by Danica Avet
Which brought about C. She missed being near her family. Monk wasn’t the only reason she was tempted to stay in Maison Rouge. Coming home again after all this time, being surrounded by family and friends and reconnecting with her culture made her realize how much she’d sacrificed to follow her dream. Which meant if she stayed without taking him up on his tempting offer, she’d have to deal with seeing Monk frequently and trying to deny how much she loved him.
And finally D. She’d burned any hopes she had of having him even if she wanted to take a chance of mating and having cubs. She’d flat-out rejected him. She’d thrown his love back in his face and walked away. Yeah, he’d be so ready to accept her if she tried to take it back.
She heaved a long sigh, her bear rumbling with discontent. There was no easy fix to this except leaving and she was tired of running. She missed being home, missed everything about it from her family, to Monk, to being able to shift when she wanted to. Back in New York she had to pay a yearly fee to the city in order to shift and that was only allowed at certain times of the month and in designated places, which meant every shifter in the area crowded together to let their animals out. It was nothing like the freedom she had in Maison Rouge.
The fur along the bear’s back rose as the sense of being watched returned. Lifting her head, Kitty searched the shadowed bushes on either side of the clearing, but saw nothing. She sniffed the air, but whatever watched her was downwind. Unease made her bear cranky and she lumbered to her feet, a warning growl escaping her.
She turned toward the bushes she’d run through, intent on looking for the intruder. She’d taken no more than three steps when a soft hiss sounded and something pierced the thick fur of her hindquarters. Roaring in anger and surprise, she ran for the woods, ready to take on the fucker who thought to attack her, but her body moved sluggishly. She made it to the edge of the woods where she caught the faint hint of cat before crashing to the ground with a grunt.
Male. Cat. Those were the only impressions her bear was able to make out before darkness swirled around her, sucking her down.
* * * * *
Monk groaned and rolled over, sunlight sending shards of pain straight through his skull. He draped an arm over his eyes to shield himself and smacked his lips. His mouth was dry, his tongue felt thick and nausea swirled in his stomach. All he could smell was the sickly sweet scent of strong liquor as it oozed out of his pores. Yup, he’d gotten shitfaced last night. He remembered a bottle of champagne, which he’d finished before prowling into Daisy Lynn’s party. He’d had a little bit of an altercation with the bartender, which he’d won, leaving him to bring liquor back to the booth. The scotch had stung and the whiskey had burned. Then he didn’t remember anything else he might have polluted his body with. But what the hell had sent him on a bender?
He racked his brain and remembered with sickening clarity Kitty’s face as she told him “I can’t” after he’d bared his fucking soul to her. She couldn’t trust him again. Him, the man who’d given up his happiness to protect her. At the time he’d said to hell with her, he didn’t need her. This morning though, he felt like an idiot. He loved that woman and he wasn’t about to let her go traipsing off into the sunset without him.
Yeah, they had some things to work out and it was probably completely unfair of him to expect her to monitor him in the future, but they would make it work. Failure wasn’t an option.
Monk scratched his chest and yawned. He needed to take a shower, take a few painkillers, and find his Kitty-Cat before she did something crazy, like run again. His cougar was not happy with him this morning, clawing at his mind as if it were a scratch post. It wanted to find her now, not later, but Monk wasn’t sure he could move just yet.
Something moved on the bed next to him and his eyes popped open in surprise. Turning his head on the pillow, he spied Kitty lying next to him, her eyelashes fanned closed. Her lips were parted, letting out a soft, whispery snore. Why he hadn’t heard it before could be blamed on the pounding in his head, or rather the sound of his blood rushing through his brain. The alcohol he’d consumed the night before had prevented him from smelling her.
What was she doing here with him? Had she changed her mind? Hope made his heart skip a beat and he cursed himself for being a pussy. What had happened to the male who could take, or leave, any woman he wanted without being emotionally involved? Oh right, he’d seen his mate again after fifteen years and realized when it came to Kitty Chambers, he was a moron.
Monk turned on his side to get a better look at her and that’s when he realized he wasn’t in his bed. Freezing, his cougar pacing with nervous energy, Monk studied every aspect of the room he found himself in. It wasn’t anywhere he knew. Plain to the point of being bare, the only furniture was the bed they were on and a big chair in the corner. The walls were untreated lumber, rough and unfinished.
Where the hell were they? He looked back down at Kitty, seeing her bare shoulders above the sheet. He didn’t remember going to find her the night before, or her coming to find him, so how had they ended up here together? Wherever here was.
The pounding in his head increased as he tried to reason out where they were and why, but as though she could smell the burning from his gears struggling to turn, Kitty moaned softly and snuggled closer to him. He held his breath, staring down at her lax face.
It didn’t take long for her to register someone was next to her and her eyes flew open, revealing an unfocused gaze. And closed immediately. She moaned, slapping a hand over her eyes. “Cher bon dieu, my head hurts.”
“You got drunk too?” he asked in a whisper out of concern for both their heads.
She peeked through her fingers at him. “What? Of course not!” Then she frowned, her hand falling away from her face. “Wait a minute, what are you doing in my bed?”
He snorted. “We’re not in your bed.”
Her jaw dropped and she looked around. “We’re in your bed? How the fuck did I end up in your bed?” She paused, her head swinging around to pin him in place with a glare. “You fucker, you shot me!”
Monk jackknifed into a seated position, aches and pains pushed to the side as protective fury roared to life. “Someone shot you?” he bellowed. “Are you hurt?” He yanked the sheet off her and ran his gaze along her body. That fucking tattoo stood out as plain as day, but he ignored it, more worried about any injuries. “Was it a hunter? I don’t smell blood.”
He ran his hands over her body, feeling for any wounds before he flipped her onto her stomach to check her back but saw nothing. Something hit the floor next to the bed, tinkling on the wood. Letting her go only to lean over her, Monk saw something that looked like a dart. He snatched it off the floor and sat back up, ignoring Kitty’s grumbling under her breath as she turned over again.
Sniffing the dart, all Monk could smell was the drug used to knock her out. It was plucked from his hand and Kitty brought it to her nose as well. Her brown eyes glittered dangerously. Oh, she was pissed, but then so was he.
“I can’t believe you thought I shot you,” he snarled at her, the cougar just as angry.
She glared at him. “What else was I supposed to think? I woke up next to you after we…argued, with no memory of anything after I felt a dart hit me in the ass.”
Monk pounced on the pause. “What were you going to say?”
Crossing her arms over her chest, which only drew more attention to her bare breasts, she jutted her chin out. “I was going to say after we broke up, but then I remembered we were only fuck buddies.”
He winced. Yeah, he’d thrown those words in her face. She just made him so crazy his mouth ran away from him. He scrubbed a hand over his jaw, staring at her as if he could see inside her head. Sometimes he wished he could avoid pissing her off, except then he wouldn’t have so much fun making it up to her. There was something he loved about getting Kitty worked up that made the blood rush through his veins, making him feel truly alive.
“Wait a minute,” she shrieked, breaki
ng into his thoughts. “If you didn’t shoot me…and I’m here with you, how the fuck did I get here?”
Monk clamped his hands over his ears. Bears were not supposed to be able to hit those octaves, but Kitty’s pitch was bang on and his headache returned with a vengeance. “I don’t know!” he shouted right back at her. “I don’t know where we are or how we got here.”
“What do you mean, you don’t know?” she demanded in a hard voice that quickly softened. “Were you shot too?”
His hands dropped. She sounded concerned for him. He studied her closely, but she only watched him over her shoulder. He swiped a hand over his face. “No, I imagine they got me when I passed out.”
“So that’s why you asked me if I got drunk too,” she murmured thoughtfully. She studied the room and climbed off the bed to walk to the window.
Monk’s tongue was hanging out. It had to be because watching Kitty walk, her round ass swaying from side to side was one of his favorite things in the whole wide world. Right up there with breathing, in fact. But they weren’t here for sex. They’d been kidnapped? He scowled, his lust quickly morphing into protectiveness as he leapt from the bed to try the door.
No surprise it was locked, but why and by whom? He glanced over at Kitty, who stood frozen as she gazed out the window. “What is it?”
“I think we’re in Matador Bay.”
Going to stand beside her, Monk peered out the window. Water and cypress trees as far as the eye could see. Looking down, he saw the house, or camp, they were in was on eight-foot pilings. Matador Bay was in a very secluded part of Pointe-Aux-Chat Parish. The only way to get to it was by boat. The water wasn’t usually very deep, but there were pockets of quicksand dotted throughout the area, which meant walking it wasn’t wise if the tide were to come in. Most of the residents in the area kept hunting camps in the bay area, but this wasn’t the time of year for hunting.
She turned to him, her eyes wide. “You really didn’t bring me here?”
Unable to help himself, Monk reached for her, smelling her anxiety. “No, I wouldn’t do that. I’d tie you to my bed before I drugged you and dragged you out here, Kitty-Cat.”
Kitty’s head came to rest on his shoulder for a moment before she looked up into his face. “I think someone’s out to get me.”
Great way to introduce the subject, Kitty Marie.
Kitty sat on the edge of the bed watching Monk pace and rant. The minute she’d said the words, he’d plopped her on the bed and demanded to know what she was talking about. After explaining the sense of being watched, the car incident, the paint being thrown on her at the party, and then being drugged and brought here, Monk had taken to pacing like a caged animal.
Her lips quirked at the thought. They were caged animals. The door wouldn’t open. They’d tried kicking it open, picking the lock, and nothing. It was reinforced with something that proved impenetrable to their shifter strength. Not that there was anywhere to go. Neither of them would be able to make it across the ten-mile bay in either of their forms without risking death. Which meant they wouldn’t be jumping out of the window. Of course, it was made of some kind of Plexiglas that only cracked when punched without breaking completely. And there was no boat as far as they could tell. They were trapped together in the middle of the marsh.
And Kitty actually felt pretty good about it. Apparently the drugs they used to knock her out were still in her system. She should have been freaking out. Someone had shot at her after all. Oh, and tried to run her off the road, but she was okay. She was still pissed about the paint, but she didn’t think that was part of the plot to kill her. Mostly because they would’ve had to stick her head in a can of paint to drown her in it, not throw it on her. And they’d ruined one of her specially designed shifter gowns. She was probably more angry about that than anything else, but even that couldn’t stop the feeling of goodness in her stomach. Because she was with Monk.
She wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on them as she watched him pace. He’d given her his shirt to wear, keeping his slacks for himself. Kitty decided she could definitely get used to wearing Monk’s clothes. His scent surrounded her. Besides, if she was wearing his shirts it meant he wasn’t and a prowling, half-naked Monk made her pussy tingle.
“Why didn’t you tell me you thought you were being watched?” he demanded, running an irate hand through his hair leaving it wonderfully rumpled. “We could have told your uncle and had a protective detail put on you.” He stopped to glare at the floor. “I bet it’s Callie.”
That startled Kitty enough to drop her arms. “What? Callie Hebert?”
He glanced up, his green eyes sparking with rage. “She’s been trying to get in my bed ever since you came to town, like now that you’re here I’m going to change my mind about not wanting her. I told her it wasn’t going to happen and she said something about the past never going away. She’s the only one I could think who’d want to hurt you.”
Kitty blinked. “To get to you?”
Monk’s frown was mighty. “Yeah. She’s obsessed with me.”
She couldn’t help it, she laughed, flopping back on the bed to let out great belly-quaking guffaws. She laughed until tears streamed down her face and Monk climbed on the bed next to her to stare at her with a puzzled frown. That only made her laugh harder.
When she finally calmed down it was to see Monk smiling at her as if he thought she’d lost her mind. Reaching up, she cupped his cheek. “Poor Monk, all the women love him so much they’d take on a grizzly bear for him.”
Chapter Nine
She felt his blush before she saw it and her heart softened. Oh, it’d been softening ever since he started pacing, his concern for her evident in his every stride, but now, her heart was nothing more than mush. “Ah, Monk,” she sighed, stroking her thumb over his cheekbone. “It isn’t Callie because she’s been following Zach Trahan around. The only reason she’s talking to you is to make him jealous.”
His eyebrows drew together. “How do you know that?”
Kitty shrugged. “Monica Doucet told Karen Boudreaux, who told Erica Yost, who told Daisy, who told me. Everyone in town knows Callie’s after Zach, but he’s proving resistant so she figures if she makes him jealous by following you around, he’ll change his mind.”
The man pouted, his lips turning down.
“Aw, pauvre bête,” she whispered and leaned up to kiss his mouth. “I’m an idiot.”
“Why would you say something stupid like that?”
She pinched his nipple for his smartass remark before answering. “I’m an idiot because I thought I could actually resist you.” He froze next to her, his eyes darkening. “Just wait, okay? Let me say a few things.” His jaw tightened but he nodded. Relaxing beneath him, Kitty sighed and stared at the ceiling. “I’m not disgusted by you, or what defects you think you have. I’m scared though.” She glanced over at him. “I don’t want to be your executioner, Monk. I’ve loved you too long to be able to kill you if you go off. You’re right that I wouldn’t have been able to handle it when I was younger. Hell, I don’t know if I can handle it now, you know?”
Monk’s lips thinned, but he nodded.
Kitty’s heart pounded hard enough to make her fear cardiac arrest, but she had to say this. “When I left you last night and those idiots threw paint on me, all I could think was that everything was ruined. My career, my credibility, everything, but most of all, I was pissed that I’d ruined my relationship with you. And I’d done that, no one else.” She stroked his hair away from his face. “I was so mad at you for offering me everything I wanted when I’d finally decided I’d never have it. Do you understand? I’d long ago given up on having a mate, cubs and a family of my own.
“All I had was work. I spent the rest of the night thinking about you and my life and my career and realized that you were the most important part of me.” She sucked in a shuddering breath. “I don’t know if I’m ready to mate, but I want to try being with you. I…” She swall
owed, her throat clicking with the movement. She chanced looking at him, waiting for him to reject her. It would only be fair because of the way she’d constantly rejected him, but he captured her gaze with soft, green eyes. “I can move back here, but I’ll have to go back and forth to New York a lot and it’s going to be crazy and I’ll understand if you don’t want—”
“That’s all I ever wanted, Kitty-Cat.” He placed his finger over her mouth when she would have continued talking about her job. “Shh, baby. I wouldn’t want you to give up anything for me. We can make it work. Us. You and me together.” His eyes were fierce. “I’m so damn proud of the woman you’ve become, Kitty. You have so much talent it would be a crime to even think about taking you away from it.”
Her lips trembled as emotions threatened to overwhelm her. “Do you still love me?”
He smiled at her. “Don’t you know? I’ll always love you, Kitty-Cat. Always.”
When he leaned down to kiss her, she met him halfway. It wasn’t one of their usual, hungry, all-consuming kisses. This one was sweet, almost as if they were sealing a deal and she supposed they were. She was giving Monk the chance he’d been asking for. She wouldn’t hold anything back this time, because he’d been right about her. She’d protected herself over the years by keeping a part of herself distant from everyone around her, but to give them a chance at a future, she’d have to go all out. She tried to convey her promise in her kiss, her hands coming up to tangle in his hair.
The love Kitty had for this man filled her up until there was nothing left. It should have terrified her, but instead she felt reconnected with the old Kitty. It was as though a bridge had formed between her present and past selves and made her a new woman. One who could fiercely love her man and still become a designing powerhouse. She could do it all as long as he was at her side.
His tongue slid out to lap at the seam of her mouth and her lips parted for him. The kiss deepened. Sweet and languid flew out the window to be replaced by hot and hungry. She moaned as his body came to rest against hers, the hard muscles pressing tight to her curves. They were made for each other. She’d just been hiding her head in the sand trying to deny it.
