Probably because the last time it had happened, it had cost him his parents.
He started to loathe the silence as much as he loathed himself, so he searched for a topic of conversation, one that Yasmin might be open to because it wouldn’t probe too deeply into her goddess status and would assuage his curiosity.
“How do you deal with the aging problem?” He sat back and her hand slipped from his shoulder, and fuck, he missed the feel of it.
She settled her hands in her lap and they looked pale against her dark jeans in the moonlight as they poked out from beneath the overlong sleeves of his fleece. Hands she had placed on him.
Hands she had placed on another male too.
A naked male.
He barely suppressed the need to growl over that and contented himself with the fact she was sitting with him, was a good distance from that male now, and that he was the one she had chosen to open up to about herself.
“I’m guessing you don’t age… or maybe you age slowly.” He wasn’t sure. “I mean, it’s okay for me, because of my business. It’s so seasonal that I end up hiring different tour guides every few years, and different chefs and such. No one notices that I don’t get older.”
She watched the river, seemingly miles away from him even when he was deeply aware that she was next to him, was close to him.
Had chosen him.
Was wearing his damned fleece.
Another growl rumbled up his throat and he held this one back too.
“I’m drawn to places that need me. I’ve worked all across Canada. Quebec is my latest home, and my favourite because my father was from there.” Her dark eyes drifted to him and the corners of her lips tilted in a faint but sombre smile.
“French Canadian?” It explained the accent he was coming to like hearing.
“Oui.” Her smile bloomed and he got the feeling she was teasing him now. When the noise behind him grew louder, she glanced back in that direction. “What is happening?”
He looked over his shoulder at the males gathering around the firepit, his cougar instincts telling him before he had even checked out the assembled shifters what was going on.
“Another fight.” He frowned as males jostled with each other and he counted more than two contenders. “Seems like a bigger one this time. I’m not sure which female it’s over, but they’ll approach her first.”
He stiffened as he went to turn his back and froze with his eyes locked on the five males that broke away from the group.
And started walking towards Yasmin.
“Time to go.” He stood and held his hand out to her, and she coolly regarded it but didn’t take it. “I’m not messing around. We’re going. I’ll take you back to Rath’s cabin.”
She arched an eyebrow at that.
Damn it.
He knew pushing her wasn’t going to work, but he needed her away from the clearing and the males before they could reach her.
“You’re in danger.”
She didn’t look as if she believed that, so he reached for her.
She drew back, tucking her arm against her chest, and he wanted to growl and tell her now wasn’t the time to assert her independence. He needed to get her out of the path of the males. Right now. Because he was close to losing his shit all over again.
He cursed when the five males stopped close to them and Yasmin looked back at them and turned on the log to face them.
“She’s not available or interested.” Flint reached for her again and growled in frustration when she evaded him.
“I am available,” she said with a regal air. “But I’m not interested in this sort of short term, one night stand type thing. Sorry.”
Exactly as he had suspected given the way she had reacted whenever he had tried to flirt with her.
Which was good, because it meant the males would leave her alone now.
Three of the males spoke over each other. “I can do a relationship.”
Like fuck they could. He growled at them all and positioned himself between them and Yasmin, ignoring her as she looked at him. She could be mad at him later, after he had driven the males off.
She stood. “I’m tired and want to retire for the night.”
No, no way she was going to leave it at that. If she didn’t turn the males down, they would fight over her.
He turned back towards her to tell her to issue her refusal, because he didn’t need to be overseeing a damned fight over her.
As she walked away, he braced himself, preparing to break apart the brawl that was going to break out.
Any second now.
Any. Second. Now.
He frowned when the males just exchanged glances, two of them unsure what to do.
The third threw a massive spanner in the works.
He stepped forwards, towards Yasmin, and said, “I declare my intention to court you.”
The other two were swift to issue the same declaration.
Court her!
No fucking way he was going to allow these males to enter into a traditional courtship with Yasmin. No way in this world. He would put them in the grave before it happened.
He shoved past them, closing the gap between him and Yasmin, and reached for her again. This time, he managed to grab hold of her arm, mostly because she was staring at the three males.
Looking for all the world as if she was going to accept.
Cobalt had shitty timing as always, showing up just as things got tense and Flint was ready to lay down the law with the three males.
“What’s happening here?” Cobalt’s deep growl warned he was ready to fight if he didn’t like the answer.
“We were declaring our intention to court Yasmin.” The biggest male, the one who had been first to issue the declaration, casually turned pale blue eyes on his brother, and then him. “I am sure this isn’t a problem.”
He flicked a glance at his brother, catching the surprise in his eyes, and willed him to say it was a problem.
It was a huge problem.
For Flint at least.
His cougar shifted beneath his skin, had fur sweeping over his chest beneath his t-shirt as a need to fight rose inside him, a need to drag Yasmin away to safety and deal with these males who dared to challenge him.
A courting had nothing to do with the gathering, and that meant Cobalt and Rath couldn’t make him stay out of the running, but he wasn’t sure. He wasn’t sure of anything anymore and Cobalt was hardly helping as he gaped at the assembled males in shock, looking just as uncertain as he felt.
A fucking courtship!
He had to get Yasmin to turn them down.
“We’re going back to Rath’s cabin.” Flint tried pulling her away, which only made things worse.
She twisted her arm free of his grip and scowled at him, making it painfully clear he was fucking things up by being pushy about this.
“Last I checked, you weren’t the boss of me,” she bit out and fixed him with a hard look, and he got the message loud and clear—she didn’t like men pushing her around and making decisions for her. She made it crystal for him. “Plenty of immortals have tried to force their way into my life.”
A sickening heavy feeling went through him as her eyes sparked with gold fire.
He went to shake his head, opened his mouth to plead her not to enter into anything rashly, damned recklessly because he had poked her buttons, and to find another way to make him pay for it.
She silenced him with two words.
“I accept.”
He staggered back a step, as if those words had been a physical blow, his ears ringing as he stared at her, mind emptying as he struggled to comprehend what she had just done.
Before he could shake himself out of it and gather his wits enough to throw his hat into the ring too, she was sweeping away from him without a word.
Flint looked to Cobalt.
The males started vying with each other, shoving and getting in each other’s faces, talking about how they were going to
be the one to win Yasmin.
“Simmer the fuck down,” Cobalt growled as he pulled two of the males apart and shoved the biggest one in his chest, knocking him backwards. “We’ll start this officially tomorrow, once Rath knows about it.”
Cobalt flicked Flint a glance.
But he was too busy staring after Yasmin, his fists clenched at his sides as the shock subsided and determination swept in to replace it.
She could walk away from him all she wanted.
Could throw a thousand males in his path.
But he was damned if he was going to let her slip through his hands.
She wanted a war.
He would fight one for her.
CHAPTER 7
Yasmin stormed towards Rath’s cabin, heart hammering against her chest as she curled her fingers into fists and squeezed them hard. Her blood burned, blazed like a wildfire in her veins as she glared ahead of her, her focus behind her on Flint.
Enough men had thought they could control her, and the fact he had turned out to be another one had her wishing she could growl in the way he could whenever he was angry.
During their time at the river, she had started to feel connected to him, had gained a peek at another side of him, one that had foolishly made her believe he was different and she had been mistaken about him.
Gods, she was an idiot.
But she had been enjoying their time together, the way he had made her relax, the way he had opened up to her to reveal a side of himself that he had obviously wanted to keep hidden. He had hurt himself for her sake, had dredged up his past and the feelings he locked deep inside him so they could connect on a level where she hadn’t connected with anyone in a long time.
Not since she had met Ivy.
Footsteps sounded behind her. Her heart hitched as she looked over her shoulder at the source of them and sank as she saw it was Cobalt following her, looking harried as he tried to catch up with her.
Her gaze flicked to beyond him.
To Flint.
He stood with the others, his back to them and his eyes locked on her, his body rigid as firelight danced over his right side, illuminating the harsh planes of his face. He had looked shocked when she had accepted the men’s intention to court her, whatever that meant, but now he looked as angry as she felt.
Because she had accepted them?
It was his fault. He had pushed her buttons, had thought to control her, exerting his will on her and treating her as if she belonged to him, was a possession and nothing more. She didn’t belong to him. She turned her back on him and entered Rath’s cabin. She didn’t belong to anyone, and she didn’t want to either.
Rath leaped away from Ivy like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar, all innocence as he sharply stood from the worn beige couch and smiled at her. Ivy discreetly fixed her t-shirt, tugging it down over her stomach, before twisting on the couch to face her. What Rath had failed to notice, her friend instantly spotted.
Ivy was immediately on her feet. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong,” Cobalt growled as he prowled in behind her, a wall of menace that blasted an icy chill across her back that told her Flint wasn’t the only angry cougar in the area tonight. “Miss Goddess here accepted a courting… from three males.”
“A goddess?” Ivy’s eyes widened.
“Three males?” Rath’s grey eyes leaped to meet Cobalt’s, a silent question in them that Yasmin didn’t miss.
“Mason, Nash and Deacon.” Cobalt raked long fingers through his tousled platinum blond hair as he returned his brother’s look, one she couldn’t quite decipher, but looked a lot like concern and possibly disappointment.
“This isn’t good,” Rath muttered, slumped onto the couch and sighed.
“A goddess?” Ivy tried again, glancing at her man with a hopeful edge to her gaze, as if she wanted to distract him from the thoughts that were weighing him down as he leaned back, tipping his head up, and rubbed his dark brown hair with both hands before settling them on his nape.
Another long sigh escaped him, and Cobalt looked as if he wanted to echo it as he leaned a hip against the kitchen counter to her right and stared out of the window, towards where they had left Flint and the other men.
Yasmin hadn’t thought a courting would be such a big deal, but the way Rath kept sighing, his mood degenerating as he muttered to himself, said that it was, and he didn’t want to have to deal with it.
“Yes,” she said with a soft smile in her friend’s direction. “A demi-goddess I suppose. It was never made very clear to me. My mother was a goddess of healing, and my father was human.”
Cobalt spoke over her. “A fucking goddess of mischief… that’s what you are.”
She frowned at him for that, but he ignored it as he stared down at his brother, looking as worried as Rath did.
“What’s a courting?” Ivy asked the question that balanced on the tip of Yasmin’s tongue, and Rath sighed again as he sank further into the couch.
“A fucking headache,” he growled and then rallied, leaning forwards to rest his elbows on his knees. “The males in question will enter a series of trials to prove themselves worthy. It’s highly unusual. I’ve only witnessed one courting, and that was when I was a kid.”
Trials?
Yasmin didn’t like the sound of that. Immortal trials were normally extremely dangerous, meant to weed out the competition through death or injuries so severe they couldn’t continue to participate.
“I’m honoured, but it really isn’t necessary.” Because she didn’t want to be responsible for any of these men ending up injured or worse.
She also didn’t like feeling pressured into picking a man from among the winners, but it was her fault for recklessly agreeing to it, all to lash out at Flint.
“Too late to pull out, Miss Goddess.” Cobalt glared at her, his bright gold eyes holding a faint halo of green around his pupils. “There’s no stopping this.”
There wasn’t? She swallowed hard and wanted to argue, but the look in Cobalt and Rath’s eyes said there was no point. She had accepted a courting, and she was going to have to see it through.
Rath pushed back onto his feet, coming to tower over Ivy, and wrapped his arms around her, as if he needed to feel her in them, as if she was an anchor, solid and dependable, and comforting in the storm of everything that was happening.
Everything Yasmin had set in motion.
“It doesn’t normally fall under our jurisdiction, but we’ll oversee it because the gathering is happening. I’ll treat it as an extension of that.” Rath looked to Cobalt, who didn’t look pleased by that decision. “What else are we meant to do? The pride will expect us to maintain security and handle everything because it’s happening on my territory.”
Hang on.
Her stomach sank a little. “We?”
Rath nodded, and Cobalt threw her another set of daggers, and she started to get the feeling she knew why he wanted to murder her.
“Myself and my brothers are responsible for things during the gathering.” Rath didn’t look happy about that, or maybe it was the words he had lined up that were leaving a bitter taste in his mouth. “With Storm away, it’ll just be me, Cobalt and Flint to oversee it, but we can manage it.”
Her stomach sank further, and the anger she had felt go through Flint suddenly made sense.
He couldn’t participate.
Gods, had part of her expected him to step up to the plate and declare his intention to court her too?
Had she wanted him to?
Yes.
Yes, she had.
She didn’t take in any of what Rath and Cobalt were discussing as that hit her, had her ears ringing and chest emptying, leaving her hollow inside. She looked to Rath, wanting to ask him whether he was sure she couldn’t withdraw from it, couldn’t take back her words, but he silenced her with a look, one that made it clear there was no getting out of this.
Her knees weakened and she had to lock
them, afraid they would give out as a single thought rang through her mind.
Screamed in her soul.
The one cougar she wanted, was the one cougar who couldn’t participate.
What had she done?
CHAPTER 8
Flint was still seething as he finished his morning patrol well before daybreak.
The low growls that escaped him from time to time as he stalked through the dense woods, and the anger that still burned hot in his veins, had wildlife giving him a wide berth. Even a cougar had taken one look at him and had run for the hills.
Normally, his animal counterparts liked to at least try to fight him for dominance, their instincts labelling him as like them, and therefore a threat to them and someone looking to steal their territory.
His mood took a sharp downwards turn, a feat he hadn’t thought possible, as he waded across the shallow river towards the clearing and spotted Cobalt coming towards him from the direction of his cabin, long black-jeans-clad legs swiftly devouring the distance.
Great.
He had hoped to avoid his brothers for the day, had planned to get washed up and dressed in fresh clothing and head out on a hike up the nearest mountain for some alone time.
He had hoped to avoid Yasmin and this whole fucking courting too.
The grim look on Cobalt’s face said that wasn’t going to happen, issued a silent apology as he met his brother at the riverbank.
“Yeah, ah… Rath has decided we’ll be overseeing the courting.” Cobalt’s pale eyebrows rose and his expression shifted towards sympathetic as he reached out to lay a hand on Flint’s shoulder.
Flint bared his fangs and growled. “Whatever.”
He pushed past his brother and stomped towards his cabin on the left side of the clearing.
Cobalt made the mistake of seizing his arm. Flint turned on him with a snarl and slammed the flat of his left hand against his chest, shoving him backwards and sending him staggering across the grass. He growled and flashed emerging fangs, his muscles coiling beneath his dark t-shirt as he stared Cobalt down.
Cobalt rolled his shoulders, stretching his worn black woollen sweater across his chest, flexed his hands and fixed him with a hard look. “You want to talk?”
Courted by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Page 7
