by Ashley Shay
“You really have to stop hiring humans, at all, Ty. It’s very risky.”
“This was an unusual situation.”
“I understand the circumstances, but it’s still risky,” Rosa said.
He cocked a brow. “If I remember correctly, you didn’t think bringing Jillian here was all that risky.”
“I had a game plan,” Rosa said with a smile. “I knew she’d be perfect for you.” She paused to stir her coffee. “They have a lot in common, you know.”
“Really? They don’t look anything alike.”
Rosa put her hand over her heart. “They’re both lovely women, but I’m talking inside, Ty. Inside where it really matters. Surely you’ve seen it.”
“I hate to admit it, Rosa, but Jillian becomes dimmer every day.”
“That’s self-preservation,” Rosa said gently. “If a candle burns too brightly in our memory, we can see little else in the darkness beyond us. Enjoy this new beginning, Ty. It shows no disservice to Jillian. She would have wanted you to give your family this gift.”
“She’s a gift all right.” Tyler laughed. “She sure has Suzie’s number. She’s never responded to anyone like that but Cougar.”
Rosa laughed. “Your youngest brother is unpredictable, and Suzie knows that. Cougar wasn’t afraid to drop her in the pool when she didn’t mind him. Human Suzie might love the water, but the hellkit surely doesn’t.”
“Carly’s not unpredictable, and yet…How do you think she did that?”
Rosa glanced toward the closed kitchen door. “I have no idea, but I’d say you found yourself a winner.” Rosa’s laughter echoed around the kitchen as light as the morning sunshine. “I’d planned on leaving soon, now that you have help with Carly. I figured, even as a nanny, she was a good influence. I’ve stayed long enough, and as you said, it will be difficult for Suzie when I leave. The longer I stay the harder it becomes for me as well.” She reached over to put her hand over Tyler’s. “But with your permission, alpha, I may stay a little longer to watch the fireworks between those two.”
Tyler’s laugh rumbled low in his chest. “You know you have a home here, Rosa, for as long as you like. I don’t know what any of us would have done without you. Especially Suzie.”
“You’d have survived,” Rosa said gently. “You’re tougher than you think, Ty.”
“It doesn’t feel that way some days.”
“Only on the dark ones,” Rosa said, “and I think the light’s beginning to shine again. She’s good for all of you.”
“I hope so,” Tyler said.
“He’ll come around.”
Tyler frowned. “How did you know he’s fighting this?”
“Cougar’s actions may not be predictable, but I know his heart. He’s still angry at himself for losing Jillian. He’s not going to let another woman in so easily. He’s afraid of losing another love, and he’s also afraid he has nothing left to give, but I have a feeling Carly is going to dig deep. She’s a gutsy little thing, and anyone who can handle Suzie Q can certainly handle your brother.” She poured more cream into her coffee.
“Want a little coffee with that cream?” Tyler said with a smirk.
Rosa laughed. “Hell, no. Not until Carly works her magic and convinces Lucia to make better coffee.”
A few minutes later, Carly returned to the kitchen with a subdued kitten in tow. While Carly got some coffee, Suzie climbed up on the chair beside Tyler but refused to look at either him or Rosa. She reached for her orange juice and pulled it close. Tyler raised one eyebrow in question, and Carly winked, shooting him a dazzling smile. She turned to Rosa. “Suzie and I have decided to go shopping in Catamount. Would you like to come along? We’d enjoy having your company.”
Rosa nodded and jumped to her feet. “Love to. Let me get my purse. While we’re out, let’s stop at Starbucks.” She grimaced and poured the rest of her coffee into the sink. On her way out of the room, she opened the door and called out, “Coast is clear!” signaling for Lucia to come back to the kitchen and finish making Suzie’s French toast.
They waited patiently while Lucia finished making Suzie’s breakfast, and then his daughter dug into the plate of delicious-smelling French toast Lucia slid onto the table. When she reached out to spear another piece from the platter, Tyler moved the dish closer to her. He smoothed down Suzie’s ruffled curls, feeling his daughter’s heat and smelling the wonderful scent of little-girl hair as he caressed her. It was a heady combination of baby shampoo, sweat, and the horsey scent of Peppermint. She’d obviously been giving her horse hugs this morning.
He still couldn’t allow himself to face what might had happened if Rosa hadn’t realized Suzie was already up and had disappeared from the house. It hadn’t taken David long to find her because he and Suzie always stuck to the same three paths, but his foreman had lost his tan before he’d returned to the stable with the little girl in tow. At that point, the twins, as well as half the hands, had dropped their chores and bolted from the stable to look for her. Both he and Rosa had nearly collapsed with relief when the radio call had come through saying David and Shane had found her near the watering pond at the edge of the woods. Tyler had never gotten used to the array of emotions his daughter could wring from his heart. She was everything to him, and he’d do anything to protect her.
He kept his hand on Suzie, but he looked at Carly as he spoke. “I’ll get a couple of the Tomcats to go with you.”
“The Tomcats? Really?”
The Tomcats might be overkill for a day of shopping, but Tyler wasn’t taking any chances. They were Cougar’s elite force, separate from the standard security team, the best-trained men they had.
Carly stood up to pour herself more coffee. She didn’t seem to have Rosa’s coffee sensibilities. “Do you think there’s real danger?”
“Well, I—”
“Please, Daddy, I want to go. Carly said I could have a new purse,” Suzie piped up, but Tyler was happy to hear it wasn’t her usual demanding order.
Tyler looked down at his daughter, and the happiness in her eyes was impossible to resist. He realized at that moment that a pliant, content Suzie might lead to a quicker death than the hellcub. How would he ever be able to say no to a look like that? “You can go, kitten. You need a purse to match those boots.”
Suzie’s eyes shone with excitement. “I need a pink one too.”
Tyler threw his head back and laughed. “Of course you do. Two purses it is then.”
Suzie stretched her arms up for an awkward hug, smearing a bit of syrup on Tyler’s arm before she returned her attention to her plate.
Tyler’s heart swelled. Suzie rarely touched him voluntarily, let alone hugged him with such exuberance. Suddenly overcome with emotion, he had to clear his throat before he could find his voice.
“To answer your question,” he continued, wiping at the sticky mess on his arm, “no, I don’t think there’ll be real danger, but I’d feel more comfortable if you had protection.”
“So would I actually,” Carly agreed. “I’ll be back in a flash. Take care of the kitten.” She placed a kiss on the top of Suzie’s head as she moved past him to snag a bacon biscuit from the sideboard where Lucia set out a breakfast buffet every morning. She took a big bite and headed toward the door. Before she reached it, however, she turned back around and stopped at his side. When he lifted his face to her, she leaned down and pressed her lips to his.
“Good morning, Tyler,” she whispered, her mouth warm and salty from the breakfast sandwich.
“Good morning, Carly.”
“Oooooh gross,” Suzie said with a laugh.
“Oooooh gross,” Tyler mimicked. “You won’t think that in ten years.”
“Ten years won’t happen for forever!” Suzie said.
Tyler thought waiting forever for Suzie to grow up sounded like a fine idea.
* * * *
Catamount, Texas, enchanted Carly. The town was obviously a modern attempt to look like an Old West mining town, bu
t instead of horses, mud, and tobacco spit, the sidewalks were lined with colorful flowers, shady trees, and exclusive boutiques. The downtown shopping quad restricted motorized vehicles, and the only traffic allowed was pedestrians and bicycles. Rosa explained that deliveries were made before or after hours to the various businesses. Any vendor wanting to deal with the citizens of Catamount played by their rules or they didn’t play. Though Carly knew the Lucas family was rich beyond measure from oil, ranching, and wise investments, she had begun to suspect that Tyler Lucas might be a very powerful man.
Apparently the Lucas family had been powerful for generations, though the actual name Lucas had been a semi-recent addition.
“How far back does the family tree go?” Carly asked.
Rosa pushed her sunglasses higher on her nose as she thought. “You’d have to ask Shane for sure. He keeps track of all the history.”
“That’s quite a task.”
“Sí, but he doesn’t mind. It’s part of his position as beta. He has recorded many stories, some passed through colony families for centuries.”
“Centuries,” Carly echoed.
“My guess would be the Lucases have been the alpha family for close to five hundred years, probably even longer, though of course there was no written history back then.” She paused for a moment and glanced at Carly over the top of her glasses. “And things within the colony were a bit more…primitive.”
“Things weren’t all that civilized in a lot of places five hundred years ago.”
“I’m not just talking uncivilized.” Rosa studied Carly for a minute as though deciding how much she could handle.
“Spill it,” Carly said with a smirk. “I’ll just ask Shane if you don’t tell me.”
“Sí, of course you would,” Rosa said. “I am being a bit too cautious. You are, after all, the new colony queen.”
When Carly made a face, Rosa laughed and wound her arm through Carly’s. They watched Suzie skip ahead and press her face against a shop window. They paused while Suzie studied a small dollhouse, and Rosa continued. “The shifters, all shifters, were very primal back then, more beasts than men. That of course has led to many legends over the years.”
“Like werewolves?” Carly asked. “My pride of cougars could totally kick werewolf butt.”
Rosa laughed. “They could indeed. Werewolves are often all talk and no action, but of course since they came under human scrutiny so prominently centuries ago, they’ve gotten all the press. It didn’t take much beyond Little Red Riding Hood to sway it in their favor.”
“Sounds reckless to me. Better to stay under cover.”
“Most shifters agree, and believe me, the wolf species is trying very hard to slink back into the shadows where they should have stayed.” She huffed. “It only takes one bad choice to ruin it for everyone.”
Carly shot a glance around to be sure no one lurked nearby to overhear. “What happened?”
Rosa shook her head. “Oh, you won’t hear that from me. Hundreds of years later and it’s still a touchy subject. I stay out of shifter politics.” Carly pushed out a lip. “Don’t get too sulky. As alpha female of this town, you’re going to hear it all eventually. There are dozens of legends involving shifters, most within the Native American community on this continent, and for good reason. This continent thrives on the wild, the free, the natural order of things.”
“That’s very true,” Carly said. “We have such beautiful land.”
“And shifters fit in beautifully with nature. I doubt early generations of shifters spent much time in their human guise at all, at least on this continent. I mean there was really no reason. Other than the Native American tribes, who of course had shifters of their own, there was no one to worry about. No one to discover the secrets they guarded. At least in the beginning.”
Suzie whirled around and tucked her hand into Carly’s. She leaned her head back, her cowgirl hat falling off her head, and said, “I’m going to ask Santa for that dollhouse.”
“It’s a wonderful house,” Carly said. “Do you have dolls for it?”
“Suzie Q has more dolls than that toy store,” Rosa said.
Suzie twisted toward her. “Maybe I do, but I don’t have any to fit in the little house.” She bounced up and down. “So I’m going to ask Santa for those too.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Carly said as Suzie began to skip down the sidewalk. She kept her eyes on the little girl until Suzie paused again then Carly turned back to Rosa.
“Where did the Lucas colony originate?”
“The oral history tells us the colony’s life began in the wilderness and foothills of what is now Pennsylvania. The prides then spread through the higher elevations of the Appalachians, and those prides gradually formed colonies. We’ve been told the Pennsylvania colony is thousands of years old, and the legends say the first shifters were born from a great cougar jealous of humans who walked into his domain on two legs.” Rosa laughed. “Silly, of course, to think a great cougar watched the first migration of humans into North America, but I’m afraid it is all we have to explain something that is just so inexplicable.”
“Not so silly,” Carly said, entranced. “Sounds like the cougar wanted to give the future the best of both worlds. It’s a wonderful story.” She couldn’t wait to talk to Shane. Hopefully he’d allow her to read some of the histories. “So the Catamount shifters migrated here from Pennsylvania?”
“Sí, with the arrival of the first European settlers, the colony fled west for privacy into what is now Ohio, but as more and more arrived, it became apparent they needed to keep moving. There was debate about direction, which resulted in a division of the colony. Half went north into areas of what is now Michigan and others went south into the mountains of Kentucky. It took decades to journey here, and even then they couldn’t seem to outrun civilization. Within another generation, they reached the realization they needed to assimilate if they wanted their species to survive. Living and being hunted like beasts was not the way to ensure that.”
“Hunted?”
“Well, of course,” Rosa said. “Most animals are either food or potential threats in an unknown, possibly hostile, environment.”
“But they’ve survived very impressively,” Carly said. “And Cattail Ranch is absolutely amazing. The land is so beautiful and varied, and the house takes my breath away.”
“As you could see in the architecture, the house has grown and expanded through the Lucas generations. When Adam Lucas arrived here in the 1820s, he founded Catamount with his pride of seven and a colony of twenty-three families just west of this street in Lucas Park. We can go see the marker later if you’d like.”
“I’d love that.”
“Adam later moved his pride outside of town and created Cattail Ranch, the alpha’s haven. His son, Jeremiah, made the family’s first real fortune by having some of the best damn cattle in the state. Then of course the Lucases began speculating and buying property throughout Texas, and when they discovered oil on several of those parcels, the rest is history. I think, at this point, the Lucases are probably one of the richest families in the country.”
“Wow,” Carly said. “I knew there was money, but I had no idea.”
“They use their money in so many wonderful ways, and they are very generous.” Rosa smiled at Carly. “They’ve done so much for the people here. Our colony is very prosperous, and the town is quite charming, isn’t it?”
“Utterly perfect.”
“Over the last few centuries, other shifters have migrated here, seeking safety, companionship, a certain solidarity with others similar to themselves, yet also so different. We are very welcoming here to shifters of all types. To humans as well.” Rosa gave her a small smile.
Carly felt tears well in her eyes. “I’m so lucky, Rosa.”
“Sí, mi amiga, and so am I.”
Suzie ran back toward them and lifted her face. Carly ran a finger under her chin, feeling her smooth little-girl skin.
�
��And life gets better every day,” Rosa said softly
“Yes, it does.”
Suzie hopped up and down. “Now what?”
Carly looked around with a smile. “Now what indeed?”
They’d already opened her Catamount checking account, and now Carly looked longingly at a window display of beautiful lingerie as they passed. She wanted to get a few items before they returned to the ranch, something the men could enjoy as much as she did. She’d get Rosa to watch Suzie while she did a little personal shopping.
Rosa followed her gaze. “Purrrfectly Fine Lingerie. Nice store. It’s run by a cougaress that used to model in New York. You might remember her. Lisa Fauve?”
“Ohhh, Lisa’s beautiful, all that wild golden hair. She was so sultry. Even as a kid I knew she was somehow…untamable. She had quite the career back in the ’80s.”
“She still does photo shoots occasionally when they need an older model. She rivaled Christy Turlington for beauty back then. Hell, she’d rival most of us now, in and out of business. She buys from Paris. I’ll take Suzie for ice cream in a bit, and you can check it out.” Almost as an afterthought she said, “If you see anything you want, just put it on the ranch’s tab. Tyler has an open account with all the businesses. I’m sure you’ve already been added to the list. And I’ll bet he’d more than happy to pay the tab for anything you might buy in there.” Rosa winked.
“Thanks.”
Carly looked around at the surrounding buildings. In addition to the normal businesses you’d find in a small town—medical and law offices as well as accountants and banks—there were bistros and bookstores, art shops and antique galleries, bars and an old-fashioned-looking movie house next to a playhouse. In fact, it had everything someone looking for a day or evening of fun might want. There were even several bed-and-breakfasts.
“The town looks like it might cater to tourists.”
“It does,” Rosa said. “Though there are of course ranches and farms outside of town, tourism is the bread and butter of most of our town’s residents. Tyler’s actually encouraged the town council to advertise a bit more this year.”
