by T. Cobbin
Melinda touched the bite mark on her neck. Harris had stated she was his. She had told him that meant he was hers too. She could also use a nice set of panties and bra, since Harris had a thing for tearing hers.
She smiled at Terrie. “You have a wise head on your shoulders.” She leaned in and hugged the girl that was fast becoming her best friend. “Thank you.”
“Buy me a big Christmas present and we’re even.” With that Terrie bounded back out of the kitchen.
“I think she deserves a big one too.” The deep voice had Melinda jerking around to find a very naked and aroused Harris standing outside the back door. At first, her heart pounded out of her chest in fright, but it gradually settled when she saw him.
Slapping a hand across his bare chest, she told him off for scaring her. “You jerk, stop creeping up on me and scaring the crap out of me. I swear you’re going to give me a heart attack.”
He wrapped his muscled arms around her and pulled her close to his naked chest. “I’d kiss you all better.” He chuckled. “Now, I’m going to get dressed, because if I stand here looking at your luscious body much longer, I might decide to cart you upstairs and ravish you in the shower. You need to make a shopping list for Terrie.” Tapping the end of her nose, Harris walked butt naked through the house to their room. Shifters had no problem walking around naked.
Shopping list, shopping list, she repeated over and over while watching his firm arse disappear. Her pussy pulsed, remembering him inside of her pumping away, her panties grew damp, and her nipples hardened to peaks. Fuck it! She followed him, another morning shower wouldn’t hurt.
* * * *
If Harris stood there much longer watching his chick dress, he would be inside of her again quicker than he could say leopard. The desire for his mate was burning through his blood, and he loved it. He’d already taken her twice today, but he wanted her again.
“I see you.” Melinda chuckled from inside their bedroom.
“A man can spy on his mate, can’t he?”
“I need to ask you a serious question.” Melinda sat down on their bed, trying to iron out the creases her new dress didn’t have.
Uh-oh, he thought as he walked into the bedroom with only a towel wrapped around his waist. They’d showered, fucked, and showered again, but while she dressed he’d shaved.
“What’s up, Chick?” He sat beside his woman, waiting to hear what she had to say.
“Well, I’ve been here now just over two weeks, and we have been...you know...” She waved her hands in mid-air with a blush on her face.
“Doing what?” he asked, trying to keep the amusement out of his voice.
“Sleeping together...sex...”
“You mean I’ve been fucking you into next week every chance I get? Oh, and you have been fuck—”
“Okay, okay, I get it.” She let out a quick chuckle. “Well, we haven’t been using any protection. I have felt my arms and see no scars or feel no birth control rods...so it means...”
His body reacted to what she was going to say. Fuck yeah! He wanted her to have his kits, to see her ripe with his fruit. His leopard was dancing around in his head, its tail held high, wanting the same. Placing a finger under her chin, he lifted it to look deeply into her light green eyes.
“You could be carrying my kits.” He finished off her sentence. “I don’t give two shades of shit. I don’t ever want there to be anything between us. If fate deems a kit comes along, then it will be treasured. I would love to have a big family. Us snow leopards are dying out, so the more the merrier.” He waited with trepidation for her reply.
She bit down on her lower lip, the cogs in her brain ticking over, all the time never taking her eyes off him. “Just how many kits are you thinking about?”
“Maybe six or seven?”
“Oh really? And how many of those are you having?”
He threw his head back and laughed. “My sassy chick, they will all be mine.”
Grabbing hold of her chin more tightly, he decided to put his painful erection that was confined behind the towel to good use. He lowered his mate’s body back onto the bed and worshipped her lips with his.
“Harris?” His brother’s voice broke through his sexual haze. He sounded worried.
“What’s up?”
“We have visitors. Two human males in a black SUV.”
“I’ll be there ASAP. Get Larry and Ben here now.”
Human males? Could they be looking for his mate? Quickly, he climbed off his woman, grabbed the clothes he had laid out, and put on his pants. Seeing Melinda’s worried face, he relayed what Felix had told him.
“Terrie?”
“What’s up?” his sister answered breathlessly, which was weird being she was talking to him mentally and didn’t need lungs to talk this way.
“Where are you?”
“Felix already told me. I’m entering the house now.”
“The men are on their way, bro.” Felix told Harris just as he heard Terrie coming up the stairs. Buttoning his shirt, he moved to the bedroom door and waited for her to enter.
“Both of you are to stay in here. There is no discussion on this. Ben and Larry have already been contacted, and they are on their way over to sit with you.”
The women nodded and sat on the bed. Their faces had twin worried looks on them. Walking over to them, he quickly hugged each one and left the room, shutting the door behind him. He hated leaving them there but knew it had to be done. At least they wouldn’t be alone.
Chapter 17
“How did they get so close without us knowing?” Harris asked, walking through the village.
“Sorry, bro, it was my fault,” Felix answered with a shame-laced voice. “I was on patrol west of the village today. I got umm...distracted.”
“I’ll deal with you later,” Harris muttered, walking up behind his brother in the village square. A black SUV was currently parked outside the bakery shop; one male sat in the car looking around while the other had gone inside. “Stay here and keep watch.”
Harris walked through the square and entered the bakery.
“Morning, Flo,” he shouted casually as if he did it every day of his life.
“Morning, Harris,” Flo replied. For her not to have called him Alpha Harris knew that she’d noticed something was up.
Strolling to the cake counter, he browsed over the cakes while out of the corner of his eye he perused the man who was also in there. He was about five and a half feet and wore a black coat that came to his knees. He had a couple of days gruff on his face. He looked and smelled like someone who had been sleeping in his car for a while.
“The missus sent me in to get something tasty for after dinner tonight.” He looked up and smiled, still pretending not to have noticed the man.
“Are you okay, Flo?” Harris asked telepathically.
“Aye, but this one don’t smell right, Alpha. Shifty eyes and all on him.”
“He say anything?” Harris asked, but before Flo could answer the man spoke to her quietly. It was a good thing Harris had shifter hearing.
“Hey, lady, have you seen this young woman?” He held up a piece of paper with a picture on it for Flo to look at. “She was last seen around this area. Her uncle is looking for her. She’s sick and needs medication, so we gotta find her soon.”
“We don’t get many strangers around here, deary. It would be weekly gossip if we did.” Flo let out a chuckle that Harris knew was as fake as the teeth in her mouth. “You could ask the local plod though. He would know.”
The scent of the man’s fear and panic rolled from him. Harris could only assume the man was worried about talking to the police. The man said thank you leaving the shop and climbing back into the car. The car didn’t leave though, it continued to sit there. Harris could see the two men arguing in the front seat.
“He asked about Chick,” Flo muttered. “Bad man that one if ever I saw one. She’s safe, Alpha, right?”
Harris winked at the old woman
while keeping an eye on the vehicle. “You better give me a cake or it will look funny when I walk out empty-handed. And yes, Chick is safe.”
“Garrett!” Harris called the policeman in his head.
“Yes, Alpha, I heard and am already walking through the village as I speak. And in full uniform.”
“Thank you. Get the plate number and run it through the database. I want details ASAP.”
“Yes, Alpha.”
Harris nodded toward Flo and picked up the white box from the counter. Tossing down a couple of notes, he walked to the door of the shop.
“Where’s Kevin and Lens?” he asked before he left. Kevin was Flo’s mate and Lens was their son.
“On their way down from upstairs. Don’t worry about me, I already called them.”
With a nod Harris walked from the shop and joined Felix near the Christmas tree.
“Bro?”
“They’re looking for Chick,” Harris stated bluntly.
It irked him to stand with his back toward the SUV, but he couldn’t turn around and look without making it obvious. Felix had a good view though. From a distance they’d just look like two men talking to each other.
“What do you want us to do?” Felix asked.
“Can’t alert them to anything yet. Larry said all they’ve done so far is ask in the chemist and bakery. Flo sent them to Garrett.” Harris didn’t have to ask if the enforcers were aware of the situation. He knew every single shifter in the village already knew about the human men. Gossip spread fast. Danger spread faster.
Harris spotted Garrett walking toward them. He didn’t wear the usual police uniform unless he had to. Being in a quiet village like theirs, it was often not at all, but the man was currently dressed in his uniform, even if it did look a little tight on him.
“Morning, Garrett,” both Harris and Felix greeted him.
“Anything?” the overweight lion shifter asked.
“One of the car doors has opened, the passenger is getting out and walking over to us,” Felix muttered low enough that their shifter hearing could hear.
“Morning, gentlemen.”
Harris turned just as the bloke reached their small group. The man’s Devonshire accent was very thick. Harris made sure to memorize everything about him. This could be one of the men who had taken his chick and hurt her.
Being polite, all three shifters nodded in reply to the man’s greeting. From the inside of his jacket the man pulled out a missing persons leaflet with Melinda’s picture on it.
He handed the picture to Garrett. “I was wondering if you happened to come across this young lady? She’s been missing for a few weeks in this area. Well, to be honest, this is the closest place to where she went missing.”
“Nope, don’t recognize her,” Garrett said, looking over the leaflet. “In fact, you and your friends are the only new visitors we’ve had in the village for months.” Garrett handed the leaflet back to the man and asked, “You say she has been missing a few weeks? It also says she needs medical attention on the leaflet. Why don’t we go back to my office and I can make a few phone calls? If she is sick and lost in this area, a search party should be arranged. The next village over is nearly an hour’s drive.”
“No.” The man began shaking his head. “No, it’s okay. Her uncle is taking care of everything. I’m just looking around.” He cleared his throat, looking increasingly uncomfortable. “Thank you for your time. I’d better get on.” And with that he turned and virtually ran to the SUV. He got inside and a few seconds later the engine started and the vehicle drove off.
“Follow them,” Harris ordered his brother.
Felix shifted on the spot and ran off in his leopard form, following them in the shadows.
“Thank you, Garrett,” Harris said while bending down to pick up his brother’s torn clothing. “Get me the details on that plate number as soon as Felix relays it to you.”
He nodded to the policeman and walked back through the village to his home while ordering various enforcers on patrol. It would seem Jacob’s men weren’t too pleased about raising much awareness for the missing Melinda. Fucking hell, if one of his siblings had gone missing the whole bloody village would be out looking until they found them. For the men to ask about her openly though Harris assumed they were in pretty deep shit with their boss for losing her. It could also mean they would be back.
* * * *
Five days later
Melinda was going nuts being stuck in the house. She wandered around the house like a little lost sheep. Ever since the men had come and gone in the SUV Harris had been more than possessive. He had been truthful and told her everything that had been said and gone on but then confined her to the house until he deemed it was safe. But she was sick of looking at the same four walls.
Terrie entered the living room. “Hey, what’s up?” the young girl asked, plopping down on the sofa beside her.
“Bored, bored, and yeah, more fucking bored. It’s what, six days before Christmas, the supposed cheerful time of year, and I’m stuck in this house.” She threw her head back and rolled her eyes.
“Well...” Terrie exaggerated the word in suspense.
Melinda looked up with hope. “Yes?”
“I know for a fact that Harris is going to be busy today and Felix is on patrol most of the day, so...do you fancy running to the bakery and getting a fat cream cake?”
“Well, it is in the village.” Melinda hemmed and hawed over the decision to openly defy Harris. He could be a pompous, possessive prick but then he could be so sweet and loving. He was Alpha to the village and her mate. But then... “Fuck it,” she said, standing. “Let’s do it.”
She giggled along with Terrie like two school girls. Yes, she had no doubt that Harris would hear about this, and he wouldn’t be happy, but screw it, she could deal with him.
“I’ll take the blame though, okay?” Melinda said.
“I can handle my brother too, you know.”
“Yeah, but I can handle him better, if you know what I mean.” She laughed at the look of disgust on Terrie’s face.
“Eww, too much info.”
They put their coats on, then hooked their arms together and headed out to the bakery.
Chapter 18
The meeting with the Macadeos had lasted longer than Harris had hoped it would. They were the new puma family he had just given permission to move to Stonesdale. Their current predicament meant they needed to move up the date of their move. So there he was driving back to the village six days before Christmas with them following him. The family had nothing but the clothes they were wearing, so he’d made sure a furnished house was ready for them, and it even had some holiday decorations. The village had pulled together and gotten the couple’s two-year-old son some toys, which had already been wrapped and left in the house.
It hadn’t taken long to get the family settled. The sun was beginning to set when he pulled up outside his house. Parking his car, he sensed something was amiss. The feeling only got stronger when he walked in the door. Scenting the air, he could smell three pretty pissed off people, and two of them were his siblings. Uh-oh! Walking into the kitchen, he saw his mate and siblings glaring at each other over the counter. Well, more like the two females were staring holes into his brother.
“Okay, who wants to talk first?” he asked, looking toward his mate. He pretended to rub his nose with his hand, covering his mouth that had a smile on it. She looked so sweet with the glower on her face.
“He...” Melinda pointed at Felix. “...dragged me and your sister through the village back home and scolded us like two naughty children.”
“Well, you,” Felix shouted, pointing a finger back at her, “shouldn’t have left the house anyway, and she,” he said, pointing toward Terrie, “knows better!”
“All we wanted was to go sit in the café for a cuppa and eat a big, juicy cream cake, ’cause we were bored and pissed off being cooped in these four walls for the last few days. I’m not a fucking p
risoner, am I?” She turned and looked at Harris.
“No, you aren’t a prisoner,” Harris placated. “But we are trying to keep you safe. Terrie?” He turned to his sister with a questioning glance. He knew his sister well enough to know she had something to do with this. “Was it your idea?”
A small nod confirmed his suspicions.
“Room, now.” He didn’t shout. He didn’t need to.
His sister moved, her head down, looking miserable.
As she passed by him he touched her shoulder and waited for her to look at him. “The rules are in place for a reason. What would you have done if something had gone wrong while I was away?”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“It wasn’t all her fault, it was me too,” Melinda said. “What are you going to do, ground me to my room too?”
“Goodnight, Terrie,” Harris said firmly. “You are on litter duty for three days.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Terrie gave him a quick hug and disappeared upstairs.
Looking toward his mate, he again had to hide the amusement he felt at the anger on her face. Damn, she was so cute.
“Did you put a hand on her?” he growled at Felix, not taking his eyes off his chick.
“Umm, only once, after she kicked the shit out of my shins. I had to grab her arm.”
Harris heard his brother swallow nervously. All shifters knew any mated males could be very possessive. For a male shifter to place a hand on a mated female just wasn’t done. Well, unless it was a casual greeting or extreme circumstances, such as it being necessary to defend the female.
Harris walked over to Felix, his face a few inches from his brother’s, and growled deep and low. “You realize I’m not happy about you touching my mate like that, don’t you?”
Felix nodded. “It was just her arm, for her protection. Harris, you know I would never hurt a woman. You brought me up well.”
Harris continued staring at his brother for a few more seconds then turned away and prowled over to his angry mate. Grabbing her waist, he lifted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. With a short, sharp slap to her exquisite bottom, making her yelp, he walked through the house with the bedroom as his destination.
