Paranormal Dating Agency: Fated to Mate (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Anne Conley (1)

 

Acknowledgements—I would like to thank Milly Taiden for allowing me to write in her world. This isn’t my normal fare as a Romantic Suspense writer, but I have a soft spot for all things shifter stories, and have a couple floating around in my head all the time. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to write mine.

 

Chapter one

Gerri Wilder set out a platter of cookies for her friend, Gloria, whom she was visiting for a brief time this summer while her apartment was being painted. They had spent all morning chatting and catching up, the way old friends did, when Gloria perked up.

“That will be Chase,” Gloria said as she stood to go to the door. Flinging it open, she announced, “Get down here and hug my neck!” Gloria had told Gerri all about Chase, and she was eager to meet the young man and, of course, try to help him.

A tall, broad, golden young man strode in. “Hey, Gramma. Which lightbulbs?” His eyes immediately went to Gerri as he focused his intense light-brown eyes on her. She could see how that would make women stupid. “I’m sorry. I didn’t remember you had company.”

“Chase, this is my dear friend Gerri Wilder. She’s going to be staying with me a little while.”

He extended his hand and Gerri shook it, his grip warm and meaty. “Nice to meet you. Goodness, you are a tall drink of water, aren’t you?” She craned her neck to look at him. “I bet you have all the girls panting after you.” Gerri shot him a wink.

Chase flushed a deep scarlet and rubbed the back of his neck. “Not really, ma’am, no.”

Gloria elaborated, not that she hadn’t told Gerri the entire story earlier. “He’s getting a divorce. Supposed to be final today, I think. He needs to find a mate for real now.” She glanced at Chase with a smile, but he wasn’t looking at her; he was still staring at the floor.

“I see,” Gerri mused, then in a louder voice said, “Gloria, would you mind making us all some tea?”

Gloria hurried to do her bidding, a secret smile on her lips. Like the meddling old women they were, they had already discussed Chase’s problems and had a plan.

“Sit next to me and have a cookie.” Gerri smiled innocently at Chase, but he did as he was told, like a good boy. “I bet you can get any woman you’d like.”

“Not really,” Chase’s eyes had gone dark as he picked up a cookie and shoved it into his mouth.

“Well, you’re the next alpha, right?”

He looked at Gerri, his eyes flashing with anger. “We don’t call it that, but yes.” Chase and his family were cougar shifters, the solitary panthers. But the way Gloria had explained it, they did things strangely here. In the old-fashioned way of the ancestors, they only mated with other shifters, but in some ill-advised, new-fangled method, instead of alphas and packs—since the community had begun as a retreat for rogues and loners—it was a mish-mash of different shifter animals. They had a mayor, whose position was passed down to the eldest son of Chase’s family. Allen, the current mayor, was a bit of a prick, in Gerri’s opinion.

“Then you need a woman. I can help.” She pulled a card out of her handbag with Gerri Wilder—Paranormal Dating Agency printed on it and handed it to Chase. “Tell me about your dream woman. I’ll find her and set you up with her.” She smiled. “Promise. I haven’t failed yet.”

“These cookies are really good, ma’am,” Chase said, attempting to change the subject, but Gerri knew better. She simply raised her eyebrows and counted on his good manners to do the rest. With a loud exhale, he rested his head on the back of the sofa, closing his eyes. “Okay. My woman is big, like, really tall. Five foot ten or so, with long blond hair that gets frizzy when it rains, the biggest smile that lights up the whole world, a dimple on her right cheek, emerald-green eyes that dance when she laughs, and hips that make me want to do illegal things. She’s kind, and loyal, and will do whatever it takes to make others happy at the cost of sacrificing her own happiness.” He lifted his head and looked at Gerri with an expression that said, there, are you happy now?

“Well, that was specific. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you already had your eye on someone.” Gerri’s heart broke for this boy. Gloria had told her about Kelli, the human Chase’s dad had run off, insisting that he mate with a shifter. So the poor boy had given it a shot, and the divorce proved Allen was an arrogant leader who only wanted things done his way. “Why don’t you go get this one?”

Chase’s lips twisted. “Because she’s a human, and I can’t mate with her.” His head dropped back to the sofa. “And she’s gone, so it doesn’t matter.”

“I’ll be in touch with you. Wait for word from me, and I’ll get you your dream girl.” She just had to find her. “Your Gramma has lightbulbs for you to change?”

Gerri had some work to do. Normally, she just had to get the people together and they felt the pull. Apparently, these two had fought the pull long enough they didn’t believe in it and thought they had to change chemistry. Gerri blamed Allen for putting ideas in their heads and knew it would be hard to fight the long-standing, ingrained prejudice against humans.

 

 

Chapter two

Chase’s cougar was running the jogging trail of the enormous park bordering his property, on his way to the trail head where it was more secluded. He was trying to outrun his thoughts, which were overwhelming him to say the least. His divorce was finalized this morning, but instead of jubilation, he felt like a fucking failure.

Of course, he should have known it wouldn’t work out with Angelica from the start. They weren’t a fated bond. They’d tried to force the mating, two agreeable shifters both wanting a union. And they had at first. But apparently, she was more into the gardener now. And he wasn’t down for a threesome.

So Chase was running, letting the powerful feline inside him take over, like he should have years ago rather than trying to force it to do something it didn’t want. Not that he could have what his cougar wanted, either.

With a powerful leap, Chase jumped, allowing his cat to dictate where he went—to the trees. He actually made better ground up here, jumping from branch to branch in the canopy of spruces, cedars, poplars, and enormous maple trees. He was almost to his property line, where he intended to stay until he had to come out, which unfortunately wouldn’t be too long. A day, maybe.

He had business to attend to, a life to pretend he loved, and a leadership position to be groomed for, whether he liked it or not. That was the root of his problems.

How could Chase forget? If it weren’t for the fact he was the eldest son, he could have had Kelli from the beginning and none of this stuff with Angelica ever would have happened. Angelica was a constant reminder of the woman he could never have.

The one who had left him. His cat let out a primal scream of defeat at the thought.

His nose contracted as he inhaled a debilitating scent that brought him up short. He couldn’t believe it. It was as if he’d conjured her.

Kelli.

**

Kelli was on the jogging path, trying to be aware of her surroundings but lost in her own thoughts. She usually liked jogging here, as it was more crowded with casual strollers and picnickers instead of the die-hards who walked the entire trail’s forty-two-mile length around the canyon and lakes.

Nope. She preferred the people around her, especially with the unpredictable wildlife in the area.

But even as she told herself she was being safer here, she didn’t realize how far up the path she’d jogged until she saw the dense poplars signaling the beginning of the “hard” part of the trail. She pushed on, her head and heart not ready to turn back.

She hadn’t come up here in years. Not since she and Chase had been a thing. Before he’d found Angelica and she’d found Dan.

Dan. Ignoring the bitter taste in her mouth at the thought of Angelica, Kelli focused on her own problem.

Jeez. What was she going to do about Dan? She was realizing way too late in the game she didn’t really love him. That was why she was running today. Kelli was trying to figure out how to break off their engagement. For some reason, running helped her think, usually cleared her mind. But today was a little bit different. Her thoughts were a jumbled mess of her issues with Dan. The fact she was running here made thoughts of Chase loud and clear, as if vying for attention she’d tried not to give for years.

This was a hard decision, though. She didn’t really have a good reason to break off the engagement, except for that whole pesky “love” thing. Dan was nice, good-looking, liked animals and babies, played a good game of poker, made a mean Manhattan, and was altogether not Chase.

Which didn’t matter. She couldn’t have Chase, either. That had been decided years ago, but it didn’t change the fact she’d moved away from this community to get out from under his spell. She’d only come back to finalize wedding plans for a marriage she didn’t want to go through with.

Kelli’s thoughts blurred together as she felt a stitch in her side. Looking around, she realized she had gone deeper than she’d intended. Time to turn around.

Bending over and putting her hands on her knees, Kelli breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth in an effort to catch her breath without hyperventilating. Her brain barely registered the soft rustle of leaves above her. When the ground shook under her feet, she didn’t at first realize exactly what it was, but when the chuffing sounded near her ear, clarity dawned with crackle of danger in the air.

She was deeper further down the trail than she needed to be. Movement in her peripheral vision heralded danger.

Without looking at it in the eyes, Kelli saw the cougar as it stalked toward her on lithe legs. Taking in the animal as a vague whole that can only be accomplished by not actually looking directly at it, Kelli took in the creature. She knew it was a shifter, mostly because it was huge, but when she risked a glance at it, the knowing intelligence shining through its amber-colored eyes meant it could only be one shifter—Chase.

What were the odds? She’d just been thinking about him. This was insanity. Of course, it had always been this way with him—some polarity that brought them together. That was why she had gone so far away in the first place.

He stopped a few feet in front of her and sat back on his massive haunches. Waiting for her to make a move. Watching her. Growling at her? A strange noise came from his chest, not a growl exactly, but it sent a chill up her spine. It was a strange cross between a growl and a purr.

She hadn’t seen Chase in ten years and wasn’t sure what protocol was since she wasn’t shifter—a fact she was painfully reminded of on a daily basis. Every time she thought about him. Or tried not to.

Would he be angry she’d left? Hadn’t said a word to him? Shifters in their animal state were unpredictable, at best, so she did was her instincts told her to.

She dropped to her hands and knees.

The massive tawny cougar chuffed again at her, but she wasn’t looking. Her eyes were on the ground, as she refused to look up into the eyes of Chase’s cat again. She saw two paws bigger than her hands approach in her vision—enormous paws almost as big as her head. She watched in awe as the fur melted away and they elongated into a pair of human feet.

He’d never shifted in front of her before. Not even when she’d begged him to, so long ago. And now, since she’d been so careful to not be looking at him, she’d missed most of it. Damn.

Knowing he was standing naked in front of her brought all sorts of wicked images to her brain. Memories of their past she had to choke back. But not before she indulged in them for a brief moment.

Chase had been her first everything—her first kiss, her first sexual encounter, she’d lost her virginity to him in the back of his pickup after he’d made a bed of wildflowers. They’d discovered so many things about each other and themselves in the bed of his old truck. His lanky torso had been the stuff of wet dreams for most of her life. She remembered how sensitive the flat disks of his nipples had been, how his hisses of pleasure had rocked her to her core.

And then there were the things he’d discovered about her body …

Kelli felt the moisture pool in her panties at the memories before she slammed the door on them. She concentrated on her breathing and the present. Breathe in. Breathe out. She could do this. She could face the man she’d vowed not to torture herself with seeing again. Kelli had been the one to leave. Kelli had taken control when her heart was breaking back then, so she could stay in control now. And try not to let her heart break again.

When she was confident Chase was human again, she drew her eyes up his leanly muscled body, conveniently skipping over the hard length abed the mass of curls at his groin before traveling up his chiseled torso into the face of her dreams.

Kelli lost all coherent thought, along with the ability to breathe. The air was suddenly thick and heavy, as if the mist coming off the leaves was a tangible entity, choking her.

Chase sure had grown up well.

If he’d been a well-formed teenager the last time she’d seen him, now, he was a superb specimen of a man.

“Kelli,” he said, his voice rough and his eyes unreadable. His shaggy, light-brown hair was messy, as it always had been, and she resisted the urge to smooth it down. His eyes retained the amber color they always turned when he was doing some epic internal battle with his beast.

“Chase,” she reciprocated, unable to match the intensity of his expression, embarrassing herself with a croak instead of her normal voice.

Her eyes drifted down, an attempt to not look at the amber glow of his eyes, but they only fell on the hard rod jutting between his legs.

Damn her eyes for looking at his erection, the thick, long length standing tall and proud between them. Why was he erect, anyway? Was that a part of the shifting? Did shifting make him hard?

Well, hell, she was on her hands and knees in front of the man, what else was she supposed to look at?

“Why did you do that?” His voice sounded pained, guttural, almost feral. Her eyes snapped to his to see the pretty amber color, and she realized his cat wanted to take over, still.

Kelli sat back on her heels, trying to ignore his nudity, as if this were an everyday thing. She knew shifters were comfortable with their nudity, that was nothing new. She’d grown up in this town and understood it better than most people. But this was Chase, and she was having a hard time controlling her body’s reaction to it.

“Do what?”

He waved his arms at her. “Do that submissive thing. You’re on your hands and knees, Kelli.” He said that like it was a bad thing, and she wondered what she’d done wrong.

“I wasn’t sure how your cougar would react, and I didn’t want him to feel threatened. I was trying to be small. Was that not right?” She fought all the old feelings rising to the surface—feelings she’d fought long and hard to contain. All the questions she still wanted answers to.

His mouth twisted into a snarl, and Chase took a step back, making a strange noise in the back of his throat. “No. It was fucking perfect.” He offered a weak smile, but it didn’t reach his eyes, still the amber color of his cat. It was clear the cat wanted something.

She only hoped it wasn’t dinner.

“You get home, okay? I’ve got to go.” The words were spoken so fast she almost missed all of them. And then he was gone, shifting back into the magnificent cat and melting into the surrounding forest. But when the words registered, she beat feet to get home.

As Kelli ran back the way she’d come, she realized she wasn’t exactly scared. She remembered the clean, perfect lines of the cougar as it approached her, easily reconciling the animal with the man. He was beautiful, whichever form he was in.

The shifters in here were all gorgeous and relatively endangered. Kelli had heard the whispers of this generation—Chase’s generation—being mostly males and what that was doing to the shifter community as a whole. That was why she’d moved. She couldn’t stand to watch the man she loved marry someone else.

 

Chapter three

Kelli roamed the aisles of the grocery store, absently looking for food to cook for Dan tonight at her mom’s house. She’d told her mom she was calling off the wedding. She was understandably disappointed but was going along with her plan to keep Dan’s parents busy at dinner while Kelli told him.

Which she was dreading with everything inside her. What did a girl cook for a man she was breaking up with? Settling on baked chicken, she decided she could make it bland enough he wouldn’t think of her dinner-making skills as an asset to be missed.

A small, gray-haired lady stood next to her while she was picking out the worst-looking chicken she could find, watching her with a wry smile on her face.

“You look like a girl who could use something,” the lady said. Kelli’s eyes snapped up to her, wondering if the woman had intended to make the double-entendre Kelli heard. Deciding she couldn’t have, because that would be weird, she offered a polite smile.

“I suppose you could say that.” She needed sex, good sex. She needed love. She needed lots of things, but wasn’t getting any of that here. Certainly not at the grocery store.

The lady pulled out a card and handed it to her. Gerri Wilder—Paranormal Dating Agency the card read, and Kelli’s smile faltered.

“I don’t need a date. I’m trying to get out of something at the moment.”

“Oh?” The woman’s expression was open, eyebrows lifted in question. Kelli sighed. She didn’t want to talk about this, but something about the woman told her she could, even if this wasn’t the right place.

Kelli’s eyes darted around, seeing the meat department was deserted. She’d never see this woman again, and maybe she would give her some advice. Her mom certainly hadn’t, even though Kelli knew her mom didn’t want her to make the same mistakes she had.

“I’m breaking it off with my fiancé tonight. It’s sort of hard.”

“Is there someone else?” Ms. Wilder’s eyes danced with humor, and Kelli relaxed further. There was something about her. Kelli wondered if there was some sort of mysticism about the lady; it wouldn’t surprise her.

“Sort of, not that I can have him,” she confided, wondering why she was being so open.

“Well, when are you breaking up with this fiancé?”

Kelli sighed. “Tonight.”

“What do you want in a man?”

Chase, Kelli thought to herself. “Someone who can be with me. Someone who loves me unconditionally. Someone who can handle my … humanness.” She shook her head. The card had said Paranormal Dating. "I'm not sure you can even help me.”

Gerri Wilder winked at her and lowered her voice. “You people have got to learn to trust your instincts. Meet him after you breakup with the other. I’ll have him at your house. Let him in.”

 

The woman patted her hand and then walked away as if that hadn’t been one of the weirdest conversations she’d ever had in her life. She said she wanted that stuff, and she did. But she didn’t think she was ready for it. Especially if it wasn’t Chase. And she couldn’t have Chase, so what was the point?

Deciding the old woman was crazy, Kelli immediately put the conversation out of her mind. Wandering to the cereal aisle, Kelli decided to grab herself some healthy granola to keep in her mom’s kitchen for the remainder of her stay. Her mom couldn’t get over the fact she no longer ate the chocolate-coated stuff with marshmallows in it for breakfast and Kelli was grown now, preferring a healthier alternative.

She reached for the box of granola cereal on the top shelf just as a long, golden arm snaked out next to her head and reached for the box, a warm, hard body pressing against her back. Enormous, rough hands wrapped around the box, making it look tiny in his massive grasp. A warm scent filled her head, making her thoughts swim around in her head.

Kelli spun to find Chase, the only man who had ever made her feel petite, pressing against her, crowding her in the supermarket, holding her box of granola.

Snatching her cereal and clutching it to her chest like a treasured prize, she inhaled deeply, trying to find the words she wanted to say to him. The only problem was, she had no idea what she wanted to say.

And he only stood there, invading all her space, making it difficult to breathe, to speak, to think.

His eyes were Chase’s normal, soft brown, but she saw the amber flecks in them widen as his nostrils flared.

He dipped his head and took a long sniff of her. The sniff brought a fresh round of tears to her eyes. Chase had always done that right before making a move. The sexual drive of a shifter was something for the books. Chase had been insatiable, and she’d given him all she could, with much pleasure. Kelli missed all the intimacy they’d had, all the things they’d tried and wanted to try. She regretted not doing more with Chase while she had the chance.

Kelli’s inhibitions flew out the proverbial window when she was around him. She couldn’t resist him; there was some weird thing between them that pulled them together every time. She knew that by him marrying Angelica, she would be heartbroken every time she saw him.

And she was. Just knowing he was sniffing her here, and then would be going home to her, killed her.

Kelli sniffed, but it was a different sort. While his had been the long, slow inhale of someone savoring something decadent, hers was the short, hard sniff of someone hiding tears.

Coming back here had been a mistake of epic proportions.

**

Chase hadn’t meant to box her in like this. He’d just been cruising the aisles, grabbing the drinks they were going to need for the job today, and then he saw her. His body had reacted all on its own.

Of course, he’d been ignoring the images his cat kept throwing at him of her yesterday on the trail. Hands and knees, delectable ass in the air as she bent over in the perfect pose of submission to his alpha cat. He’d had to fight his cougar to keep from taking her right there. It was a heroic battle, but he’d won. Barely.

Even now—her eyes downcast, goose bumps rippling up her arms, and the pulse pounding in her neck—he wanted her.

But he was still pissed at her.

And he hated himself for wanting her so badly.

A rumbling, growly noise rose from his chest, and Kelli’s eyes snapped to his. He let the pent-up anger show, no point in holding back. Kelli needed to know how badly she’d hurt him.

“You’re angry at me,” she stated simply, her voice no more than a whisper.

“Of course I’m fucking angry.” Chase forced a calm he didn’t feel into his voice. “You left without a goodbye.” He pressed closer, using his body to intimidate, but was disappointed she didn’t cower. Instead, her chin lifted and jutted out, and he felt the insane urge to kiss her. “For ten years. Not a word. Nothing.”

Yeah. Who needed complete sentences? He was getting his point across.

Sadness filled her eyes, and a triumph filled his chest. He inhaled deeply, scenting her arousal along with all things Kelli, and felt his erection press painfully against his zipper. He wanted to push against her more until his body touched hers everywhere and she could feel what she did to him, still.

His fingers itched to sink into her soft curves, press the slight paunch of her belly against him, feel the smooth skin on her back side. The golden hair she constantly complained about being frizzy was currently tied back, and he longed to delve into it, wrap it around his fist, and yank it.

But her next words brought him back to the present, dissolving the fantasy.

“What was I supposed to do, Chase? Hang around and watch you with her? While you both led the town together? And ignore how much it hurt every time I saw you two together, knowing it wasn’t real?” Her breath hitched on the last word, and he saw the question in her eyes.

He couldn’t be mad at her. The anger and triumph drained almost as quickly as it had bubbled up, and he felt everything soften around her. His body curled into hers, pressing her up against the shelf, and cereal boxes tumbled to the floor as she tried to escape him.

“It wasn’t real,” Chase whispered in her ear. “Angelica’s done. Divorce was final yesterday.”

He wanted her. His cat wanted her. Every fiber of his being wanted her. So what if he was mad at her? Most of that had evaporated at the first sight of the tears glistening in her green eyes. She was the only person who ever knew him. Even though she’d left, Chase thought she might still be the only one for him. If only she were shifter.

Dropping his hands from the shelf to her waist, he couldn’t not touch her, even if she still clutched the box of cereal in her hands as if it would ward him off. He dipped his head to her neck, where he pulse still pounded and her scent was strongest. He could smell her arousal pumping though her veins and seeping out of her panties.

Chase tugged Kelli closer, even as she pushed him away with that damn box of cereal.

“Chase, don’t.” Her voice was a whimper. “We’re in a grocery store.”

“Remember the bathroom at the library?” he murmured into her neck before biting it softly, then licking it with his tongue. Chase still couldn’t walk into a library, or a bookstore, or even see a damn paperback without thinking about taking her from behind in the library’s bathroom.

Kelli pushed at him harder, even as her breathing grew ragged, and the salty smell of her tears filled his nose, almost overpowering the other scents.

“Of course I remember,” her voice was angry now. “I’m not your sex toy. Get your hands off me.” Her whisper was furious, finally seeping into the part of Chase’s brain that held some rational thought.

One by one, he loosened his fingers and took a step back, slowly.

Looking at Kelli, really looking at her, he realized his mistake. Sure, she held all the outward signs of a woman flushed with desire, but the backdrop of the cereal aisle spoke volumes of his choice of settings for this seduction. The angry set of her tiny body, the tension of her shoulders, the stance of her feet, the automatic arm-crossing after he’d given her the space she wanted, all said she didn’t want this for whatever reason—even if her desire puddled out of her body like a heatwave.

The words about being his sex toy hit him harder than anything else, though.

Helpless, he watched the tears stream down her face as she let out a sob.

“We can’t be together, so why torture ourselves?” Looking like she wanted to say more, she opened her mouth but snapped it shut. Then, without another word, she spun around and ran out of the store, leaving her basket of groceries behind.

Chapter four

That night happened to be the weekly family dinner. Chase didn’t want to be around people—let alone people who could read his every gesture—but knew he couldn’t miss it. It was at Gramma’s house and she got bitchy when anyone missed dinner. She was liable to put BenGay in his shower gel bottle because that’s how she rolled.

And Gerri Wilder was still visiting. She probably had shifter granddaughters to fix them up with or something. Chase groaned at the thought. He wasn’t looking forward to another “chat” with the woman.

His brothers would be there; maybe they would be distracting enough so everyone wouldn’t totally focus on his failures as the eldest son to have a mated bond.

When he got to the door of his parents’ house, Gramma answered it before he could open it himself, her wizened face contorted into a smile.

“Get down here so I can hug your neck,” she cackled out the familiar refrain. “I’m going to need my climbing shoes if you don’t.” Chase’s mother rolled her eyes behind Gramma at the words she spoke to every grandson, every time. Chase obliged, bending his long, lanky frame down to Gramma’s level so she could wrap her frail arms around him.

“Hi, Gramma. Did you make dinner? It smells better than Mom’s,” he said loud enough for his mother to hear, eliciting another eye roll. In actuality, the house smelled fabulous, like it always did—scents of garlic and rich cream sauce filled the air. “Did you make cake? Yum-mee.” He rubbed his belly for effect, just noticing the other woman exiting the kitchen. His nostrils flared as he scented her again. She was a wolf shifter, a strong one, possibly a leader of some sort.

“I made the cake, and it’s delicious,” Ms. Wilder said.

Gramma was eighty-two, acted like the typical grandma, and Chase loved her to pieces, even though he teased her about her lack of cooking skills. While Chase’s parents were busy raising a houseful of shifter boys—no small feat—Gramma was busy spoiling them behind Mom and Dad’s back, every chance she got.

He turned to Gerri, extending his hand. “I bet it is delicious. I can’t wait.”

Her eyes twinkled as she appraised him from head to toe, and Chase felt less than comfortable under her scrutiny. She was a funny old woman, that was for sure. Chase couldn’t help but think about her words yesterday, about fixing him up with his mate. Thankfully, his mom saved him with her chiding.

“I’ll have you know that’s the same Fettuccini Alfredo you’ve been loving since you were five. So hush it and come hug your mama.” His mom held her arms out for a hug, and when he embraced the diminutive woman, Chase felt everything inside him align. Things would be okay. He may be messed up about the divorce, and seeing Kelli again, but as long as he had his family, things would be okay.

Everyone knew yesterday was the day he was supposed to receive the finalized divorce papers, but thankfully, nobody mentioned it. Not until they all sat down to eat, anyway.

They sat in the same spots they sat in every week–Mom and Dad at the ends of the table, Chase and Jude on one side, and Gramma and Tanner on the other, with an extra chair squeezed in for her friend Gerri. Tanner, with dark hair and blue eyes that mirrored his cat, a black panther, was the youngest of the boys and had always been unruly. They’d started sitting that way so Gramma could pinch his thigh when he got out of control, but now that he towered over her, it was almost comical to see his reaction to her thigh pinches now when he said something rude.

Which he did, as soon as they all started passing food around.

“So do we start singing?” he asked before taking on a falsetto voice. “Ding dong, the divorce is here, the wicked witch is go-o-one!” Tanner jumped, as Gramma’s nails predictably grasped the tender flesh of his thigh.

Jude, ever silent, smiled softly to himself, but Chase didn’t miss it. He was a rare albino panther, and this whole mating thing was hitting him hard. With the lack of female shifters in the area, he would have to travel outside of their territory to find a mate. And albino panthers were hunted hard. The shock of white hair and green eyes spun to look at his reaction to Tanner’s song.

“Tanner. That’s enough. Chase will talk about it when he wants to. This is hard for him, undoubtedly.” Their father, the town mayor, slid a sideways glance at the guest at the table, who was eating as if nothing were amiss. He spoke as if he had knowledge—which he didn’t—about divorces and the failures as a shifter male that Chase was feeling right now.

But Dad had no clue.

As cougar shifters, or panthers, they had no pride, or pack, like wolf shifters did. But they got along together in this community. There were specific rules in place to protect the species and keep outsiders from doing them harm, but it wasn’t a huge secret they were there. Shifters worked on the police force, held community leadership roles, and always held the position of mayor of the town. While most towns held elections, this town had always passed the position down from eldest son to eldest son—of Chase’s family.

There were expectations of him. Expectations which he had failed by getting a divorce from his shifter mate.

Chase had always known he would have to sacrifice for his position, and he thought he’d done it right by marrying Angelica—the only available shifter female in the area. The other single female shifter was eight years old.

But it hadn’t worked out, at all, and now he would have to travel somewhere to bring back a mate and try again. Kelli popped back into his mind, unbidden, as she’d dropped to her knees in front of him yesterday on the jogging trail in front of his cat, her head down, and the delectable curve of her spine showing through her thin t-shirt.

As soon as he’d smelled her he’d gotten hard, like he always had when Kelli was around. That was something he’d learned to hide almost as soon as he’d discovered it happened—wearing baggy clothing, keeping things strategically in front of him. Then, they’d gotten older and dated, as teenagers were want to do, and lost their virginity to each other, again, as teenagers tended to do in situations where they were left unsupervised.

“You know,” Gramma started in on one of her matriarchal soliloquys, “I always wondered if your generation was the one to fulfill the Olde Story.” She spoke in a musing tone, but Chase wasn’t fooled. He was a bit shocked, though. Looking over at Gerri, he gauged her reaction, which was nonexistent. He shrugged to himself, wondering what Gramma was talking about, why she said it in front of her guest, but he knew the old woman spoke her mind, whether anyone cared or not. She had more to say, but apparently, their dad didn’t want to hear it.

“I don’t think so, Gloria,” he said in his no-nonsense voice. “No sense in putting ideas in their head without them working for it.”

Chase’s mother spoke up. “Let her speak. I think it’s safe to say Chase has worked for it. If being married to that woman for eight years wasn’t work, I don’t know what was. You know you’ve considered it.” Her pointed look at Chase’s father shut him up, making Chase feel a weird longing for someone to have that connection with.

Gerri spoke up instead.

“Chase has worked for it. And he’s done all the wrong things.” Her eyes flitted around the table, an absurdly amused twinkle in them. “He had his mate and let her go.”

“Dammit,” Chase cursed under his breath, suddenly realizing the divorce was a bad idea. Shifters didn’t divorce. His dad had been right all along. He may not like Angelica, but she was it for him.

“Chase!” his gramma admonished. Tanner jumped as she pinched him.

“Ow! I didn’t say it!” He pouted across the table, but Chase was oblivious.

“Well, I couldn’t reach him,” Gramma crossed her arms, leveling a shrewd look at Chase, who was wiping his mouth with his napkin.

“I’m sorry. Dinner was delicious, but I’ve got to go.” He stood, knocking his chair over in the process.

He had to make this right. He was such a fuck up, there was no way he would ever make a good leader, but one sign was admitting mistakes, right?

“Chase,” his mother called, even as he ran out the door.

Chase knew he was holding on to some sort of childhood fairy tale with all the Kelli stuff. It was time for him to grow a pair and tell Angelica he’d made a huge mistake.

**

Gerri was amused by the whole ordeal, even if it made her miss her boys at home. These cats were different from her wolves, though—all that coiled tension and sleek grace.

Even so, Gloria had some explaining to do. “What’s all this Olde Story nonsense?” Gerri prompted.

“It’s something my grandparents talked about. They said a time would come when the leader’s children would have to turn outsiders to find their mates. Chase bonded with the only shifter in the area of age, and unless he’s willing to wait ten years for the next one to come of age, he’s out of luck.” Gloria’s eyes drifted to her remaining grandsons at the table. “I honestly don’t see any of you waiting for little miss Lola to get there.”

Tanner muttered an “Ewww” under his breath.

“Who says they have to mate with shifters?” Gerri was starting to understand the tension around the table. This community was out of the way, relatively cut off from the rest of the world in this idyllic oasis of shifters. “We mate with humans all the time.” It was how the species stayed alive. Shifters were rarer than people realized, and numbers were dwindling.

“We don’t.” Allen, a pompous ass Gerri was trying to like—against her will—pounded the table with his proclamation.

“Well, it’s possible,” Gerri muttered, reaching for the parmesan cheese.

“There’s not a way to turn a non-shifter,” the quiet one, Jude, said. As she looked around, Gerri realized this entire family of boys had given up any hope of finding mates. “Apparently, the Olde Story was a fairy tale.”

Gerri tutted.

Gloria put a forkful of pasta in her mouth and continued, talking around her food in a way only the matriarch of the family could get away with. “Nope. When you’re both of age, if you bite each other during the mating, you can be bonded, and it will cause the shift in her if she’s the One.”

Tanner, the youngest who sat next to Gloria, perked up. “So you’re saying I could possibly mate with one of the human women and turn her into one of us? And she can be my mate? Bonded mate?” Excitement gleamed in his eyes, and Gerri knew his mate wasn’t here yet. But would be. Soon.

“It’s an old legend, son. I wouldn’t put too much stock in it,” his father cautioned. Gerri snorted, and he gave her a dirty look.

His mother piped up, “It would be so nice if it were true, though.” To his father, she said, “It would make Chase happy with his mate, at least. Especially if it’s Kelli. You know they’ve always taken a shine to each other.” Allen grunted, eating in silence.

Gerri turned to him. “What do you have against your sons’ happiness? You don’t expect them to spend their whole life without their mate, do you?”

“I expect them to find shifters. That’s what we do!” Allen roared, his face purpling with rage.

Gerri simply shook her head. “You need to get out more.” Changing the subject, she straightened. “What are you doing about that neighboring wolf pack that’s been making noise?”

Chapter five

Chase drove to Angelica’s house, hoping to find the will to do this on the way. He didn’t want her, but the old woman had said he’d let his mate go, and something in the sureness of her words had tugged at his insides, making him believe her. His dad depended on him to carry on the responsibilities of the community and follow in his footsteps.

Which meant he had to make nice with Angelica. They’d parted amicably, both admitting the relationship was more for show than love, especially after he’d discovered the gardener doing more than just weeding the flower beds.

His dad had suggested Chase overlook her infidelities but in the end, he’d agreed with Chase. With the new insight that Angelica was indeed the one, Chase just needed to make her understand she needed to behave.

He wouldn’t share.

But when he drove into her driveway, he smelled the scent of sex in the air, and it wasn’t just Angelica.

Getting out of the truck, he walked over to the window he knew was hers; it used to be theirs. When he looked inside, he saw Angelica with not one, not two, but three other men—all shifter males in a tangle of naked limbs, moans of ecstasy filtering out of the window.

He spun around and leaned on the wall, sinking to the ground.

His cat should want to come out and fight them all in a jealous rage.

That’s what mates did.

But his cat didn’t care.

He didn’t care.

He listened to the groans and hisses as the orgy happened inside the room, unable to bring himself to get angry. All Chase could think was he hoped this made her happy because he sure as hell couldn’t make her scream like that.

But he could make Kelli scream like that. Or, he used to, anyway.

As if that was all he needed, his cat inside roared to life, and he jumped back in his truck. He didn’t understand why, all he knew was that his cat needed to see her.

And he wasn’t about to argue.

Chase made it to Kelli’s house in record time, pushing his ancient truck to its limits. Parking down the street, he snuck up to the yard, guiltily, scoping out things before he climbed up to her window. That was something he used to do when they were younger, and he longed to do it again. But the view through the big picture window in the dining room pulled him up short.

And then he smelled him.

Kelli was eating dinner at her table with a wolf shifter—a stinky one at that. He didn’t have the pheromones of strength and leadership Ms. Wilder had at dinner. This one was different, weaker than Gerri, but still potent in his own right—mostly because he was eating with Chase’s girl—and Chase was looking in the window at them like a creepy pervert.

Kelli’s back was to him, and he watched the shifter’s eyes slide over her shoulder and meet his in the window, even as he saw the nostrils flare with recognition. A gleam came to his eyes and a smirk curled his lips, and everything inside Chase roared.

The shifter was mocking him.

Chase’s cougar pushed to the front of his mind, roaring and shrieking for him to shift so he could bust through the window and crush the wolf’s head. But Chase’s mind knew he’d lost her.

Again.

She wasn’t his to win anymore. No matter what he felt.

The wolf reached across the table and took her hand in his, bringing it to his lips to kiss, and Chase turned away from the scene.

He couldn’t torture himself anymore with things he couldn’t have. Gerri’s words came back to him. He had his mate and let her go.

At the time, he’d thought she was talking about Angelica, and maybe she had been, but his heart told him she was speaking of Kelli. Either way, neither one would ever be his.

Needing to be near her, yet unwilling to watch the scene unfold in front of him, Chase shifted and climbed the tree next to her window. As long as they didn’t come up to her bedroom to have sex, he would stay. He wouldn’t do anything, just watch her. She didn’t belong to him anymore, he couldn’t have her.

His panther hated that and did everything it could to convince him she was his, but it was futile. He forced it to lay back in the branches and not move. When she came to her room, much later, he watched as she changed clothes, itching to run his hands over her curves and dry the tears streaming down her cheeks.

Tears?

Why did she cry?

The panther wanted to jump up and climb in the window, but he restrained it, barely. In her pajamas, she stared out the window, but her human eyes couldn’t see him. Eventually, she turned and curled up in her bed, her shoulders shaking as she sobbed.

Had that other shifter hurt her somehow? Chase didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t hers, that was clear. They hadn’t been together in almost ten years. He had no right to bust in and fix things, no matter how hard he tried.

Feeling utterly helpless, Chace shifted back to his human form and stalked to his truck. He threw himself inside and went home, barely containing his beast until he got to his own track of forest.

He shifted—embracing the feline part of himself—and ran all night long, desperate to make sense of what had just happened.

 

Chapter six

When there wasn’t anything to do in the office to help Dad, Chase usually worked with Tanner on his projects. Today was one of those days, even though it took everything inside him to force himself to go to work. His dad’s construction business wasn’t on his list of awesome things today, and spending time with his little brother—as much as he loved him—even less so.

The lack of sleep last night was making him cranky, and there was little chance he’d be able to work with the talkative young man without snapping at him.

As it was, though, they had a massive flooring job to do, and while shifters worked faster with fewer breaks than humans, it was still a job they’d been doing for almost a week.

As usual, Tanner was talkative. Chase did his best to ignore his brother until he got around to talking about Kelli, which only served to piss him off.

“Did you go to Kelli’s last night when you left? I hope it all worked out, but since you’re in such a shitty mood this morning, I’m guessing no? So Gerri was full of it like Dad thought?”

“What the hell are you yammering about?” Chase didn’t have a ton of patience for the babbling.

“Gerri and Gramma talked a bunch after you left last night. Oh lordy, you should have seen Dad.” Tanner chuckled, his blue eyes full of mirth. “He didn’t like what they said, at all.”

His curiosity piqued, Chase prodded his brother. “What did they say?”

“Well, Gramma was talking about some Olde prophecy, which said there would come a time when shifter females would be scarce and we’d be able to turn humans who were our bonded mate. Ms. Wilder said we’d always been able to bond with humans. She’s a matchmaker or something, and hooks shifters up with humans all the time in that city she lives in.”

Chase had been on his hands and knees, measuring the kitchen floor for the tile they were laying, while Tanner was cutting the tile pieces. Chase stopped and sat back on his heels.

“We can turn humans?” Nothing else registered in his mind. If they could turn humans into shifters, then everything changed. Everything he’d grown up believing was a lie. Everything about him not being able to have Kelli the way he wanted her was wrong.

Tanner nodded, still intent on his work. “Yup. So I figured you went to Kelli’s to do the deed, but I don’t guess you heard that part of things.”

Chase’s cougar gave a triumphant roar, but Chase wasn’t paying attention. He was already on his way to his truck. He had a lot of wrongs to right.

**

Kelli looked around her room, still decorated for her childhood, only with a few more of her mother’s things in it—her sewing machine, every family photo ever taken preserved in some weird scrapbooking fad, and a treadmill. Kelli wondered what her mother thought about walking in here and looking at all of her old trophies from volleyball in high school.

That’s what she tried to think about anyway, since the alternative was Chase and Dan and what a bitch she had been last night. At least that’s how she felt. She had laid things out for Dan, telling him she couldn’t marry him, that her heart would always belong to Chase—even if she couldn’t really be with him—and it wasn’t fair to Dan for her to marry a man she didn’t love.

He seemed to take it okay, even kissing her hand while she spoke, as if he were forgiving her for everything. But she saw the look in his eyes, the one that said he may have heard her words but didn’t fully understand them. His look turned calculating, which was rare for Dan, but she recognized it nonetheless and was afraid he would do something to try to get her back.

He and his family were staying in a local hotel, and had plans to go back today. She could only hope that’s what happened. Her mother had told her she’d explained things to his family, and they seemed disappointed but weren’t angry.

It was all too easy and made her edgy.

Today was the last of it, though. Dan and his parents were coming by this morning on their way back to the city. She wasn’t sure why, only that they’d said they would be here in about fifteen minutes, and she needed to be ready to face them one last time.

She dreaded it with every fiber of her being.

A tap at her window had her spinning around in shock. A familiar warmth rose in her. Only one person ever tapped on her second-story window. Only one who had an innate climbing nature could make it up there.

Chase.

Heart pounding, she walked over to where he was crouched on the limb outside the window, caramel-colored eyes shining at her. His sand-blond hair was tousled by the wind, and he looked so boyish and eager. So damn familiar.

Memories rushed through her, along with questions. But she couldn’t stop to sort them all out. He was here. Now. Automatically, she reached for the window and opened it, unable to stop the pull of Chase.

His eyes never leaving her, her childhood friend folded his limbs through the opening gracefully. He’d matured in the last ten years, and the image of him naked in front of her the other morning burned in her brain. He was dressed now in jeans and a sweatshirt, but it didn’t stop her imagination from filling in the blanks.

And if the tapping on her window made her warm with anticipation of who was on the other side, the reality of the heat in his eyes was going to make her explode. Kelli felt him inside her skin, making everything hot and wet. She longed to feel him against her one last time, even if she knew it was wrong.

“Kelli,” he rasped, standing tall, tension coiled in his muscles.

“Chase,” she choked out, realizing she was leaning toward him. She’d always loved Chase. She always would. Even if she could never have him.

His musky scent filled the room, taking all of her air away from her. She couldn’t speak if she wanted to. Kelli licked her top lip, sucking it into her mouth, and his eyes tracked the movement. She had to be the one to put a stop to this. She knew exactly where it was leading. And it would only hurt more when he found the one he was supposed to be with. Kelli had made her decision to be alone forever, but she wouldn’t be his eternal booty-call.

“You can’t be in here,” she whispered, but it was too late. As if just waiting for her lips to move, he pounced.

Chase’s lips crashed against hers in a familiar tango as his long arms wrapped around her body, hauling her against him. Instinctively, her hands sank in his hair, and they fell onto her bed in a tangle of limbs. She moaned into his mouth at the long-lost sensations he evoked in her.

God she’d missed this.

His hands roamed her body, reacquainting themselves with her curves, as his tongue invaded her mouth. Kelli curled her tongue around his, stroking it with another moan before he broke the kiss and started licking and nipping her neck, down to her chest. His hands had already brought up her skirt and were fumbling with her panties, tugging on them. It was just like old times—fast, feverish, and perfect.

“I’ve figured out how we can be together, Kel,” he panted against her skin, pulling her panties down. He let out a growling noise as her hips tilted against his pelvis to feel his erection. Even as the words brought joy to her heart, Kelli still saw the futility in them. But the physical reaction to Chase was too much. Always had been.

“My God, you smell so fucking good. I’ve missed you so much.” He buried his face in her neck, sniffing, licking, and biting the skin. Kelli wanted him lower, wanted him higher, wanted him inside her. “Don’t leave me again,” he pleaded with her, tugging at her heart as he tugged at her clothes.

She tried in vain to stop him. Clearly, they needed to talk—but the pull to him was too much. Kelli needed him like she needed air or water. He was the only one who made her complete, who made her feel whole. Without Chase, she was just Kelli, an interior designer trying to make a business work. But with him, she was everything.

Some conscious part of her brain told her she was about to have company, but the subconscious part said it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but Chase.

Kelli moaned, trying to push against him, but her hands only grabbed at the sweatshirt he wore as she buried her face in his neck, desperate to get a handle on herself. But his rough hands weren’t stopping their assault on her senses, and she whimpered into his skin. Chase kissed lower, bringing the neckline of her dress down to free a breast before attacking with tongue, teeth, suction.

Oh My.

Every pull of his mouth on her nipple sent a shockwave of lust to her core, and she mindlessly ground her hips into his. The sweet, musky scent of Chase and sunshine filled her, making her want things she couldn’t have but would take anyway.

Reading her mind, his skilled fingers attacked her wet heat and Kelli cried out, throwing her head back. Chase’s thick fingers sank into her heat, stretching with familiar sensations. Her body remembered his touch, yet everything was different at the same time. She wanted to sink into the sensations and enjoy them, but some primal part of her brain told her this wasn’t the best time for it. Even as his fingers found her spot and curled into it, pushing against it, stroking her insides …

“Chase, stop, please …”

He stilled his fingers and looked at her, removing his mouth from her nipple. She wanted to cry at the cessation of sensation.

And that’s when a knock at her bedroom door, while it simultaneously opened, brought them face-to-face with Dan.

“Kelli?” Dan looked at the scene on the bed, and Kelli knew the tableau of debauchery he saw—a man between the legs of the woman he wanted, who was undoubtedly flushed with desire, her tits hanging out and his hand between her legs. There was no telling what look she had on her face. Guilt racked Kelli. She’d never intended him to see her this way. It wasn’t fair to Dan.

Chase looked back at her, then at Dan, who stood there, his face in a state of shock. Mortification flowed through her as she tried to catch her breath and her thoughts all in the same basket.

“Um, I’ll be downstairs, Kelli,” Dan said. “I think we really need to talk.” He nodded to Chase before leaving the door open and walking away.

Kelli forced her hands to push Chase away. “I was trying to tell you, not now.” Taking a deep breath, she straightened her top while Chase absentmindedly sucked his fingers dry and re-arranged her bottoms. The motion sent a thrill up her spine. She tried not to remember how many times she’d seen him do that. He’d always talked about the taste of her. A renewed gush of wetness and desire filled her as he straightened her panties.

“Jesus, Kels …” Chase groaned as his nostrils flared. She stood to get away from him. He’d always been able to smell her, damn shifter. She could never hide her desire from him, and right now it was pissing her off.

“Are you serious?” She waved her arms around in an effort to deflect attention from her horniness. “That’s my ex-fiancé down there, probably with his parents. I tried to tell you, but you were all hot and bothered and weren’t listening to me.”

Chase’s face blanched, and Kelli found her resolutions again in the lusty fog he’d put her under.

“I won’t be the other woman. So whatever you’re here for, you’re not getting it.” She was proud of herself for finding the courage to tell him what she’d been thinking for what seemed like forever. “That’s what I was trying to tell you, while you were being all … mouthy and handsy. So take your mouth and hands back to your mate, and get the hell out of my life.” So I can just die a lonely spinster pining after the shifter I can never fucking have.

He straightened himself up and walked to the window, the desire in his eyes not lessening. Quietly, he spoke, his eyes so intense, she shivered.

“You’re not the other woman. I’m divorced. I told you that yesterday, I think. And I can turn you, Kelli. That’s why I came here tonight. We can be together. But you have to choose.” Chase’s eyes pierced her, and something inside her shifted as she processed his words. A new paradigm was forming inside her. She had to think.

“You need to leave,” Kelli whispered.

“I’ll leave, and let you think, but I don’t share, either.” He turned and crawled out the window, his long frame effortlessly folding through the panes. “I’ll always love you, Kel,” he said as he looked back in at her. “Take care of things and come find me, if you choose. I’ll take care of you forever.” And then he shifted and was gone with a scream that sent a cold chill down her spine.

It was a heartbreaking sound, as if he didn’t know she’d always been his. As if there had ever been a choice.

**

When Kelli came downstairs, she found Dan standing in front of the fireplace in the living room, gazing into it with a desperately lost look on his face. His mom and dad stood behind him, looking misplaced in her family’s living room, with their designer clothes and perfect hair. Nobody spoke until Dan turned to face her.

“Was that the man I’ve been competing with all this time?” His voice was sorrowful, and a pang of guilt shot through Kelli. She sat on the sofa and looked at him, ignoring the gasp from his mother. The least he deserved was her honesty.

“That was Chase, yes.”

“You never told me he was a shifter.” He wasn’t angry; that defeated tone of voice was still there.

She didn’t see that it mattered, but she nodded anyway, wondering how he knew.

“I still love him. That’s why we can’t get married. I’m so sorry. I feel like I’ve led you on, used you to get over him, even though it was futile. I’m an awful person, Dan, and I’m sorry.” The words tumbled out. “I never meant for you to see that.”

Dan turned toward her, his face a mixture of anger and hurt, and she deserved it all.

“What, exactly, did he see?” Dan’s father was looking at her, disappointment etched on his face. Up until now, she’d had a decent relationship with his parents, but now all she saw was hurt directed at her.

She couldn’t tell Dan’s parents she’d just been upstairs making out with an ex. Kelli shrugged instead. “I never wanted anything to be this way. You have to understand.”

Dan took a step toward her, breaking away from his parents. “So you invited him over today, knowing we were coming? Was that your way of breaking things off for good?” His mouth twisted into something fierce, and a niggling of fear crept up her spine. She’d never seen Dan so angry. “How could you be so cruel? I heard you last night. I didn’t need to see the proof, Kelli.”

“God, no. I never intended to do that, Dan. I didn’t know he was coming over.” She dropped her eyes, feeling weak. Standing, she had to make him understand. “But you are a good man. You are kind, intelligent, and great-looking. It’s not anything you could have done. My heart just belongs to Chase.” Her voice left her, but she managed to choke out the rest. “It always has.”

“I see,” he said, even though it was clear he didn’t. Not at all. What she had with Chase was something undeniable, something she couldn’t turn off—even when she’d tried. With a sob, she watched Dan and his parents walk out of her life, his shoulders hunched in defeat. A long sigh escaped her.

She was free. Like a weight had lifted, Kelli felt lighter as they started their car and drove out of the driveway. Kelli turned to look around her, Chase’s words echoing in her head.

Alone in her childhood home, Kelli took a bath, hoping to wash some clarity into her mind, but it wasn’t working. She had done what she’d set out to do—break up with Dan and end the charade that was their relationship. But now she was more confused than when she’d started.

Chase had told her they could be together now. And she wanted that more than anything, always had, but at what cost?

He’d said he could turn her, which would make her a shifter, like him. She’d grown up, like Chase, knowing exactly what his family’s expectations of him were. They’d been best friends. She knew he would eventually be the mayor of this town, married to a shifter mate. He would bond with the mate, and they’d be together forever. At one point in her life, she’d dreamt of being that person for him. But when had it all fallen apart? When had her fantasies been crushed?

She couldn’t remember exactly, but at some point in their relationship, they’d both known it was futile. The sex had turned from juvenile exploration of the senses to a reckless abandon. Each explosive orgasm being treated as their last.

Until it was.

She had moved away with her interior design degree, hoping to make it in a city where her profession wouldn’t put her in the direct path of Chase and his family’s daily activities with their home construction business. Her plan had been moderately successful, even if she’d realized somewhere along the line that her dream of being an interior designer always involved working in some capacity with Chase.

Kelli sighed, wondering if he was right. Was there a way around the biology of the situation? Could she really be turned? Or was this just more heartbreak in the making?

With a new sense of resolution, she changed into a pair of skinny jeans and a low-cut top, wanting to look nice. She wanted to see if this would work. He’d been so hopeful, and even after ten years, she’d do anything for him.

She knew this. Above all things, she would do anything for the man she loved more than anything else. Even now.

If it didn’t work, she wouldn’t be any worse off that she was now, would she?

 

Chapter seven

Kelli parked in the driveway of Chase’s Gramma’s house, hoping to see his truck there but not surprised it wasn’t. He didn’t live with her, so there wasn’t a reason for him to be here. But she hoped her past friendship with the woman would help her today. Taking a deep breath, she fortified herself for what was to come and knocked on the door.

To her surprise, a petite lady with a silver bob and a twinkle in her eyes opened the door. It was Gerri Wilder, the matchmaker from the grocery store.

“Gloria’s not here, but I suppose you can come in and wait for her.” The woman opened the door wider to allow Kelli in. “I’ve got cookies.”

“Thank you. I was just wondering if she could tell me where Chase was.”

A mischievous glint lit up the old woman’s face, making her appear younger. “I couldn’t have made a better match. But when will you guys learn to listen to me? I told you to let him in that first night, didn’t I?”

“Excuse me?” The woman waved off Kelli’s confusion, leading her into the living room where several plates of cookies sat on the coffee table.

“Would you like some tea, dear?”

“Um, no, thank you.” Kelli did reach for a cookie, though. The smell of vanilla, cinnamon, and chocolate overpowered all willpower she had.

“You’re looking for Chase? Nice-looking shifter, that one. Of course, they’re all gorgeous, but there’s something about him that just tugs at the heartstrings.” She picked up a cookie and absentmindedly took a bit out of it. “This community is so damn backwards it almost hurts my head. But we’re getting things on the right track. It’s just taking some time.”

Confused, and feeling like she had walked into the middle of something she didn’t understand, Kelli had to ask, “What do you mean?”

“This whole shifter being only with shifter thing. That’s what I mean. No wonder the shifter population is dwindling. That wolf pack in the city sees the weakness in Allen’s archaic views and is going to make a play. Mark my words.”

Kelli didn’t know there was a wolf pack in the city. But then again, in the city, all she did was work and up until recently, go out with Dan. She pretty much kept her nose to the grindstone and didn’t pay much attention to anything else.

At any rate, she didn’t see how this was helping her. “Do you happen to know where Chase is? I haven’t been here in so long, I don’t know where he’s living now, and I really need to see him.”

“Yes, you do. Y’all have some kinky making up to do.” Kelli felt the heat rise to her face and wondered if she’d been that transparent. Good thing Chase’s Gramma wasn’t here. She ducked her head to hide her embarrassment, focusing on the chocolate chips in the cookie she was eating. “Anyway, I’m not sure, but I think Gloria said something about him having a house on all that land his family has near some park? But it would be deep in the park. Cougars don’t really like people. Another thing I don’t really understand about this setup they have here, but whatever. Alphas are supposed to be Alphas. Not mayors.”

“It’s just the way things have always been,” Kelli muttered, knowing exactly how petulant she sounded. Those exact words had been thrown at her for as long as she could remember.

“They’ve been feeding you that line a while, huh?”

“Yeah.” Kelli sounded dejected, even to her own ears.

“Well, I guess it’s a good thing I had a little chat with Allen the other night, then, isn’t it? I told him he was going to lose his position if he didn’t open his eyes and see the way the rest of the world works. His boys aren’t happy, and they’re the future leaders of this pack, pride, community, whatever he wants to call it. And if he doesn’t let them choose their own mate from a wider pool of prospects, he’s going to lose it all.”

Kelli remembered Chase’s dad as being a closed-minded fuddy-duddy who didn’t listen to much of others’ opinions. It was pretty much his way or nobody’s. She could only imagine how well that conversation had gone over. It brought a smile to her lips.

She stood. “It was nice to talk to you, but I really need to go try to find Chase.”

“Yes, you do, dear. Have fun! Would you like to take a cake with you? He missed out on it the other night. Now, how do we get you to his house?”

**

Chase stalked around his property that bordered the park in his cat form, letting his animal loose in its grief. The predator prowled around, hunting something it couldn’t find, its senses on high alert looking for what it couldn’t have.

And Chase didn’t try to stop it, feeling the futility of the situation deep in his bones. Kelli was taken. He’d waited too long to claim her. He never should have let her go. He should have followed her to the city. He’d given her a choice, but was afraid too much time had passed for her to choose him. He’d wasted so much time trying to do what he thought was right, when everything he needed was right in front of him.

He’d made the worst possible mistakes. He’d turned his back on his mate to do what his father wanted. His mate.

Anger at his family overrode everything, though. If his Gramma had spoken sooner, he wouldn’t have wasted years with Angelica, who was only after him for the title and power of being the leader’s mate. If his mother had only said something about the Olde Story, then he would have had hope sooner, instead of letting Kelli go so he could be with someone else—someone his father approved of. If only the crazy friend of Gramma’s had come to visit sooner, he’d have known he could mate with a human.

If only …

His father had eventually realized exactly how wrong Angelica was for him, but what choice had they had? But if his father knew about this Olde Story thing, why did he let Chase make the biggest mistake of his life?

He’d missed his chance with Kelli. That much was obvious. She’d found someone to marry, a shifter who obviously knew they could mate with humans and was taking advantage. What if he were wrong? What if the other shifter was her mate?

His panther raged his disbelief.

Mine.

That was the truth. She was his. No others. Then why did that other shifter want her?

Unless the shifter had a more nefarious reason to be with Kelli.

The tawny cougar stopped its pacing. What if Kelli was in danger with that wolf? He’d seemed like a defeated animal, but something in his eyes that night he’d seen Chase outside the window bothered him.

It probably wouldn’t matter if Kelli ended up choosing the bastard. He’d get what he wanted, leaving Chase out in the cold.

That was the whole point behind the choice he’d given her. If she was happy with the other shifter, so be it. He’d forsaken her for Angelica, even if Kelli had left him first. Chase understood her motivations, though they’d physically hurt him when she left.

He wanted her with everything he had, but he would let her choose. If she by chance chose him, then he would love her forever and never let her go again. If not, he had choices of his own to make.

He would be back to square one, only the idea of traveling through the country to find a mate he could bond with held absolutely no appeal. But he knew things didn’t work that way. He only had one mate—Kelli. Without her, he’d rather just live his life alone, even if it killed him.

That was unheard of; a leader needed a mate. But he’d rather do that than try to bond with another shifter who wasn’t his.

Kelli was his. That was all there was to it.

He let out a primal scream, the panther trademark, something he’d done more tonight than he ever had in his life. His frustration mounted the further he stalked.

Chase was no longer in control.

And then he smelled her. Sniffing the air to make sure, he smelled the night scents of cedar trees and pine needles with the distinctive underscent of Kelli. She always used a magnolia-scented body lotion, but underneath that, her light feminine musk called to him. As he opened his senses up, he smelled something else. Something dangerous.

He was here, too.

His cat couldn’t put the unknown danger into words because his cat had been too lust addled when they’d seen each other, but it knew the scent was dangerous to him.

And Kelli.

With another primal scream, the feline was on the chase. He had to get to his woman.

 

Chapter eight

Armed with a cake dish and Gerri’s confidence in her plan to find Chase, Kelli counted on her internal compass to help her. She’d parked her car in the parking area and now she was speed walking down the path that led to the northwest quadrant, where she thought Chase might have his cabin. Every time they’d been in close proximity to each other, some polarization had brought them together, like magnets, and she was counting on that unknown to do it again.

Kelli’s feet covered the same ground they’d pounded the last time she’d found him out here. Her thighs burned with exertion, but she didn’t care. She’d already come this far. There wasn’t anything standing in her way.

Some part of Kelli told her to drop the cake and get to Chase, but she knew the urgency was in her head. He was either out here or he wasn’t, and her running wasn’t going to change that. Talking to Gerri had convinced her this was right; she wasn’t doing him any favors by leaving to let him find his mate. According to Ms. Wilder, she was it. They’d all been mistaken before, or Chase’s dad had allowed them to be mistaken. She’d never really thought he’d liked her anyway but chalked it up to antiquated views bordering on racism. But then again, she’d never been raised another species, either, so how would she understand.

A low growl off to Kelli’s right interrupted her thoughts. Fear spiked in her throat, almost like bile. She didn’t think there were wolves out here, but anything was possible. Gerri’s words about the wolf pack from the city floated back to her, intensifying the fear.

She dropped the cake and started running. The fight or flight instinct kicked in, and she knew she couldn’t fight off wolves, didn’t have the first clue how.

Kelli ran like she’d never run before. Her breath came in ragged bursts—painful in her lungs—and a panic roiled through her at the idea she was out here, running blindly through a trail in the woods she now knew was full of creatures she hadn’t counted on.

A chorus of growls from the trees surrounded her.

Shit. There are more than I realized.

Eyes glowed in the distance in front of her, stopping Kelli in her tracks. Listening to the growls rumbling around her, she realized she was surrounded by wolves. One came stalking out of the darkness on her right. Was that the one she’d heard growling in the beginning?

It was a large, blond wolf, leggy, with scraggly hair. As she watched, horror stricken, the wolf changed to a man. There was a mushy crunching sound as hair melted into skin and bones rearranged themselves to reveal who it was.

Dan.

Shock took over, and Kelli’s knees gave out as her limbs turned to jelly while she tried to process what she’d just seen. She tried not to faint. Dan was a wolf.

From the city.

And she’d never even known.

Was he who Gerri had been speaking about? Kelli was utterly and completely speechless.

“Hi, Kelli.” His words were cold, calculating, and so unlike anything she’d ever heard come from his mouth, she couldn’t respond.

She was still breathing raggedly, trying to catch her breath from running so hard, but she managed to swallow and nod. Mute. A stitch in her side nearly doubled her over, but she couldn’t break eye contact with Dan. A wolf.

How had she not known? Feelings of stupidity flowed through her, followed by anger that he’d never told her.

“Surprise!” Dan’s mouth broke open into a wide smile, and Kelli managed to find her legs again and scrambled to her feet; she didn’t like the way he towered over her. It was useless, though, as she was surrounded by wolves. There was no way she was turning her back to danger. And she knew beyond a doubt she was in danger here.

“You’re a shifter,” she stated simply. Aware she was stating the obvious, she couldn’t help it. “Why didn’t you just tell me?”

“Would it have made a difference?” he asked, and for the first time tonight, she saw the Dan she knew. He was honestly asking her if it would have made her love him instead of Chase.

She shrugged. “Not really, Dan.”

His mouth curled into a sneer at Kelli’s offhanded response. He made eye contact with one of the wolves behind her and snarling began to surround her as the wolves crept closer.

Her blood turned to ice water in her veins as she realized what was happening.

“Are you out here to kill me?”

Dan nodded, mute. Kelli held her breath as he tensed his naked body, his muscles coiling for an attack.

“Why?” she whispered, her fear not allowing her voice to be heard. But she wasn’t dying without knowing why.

“Because you were supposed to be mine. We were going to be married, and then we would come back, challenge the leader, and merge the communities.” Dan spread his hands wide in a gesture of compliance that belied his words. “Easy peasy.”

His offhandedness was disconcerting, to say the least, his words contradicting the menace behind them. A chill rolled across Kelli’s skin. She couldn’t believe she’d actually felt guilty for breaking off the engagement. She wished she’d done it differently—more yelling, something childish and immature to get back at him.

Not that it would change things, but maybe it would make her feel better before she died.

He apparently had a plan that didn’t really include her at this point. There wasn’t anything she could do to stop him from killing her and then killing Chase and his family to get what he wanted.

“Why me?”

Dan shrugged. “Our first date, you had pictures with that shifter all over your apartment, and I saw an opportunity. You can Google most anything these days, and when I found out you used to be in love with a shifter, it was too easy. I would marry you. We would come back. When he saw you happy with another shifter, he would be an easy target.”

“How did you know he was a shifter just by looking at a picture?” Kelli was confused. Still scared, but confused. If she would die tonight, at least she would die knowing why.

He pursed his lips in thought. The snarling behind her eased into low growls she tried desperately to ignore.

“Kelli, you didn’t make anything difficult. He was all you could talk about the first month we dated. Chase this, Chase that. He was the one that got away. I Googled him. His name is an old shifter name. It wasn’t hard to do the research. If he cared for you half as much as you said he did, then seeing you with a shifter when he’d given you up would bring him to his knees.” Dan’s hands spread in a gesture of complacency, he continued, as if they were talking about the weather. “Of course, in this backwards town, y’all don’t do anything the way you should and only foster all these outdated ideas. It would be easy to claim control.” He giggled; it was more than a little maniacal, sending a shudder through Kelli. He sighed, a loud, put-upon sound in the quiet forest surrounding them. “Of course, now, I’ll have to do things the hard way.”

The sound of snarling rose again as Dan shifted, the sounds of his bones snapping filling the air. Kelli watched, awestruck, as fur sprouted on his skin when his face elongated into the shape of an enormous wolf.

She had to do something or she would die. Without another thought, Kelli screamed for all she was worth—knowing her life was at an end—then she turned and ran.

As if they knew she was Dan’s kill, the other wolves backed out of her way, and the thudding of footsteps followed her. She was glad they’d had that little heart-to-heart; it gave her time to catch her breath. She would need it if she was going to get away from him.

But even as she ran for her life, she knew she wouldn’t be able to outrun him. Dan’s galloping footsteps were hot on her heels, loping along as if this were a game to him. Probably was.

She had never known Dan to have a mean streak in him, but then again, she apparently hadn’t really known Dan at all.

A stitch of sharp pain attacked her side, nearly doubling her over. But she kept going, while the wolf behind her let out a long, eerie howl.

She was so screwed.

A hidden tree root tripped her, and Kelli went sprawling with a yell. She rolled—wanting to at least see her attacker when she died—but just as Dan’s scraggly, dirty-blond scruff came barreling on top of her, a tawny streak of fur fell out of the tree they were under, rolling the wolf off her. Snarling yelps and growling screeches filled her ears as she watched, wide-eyed, while an enormous mountain lion dug its claws into Dan’s hide.

Blood poured out of long gashes down the wolf’s sides as he let out a howl of pain. Kelli’s heart leapt to know the cougar was Chase; he was rescuing her. There was a part of her that was disappointed she hadn’t been able to save herself, but the rational part of her mind knew she’d never be able to outrun a shifter, any shifter. But still, watching Chase and Dan battle it out in fur form had her heart firmly lodged in her throat.

She wanted Chase to win.

As soon as Kelli thought the words, the mountain lion snapped the wolf’s neck, rendering Dan a lifeless mass of fur. The enormous cat turned on the wolves who’d been watching and let off a primal scream, sending shivers racing across Kelli’s skin. It was a warning to the others, daring them to come closer. Kelli held her breath as she watched the wolves’ snarls turn to whimpers as, one by one, they tucked their heads down and took off running in other directions.

Chase turned his amber eyes on her, softening from the predator to the protector. Padding over to her where she still cowered under the tree, he licked her hand, his tongue unbelievably rough and warm. She turned her hand over and sank it into his thick fur, which was coarse and soft at the same time, but underneath, it was hot.

The enormous feline nuzzled the crook of her neck, and she allowed it, trusting him completely. This was Chase. The same Chase who’d just snapped Dan’s neck, but the same Chase she’d lost her virginity to, who’d always been so tender with her, and whom she’d loved all these years.

“Oh God, Chase,” Kelli muttered into his fur, wrapping her arms around him. “Take me home with you.” The huge cat chuffed at her, licking her cheek, then turned away from her while she stood. The meaty, wet sound of his shift accompanied her as she dusted herself off and assessed herself for injuries. She’d missed it, again. But hopefully, she’d get more opportunities to see him shift.

“Are you hurt?” he asked her anxiously.

She shook her head. “Just shaken up.”

Chase embraced her and buried his head in her neck, like he had as the mountain lion. “That scared the hell out of me. I thought I was going to be too late.” He took her hand and led her off the path. “My house is about a mile away. Can you make it?”

Kelli nodded, feeling secure for the first time that night.

 

Chapter nine

At the beginning of the hike, Chase had been bleeding from deep bite marks on his back and arms, but as time went on, they’d stopped bleeding and the marks got less angry looking. The closer they got to their destination, the more Kelli’s adrenaline turned to anticipation. They didn’t talk much, and she tried to ignore the fact he was naked.

But it couldn’t be ignored. His broad shoulders, caked in dirt, were no less muscular. His long, lean legs were muddy up to the calves, but still strong, with light-colored hair covering them. His arms were ridiculous. Somewhere along the lines of adulthood, he’d grown a portable gun show, with his biceps and forearms nothing but ropey muscle.

Her mouth was dry as she desperately tried to focus on events of the night.

Chase had come to her house, announcing they could be together—like, together together—then he’d left when he found out she had a man there. She’d made Dan and his parents mad and then ran off to find Chase, where Dan had attacked her, his goal to make her dead. Chase had dropped in, killed Dan, and was now taking her home with him.

To be together with her.

“Are we going to … bond?” The lights of his house were in the distance, and Kelli knew the end was near.

He stopped. “Is that why you came?” Chase’s eyes bored into hers, the intensity scary. She bit her lip and nodded. The intensity spread into a wide grin, and he pulled her in close to him, all his hard ridges and planes feeling wonderful against her softness. “Then yes. After I shower, that’s what we’ll do.”

Grasping her hand in his, he continued walking, faster than before, and she giggled at his sudden hurry. Up until now, their pace was steady—fast, but not too taxing. Now that the intentions were clear on both their parts, she almost had to jog to keep up with him.

“Aren’t you tired? You just fought. You must need to recover,” she huffed, trying to catch her breath next to his long legs.

“Are you kidding me? There’s one thing that can help me recover from a fight better than rest.” With those words, he scooped her over his shoulder and started running toward his house.

**

Chase took the fastest shower of his life, knowing his mate waited for him on the other side of the door. He was quelling the questions running like wildfire through his mind. He’d realized her fiancé was a shifter when they’d been in her room together. That was why he’d thought things were hopeless. Surely he’d bonded with her already. Would that mess up the bonding for Chase? He growled at the thought, reminding himself it was an ex-fiancé, and a dead one at that. He knew in his heart she was his one true mate, but had he already fucked up by trying to force the bond with Angelica? Had Kelli done the same with Dan?

He wouldn’t know until he tried.

Chase barely toweled himself dry before walking into the bedroom, where Kelli sat on the bed, waiting for him.

“I’d like a shower, too, Chase. I’m all sweaty from running. I can smell myself,” she said quietly.

Disappointment flooded him at the thought of waiting another minute. “I love the way you smell, Kel. But if it’ll make you feel better, please hurry.” To emphasize his point, he planted a long, wet kiss on her mouth, one that left no mistake of his desires for her.

To his delight, she reacted the way she always did, by whimpering into his mouth and curling her fingers in his hair. But she broke the kiss.

“Rein it in, Tiger. I’ll be fast.”

“Panther. Not Tiger,” he muttered as she got up and went into the bathroom with a giggle. Whatever. He could wait. Lord knows he’d waited long enough. He could wait forever.

Chase listened to her shower, indulging himself in the fantasy of soapy water sluicing down her ripe, lush breasts, distended nipples begging for his touch. Lost in the image, he absently stroked himself, gripping his cock at the base and slowly dragging his fist up and down. He didn’t hear the water shut off, so lost in his fantasy of taking her in the shower, her legs wrapped around his hips as he pistoned in and out of her wet heat. He licked his lips, imagining her taste as the scene played out behind closed eyes.

“Now, that’s a picture …” Kelli mused as she walked over to him, putting a knee on the bed. She swatted his hand off his erection and grasped it, her soft hands so familiar and warm, he groaned and let his head fall back. It wasn’t what he’d had in mind for tonight, but he was finished thinking. His brain checked out as soon as she touched his cock. “How does all this work? We’ve had sex before.”

He tried to unscramble his brain but was having difficulty doing so with her touching him. So, with a sigh, he gripped her hand in his and stilled its movements. “What Tanner said, is that we have sex and both bite each other during it. If it’s a bonded mating, you’ll shift. That’s all I know. I didn’t ask for specifics. I just went to you. He said Gramma told him.” He shrugged helplessly. They’d had lots of sex before, but maybe they had been too young for it to work. “I think it’s weird Tanner and Gramma and that other woman all talked about sex around the dinner table with my parents.”

Kelli quirked a grin at him, and it sent a tickle fluttering inside Chase. His heart kicked into high gear as she crawled across the bed and straddled his hips. His hand automatically went around her waist. “It’s also weird talking about them in bed while we’re about to have sex.” Always one to point out the obvious.

Tangling his hand in her hair, he tugged her down to him. “So we going to do this, or what?” She giggled, and he swallowed the joyful noise with his mouth, turning the giggles to a moan that sent a shock of sensations to his balls. God, if he didn’t get inside this woman now, he was going to explode.

He forced himself to go slow, though. They’d always been so eager with each other, but now was different. They were grown now, and if he was making her his mate, he wanted it to be different than the frenzied, hard fucking they’d done in the past. He wanted it to be slow, pleasurable, memorable.

As his hands roamed her naked body straddling his, he marveled at the smooth skin over soft curves. Kelli had truly matured into a beautiful woman. With wide hips, soft thighs, and large breasts, she was every bit the woman he’d dreamt of while she’d been gone.

And now, she was his. For the first time, the surety of what he was doing overwhelmed him, and he had to stop kissing her just to breathe in her scent and make sure this was real. Yes. She was still musky, feminine Kelli, the earthiness of her arousal so strong he nearly wept with it. He gripped her hips and squeezed.

“This is your choice, Kel. I want you in control of this. You have the power here.” Always have. God, why didn’t he ever see it before? He could have saved them both so much heartache if he’d just realized his feelings for her were so much more than love.

With a wicked grin he’d missed so badly, she sank onto his cock, and the grin turned into something deeper, darker. Her brows furrowed, her jaw dropping as his length filled her, and his Kelli moaned out a feral, primitive sound.

Chase loved that sound.

Kelli buried him to the hilt inside her, and her warmth encased him with a pulsing need to claim her. As she adjusted to his size, he realized how tight she was.

“Did you fuck him?” He gritted out the words, not really wanting the answer but needing it nonetheless.

“Tiny pecker. Not like yours,” she groaned at him, swiveling her hips on him, causing him to gasp.

“That’s a wolf thing.” Chase clenched his teeth against the impending orgasm, willing it to bay.

“Are we going to talk about him?” Kelli raised herself until just the tip of him was inside her, then she tightened her muscles and slid back down. Chase nearly blacked out at the sensation.

“Nope. We’re done.” His hands at her hips were clenching so hard, he was afraid he’d leave bruises, so he busied them elsewhere, hoping to distract himself. With one hand, Chase reached up for her dusky, rose-colored nipple, distended from her perfect, large breasts, begging for a tweak from him. The other hand went to the clit peeking out at him from the hood covering it and circled the swollen nub.

“Oh!” Kelli cried out, as she began moving in earnest. Thank Christ, she was finished with the teasing. As much as he wanted to take his time with this, urgent need took over and he started thrusting into her just to listen to her noises each time she lowered herself.

Chase distracted himself with her pleasure. His goal now was to wring as much bliss as he could from his mate before the actual bond. He didn’t know what possessed him to do that, only something instinctual that told him to make it last as long as he could.

When she came, he gritted his teeth through the contractions of her milking him, trying to kill him with the vise-like grip she had on him. He rolled through it, until he was on top, buried inside her. Chase groaned his pleasure as Kelli took hers, climaxing around him, but he managed to hold himself off, barely. When he could see again, he pulled her down to the edge of the bed and sank to his knees. He needed a break, but wasn’t done with her yet.

**

Kelli still reeled from the climax she’d just taken from Chase, riding him into oblivion, and was barely aware of him rolling her over and yanking her body to the edge of the bed. When he covered her heat with his mouth, though, she realized Chase had learned a thing or two from Angelica while she’d been gone.

He lapped at her like she was an ice cream cone, dipping his tongue into her essence and spreading it all around before focusing on her clit. His rough cat-tongue was working miracles on her right now. His chest purred a deep rumbling noise as his hands gripped her thighs, spreading her wide open.

“Taste so damn good,” he muttered between licks and bites that were quickly making her lose her mind.

“Oh. My. God. Where did you learn that?”

He chuckled as he looked up at her with a smirk on his face. “Pornhub. Angelica was more interested in other men than me. I certainly didn’t get a lot of experience, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

She couldn’t believe Angelica had treated this amazing man that way. She certainly didn’t know a good thing when she had it. Chase was apparently waiting for a response, so she circled a finger in the air, her limbs too uncooperative to move much. “Okay, carry on.”

He tongue speared her, exploring her folds like it was his last meal. As Chase sank a finger inside her, his tongue circled her clit but never quite made contact, making her grab his hair and direct him. He chuckled, not unlike the chuffing noise his panther made, and the warm air on her sex was delicious in all its clashing sensations. The cool air of the room, the wetness of her, the roughness of his tongue—it all conspired against her.

The heat building between them was about to combust, and Kelli wasn’t sure if she would survive it. She was on the cusp of a major orgasm, but Chase’s tongue never would find her clit. Was he doing it on purpose, or was it something he’d lost his knack with? She let out a huff of frustration. He chuffed again.

“What is it, Kel?” He was teasing her.

“My clit. Lick my clit,” she whined, grinding into his chin while his amber eyes stared at her. His cat was playing and it was pissing her off.

“Like this?” He flattened his tongue against her clit and licked, the rough texture sending sparks flying in her mind.

“Yes, dammit. Do that!” Grabbing his hair with both hands, she was out of her mind, needing him to do this.

Chase complied, turning his finger to hit that spot he already knew so well as his flattened tongue licked her over and over until he finally made a stiff point with it and flicked it over her bundle of nerves until she exploded.

He continued lapping at her until she had come down and when he rose from his perch between her legs, his face glistened. Crawling up her body, he purred at her, the noise vibrating deep in his chest.

“Whether or not this actually works, you’re mine. You get that, right? I’m never letting you leave again.”

Kelli was breathing so hard, her breasts rubbed his chest with each breath, the hairs tickling her nipples. “So what do we do? We bite each other?”

Chase nodded, his eyes glowing the amber color of his cat through heavy lids. “I think we’ll know.”

He surged inside her with a groan. Kelli felt the familiar fullness of him, relishing it as he moved, thrusting in and out of her. She wrapped her arms around him, wanting to feel him everywhere, not just inside her. His body was so strong and powerful as it moved over hers, she was beside herself with desire. She had barely come down from her previous orgasm and could feel her body getting ready for another one.

His shoulder was right there, and she kissed the smooth skin, eliciting a hiss from Chase. His finger found her clit and began circling it.

“I’m not going to last long,” he muttered against her neck, as he surged inside her again and again. She was riding the crest, and when it felt like it would break, he squeezed her clit between two fingers, and she cried out, clamping her mouth down on his shoulder.

She bit him, her teeth sinking into his skin at the same time she felt his sink into hers. But it didn’t hurt, not like real pain anyway. If anything, it deepened the sensations of overwhelming intensity that were flowing through her body, just under her skin, through her blood stream. Kelli dug her fingernails into his back as Chase roared through his mouthful of her shoulder. Kelli cried out her own pleasure, but neither one of them released their hold on the other. It was like they’d started something they couldn’t stop. Didn’t want to.

This orgasm was intense. Explosion after explosion detonated inside her, spreading like wildfire, as she came not once, not twice, but nearly every time he released his seed inside her. She felt each pulse as she rocketed toward another climax each time a jet of heat coated her insides.

Chase gripped her tightly, as if afraid to let her go, and she reciprocated, their tangled limbs tightening with each ripple of pleasure between them. Finally, they relaxed into each other, releasing gasping, ragged breaths.

Every part of Kelli’s body tingled, and she felt like she was wavering on the precipice of something monumental. As he pulled out of her and let go, another spasm racked her, and she whimpered.

“Jesus, that was intense.” Chase breathed heavily as he spoke, rolling off of her and pulling her against his shoulder.

“I know. I think I need a cigarette.” She giggled into his arm.

He quirked an eyebrow. “You smoke now?”

Kelli smiled at him, loving that they might have all new things to learn about each other. “No, but after that, I may start.”

He kissed her—a toe-curling lapping and sucking of his tongue and lips that almost made her want another go.

“I don’t feel like a shifter.”

He studied her. “Yeah, you don’t look any different, either.” His nostrils flared as he sniffed the air. “But you definitely smell like me now. I like that.” He sniffed behind her ear, and she giggled because it tickled.

“Of course I smell like you. We just had sex. I’m sure my mom could smell it if she were here.”

“Please don’t talk about your mother right after we’ve had sex.”

“Why? You talked about your Gramma right before we did it.”

“Touché,” he allowed as he snuggled into the covers and curled his body around hers. “We can figure out the shifter stuff tomorrow. But I meant what I said. You’re mine, Kelli.”

“Nobody else’s,” she agreed.

 

Chapter ten

“How did we not know?” Kelli was lying in bed, on her stomach, totally enjoying the touch of her mate’s fingers as they idly drew lazy circles on her back. Each circle brought a line of gooseflesh, which Chase loving kissed before drawing another circle.

“I think I knew,” he whispered against her skin. “Do you remember that night on the football field? When you were upset with your dad?”

Kelli remembered vividly. That was the last time she’d spoken with her dad. “Yeah, after his wedding where he made his new step-daughter a bridesmaid and just invited me.” It had hurt how quickly he’d accepted his new family as his real family and relegated her and her mom to the people he used to know. She’d cried into Chase’s chest, and then he’d kissed her tears away and held her until she slept. Somehow, he’d managed to get her to her bed that night, although she had absolutely no memory of that part.

“That night, I’d told myself I would take care of you as long as I could, until Dad started grooming me to take over. I think he knew, too. After that night, he started bringing Angelica and her parents around more, getting us ready for our mating.”

Chase’s dad was something she hadn’t even thought about. “Will he ever accept me as your mate?”

Chase was quiet for a while, still drawing circles on her back. “I called him this morning and told him about it. He wants to meet with us, but he seemed resigned to it, actually. He said he had heard but didn’t want to mess with tradition.” He sighed, blowing warm air across her back. “He’s scared of change, but I think he’ll go along with it. As soon as the rest of the community sees how perfect we are for each other, they’ll all understand. Mom was thrilled.”

Kelli snuggled down into the pillows. “That’s good, at least. I think your mom’s always liked me.”

“Gramma wants to see us soon. She said we have to sneak into town for a visit tomorrow.”

Kelli smiled against the pillows, feeling full of brightness for the first time in a long time. She felt lighter than she had in ten years, probably even longer.

“I love you,” she said into the pillow.

Chase grabbed her waist and flipped her over, causing a squealed giggle to erupt from her. “I love you, too. Don’t you ever doubt that, Kel.” He covered her body with his, the warm, smooth skin a blanket of comfort, even though it also made desire well up inside her. Chase’s nostrils flared. “Jesus, that smell …” He dipped lower and made himself comfortable, tossing her legs over his shoulders before flattening his tongue and swiping it up her folds with a snarl.

**

They spent the next few days in glorious bliss in bed. Kelli felt different. She hadn’t shifted into anything yet, but she was a new woman. A woman who belonged to Chase. It was exhilarating. Absolutely perfect.

He cooked breakfast, they scrounged for lunch, and then they made dinner together, avoiding all the responsibilities of town. He had to do some work on his laptop, some things for his dad and the family business, but other than that, he spent his days making sure she was cared for and loved.

Well-loved.

But they still hadn’t figured out if the bond mating had made her a shifter. He’d proposed, giving her a twisty tie until they could explore the real world enough to find her a ring, and she’d accepted, not caring one whit if she had a ring or not.

But on day four, he hauled her to Gramma’s house to get some answers.

Kelli was a little nervous. She hadn’t seen Gloria in eons and wasn’t sure what the woman thought of her just up and leaving like she had. But when she called out before Chase could even knock, a sense of ease drifted through her and she realized she was fine.

“Come down here and hug my neck. I don’t have my climbing shoes on, boy.” She smiled up at Chase as he stooped down to hug her. Gloria was in a colorful dust robe, sitting at the end of an ancient, doily-covered sofa. “You, too. Come sit, Kelli. I’m glad to see things worked.” She winked a bawdy wink at Kelli as she sat next to frail-looking woman.

“That’s what we came over about. How can you tell it worked?”

Gloria’s nostrils flared. “Good God, boy. Can’t you smell her?”

Chase blushed. “Of course I smell her, Gramma.” His arm went around Kelli protectively. “She smells delicious.”

“Chase,” Kelli admonished, slapping futilely at his chest and blushing furiously. Turning to his grandma, she explained, “We weren’t sure if we did it right. Can you clarify things a little? I haven’t shifted yet.” She shrugged. She didn’t really want to have this conversation with his grandmother, but it was preferable to his mom. Barely.

“And you won’t, either,” Gramma said with a wicked gleam in her eyes. Chase puffed up and started sputtering protests. “Not until you have those cubs you’re carrying.”

 

 

 

Epilogue

Kelli followed Chase into the woods, away from the popular trail around the canyon. This part was unpopulated and wild, full of virgin forests, oddly located so close to civilization.

“Go ahead and take off your clothes,” Chase murmured softly as he kissed the top of Kelli’s head. She did as instructed, ignoring the new paunches in her skin from having the perfect shifter babies last week. Her skin was already shrinking back to normal, and she looked better than ever. She sniffed the air, smelling Chase, as well as the cedar and poplar trees, the holly bushes, and the pine. She heard a hawk in the distance and some robins nearby, but anything that might be construed as prey had made itself scarce.

“Now, just focus on the cat inside, as hard as you can, and just … let go.”

Kelli had been talking inside her head to her inner beast, wondering what she would look like when she shifted. Her feline had become more prominent in her head throughout her pregnancy. It was a surreal feeling, yet something that seemed so normal at the same time. She’d tried to explain it to her mom, hearing the futility of the explanation even as it left her mouth. But her mother had been happy for her happiness, claiming she’s known all along.

Kelli closed her eyes and talked to her panther—that’s what she assumed it was, anyway. “Come out. Let’s play,” she whispered to it.

The backs of her eyelids shimmered, and she felt like she was spinning around really fast, and then nothing. The strange sensation of dried leaves between her fingers had her opening her eyes to find yellowish-brown paws where her hands should be, and claws.

Claws.

She flexed her hands … erm … paws, and saw her claws dig into the earth. Her vision was sharper, her hearing better, and she could smell … everything. Looking up, she saw Chase next to her, looking every bit like the proud mountain lion he was. He stalked over to her and nuzzled her neck with his head, then jerked his head over his shoulder and took off, bounding through the woods.

But she wanted to climb.

She snarled at him, and he halted, looking back at her. She jerked her own head and jumped up the tree she was standing next to.

Oh yeah? My girl wants to climb?

How did you do that? Kelli questioned, pausing in her climb to look down at him. You’re talking inside my head.

Mates can do it. The shift must have made it complete.

Oh Lordy. You’re in trouble now.

What do you mean?

Kelli had resumed her climb. Now you have no excuses. If you can read my mind, there can never be a misunderstanding again.

His signature chuffing sounded behind her.

Then read this. Suddenly, her vision was full of tawny fur, feline limbs entwined together, and the snarling and shrieking that could only be cougars mating sounded in her ears. Her arousal coursed through her veins at the image, and she felt her bits swell up, as well as a snarling growl from Chase.

Woman …

What?

She continued her climb, ignoring the images Chase kept shooting her way, and when she got to a limb, she climbed out and leapt over to another tree. It was fantastic and freeing. Kelli had never felt anything like it in her life. If she hadn’t left her babies with Chase’s parents and Gramma, she could have done this forever.

**

Chase watched and followed his mate as she acclimated herself to her furry body, loving the way she explored her new surroundings. She was everything he’d ever dreamed she’d be in her new skin.

Kelli was everything he’d ever wanted, just as he’d always known she would be.

It had taken a couple of months for him to come to grips with what his father and the archaic ideas had done to him and Kelli. Already, in preparation to take over, he’d followed Gerri Wilder’s suggestions to visit some neighboring prides and friendly packs to see how things worked in modern times. And the things he’d learned had blown his mind.

Coming home and talking to his father about everything had caused some tensions, but in the end, he’d stood up to Dad and earned his respect in the process. The new grandpa was currently with his mom at their house, babysitting their three new sons, surely loving every minute of it while he and Kelli explored her new shift.

And some much needed alone time.

After a while, the sleek, sexy cougar he’d been watching and following stopped and dropped lithely to the ground from the treetops. Chase followed her, dropping effortlessly next to her, shifting in mid-air. She’d have to figure out how to do that.

When Kelli shifted, she beamed from ear to ear, and Chase smiled in response. Like always, her smile was a punch in the gut, making it difficult to breathe. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to him, with all of her curves, golden hair, emerald eyes, and that smile.

He smelled desire dripping from her, seeping out of her pores, saw it in her eyes. She was always ready for him. Always wanting him.

And the feeling was mutual.

Chase couldn’t stop himself if he tried, and he didn’t want to. Without a word, he stalked closer to his mate, who only responded with a sexy smirk, before he pounced. Wrapping his arms around her, and lifting her by her lush ass, he had her pinned against a rock in seconds. His mouth attacked hers, and she responded eagerly.

Her tongue took over, delving inside his mouth, driving him wild with her flavor as it teased him mercilessly. The growl rumbled in his chest as she wrapped strong legs around his hips, and he was able to release her enough to palm a breast, feeling the weight of it before he tweaked her erect nipple.

Kelli gasped and moaned into his mouth, and Chase ate up the noises, making love to her mouth.

But he needed to taste her.

Chase loved nothing more than Kelli’s face when she came. It was the most beautiful thing to him, ever, and he strove to make it happen every chance he got. So that’s what he did. He started with her breasts, lifting them and lowering his head to get a nipple between his teeth, suckling and biting while he massaged the other one, still pushing her against the rock.

She gripped his hips with her legs and arched into his mouth with a groan.

“Oh God, Chase. That feels so good.” Her voice was breathy and sent a jolt to his cock, which wanted inside her, STAT. It would have to wait, though, as Chase watched Kelli’s eyes slam shut and a flush of lust steal across her chest.

He switched breasts, pulling on the other one with his lips while using his free hand to find her dripping folds, sinking his fingers inside her hot pussy.

Her moans grew louder, and he re-doubled his efforts, drawing her juices out and circling her clit with them. Kelli’s body jolted and shuddered, her legs spasming and tightening with each swipe of her clit with his fingers. He wasn’t sure how long she could hold on to him but was confident her new shifter strength would last.

Chase added a finger, stretching her, pulsing them in and out, curling them slightly. He was intent on making her come, seeing that face she made, hearing her cries echo through the forest. Kelli’s hands gripped his hair, tugging it painfully, but he loved every minute of it. She was gasping and moaning, and he was still sucking on her nipple. When he bit down on it, he started thrusting his fingers in and out of her, hard and fast, and she fell apart.

Everything tightened—her legs, her arms, her pussy. It sucked his fingers in like a vacuum, milking them with vise-like pressure, and he very nearly came himself as he watched her.

Kelli’s eyebrows were raised yet her eyes were closed, her mouth in the perfect ‘O’ shape, jaw dropped, everything shaking and shuddering. A loud, keening noise came from her, almost like a shriek, and he kissed her neck, stilling his fingers while she came down from her orgasmic high.

And then he dropped to his knees to do it again.

Kelli limply allowed him to lift her thighs over his shoulders as he sank his lips into her heat.

“Lean back into the rock, baby. I’m gonna make you do that again with my mouth.” Her musky essence exploded over his tongue as he speared her with it, burying his nose in her tight curls.

“Uh-uh,” she grunted at him, struggling. “I want some, too.”

Kelli planted her feet on the ground, and before he realized what was happening, she had pushed him on his back with her mouth around his cock and her ass in the air, her sweet little pussy in his face.

“Fuck, yeah,” he muttered, right before diving in.

What happened next was nothing short of mindless pleasure.

Chase used his mouth on her purely instinctually, knowing what she loved and what would make her make those noises again. He couldn’t concentrate, so he allowed impulses and senses to take over.

Her mouth was making him lose his mind.

Kelli moaned as she dropped down on his length, swallowing him whole, taking him down her throat, licking his balls, then coming up to do it all over again. Her tits pressed against his stomach, her smooth skin smothering him as she bobbed up and down on his shaft, spreading lubrication with her tongue.

Chase was big—of course, he was shifter—but Kelli took him like a pro. She sucked him deep down her throat, humming her pleasure until he saw stars. His balls were so tight to his body they almost hurt, but he couldn’t do anything but mindlessly lick what she had conveniently put in his face.

He brought up a hand to help with her pleasure, spearing her with two fingers while he sucked her clit into his mouth.

She reciprocated by stroking one hand up his length, tightly, prolonging his pleasure. Chase spread her honey up her lips and toward her little pucker before pressing his pinkie inside.

Kelli stopped sucking and let out a long, low moan, a feral sound that nearly had him coming on her face. Gently, Chase pumped his fingers in and out of her while he continued licking and suckling her clit.

“Chase,” she panted, “take me there.” Her words sent him reeling.

“Now?”

“Yes, now! Do it!”

He had to make her come one last time, and then he would get her ass ready for him. Intensifying his efforts, since she seemed to have forgotten his cock, he attacked her clit while he spread more of her natural lubrication and pumped his index finger in and out of her dark place. Her moans had turned from the keening shrieks he was accustomed to into a low wail he loved. It sounded wild, and feral.

When she came this time, she trembled and shuddered above him, the hot breath of her mouth all over his dick, making it strain to be inside her. Before she’d come down, he had her on her stomach below him, his finger still buried in her ass.

He added another, scissoring the two to stretch her, and Kelli continued her moaning.

“That’s it, baby. You’re going to feel so good,” he crooned to her. He was so proud of her. She was absolutely gorgeous as he thrust his fingers gently inside her. Chase reached around and plucked at her clit, and she lurched under him. “So sensitive,” he murmured against her back before kissing it and adding a finger.

“Feels so good …” she cried as she writhed.

Chase had taken as much preparation as he could. As it was, he was sure it wouldn’t last long. But at the same time, he didn’t want to hurt her and was so damn hard he was ready to burst. He continued pumping the three fingers in and out of her until he thought she might be loose enough.

Lifting her hips, he lined himself up and took a steadying breath.

Then he pressed inside her.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

Chase squeezed his eyes shut with restraint. She was so tight, so hot. Where her pussy was rough and slick, her ass was smooth and … so god-damned tight.

He wasn’t going to last long at all.

He opened his eyes to see Kelli breathing heavily, her skin flushed and beaded with perspiration, and gripping the dirt beneath her fingers.

“You okay?” He wasn’t even halfway in yet.

She breathed deeply, and breathed out her word, a long, slow, “Ye-e-e-e-ssss … Oh God, yes. Ye-e-e-e-ssss.”

Taking a gulp of air, Chase gently pushed in the rest of the way until he was buried to the hilt inside her. It was the most erotic sight of his life.

And then he couldn’t take anymore. “Baby, can you finger yourself? I need to move and this isn’t going to take much before I blow inside you. I need you to come with me.” He didn’t recognize his own voice, so guttural and needy.

But Kelli complied, sinking her torso down on the ground while her hands buried themselves in her pussy, one pumping in and out while the other frantically rubbed her clit.

He forced himself to be still and watch the most gorgeous creature on the planet as she worked herself over for him.

Chase had to move.

Sure enough, he was four strokes into her tight dark heat and could feel his spine tingling.

“Come on, baby,” he murmured, reaching around her to tweak her nipple.

And then she started wailing, in that low, crooning moan she’d been doing since he’d started working her rosebud. It was all he needed to see stars.

He roared his release as the stars flashed behind his lids, his sounds merging with hers as they both shuddered and quaked on the forest floor beneath the canopy of trees.

Chase may have blacked out a little, as the next thing he remembered was opening his eyes, totally collapsed next to Kelli, who stroked his chest tenderly.

“My God … “ he struggled to get out.

“Really,” she agreed.

“Why that, all of a sudden?” Not that he was complaining, it was fantastic. But when they’d tried it as teens, she’d balked. Of course, he had to stop thinking of them in terms of teenagers. Kelli was definitely all woman now.

She shrugged. “I don’t know. I was in the moment, and I wanted to give you my body in every way possible. Still do.”

“Well, I can’t wait to find out what else is possible.” This woman was going to break him, and he was going to damn well love every moment of it.

 

**

Gerri bit into a cookie as she opened the letter in the dusky-blue envelope that had arrived in her mail this morning.

Dear Ms. Wilder,

Words cannot express how much we appreciate you coming to visit Gramma last Summer. Of course, we reaped the benefits and appreciate you more than you will ever know. We’ve enclosed a copy of our first family portrait.

Thanks again,

Chase and Kelli

Gerri flipped to the picture, an image of the sexy shifter with his mate, and three tiny bundles of trouble. She smiled to herself. One down, two to go. Tanner would be simple, but that quiet Jude boy would take some work.

She looked forward to it.

##