by Holley Trent
She stood and grabbed a ratty bathrobe from the back of the armchair in the corner, and instead of studying those pages, he watched her slip into it and kept his eyes pinned on her body until she tightened the belt.
If there’s a god somewhere that cares about me at all, she’ll keep that thing on.
His self-restraint was the stuff of legends, but she was practically taunting him with her graceful splendor. She was pretty and lithe and ... bold as hell. Perfection, if he’d ever seen it, and he needed to get away from her soon or he’d forget why he was supposed to be keeping his hands off of her.
“Gonna grab some breakfast,” she said. “In the mood for anything in particular?”
He shrugged.
“Really? I’m surprised you didn’t make some quip about the salad.”
“The salad?”
“You remember ... the salad from lunch yesterday?”
“Was that yesterday?”
Belle shoved her hands into her bathrobe pockets and shifted her weight. “It was a long day, but not that long.”
“I’ll get something.” He set down the letter and started to stand, only to set his foot atop something stuffed and resistant on the floor beside the bed.
It was his duffel bag, pushed against the nightstand. His clothes from the previous day were draped over the top.
He glanced at her and back down to the bag. “How did I get in here? And undressed?”
“You walked. And you undressed.”
“I don’t remember that.”
She shrugged. “I might have helped.”
“Meaning ... you undressed me?”
“No. I’m strong, but not that strong. I had to get you to do it yourself.”
“I don’t remember undressing.”
“You were a little out of it.”
“You said you helped me. How did you help me?”
She rolled her gaze up to the ceiling and let out a long breath that sputtered her lips. “I ... might have compelled you a little.”
“What?”
“One of the advantages of being a born Cougar. We women just don’t have the bulk of the guys, so we can’t forcibly steal mates the way they do sometimes.”
“You gave me a mental whammy? Is that what you’re saying? How is that any different from just picking a guy up and tossing him onto your shoulder?”
She rolled her eyes. “No. What I can do doesn’t rob you of your ability to say no and walk away. It’s just a calming effect. It keeps you rational. I just happen to be a little better at it than other women in the glaring.”
“’Cause your daddy was the alpha, right?”
She turned her hands over in concession. “I tried words. You weren’t listening. You needed to rest, so I got you moving.”
“I don’t remember. Did we ...”
“What?” She crossed her arms over her chest and leaned into the doorway. “Did we have sex? No. Believe it or not, the cat in me would prefer that you be awake for that, and now that you’re up, she is, too. That’s why I’m going to go get you breakfast and am not on the bed right now.”
“Oh, okay.” He didn’t even know if he’d say no if she were on the bed. He didn’t know much of anything at the moment. “Why am I in here and not on the sofa, though?”
“Simple answer. Because I wanted you in my bed. If you’d like to move to the sofa, I think I could probably lure Dawn off of it, but that would seem cruel, don’t you think? Do I make such poor company that you’d want to toss an angel off the couch?”
“You’re talking me in circles. What are we even arguing about?”
“We’re not arguing. You were wondering how you got there, and I guess you didn’t like the answer.”
“I don’t like feeling like I’m being jerked around and have no say in what my body’s doing.”
She scoffed and pushed away from the door. “Nobody can jerk you around, and that includes me. I can’t make you do anything you ultimately don’t want to do. All I can make you do is feel comfortable while you decide. Nothing’s getting into you. Nothing’s compelling you.” She knelt beside his duffel bag and drummed her fingertips atop her knees. “Want to know what I saw last night in those caverns?”
“The same things I did.” Things he didn’t want to see ever again, because if he did, surely he’d behave the exact same way. He’d freeze up and be an embarrassing dead weight. He’d make the folks on his team have to work twice as hard to get the job done.
She shook her head slowly. “I saw a little more than you. As a Cougar, I’m calibrated to see things that other folks don’t know are there and especially so in that realm. Some of those things I saw, if they were to make it out of the portal, they might not be visible to the naked eye, but I could see them there.”
“What did you see?”
For a long moment, she stared at his chest and chewed the inside of her cheek as if she needed to gather up the right words. She squeezed his knee, stood, and then walked to the door.
“You know what? I’ll get you something to eat, then you can ask whatever you want.”
“That bad?”
“I can’t answer that.”
“So it is bad.”
“I can’t answer that. We’re not in the same place.”
“Because you don’t freak out when weird shit closes in on you.”
“Because I’m not you and I don’t have your memories or experiences.” She rounded the doorway and padded quietly down the hall, and he stared at the empty doorway for a while.
He listened to the soft murmurs in the living room—from Lily, maybe—and then the rattling of pots and pans.
“Why am I still here?” There was no reason to be there anymore—not in Belle’s bed or even in New Mexico. He could go home and try to put all the mess behind him. Back in North Carolina, he wouldn’t have to come face-to-face with things so wicked and morally bankrupt that they’d attack gentle angels.
He had his feet on the floor and his hands braced against the bedside when Belle returned.
“Sit,” she snapped.
“What?”
“Unless you’re going to the bathroom or looking out the window to see what a lovely day it is, you don’t need to be up.”
“I need to go.”
“Go where?”
“Home.”
“You’re not going anywhere.”
“Excuse me?” He scoffed. “In case you missed the memo, sunshine, I’m a grown-ass man. I’ll go wherever I want, and I’ll go there whenever I want to.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Is that so?”
“Hell yeah, it’s so. There’s no damn reason for me to be here.”
“None, huh?”
The tart snap to her voice suggested that he’d perhaps stepped into something of the excretory variety.
“Oh, hell. Are you about to go all Kathy Bates from Misery on me?”
He didn’t see Belle move, but obviously she had. He heard her hair-raising hiss and felt the prickles of proximity on his skin a moment before his eyes registered her in front of him. Her fangs were out, pupils narrowed to their catlike slits, and her grip on his thighs was punishing.
He scooted back a bit and swallowed hard. “Jesus Christ.”
She stopped hissing and stomped away, throwing up her hands. “You do this to me!”
“What in the world? How the hell is you goin’ a little monster my fault?”
“You’re antagonizing my inner cat.”
“Like hell I am. All I did was said I had to go.”
“And you don’t see where she would think that would be a problem? I’m in heat. That’s what I’m going to do if the animal part of me doesn’t get what it wants.”
“So ... you’re going to keep me locked in this room until you’re out of heat, is what you’re saying.”
“No.” She dragged her tongue across her now-normal teeth and patted down her hair. “I’m a reasonable woman, Steven.” She stabbed a finger in his direction as soon as
he opened his mouth to rebut that. “I am, damn it. I’m fighting this thing as hard as I can. If you do rash and sudden things, I’m going to be upset. I can’t let you leave.”
“Until you’re out of heat.”
She shrugged.
“No, no. Don’t be noncommittal. What’s the shrug for?”
“You could certainly leave, but that won’t make you stop being my mate.”
“Say what now?”
“You’re my mate.”
“Huh?”
Growling, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “You’re it.”
“The guy of the moment, you mean.”
“No.” She dropped her hand and rounded the doorway into the hallway again. “It-it,” she called back. “I guess we Foyes are four for four. Unless you want to get hissed at again, maybe you should stay where you are.”
“Four for four? What does that even mean?”
No response.
He scoffed and, not wanting to risk another hiss from the scary lady, settled back onto the bed and patted his pants in search of his cell phone. He called Hannah’s number and hoped she’d answer the damned thing.
“I was wondering how long it’d take for you to call,” she said.
“Um ... So ...”
“You want me to do some talking?”
“That’d be nice. Give me some info so I know what questions to ask. I’m not sure what’s going on here. I feel like I’m being imprisoned by a barbarian princess.”
“I’m not the best person to explain it because I’m not a born Cougar. Lola could probably do it if you’d like to have a chat with her.”
“That wouldn’t be awkward at all, right? Belle said I was it and that the Foyes are four for four with mates. What do you think she was talking about?”
“That you’re her mate?”
“I get that part, but how’s that different from any other guy she’d be seeing for the moment?”
“There’s mate, and then there’s true mate.”
“The difference being what?”
“Has to do with offspring and ... stuff.”
“Do what now?”
Hannah groaned. “With the way genes convey, I mean. Cougar heredity is complicated, and it’s not the same for both sexes. With the guys, if they take human mates, they don’t have Cougar kids unless those women are their true mates. With the women, there’s still a chance they could have a Cougar kid, in spite of who knocks them up. It just depends on genetic recombination and yada yada. I’m sure this is boring you, but I’m a nurse and I took two semesters of genetics.”
“I’m not bored, per se, but I’d like to know what any of that has to do with the true mate thing.”
“Oh. Well, a Cougar lady with a true mate for all intents and purposes has a Cougar mate, even if he’s not a Cougar.”
“Huh?” No one had ever accused Steven of being stupid, but he was sure as shit feeling it at the moment.
“In a nutshell,” Hannah said, “her offspring won’t have less power as a result of having a human father. That’s important with her coming from the Foye line. The power tends to taper off in the women over the course of several generations. The Foyes aren’t typical. Most families don’t have an unbroken line going back to the original Cougars. For Belle, having a true mate means her kids get the same power their cousins would have.”
“Cousins?”
“Well, we’d ... get around to making some eventually,” Hannah muttered. “That’s kind of the way relationships work, I hear.”
“You’re making my head hurt, and I wasn’t doing so great as it was.”
“You all right?”
“No. I’m anxious as hell and more skittish than a cat in a rocking chair factory, but don’t change the subject.”
Something beeped in the kitchen—the microwave timer, maybe—and he decided to hurry the conversation along in case the scary hottie came back.
“Just trying to make sure you’re okay,” Hannah said quietly.
“You can do that by telling me what’s happening.”
“Well, to be blunt, I think she wants to keep you.”
“You mean the animal part of her does. For the sperm.”
Hannah made a sound of disgust. “I’m sure other parts of you, too. Maybe. Probably, anyway.”
“I’m not sure if I should be offended.”
“It’s up to you to decide if you are. I’m just giving you some information.”
“I’m sure she would have gotten around to telling me whenever she stopped hissing at me.”
“Where’d she go?”
“She’s in the kitchen getting me breakfast or lunch or whatever.”
“Don’t do anything rash.”
“Like going home? I gotta go. I’m going to lose my damn job if I don’t, and between you and me, I want to get as far away from that portal as I can. I don’t care if they’re closing it. I don’t want to be anywhere near it.”
Hannah sighed. “I understand that. And I don’t want you to think I’m being cruel, but I have to say this. You going home isn’t going to stop you from seeing things. Now you might see even more because your eyes have been opened to it. Wouldn’t you rather be around people who understand what that’s like than around folks like Mom and Dad who’ll mock you for seeming like you’re a little bit off?”
He closed his eyes and leaned against the headboard. “I can’t stay here, Hannah. I’m not ready to ... Do you know what I saw down there? Those things ... They ...” He rubbed the palm of his free hand against his eyes and slouched lower against the headboard.
“What do you think is going to happen?” she asked. “Is there a chance something’s going to go after you? Maybe. But do you think things like that care how far you run?”
“Maybe they don’t, but being farther from it would sure as hell make me feel a hell of a lot better. This shit didn’t happen in North Carolina.”
“Maybe not to you, but it does happen. Ask Claude or Gail. They deal with it all the time. I guess they consider it part of their job in the same way you deal with the occasional violent perp at work. You hope everything is going to be calm but are prepared for things not to be.”
“This is too much even for me. The war stuff didn’t bother me, not even with all the gore I was up close and personal with, but I feel like this is something beyond my control, and when I don’t have the right tools to deal with things, I—”
“We all do that,” she whispered. “Hesitate. Falter in the thick of things.”
“Bullshit. You walk into fights as if you believe it’s going to be your last one and you want it to be a good one.”
“And I learned to do that from you. You only see me when I’m good. Trust me, I fuck up plenty when I’m out doing stuff for the glaring. Sean gets to see it. I nearly got my ass handed to me last week when I went to grab a couple of kids from a Cougar’s ex.”
Steven sat up a little straighter and reflexively reached for the gun that wasn’t on the nightstand because he wasn’t in his own room. He didn’t take kindly to folks roughing up his little sister, but it seemed there wasn’t anything he could do about it, anyway. “You didn’t tell me about that.”
“It’s over now. It shook me up for a couple of days, but Sean made me put it all in perspective. I’d do it again if I had to, and I’m sure I will have to at some point. Next time, I’ll be better prepared.”
“I’m not sure there’s any way to prepare for ... They were trying to get inside me, Hannah. Like that spirit did to Belle.”
“But wouldn’t you rather find out how to prevent it from happening again? Or learn some strategies of what to do if they ever succeed?”
“Quit it. You’re being a little too rational right now. Who are you, and what did you do with my little sister?”
“Hush. Go eat something. I’ll call you whenever we figure out what we’re doing today.”
“Wait. Is someone going to rescue me from the ginger dementor? She’s got a man-eating gl
int to her eyes, and I’m not sure I like it.”
“Don’t know what to tell you. She’s a Foye.”
“What am I supposed to do with that information?”
“Nothing. There’s nothing you can really do to subvert a Foye. You might as well just let yourself get pulled into her orbit and hang on for the ride when it gets wild.”
“That’s not the way free will works.”
“You’re one puny human fighting against the whims of the Fates. If they pay special attention to you, kiss your free will buh-bye. And buh-bye to you. I need to go help Ellery with something.”
“Wait. You can’t just—”
Hannah disconnected.
Belle stepped into the room carrying a tray loaded down with dishes bearing what seemed to be actual food.
“Scoot that stuff off that nightstand, would ya?” She canted her head toward the little table.
He cleared the stack of magazines and various feminine odds and ends from it, and she set the tray atop it.
“Did you read the letter?” she asked and tightened the belt of her robe.
His gaze lingered overlong at the plackets of the thing, his mind a mess of Does she really need to wear that in here? clashing with It’s a good thing she is. She needed to keep her clothes on as much as possible. He pondered if perhaps he should buy her some more—maybe some bulky sweaters and coveralls so he could see nary a curve.
Jesus Christ.
Steven scoffed.
Apparently, Hannah was right, and Steven was the next lucky duck to get stuck in a Foye’s orbit. Almost every part of him was affected. His brain, for one. Lower things, especially.
“Steven?”
He closed his eyes and let out a breath. “Sorry. Distractible for some damn reason I sure can’t figure out. And, no, I haven’t read it yet. I was on the phone with Hannah.”
“Oh.”
He opened his eyes and watched Belle retreat to the door.
“Left your coffee on the counter,” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
“You don’t have to—” Screw it. He pinched his lips on the words. Telling her not to bother was pointless. She was going to do what she wanted to do in spite of any objections from him.
Fixing his gaze on the contents of the tray, he argued with himself for protein over carbs and opted to start with the eggs. A little runny—just the way he liked them.