Resisting the Cougar (Cascade Shifters #2)

by Jessie Donovan

  Contents

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Epilogue

  Dear Reader

  Sacrificed to the Dragon Excerpt

  Blaze of Secrets

  Reclaiming the Wolf

  Other Works

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Resisting the Cougar

  (Cascade Shifters #2)

  By Jessie Donovan

  To all of my nephews and niece

  Without them, my child characters would be a lot less awesome.

  Chapter One

  Claire Davis adjusted the glasses on her nose and tried not to think about how she was lost in the middle of the cougar-shifters’ land. Not lost in the sense she could stop at a gas station and ask for directions. Rather, she was lost in the middle of the damn Cascade Mountains with no cell service and no map.

  So much for technology making life easier; it always failed when Claire needed it the most.

  Pulling over to the side of the road, she put the car in park and laid her forehead on the steering wheel. If only she had thought of a back-up plan. Reading the directions earlier had made everything seem so simple. What she hadn’t accounted for was the low-level fog a few miles back.

  Think, Davis, think. She wasn’t the head of the Shifter Equality Alliance by luck. Stubbornness was her middle name, and she wasn’t about to give up. Especially since her upcoming meeting was important. No, scratch that, the scheduled meeting with the cougar-shifters was goddamn historical.

  Kian Murray had invited her to DarkStalker’s land through a human acquaintance they shared. Because it was illegal for her, or any human, to be on any shifter’s land without the federal government’s permission, she’d been given detailed directions to help hide her true destination. Once she reached the final location in the directions, a DarkStalker sentry, named Aidan Scott, would blindfold her and take her the rest of the way.

  She’d made it to step number forty-three out of forty-five before the fog had prevented her from finding her next landmark. So close, yet so far.

  The number of steps jogged her memory. Raising her head, she then switched on the interior car light and picked up her printed directions. Scanning the page, she reached the end. “Aha. I was right. I’m only a few miles from the final destination. Maybe if I honk my horn and sit here, the cougar-shifters will find me.”

  Since she was alone on a tiny mountain road, the noise wouldn’t attract any humans. Only a fool would try driving these mountains in March with snow still on the ground.

  Well, a fool or a woman on a mission. The Shifter Equality Alliance, or SEA, needed this meeting. Without the shifters’ help, SEA’s push to make shifter-human marriages legal was doomed according to every set of data analyzed in the last few months. Clan DarkStalker was her best chance at making that happen. She needed to make the meeting, at any cost.

  Taking a deep breath, she pressed the horn and held it for fifteen seconds before releasing it.

  Claire scanned her surroundings, but five minutes later, she was still sitting in her car with no cougar in sight.

  If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The saying might be childish, but it pretty much described how she’d run her life over the last five years.

  Placing her hand on the horn, she geared herself for the noise and pressed down. Rather than make it a straight noise, she beeped the horn to “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” Maybe the kids’ song would signal she wasn’t a threat.

  As she waited in silence again, she kept a look out for any cougars. Eventually, they had to find her.

  Right?

  She refused to think about the alternative.

  ~~~

  Aidan Scott swished his tail as he paced back and forth in his cougar form, the snow crunching under his paws.

  The human was late.

  If it were up to him, he’d wait five more minutes and then return home. Humans were certainly not worth his paws freezing in the late season snow. Just because his animal-half could survive in the cold didn’t mean he enjoyed it.

  However, his clan leader, Kian, had chosen him for this special assignment and he would do anything for the alpha of the DarkStalker cougar-shifters. After all, Kian had been there when Aidan had needed him the most. Aidan wasn’t about to repay the debt by abandoning his leader because of Aidan’s own prejudice.

  If his leader said the meeting with the human female was important, he would treat it as such. He only hoped the human wouldn’t betray them. From his experience, they tended to be good at doing exactly that.

  A loud noise echoed through the forest and he pushed aside everything to focus. Scanning from left to right, he didn’t see anything in the trees apart from the other animals. If there was a threat, it wasn’t immediate.

  He was fairly certain the noise had been a car horn honking in the distance. Since no one stumbled into these mountains by accident or bothered to look for the best backcountry hikes during early spring, the sound was either the human female or one of the anti-shifter extremist groups.

  Given that Clan DarkStalker was hiding a human female named Lauren on their lands, it could just as easily be the latter as the former. He needed to assess the possible threat.

  Aidan picked his way through the forest, careful to keep to the shadows and the branches of the trees. Thanks to his tan hide blending in with the trees, no one on the ground would know he was there.

  He was nearly to the single-lane road that wound through this section of the mountains when the horn blared again in some kind of rhythm. Thanks to his supersensitive hearing, the sound sent shivers of pain down his spine. It took everything he had to stay on the branch under his feet. The noisy intruder had to be on the road.

  Reaching the edge of the woods, he surveyed the area to look for the car. However, a low-level fog had rolled in and he couldn’t see anything more than a foot in front of his face.

  Fucking fantastic. He’d have to go in blind.

  Well, I’ve been meaning to brush up on my hunting skills anyway. I’ll use this as an opportunity. I just hope the person doesn’t run me over.

  Aidan had no desire to be road kill.

  After crawling down the tree, he kept his body low to the ground as he approached the road. No car headlights beamed nearby, nor did he hear an engine running. Good. That would make his plan easier.

  Inch by inch, he crawled until he could smell the still-warm oil of a car engine. Two more feet, and he could make out the shape of a dark SUV. Shifting his weight, Aidan jumped to the roof of the car. Someone screeched inside. Every cell in his body itched to attack and protect the clan, but if the human female was inside the car, his clan leader would never forgive him.

  He moved his head and peered inside the driver’s side window. A brown-haired, plump female with glasses was leaning over her steering wheel, no doubt looking for something in the fog.

  Since her description matched the female named Claire Davis in his assignment brief, he tapped his claws against the window. The human turned her green eyes to his face.

  To her credit, she didn’t scream or shout. Rat
her, her brows came together. She looked irritated.

  As if she had the right to be irritated. She was the one who’d gotten herself lost and scared every creature in a five-mile radius.

  Jumping off the roof of the SUV, Aidan decided enough was enough. He needed to shift, guide the human to his leader, and then move on to something better worth his time. Concentrating, he imagined his body changing shape.

  ~~~

  Claire’s heart was still beating a million times a minute as the amber-eyed cougar jumped down from the roof of her car. To say the big cat had scared her was an understatement.

  However, as the cougar’s paws became hands, his face changed into that of a human male, and his tail disappeared into his back, her brain blanked at the tall, naked, and very muscular man standing outside her car window.

  Darting her eyes down, she confirmed that yes, he was indeed naked. Even in the cold, the rumor about shifters and their cock sizes seemed to be true.

  Stop thinking about the shifter’s cock. She wasn’t a naïve shifter groupie; Claire knew full well how nakedness was dismissed without a second thought among shifter clans.

  With one last long look of his chiseled abs and light spattering of dark and gray hairs on his chest, she met the shifter’s eyes. In human form, they weren’t amber but brown, and currently filled with irritation.

  Flipping the key in the ignition once, she rolled down the window. “Hello. Are you Aidan Scott?”

  The man growled. “That’s all you have to say? You’ve been creating a damn ruckus for the last fifteen minutes. The animals in the woods must be terrified.”

  Remember, you need him to guide you to DarkStalker’s land. Be nice to him. “Sorry, I was lost.”

  He grunted. Just her luck she’d be assigned a grumpy-ass shifter.

  Thirty seconds ticked by in silence. The man didn’t so much as shiver in the cold.

  If the muscles and sneak attack hadn’t already proven he was a soldier, the shifter’s ability to withstand any circumstance without blinking an eye would’ve done it.

  Another thirty seconds ticked by. She tapped a finger against the steering wheel. If he wasn’t going to talk, then she would. “I apologized. If you’re waiting for me to beg for your forgiveness, that’s not going to happen, buddy.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, Claire wished she could take them back.

  She opened her mouth to try to soothe the situation, but the shifter male beat her to it. “I don’t have time for your chatter. Grab your stuff and follow me.”

  The shifter male turned and walked away. After a quick glance to his round, firm ass, Claire scrambled to roll up the window. Picking up her duffel bag from the passenger seat, she climbed out of the car and locked it. The shifter was already more than fifteen-feet away. She muttered, “Slow down and give a girl a chance,” as she half-ran to his side. By the time she reached him, she was a little out of breath. Fighting for shifter equality didn’t leave a lot of time for exercise.

  The shifter, who still hadn’t confirmed he was Aidan, said, “We’ve wasted too much time with your antics. Try to keep up.”

  As their feet crunched in the snow of the woods, she eyed his bare feet. The cold had to be painful.

  Normally, she’d hold back and be polite. Hell, how many politicians had she met in Olympia and convinced to support her cause? She could be proper and dignified if she tried. But considering the shifter male was walking stark naked next to her, she figured formalities were out the window. Before she could convince herself otherwise, she asked, “Are you really going to walk how ever many miles naked in the snow? Won’t you catch a cold or pneumonia or something?”

  Aidan’s brown eyes glanced to her and then back in front of them. “I don’t need your concern. I know what I’m doing.”

  She managed to keep her mouth shut. If the man wanted to freeze to death, then that was his prerogative.

  Claire, however, dug out her gloves and put up the hood of her winter jacket. Rather than suffer the cold in silence, she tried talking again. “Even if you have super-shifter body heat and don’t have to worry about pneumonia, I do. Please tell me there’s a car nearby.”

  “You’re the one who got lost. Both of us suffering in the cold is your fault.”

  She blinked. After so many years of dealing with passive-aggressive behavior in Seattle, Claire wasn’t sure of how to deal with Aidan’s straightforwardness.

  Before she could think of a witty reply, Aidan stated, “I’m going to shift and guide you to where the car is. Stay quiet, just in case.”

  “In case of what? No one comes up here in March apart from shifters.”

  He finally turned his head to meet her eyes. “I’ve lived here my whole life and I know what I’m doing, so listen for once.”

  “For once? When have I—“

  Aidan’s shift stalled her words. Watching the process of a man’s body shrink into one of a two-hundred pound cougar was something she had always wanted to see, ever since she was a little girl. The morphing of his head into a feline’s skull, the tail coming from his back, and his hands and feet turning into paws was beautiful but had to be painful.

  Maybe someday she would be able to ask if shifting hurt or not.

  Aidan’s amber cougar eyes met hers before he motioned with his head and started walking. As the male cougar tracked lightly through the snow, Claire rubbed her hands together and picked up her pace. If she didn’t make the meeting with Kian Murray, she would definitely never have the chance to ask a shifter questions about their shifting process. As much as she didn’t like Aidan’s attitude, she followed his orders and walked in silence.

  Chapter Two

  By the time they reached the car, Aidan had managed to exercise away the chill. Walking as long as he had while naked had nearly frozen his balls off, yet for some reason, he hadn’t wanted the human to know she was right.

  Claire Davis was so sure of herself, even when standing up to a shifter, which was rare for humans. Or, at least, most of the humans he’d met in his lifetime. Everyone said Lauren, the pregnant human mate of Sean Fisher, was as fierce as any alpha shifter, but he’d kept his distance. Seeing anyone fierce and in love only reminded Aidan of what he’d lost.

  And since he was nearing forty years old, his list of single friends grew shorter by the year. Even his old leader, Sylas, had found himself a mate.

  Everyone was destined to find love and keep it, except for Aidan. A day didn’t go by when he didn’t think of his dead mate. She had stood up to him when few other females dared. They’d fought often and loved even harder afterward. Her flashing brown eyes were a memory that faded each passing year, but he refused to let go. If not for their surviving cub, Aidan probably would’ve returned to a life of drinking and fighting.

  Thinking of his daughter, Chloe, he gave his tail an extra swish and focused back on his mission. The urge to hug his baby girl was overwhelming, but he couldn’t do it until the human was safely with Kian.

  Keeping a brisk pace, Aidan guided the human through the forest. Soon they reached the thickest part in the area and he stopped. Once Claire stomped up to his side, she glared down at him. “Nice of you to finally allow me to catch up.”

  Since he was in his cat form, Aidan merely tilted his head and then motioned toward the forest. The human’s eyes darted to the dense trees and underbrush before looking back at him. “If we’re going in there, you’re going to allow me to hold your tail so I don’t get lost.”

  He pulled back his lips to bare his fangs and growl. Rather than frighten the human, she looked bored. “I know your assignment is to bring me to Kian Murray, so growl all you like because I’m not going anywhere unless I can hold your tail.”

  Great. The human had sass and a brain. That wasn’t a good combination.

  Do whatever it takes to finish the mission, Aidan. No one is around to see the human grasping your tail.

  As a precaution, he studied his surroundings for another minute to
ensure they were alone. Satisfied there was nothing but wildlife nearby, he bumped his tail against the human’s stomach. After repeating the motion, she lightly wrapped her fingers around his tail. “Your fur isn’t as soft as I thought it would be.”

  He growled and then moved toward the thick foliage. The human must be on a mission to insult him. He only hoped Kian knew what he was doing with Claire Davis. Maybe Aidan should volunteer to watch over her during the meeting. If she disrespected Aidan’s clan leader, he would make the female understand that wasn’t allowed.

  Resisting a frown, Aidan wondered where the hell that thought had come from. He didn’t need to stick around to suffer her insults or attitude. Someone else could watch over her.

  As the female stroked his tail, Aidan clenched his jaw and picked up his pace. If word ever got out about a human playing with his tail, he’d never hear the end of it, especially since it had been a long time since a female had brushed her fingers against his fur. If he wasn’t careful, he might start to enjoy Claire’s soft touch.

  No. The only touch he should ever enjoy was his former mate’s. To allow anyone else such intimate privileges would violate his mate’s memory.

  Aidan increased his trot. The car wasn’t far. Once they reached it, he could blindfold the female, turn up the stereo, and ride the rest of the way home in silence.

  Of course, the human was probably stubborn enough to yell over the music. The image of the female yelling while blindfolded nearly made him smile. Not that he would ever admit to it.

  Forcing his face into a badass expression, Aidan guided Claire through the woods and toward the car. He may never take a mate again, but once he dropped off the human, he needed to find a female to ease his tension. His inner cougar’s need for sex was messing with his brain. There was no other explanation for why Aidan suddenly wanted the human to pet much more than his tail.

  ~~~

  Claire couldn’t resist stroking the fur under her fingertips. Sure, the fur wasn’t as soft as a domestic kitten’s, but it wasn’t too rough, either. Since this was her first time touching a real-life shifter while in animal form, she wasn’t going to complain.