Craved by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 4)

by Felicity Heaton

  Her kiss grew bolder as he tangled his tongue with hers, her actions smoother as she found her confidence, and gods, she was liable to bring him to his knees with it if he wasn’t careful.

  He twisted with her and backed her against the rough dark grey wall of the cave, hemming her in. She shivered as he pressed the full length of his body against hers, a little whimper escaping her lips and her kiss growing more frantic.

  As she curled her hips towards him, rubbing against his aching cock, he shuddered and grunted, had to drop his hands to her hips and grasp them to stop her from pushing him over the edge.

  Not yet.

  She wasn’t ready for them to go that far.

  Her trembling told him that, together with the clumsiness of her kiss.

  He was her first, and he was damn well going to be her last, and that meant he couldn’t fuck things up, had to retain some shred of control so the instincts riding him, the desperate need to claim her as his mate right now, before she could escape him or think about it, didn’t overcome him.

  But gods, it was hard as she kissed him, ripping control from him piece by piece with each sweep of her lips across his, every wild thrust of her tongue and all the moans that left her as she explored him, becoming accustomed to kissing.

  She found her feet damned fast, much quicker than he anticipated, and as hard as he fought it, he started to get swept up in the moment again, his need colliding with the one he could feel in her enough to have him slipping and forgetting about retaining control.

  His instincts rose back to the fore and he kissed her harder as they threatened to master him, flooding him with a need to claim Ember as his mate, to make her his before another male could. He had to do something. His control frayed beyond salvation, too worn down by the constant assault of his instincts and seeing males fighting for his female for him to stop it from snapping.

  Cobalt growled, shifted his right hand to the nape of her neck and gripped it hard as he seized command of the kiss, bending her to his will. She went quietly, shivered in his arms as she eagerly accepted his show of aggression.

  His dominance.

  It only stirred the instincts inside him, strengthening them as she submitted to him, pushing him dangerously close to the edge.

  He snarled against her lips and held her harder, pinning her to his chest as he kissed her, plundered her mouth and swallowed every gasp and each moan he elicited. Her hands gripped his shoulders again, her breasts pressing to his chest, hot against his chilled skin, and she rubbed her belly against his cock, driving him out of his mind.

  He needed to touch her.

  Her moan was sweet music to his ears as he lowered his left hand to her backside, unable to convince himself to release her nape as he kissed her.

  He palmed her bottom, groaned and trembled at the feel of her soft flesh giving beneath his fingers. She didn’t stop him when he slipped his hand beneath her shorts, only arched towards him and moaned, a desperate little sound that stoked the fire inside him until it blazed so hot it consumed him.

  Burned all his restraint to ashes.

  Cobalt growled, a low sound born of a need to dominate her, to make her submit to him. It carried a command, one she didn’t fight as he backed her against the wall of the cave, forcing her spine into the rough rock.

  Her words swam in his mind, whirling around it to keep him on the edge, the implication of them shredding any chance of regaining control whenever it drifted past him.

  She tiptoed and kissed him harder, matching his fervour, pushing him deeper into his instincts. The scent of her need swirled around him, filled his lungs and tormented him.

  She needed him.

  Wanted him.

  On a vicious snarl, he spun her to face the wall.

  She planted her hands against the rock, a gasp escaping her as she fought to retain her balance.

  That gasp became a moan as he stepped up behind her and plastered the full length of his body against hers.

  She rocked her hips back as he gripped her jaw and twisted her head to face him so he could keep kissing her, and he groaned as her ass met his aching length. He dropped his free hand to her hip and gripped it as he thrust against her backside, making her feel how hard she made him, how he was dying to be inside her.

  Another little gasping moan was his reward, together with the scent of her arousal growing heavier in the air.

  Her need beat inside him, drumming in his blood, driving him to satisfy her.

  He would.

  She didn’t resist him when he shifted his hand over her belly and slipped it behind the elastic of her shorts. She kept rocking against his cock, torturing him with the heat of her body, with how close he was to finally getting everything he had ever wanted.

  Her as his mate.

  “Cobalt,” she breathed against his lips, voice trembling in time with her body as he skimmed his hand over the swell of her belly and trailed his fingers through her curls.

  His breathing grew ragged, heart thundering as he edged lower, on the precipice now. He swallowed hard to wet his dry mouth, tried to focus on kissing her and rocking against her backside, but all of his attention locked onto his hand as it neared Heaven.

  A sweet cry burst from her lips as he delved his fingers into her slick folds and she jerked forwards, her grip on the wall tightening as she shook in his arms.

  He drew back and looked at her as he found her pert bead, wanting to see every emotion crossing her beautiful face as he touched her for the first time. Her lips parted, breath hitching, and her black eyebrows furrowed above her closed eyes. She swayed softly with each panted breath that left her as he gently stroked his fingers over her, getting her accustomed to the feel of a male touching her.

  Her first male.

  He growled low in his throat.

  Her only male.

  She would belong to him.

  He swooped on her lips, kissed her hard and weathered her desperate thrusts of her tongue as he stroked his fingers back up to her nub. He swallowed her moans, each one she loosed as he rubbed the pads of his fingers over her, teasing her towards the release she needed.

  When he released her throat, she didn’t take her lips away from his, kept kissing him as he dropped his hand to her breast. He growled as he yanked her tank down, exposing her breasts, and she gasped as he palmed her right one, gripping it fiercely before taking her nipple between his fingers and teasing it.

  Her arms shook as he swirled his fingers around her bead and he shook with her as her heat scalded him. He needed more of her.

  Cobalt pushed his hand lower and growled when her shorts made it difficult.

  His growl became a snarl as he peeled himself off her and he gripped her shorts and viciously shoved them down, exposing her backside.

  She gasped again, a flicker of surprise going through her, one he paid no heed to as he pressed his body back against hers and seized her again. She trembled as he palmed her breast and dipped his hand between her thighs, didn’t fight him as he tugged those thighs apart so he could touch her.

  He rocked his cock along her ass as he pushed his hand between her thighs, shook as he touched her and felt she was wetter now, slick against his fingers, hot and slippery as she tried to kiss him again.

  He snarled and seized her lips as he stroked her, as he pressed the heel of his palm to her nub and circled the entrance of her sheath. Hunger possessed him, a desperate need to make her belong to him, one he tried to master but one which mastered him in the end.

  Cobalt rubbed her with the heel of his hand and eased a finger inside her, groaned and shuddered at the hot tight feel of her. Her breath hitched against his lips, her pulse pounding in his head, a flicker of nerves running through her now.

  He was too far gone, too swept up in the moment, in the needs ricocheting through him, a deadly combination of hers and his own.

  He eased his finger deeper, just enough to stroke her soft fleshy spot, and savoured the way she cried out and quaked a
gainst him, how she went up on her tiptoes and leaned harder against the wall, her mouth breaking away from his.

  He growled as he teased her, couldn’t stop himself from adding another finger so he could feel how tight she was. His cock kicked at the way she clamped around his fingers, the thought that she would grip it even tighter filling him with a startlingly fierce need to be inside her.

  To take her innocence and ruin her to all other males.

  She was his now.

  Her breathing quickened, interspersed with gasps and moans as he thrust his fingers into her and stroked her with his palm, and flicked his fingers over her nipple. He savoured the way she reacted to him, coming alive in his arms, lost in the pleasure he was giving her.

  Her thighs began to tremble against his hand and he rocked harder against her backside, a desperate need to find the pleasure she was experiencing riding him as he sensed she was close now, on the verge of climax.

  Her fingers dug into the rock as he thrust deeper with his fingers, as he dropped his other hand to her and teased her pert bead with it, feathering the tips back and forth over it. She moaned, fast little noises that spoke of her own desperation, ones he used as his guide as he rubbed that spot in her sheath and stroked his fingers over her.

  A sweet cry burst from her lips and she jerked forwards, pressing her bottom against his cock. Her thighs quivered and he quickly grabbed her around the waist as her knees gave out, held her in place as he continued to stroke her, pumping her throbbing core with his fingers to draw out her climax.

  Ember sagged and leaned forwards, her head falling lower.

  Exposing her nape.

  His canines shot from his gums, he jerked her up to him, seizing her jaw with his hand, and snarled as he lunged towards that spot of smooth pale skin at the back of her neck.

  She tensed, panic flooding her and crashing through him, and he froze, reared back and released her as what he had been about to do hit him with the force of a tidal wave.

  Ember slowly turned to face him, and the horror he had felt on realising he had been about to bite her neck and force her into a mating only grew infinitely worse as he saw the dark marks on her jaw and throat from where he had gripped her too hard.

  Had bruised her.

  Hurt her.

  Cobalt staggered backwards, slammed into the wall of the cave and stared at her, head spinning so fast his legs felt as if they were going to give out beneath him.

  She righted her grey tank and black shorts with trembling hands, covering herself, but he caught a glimpse of more bruises on her tender flesh, darkening her skin.

  Sickness swelled inside him.

  Guilt and shame collided with fear to strip every ounce of his strength from him.

  Ember tentatively lifted her eyes to him, and she didn’t look angry with him, or as if she hated him, but fuck, he feared that she did.

  He certainly hated himself for forcing himself on her like that. She deserved better than that.

  She deserved better than him.

  “Leave,” he bit out.

  He didn’t have the strength left in him to do it, was barely clinging to the scraps of control he had mustered on realising he had been about to sink his aching fangs into her nape.

  She didn’t move.

  Her blue-grey eyes softened and she looked as if she might take a step towards him.

  So he did the one thing he could, because he was on the verge of kissing her again, the taste of her on his tongue drugging him and making him want another, regardless of the danger.

  He flashed fangs and growled at her, snapped and hissed as he shoved away from the wall and came to tower over her. She tensed and shrank back, understanding the message he was throwing at her as he snarled and hissed again, as his claws lengthened and his eyes turned molten gold.

  But she still stood her ground.

  Cobalt shoved the part that would despise himself for what he was about to do down inside him, ignored it as his muscles coiled tight and fur rippled over his skin, because he already hated himself.

  He launched at her on a growl, slammed his left hand to the wall of rock just behind her and snapped his fangs right in her face.

  Her eyes widened, the tears that laced her long black lashes ripping at him, and she pivoted away from him, hurrying towards the mouth of the cave.

  Cobalt growled at himself now as he dug his claws into the rough grey rock, as he hung his head and resisted the need to go to her as she walked away from him, to stop her because he needed her so badly, ached for her to stay close to him and away from the other males.

  He sensed her pause at the ledge, felt her eyes on him, and then she was gone.

  He threw his head back and roared, unleashed every drop of his fury in it.

  Fur swept over his skin, the shift fast to come as agony tore through him and he couldn’t handle it. He needed to run in his cougar form, needed the release of it and the way it would weaken the hold his emotions had on him, would free him from them if he stayed in that form long enough.

  He needed to do something to stop himself from going fucking insane.

  His paws hit the cool ground.

  He pushed off, heading for the mouth of the cave, a single thought blasting through him.

  The best thing he could do was run and just keep running, to not look back and leave Ember to find a male more worthy of her.

  But he couldn’t.

  He couldn’t leave her, even when it was killing him.

  He shifted back and sank to his knees, naked before the world as he stared at the sun and the mountains, feeling nothing but pain that was so intense he couldn’t hold his cougar form.

  He made a low coughing noise in his throat, a sound of mourning that echoed in the still morning air, one part of him hoped she would hear and would bring her back to him.

  Because he needed her.

  She had turned down the other male, had wanted to be alone with him up here on the mountain, and gods, she had kissed him like she meant it. She had been soft and compliant in his arms, trusting him to take care of her, before he had made a mess of things yet again.

  He slid his gaze to his left, to the path she had taken when she had run from him, and growled at himself as despair ate away at him, leaving him hollow and cold inside, and a thought pounded in his mind, a question that felt as if his entire life depended on the answer to it.

  Had he fucked everything up?

  CHAPTER 9

  The only reason Ember was walking away from Cobalt was the fact she could feel his need to be alone so he could master his emotions and instincts again. She could feel his pain too, and that roused her own instincts, making her want to stay.

  He needed her.

  It was hard to deny that instinct to return to him, to weather the storm and ignore every attempt he would make to push her away and force her to leave.

  She had to though.

  If she went back to him now, she would only cause him further hurt.

  He thought he had done something wrong, when he had done everything right.

  She didn’t care that he had held her tightly. It hadn’t been tightly enough for her. She had been as desperate as he had been in that moment, and even now she was fired up from his possessive kiss, from the way he had held her close to him, had given her a glimpse of Heaven in his arms and had come close to giving her everything she had wanted.

  The hunger he had awoken in her lingered, left her aching for another taste of him. It gave her strength too, courage that she had been sorely lacking, but wouldn’t let falter again. She was determined to break down the barriers he kept constructing between them.

  To do that, she needed some insight into him. Knowledge was the key to winning him, and she knew where to find it.

  But it meant talking to the one person who had seen through her façade to the truth she held in her heart.

  Rath.

  Ember picked her way through the forest, using her senses to pinpoint the pride membe
rs who were out searching for her, and steering well clear of her mother. She stealthily moved from tree to tree, scanning as far and wide as she could, checking everyone she sensed to see whether or not they were Rath.

  She felt Flint and Yasmin a short distance from the river and smiled to herself as she realised they definitely weren’t searching for her, were caught up in each other as always.

  She kept her distance from them and worked her way east, towards the main area of Cougar Creek, and had to duck behind trees once or twice to avoid being spotted by males who were scouring the forest. The last thing she wanted was to be caught by one of them.

  She waited for one to move on and when he was distant on her senses, she broke cover and headed north, closing in on the river.

  Relief was swift to wash through her when she spotted Rath through the pines, wading through the shallow water.

  She hurried from the trees, pausing only to check he was alone before she stepped out into the open.

  He paused knee-deep in the water and slowly turned to face her, his handsome face losing its hard edge as he spotted her and his grey eyes softening. He huffed and scrubbed a hand around the back of his neck, brushing the collar of his navy fleece.

  “Everyone has been going crazy looking for you.” He waded back towards her when she didn’t move. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

  She lowered her eyes to her clothes when his dropped there, his right eyebrow arching at her shorts and tank. Something crossed his grey eyes as he stared at her, as he drew down a subtle breath and his eyebrow hiked higher.

  “You smell like Cobalt.” He rolled his shoulders in an easy shrug and turned away from her, continuing across the river, missing the blush that burned her cheeks.

  Ember fought to get it under control as she followed him, cursing his name. She had hoped to keep things from him, had foolishly convinced herself that she would be able to make small talk and subtly slip in questions about Cobalt without rousing any suspicion in Rath.

  It seemed her ruse had been doomed to fail though, all because she had made one simple mistake.