Cherished by the Cougar: A Shifters in Love Fun & Flirty Romance (Mystic Bay Book 2)

by Isadora Montrose

  “Congratulations,” they both said at the same moment.

  Moira patted her bump affectionately. “I’m due in March,” she confided loudly enough to be heard by everyone in line. She swiped her bankcard and handed over her deposit slip. She didn’t have much banking to do, but somehow she managed to drag out her business until the worst of the gossips had settled for Carey or Joanna.

  “Aunt Robin told me to take you to lunch,” Moira murmured when they were almost done.

  “I brought mine,” Claudia blurted.

  “Oh, good. We can eat in my back room.”

  Claudia glanced at the clock and was amazed to see that it was almost noon. How the heck had Moira done that? “I’d like that,” she said.

  She and Moira had not had many opportunities to become friends. The gap in their ages meant that Moira had graduated from school several decades before Claudia was born. But the Fae were long lived, and Moira looked the same age as Claudia. And now that Moira was going to become a mother, they were at the same stage in their lives.

  Moira smiled even more broadly. For the reserved Fae that was the equivalent of a happy dance and a fist pump. “Great. I’d like your opinion of your daycare. I’ll have to be thinking about one and getting my name down.”

  “Jimmy’s very happy there.” Claudia placed a CLOSED sign in front of her station. “Just let me get my coat.”

  *Desired by the Dragon

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Ryan~

  His father-in-law had just left, after ripping Ryan a new one, when someone pounded on the front door. Just a guess, but it wasn’t his cuddlesome little wife coming home for a nooner. Maybe it was FedEx with his bed and sofa. Although the ferry wasn’t due for another hour.

  It was his old pal Quinn Drake looking rather disheveled for a dragon, which was normal for Quinn. He was accompanied by a spruce and diminutive person Ryan vaguely recognized. They walked past him as if he wasn’t there.

  “Hello,” he said to their backs. “Don’t track up Claudia’s carpet.”

  Both men glanced down. The mustard-colored carpet was well past its best. Possibly a mudslide could make it look dirtier, but nothing lesser.

  “Don’t know what’s growing in that.” Quinn shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it at Ryan. “But I wouldn’t want my son playing on it.”

  Ryan hung up Quinn’s jacket and turned to the other dude. He was small and fidgety. His pink nose twitched and his whole body seemed poised for flight. But he squared his narrow shoulders and his watery eyes glared at Ryan.

  A trembler. Ryan sniffed delicately. Rabbit shifter. The bunny was wearing a navy parka a size too big with the word ‘Deputy’ printed across the back and ‘Babcock’ emblazoned over his breast pocket.

  “You know Walter Babcock?” asked Quinn.

  “Now I do.” Ryan added Babcock’s coat to the rack. “Hey.” He didn’t offer his hand to either one. Not with the vibe he was getting. “What can I do for you guys?”

  Quinn stalked over to the little kitchen table and sat down. Babcock swaggered after him and took a seat beside his companion. They were an oddly assorted pair. The big dragon shifter dwarfed his buddy. But for a trembler Babcock had plenty of attitude. Ryan smiled as if this invasion were an ordinary visit. He leaned more heavily on his cane than he needed to.

  “Coffee?” he asked.

  “This ain’t a social call, Drake,” squeaked Babcock.

  “Oh?” Ryan joined them at the table. He made a production of hanging his cane on the back of his chair.

  “You actually need that thing?” demanded Quinn.

  “Afraid so. I got snakebit, and it isn’t healing worth a damn.”

  “Well, you have the best doctor in the island for a mom-in-law,” returned Quinn. “She’ll fix you up.”

  “Sure.” If Virginia didn’t poison him first.

  Walter Babcock cleared his throat. “I don’t know if you know, but I’m on the Town Council.”

  “I didn’t,” Ryan said. He met Babcock’s moist blue eyes as guilelessly as a predator could. “I hope the Council isn’t upset to learn that Claudia and I are married?”

  Babcock made a sort of stifled snort that might have been laughter. Quinn openly chortled.

  Babcock adjusted his belt, which bristled with gadgets, including a long police-issue flashlight suitable for use as a truncheon. “The Council is right now having a conniption fit, Rutherford. They were all set to toss Claudia and your boy to the wolves. You’ve kind of thrown a spoke in their wheel.”

  “Vote them off the island, you mean?” Ryan was starting to get riled, but he kept his voice low and polite.

  “Jimmy has been stalking kids at daycare,” Babcock showed his buck teeth.

  “Only caught one,” Quinn interjected.

  “One’s enough.” But Babcock’s voice was oddly satisfied.

  “I hadn’t heard that,” lied Ryan. Tom had had plenty to say about Jimmy’s hybrid vigor and vicious ways.

  “Caught Tyler Adamson.” Babcock shook his head sorrowfully. “Scared a full year’s growth out of that little shaver.”

  “Oh, yes?” Ryan asked.

  “Tried it on my Jess,” continued Babcock. He sounded rather pleased.

  “Your daughter?” Jessica Rabbit? Ryan kept his face impassive.

  “My daughter,” Babcock confirmed.

  “I’m sorry. Did he draw blood?”

  “Nah. Soon as he started up prowling after her, she hauled back and thumped him in the nose.” Babcock coughed and covered his grin. “Teacher had to tell her that was no way to behave. Our daycare has a strict no violence policy.”

  “What did Jimmy do?” Please, please, don’t say he socked her back. Hitting girls was just wrong.

  “Asked her to be his girlfriend,” Babcock informed him. “Of course, Jess was suspended from daycare for hitting, so their romance was blighted from the get go.”

  Quinn was now openly laughing. Ryan covered his eyes. “That’s unfortunate,” he said. He got up and got busy with the coffeepot.

  “First rabbit to get kicked out of school for violence.” Babcock was bragging.

  Quinn shook his shaggy black head. “Probably go on her permanent record.” His beard waggled.

  Babcock brightened like a hundred-and-fifty-watt bulb. “Yeah. Probably.” He adjusted his gadgets again. He wasn’t doing a good job of hiding his parental pride.

  “I hope you taught her not to tuck her thumb when she punches a fellow,” Ryan said.

  “Good way to break it,” agreed Babcock solemnly. “She used the heel of her palm.”

  “Pretty good for a three-year-old,” Quinn offered.

  “You bet.” Babcock beamed.

  Ryan set three mugs on the table and fetched the coffee. “What is it exactly that you want me to do?”

  “Socialize the little bugger,” said Quinn. “He can’t go around hunting the other children. Doesn’t look right. Makes it awkward for all us hunters.”

  “He’s a smart kid. He probably figured that out when Jess socked him.” Ryan fetched the cream and sugar.

  “Trouble is the other kids went home and told their folks, who told other folks. You know how stories grow with telling.” Quinn ignored the cream and sugar Ryan set out and drank his coffee straight.

  “Small towns–gotta love ‘em.” Ryan lifted his mug. “Was this before or after our marriage was announced at the Bean?”

  “Last week,” said Babcock. “Jess is back in daycare. She’s a little pissed because Jimmy has moved on to the Trubody girl.”

  “Please tell me that he didn’t stalk that one too. Or bite her.”

  “Not that I heard,” said Babcock.

  “So is this about a breach of promise suit?” Ryan inquired gravely.

  Babcock guffawed. “See, look at it one way, it is danged funny. Just children being children. But folks around here are taking Jimmy’s behavior real serious. All the talk down at the Bean is of hybrid vigor.”r />
  “So are you guys the Tar and Feather Committee, or what?” Ryan leaned back in his chair.

  “We’re more like the good cop, bad cop,” Quinn said. “You have to do something to demonstrate you have that boy under control. And that you’re really married to Claudia, of course, and plan to hang around.”

  “I just got into town,” Ryan protested. “But I’ll do my best to instill some manners into my son. As for our marriage.” He got up and limped across to the table where Claudia had put the marriage certificate. “We have proof.”

  He gave Babcock the envelope. The rabbit shifter pulled it out, took readers out of his breast pocket, and read it carefully. Folded it up and handed it to Quinn. “Robin does good work,” he remarked to Quinn.

  “I don’t follow you,” Ryan said to Babcock.

  Babcock stirred another spoonful of sugar into his mug and added a splash more cream. “I was working security at the inn that weekend when your brother got married, you and Miss Claudia didn’t even trade glances let alone speak to one another.”

  Ryan gave the rabbit his best glare. The one that made the hardest cases back down. “I wouldn’t spread that crazy idea around.”

  Babcock gazed mildly at Ryan. His twitchiness increased, but he didn’t back down. Ryan was unwillingly impressed. The association of the rabbit and the dragon was starting to make sense. This was one fierce, bad buck bunny.

  After a pause to make sure that Ryan knew he wasn’t intimidated, Walter Babcock said, “I would never call Mayor Fairchild a liar.”

  Quinn handed over the certificate. “So Robin is supporting this marriage.” He met Walter’s eyes. “Probably means Sully also approves.”

  Walter checked off his fingers. “We need more than three votes if you Rutherfords are to keep your land.”

  “I thought once it was known that Claudia and I were married, that the matter wouldn’t come to a vote.”

  Babcock snorted. “If it was just the biting, the council might let it go. But Jimmy has some mighty weird ways too.”

  “Such as?”

  “He stops and starts clocks,” Quinn said. “Makes traffic lights change. That sort of stuff.”

  “Hybrid vigor,” said Walter darkly.

  “Sorcery.” Quinn poured himself another cup of coffee. “He’s going to be a damned powerful cougar-sorcerer. Folks are worked up.”

  “You’re married to a fairy,” Ryan pointed out. “I danced at your wedding, dude. Moira was already pregnant.”

  “Yup.” Quinn grinned. “We’ve been keeping it a secret, but my wife let the whole town in on her pregnancy today to take the heat off yours. You owe us big time, cat boy.”

  “I’ll bear that in mind.”

  “What I think,” said Babcock thoughtfully, “Is that the prospect of a cougar using magic to sneak up on their kids frightens the bejesus out of folks. Makes them think of those Haverstock young ‘uns robbing and pillaging, and murdering their neighbors.”

  Ryan hid his dismay behind a smile. “Bit of a stretch.” The shift would really hit the fan when folks discovered Jimmy’s talent for invisibility.

  “You know people,” Quinn said. “They love anticipating trouble.”

  “So what do you two think I should do?”

  Walter set his mug down. “High school needs a proper gymnasium,” he mused. “Kids have to troop over to the community center for gym class.”

  “Would that be the community center that’s right across the street?” asked Ryan.

  “That’s the elementary school,” Walter said kindly. “High school is way the heck down the street. Must have to walk three or four blocks– in all weathers.”

  “Carrying their stuff through the rain,” agreed Quinn.

  “Or in sleet.” Babcock said sorrowfully.

  “Have you heard,” Quinn said into his beard, “That this week they’re pouring the foundation for the Archibald Drake Maritime Museum?”

  Ryan finally caught on. This was not the Tar and Feather Committee. It was the Mystic Bay chapter of Extortionists ‘R’ Us. He cleared his throat. “Fancy the high school still not having their own designated sports facility. Do you think the council would accept a donation to build them one?”

  Walter beamed as if Ryan were a particularly bright baby bunny. “They might,” he allowed. “Especially if the donation was big enough to build it outright.”

  Well, Ryan had vowed to bribe the council if necessary. “I’ll write you a check today,” he said. “How much?”

  “Softly, softly,” said Walter. “You know my granddaddy was on the council?”

  Devilment lit the dragon’s golden eyes. “Mr. Babcock was mayor a time or two, wasn’t he?”

  Wally nodded magisterially. “He was. Granddaddy Buck was mayor for five terms. He always says that the council won’t be driven. Trick is to make them think what you’re proposing is their own idea.”

  “And?” Ryan demanded.

  “And I think we need to get the other councilors to see coercing you into coughing up a gym as their very own cunning plan.”

  “I like the way you think, Babcock.” Ryan held up the pot. “More coffee?

  “Not for me. I got to get back to work.”

  “At the inn?” Ryan asked politely.

  “Nah. It’s time for my shift at the station. Got to ticket some of those danged tourists who think just because it’s the off-season they can park in my handicapped zones. Not on my watch.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Ryan~

  Claudia came home alone. Her white face looked drawn and pissed off. His heart sank. The ease they had found on the weekend was gone. This exhausted and distraught woman did not look like his satisfied queen.

  “Hey,” he said mildly. “Rough day? You seem to be missing our son.”

  “Melissa Babcock took him for a play date with her daughter.”

  “The alluring Jessica Rabbit?”

  Claudia laughed. “You know about Jess and Jimmy’s run-in?”

  “I entertained the Tar and Feather Committee to coffee this afternoon. They told me to get that boy back on the straight and narrow or expect to be run out of town on a rail. Walter Babcock didn’t say anything about a play date.”

  “I think it was Melissa’s idea. She feels bad because Jessamine blacked Jimmy’s eye.”

  Babcock hadn’t mentioned that Jess had done damage. And like a typical shifter Jimmy had healed completely in a week, leaving no evidence for Ryan to see.

  Claudia collapsed into the nearest armchair. Stared at the new couch. “It already came?”

  “And the bed too. I set it up in your room.” He thought both pieces of furniture were a huge improvement, but Claudia seemed underwhelmed.

  She closed her eyes. “Nice. What is that smell?”

  “Dinner.”

  Her eyes stayed closed. “Sorry, you are taking me out tonight. We have reservations at the Tidewater Inn. Mom is picking Jimmy up after his play date, and putting him to bed here, so we can be alone.”

  The inn wasn’t his idea of alone. “It’s just chicken stew,” he said. Chicken braised in stock, with mushrooms and itty-bitty carrots. Ah, well. Be better tomorrow. “If you want to go out, we will. But you look wiped out.”

  “Thanks.” She leaned her head deeper into the cushions. “It’s a command performance. We have to show off our committed relationship to as many people as we can.”

  “What time is our reservation?”

  “Seven.”

  “Gives us three hours. You could take a nap before we go.” Or, seeing as the boy wasn’t here, they could go at it like minks.

  “I have to shower and do my hair,” she said wearily.

  No mink action then.

  “I’ll wake you in two hours, if an hour is long enough to get ready and get into town.”

  “Okay. I’m sorry about your meal. It was nice of you to cook.” Her eyes didn’t open.

  “We can eat it tomorrow.” And wasn’t making casua
l plans for tomorrow’s dinner – married plans – a good feeling? Not as good as hot, sweaty sex. But good.

  “Sure.” She didn’t move.

  “You going to sleep there?”

  “I’m too tired to move.”

  “Okay.” He turned off lights and hobbled into the kitchen to turn off the stove.

  True to his word, he woke her after two hours. Her nap had restored the luster to her eyes and color to her face. By the time her hair was a mass of soft curls bouncing against her blue velvet tunic, she looked so luscious he was even less interested in being on display at the Tidewater Inn.

  Claudia slipped on some half boots. The heels brought her honey-colored curls level with his heart. Just a pocket Venus. He made a note to get her some jewelry. Those little pearl studs in her ears were pretty, but not special. His Claudia deserved special.

  “I’m ready,” she said. “I don’t think you need a tie.”

  “I thought erring on the side of formality would make a better impression.”

  “If you don’t mind.”

  “Not a bit. Shall we take my vehicle?”

  Tiny lines appeared between her brows. “I guess it will be all right, since Jimmy will be with Mom.”

  “I installed the car seat this afternoon,” he said.

  “It came too?”

  He kissed her cheek avoiding her lipstick. “FedEx loves us.”

  “Where did the sheets on the new bed come from?” she asked.

  “Nordstrom’s. My mom picked them out. I hope that you approve.”

  “They’re really pretty. Please thank her for me.”

  “I will. I’m glad you like them.” Mom had chosen a comforter cover with a blue toile print of shepherds and shepherdesses swinging in a landscape dotted with sheep. A bit feminine, but if Claudia liked them, he was happy. The sheets and pillowcases were white with a fine blue pinstripe to cut the froufrou.

  “Tell me about your day,” he invited as soon as they were on the road.

  She sighed. “As soon as I told Morley about us, he hustled off to the Bean to spread the word. I spent the day dealing with the fallout.”

  “Good old Nosy. I hear Moira Fairchild threw herself and her unborn child under a bus to save you from the gossips.”