by Bianca D'Arc
Grif ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “It could be nothing, but then again, it could be something very dangerous.”
“Dangerous how?”
“I told you a bit about why Belinda and I came up here, right? Well, I suppose it’s time you heard the rest of the story.” He seemed reluctant to speak but forged ahead anyway. “I think I told you about how my sister, Jackie, was murdered by her mate about a year ago.” He looked away, his expression dark with remembered pain. “Belinda was very attached to Jackie and took her death very hard. Jacki’s mate was a werecougar from back east named Bill Timmons. We didn’t know until it was too late that he was a brutal man. He beat Jackie and she ran home when she finally couldn’t take it any longer. We tried to protect her but I underestimated Bill. He let us believe he would let her go. Months passed while she stayed with us. My vigilance decreased and my brothers began to roam as before. I did too and one day when I returned, it was to find Jackie dead.”
Lindsey reached out to him, cuddling into the arms that came up automatically to accept her comforting embrace. “I’m so sorry.” She whispered the words into his chest, kissing him gently, offering sympathy and support.
“I’ll never forgive myself for failing to protect my family and I will live with the guilt for the rest of my life.” He didn’t give her a chance to interject, squeezing her tight while he spoke quickly. “Which is why I can’t take any chances with your safety. A few times over the past weeks I’ve thought I caught Timmons’ scent, but I always lost it. I thought it might just be a product of my imagination. Still, it’s happened a few too many times now for my comfort. I called my brothers, and two of them are coming to help guard and protect you and Belinda. Timmons won’t come after me or my brothers directly. He’s too weak and too warped. But he will try to hurt us by hurting our women.”
She didn’t know what to respond to first. “Umm… I’m not part of your family, Grif. Why would he come after me?”
Grif pulled her in close and kissed her softly. “I keep forgetting you don’t know our ways. It feels like you’ve been in my arms forever and that you always will be.” He tucked a stray lock of her hair back behind her ear gently. “And you will be, Lindsey. You are my mate. I knew it even before the Lady changed you, but I didn’t understand how a human woman could possibly be mine. Now of course, it all makes sense. You’re cougar. The Lady could have made you anything, but She made you cougar. For me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Inside me lives the cougar, just as she now lives in you. Don’t you feel them calling out to each other whenever we’re together? Lindsey, my cougar knew you on first sight. I wanted you from the moment I saw you in the diner and nothing has changed since that moment, except now you can be my mate in every sense of the word. Forever.”
“Grif, this is all happening so fast. How can you be so sure?”
He looked deeply into her eyes. “Listen to your inner cougar. She knows the truth of it. We were meant to be together. Once our kind mates, we mate for life. I knew when we first made love it would change my life forever. I’m yours, Lindsey. As you are mine. In the eyes of all werefolk, we’re already a mated pair.”
“Oh, man.” She pulled back, confusion in her eyes. “Grif, are you saying we’re married or something?”
He chuckled. “Something like that. We’re almost there. Since I’m Alpha of a big Clan, we’ll have to announce it and have a party before everyone knows we’re fully mated. But you’re already mine, Lindsey, in every way that counts. Mating goes deeper than human marriage. It’s a bond that cannot be broken.”
“But you said your sister left her mate.”
He sighed. “It’s very rare, but every once in a while a shifter will pair off with the wrong person, or one of us will become mentally unstable. I don’t know which was the case with my sister’s mating, but Timmons is definitely insane at this point. Whether it was because his legitimate mate—my sister—left him due to his violent ways or whether he was insane from the beginning is something I’ll never know, but the mating went drastically wrong in my sister’s case. That’s not the case with you and me, kitten. Can’t you feel the rightness of our joining? Don’t tell me you didn’t feel the connection when we made love.”
“I felt something…” She was hesitant to say too much. After all, he hadn’t given her the most important words she needed to hear yet. She knew deep in her heart that she loved him, but she didn’t know if he felt the same.
He tugged her closer into his arms, fitting her soft body to his hard frame. He kissed her long and hard, aligning their bodies on the soft couch and touching her intimately.
“You can’t deny this.” He raised his head. They were both breathing hard and his eyes glowed with desire. “You can’t deny we were made to pleasure each other.”
She panted but her gaze was steady. “There’s more to life than pleasure, Grif.”
“Much more.” He nodded. “We will live and grow together as the years move on. We’ll have youngsters to teach and nurture and we’ll share the freedom of being cougar with them and with each other.”
“Children?” She gasped. “You’re already talking about children and I’m not even certain I want to date you, much less be your mate.”
He laughed, but she could see the worry in his eyes. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. It’s hard for me sometimes to remember you were raised human.” He stood and pulled her up by the arms to stand in front of him as he began unbuttoning her waitress uniform.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She tried to bat his hands away but he was too quick for her.
“Getting you naked.” He leered down at her comically. “The only way you’re going to learn what it is to be were—to be part of my Clan, part of my family—is to hang around with us. You can’t very well do that all the way over here, and I can’t protect you alone. I’m man enough to admit when I need help and my brothers know the stakes. Even more, they know the enemy and they won’t let him harm any of our family ever again. You need to come home with me, kitten. You need to meet my brothers and let us protect you and teach you what it is to be cougar.”
He had valid points, she had to admit, and if there really was some kind of werecougar madman on the loose she knew she would be better off with Grif and his family. She was just too new at this to know how to defend herself, and this guy Timmons had killed before. It was probably better to humor Grif for now. She could always come home after he was satisfied that Timmons really wasn’t in the area, and in the meantime she could learn a bit more about her new abilities. There was just one problem.
“What about my job?”
Grif frowned. “Are you really that attached to it?”
Lindsey had to hold back a snort of laughter. “Not particularly, but it’s my only source of income. I need to pay for things somehow.”
“Not if you’re living with me,” he cajoled. While tempting, she found it hard to give up her independence.
“How about this?” Grif seemed willing to broker some kind of deal and she’d hear him out. He hadn’t steered her wrong so far, after all. “Move in with us on a trial basis. You’ve seen how we live. We have plenty of room and I think you realize by now that I’m not without resources. As my mate, what’s mine is yours, but if you want, I’ll set up a bank account in your name only and deposit what you would have made at the diner into it for as long as you stay. If things don’t work out—though I can’t imagine any scenario in which that would happen—you wouldn’t be out anything.”
“That sounds a lot like payment for services rendered,” she objected.
“No, kitten. Just me, reassuring my mate.” He moved closer and stroked her hair. “If I was going to try to pay you for making love with me, I’d need to rob Fort Knox, and maybe a bunch of Swiss banks to boot. There isn’t enough money in the world to pay you for the happiness you’ve brought into my life, Lindsey.”
Oh, yeah. He’d found just the right things
to say to cause a melting sensation in the region of her heart. Damn. He was good.
She cared about him so much. Living with him wouldn’t be any sort of hardship. In fact, it would be a joy. She’d had far too little joy in her life in recent years.
“All right. I’ll go with you.”
*
The predator was careful to stay upwind of his prey. It had taken a long time to return here—not the geographical location, but to the man he wanted to kill. Not just kill. Make suffer.
He wanted Griffon Redstone to suffer—as he had—before he killed him and took his place in the Clan. He deserved it.
Bill Timmons was going to be Alpha of the Redstone Clan, only he’d rename it. It would be the Timmons Clan after he took over. He rubbed one hand over the back of his neck, soothing the ache there.
But first he had to make Griffon suffer. And the way to hurt Griffon—weak as he was—was to hurt the females around him. Timmons would take Griffon’s mate—just like Grif had kept Jackie from her rightful mate. Timmons would never forgive him for that. Grif’d had no right to do that. None at all.
The stupid bitch had run home to her brother and instead of sending her back, like a good Alpha should, Griffon had given her a place to live. Apart from her mate! Nothing should come between mates. It wasn’t right.
A cougar’s mate was his property. Timmons was her owner the moment she’d mated with him. Griffon didn’t have any right to keep that worthless bitch away from her rightful mate.
He hadn’t quite meant to kill her, Timmons admitted to himself. She’d just made him so mad. And something…wasn’t right with him. Something…he couldn’t remember what…but something had happened. He scratched the skin above his heart until his sharp fingernails brought forth traces of blood, but still it itched. And the throbbing in his temples nearly drove him mad. But the pain reminded him that he had a job to do. With determination, he set about bringing his evil plans to fruition. Redstone would suffer. All Redstones. Especially their thrice damned Alpha.
He remembered how he had stalked his runaway mate, biding his time, waiting for her to be alone in the big house the Redstones had built. He wanted to talk to her. He needed his mate. And they were keeping her from him. They would pay for that.
When he’d finally made his move, the stupid bitch had fought him. Fought him! Her defiance threw him into a rage and he’d gone a little overboard with the discipline, but she’d pushed him to it. It was her own fault, really.
She’d died at his hands and Timmons watched from afar as the Redstone Alpha fell to pieces over the loss of his sister. It was then that Timmons knew how to hurt Griffon Redstone. Hurt the weak women, and the mighty Alpha hurt too.
If that wasn’t fucked up, Bill Timmons didn’t know what was. Males were stronger. They ruled by might, not with the weakening compassion that Redstone displayed. It was a wonder he had ever become Alpha—or that nobody challenged him outright for the position after he showed himself to be so weak.
Timmons would challenge though. When the time was right. He’d work his way into position—a position he should have taken a long time ago, right after Jackie’s death. But the Redstones had put a price on his head and he’d fled the country, always knowing that he’d come back one day and finish the job.
He’d kill every last Redstone and take over the Clan. It was what he lived for now. It was an obsession that consumed him—much like that weak bitch had consumed him for the short time they’d been together. He’d felt…things…for Jackie he had never felt before.
Killing her had done something to him. He didn’t spend a lot of time trying to figure it out. If he’d been a weaker man, he would have said the mate bond all the gooey-eyed romantics talk about was real, but Timmons wasn’t weak. His Alpha father had beat all weakness out of him before sending him off to find a mate and start a Clan of his own.
The old man had wanted him to build a Clan from scratch, but why should he when one of the most powerful Clans in the country was his for the taking? All he had to do was kill the Redstone Alpha and he would have a legitimate claim to leadership of the Clan and all that entailed. And wouldn’t his old man be surprised by that turn of events?
For now, Timmons would watch and wait for his opportunity. He was good at stalking his prey. When the time was right, and not before, he’d strike. And heaven help anyone who stood in his way.
Chapter Eight
When Grif and Lindsey loped into the yard in front of his cabin in their fur, they were greeted by two slightly younger, but no less powerful male cougars. Lindsey had to assume they were his brothers because Grif greeted them with a boisterous tumble as they wrestled each other to the ground. She could tell they were not really attacking from the playful way they swatted at each other.
Grif tumbled with one of them while the other came over to sniff at her. Lindsey tried to sit still and allow the rather rude once over, but when the fresh male put his nose against her hindquarters and started sniffing around, she jumped away and swatted at his nose. He sat back and licked his chops, eying her as Grif came over and stood protectively in front of her. Both of the male cougars seemed to get the message as Grif prodded her to move before him into the house, the two younger males following behind them.
Belinda scratched her ears as Lindsey stopped by the girl’s side for a moment. She wanted to change so she could talk, but she didn’t want to be naked in front of all these people. With little urging, she bounded up the stairs to Grif’s bedroom, watching as he changed first, then letting him coach her through the change that was becoming easier and faster each time she did it.
She was beat. The long day and the effort it took to change had wiped her energy.
“You want to meet the boys or do you want to sleep?” Grif held her in his arms, smoothly stroking her back as if she was still some kind of sleek cat.
“I want to meet them, but I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“Tomorrow will be soon enough to meet my brothers.” He tugged her down onto the bed and slid her naked body under the covers. “Sleep now, baby. I know changing is tiring when you first start to do it. It’ll get easier with time.” He bent low to kiss her brow and she was almost asleep before he tugged on his jeans and left the room.
*
“That’s a pretty little kitty you brought in with you,” Matt observed when Grif joined his brothers in the kitchen. He felt like growling but just the thought of her sleeping upstairs in his bed made him want to purr instead.
Steve elbowed his brother with a grin. “I’d say big bro’s got it bad.”
Grif just let them talk around him. They’d understand when they found their mates, how little everything else in the world mattered when compared to her. Keeping her and the rest of his family safe was his number one priority, which reminded him why he had called in the cavalry.
“You made good time. Thanks for coming.” He looked around, sniffing slightly to see if he could locate everyone. “Where’s the munchkin?”
“Out by the barn,” Matt answered from his position looking out the kitchen window. “I can see her from here.”
“Good. I don’t want her to hear this, but keep her in your sights. We need to be wary, just in case I’m not going nuts.” He ran a hand through his disheveled hair. “I caught scent of Timmons a few times over the past few weeks but it’s so faint and elusive I wonder if I’m not imagining things.”
Steve’s eyes grew serious. “He’s not stable, Grif, and he’s skilled. It’s wise to take precautions. I’m glad you called us instead of trying to handle this on your own.”
“But that’s just it. There may not be anything to handle. I might be mistaken.”
Matt shook his head, his eyes never leaving Belinda out the window. “I don’t think you are. I asked Slade to check with his sources a while back. You know how well connected he is in intelligence circles.”
Both Steve and Grif—the only two of the five brothers who had served in Special Forces—shot
their youngest brother surprised and approving looks. Slade was a newcomer to their territory, having just mated with the priestess who served the extended Redstone Clan.
Slade was not only the rarest of all cat shifters and intensely magical, but he’d been a Black Ops guy who still worked from time to time for the CIA and other Top Secret government groups. He’d devoted most of his time in the past few years to the shifter cause, helping track the ancient society known as the Venifucus for the Lords of all Were, but he still had his hand in the game and plenty of useful contacts.
“I’m actually surprised I didn’t think to ask him before,” Grif admitted. “Good going, little bro.”
“You had a lot on your mind.” Matt rose to Grif’s defense, which was touching, but unnecessary. Grif was Alpha enough to admit when something had slipped past him.
That was yet another reason he was so glad to have such capable brothers sticking by him, and what was left of their family. Any one of them could have challenged him for the position as Alpha. Each of the five brothers had the tendencies and will to command, but they deferred to him as the eldest and only rarely challenged him on anything. They were his rock. The ones he relied on the most. And the youngest had just come through—picking up a thread Grif should have investigated long ago.
“You did good, Matt,” Grif put the matter to rest. “What did Slade have to say about Timmons?”
“Slade’s most recent information, as of last week, puts Timmons in the vicinity of Red Creek. That’s not too far from here as the cougar runs.”
“Damn.” Grif stood and started pacing. “That’s not good.”
“Call Slade and ask for an update,” Steve prompted the youngest brother. “Maybe he has more accurate data now.”
Matt pulled out his cell phone and began punching buttons while Grif paced away. It was Steve who came over and put one heavy hand on Grif’s shoulder in support.