by Ashley Shay
He might be a snake, but other than this family, he was really all she had.
Chapter Fifteen
Talon could sense the humans below him, but he had no intention of getting close enough to raise their suspicion. He was having enough distress trying to keep from giving in to his nature and devouring the juicy morsel of a field mouse he carried in his talons. The fucking mouse seemed too nervous to hold still, and the more she struggled against his hold, the more trouble he had not popping her into his beak for a tasty little snack. The only things keeping him from acting on impulse was the sure knowledge Viper would kill him if he fucked this assignment up. The memory of Miranda succumbing to Viper’s poison wasn’t something he wanted to dwell on, and it certainly wasn’t something he wanted to experience. Then of course there was the poison.
With a vicious thrill of insubordination, he dropped the mouse over the fence line from a bit too high, listening to her scared squeak as she plummeted to the ground. He knew from experience it wasn’t high enough to kill her, not even enough to harm her if she fell correctly, but it would definitely shake her up a bit. Let her complain if she dared.
Cutting a wide circle in the night sky, Talon left Cattail without a backward glance. The game was in play now. Below him, the mouse had her orders. Somewhere on her miniature person she carried a few grains of poison, snake venom fabricated in the Santos laboratories by a complicated series of steps that mixed various poisons and venom together. There could be no antidote administered to save the victim once it was ingested.
The mouse carried a new and improved version of the same poison Viper had used to kill Jillian Lucas. With Jillian, it had taken several doses, and she had deteriorated over weeks, dying slowly, while the doctors tried to find out what caused her illness. It had stretched out so long, Viper had to make the kill himself, and in the bargain, he’d killed the alpha of Catamount along with Rosa’s human friend.
It didn’t change his sister’s mind to join the family. In fact, it had the opposite effect. She had stayed at the ranch to take care of her friend’s spoiled brat of a cougar cub. Viper seldom made mistakes, but he’d misjudged his sister, not that Talon planned on telling him that. He had no desire to get a one-way ticket to hell. Now that he’d realized his mistake, Viper was determined to rectify it. He would have Rosa in the Serpent Society or he would kill her too. There would be no half measures at this point. Viper didn’t like people who wasted his time, and in his world, his bitch sister had wasted his time.
Viper had sent the mouse in with strict instructions not to change into human form. She was to remain a mouse, shake a few grains of poison on every piece of food she could manage to touch that might be eaten for breakfast, and to get out of the house undetected. The new fast-acting poison would immediately kill whoever ate the smallest amount. If it took out the whole Lucas household, that would be a cause for celebration and a nice bonus for him. Talon knew a condor bitch in Las Vegas who’d love him a whole lot with that bonus. He crossed his talons that the stupid little mousy did her job. His sexual future was riding on it.
* * * *
“For you, Ty.” Rosa held the phone out to him. “It’s Gabe.”
As he took the phone, Suzie thrust out her jar of fireflies, and Rosa smiled in appreciation. “Those will make wonderful friends for you tonight. Let’s get you a bath and hot chocolate so you can see how they light up your room.”
He watched Carly give Suzie a kiss and amazingly heard his daughter say, “Thank you.” She tilted her little face up to his mate’s and smiled. “Do you want to come to my playhouse tomorrow, Carly? We could have cowgirl tea.” She batted her eyelashes in the glow of the firefly light.
Carly stooped down and took Suzie’s face in her hands. “I’ve been hoping you’d ask. I’d love to have cowgirl tea.”
“Maybe after we study fireflies tomorrow?” Suzie asked.
“Maybe while we study fireflies tomorrow,” Carly said.
Suzie jumped up and down. “We’ll both wear…green!”
“Sounds like a plan,” Carly said. “I have just the thing.”
When Suzie whirled around, and when she came toward him, he stared stupidly.
“Good night, Daddy,” Suzie said, hugging him around the knees. Caught off guard, he barely knew what had happened before she’d scampered off. He’d really wanted to hug her back, but she disappeared with her precious jar of fireflies, heading for the bathroom with Rosa.
Tyler couldn’t believe the change in his daughter. She’d actually showed him affection several times now, and the feeling was amazing. He had a feeling this would be one night Rosa wouldn’t have to beg, cajole, and threaten Suzie to go to bed.
And it was all due to Carly. If he weren’t already in love with Carly Barnes, he’d fall in love with Carly Barnes. He nearly laughed at that, loving the idea of being in love. He had to tamp down his buoyancy. Carly stood on the other side of the kitchen, leaning against the counter. He wanted nothing more than to go to her, lift her up on that counter, and fuck her brains out. His woman. His alpha female. His mate.
But first things first. He gave Carly a smile that he hoped offered her all the promise he felt in his heart. Then he put on his business face.
“Yeah, Gabe? What have you got?”
“We need to talk, but I think it’s better if I explain in person. Tell Cougar he needs to be in on this.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. I don’t think there’s any way in hell we could keep him out of it. He’s checking out something right now. We were outside with Suzie catching fireflies, and both he and Carly had a feeling something wasn’t right. The alarms are silent, and we didn’t see anything suspicious. The guards are searching all over the perimeter without any luck, but I trust their instincts.”
“Don’t let Carly out of your sight.” Gabe’s voice sounded strained on the other end of the line.
“Not for a minute,” Tyler agreed. “We’re posting guards outside Suzie’s and Rosa’s rooms, too, for the night. Rosa will bitch, of course, but my house, my rules.”
“Not a bad idea. See you tomorrow, Ty. I’ll be there in the morning. Save me some breakfast. Tell Lucia I want sausage burritos.”
Ty laughed as he heard the click on the other end then hung up the phone. Carly pushed herself away from the counter with a little flourish and gave him a sultry smile. He followed her out of the kitchen, through the house, and to the stairway, watching her ass sway beneath the sexy white dress she wore. He followed her down the hall, simply enjoying the view. When she walked into her room, she seemed to freeze. She jumped a bit when he shut the door. Then she turned with a blazing smile and held her arms out to him as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“I’m getting ready to take a shower. Would you like to join me?”
* * * *
Carly’s heart had given a little lurch when she’d heard Tyler shut the door to her room. Now that she understood the power of the alpha, she was suddenly a little nervous, but she needed to become who she was meant to be. The alpha’s woman, the alpha female of the Catamount colony. If this was her fate, she needed to embrace it, and that started by embracing her alpha. She whirled around with a smile. He gave her a look of such tenderness she opened her arms to him with everything she had to give.
Tyler stepped into her arms and drew her close. “You’re incredible, Carly. In the short time you’ve been here you’ve captured our hearts, tamed my daughter, and made our lives so much richer. Tonight with the fireflies was amazing. I haven’t seen Cougar so relaxed since…” He stopped, and Carly knew he had been about to say since Jillian was alive.
“You don’t have to hold your words, Ty.” Carly kissed him softly on the lips. “I understand you all loved Jillian very much. I’m not jealous of her memory.”
Tyler drew her close and held on without saying a word. He buried his face in her neck, and Carly wondered for one brief instant if he was crying. Then he raised his head, and his emoti
ons were in check, if they had ever truly been about to surface. “How about that shower now?”
Carly led him into the bathroom, and he started the spray while they peeled off their clothes, letting them fall carelessly on the floor. With a quick check of the water, he pulled Carly in behind him and playfully shoved her under the spray.
She spluttered indignantly and splashed him in the face when he laughed at her. She could feel herself warming to him, to the laughter, and the need she felt anytime he came within her orbit. Her pussy practically vibrated with desire for the alpha, and she wondered if other women felt that way in his presence. If so, she would have to make herself so beguiling to him he would never look at another woman, at least not with lust on his mind.
As he wiped droplets of water out of his eyes, she wrapped her arms around his neck and drew him under the faucet for a wet kiss. They clung together tightly, feeling the delicious, slippery friction of their bodies sliding effortlessly against each other as they continued to kiss under the warm stream of water.
Tyler lifted her up, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. She could feel his cock searching for her of its own volition, as if it had a mind of its own. With a little maneuvering, she squirmed around until she felt the head touch the folds of her pussy, and she lowered herself closer by releasing her grasp of Tyler’s shoulders just a little.
Tyler dropped his hands to her hips and guided her onto him. As soon as she looked into his eyes, he yanked downward, impaling her on his erection with a satisfying jolt that caused them both to moan with pleasure.
“Carly, honey,” he ground out. “You are so fucking perfect. Do you know how you make me feel?”
Carly shook her head as he began to lift her up and down on his cock with nothing more than the powerful force of his arms.
“You make me feel invincible. Like I could handle anything in the world with you by my side.”
“Do I?” Carly breathed into his mouth as she kissed him.
“You do,” he panted, stroking harder now with an urgency that had both of them clinging to sanity by a thread.
“Promise me you’ll never leave us, Carly.” He thrust against her and held her tight, grinding his pelvis against her clit as she gave a soft cry of surrender and fell forward, laying her head on his shoulder.
“I promise.” She felt him come with her words. He shot thick streams of cum into her pussy, causing aftershocks of climax as she greedily milked him for every drop of fluid. It was only then she realized she’d never used a condom with any of these men. If felt as though fate had put her right where she needed to be.
* * * *
Cougar strode to the stables, feeling a strange need to ride up the hill toward Cotton Creek, though he didn’t know why. The ranch was crawling with security, and eventually, a team would get up there. Of course by then it might be too late.
Even the horses were agitated. He could hear some of their massive bodies hitting the stable walls and their whinnies from outside. As he entered the stable, he saw every horse inside in a sense of near panic, though some were now going about it more quietly than others. A few still reared and pawed, occasionally striking their stall walls, but most had moved into a semicatatonic state, their wide eyes staring almost sightlessly toward the center aisle of the stable. Cougar assumed David had made the choice to give them all a mild sedative. Seemed the logical thing to do given the heightened sense of fright.
Peppermint was butting her head against her stall door. Red nodded to Cougar as he moved past then went back to trying to calm Suzie’s horse. Red seemed to have Peppermint nearly in control, so Cougar continued toward the back of the stable where the sounds of cracking wood and massive thumps continued. David was trying to calm Cougar’s horse, Gingersnap, who was very determinedly attempting to get out of her stall.
“Easy, girl,” the man cooed. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. Let me just—”
In answer, the red-chestnut mare snorted out a huge breath, swung her shaggy head, and reared up. She pounded her hooves against the ground, sending clouds of dust and straw into the air. David lurched back, colliding with the wooden wall, and Gingersnap pranced erratically in the stall, trapping the handler in the corner.
“I think she’s disagreeing with you,” Cougar said.
“I’m beginning to get the same feeling.” David rubbed the back of his head then held up the syringe. “I can make it all better.”
“Yeah, but she hates that fucking needle,” Cougar said. “Let me see what I can do.”
Cougar flipped the latch and opened the gate. Gingersnap’s wild eyes rolled back in their sockets as she tried to pinpoint the source of the noise. David took advantage of her preoccupation to slide against the wall toward the open gate. When he’d managed to get to safety and had closed the gate behind him, Cougar held up his hands and moved toward the frightened animal.
“Easy, baby. It’s Cougar, honey. Relax. Just relax.”
The horse danced backward, her front hooves pawing at the straw, as though trying to dig a way out of the stall.
“What has you spooked, honey? Shh, shh…”
Gingersnap shook her head, her breath spurting out in huge puffs. Her sides heaved with each mighty breath she struggled to take. She pawed at the ground again, stamping her hoof down on the tip of Cougar’s reinforced-steel-toe boot. She threw back her head, her mane whipping wildly, and whinnied. His heart nearly broke with her fear.
He reached out and gripped both sides of her face. She let out a terrified sound and tried to toss her head, but he held on fast. Her eyes flashed with fright, going wild and crazy, then rolled toward him. He saw a brief flicker of recognition before she yanked her head away. She reared back again, her huge body rising high and almost vertically in the confines of the stall. David cried out a warning as Cougar squeezed his eyes closed, turned his head, and pressed back against the stall door, waiting for the blow that would surely kill him.
He heard the sound of a thunderous strike and plumes of flying straw hit his face. A hot wash of air blasted against his cheek, and then he felt soft gentle nudge. He opened his eyes to find Gingersnap’s face mere inches from his own, her beautiful brown eyes staring into his, clear and alert. She gave a soft whinny then nudged him again.
Cougar cupped her face in his hands and laid his cheek against hers. “There’s my baby. I knew you were in there somewhere.”
“Jesus Christ,” David whispered. “I never want to see anything like that again.”
“Neither do I.” He ran his hands through her silky mane. “So what was it, girl?”
Red came up to the stall and hooked his arms over the lip of the door. “They’ve been jittery before, but I’ve never seen anything quite like tonight. What the hell got them all riled up like this?”
“I wish I knew,” Cougar said.
He glanced over his shoulder, taking in the scene. All of the horses were now calm and quiet, though none of them were acting what Cougar would call normal. There were none of the normal sounds he associated with the stable—the sounds of water being slurped from buckets and straw being munched or the snorts and sighs of contented horses. To remind him that things were far from normal, Gingersnap laid her chin on his shoulder and blew a noisy breath against his neck. He scrubbed at the hair on her neck, her favorite place to be scratched.
“I’d planned to take a ride up to Cotton Creek,” Cougar said “Thought I’d ask you along, David, but looking at the lot in here, that might not be possible. Gingersnap seems good, but the rest…I’ll grab an ATV and go out alone.”
“Alone?” David said. “Nope, not gonna happen. Onyx is fine. She calmed down right away.”
“She’s a helluva horse,” Red said. “None better.” Cougar gave him a look, and even Gingersnap raised her head to give him a stare. He gave them a rueful smile. “Present company excluded ’acourse.”
“Red, go saddle Onyx up and get a couple rifles ready,” David said. “I’ll get Randy on the horn
and get him to lend you a hand while we’re gone.” When Red trotted off, he turned to Cougar. “So what do you think’s up Cotton Creek way?”
“Not sure,” Cougar said, rubbing the back of his neck, “but my spider sense is tingling.”
“Then we better get a move on,” David said.
* * * *
Rosa leaned down and drew the sheet up to Suzie’s chin. She pressed a kiss to her forehead. She smelled like vanilla and little girl. “Good night, my precious angel.”
Suzie drew her gaze away from the flickering jar of light and smiled. “Good night, Rosa.” She turned on her side, her eyelids already fluttering, even as she stared mesmerized at her jar.
Rosa left the room and nodded to the guard posted outside Suzie’s door. He looked like any of the other guards stationed throughout the compound—tall, big, and badass—but he certainly wasn’t above looking at her ass or the skin of her back, laid bare by the halter top she wore. She felt his gaze the whole way down the hall as she walked past Tyler’s door, Dusty’s door, Shane’s door, Cougar’s door…His eyes skimmed her flesh, brushed the strands of her hair, and touched her hips, but lingered on her ass. She put an extra bit of sway into her walk just to tease him a bit. A girl had to have a bit of fun, and she’d sure been lacking any fun lately.
She’d wanted to go to Clandestine several times in the last few weeks, but with so many changes happening at Cattail, the timing hadn’t been right. Suzie was volatile on a good day, and leaving her alone with a virtual stranger seemed like a very bad decision. So Rosa had foregone her weekly visits to Clandestine, even though she nearly burned with the need to dominate someone, something, anything…flog someone, something, anything.