by Bianca D’Arc
Tales of the Were ~ Redstone Clan
Bobcat
by
Bianca D'Arc
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue
Books by Bianca D’Arc
About the Author
Can Bob Redstone help a shifter woman face the demons that shadowed her youth, or will they both fall while trying to prevent disaster?
On a mission far from home, he finds a sweet vulnerable lady…
Bob is a cougar shifter, one of the elite Redstone Alphas. On a mission for his Clan, he meets a fragile young woman and finds himself drawn to her as never before.
A woman with a brutal past…
Serena is a bobcat shifter. Orphaned as a child, she was raised among humans until she was discovered by a Clan of unscrupulous bobcat shifters. Adopted by a shifter couple, she was beaten on a regular basis because she refused to be a mule for their drug trade across the US-Canadian border. She doesn’t have a lot of experience with men, but when she meets Bob Redstone, she finds him nearly irresistible.
A savage attack…
When their haven comes under siege, they take to the road. Bob has been tasked with keeping her safe, but they’re also on a mission to find a mysterious warrior-shaman who’s gone off the grid. Finding him means returning to Serena’s former territory and possibly confronting those who abused her trust, but they have no other choice.
Can she overcome her past to embrace a future with Bob as her mate, or will the evil in her former Clan overpower their fragile, fledgling relationship?
Dedication
To my family, who continue to support my crazy dream of being a published author. It’s been a wild ride and I couldn’t have done it without you.
A special thank you to Peggy McChesney and Anna-Marie Chaconas Buchner, two incredibly supportive friends I have met though this wonderful journey of writing. Their willingness to help, and their friendship, is something I treasure. I’ve really met some incredibly nice people through writing and going to conventions. You guys are great!
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2014 Bianca D’Arc
Cover Art by Valerie Tibbs
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Chapter One
Bob wasn’t usually sent on important away missions for the family, but in recent months all his older brothers had gotten hitched and they were sticking close to home. Or at least, close to their mates. They were all in the blissful honeymoon phase of their relationships and frankly, it was getting a little annoying. Everybody at home was all lovey-dovey all the time. It made a single guy want to puke.
Okay. Maybe not puke. Bob was really happy for his brothers. Nobody deserved happiness more than they did, but it was getting a little hard to watch. Mostly because Bob was feeling kind of lonely.
Before, he would have been able to call one of his brothers to go out on the prowl and get a few beers any night of the week. Now, of course, they were all busy with their new mates. The eldest, Grif, had always been busier than anyone else because of his role as Alpha. He led one of the biggest shifter Clans in the States. Redstone Construction wasn’t just the family business. It was a collection of many different kinds of shifters, all working together under the banner of the Redstone family and Clan.
The second-oldest, Steve, was the badass head of security. He’d been mated for a few months now. He’d met his half-water sprite mate only a little after Grif had come home from a trip to Wyoming with his own cougar shifter mate. Both of them were busy with Clan affairs all the time, and now they had mates to consider. Sure, the middle brother, Magnus, was still available to hang out during the day when his new mate, who was a vampiress, was asleep. But it just wasn’t the same.
The youngest brother, Matt, was still single, but he was usually off in California, running a few critical construction jobs for the company, and hanging out with his vampire buddies in the Napa Valley. Bob felt like the odd man out. The only single guy who stayed close to home.
But that had changed suddenly when Grif asked him to go north to act as the Clan’s liaison with the Lords. It was just what he needed—a little break from all the happy domestication of home. Maybe he’d get a chance to have a little fun and make new friends among the shifters that gathered around the Lords—the two most powerful werewolves in North America.
Every shifter in the States answered to those two guys. They were identical twins who had been designated from birth to be this generation’s leaders. Twin births were rare among shifters. Identical twins were almost unheard of. But once in each generation, a pair of identical twins was born who were destined to be that generation’s Lords.
The current Lords were Rafe and Tim. Bob had met them for the first time yesterday when he’d arrived in their territory. He’d been nervous about it. It wasn’t everyday he met shifter royalty.
The Lords were wolves this time around. It varied. Bob got along well with the werewolf Packs in the Redstone Clan. In fact, he was probably on better terms with most of them than any of his brothers because a lot of them worked directly for him on the work crews he managed. He’d gotten to know a bit more about wolf habits than his brothers, and it was easy to apply that knowledge when he met the Lords.
But he shouldn’t have worried. The Lords were great guys from everything he’d seen so far. Their people were happy and well organized. That spoke well for the men who ruled over them all. And the shifters here were welcoming, though they seemed to want to get to know Bob better before they trusted him with the keys to the kingdom.
That was cool with Bob. He would have felt the same if one of them had come to his territory. It took a while to build trust between shifters. They had to sniff each other out a bit first before they could extend more than a basic welcome. Bob hadn’t expected anything different.
The fact that they’d given him a cabin of his own, and permission to prowl a decent section of forest on their mountain, spoke well for them. They obviously wanted the representative from Redstone to feel welcome. Bob could have done a lot worse. As it was, he had a nice log cabin to call home for the next few weeks and a new forest to explore.
It was cold out there, which he looked forward to. Las Vegas was great, and the desert did get cold at night, but up here in the mountains…this was the kind of terrain Bob really liked. Lots of cover. Trees, rocks, fresh running streams filled with fish. Bob couldn’t wait to shift in
to his fur and do a little claw fishing.
A grizzly shifter had shown Bob to the cabin right after he’d finished his initial meeting with the Lords. It was late in the day and the bear—an affable guy named Rocky—showed him the path to the cabin, which was lower down the mountain from the bear’s home. Strategically, it was placed at a much lower elevation than the Lords’ place, up near the peak, and the bear made it known that he and his mate, not to mention his bear-shifter parents inhabited the two closest homes to the cabin. No doubt, it was a not-so-subtle message that a bunch of grizzlies stood between Bob and the Lords. His actions would be watched by some of the most powerful shifters in the woods.
That was okay with Bob. He didn’t have any intention of doing anything wrong. Far from it. He would work hard for his Clan while he was here and enjoy the wilderness. It had been far too long since he’d had time to prowl new grounds and his inner cat couldn’t wait to discover what he might find just outside the cabin’s door.
The place was wired for internet, phone and cable television. All the modern conveniences, including a small kitchen and comfortable looking king sized bed. It may be just a cabin, but it had all the amenities a bachelor could want. Especially a bachelor who craved the wilderness just beyond his front door.
Bob stowed his gear, then stripped quickly. It was time to check the perimeter and make himself acquainted with his animal neighbors. The local wildlife was about to learn there was a new cougar in town and though it was only temporary, the cat inside him had a need to check things out and scratch some trees, maybe mark them in other ways that humans didn’t like to hear about. This was Bob’s territory for the next few weeks. It was time to let the wild cousins know it.
Bob opened the front door, placing his clothes in a neat pile just inside. He’d shift on the porch when he came back, though the handles on the doors were the type that a cat’s paw could easily push down and open. That was pretty standard for shifter accommodations. All the homes in the Clan’s neighborhood had them.
He closed the door and turned to survey the area. Not a soul in sight. His sensitive ears didn’t pick up any sounds except the rustle of leaves and normal forest sounds. Bob shifted, feeling his muscles stretch and reform, his bones slide into the new configuration with a blur of magic. A moment later, he was the cat. A full-grown, adult male cougar. Although Bob had always liked the name mountain lion a bit better. It made him feel sort of majestic. And he was now in the mountains, after all.
Bob nosed around the area by the porch steps. There were two simple wooden steps up onto the low porch. The cabin was dark wood. No paint marred the natural look of the place, and it blended beautifully into its surroundings—as did most of the buildings he’d seen so far. Whoever the architect was, he or she was a genius with blending the shapes and colors of the homes into their environments.
Bob’s sensitive nose picked up traces of the bear shifter who’d walked with him to the cabin. He could also smell old trails left by passersby. The faint scent of a human female had been in the cabin as well. Probably the person who’d prepared the place for his arrival. He’d have to remember that scent and if he ran across her, he’d thank her.
He moved out a bit from the steps and picked up other scents. Most of them were old, but one was tantalizingly fresh. And cat. Not cougar, but something similar. Wild. Furry. Feline. And very, very female.
Hmm. This would bear further investigation. He wanted to know more about this female who had pranced right across his new territory in the last fifteen minutes. He set off to follow the trail, enjoying the hunt. Bob, both in his cat form and in his human form, liked to play, and this might prove to be a fun game. If nothing else, it would help him learn the territory a bit and maybe he’d meet a pretty woman. She smelled young, but definitely adult. Ripe. Delicious. Like salted caramel and honey—two of his favorites.
Bob felt a strange imperative inside himself to find her. Such a heavenly-smelling female shouldn’t be out wandering alone. Especially not when there were strangers in town—meaning himself. Though Bob didn’t know for sure. There could be other visitors to the area besides him.
Unless that’s what she wanted. Maybe the feline female was looking for a little excitement with a new guy? Bob quickened his pace. Never let it be said he turned down a willing, playmate. Even if she wasn’t exactly a cougar.
When he found her a few minutes later by the stream that wound around the back of the cabin, he realized exactly what she was. He laughed, but in his cat form it came out more like a huffing sound. If he wasn’t much mistaken, the lovely, spotted lady with the tufted ears was a bobcat.
Serena’s head swiveled when she heard the sound of another cat. Scratch that. A big cat. The feline watching her was a full-sized—and then some—adult male mountain lion.
A shiver of fear passed over her skin and made her back arch as she hissed involuntarily. The cougar, standing about ten yards behind her on the crest of a rise took a step back in what looked like surprise.
Yeah, so, she’d overreacted. She was in the Lords’ territory. She was safe from any shifter found prowling here. Or at least, they had promised her she would be. She shouldn’t still be so skittish.
But she was. She couldn’t help it. Fear was something that had been learned over time. It wouldn’t dissipate overnight.
She tried to take deep breaths and consciously loosen her stiff muscles and arched back. Making her fur lie flat was a little harder, but when the mountain lion didn’t come any closer and didn’t seem angry, she was able to master her reaction. Little by little, she calmed.
The mountain lion just sat there, on his haunches, his head tilted quizzically to the side as he watched her. After a few minutes of just looking at each other, he stood up and took a tentative step toward her. Serena stood her ground. She was safe. She was on the Lords’ lands. If she wasn’t safe here, then she wasn’t safe anywhere. Right?
She consciously kept her breathing as even as possible as the big cat slowly approached. His head was still tilted, his long tail waggling a little behind him. His paws were massive compared to hers, his size at least double hers. His coat was shiny and looked soft, his fur not quite the length and depth of hers. And he didn’t have spots. He was the tawny color of his kind. Like burnished gold. Very pretty.
But he was huge and she felt very vulnerable. She sniffed as he drew closer, but she didn’t recognize anything about his scent. He smelled a little of sand, which was odd. Unless…maybe he was the visitor she had been told might be arriving today. A shifter from Nevada, the wolves at the Pack house had said, though she didn’t know what kind of shifter.
Well, if this cat was the visitor, Serena knew now what creature shared his soul.
And having figured out the most logical answer for who he might be, she was able to gain a little more calm. She stood her ground as he got closer and was able to remain stationary when he stretched out a big paw toward her.
He didn’t touch. In fact, he stopped coming closer and sat quietly on his haunches, waiting for her response. Taking a deep breath, Serena allowed the cat in her soul to respond to the bigger feline. She reached out with her smaller paw and batted at his.
He allowed it, batting back gently. Allowing her to set the pace for their encounter.
Next, he lowered his head and sniffed at her, coming very close. She allowed it, sniffing him as well. He smelled deliciously dangerous to her feline instincts. Not the same as the male bobcats she had known, but still feline and very male. His scent didn’t remind her of bad times, as the scent of her own kind did now. Instead, the decidedly cougar aroma was just foreign enough to not trigger bad memories, but the feline edge of his musk made her feel surprisingly comfortable around him.
Serena didn’t think she’d ever feel comfortable around a male cat again, but this big, gentle giant seemed to be proving her wrong. And she didn’t even know his name. In fact, she’d never even seen his man form. But his cat was impressive. She’d bet his human f
orm was the same.
Not that she’d go out of her way to find out. She had been through a lot in the past few months. She’d come here to heal and didn’t intend to get involved with any males while she was here—or any time in the foreseeable future, for that matter. She’d had enough of men for a while.
But she admitted to being a little lonely. Sure, she liked to prowl alone, but not all the time. Sometimes it was fun to have a fellow cat to share the wilderness with. Just to play. Cats loved to play and it was hard to play by yourself all the time. Eventually, even loners wanted someone to share a few moments of innocent fun with.
So she stood still while the bigger cat sniffed at her and then butted his head against her. It was a feline thing she understood well. Working up her nerve, she did the same to him, and then raised her paw to boop him on the nose.
He batted at her smaller paw, but he wasn’t fast enough. She scooted backward and nearly landed in the small stream. Twisting and yowling a bit, she scooted away to avoid getting wet. The mountain stream was cold. Fine for lapping at with a thirsty tongue, but her human side preferred to bathe in a nice, hot shower.
The cougar seemed to laugh at her antics as she settled on her haunches about three feet from her previous position. Even she had to admit, she’d probably looked funny. She reached up with her paw and waggled her stubby tail.
The cougar stopped to nose around the stream a bit before taking a drink. The waters here were clear and fresh. The Lords made sure they were kept that way so the shifters and their wild cousins could enjoy the streams and pools in their territory without fear of becoming ill. There were also a lot of fish in this waterway, but Serena hadn’t done much fishing. She had made it a point to take her meals in her human form since she had been here, eating at the communal tables in the wolves’ Pack house.
