Claimed by her Cougar

by Felicity Heaton

  Rath couldn’t stop himself from pulling her back against him and claiming her lips, kissing her so hard he feared he was going to end up hurting her. When she wrapped her arms around his neck, swept her tongue across his lips, and pressed inside, brushing his sensitive canines, he snapped.

  She squeaked as he swept her up into his arms, cradling her against his chest, his right arm tucked beneath her knees and his left around her back.

  “Your shoulder.” She pressed against him but he refused to release her, only growled as her palms scalded his chest through his t-shirt and made him ache to feel them on his bare flesh.

  When he reached the cabin, he kicked the door shut and carried her up to his bedroom, into the dark.

  He set her down on the bed and stared at her, his heart labouring, chest heaving, body and soul screaming to claim her.

  He forced himself to say, “You’re sure that you’re sure?”

  She hit him with a dazzling smile. “I’m very sure that I’m sure. I don’t want to go away, Rath… I don’t want to leave this place. It feels like home… because you’re here. I don’t want to leave you. I didn’t come here looking for this, but I’m damned glad that I found it… that I found you.”

  Gods, he loved her.

  He snaked his arm around her waist and kissed her hard, showing her that he felt the same way, that she had become his everything, was vital to him now, and he couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from her either.

  Without her in it, his territory would feel empty, as hollow as his heart would be without her.

  She was his home.

  She was also a female possessed. He broke the kiss and looked down at her hands as they tugged his t-shirt up, wanted to grin as she hastily shoved it over his chest. A flicker of determination crossed her pretty face as she pulled it over his left arm and then her expression softened, gentling as she carefully eased it down and off his right one.

  Her fingers fluttered over the bandage on his right shoulder, and he could feel she wanted to mention it, so he silenced her by pulling her fleece off quickly followed by her t-shirt. He tossed them aside and his boots followed them.

  Ivy tugged her own boots off and stood, and he stilled and stared as she shimmied out of her dark charcoal hiking trousers, revealing her legs. She blushed when she caught him watching her, and then pulled down a deep breath and reached behind herself, and his own breath hitched as she unhooked her black bra and let it slide down her arms, freeing her breasts.

  His already hard length shot harder at the sight of her dusky tipped full breasts and the way her nipples beaded in the cooler air, calling to him.

  He growled, grabbed her around the waist and fell onto the bed with her, landing between her thighs, his chest against her stomach. She moaned, the sound music to his ears as she pushed her fingers into his hair and twisted it into her fist as he swirled his tongue around one sweet bud and sucked.

  She wriggled beneath him, her breaths coming faster, and he could sense her desire mounting as she tipped her head back into the mattress. A strained moan left her lips and she arched her chest up, pressing her breasts into his face. He groaned and moved to her other breast, teasing it with his tongue as he teased her other damp nipple with his fingers, aching with a need to hear her moan again, to hear the pleasure he gave to her.

  “Rath,” she breathed and he shuddered, his body quaking against hers as fire swept through him, a thousand hot needles stabbing down his spine to his balls.

  Gods, he wanted her.

  He needed to claim her.

  It pounded inside him, primal and fierce, a drumming need that he could only obey, one that hijacked control of him and had him seizing her hips and flipping her onto her front. He pulled her hips up off the mattress, tearing a delicious gasp from her, and licked her through her damp black underwear. The taste of her had him growing harder, that ache growing fiercer, and he pressed his tongue in deeper, needing more of her.

  When she moved, bringing her hands to her hips, he growled and rose off her, grabbed her by the nape of her neck and pinned her to the bed. He groaned as her heat pressed against his aching shaft and he stared down at her, her submissive position stoking the inferno inside him.

  She moaned as he rocked forwards, pressing his cock against her.

  It wasn’t enough.

  He released her neck and gripped her panties, pushed them down to her knees to expose her, and groaned as he stroked her, felt how wet she was and drank down her breathless groan as she trembled.

  “Gods, I need you, Ivy,” he husked, and a blush climbed her cheeks as she turned her head to one side so she could see him.

  He fumbled with his trousers, tore the fly open and released himself, and her eyes darkened with need as he stroked a hand down his cock, revealing the crown. That need ran in his veins, commanded him to satisfy it, to give her what she desired from the bottom of her heart.

  A mating.

  He had wanted to taste her, wanted to tease her to a climax before making love to her, but the passion that drenched her eyes and her feelings had him burning too hot for her, needing to be inside her now to satisfy her and himself.

  He fisted his cock again, looked at it as he eased it down the seam of her backside and into her folds, and lifted his eyes to lock with hers as he edged inside her slick heat.

  His heart thundered in time with hers as it filled his ears, as he sank deeper into her and saw in her eyes every drop of the pleasure he could feel flowing through her as he joined them. He looked down at his cock again and loosed the low feral snarl that rolled up his throat as he disappeared into her, filling her.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, and swore that one day, they were going to do things gently, that it wasn’t always going to be frantic and fast between them.

  One day.

  The way she wriggled, pressing back against him to drive his cock deeper into her, her eyes dark with need, calling to him, said that day wasn’t today.

  He grabbed her hips, pulled out of her and drove back in, a deep thrust that had her rocking forwards when their bodies met. He groaned and shuddered as his balls brushed her and she clenched around him, pushing him to the edge.

  Rath leaned over her, reached beneath her with his left hand as he gripped her hip with his right, and fondled her breast as he pumped into her, each stroke of his cock sending a thrill shooting through him, a sweep of tingles that hit him from the blunt head to his balls, and back again.

  She moaned and gripped the bedclothes, twisting them into her fists, and damn, the sight of her undid him, gave him that shove he needed to propel him over the edge.

  He clutched her breast, pulled her up so her back was flush against his chest, and pinned her there as he angled his body lower and thrust into her, making her bounce in his arms with each powerful plunge of his cock into her heat. She moaned and tipped her head back, rubbed her hand over his hair and captured his cheek.

  He groaned as she twisted her head and kissed him, lost himself in her as her tongue teased his and each breathless sigh she loosed drove him on, had him pumping deeper and harder, a slave to the primal need to satisfy her.

  To mate and bind himself to her.

  His canines elongated, and he shuddered as she teased them with her tongue, no trace of fear in her as she explored them.

  He wasn’t sure he could take much more.

  He dropped his left hand to her thighs, swallowed her gasp as he teased her flesh as he plunged into her, the need for her to find release warring with a need to find one of his own by sinking his fangs into her nape.

  He growled and broke the kiss, twisted her chestnut hair into his right fist and dropped his lips to her neck. Her moan sent a shiver through him, one that lit up his blood and had him thrusting faster, deeper, stroking her harder between her thighs. She arched forwards and he shook as she tightened around him, and his fangs itched, the need to bite her, to claim her, overwhelming him.

  He swept his tongue over the back of
her neck.

  Buried his fangs deep.

  She cried out, her hoarse shout filling his ears as she jerked in his arms, quivered and trembled so violently he struggled to keep hold of her. He growled against her nape as her blood hit his tongue, had stars exploding across his vision and his head spinning as release blazed through him. He grunted as his body kicked hard, cock throbbing wildly inside her, each jet of his seed tearing another animalistic sound from his throat, and an answering moan from her. Her bliss washed through him, mingled with his own to heighten it, and he clung to her as he spent himself inside her, sipped on her blood and felt the connection between them bloom.

  Her feelings grew clearer, crystalizing in his mind and his heart, so he could pick out every emotion, right down to the love that burned in her heart as he held her on him and convinced himself to release her neck.

  He swept his tongue across it to steal her pain away and offer a silent apology for hurting her.

  When her trembling ceased, and he felt strong enough to move again, he twisted her in his arms so she was facing him and stretched out on the bed with her, holding her tucked against his chest. Her breathing slowed, her heart calming again, but the warmth and bliss he could feel in her lingered, seemed to grow stronger as she nestled closer to him.

  She lifted her head and he gazed down at her, struggling to believe that she was his mate now.

  His forever.

  She tilted her head back and kissed him, and he held her closer, made a new vow as he clutched her to him and drifted with her in the haze of their shared happiness.

  He would protect her, from now until the end of eternity. He would allow nothing to happen to her, would keep her safe and at his side. He would love her more every day, and would do all in his power to make her happy.

  Because she had given him everything.

  She had blessed him with her love.

  She had accepted him and his world, and bravely stepped into it so they could be together.

  She had made him believe in forever again.

  And that forever started now.

  The End

  Read on for a preview of the next story in the highly addictive Cougar Creek Mates paranormal romance series, Captured by her Cougar

  Captured by her Cougar

  Gabriella glared at the black log burner set against the wooden wall of the small cabin, her fingers digging into her knees beyond the end of her grey pencil skirt, her shoulders rigid beneath her white blouse. Her lips compressed, jaw tensing as she listened to the infuriating silence punctuated only by the rapid but steady pounding of her heart.

  He would come back.

  He never left her alone for long.

  She tilted her head to her left, just enough that she could see the door of the all-too-rustic house and the woods beyond the glass. Thoughts of escape pushed her to rise to her feet.

  Her very bare feet.

  The bastard had taken her shoes from her the first time she had tried to get away from him.

  A sneaky tactic suited to the pig, and one he had completed with a satisfied twist to his bowed lips and a mocking sparkle in his grey eyes.

  What sort of man resorted to removing her shoes so if she did manage to break free of her cage, she would be hobbled, slowed as she tried to pick her way through the dense coniferous forest that swamped the mountains in all directions?

  Easy to capture again.

  Gabi huffed, dragged her gaze away from the outside world, and tried to drag her thoughts away from escape but that was impossible now. Escape had been firmly on her mind for the past twelve hours, since she had come back to the world to find herself a captive. She didn’t remember much about what had come before, only recalled snippets of wandering around the cabin in a stupor, shell-shocked by what she had witnessed.

  She stared at the fire, not seeing the flames as they devoured the meagre supply of fuel.

  She saw that man killing Alexander.

  Saw Alexander attacking Ivy.

  Kept hearing Alexander’s words as he had forced her onto the helicopter in Calgary, telling her it was time she witnessed the truth of this world with her own eyes and saw justice dispensed.

  Only when they had arrived in the godforsaken cluster of cabins in the disgusting wilderness, she hadn’t seen justice.

  She had seen Alexander and two hired mercenaries wielding weapons of war, armed to the teeth against men who had been leading what had looked like the picture postcard of a peaceful life before her half-brother had brought a battle to their doorstep in the name of revenge.

  Men who had transformed into beautiful golden cougars before her eyes.

  The door opened and she jumped, entire body tensing as her gaze whipped towards it and her heart lodging in her throat.

  The man filling the doorway just looked at her in silence, handsome face devoid of emotion.

  But there was a softness in his grey eyes as he gazed at her, one that was far from the look she had expected him to level on her after her last pathetic attempt to escape.

  One that had ended with him growling at her and grabbing her, hauling her off her feet as if she weighed nothing and dumping her on his worn brown leather couch and telling her in a gruff deep voice not to move.

  She hadn’t.

  Not because she was afraid of him, but because she was tired, soul-deep weary and didn’t have the strength to move. She just wanted to curl up and sleep, to forget where she was and everything that had happened. She just wanted to go home, back to her family’s mansion in England, to lounging by the indoor pool sipping cocktails and going clubbing with her friends.

  God, things had to be dire if she wanted to go out with those vapid excuses for people.

  Alexander was gone now. She had no reason to play her part anymore, to smile and please his friends and their friends, keeping them sweet so their investments kept his business afloat.

  He was gone.

  That still hadn’t sunk in.

  She stared at the brute as he ran a hand over his spiked sandy hair, combing it back. A few scars peeked out from the sleeves of his tight black t-shirt, red and raw, and she had a flash of him fighting, launching as a cougar to land on Alexander’s back and bring him down.

  To protect Ivy.

  And his brother.

  Bile rose up her throat as she saw that dark-haired man on top of Alexander, punching him. There had been so much blood. On Alexander. On him.

  The man stepped into the cabin and closed the door, dragging her back to him. She studied him as he moved into the small kitchen area to the left of the door, using him to distract her from memories as he poured himself a glass of water, turned and planted his ass against the wooden counter.

  Stared right back at her.

  “How is the other man?” she whispered, needing to break the silence because it was pressing down on her, felt heavy on her shoulders and as if it might crush her.

  His lips twisted in a sneer. “What do you care? Or do you want to know my brother is dead? Like yours.”

  She scowled at him for that.

  She had never been close to Alexander, but he was her brother.

  Had been her brother.

  Her eyes burned, but she didn’t have any tears left for him, felt dried up inside, a little hollow and numb, and now that the shock was wearing off, she felt something else too. She felt… relieved.

  Was that wrong of her?

  Alexander hadn’t been the easiest man to live with, had resented her from the moment she had been born, as if he had blamed her for the fact his mother had remarried after losing his father. He had always made it painfully clear that her life of luxury came from his father’s money too, had made snide remarks about how her father was weak and pathetic, unworthy to bear the name of his family.

  A name his mother had insisted on keeping when she had remarried.

  Lord.

  It suited Alexander, because he acted just like one, all entitled and pompous.

  Had suited
Alexander.

  Maybe it suited her too, because hadn’t she acted the same way? Didn’t she love her life of luxury and leisure?

  “How is Ivy?” She wouldn’t let him get away with refusing to answer that question. “I want to know how Ivy is. She was hurt.”

  The bastard just regarded her with cold grey eyes, making it clear she wasn’t going to get anything out of him.

  Gabi shot to her feet. “I have a right to know. Ivy is my friend. I was the one who arranged for her funding. I’ve known her longer than you and I want to know how she is! Is she a captive here too? Is that what you all do? You capture women and… and…”

  She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  The man’s face darkened, as if he didn’t like the accusation she was hurling at him either, and then calmly set the glass down and pushed away from the kitchen counter. He rounded the brown leather couch, advancing on her, long black jeans-clad legs devouring the short distance.

  She stood her ground on trembling legs, her heart hammering against her ribs.

  He stopped close to her, towering over her. She barely reached his broad shoulders, had to tip her head back to keep glaring at him. His eyes shifted, growing more golden as he stared down at her.

  “I have a right to know.” Those words came out unsteady, trembled on her lips as she faltered, fear getting the better of her. More powerful men than this one had tried to intimidate her and had failed. She wasn’t going to let him win. She wasn’t going to be cowed by some country brute, no matter how much stronger he was than her. She clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes on him. “Tell me how Ivy is.”

  He responded by seizing her right upper arm in a bruising grip and she leaned back, grimacing as she tried to wriggle free of his iron grasp. When he shoved past her and tugged her with him, her eyes widened and she shook her head.

  He was taking her towards the bedroom.

  His voice was a low growl as he uttered, “You gave up all your rights when you invaded our territory.”

  Gabi shook her head faster and frantically clawed at his hand, leaving red marks on his golden skin as she desperately tried to prise his fingers off her. Her heart went wild, thundering as fear pounded through her veins.