by Bianca D'Arc
But his were side had other ideas. His inner cat wanted to stalk her and pounce, pound into her until she never forgot him and mark her as his own. Never before had the two sides of his soul been so in conflict, and never before had he ever known a woman who could tie him in knots like this. Lindsey was special, and utterly confusing.
“When I come back tomorrow, is it okay if I bring my little sister with me?” He figured Belinda would just follow him anyway, so he might as well bring her along from the start. He didn’t like her roaming alone in the woods, even way out here. She was too precious to risk. Plus, a little chaperonage wouldn’t hurt. “Belinda doesn’t talk much and I like to spend time with her when I can. She won’t be any trouble to you. She can play in the yard while I work, if it’s all right with you.”
“How old is she?”
“Just turned twelve. Our mother died recently and our sister was killed a little over a year ago. Belinda’s taking it all pretty hard.”
He saw the compassion flare in Lindsey’s lovely eyes and it touched something inside him. This woman was gentle and kind—everything he could have hoped for in a mate—but she wasn’t were.
That was the deal breaker in the human part of his mind. How could he even contemplate getting involved with a female that couldn’t share fully in his life and his heritage? What would his Clan think? He owed it to them to find the strongest, most compassionate Alpha female he could find. A shifter. Not a human who would never be as physically strong or hardy as the people she would be expected to help lead.
And Lindsey was too innocent to use and then discard. He knew his own reactions too well not to realize that this comparatively frail, human woman had already touched something deep inside him.
She had told him in no uncertain terms that she wasn’t interested. He should have been glad, but instead he was angry. He wanted her and couldn’t accept the denial, though he sensed if he ever did make love to her, he’d want to keep her, and keeping her on a permanent basis just wasn’t an option. Not unless he was willing to give up his Clan, his family…everything…for her.
Oddly, that thought didn’t bring as much angst as it might have. Some small part of his mind was asking, would it be so bad?
Never before had Grif ever considered giving up the leadership role in the Clan and the company he’d built from scratch. Lindsey was making him think about all sorts of things he never could have imagined before meeting her. But could he really give up everything he had worked so hard to achieve? Just to be with her?
Grif didn’t even want to think about it. He was very afraid the answer might be yes. The selfish answer. The one that didn’t take into account how much his family, his Clan and his company needed him.
No. He couldn’t do that to them. He owed them much more than that. And they still needed him.
Knowing that, Lindsey could only be hurt by him. Grif didn’t want to be responsible for wounding such a beautiful soul, even if it was merely human.
“I’d love to meet your sister,” Lindsey said, having no idea about his conflicting, confusing thoughts. “She can help me bake cookies if she wants.”
There she went, being kind. She was almost too good to be true, but he’d take the offer of friendship for himself and especially for Belinda. That little girl needed some female company and Lindsey would do nicely, even if she was only human.
“I know for a fact that she loves cookies. If it’s not too much trouble.”
“It’s no trouble at all.”
He steeled himself to walk away without pulling her into his arms the way he longed to do. Turning, he made himself open the back door and walk through, but he couldn’t help turning back for one last long look at her.
Their eyes met and neither spoke, both remembering the magic of their kiss.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, Lindsey.”
Lindsey watched him walk away, following his progress through various windows as he went back around to his truck. She lost sight of him momentarily as she moved toward the front window that afforded her a better view. The dappled light over the sheer curtains must have played tricks on her eyes because she could have sworn she saw a soft, fluffy tail disappearing into the truck cab just before he climbed in and shut the door.
Shaking her head, she watched him drive away from behind the curtain that hid her presence. She had to be imagining things, but darn if that man didn’t confuse and confound her senses.
He was quite possibly the best kisser she had ever met. She knew she couldn’t afford to get involved with him, especially not right now with the path she’d committed to following. She didn’t know what the future held for her beyond the next few days, but once she finished her task—if she survived it—perhaps then she might be able to pursue a relationship. Whether it was with the mysterious and totally hot Griffon Redstone or not, remained to be seen.
She continued gazing absently down the lane long after he disappeared from sight. The man was a puzzle, and he was doing strange things to her emotions. All in all, she thought it was a good thing he was bringing along his sister when he returned tomorrow. She needed a chaperone. Desperately.
*
Belinda was a pretty child. Just on the verge of her teen years, she was tall for her age and lithe like a young colt, all legs and arms. Her hair was shiny with good health though she was shy beyond what Lindsey considered the norm. In fact, she didn’t really talk much at all, but Lindsey did the best she could to make her feel more at ease.
After just a little coaxing, Lindsey had gotten the shy girl to help her bake chocolate chip cookies. Before long, Belinda seemed more at ease, though she still didn’t talk a whole lot. She communicated with shrugs and nods of her head, her eloquent big brown eyes speaking volumes for her when she couldn’t form the words.
Grif worked while they baked, but Lindsey sent Belinda to tell him when the first batch of cookies came out of the oven. She poured glasses of cold milk all around and shared the first, piping hot cookies right off the sheet. Belinda smiled happily and even spoke a bit with her brother’s reassuring presence nearby. Lindsey was touched to see the closeness between the two, especially considering the great difference in their ages.
Grif went back to work whistling after devouring most of the first batch of cookies and the girls went back to work, pulling out the second batch and putting more in the oven. Eventually they began to clean up the kitchen and Lindsey was pleased to see the little girl’s manners were as good as her brother’s. She didn’t squawk at having to help with the dishes and she even seemed to enjoy washing some of the pans and dishes they’d used.
Grif took more breaks than strictly necessary to scarf down more of Lindsey’s fantastic cookies and get out of the hot sun. The work on the roof was moving along quickly and Grif was enjoying not only the satisfaction of hard labor, but the good feeling he got knowing that his work would help protect Lindsey from the elements.
He almost hated to see the task completed, but he’d dragged out the project as long as he could. The roof on the old house wasn’t that large and patching the holes didn’t take much effort. Most of the rest of the structure was sound enough, so he’d only had to replace the broken sections and that didn’t take much time for an experienced carpenter like him. Especially not an experienced carpenter with the strength of the cougar within him. He worked harder and faster than normal men and with an agility that never failed to come in handy. He was especially suited to working at height, unlike some of the other were. Cats liked heights and handled the rare fall better than most other were species, except of course, the raptors.
Werehawks, eagles and the occasional owl worked the really high jobs, walking steel on the high rise buildings Redstone Construction built from time to time. A little two story house like this was no big deal by comparison.
When he could put off the inevitable no longer, Grif ate his last cookie and took his leave of Lindsey. Belinda waved happily out the truck’s window as they drove away from the run
down house. For days afterward, Belinda talked about the things she’d done with Lindsey and repeated almost every story Lindsey had told her. It was good to see his little sister enjoying herself again, even in this small way.
In fact, both brother and sister were spending more time in their human forms than in their fur since meeting Lindsey. Grif took it as a sign that maybe the deep grief and sorrow was starting to lift. Belinda had other things to think about now—a new friend in Lindsey—and for his part, Grif was spending a lot of time focused on the human woman as well. She haunted him. Her scent thrilled him and even the memory of her soft voice and kind words made him want to be near her.
The roof might be fixed, but Grif still found reasons to stalk the area around Lindsey’s cabin. He knew she was protected from the rain, but who would protect her from those wolves? They wouldn’t just let it go, whatever it was that was bothering them about her.
So he crept through the woods around her cabin in the evening, prowling up on her roof and around her yard, hoping for a glimpse of her. He found himself eating at the diner more often too, and he brought Belinda into town with him. His sister enjoyed seeing Lindsey, though she still didn’t speak much in public. Still, he could sense the walls she’d built around herself beginning to weaken. It was a good sign and one he’d been waiting months to see.
*
Lindsey was toting wood from the old shed at the back of the property into the house late one evening the following week when she heard the first howl. Dropping the wood, she moved as quickly as she could toward her back porch, but was caught in the open as wolf after wolf padded silently out of the forest and headed straight for her. There was an intelligence in their eyes and a logic to their movements that was not quite wild. She’d bet her last dime that they were all werewolves.
They surrounded her, their bared fangs menacing, their canine mouths snarling in a way that put fear into her heart, but she couldn’t let them see it. She had half expected something like this since the incident in the diner last week. The Pack had done all they could to make her feel unwelcome and told her outright to leave. It only made sense they’d try to scare her off in their wolf forms as well. She just hadn’t expected the entire Pack to show up.
She figured she could have handled one or two wolves. She would have been scared to death, but she had some nebulous thought about fleeing into her house. But there had to be at least twenty huge werewolves confronting her—ringing her—closing in on her from all sides. There was no chance of escape. No way out of this unless they let her out of it. She had been stupid to think she could handle such predatory beings.
“Okay, I got the message,” she shouted with some bravado. She couldn’t let them see her very real and nearly debilitating fear. “You obviously don’t want me here, but I’ve got a promise to keep and I’m staying until I keep it. After that, I’ll be out of your hair and off these lands permanently. You’ll never have to see me again, but I have to do what I have to do first.”
A huge wolf, obviously the Alpha male of the Pack, judging by his size and clear dominance, separated from the rest and stalked forward to face her. His teeth were bared menacingly. She couldn’t back up. First, it would show her fear, and second, it would only put her closer to the wolves behind her. She was between a rock and a very hard, not to mention sharp, set of teeth.
The Alpha paced closer, his eyes glinting hard at her. She held her ground as best she could. The ring of wolves was closing in. Slowly now, they stalked her.
“If your aim is to scare the hell out of me, you’ve succeeded. You can knock it off now.” She tried for bravado and fell far short. The growling of the wolves grew louder and the Alpha snapped his jaws mere feet from her.
Suddenly there was a screech and something golden and fast moved between her and the wolf. It was a cougar, she realized with alarm as the enormous beast put itself between the Alpha werewolf and her trembling body. The wolf moved forward, confronting the cat. It growled menacingly and the giant golden cougar unsheathed wicked claws, swiping the air in front of the wolf’s snout. The wolf jumped back. It sat on its powerful haunches and looked from the cat to her and back again. The cougar’s message had clearly been delivered.
Reluctantly, the wolves left. The huge Alpha male departed last of all, watching over his Pack’s retreat until only Lindsey and her unlikely rescuer remained. The big cat turned its glowing eyes on her with cunning intelligence. She could barely believe what just happened. She was speechless.
Lindsey tried to move, to turn and go back to the safety of the house, but her legs just wouldn’t support her. They wobbled and with a small cry, she landed on her butt. The cat hadn’t moved, she was relieved to see. His head cocked to the side, watching her as she hugged her knees to her chest and drew shaky breaths.
She held the big cat’s gaze, not knowing or caring that it might be some kind of confrontational gesture. The cougar simply mesmerized her. His eyes were dark rimmed with golden irises. His expression was almost compassionate, if she had to put a name to it. And he’d come to her rescue, no doubt about that.
“Thank you,” she finally whispered, smiling a bit to see his ears perk up toward her.
He stood and moved ever so slowly toward her. He glided, she thought, watching his feline grace.
He was the largest cat she had ever seen in her life. Easily two hundred pounds, he was bigger than any mountain lion she’d ever heard of. No wonder he’d scared off the wolves. This giant predator was intimidating as hell, but she felt no animosity from his slow movements toward her. He wasn’t stalking her. Just moving slowly. If he wasn’t so big, she would almost have said he was trying to be gentle with her. Or at least cautious.
She felt little fear, and even if she could have gotten her knees to support her in that moment, she doubted she would have retreated from his cautious advance.
He came right up to her, those glowing eyes pinning her with every sinuous, slinking step he took. He seemed almost pleased when she didn’t move away from him, and with her heart in her throat, she saw the great head with its massive pointy teeth moved to her shoulder, butting her gently. Her hand came up and she stroked behind his ear tentatively, gratified when she heard and felt the incredibly loud purr coming from deep inside him. His big head moved down her body, nuzzling her breasts and sliding across her neck as if in affection. She laughed as his soft fur tickled her tender skin and he purred even more loudly.
It was a magical moment, she knew. This wild creature was stroking her with his skin, purring in her arms, accepting her caresses. It wasn’t normal, that was for sure, but then nothing about any of this was normal.
“Did my grandfather send you from the land of spirits?” Wonder sounded through her shaky voice as she rubbed her cheek over the back of the cat’s neck, reveling in the softness of his thick fur.
His head came up and his magnificent eyes pinned her once more. He held her there for a timeless moment, then the tip of his great pink tongue came out to lick across her lips, shocking her with the feline kiss. His tongue was raspy—like sandpaper over velvet—and she knew he probably could have hurt her with it, but he was gentle, touching her lightly and with great care.
“Is that a yes?” She giggled as he repeated the motion on her neck. Her skin was a little sweaty and she guessed the cat liked the salt of her skin. “Or are you someone’s abandoned pet, to be so protective and familiar with my kind?” She stroked his fur more boldly now, taking comfort from his panting breaths on her neck and his powerful paw planted lightly in the middle of her chest, framed by her large breasts. The wicked claws she’d seen were nowhere in sight, and she reveled in the feel of his great strength held in check, seemingly to soothe her.
It was odd, that sensation she got from this huge male cat. She felt like he was comforting her, that he’d known exactly what he was doing as he’d protected her from the wolves. That she somehow belonged to him and vice versa.
She scratched his ears and stroked her ha
nds down his big body, relieved when he removed his weight from her chest, to plant his huge paws on either side of her trembling body. She let the torrent of tears loose as she sank her face into the fur at his neck, letting the terror of the past minutes reign for a wild moment, allowing herself to release the fear and feel the comfort his strong presence brought her. He remained still while she cried, his long tongue nudging her neck and teasing her hair as if in comfort, as he allowed her to cling to him in a most un-cat-like manner.
She didn’t know how long she sat there, her face buried in the soft fur of his throat when the tone of his purring changed from something that sounded like comfort to something more intimate. She had no idea why she thought that, but the odd notion made her chuckle as she drew back, wiping ineffectually at her eyes. Moments later, she felt his rough tongue swiping at her cheeks too, licking the salt of her tears. It was rough, but his touch was light.
“You’re a good mountain lion.” She kissed the soft fur of his brow. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t come to my rescue.” She scratched behind his ears as she moved back to look into his eyes. “Thank you, big kitty, I owe you one.”
He made a noise deep in his throat that made her jump, but after one last, long, gentle lick, he moved his paws and let her up. She was still wobbly, but the big cat was there, letting her lean on him for support as she made her way back to the house. When he stepped up onto the porch with her and gave every indication of coming right inside, she stopped him. She liked the cat, but having a wild, two hundred pound mountain lion in her house seemed like a dangerous proposition.