Night of the Cougar Read online

  With a resigned sigh and nod, he said, “Then you’ll help tie me up later so I can’t hurt you.”

  Chapter Six

  “Are you comfortable?” Jamie asked as she gave another tug on the straps of leather binding Galen to the four thick posts of his massive bed.

  Galen jerked powerfully against the ties, but they held fast. After their discussion late that morning, Galen had fashioned thick but flexible straps from an assortment of belts in his closet. Now he was bound and spread-eagled across the bed, his magnificent body bare.

  “They should hold, but just in case, some silver buckshot will help.” He jerked his head in the direction of the 12-gauge pump-action shotgun he had loaded earlier. “Just point and shoot. You don’t need to worry about aiming. That’s the beauty of a shotgun.”

  She sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed her hand across his smooth chest. “I won’t shoot you.”

  He didn’t argue with her. Risking a nervous glance out the window to the darkening sky, he said, “It’ll happen soon. I can feel it inside me.”

  “Where?” she asked, and ran her hand down to his midsection, where the muscles in his core had begun to tremble.

  “There,” he acknowledged, and yanked at the ties, growing more agitated.

  She stroked one hand across his abdomen and the other along his chest, hoping that when nothing happened, she’d be able to convince Galen to get some help from a qualified professional. She had no doubt, after hearing his story, that the accident had not just injured his body, but his mind as well.

  “It’ll be fine,” she urged, but beneath her hand his body was almost violently shaking now.

  “Get away from me,” he warned, a low rumbly sound mixing with his voice.

  “Galen.” She ran her hand across his abdomen once more, but was surprised by the heat beneath her palm and the intense ripples of his muscles.

  “Get away,” he snarled. As her gaze met his, a weird glow erupted in his eyes, drowning out the emerald hues of his irises.

  She did as he asked, hoping to calm him by stepping away from the bed as he almost mindlessly jerked against the bindings, trying to get free.

  A moan erupted from him, followed by a deep growl.

  An inhuman growl, she thought, only a second before his body arched off the bed with unexpected ferocity. Before she could react, a pop sounded loudly in the eerie silence that had settled over the room. Another pop came along with his scream of pain and, suddenly, muscles heaved beneath his skin in odd, unsettling patterns like an earthquake ripping across the terrain.

  More pops and cracks came as a powerful transformation racked his body, shocking her into silence.

  The bed groaned and creaked as he thrashed up and down and yanked at the bindings. She worried, not knowing if it could withstand the assault as Galen pulled and jerked at the bindings. She worried that he might hurt himself, but with each second that passed, his body transmuted before her eyes.

  Maybe she was the crazy one, she thought, closing her eyes in the hopes the image before her would change, but as she opened them again, there was no doubting what was happening. She inched closer to the shotgun, praying she would not have to use it against her lover.

  Galen’s skin had been overtaken with soft, glossy fur in a tawny color, with hints of the reddish color in Galen’s hair except along his belly where the undercoat was a soft snowy white. His arms and legs had thinned somewhat, although his legs remained larger and more powerful. Lethal-looking claws had replaced his nails and his palms were now nearly black and had become the pads of a cat.

  The big cat prints she had seen in the snow outside.

  The only piece of Galen left was his face, but with a sudden burst and a loud, eerie howl, his nose pushed out to form the broad muzzle of the cougar. His beard elongated, assuming the tawny brown, white and strawberry-gold markings of a mountain lion.

  With a huffed breath, the last little change pushed through as his ears stretched to long, slightly rounded feline ears.

  Silence reigned again, broken only by harsh, fast breathing, both hers and his.

  She realized then that she was shaking with fear and dragged in a steadying breath, waiting to see what would happen next.

  The large mountain lion that now lay spread-eagled on the bed shook its massive head as if to clear a stupor from its brain. With a low rumble, it tried to move, but the ties blessedly held fast.

  Realizing that it was imprisoned, it mewled loudly and rocked from side to side, trying to free itself. It jerked against the ties and tried to snap at them with its teeth. The bed shook, rattled and squeaked, protesting the violent motions as the animal struggled over and over again to be free.

  Jamie feared either the bed or ties would break and set the animal free, but somehow they held during the long battle. Galen had done a good job designing his own bonds.

  Finally realizing it would not get free, the cougar growled in protest and quieted a bit, prompting Jamie to walk toward it.

  The cat glanced at her as she approached, eyes glowing with an intense green light. Another growl came from it, sounding almost like her name.

  Was it possible that some part of Galen remained in that beast, understanding what was happening? she wondered.

  Stepping to the side of the bed, she reached out and tentatively stroked the fur on the animal’s underside. So soft, she thought, and since the animal had not protested her touch, she deepened her caress, stroking up and down the lean muscles of its flank the way she would a cat.

  A second later a low purr erupted from the animal and beneath her hand came the vibration of that insistent sound. She continued with her caress, hoping to keep the animal calm.

  She didn’t know how long she sat there, maintaining that simple action until her back ached.

  The cat seemed to have fallen asleep, but no matter how gingerly she moved to shift away, it jerked awake and emitted a growl, almost as if warning that she not go away.

  She didn’t, pulling up a rocking chair from a corner of the room and laying her hand on one of the cougar’s hind legs. Once again a steady purr came before the animal quieted.

  Jamie told herself it was all a bad dream. That it wasn’t possible that Galen was what he had said, but as minute turned to hour and the night sky lightened with the coming of dawn, she had no explanation for what she had seen. Nor could she deny the transformation that happened as the first hint of sun rose in the horizon. The cougar fled, leaving behind Galen once more.

  Much like that cat, he seemed to be in a daze at first and to help him back, she ran her hands up his arms to his chest, soothing him as the tremors in his body quieted.

  Thinking that it was safe, she reached up and was about to undo the ties when he issued a rumbly warning.

  “Not yet.”

  She met his gaze, which still bore the eerie green glow of the cougar. Passing her hand across his chest once again, she nodded and sat beside him on the bed.

  Galen sucked in a deep breath, fighting the vestiges of the beast inside him. As he did so, he smelled her, so fresh and womanly. It stirred him, awakening desire and he growled with need.

  “Galen, are you okay?” she asked, leaning close to him, which only made his desire stronger, especially as her breast pressed against his chest through the terry cloth of his robe.

  “I need you,” he admitted, his voice tinged with the purr of the cougar. During these moments, when night became day, the animal still lingered even though he was in human form.

  Jamie raked her gaze down his body and realized what he meant. With a nod, she rose from the bed and shimmied out of his robe.

  He emitted another low growl as she came toward him, all wonderful female. But she stopped at the edge of the bed to gaze at him and reached down to cup his balls with one hand and his erection with the other. He moaned then and from deep in his core came a powerful growl.

  She kept at her caresses, pulling him ever higher until his body vibrated beneath her touch
with the strength of his need.

  “Your eyes are still glowing,” she said as she finally eased over his bound leg and kneeled in the gap between his thighs before commencing her caresses once again.

  “The animal fights me in the morning sometimes,” he admitted.

  “Tell it to go away, because I want you,” she said, moving to straddle his midsection and stroke her hands up his powerful chest and arms.

  “It wants you, too. It wants to taste you,” he admitted, seeming to understand what the animal inside of him desired.

  “Come to me,” he growled, the human side of him needing the same thing.

  Jamie’s body shook, tempted by the passion in his gaze yet fearful of what might happen if she gave in to the animal urges he had awakened within her. This was desire in its most primitive state, without pretense or perversion.

  Trembling, she leaned back and shifted her hips until her center was at his mouth. The first pass of his tongue, cat rough and surprisingly hard, nearly made her come. Beneath her, his body tensed and the purr stopped, but then he stabbed his tongue into her vagina, dragging a moan from her. Shifting his mouth, he sucked and licked at her clitoris, pulling her closer and closer to a climax. When he grazed his teeth along her nether lips and licked them with that rough tongue, she reached the edge. With another suck and lick of her clit, he dragged a hard and fast climax from her.

  “Untie me,” he immediately commanded and, still shaking from the passion he had unleashed, it was all she could do to release him with fumbling fingers.

  As soon as his hands were free, Galen urged her down to the mattress while he quickly undid the bindings on his ankles.

  Unbound, he rolled and eased between her legs, needing to be inside her almost more than he needed to breathe. But mindful of all that had just happened, he hesitated for a moment as he brought his cock to the wet entrance to her vagina.

  “Please, Galen,” she urged, erasing the last of his doubts. He entered her in one smooth thrust, stilling when he was buried deep. The contractions of her climax were still thrumming through her. They milked his cock, pleasuring him.

  “God, you feel so good, Jamie.” He hadn’t forgotten how wonderful it had been between them, but he had thought at times that his imagination had made it seem that way.

  How wrong he had been, he thought, bending down to lick and suck the hard tips of her breasts until his dick and balls were throbbing so intensely he had to seek his own release.

  Pulling his hips back, he began the motion to take them both to further satisfaction, thrusting and retreating.

  She welcomed him, raising her hips to allow him to deepen his penetration, cradling his hips with her thighs and reaching up to lay her hands on his shoulders.

  The sting of her nails bit into his shoulders as she arched her body and came, calling out his name.

  The wave of her satisfaction rolled over him, drawing him into her and holding him there until she rose up and kissed him. He let himself go then, spilling his seed into her and shuddering from the force of his passion.

  She ran her hands along his shoulders and welcomed him onto her. Cradling him close, she kissed his face and stroked her hands through his hair so she could examine him. A smile came to her lips, full of surprise, but also bittersweet.

  “I thought I had imagined what it felt like. What you made me feel,” she said, continuing to comb her fingers through his hair.

  “I know what you mean. But Jamie, you can’t stay.”

  Chapter Seven

  She had expected he would go there, but not so quickly. Especially not when he was still tucked inside her so pleasantly, with both of them savoring the aftermath of some fairly incredible loving.

  Wagging her head, she continued with her caress. “You weren’t so quick to toss me from your bed last year.”

  With a pained sigh, he said, “That’s because I wasn’t a freaking monster that could rip your throat out.”

  He rolled away from her then and lay flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling. One arm was crooked behind his neck, exposing the scar from the bullet wound that had nearly ended his life years earlier. Now he had somehow survived yet again, and Jamie realized that, much like he had the first time, he was retreating from the world around him. But she wasn’t about to make the retreat easy for him.

  Turning onto her side and propping her head up with one hand, she laid her other hand on his midsection and stroked it much as she had during his transformation. “Seems to me you were purring like a little kitty cat for me last night and again this morning.”

  As she lazily ran her hand up and down his ridged abs, a hint of a vibration, a purr, came from beneath her palm, making her wonder just how far removed the animal was from the man she loved.

  “We overlap sometimes, especially at dusk and dawn,” he said, almost as if able to read what she was thinking.

  “I thought I heard you say my name when you first turned and I touched you,” she admitted, keeping up her caresses and watching as his arousal flared to life once again.

  He yanked up the covers to hide his state, almost as if embarrassed. “There are some things that the animal leaves behind.”

  “Like a freakin’ amazing libido,” she teased, trying to relieve his unease.

  He chuckled and nodded. “Strength. Speed.”

  “Endurance,” she jumped in, earning yet another laugh and a grin from him.

  “Better night vision. Some resistance to the cold.”

  “I guess that’s how you managed to survive being half-frozen yesterday.”

  He rolled onto his side and faced her, grasped her waist with his hand. “That, and you. You saved me.”

  Heat traveled over her with his words and with the way he was looking at her again. Her nipples peaked in anticipation, but the reality was, she was sore as hell at the moment.

  As he cupped her breast and ran his thumb across the tip, she covered his hand with hers to still the motion, but he grasped it and made her cup her own breast.

  “Sometimes it’s just about the pleasure in the touch. About experiencing all the sensations before passion overwhelms.”

  She moaned and nearly came just from his words, but he kept up that gentle touch, exploring the weight and shape of her, bending his head to taste and tenderly teeth the hard tip of her.

  She held his head to her, caught up again in desire, but it was slow-growing this time and so heady she didn’t want it to end. “If this is your way of making me want to leave, it’s failing badly.”

  His laughter spilled his warm breath against her breast. “Christ, Jamie. Don’t you know how torn up I am about making you go.”

  Reaching between their bodies, she nestled his erection against her belly and stroked it softly, wanting to explore him as he was exploring her. She learned every inch of him before lowering her hand to the soft nest of curls between his legs and cupping his balls.

  Against her belly came a more noticeable vibration, not unlike the rumble of the cougar. “I guess you like,” she teased.

  “I like. Too much,” he said, and bent to kiss her breasts again. They were sensitive from their earlier loving and at his kiss, she moaned from the sensation of his mouth, warm and mobile, along her flesh.

  She didn’t know how they managed it, but somehow an hour passed with them just lazily caressing each other, enjoying the pleasure of each other’s touch and bodies until the midmorning sun spilled onto the bed, as if to warn them that they couldn’t linger like that all day.

  “Are you hungry?” he asked, and at her look, quickly added, “For food?”

  Grinning, she said, “Starving.” For good measure, she gave one final stroke along his cock and he jumped beneath her hand.

  “Later,” he said, and she was pleased that he seemed to have changed his mind about having her go. Although she knew the argument would arise again.

  For now, she would accept their tentative truce.

  As he slipped on his jeans, she grabbe
d his robe, but asked, “Have you seen my clothes?”

  “They were muddy and wet. I washed them for you this morning when I was hoping that you could head back down the mountain,” he replied, and she followed him to the laundry room on the lower level of the lodge, which also held the kitchen. He pulled her things from the dryer and handed them to her.

  “What more could a girl ask for?” she kidded with a smile, and her heart did a little twist at the promise in his eyes as he responded.

  “How about a man who can cook?” he teased, his emerald eyes alive with merriment.

  “I take that to mean that you’ll make something to eat while I get dressed?”

  “Sure, but don’t expect anything too fancy,” he replied as she dashed back up to the other floor to change in his bedroom and then find her knapsack. Her editor was likely wondering what was up, but she was surprised to find that he had yet to call.

  Tucking her phone into her jeans pocket, she skipped back down the stairs to the kitchen, where Galen was busy frying up some bacon. The smoky smell mingled with that of the bread he was toasting in a small oven. A metal basket with eggs sat on the counter beside a bowl and whisk. She walked over and said, “Scrambled?”

  “Sure. I eat about six of them myself, though,” he warned, and she peeked over at the bacon to see he probably a full pound cooking in the large cast-iron skillet.

  He had a big appetite, but then again, he was a big man. And a were-cougar, although even as that thought came, it sounded as impossible as it had the day before. But the night had proved that he wasn’t crazy and that it wasn’t impossible.

  Cracking another two eggs for herself, she whisked them up and poured them into a second cast-iron pan he had set on the stove to heat along with some butter.

  They worked in a companionable and comfortable silence, clearly attuned to each other despite the fact that they had barely spent any time together, even a year ago. But it had been the same way, back then, which was maybe why they had bonded so quickly.

  While the eggs were cooking, she set places at a breakfast bar off to one side of the kitchen that looked out onto a deck along the lower level of his home. The view from this side was different, providing vistas of the valleys and mountains to the west of Cat’s Claw. In the far distance there was even the hint of a church steeple above the tree line. Everywhere she looked, the area was covered with the snow that had fallen the night before.