ACougarsDesire

by Marisa Chenery

  “They’re close in age to me so I grew up with them. I’ve seen them and my uncle shift to their wolf forms countless times. And I’ve lost count how many times I wrestled with Mitchell after he’d shifted when we were kids. The whole family knows what they are, and have kept it a secret. So, my mate, you being a cougar shifter would never cause me to freak out. If anything, it makes me love you even more. If our mating bond is as strong as a werewolf’s then you are exactly what I’ve been waiting for.”

  Jase shifted once more, then took Katarina into his arms. “It is, though we don’t have to worry about suffering separation anxiety. And here I was worried you’d run from me.”

  Katarina nipped his chin. “Never. Even though I didn’t understand the significance of your pendant, I’m glad I took it from you. And I now know what Draven meant by ‘your circle’. He’s a cougar shifter too.”

  “Yes, but from another family group. We don’t have packs like werewolves. And we’ve even kept our presence a secret from them as well.”

  She brushed her lips across his. “Enough talking. Take me to bed. I want to make my cougar purr.”

  Jase gathered her close and carried her across the room to the large bed. He then proceeded to make love to her, purring out his pleasure.

  * * * * *

  Katarina straightened, then stretched out the kink in her back. She was at her apartment, packing, and had been doing so for the last three hours. She’d made a lot of headway into it, but there was still a lot to go.

  At least she didn’t have to worry about moving her stuff into a storage unit. Now that she was mated to Jase, she’d never be moving out of his family home. It’d been four days since she’d claimed his pendant as hers. His parents and brother had immediately accepted her, and when she’d been introduced to the family group leader, Jase’s uncle had officially welcomed her into it.

  She looked at the clock on her living room wall and wondered if she should try giving Jase a call. He’d been helping her pack, and had been the one to drive them to the apartment. He’d brought his tablet along with the program Draven had given him to track Caleb through his cell phone. His prey, as Jase liked to call Caleb, had used it, and Jase had gone off to see if he could catch him.

  Katarina now understood why the police hadn’t been called in, even though Caleb had tried to kill Jase’s uncle. To the rest of the world, cougar shifters didn’t exist, and they wanted to keep it that way. Their numbers were smaller than the werewolf population, and the anonymity they’d worked so hard to build over time helped to protect them. No, Caleb wouldn’t be facing human law, but he would cougar shifter law.

  She didn’t know what would be done to him once he was caught, and didn’t really care. He deserved whatever the consequences were. Katarina liked Jase’s uncle. They’d hit it off right from their first meeting. She still found it hard to believe it was only recently he’d looked down his nose at humans. And the way he treated his sons’ mates, especially Harley, who’d been the one to find out what Caleb had been doing, she swore they were his daughters by blood.

  Katarina heard the sound of heavy footfalls just outside in the hallway. Thinking it could be Jase coming back, she hurried to open the door for him. It didn’t turn out to be him, though.

  “Caleb,” she said, doing her best to act as if she didn’t know anything different about him. “You’re back.”

  He kept his back to her as he put his key into the lock on his door. “Did something happen here? There appears to be new wood on the frame.”

  “Yeah. There was an incident. I got it fixed right away, though.”

  Caleb turned to face her without opening his door. “What kind of incident?”

  Before Katarina could answer, Caleb’s eyes narrowed and his gaze dropped to her chest. Too late, she remembered the cougar head pendant. Being a cougar shifter, he knew exactly what it meant for her to be wearing it.

  He shot across the hallway faster than a human could and had her by the shoulders before she had a chance to step into her apartment and slam the door. Caleb sniffed the air around her, and a low cat growl rumbled out of his chest.

  “You stink of Jase, which means that’s his pendant you have around your neck. Another male in my family group has taken a human for a mate. How disgusting. Since he isn’t here, I’m going to assume he’ll be back. So you’re going to stay with me until I get everything I want out of my apartment, and he won’t be able to stop me from leaving unless he wants something to happen to you.”

  He grabbed a fistful of her hair at the back of her head and force-walked her across the hall. Caleb opened his apartment door and left it open as he took her inside. With his free hand, he pulled a plastic bag out of his pants pocket, then pushed her toward the bathroom.

  “Take off the lid of the tank on the toilet,” he said. Once Katarina did as he ordered, he continued. “Remove the packet in the plastic zippered bag and put it inside this one.”

  She reached inside the tank and took out the item. There was a thick wad of cash in it. Katarina stifled a cry of pain as Caleb yanked her out of the room by her hair and tugged her into the bedroom.

  She already knew there was another large amount of money under the mattress, so wasn’t surprised when Caleb asked her to get that one as well and put it inside the bag he carried. That completed he steered her out to the living room.

  The sound of a loud growl had Caleb painfully pulling Katarina up short by her hair. Jase stood in the open doorway, his upper lip snarled as he glared at Caleb.

  “Release Katarina,” Jase said, a menacing growl threading through the words.

  Caleb shook his head. “Not unless you allow me to walk out of here without trying to stop me.”

  “You know I won’t do that. You have to stand before our uncle and answer for what you tried to do to him.”

  “That isn’t going to happen.”

  Caleb dragged Katarina over to the window. He jerked the curtain and rod down from in front of it, then roughly slid it open. He pushed the screen out to land in the alley below. He positioned the both of them in front of the open space.

  “To show I’m not all bad,” Caleb said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes, “I’ll let you keep your mate.”

  Caleb fell back with her, but gave her a shove toward Jase at the last minute as he went through the open window. Only he’d waited a second too long and Katarina found herself on the verge of falling backward instead of forward.

  With a shriek, she made a grab for the window frame. Her fingers slipped, but a strong hand wrapped around her wrist and hauled her back into the room. Katarina whimpered as she threw herself into Jase’s arms and clutched him tightly. He held her firmly to the point she almost had a hard time taking a deep breath. She didn’t care, and refused to let him go.

  Jase kissed the top of her head. “Are you okay? He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  “No, he didn’t. I’m fine. I think he was more interested in using me to make sure you didn’t try to stop him from running again. He got me to get all the money out of the apartment that he had stashed. Sorry.”

  “Why are you sorry?” Jase loosened his hold on her and leaned back so she could look at him. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I heard someone out in the hallway and thought it was you coming back. When I saw it was Caleb, I thought to start a conversation with him to keep him here as long as I could in case you were on your way to the apartment. I completely forgot I was wearing the pendant. Once he saw it, I knew he’d be able to put two and two together and figure out it had been yours.”

  Jase kissed her. “If I’d figured he’d come here when I couldn’t find him at the location where he’d last used his cell phone, I never would have left you alone. I really thought he wouldn’t return so soon.”

  “He’s gone, isn’t he?”

  “Long gone.”

  “Sorry. If it wasn’t for me you could have chased after him and maybe caught up to him.”


  “Stop apologizing. We’ll catch him. It won’t be today, but we will. Grady has already decided he’ll take over the hunt. Now that I’m mated, I’m not willing to put you in jeopardy.”

  Katarina stroked Jase’s cheek. “You know I love you, right?”

  Jase smiled. “Yeah. And I love you just as much.” He put his arm around her shoulders and walked her out of Caleb’s apartment. “Let’s go home. That’s enough packing for today. Plus, I need to let Grady know what happened here so he can cross this off the list of possible places Caleb will show up.”

  Katarina allowed her mate to walk her into what was soon to be her former residence. Who would have known what she thought was someone trying to break into her apartment would turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to her. She’d found the love of her life and had the commitment she’d always wanted from a man. She now had years to look forward to spending with her cougar mate. There was nothing better than that.

  The End

  About Marisa Chenery

  Marisa Chenery was always a lover of books, but after reading her first historical romance novel she found herself hooked. Having inherited a love for the written word, she soon started writing her own novels.

  After trying her hand at writing historicals, she now writes paranormals.

  Marisa lives in Ontario, Canada, with her husband and four children. She would love to hear from you, so drop her an email.

  Marisa welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email addresses on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

  Tell Us What You Think

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  Also by Marisa Chenery

  Big City Pack 1: The Canuck Werewolf

  Big City Pack 2: A Werewolf at the Falls

  Big City Pack 3: Werewolf’s Treasure

  Big City Pack 4: Werewolf Claimed

  Big City Pack 5: Loved by a Werewolf

  Cougar Surrender 1: Cougar Heat

  Cougar Surrender 2: To Love a Cougar

  Goddess Revealed 1: Bast’s Perfume

  Goddess Revealed 2: Love’s Fiery Arrow

  Goddess Revealed 3: The Goddess’ Girdle

  Goddess Revealed 4: His Sea Goddess

  Ra’s Chosen 1: Soul Hunger

  Ra’s Chosen 2: Mate Hunger

  Ra’s Chosen 3: Longed-For Hunger

  Ra’s Chosen 4: Embrace the Hunger

  Ra’s Chosen 5: Reincarnated Hunger

  Ra’s Chosen 6: Foreseen Hunger

  Ra’s Chosen 7: Ra’s Hunger

  Touched by a Gladiator

  Warrior Hunger 1: Embraced by a Warrior

  Warrior Hunger 2: Her Eternal Warrior

  Warrior Hunger 3: Warrior’s Surrender

  Warrior Hunger 4: A Warrior to Love

  Werewolf Sentinels 1: Awakened from Ice

  Werewolf Sentinels 2: Ice Hunter’s Mate

  Werewolf Sentinels 3: Love Bound in Ice

  Werewolf Sentinels 4: Ice Age Lover

  Werewolf Sentinels 5: Ice Claimed

  Werewolf Sentinels 6: Burning Ice

  Werewolf Sentinels 7: Love on the Ice

  Werewolf Sentinels 8: Ice Surrender

  Print Books by Marisa Chenery

  Big City Pack

  Goddess Revealed

  Ra Chosen 1: Soul Hunger

  Touched by a Gladiator

  Ellora’s Cave Publishing

  www.ellorascave.com

  A Cougar’s Desire

  ISBN 97814199484.35

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  A Cougar’s Desire Copyright © 2013 Marisa Chenery

  Edited by Grace Bradley

  Cover design by Dar Albert

  Cover photography by Olga Naidenova, murphy81, olly/fotolia.com

  Electronic book publication October 2013

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