Addie couldn’t believe Dan had made her soar with the eagles when he was making love to her and had declared he wanted her to be his wife, and now she was boohooing all over his bare chest. She couldn’t help but feel so many mixed emotions where he was concerned. She wanted to be with him, loving him as her cougar mate, and to settle down in a place like this, with real friends and family. Was she just using the business of the assassination attempts on her life as a means to push him away? And because she didn’t want to get hurt like her fake mother hurt her and her dad when she left them, even though the woman had never been close to either her or her dad?

She’d still been her mother for seven years. Maybe Alicia had been afraid to become emotionally attached to her or her father, knowing it was just a job and it would be easier that way when she left.

Alicia had been the only mother Addie had remembered. And Alicia had done her motherly duties while Addie had been growing up, taking care of her when she was sick, helping her dress, and feeding her when she was little. Even teaching her so many things, taking her places like the zoo and the parks when her father had to be away. Addie loved to read because Alicia had read stories to her all the years she was growing up—until she left. Those were the good times she remembered with her.

What if, never having had a real, loving mother, Addie wouldn’t know how to be a good mother either? Was that something they were born with, or was it learned behavior? She liked kids, so she supposed she was equipped with mothering genes. She didn’t know for sure.

Poor Dan was upset because she was crying on his chest, and he didn’t even understand what was upsetting her. She didn’t even know herself. She was just one big jumble of emotions. And she was never like this. She could always shut off her emotions, except whenever she was with him. He turned on her other needs—for companionship, for loving, for pleasure—even in the trivial things: eating, sleeping, and running with him. And the major stuff: fighting the bad guys with him at her side.

Yeah, she had fallen for the sexy cougar all the way.

Before she analyzed them any further and changed her mind, she blurted out, “I’ll marry you.”

He laughed and tightened his hold on her, kissing her forehead in a loving way. “Somehow, I expected a different scenario when I asked you if you’d like to be my mate and you accepted.”

“If you have to think on it…” She was serious. If he was changing his mind already…

“Hell, no. You made the oral commitment. I’ve made it, and I sure didn’t know what to expect when you convinced me to be your pretend husband ten and a half years ago, but even then, I wanted something more between us.”

“Benefits.”

He laughed and caressed her arm further. “You have to admit the benefits have been damn nice.”

“Yeah, they have. You might have been thirteen on my list, but you were the magical number. The perfect one for me. I wouldn’t be alive now if you hadn’t risked your neck to rescue me. I really hadn’t expected you to come to my aid like that, or for the whole town to help out.”

“As soon as you called me and sounded so weak on the phone, I was trying to learn where you were. Then I was on my way. I’m sure everyone wanted to know what I was doing, running off in such a hurry. As much as we were separated, I couldn’t stop thinking of you. Admittedly, I wanted to stop thinking of you, because I didn’t want to be holding onto something that could never be between us—marital bliss, a normal life together—but it wasn’t working. I wanted you. I wanted this. You here. With me. Never leaving for months on end. Unless I was with you. I had to stick it out, come hell or high water. The truth is—I love you, and I could never give you up.”

She sighed and kissed his chest. “I knew I was in love with you from the moment you said you wanted benefits if you were to be my pretend husband.”

He chuckled.

“You don’t think we’re being too rash, do you? Maybe we should wait and see if after living together for a few months, we don’t get tired of each other, or annoyed with one another over bad habits, or something.”

“No. We’ve had a practice marriage for ten and a half years already.”

“Ha! And how many times have we seen each other over all that time?”

“Not enough. Not every day and every night like I wanted. Never enough. Not waking up to you so we can make love. Not making love before we go to sleep. Not having some afternoon delight on an extended lunch break.”

She smiled. “You sure have a one-track mind. I might not be the perfect mate, doing all the things you might expect of a mate.” She couldn’t help worrying she wouldn’t measure up. That, after a while, she’d turn out to be just like her pretend mother.

“You’re perfect for me just the way you are. We’ll take it a day at a time. Love each other, help each other, deal with this business until we resolve it. We’ll be together when we do it.”

“We don’t have to do the wedding stuff. It seems like a waste of money, time, and energy.”

“We’ll do whatever you want to do. I’m happy to just go before witnesses. Jack and Dottie did that. Then we had a marriage celebration for them here later. I’m happy to do it any way that makes you happy. When can we tell everyone that we’re mated for certain?”

“Are you eager to claim me as your territory?”

“Hell, yeah. Stryker’s waiting in the wings if you decide to dump my butt. And you heard Ricky.”

She laughed. “All right, anytime is fine with me.”

They slept for a few hours, and when they got up, it was pouring rain outside. Travis and Bridget were talking to Leyton downstairs about a case they had to go on. Addie hated that, because of her, everyone had been putting their own workloads on hold.

“Yeah, we’ve got to take this guy down. We still have the situation here with Addie,” Leyton said to Travis and Bridget. “Which of you wants to go with me to take this cougar down? Or I can ask Jack if he wants to.”

“I will,” Travis said.

“Hey,” Dan said, walking down the stairs with Addie, “if you all need to go, we’ll be fine now. Addie’s feeling much better and we can call on some others to help out if we need them to. I don’t want you to be short of manpower on your mission, putting yourselves at risk.”

“The job will only take the two of us,” Leyton said. “Before we go, we’ll help you move the bed.”

Dan smiled at Addie. She felt her face go up in flames.

The guys went upstairs to move the bed.

Bridget got Addie a cup of coffee. “Leyton isn’t what you call subtle sometimes.”

Addie laughed. “Well, we were making rather a racket up there. We’ve agreed to be mated. We’re not sure about the marriage details for now, but we’re committed to each other for real.”

“Omigod, yes!” Bridget gave her a big hug. “I’m so happy for the two of you.”

“I worry about this business with me though.”

“We’re serious about all of us helping you with this. That’s what we do. All for one and one for all. We wouldn’t have it any other way. We’re trained for it, just like you are. The feelings go deeper with us because we’re cougars.”

The guys all came back downstairs.

Bridget was smiling. Travis raised a brow.

“They’re mated. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Travis and Leyton looked at Dan as if he didn’t know the news, or were surprised he hadn’t already shared it with them yet.

Dan laughed and wrapped his arm around Addie’s shoulders. “All I can say is it’s about time.”

Chase called Dan and he put the phone on speaker. “What’s up?”

“Carl shifted back into his human form and he’s wanting to talk to you, not just us lowly deputies.”

“I’ll be right over.”

“I’m going with you.” Addie wasn’t worried about anyone planning a hit anytime soon, not after whoever it was who had planned this had lost four more men. She assumed they’d sit tight for a while to come up with another strategy. She even had the thought that maybe no one believed she was a threat any longer if she wasn’t on the job. On the other hand, she wasn’t on the job and they’d come after her, so that pretty much ruled out that conjecture.

“Did you want me to go with you too?” Bridget asked.

“No, you’re fine. Just do whatever you need to do,” Addie quickly said. They couldn’t all be guarding her always. Eventually they’d let down their guard. Sure, everyone would be wary of newcomers to town, and be watching for anyone showing up unexpectedly that they didn’t know, but having a full-fledged guard detail couldn’t go on forever. Not that she felt comfortable running around by herself for now. If Dan had to take care of business without her, she would welcome someone else serving as her backup.

“Okay, we’re out of here,” Leyton said, and Travis gave Bridget an endearing kiss.

That’s what Addie had with Dan, the same shared looks, the same compelling need to be with her mate. Her mate. She couldn’t believe she’d agreed to be his partner for always.

Then Leyton and Travis were out the door.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to come with you?” Bridget asked. “Now that everyone else is gone, and I don’t have anything else to do, I wouldn’t mind seeing what Carl has to say.”

Addie smiled. “Yeah, sure. Carl might not talk to us either, but we can visit.”

“One or two vehicles?” Dan asked.

“I’ll ride with the two of you unless you want to talk in private about anything,” Bridget said.

“Come with us. Save some gas.” Addie suspected Bridget would rather be with them to watch their backs and in on the action, than sitting at home waiting to hear from someone. Plus, she was probably just as curious as Addie was to see what happened when they questioned Carl, a newly turned cougar.

Bridget smiled and grabbed her gun off the dining room table. “Gotcha. I’m always up for carpooling.”

At the jailhouse, Stryker and Chase were waiting for Dan to arrive. Stryker was leaning his butt against one of the desks, arms folded across his chest. “Hope you get more out of him then we could.”

“I was all for using torture,” Chase said, knowing Carl could hear everything that was being said, even though the door to the cells was closed. Now that he could hear like a cougar, he would be listening to everything they said.

Unless, they spoke in hushed voices or went outside to talk.

“It may come to that,” Dan said. “Come on, Addie.” He suspected Carl knew something about Addie and all this business. He figured she should help to question him, unless Carl refused to speak to her or in front of her.

Bridget waited in the offices with Chase and Stryker, while Dan opened the door to the jail cells and followed her in and closed the door behind him.

Carl was sitting on his bed, head in his hands, elbows resting on his legs, looking down at the floor like he didn’t know what kind of a mess he’d gotten himself into. He quickly looked up and narrowed his eyes at them.

“Still want that call?” Dan asked, escorting Addie to the cell.

“Hell.”

“Believe me, I never wanted you to be one of us. I’ll tell you right now, you’ll have a time of it with shifting. And unless you want to be caged, studied, and have tests run on you in some science lab for as long as you live, you can’t tell anyone what happened to you.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Carl growled.

“I’d think so, you’re a clever guy, but sometimes someone who’s newly turned needs to be warned.” Dan shoved his hands in his pockets.

“When are you going to let me out of here? I assume you don’t really intend to press charges for all that minor stuff.”

“You’ll be here as long as we feel you need to be.”

“You can’t—“

“We can. We run Yuma Town, so we go by our rules, our way. Which means, bottom line, you cause any more trouble for us, you’re a dead man.”

Carl snorted, but Dan knew from the expression on the man’s face he knew he was in serious trouble, and Dan wasn’t exaggerating.

“Rogue cougars are taken down permanently,” Dan clarified. “We can’t risk having anyone learn of what we are. And now you can’t either. Unless, like I said, you want to be someone’s science experiment and find of the millennium.”

“I got it already. How do I get out of here?”

“First, we must have a family willing to take you in, teach you the ropes, and monitor you until you get your shifting under control. No one is stepping up to the plate. Face it, Carl. You’re not well-liked at all. I can’t force someone to take you in. I imagine it’s going to take some time to place you.”

“Like I’m a damn foster pet?”

Dan smiled. Then he frowned at him again. “A foster pet would be well-loved. If you cause any trouble, the word would be to terminate you. Just remember that. Maybe Roger and Millie Haverton, who run the newspaper in town, could take you in.”

“Some small-town newspaper?” Carl snorted.

“The cat lady, the widowed Mrs. Sorenson, is always taking in strays. Maybe she’d think you were a worthwhile cause,” Dan said.

“I’m allergic to cats.”

Everyone smiled. “I’m sure whatever allergy you had to them was knocked out when you became one of us. Now to business. Who are you working for?”

“I’m a news reporter for the Denver Press.”

“See, Carl? This kind of attitude is going to keep you here. Try again. You left your job four years ago.”

Carl looked at the floor again.

“Okay, next question. You said you heard shots fired and stopped at my place to see what was going on. The date and time stamp on your video, and the fact you recorded a cougar taking down the one assassin, meant you were in place before the shooting began.”

Carl eyed him for a moment, then glanced at Addie.

“What do you have to do with all this?” Dan asked. “I’m asking real nice right now in front of the lady. I won’t when she leaves.”

“Tough guy act.”

“You saw me kill the first assassin with my cougar canines. You know it’s not an act.”

Carl’s eyes widened. Dan was sure he still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around anyone being a cougar shifter.

“We have enhanced healing abilities, if you didn’t realize it. Which means I can keep tearing you up real good and allowing you to heal and start all over again.”

Carl looked up at him, skepticism written all over his face.

“Check your bandages. If your deep, cat bite marks haven’t healed all the way by now, they should be well on their way.”

Carl unwrapped his wrist and stared at the bite marks that were still red, but the tears had begun to heal much faster than humanly possible. He just stared at the wounds in disbelief.

“Tell me what we want to know. Why you knew to be at my house before we arrived and were already set up to take the video. Why none of the assassins discovered you were there and took you out. Because they did know you were there. To my way of thinking, you were part of their team, video recording the assassination to prove they did the job right. Only they didn’t get it right and the good guys won out. Except now you’re one of us and you can’t be on their team any longer. And frankly, we don’t want you on our team either. I’m just surprised we didn’t catch you out there at the time. You were damn lucky.”

“I was fired from my job at the Press. All right? I had promised them the story of a lifetime. I knew there was something wrong with you people. I’m damn good at my job, digging up the truth, investigative reporting, uncovering the story behind the story.”

“Except for with us.”

“Yeah, well, without the story, I was canned. Without a paycheck, I couldn’t focus on you or this place any longer. I’ve been freelancing since then and several of my jobs have taken me out of the country. I was approached by a woman, no name, who said she worked for a federal agency. She wouldn’t say which one. And she said she needed me to go to Yuma Town to watch your house, and video record the agents taking down the occupants. After the last time we had our showdown, I was eager to take on the assignment. An even bigger incentive was she said you and some of your cohorts were home-grown terrorists, but they needed a videographer who could show the takedown for future training exercises.”

“And to prove the ‘terrorists’ resisted arrest and had to be taken down permanently?” Addie asked.

“Who are you?” Carl asked, glowering at Addie.

“A federal agent. I’m with the FBI, and those men who were sent to kill me? They would have taken you out once they had the video recording. We have a mole on the task force I’m working on. Dan has been my undercover husband for ten and a half years. It wasn’t until six months ago that someone started targeting me. If you’re as good as you say you are, and you think you can help us investigate who’s behind this, I’m sure Dan would give you some leniency. We might even find someone willing to take you in.”

Carl looked at Dan to see his take on it.

“If you can help us, I’d consider it. Did you send the video off to anyone?” Dan asked.

“No. I was supposed to hand it over to one of the agents, only they weren’t agents, from what you say.”

“Right. They had long felony records, hitmen, every one of them,” Addie said, leaning a little against Dan.

“Be right back.” Dan should have thought of it before, but Addie needed to have a seat and he was going to get a chair for her. On second thought, if Carl could behave himself, he’d let him out of the cell so they could sit on the couches and chairs in the breakroom of the sheriff’s office since this was going to take a while. “If you’ll behave yourself, we can take a seat in the breakroom where we can be more comfortable.”

“Yeah. I’m not going anywhere,” Carl said, sounding resigned, but Dan still didn’t trust him.

Dan let him out, and then they walked back to the door and he unlocked it. “We’re sitting in the breakroom to discuss this. All of us,” he told Chase, Stryker, and Bridget.

Everyone moved to the breakroom that Dottie had redone with some of the stolen money they’d recovered. She’d hated the breakroom, and always thought it should be a nice getaway from the stresses of the day, and even afforded them a nice place to visit with guests there. Dan and the rest of the sheriff’s office employees loved it.

A curved black table and black chairs offered enough seating for eight. A black and white kitchen, the upper cabinets white, the lower ones black, fridge, stove, microwave, and dishwasher looked super high tech and suited their purpose. The newly furnished and decorated breakroom gave the sheriff, deputies, and dispatcher a place to cook while taking lunch and supper breaks, breakfast even, for those pulling overnight duty. A large picture of a cougar sitting on a rock with his mate overlooking Carver Falls decorated one wall. On another, all those who worked for the sheriff’s office were pictured in their cougar coats: sheriff, deputies, the dispatcher.

“What if Carl shifts?” Stryker asked, leaning against a wall, looking ready for action.

“He’ll behave himself. We’re armed to protect ourselves and he knows that,” Dan said.

Bridget took a seat on one of the comfortable black chairs situated around a glass coffee table, her back to the kitchen. Chase sat at the kitchen table. He and Bridget were situated so Carl couldn’t make a move for any of the knives in there, though Dan didn’t believe Carl was combat trained and was certain the guy was smart enough to know if he moved toward the kitchen, he could be put down before he took a few steps.

Dan sat with Addie on the sofa across from where he motioned for Carl to sit in the corner, barricaded from making a move. Other than a small table situated between another sofa and the chair he was sitting on, he didn’t have anything he could easily grab as a weapon.

“Tell them what you told us, in case they didn’t hear what was said.” Dan knew they would have heard, but he wanted Carl to repeat what he said to learn if he varied his statement much, or if he had his statement down pat, rehearsed, in case things hadn’t gone as planned.

“They planned to kill you then,” Stryker said after Carl finished sharing his story, stating what Dan believed was obvious, but it didn’t hurt for Carl to hear it from others, confirming the truth of the matter.

In other words, they had saved Carl’s life.

“Hell,” Carl said. “If the assassins planned to kill me, then they probably still want to.”

Everyone smiled.

“Well, you don’t need to look so damned happy about it.”

“They didn’t kill you, and we saved you, so show a little gratitude,” Chase said.

“Yeah, but now I’m one of you! A werecat. And I can’t even do my job now because of having these damnable urges to shift into one.”

“We’re cougar shifters,” Addie said. “Not werecats. Describe what the woman looked like who hired you to video record the shootings.”

“Dark-haired, but she was wearing a wig. Her eyebrows were much lighter. She was wearing eye pencil to darken them, but I could tell. In my stuff, I’ve got a photo of her.”

“A photo?” Addie looked at Chase.

“Where?” Chase asked, standing.

“It’s in the driver’s side door panel.”

“We have your vehicle impounded behind the sheriff’s office. I’ll check it out.” Chase left the breakroom.

“How did you manage to get a photo of her without getting yourself killed before you even took on the assignment?” Addie asked.

“I have a friend who does some freelancing too. He took the picture when I went to the meeting in Forest Park. Even though she was supposed to be one of the good guys, I wanted proof concerning who I’d met, just in case anything went wrong. I don’t like all this cloak and dagger stuff.”

“Yet, that’s your business,” Addie said.

“Uncovering it, yeah. Living it, no. Well, except when I’m digging around for the truth.” Carl turned to Bridget. “I know who all the others are and why they’re here. Who are you?”

“Cougar Special Forces agent. My mate and I work for a local agency that take down rogue cougars.”

“Like me if I don’t behave.”

“Yep.”

“What’s this all about then? If you’re not terrorists, why would anyone be out to eliminate all of you?” Carl asked.

“We were escorting Addie here. She’d been wounded by more of the same kind of thugs,” Bridget said. “We were trying to get her safely here, but we were attacked at Dan’s house.”

“Has anyone tried to contact you—” Dan paused. “I guess we have your phone.” He smiled for making the slip. “I just wondered if the woman, or one of her cohorts, had tried to get in touch with you to see what went down after the whole incident. We haven’t seen anyone else who’s been suspicious in the area.”

Stryker brought out Carl’s phone. “No one’s called. You can imagine she believes everyone died—and I mean, the bad guys, Carl.”

“Let’s keep it that way,” Dan said.

Carl sank against the chair a little, looking relieved.

Chase stalked into the breakroom and handed the disk and camera to Addie. “I figure if anyone knows who she is, you will.”

Addie inserted the disk into the camera and began scrolling through the pictures. When she came to one, she frowned. “Paris Pepion. She’s on the team I’ve worked with for the past six months. She and Dirk Carter were my backup when the assassin knifed the courier and took off.” She showed the picture of the woman to Carl. “Is this the woman who hired you?”