Claimed by her Cougar

by Felicity Heaton

  More tears came.

  Hell, she hated them.

  Hated feeling weak and stupid.

  “I just needed some air.” She rubbed the new tears away, sucked down a breath and exhaled hard, struggling to centre herself and stop more from coming.

  She was done with them. No more tears.

  No more crying over men who didn’t deserve her.

  “Air?” The man cocked his head to his left and regarded her with a curious look as he released her arm and adjusted his pack on his shoulder.

  Another visitor?

  He looked a little like Rath, but he was bigger, not in height but in build, packed with muscle beneath his dark jacket and jeans. He was a good few years younger than Rath too, looking more like early thirties than late.

  She nodded.

  “Why are you here anyway?” He had asked that question before, and she realised now he hadn’t meant why was she storming hellbent towards the river, balling her eyes out like some heartbroken girl?

  He wanted to know why she was in the area, on Rath’s land.

  He looked and sounded too much like Rath to be anything other than one of his brothers, and clearly the obsession about this parcel of land ran deep in all of them, had them struggling to trust anyone they found on it that they didn’t know.

  “Are you going to start accusing me of being a hunter too? Because I’ve been through that with Rath,” she snapped and frowned at him, her anger rising again, drying up her foolish tears. “I’m here photographing the bears.”

  She tried to leave it at that, but everything surged inside her, and she couldn’t stop her mouth from motoring along without her consent as it all crashed over her again.

  “I was feeling good about myself for the first time in a while too… my photos are great… and it’s so peaceful and relaxing here, and then he ends up shouting at me and I’m not even sure what I did wrong.”

  She was ranting, but the man didn’t seem to care, just kept his steady gaze on her, his handsome face placid and unreadable.

  “Rath?” he said, and she nodded, and a flicker of a frown danced on his brow.

  “He let me photograph the bears after I explained to him that I wasn’t a hunter.”

  The man went to touch her shoulder.

  Rath’s hand clamped down on his wrist and pulled his arm away from her before he could make contact, his voice as hard as diamonds and his expression matching it as he looked at the man. “It’s late, and you need to go check on your cabin.”

  The man looked at him and a slow smile teased his lips as he dropped his gaze to her. “Don’t let him boss you around.”

  With that, he was gone, walking away. She turned and watched him go, tracking him as he crossed the grass, heading towards the far corner of the clearing, near Rath’s cabin.

  When she looked at Rath, he was scowling at the man’s back.

  He lowered dark eyes to her. “You need to go back to the cabin.”

  “No.” She stood her ground when he glared at her. “I’m not going anywhere until you explain what’s going on here… why you shouted at me.”

  He huffed, scrubbed a hand over his dark hair and looked around at the clearing. “This place… it’s meant to be a secret. It’s sacred… a sanctuary that my family is responsible for protecting. The photographs you sent… Ivy, someone could use them to identify the area.”

  Did he want to protect the bears or the people who owned cabins here?

  The thought of him wanting to protect the people seemed ridiculous, so she settled on it being the bears. He had been adamant about hunters, had been convinced she had been one until he had seen her photographs. She could understand his passion for protecting the wildlife from people who illegally hunted it.

  “Do you get a lot of hunters?” she said, and when his face darkened, she wanted to sigh, because she felt sure they were going to end up arguing again, and she was tired of it, just wanted things to be as they had been earlier today, when he had smiled at her and been nice. “I know they’re a problem in some parts, and I can see why they might be a problem here too. It’s nice you want to keep the animals safe, and I’m sorry I sent the pictures without showing them to you first.”

  His face softened, some of the darkness lifting from it, and he sighed and looked off to his right, to the river and the mountains.

  “Ivy,” he murmured, his voice like honey, smooth and rich in her ears, and his gaze swung down to her. “I need to know about this man… I need to know everything.”

  She nodded.

  She would tell him what she knew about Alexander, so he could see that he wasn’t a threat to this place and so they could move past what had happened tonight.

  But she was damned if she was going to tell him everything.

  CHAPTER 9

  Rath didn’t want to know about this male Ivy had sent the photographs to, one who had been quick to respond to her email with a promise that she could have the funding she needed to go in search of spirit bears, but he needed to know, even when he was sure her answers were only going to anger him.

  Not because the male was a danger to his kin, and this place, but because he meant something to her.

  “I met Alexander maybe three or four years ago now, at a benefit.” She turned her profile to him and looked at the river, and the moon as it rose full and beautiful, casting pale light over her skin and turning it milky, and her eyes almost blue. “One of my other sponsors introduced us. I can tell you about him too if you want?”

  She glanced at him.

  He shook his head. “I’m only interested in the one you sent the pictures to.”

  The one he felt sure he needed to kill.

  “He funded me on a trip to photograph snow leopards in the Himalayas, because a few of my sponsors couldn’t afford the expense that year. We kept in touch as best as we could given the remoteness of the area I was trekking through to find them, and when I returned, he was so pleased with the photographs I had managed to get that he invited me to display them at a gala he was hosting to raise funds for protecting them.” She sighed, a hint of a smile on her lips that he didn’t like, because it stemmed from this male, from something he had done for her, complimenting her and her work, and giving her the means to do what she was passionate about. “The benefit was a big success, and he asked me to do a series on tigers next, because many of the species are on the brink of extinction.”

  “Sounds like a real hero,” Rath drawled and weathered her glare.

  She regarded him with eyes that gave none of her feelings away, were devoid of emotion and almost cold. “He’s just doing what he can to protect the big cat species.”

  He suspected otherwise, but kept that to himself, because he was tired of her being angry with him. When she had shouted at him, lashed out with words that had cut deep because they had been heavy with truth, and had stormed out into the night, his first urge had been to chase after her.

  He had ended up licking his wounds instead, giving her time and space that she needed.

  The email had come in from the male, and he had read it, and checked the photographs again, hoping that the bastard wouldn’t be able to identify the location from them.

  He had closed his computer and forced himself to relax, to let all his anger bleed out of him.

  The moment it had dropped from a raging boil to a simmer, he had sensed his brother, and had stepped out onto the deck to look for him.

  The sight of him close to touching Ivy had hit him hard, and he had exploded from the deck, had crossed the distance between them with all the speed he could muster.

  Damned if another male was going to touch his female.

  His brother was lucky he had tamped down the need to fight him.

  He had caught the look in Storm’s eyes as he had told him to go to his cabin though, the one that had questioned him at the same time as it had revealed he knew the female was something to him, had him rattled and on edge, wanting to fight for her.

&n
bsp; “Look, Alexander is just a man who likes to do what he can to help wildlife.” Her soft words did nothing to soothe him.

  They had the opposite effect, stoking the anger he had managed to leash.

  “Your email was curt, not the sort of way you would speak to someone you like and admire, someone who has been kind to you.”

  She averted her gaze.

  “He did something to upset you.” Rath knew it, because he was in the same boat, on the receiving end of the same cold and business-like manner because he had upset her.

  “It’s not really any of your business.”

  Those words hit him hard, had a growl curling up his throat as that restless feeling returned, urged him to make her see that it was his business, because he could read between the lines.

  Something had happened between her and this son of a bitch.

  He reached for her arm, determined to take her back to the cabin, to continue their conversation there and uncover just what had happened between her and the male she had emailed.

  “Rath?” Ember’s gentle voice came from the darkness and Ivy tensed, her shoulders going rigid and her eyes darting away from him, lowering to the grass. “I need to speak with you a moment.”

  Not now.

  He had more pressing matters that needed his attention.

  That pressing matter strode away from him, heading back towards his cabin so quickly it was as if her ass was on fire.

  Godsdamnit.

  “What is it, Ember?” he bit out, and she flinched away from him. “I don’t have time for this. I told you I’m not interested. Find another male.”

  She glanced over her shoulder at her cabin. “Mother wants it to be you.”

  She didn’t though. He could see that. She wasn’t interested in him as a mate, or even as a male. Her mother had always made it sound as if she was, but now he could see her mother was as meddling as his parents had been. They had picked his mate for him, and while he had come to love her in the short time they had been together, part of him had always wondered if he would have picked her for himself.

  Or whether another female would have been the one to win his heart.

  He looked off to his left, towards Ivy as she disappeared into his cabin. “I’m sorry, Ember. It’s a no.”

  He turned away from her, damn near sprinted back to his cabin, determined to do something about Ivy. He just wasn’t sure what.

  When he reached the door, all he could do was stare.

  Ivy moved around the living room, shoving things into her backpack.

  “What are you doing?” His words sounded distant, as hollow as he felt inside.

  She unscrewed the lens on her camera, placed a cap over the hole in the body and on the bottom of the lens, and packed them away. “I’ll leave at first light.”

  The ice in her tone sent a chill down his spine.

  She didn’t look at him. She kept her eyes on her work, every item she placed in her pack tearing another piece of strength from him, pushing him closer to the edge as a need to make her stay ignited inside him.

  “Why are you so eager to leave now?” he bit out as he stepped into the room, that hollow feeling growing stronger every second, making him feel as if everything was draining out of him. All the light. All the warmth. It was all leaving with her. “You want to photograph the bears in the morning.”

  She didn’t answer him, just shoved her brown trousers into the bottom of her backpack with such ferocity that he wanted to cross the room and make her stop, wanted to hold her and make her talk to him, tell him why she was doing this.

  She couldn’t leave.

  Not yet.

  He needed more time with her.

  “The bears will come, and you’ll miss them.” It was a poor attempt to make her stay a little longer, just a few hours more, as much time as he could get with her before she needed to go for her own safety.

  He felt like a bastard when she paused at her work for a heartbeat and tears spilled onto her cheeks, her hurt going through him.

  He hadn’t meant to wound her, or maybe he had. Maybe he had used the one thing he could to make her remain with him, her love of the bears, the excitement she had been buzzing with all day because she had been looking forward to tomorrow morning and seeing them again.

  She pushed away, taking her black bag with her, turning her back on him.

  “I’ll go with you. My brother is here now to take care of—”

  “No,” she snapped and her shoulders shook, her voice wobbling. “It’s best I go alone. Maybe I should just go now.”

  Like hell that was going to happen.

  “Why are you so hellbent on leaving now?” He slammed the door of the cabin shut behind him and stormed over to her, grabbed her arm and spun her to face him.

  Her bloodshot hazel eyes lifted to his for a second and then she turned her face away from him, lowering it so he couldn’t see them.

  Too late. They had already done their damage, had driven a spear through his heart and left him cold.

  His voice dropped to a strained whisper as he struggled to figure out what he had done wrong, and what he could do to make her stay. “Is this because I was angry with you?”

  She shook her head, sending more tears cascading down her reddened cheeks. “No.”

  “Why then, Ivy?” He lifted his hands, framed her face and brought her head around. She refused to look at him, stared at his chest, and he sighed as he brushed the pads of his thumbs across her cheeks, wiping her tears away. “Tell me what I did wrong… because I don’t understand… and I need to understand.”

  Because he needed to take her pain away. It was vital, like breathing. His female was hurting, and he was sure he was the cause of it, but nothing he did soothed her, and he couldn’t make her feel better until he knew the source of her pain.

  She jerked out of his grip and rounded the couch, heading for the stairs to the loft.

  No, she wasn’t going to run away from him. He wouldn’t let her. Couldn’t.

  He blocked her path before she reached them and she glared up at him.

  “Don’t you need to speak with Ember about something?” she barked and her anger hit him hard, knocked him back a step as he stared down into her fierce hazel eyes. “I just want to sleep now. Please get out of my way.”

  Like fuck that was going to happen, not now that he had picked up one vital emotion in her.

  Jealousy.

  “What did you hear?” He moved right and left when she tried to get past him, blocking her attempts.

  She huffed and slammed a hand into his chest, tried to shove him but didn’t move him at all as he braced himself. “I heard enough. You’re meant to be with her, or something.”

  That ‘or something’ had a weight of doubt hanging around it.

  “She’s very beautiful. I’m sure you’ll be happy with her.”

  “Maybe I would be.” Not the right words to say, he got that message loud and clear as she gasped and looked up at him, her anger and pain flaring in her eyes, and on his senses. “What’s it to you anyway? You’re clearly sleeping with your sponsor.”

  Her eyes widened and she spluttered, “It was one time, a year ago, and it was a mistake. The biggest fucking mistake of my life.”

  Well, at least he hadn’t stolen that title just yet.

  She shoved away from him, dumped her bag on the couch and whispered, “He wasn’t interested in me like that… I was just another conquest.”

  A shiver went through him and it brought fire in its wake. Son of a fucking bitch. She had said she had hit a slump last year, had lost her passion for her work, and it couldn’t be coincidence that she had slept with the man around that long ago, and was calling it a mistake now. The bastard was responsible for it, had hurt her and made her lose faith in her work and in herself.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, her voice small.

  “I guess I wasn’t pretty enough… or thin enough…”

  Rath growled as anger
surged through him, her pain stoking it, her belief that she wasn’t good enough for the fucking asshole who had hurt her, and she fell silent.

  He took a hard step towards her.

  She was more than pretty. She was beautiful.

  Another step.

  She was curvy, and sensual, and fucking perfect in his eyes.

  Another one.

  He pressed against her back, brought his hands down on her shoulders and pretended they weren’t trembling as he skimmed them down her arms, as his heart laboured and a need to prove to her just how perfect she was, just how beautiful he thought she was, ran through him.

  He caught her arms and spun her to face him.

  Swallowed her gasp in a bruising kiss.

  CHAPTER 10

  Ivy pushed against Rath’s broad chest before she could get swept up in his kiss and the sensations detonating inside her, need that instantly flared hot in her veins and had her aching to go along with things.

  She couldn’t, not when it would only hurt her in the end.

  “You don’t have to do this.” She pressed her palms to his pectorals as he tried to kiss her again.

  “Do what?” There was a confused tilt to his eyebrows as he drew back and looked down at her.

  “Pity me.” She couldn’t look at him as she said that.

  He lowered his hands to her hips and stroked his thumbs up and down her sides. “Pity? Believe me, Ivy, the last thing I’m feeling here is pity.”

  She wanted to believe that, but given the circumstances, and what she had said before he had pulled her into his arms for a kiss that had been too damn delicious, she found it hard.

  He dropped his lips to her throat, maddening her with light sweeps of them across her flesh, and husked, “I’m done fighting this feeling… this need. I wanted you the second I set eyes on you, Ivy, and that’s the truth.”

  It was?

  Damn, she wasn’t sure why she found that so hard to believe when she felt the same way, had been aching for him from the moment he had walked out of that mist.

  When his lips found hers again, she didn’t stop him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back, matched his fervour as he pulled her against him and deepened the kiss, swept his tongue over hers and moaned into her mouth. It pulled a moan from her chest too, had her clinging to him as she kissed him, swept up in the need that had been building inside her for two days now, desire that had her spinning out of control.