CHAPTER TEN
Claudia~
“Kill?” she gasped.
“Kill.” His voice was hard and flat. “You are my wife. If I knew for a fact which dumbass son of a tomcat seduced you, I’d have to deal with him, wouldn’t I?”
“Seduced?”
He looked even more dangerous. But not to her. Her pulse didn’t even rise, although his body swelled and his face grew hard.
“Tell me he didn’t force himself on you,” he said through a jaw clenched so tight those teeth were going to ache later.
“It wasn’t rape,” she confirmed. “He just neglected to mention that he already had a wife.” Certainly Dominic had deliberately led her to believe she was his fated mate. For a while she had been convinced he was hers.
Ryan pulled air into his chest. Breathed out. Visibly got himself under control. “I apologize on his behalf,” he ground out. “The Rutherfords owe you. I’m here to pay our debt.”
“With marriage? It really wasn’t your fault.”
And she wasn’t sure she was ready to marry a stranger. Her thoughts spun madly. Could she cope with Jimmy off-island? Could she marry a stranger? Only Ryan Rutherford didn’t feel like a stranger.
Had Robin put a love spell on her? Well, of course she had. Robin was thorough. No wonder she felt this insta-love, insta-attraction. She glared at Ryan, who gazed blandly back.
He broke into her reverie. “Has he at least been meeting his financial obligations?” He glanced around at the shabby room.
She waved a hand in negation. “I didn’t tell him about Jimmy. When I discovered he already had–” she paused, “A family, I told him to get lost.”
Ryan shook his head, disgust stiffening that wide square jaw. “Did you have that bubble thing going around your aura when you kissed him off?” he asked curiously. “Because a cat should have been able to detect that you were pregnant.”
“You can sense my shield?” No one had ever been able to do that. No one.
“Well, sure. It’s like your aura is frozen solid. But not flat-lined. I’ve never seen anything like it. Makes it hard to get a reading on you.” He sniffed. “I can’t even tell if you’re scared or just worried.” He sounded indignant.
“You could tell all that from my aura?”
“And your scent. I’m a hunter, Claudia. My cougar senses pick up on emotions, intentions, health, and yeah, stuff like ovulation and pregnancy.”
“Oh.” She resolved to keep her shield up as long as he was around.
“Doesn’t it use a lot of energy?” he inquired curiously.
Now that he mentioned it, it did. She had to use a lot more psychic power to keep her shield intact against Ryan’s probing than she had to deflect Kevin’s feeble magic. Ryan was probably off-the-charts powerful. Maybe the Council was right to be worried about their child. Except, he wasn’t really the father. Focus, Claudia.
“Yes,” she answered his question. “But you’re a stranger.”
“Your husband. I mean you no harm, Claudia. I promise. Like I said, we Rutherfords owe you and I’m here to grant you your deepest wish. World peace excluded.”
“Back up. Are you telling me that Robin picked you because you’re available, although she is aware some other cougar is Jimmy’s sperm donor?”
He winced. “I gathered she and Sully think I’m the son of a cat who knocked you up and left you high and dry. For all the reasons I gave before. But mostly because of this.” He slapped his right thigh.
“Your injury?”
“I was bitten by a hooded cobra shifter. Damned bite won’t heal. Your supporters believe I’m cursed.”
It was her turn to shake her head. Unlike his sleek hair, her curls flopped around her face. “I’m a talent detector. I couldn’t curse you if I tried.”
“What about your parents?”
“I guess,” she said doubtfully. “They do have a lot of talent. Dad’s a weather worker. You experienced any floods or lightning strikes?”
He grinned. “Nope. But your mom’s a healer, isn’t she? She could hex a bite easy.”
“She would never!”
He held up a big hand. His big left hand. A wide gold band flashed on his ring finger. “She wouldn’t need to. Shifter venom doesn’t need any kind of boost from a witch.”
“My. Mother. Is. Not. A. Witch.”
“Sorry. Is it all right to call her a sorceress?”
“That’s what she is. Witch, warlock, wizard are not polite terms. I’d think someone who’s been coming to West Haven all his life would know better.”
“I apologize. I guess I figured it was like you guys calling us hunters, as if that could ever be an insult. We are hunters. Beasts of prey. Big cats. And proud of it, I might add. We use that word without shame.”
“Well, it’s not the same, Ryan. To call a sorcerer or sorceress one of the W words is to suggest that they stir cauldrons and chant incantations to the moon like non-sensitives playing at make-believe. The only thing worse is to call one of us a magician. Magicians perform tricks.”
“Got it. I apologize for insulting your mother. But even if she wouldn’t curse me, here I am with a bum leg. And she could have made sure I didn’t heal. Right?”
“Potentially. But she didn’t.”
“Well, of course not. I’m not the father. Why would you sic her onto me? But just for the record, did they hex the guy who did knock you up?”
“Of course not! We don’t do stuff like that. It’s, it’s uncivilized.” Besides she had identified Jimmy’s father to no one.
“Yeah.” He smiled that dangerous smile again. “See, that’s the thing about us cats, we’re fundamentally uncivilized.”