by Alix Labelle
The city came into view, the silhouette of the buildings a shade darker than the night. He could see his offices from here. His building was amongst the tallest. The lights shone bright, his employees hard at work.
Suddenly, the voice of a child whispered in his ear, “Papa, save us.”
Nearly wrecking the car, he swerved into a ditch, a telephone pole inches from him. “What the hell was that?” he cried, and he began searching around the car, knowing full well that there was no child there.
Something changed inside of him. He didn’t know its source, but all anger and hurt he felt towards Kendell instantly disappeared. It was insignificant. She was his mate, and she needed him. He was sure of it now. His only thought was to find her and live up to his promise to protect her.
Sniffing the air, he caught her scent. It was intoxicating, with the honey of a meadow but the resilience of the sea. No one had a better sense of smell than a bear. Turning the SUV back onto the road, he followed her scent into the city to the more elite neighborhoods, parking just outside the mansion Freddie owned. She was in there – his mate. His family.
***
Kendell
Kendell woke next to a fireplace the size of a furnace. It was mammoth, longer than the length of her body as she lay stretched out on the floor several feet in front of it. The heat of the flames was almost intolerable, but they were not enough to burn her. She wished they had. Freddie stood nearby, watching her. She could feel his vulgar eyes on her. Waking to his company was worse than death.
She sat upright and tried to move, but her ankle was chained to the mantle with an iron clasp. Even with the strength of a bear, she could not escape. Then she remembered why she had passed out.
“You shot me!” she said, glaring up at Freddie.
“It was a tranquilizer,” he told her, circling around her, much like the wolves when they’d chased her in the woods. “In my line of business, sometimes I need the beasts I pursue alive.”
“I’m not a beast,” she objected feebly, still struggling with the chain, even though her efforts were useless.
“But you carry one.”
She didn’t understand. She stopped struggling. “What do you mean?”
He smiled, but there was no humor in it. Only hatred. “You’re pregnant. With a bear.”
Instinctually, her hand went to her stomach. “That’s impossible. We only just–”
He cut her off, not interested in the details. “It works differently in the shifter world. That parasite within you has already latched on. You’re pregnant with his child.” Hatred wasn’t the word. Freddie was enraged, his fury burning hotter than the fire she was chained next to.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, suddenly much more protective of her body than she had ever been before. Death was not an option, not if what he said was true, which she knew it was. Her dream of the little bear cub, her newfound strength – it all made sense.
“Lucky for it, I don’t know how to destroy it without destroying you. I’ll let it grow, and when it’s born, I’ll leave it out in the woods where it belongs.”
“How can you say that?” Kendell hissed. “It’s an innocent child.”
“It’s a bear.”
She clenched her fist again, wishing he would step closer to her. She’d show him exactly what a bear could do. “You’re not corrupt. You’re evil.”
“And it’s all for you, little bird,” he said, sneering.
She wouldn’t believe it. He was trying to manipulate her. She had nothing to do with the emptiness of his soul. He’d chosen his own path. “So I’m to stay chained like this until the child is born?”
“You’re lucky–”
He didn’t get a chance to finish. A familiar brown bear charged into the room, the blood of wolves dripping from his fangs.
“Dermott!” she cried, a mix of fear and relief within her.
Instantly, Freddie changed, becoming a wolf as black as his ill-doings. He was much larger than his henchmen, and much more agile. He would not fall as easily as they had.
The men, the beasts, sprang at each other, clashing in the air. Dermott fought for Kendell and for the fate of their child. Freddie fought only for his pride, but such distorted pride could not be underestimated. Kendell watched in horror as he slashed Dermott across the face, temporarily blinding him. Gaining the advantage, he then clasped his jaws tightly around Dermott’s neck, working his teeth through his fur.
“No!” Kendell shrieked, and she tugged frantically at the chain, but it would not give. She couldn’t help. She could only watch.
Under the weight of the wolf, Dermott stumbled closer to her. He tried to push Freddie off, but Freddie was relentless, his eyes yellow and depraved. It frightened Kendell to the core, but she used the fear to her advantaged, tired of the fear Freddie caused.
Come closer to me, she willed Dermott. I have a plan.
She didn’t know if Dermott heard her or if he was simply losing the battle with Freddie, but he stepped closer to her, barely able to stay on his feet.
Kendell may be chained to the fireplace, stripped of her independence, the way Freddie had always wanted, but she was free to stand. Using the strength gifted to her by her child, she pulled Freddie off of Dermott and threw him into the fire.
“I’m no little bird,” she declared.
Unable to look as Freddie struggled against the flames, she tucked her head into Dermott’s thick fur.
“It’s over,” he said, recovering as he shifted back into his human form. “He’s gone.”
***
Back at the country mansion in the woods, finding refuge after their ordeal, Kendell sat on a blanket beside Dermott on the circular porch that overlooked the lake. It was night. The stars shined around them, as did numerous candles that Dermott had lit before guiding her out here.
“You know I’m pregnant,” she said, looking out upon the waters, finally at peace.
“You know I’m the dad,” he joked.
She smiled. “I guess you’re finally getting what you always wanted. I’m sorry it had to be with a stranger.”
He moved behind her and took her into his arms. She leaned against him, comforted by his weight, even if she did possess a strength of her own.
“You’re no stranger,” he murmured. “You’re family.”
Kendell grabbed his hand into her own, playing with his fingers. “I was never with him,” she tried to explain. “I know it looks bad, but we were never together.”
“I trust you,” Dermott told her.
It was the words she needed to hear. She took his hand and kissed it, meaning to be affectionate, but a much more sensual side of her took control. She grazed her tongue over his finger, and then she stuck it in her mouth and sucked it, revealing what she planned to do to him. Behind her, his cock grew, pressing into her back, and he growled with arousal.
She continued to suck his finger, sliding it in and out of her mouth, her tongue as wet as her core was starting to become. Unable to take her teasing, he pushed her forward, commanding but gentle, and pulled down her jeans and panties, exposing her backside to him.
“Have I told you how much I love your curves?” he rumbled, his voice thick with desire as he rubbed his hands across her rear.
“And have I told you how much I love your cock?” she answered on all fours, arching her back like a bear summoning her mate.
On his knees, he undid his own jeans. She tried to turn around to deliver the promise she’d made sucking his finger, but he held her steady, keeping her backside towards him. She felt the tip of his cock slide around her opening, massaging her on the outside with her own wetness. It was tantalizing, knowing he was so close to entering her. It caused her core to ache. She arched her back further, inviting him in, but he didn’t comply. Instead, he reached forward with his free hand and rubbed her pink flesh, stimulating her opening and her clit at the same time.
Moving to his rhythm, she rocked her hips, panting aga
inst the ecstasy flowing through her body. His touch awakened her inner beast. She was no bear, but she was a woman burning with desire. The more he rubbed her clit, the more her body ached with need.
“Take me now,” she begged, yearning to feel his cock inside her once more.
He took her, thrusting his cock into her, his flesh warm and thick against her inner core. The pleasure she felt from his cock made her delirious. She moaned as he pumped within her, his manly sacks slapping against her thighs as he did. He was so hard within her, every thrust was another jolt of painful pleasure. She continued to rock her hips as he rode her, wielding their two bodies together.
When her body could hold on no longer, she erupted with bliss. She felt as if she had transcended. This is what love feels like, she realized. It’s transcendental. I love him. It’s weird, but I do. Acknowledging it made her climax all the more intense.
Feeling her come against his cock, he rode her harder, building up his momentum. She had been awakened, but a new heat built within her, stronger than the first. She pressed her back into him, letting him enter her as far as he could. It put him over the edge. As he came, he roared out loud, a mighty Highlander claiming his mate. A Highlander bear. His roar echoed across the lake, his joy like thunder.
Afterward, they lay on the blanket, the candles burning low around them. “It’s a girl,” Kendell told him lazily, rubbing her stomach with the greatest of affection, her shoulder pressed against his. “Our child. I had a dream of her. She has your hair, but she has my freckles.”
Dermott was thrilled. “I will protect you both,” he vowed. “And I will love her with as much devotion as I love you.”
Overcome with happiness, Kendell placed her head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat, knowing it beat for them all, her and her little girl. And all the children that would follow.
THE END
Protected by the Cowboy Tiger
A Cowboy Shifter Romance
Protected by the Cowboy Tiger
Chapter One
Krista
It didn’t make sense.
Krista Beucourt looked down upon the grave she had just uncovered, wiping the sweat and dirt away from her forehead as the New Mexico heat scorched the land dry. The skeleton in the grave was man on top and beast on bottom, like the cousin of a centaur, but that was not what had Krista confused. What fur remained of the man-beast appeared to belong to that of a tiger. A cougar or a panther she could understand, but not a tiger. Tigers originated from Asia, not the Americas.
Krista studied the skeleton closer, hoping for answers. She should feel vindicated. The notoriety of her work as an anthropologist was about to sky rocket, but it was hard to embrace glory when the arms of the skeleton reached out so forlornly, as if he grasped for a lover who was not there.
Stepping away from the grave, Krista went to the cooler next to her tent, took out a bottle of water, and pressed it against her cheek. She wore only a pair of shorts and a sports bra, showing off her chocolate skin and curvy body, but it was not enough to ward off the blazing sun. She might as well strip naked. No one would be the wiser. She was out in the desert valley alone, her work a solitary venture. But she kept her designer shorts on. An anthropologist with a passion for fashion, she had paid a small fortune for them in the city, where she lived.
“Give me the city any day,” Krista mumbled out loud as she threw a tarp over the bones and went into her tent to hide from the sun and to process all she had learned so far from her discovery.
She had not traveled out into the dry wilderness to find a man-beast. She’d been in search of a lost group of settlers who had disappeared from the region in the 1800’s, when it was still the Wild West. A marking on a cave nearby of a cross had led her to this area. Her radar equipment had done the rest, picking up the skeleton as she scanned the land.
Technically, Krista was not authorized to be here. She had been unable to retrieve a permit from the local authorities, and so she could not call in a team to dig with her. She had assumed her permit had been rejected due to a bias that she was an anthropologist, meant to study human behavior, and not an archaeologist, who usually led digs for lost artifacts and people. She even suspected that the local authorities did not want a young, posh city girl uncovering the treasures of the frontier. But as she outlined a drawing of the man-beast in her sketch pad, she began to wonder if perhaps the local authorities had known the secrets within the sand, secrets they wanted to stay buried.
But why a tiger? Unless... her mind began to race, growing excited. Perhaps the man-beast was not some ancient creature legends were created around, like she originally assumed based on numerous mythologies she had encountered in her studies. Perhaps this man was someone who had travelled from Asia, or had ancestors who did. Perhaps he was connected to the lost settlers she was looking for...
“Hey sunshine,” a deep, sexy voice greeted, popping his head into the tent.
“Derek! What if I had been changing,” Krista protested, though truly she’d jump at the chance to be naked around Derek, to feel his piercing blue eyes on her curves and his sturdy lips trailing kisses down her skin. Hot cowboys were hard to find in the city, especially ones with the gentle but authoritative nature Derek encompassed.
“You’re practically naked as it is, so why would it matter?” he returned with good humor, smiling brightly under his oversized cowboy hat. “What you got there?”
“Nothing,” Krista said and she quickly closed her sketch pad. “Just being creative.”
Derek Shiloh was rugged and handsome, but she barely knew him. He was a local rancher who had befriended her one day when he was out looking for a lost cow. They’d made polite conversation, and since then he came to visit her often, claiming he didn’t like her camping out on her own, a sense of protection glinting out of those piercing blue eyes of his, made bluer by his tanned skin.
That’s what she had told him – that she was camping and collecting mineral deposits. It was a half-truth. She was a scientist studying the land. But it was people she was hoping to find, not minerals. People hunting raised questions. Minerals did not.
Krista probably could have trusted Derek with the truth, before her find. He was sincere, his need to protect her real. But she couldn’t tell him now, not with a man-beast lying so near. He may not understand like she did. Years of reading Native American legends had prepared her, eased her into the possibility that shifters existed. If she showed Derek the bones of the man-beast, his whole sense of reality could be destroyed. He wanted to protect her, but she wanted to protect him just as much.
Derek held his hand out. “The sun is going down. Come join me in the shade. I brought some brew.”
Krista gladly accepted his hand and followed him out of the tent. Standing next to him, she was reminded how tall and strong he was, built like a mountain of muscle, muscles that peeked through his navy blue T-shirt and jeans. As he reached down to put a six pack of beer into her cooler, she couldn’t help but glance at his broad but firm behind.
They don’t make them that good in the city, she thought.
“Over there,” Derek said, pointing to a rock formation nearby, holding the cooler. “There’s some shade over there.”
Allowing him to take charge, she followed him to the shade. It was blissful, much cooler than her tent, but Krista couldn’t relax. Sitting with her shoulder pressed against Derek’s was electric. They were so close, a section of her long glossy brown hair cascaded over his T-shirt, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“To new friends,” Derek toasted, cracking open a beer and handing it to her.
“To new friends,” she said as he opened his own and she took an eager sip. Normally, she preferred a sweet mimosa over beer, but being so far away from civilization tore down her boundaries, made her more adventurous.
“How did you get here?” she asked, realizing she didn’t see his truck.
“Bridget dropped me off,” he explained. “She’s my right hand
man at the ranch. Well, right hand woman. She needed the truck to run an errand.”
Krista’s heart dropped. In all of his short visits, she had never considered Derek was involved with someone else. “That was nice of her,” she mumbled, setting the beer aside. Now, it only tasted of disappointment. “I can give you a ride back, if you want.”
He laughed. “A cactus can move faster than that heap of junk,” he said, meaning her tiny smart cart. “And I don’t think I’d fit.”
She wasn’t offended. His laughter could never offend her. And he was probably right. With all her equipment locked away in the back seat, there was little room for him. “Then how will you get back?”
He gave her his full attention, a flicker of emotion taming his bright smile. “Maybe I don’t want to go back,” he said.
It was an odd thought, but the first thing Krista could think of was how she didn’t know the color of Derek’s hair. He never took off his cowboy hat, wearing it like a soldier wore a helmet on the frontlines. Right now, all she wanted to do was tear his hat off and run her hands through his hair as he pulled her close.
“Maybe you shouldn’t,” she whispered back, feeling a hot pulse run through her body that had nothing to do with the blazing sun.
Then she remembered the woman he mentioned – Bridget. As much as Krista wanted Derek, she had some morals. Knowing they were about to kiss, she stood, breaking the moment. “I should get back to work, before the sun goes down.”
He was disappointed, she could tell, but he also looked relieved, as if she had saved them both from some ill fate. “How is your work going?” he asked, his interest peaked. “You find anything interesting?”
“No,” she said, trying to sound nonchalant. She had never been a great liar. As an anthropologist, she sought the truth. Speaking against the truth was like having her blood flow backwards. “Nothing important.”
He looked across the desert to where the tarp lay over the grave, protecting the bones from a new layer of sand. “That looks like a mighty big hole.”