than ready for him, swollen and aching.
"Hang on, darlin'," he said hoarsely. "This is going to be a bumpy ride."
He pushed into her with one firm thrust, and she heard him expel his breath as he filled and stretched her. It felt so good.
Then he seized her hips, and began to move in and out of her with long, powerful thrusts that stroked the same magic spot he had found with his fingers earlier.
She gasped, trying to brace her forearms against the mattress, and felt the cold, rounded metal bar pressing against her belly as sensation exploded through her with every move he made.
The bed slid forward and began to thump steadily against the wall, but lost in the moment, she barely noticed.
He'd already brought her close to the edge in the tub. It didn't take long now for her climax to gather and break over like hot wave of almost unbearable pleasure. She forgot all about the need to be quiet.
Daniel followed close behind her, his fingers digging into her hips with bruising force as he shuddered and gasped, his hips pumping a broken rhythm as he buried himself deep inside her, bit the back of her neck, and snarled like a lion.
In the aftermath, Margaret's knees felt like Jell-O as they stood locked together. His embrace was the only thing keeping her from hanging limply over the railing. Daniel's heartbeat drummed against her back, and both of them were breathing hard, like they'd just sprinted to the top of nearest mountain.
Daniel scooped her up in his arms and carried her around to the side of the bed, depositing her gently on her mattress. He climbed in next to her and kissed her, slowly and lovingly. She discovered that he wasn't done yet as she felt his still-hard cock pressing eagerly against her once more.
"More?" he asked softly.
"Please," she said. Even satisfied as she was, she craved more of him.
The first rush of urgency gone, he made slow love to her with his hands and mouth, exploring her with tender kisses and touches, finding all of the secret places that made her shiver with pleasure—the hollow of her throat, the nape of her neck, the soft skin on the inside of her thighs, not to mention her breasts.
After Daniel's earlier treatment, they were still exquisitely sensitive. He teased them with his tongue and his fingertips, until she was panting and ready to come just from his caresses.
"I love how much chemistry we have," he said, as he worked his way down her body to kiss the soft, rounded curve of her stomach. "I've been thinking all day about doing this with you, darlin', and it's even better today than it was yesterday." His tongue dipped into her belly button, making laughter bubble up from inside her like fizzy water. He didn't seem to notice or care about the pale lines of her stretch marks as his kisses trailed lower.
"And yesterday was some of the best sex I've ever had," he added. "I want to see what tomorrow will be like. And the day after that."
She propped herself up on her elbows, shocked and pleased at the same time.
Mate him, urged her bear. He wants to stay with us and be ours.
"Daniel, you're amazing," she began, and couldn't help feeling a twinge of guilt. Am I being disloyal to Ryan's memory?
She reached down ran her fingers through his short silver hair, letting her short nails scrape across his scalp.
He sighed with pleasure and closed his eyes, bending his head in a silent appeal for more. She complied, feeling his warm breath brush the sensitive skin of her belly.
"So are you," he said, and the sweetness of his smile took her breath away. "My cat's been talking to me ever since I met you. It wants to be yours, Margaret. And I really want to see where this goes."
See, said her bear triumphantly. I told you so!
The surge of panic that followed took Margaret by surprise. She knew she should be ecstatic at his words. From the moment that she had met him, Daniel had just felt so right, like a missing puzzle piece that filled the gap left in her heart by Ryan's death. Her bear wanted him, without reservations or hesitation, just as it had wanted Ryan.
But Margaret wasn't twenty-one anymore, innocent of real pain and loss. And right now, her human side was overwhelmed by memories of pain of losing Ryan. Those memories hadn't lost their edge in all of the intervening years.
His death had torn her mate bond out by the roots. She had woken up screaming from a vivid nightmare of fire and piercing pain, realizing that Ryan was dead even before the casualty assistance officer and the base chaplain had arrived just after dawn to deliver the news.
Over the following week, she had suffered from bouts of agonizing pain, as if her heart had literally been ripped out of her chest. She had wanted to die. Only the need to care for her daughters, still living at home with her, had kept her going after the loss of her mate.
I can't risk that again. I can't let someone hurt me like that again.
"What's wrong?" Daniel asked, apparently reading her reaction. She hated to see his smile vanish and concern replace it. "Did I move too fast?"
"I—" she began, struggling to express her internal conflict in a way that wouldn't make her seem crazy. "It's just—it's been a really long time since I was with someone." She looked down at the two of them, lying together naked and satisfied in her bed, and added quickly, "I really like being with you Daniel, but I need to take this slow."
He blew out a breath, and his smile returned.
"I just needed to know that you were feeling something between us, too. There's no hurry," he assured her. "And I'm not going anywhere. We've got time to figure out the rest, darlin'."
Margaret felt relief flood through her. She hadn't scared him away. Nor was he demanding that she commit right now to being his mate.
She had some breathing room to decide whether this was going to be a memorable fling...or something more.
In the meanwhile, she was going to enjoy being with this thoughtful, extremely sexy man to the fullest.
Smiling, Daniel lowered his head between her legs, and began to do things to her with his hot mouth and pleasantly sharp teeth that left her unable to say anything coherent for a long time.
Afterwards, when two more orgasms had left her feeling boneless and floating in a sea of warm golden afterglow, Daniel drew her comforter up over both of them. He spooned her, curling his warm body around her like the cat he was.
"I'd like to stay the night. Do you mind?" he asked, cupping her breast as if he couldn't get enough of touching her.
"I'd really like that," she said.
Why can't we just enjoy what we have now, without pushing for more?
* * *
In the morning, Chris came downstairs as Margaret and Daniel were cooking breakfast together.
"Good morning," he said as he entered the kitchen, still in his pajamas.
"Morning, Junior. Did you sleep well?" Daniel asked, turning off the hand mixer to test the stiffness of the egg whites he was beating. He didn't use baking powder in his Belgian waffles—folding beaten egg whites into the batter gave it lift and made the waffles crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside when they came out of the waffle iron.
He recalled the sound of her bed hitting the wall rhythmically, and braced himself for possible embarrassment.
But Chris's attention was fixed on the waffle iron heating on the counter. He brightened visibly. "Yeah."
"No nightmares?" Daniel pressed.
"Nope. I'll get the butter and the syrup out of the fridge," he volunteered, heading for the refrigerator.
"I love Uncle Dan's waffles. They're the best," he confided to Margaret on his way back from the fridge to the breakfast nook.
"I know," Margaret agreed, as she stirred scrambled eggs in a pan and kept an eye on the bacon sizzling on the griddle she had placed over her oven's two rear burners. "Your uncle made waffles yesterday, too, and they were so good I asked him to make them again today."
"Happy to oblige," Daniel said, holding a
large mixing bowl under his arm as he deftly used a large silicone spatula to fold stiff beaten egg whites under the waffle batter. "And I think we still have some of that huckleberry compote left...Chris, will you rinse of these beaters then whip us up some cream to go with the compote?"
"Sure thing," Chris agreed, returning to the kitchen to grab the hand mixer from his uncle. Then he stopped, frowning as if suddenly remembering something. "Did you sleep okay, Uncle Dan?"
"Never better," Daniel said, trying not to smirk as he remembered how long it had taken the two of them to finally fall asleep.
He knew he'd made a mistake by confessing that his cat wanted her for their mate. Too much too soon. At least she hadn't kicked him out of bed after telling him that she needed some time...and she'd participated with what seemed like whole-hearted enthusiasm to further helpings of dessert.
But he'd woken to an empty bed this morning, and when he made his way downstairs to the kitchen, Margaret hadn't been unfriendly...just a little distant and lost in thought.
He cursed himself for being too eager and pushing too hard, but what was done, was done. He'd just have to play it cool and hope that he hadn't torpedoed his chance at courting her.
Breakfast disappeared quickly and without much conversation. Chris and Margaret each ate two of the large waffles topped with the huckleberry sauce and whipped cream, and practically inhaled the bacon and eggs.
Chris shoved the last piece of crisp bacon in his mouth, and he sat back in his chair.
"That was really good," he told Daniel. He followed up the compliment by asking, "So, what are we doing today? Matt and Sophie told me they have to go to school."
Oh right. It's Monday. After so many years of working six days a week at the restaurant, it felt weird not having anywhere to go or any real work staring him in the face.
"I didn't really have any plans," Daniel confessed, mopping up the last smear of huckleberry compote with the piece of waffle impaled on his fork. "I need to phone Manny Ornelas and let him know I'm taking the job, and then, speaking of school, I need to get you registered as soon as possible. Maybe this afternoon?"
He sneaked a glance at Margaret, who had a smear of whipped cream at the corner of her mouth. Daniel sternly suppressed all thoughts of licking it off as she glanced up.
"I'll call Patricia and ask her what paperwork you'll need to bring along," she said.
Daniel nodded. "I've got all of our IDs plus Chris's birth certificate, guardianship papers, and his vaccination records. That's all the stuff that his old school district needed for registration."
"Will I be going to an all-shifter school?" asked Chris eagerly.
Margaret shook her head. "It's about 50-50 in Bearpaw Ridge, but not all of the Ordinaries living in here know about shifters."
Chris's face fell. "Really? I'm going to have keep pretending I'm an Ordinary?"
His disappointment was almost comical. Daniel supposed that the past couple of days of hanging out with Matt and the other shifter kids had made a big impression on his nephew.
"Afraid so, Junior," Daniel said, hating to disappoint the kid. "That's life for you. At least you won't be the only shifter in your classes anymore."
"I guess that's something," Chris said, but he sounded unconvinced.
"I have an idea," Margaret said, in that wonderfully warm and sympathetic way of hers. "Since it's Monday, and my day off, why don't we all go for a hike around the ranch once I've gotten the laundry started?"
Spending time with her sounded like a great idea as far as Daniel was concerned.
But Chris looked skeptical until she added, "We'll shift and do the hike in our other shapes. It's safe here—we're a good distance from the highway, and most of the Ordinary ranch hands are working elsewhere today."
The boy brightened. "Ooh, can we, Uncle Dan?"
She glanced over at Daniel, clearly wondering what he thought of the idea. He grinned at her. "It's been too long since I had some time off to let my cat out to play. And I'm dying to see what the rest of the ranch looks like."
Not to mention that he was intensely curious about what Margaret looked like in her other shape.
"Great," said Margaret. "Give me an hour to finish up my chores here, and I'll be ready to go."
"Sounds like a plan," Daniel agreed, reaching for his coffee cup. "I'll go make those phone calls now."
Chapter Twenty-Six - A Walk on the Wild Side
Justin Long had once told Margaret that sabertooth shifters took a long time to shift from one shape to another, much longer than the more modern lineages like bears or cougars. And that the shift was agonizingly painful, as opposed to the mere discomfort that Margaret experienced when her human half stepped aside and let her bear rise up and control.
Margaret had already completed her shift. Now, she sat in her living room watching her two guests change into their other shapes. She winced at the sound of popping tendons and felt sorry for them, particularly young Chris. It did look awful, and it was painfully slow.
When the change finally completed, uncle and nephew stood side by side in Margaret's foyer, looking shaky and disoriented. Studying them with fascination, she remained where she was, giving them time to compose themselves.
Daniel's shifted form was huge, almost twice the size of the African lions that Margaret had seen at a zoo. He looked like a combination of a lion and a tiger, with a brindled coat of reddish brown and cream. His eyes were large and several shades of gold brighter than a lion's. The sabertooth's trademark huge pointed ivory canines curved down from his upper jaw, nearly touching the thick silver mane that covered his throat in a shaggy ruff. More of the mane flowed down from his head, over the back of his neck and partly over his muscular shoulders.
Chris stood next to his uncle. He was a third of Daniel's size, and resembled a lynx with his long legs and absurdly oversized paws. The sabertooth cub had a light beige coat spotted with gold over his back and sides and a mass of long, fluffy blond fur around his throat. The adorable beginnings of a reddish mane sprouted in a punk rock-style spiky stripe down the center of his head. His canine teeth were only slightly longer than a normal lion or tiger's, but Margaret imagined that they would lengthen as Chris grew and matured.
Daniel looked Margaret's bear up and down in turn, and made a chuffing sound. She knew what he saw—a large bear, though appreciably smaller than a male grizzly, with golden brown eyes, a chestnut-colored coat, and an abundance of silver sprinkling her muzzle and face.
She walked over to the pair of them, her long, crescent-shaped black claws clicking on the polished hardwood floor, the boards creaking softly under her weight. Up close, her enhanced sense of smell caught the faint perfume from the laundry detergent on the clothes that Daniel had been wearing before his shift, and underneath that, the deep, pleasantly musky scent of a clean, healthy cat.
Margaret touched noses with him, and felt Daniel stretch out to rub his each of his cheeks against hers in turn, with a long stroke that extended all the way down her neck and left musk in its wake.
Scent-marking me as his, thought her human half, and her bear made a huff of contented agreement.
Chris flinched back when Margaret swung her head to touch noses with him in turn, but he stood his ground with an involuntary buzzing growl. She nuzzled him gently under his chin, and made a soothing rumble. The growl stopped and he tentatively butted his head against her, not quite scent-marking her the way that Daniel had, but definitely a friendly gesture.
Then she led the way to her front door. She'd replaced the original faceted crystal knob years ago with a lever-style handle, so that she could open it with a paw, no thumbs needed. The door swung inwards, and the two sabertooth cats followed her out.
Margaret led the way up the ranch's main road with a long, swinging stride, gravel crunching under her paws, sunshine warm on her fur, and the cool autumn breeze carrying a rich variety of scents to her nose. She looked forward to showing Daniel and Chris her favorite places
on the ranch's wooded eastern side, away from the livestock pastures.
* * *
It was a glorious morning. The three of them walked, ran, and wrestled playfully under the thick cover of old-growth trees.
As they splashed through brooks and climbed among the rock garden of huge tumbled boulders at the base of the ridge, Margaret gloried in the chance to fully experience the world around her through all of her senses. She realized that it had been months since she'd let her bear out to play —the ranch's B&B had been gaining popularity thanks to its many favorable reviews on various online sites, and summers were the busiest season for visiting families, followed by hunting season in October and November, when the ranch hosted primarily adult guests.
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