Wind River Pack 4
Do You Take This Cat
Rennia helped to rescue Ray and his sister Kati when a New York crime boss held them hostage. She was devastated when he rejected her after seeing her shift from cat to wolf. She returned to her mountain home certain she’d lost her mate forever.
Ray's family is forcing him to attend his sister's wedding in Wyoming. He’s convinced she’s making a mistake in setting up house with two men who aren’t even human. The whole idea of people shifting into animals gives him nightmares.
In one last effort to claim her mate, Rennia takes Kati’s advice and lets Ray think she’s human when they meet. For a while she’s in paradise. They’re beginning to fall in love when an old enemy strikes out at the Wind River Pack.
Will Rennia lose her mate for good when he finds out she’s not just a pretty girl?
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 63,063 words
DO YOU TAKE THIS CAT
Wind River Pack 4
Missy Martine
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
DO YOU TAKE THIS CAT
Copyright © 2014 by Missy Martine
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-567-7
First E-book Publication: November 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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DEDICATION
I dedicate this book to my good friend Kaye, who helped me get back on track when the nasty ‘writer’s block’ settled on my shoulders. She helped me see that to move on, you have to concentrate on one day at a time. And a special ‘thank you’ to my husband, who put up with the tornado-strength mood swings I projected through the last three months. That man is a saint!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The Wind River Pack Series picks up where The Wolfen Heritage Series left off—only twenty-five years later.
The Families
Alpha Remus and Alpha Femm Maddie
Victor and Eloise Twins
Elyne
Kanor
Michael and Ariane Barrows
Kilana
Alexander
Ethan, Latan, and Kitania
Eric
David
Zack
Macon
Synia
Rennia
Mali and Melissa
Zediah
Cyndie
Zebron and Nanita
Lyssa
Zyne
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Author's Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Epilogue
About the Author
DO YOU TAKE THIS CAT
Wind River Pack 4
MISSY MARTINE
Copyright © 2014
Chapter 1
Ray Mathews sighed, using two fingers to rub the bridge of his nose. A detective with the New York City Police Department, he’d just finished up with a difficult case that had dragged on for over four months. He was exhausted and in no mood for the lecture he knew he was about to receive. His father, a retired Lieutenant with the force, had demanded he come by his house before he went home.
“Are you listening to me?” Frank Mathews frowned at his only son.
“Yeah, Dad. I heard you. You want me to waste my vacation time to go to a wedding in wild kingdom.” Ray snorted. “I don’t think so. There’s no way I’m getting within spitting distance of those freaks.”
Frank’s hands rested on his hips as he narrowed his eyes. “Watch your mouth, boy. You’re talking about your sister’s wedding. Are you conveniently forgetting those freaks saved your sister’s life, not to mention yours?”
Ray jumped up so fast his chair toppled over backward. He didn’t like remembering his first encounter with what his father called shape-shifters. His sister, Kati, had been hiding from the head of a New York drug cartel after killing his son in an undercover operation that went bad. When they’d heard, from an informant, that a contract had been taken out on her life, his father had called in a favor and had two of the shape-shifters sent to protect her. Ray had been blissfully unaware of supernatural beings until the head of the cartel had him kidnapped to lure his sister into a trap. Her men, along with several members of their so-called family, had showed up to rescue them.
“Boy, what’s wrong with you? You act like you’ve taken some kind of sedative. This is important.”
“How can you calmly sit there and talk about your only d
aughter wasting her life.”
“Damnation!” Frank growled. “How the hell is she wasting her life? She’s getting married and hoping to start a family. She’s got a job as deputy sheriff in Takoda. Her life is moving forward, son.”
“She’s no more getting married than I am.”
Frank frowned. “What are you talking about? She’s getting married in four weeks.”
Ray walked over to the window and looked out at the street. The night had left behind a light covering of snow on the streets of New York. “You know as well as I do, it’s illegal for her to marry more than one man. And that’s not even addressing the moral issues.” He turned and faced his father. “She can’t marry an animal, Pop. It’s just not right. You say she wants to start a family. How the hell is that gonna work? Is she gonna have puppies? Or maybe she’ll lay an egg.” When Kati had introduced her men she’d explained that one of them could turn into a wolf and the other a huge falcon.
Frank sighed. “I talked to Kati about this. She assured me that any children she had would be born as normal babies. Apparently they don’t inherit their shifter abilities until they’re older, and there’s a chance they’ll be totally human.”
Ray raised his gaze and studied his father. “Her children might be human?”
Frank nodded. “They have other humans mated to members of their pack. Some of them have produced totally human offspring, while others inherit their parent’s shifting abilities.”
“You call them a pack, but I know they’re not all wolves. How did their family get so diverse?”
“You know, you could have a sit-down with Kati, and she could answer all your questions.”
‘If she comes home I’ll sit and talk with her all she wants. But it looks like she’s dug in there in Wyoming. Hell, she didn’t even go and pack up her own stuff to have it shipped. She hired a crew to do it.”
Frank chuckled. “You can’t actually blame that on Kati. Synia and Kinnith wouldn’t let her go alone, and they’re having some problems in the pack and couldn’t get away to go with her. They’re very protective of their mate.”
“How’d they get so many different species in their family?”
Frank frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean. I know that Kinnith is a bird of some kind, and he was taken in by the alpha’s brothers and their mate when he was fairly young. Several of their boys were living in a home for abandoned children when they adopted them. As far as I’m concerned, that just makes them even better people.”
“They’re not people!” Ray growled. “You didn’t see what I did, Pop. It’s unnatural, and maybe even dangerous.”
Frank walked over and put his hand on Ray’s arm. “Tell me what you saw, son. Maybe I can help you understand it.”
Ray took a deep breath and walked over to pick up the fallen chair. He sat down slowly and traced his finger around the design in the tablecloth. “When they had me tied up in Kati’s cabin, this small black house cat wandered in. It walked around the room and then jumped up on my lap.” He barked out a harsh laugh. “I couldn’t pet it. They had my hands tied behind my back and my feet tied to the chair legs. The damn cat rubbed all over my chest and even licked my chin.”
Frank sat down across from his son. “That doesn’t sound all that strange, Ray. Most cats are pretty affectionate, and they can sense emotions. Maybe it was trying to console you because you were a little scared.”
“I’ll admit I was scared before the damn cat showed up. But I wasn’t the only one. They had Kati handcuffed on the couch, but the cat never went anywhere near her. When one of the hired muscles moved toward me, every hair on that cat stood on end, and it hissed and growled.”
Frank nodded. “He was definitely protecting you.”
“Yeah, he was protecting us all right. Right after that all hell broke loose. A huge bear came through the front door followed by a couple of men, and then a coyote crashed through the window. Tony Lawrence reached for his gun and that cat began to shake, almost like it was having a seizure. Right in front of my eyes it changed into a wolf and started growling and snarling at Tony. It was enough of a distraction that they were able to take him down.”
“What happened to the wolf,” Frank asked.
One of the men walked over and cut me loose, and I backed away as quick as I could. The damn wolf whined, almost like a puppy, and then jumped out the window and ran off. I never saw it again.”
Frank scratched the side of his head. “That is pretty strange. I never knew they could become different animals.”
“They seem pretty damn protective of each other. That fellow that untied me acted like I’d committed some kind of sin when I told that mangy beast to stay away from me. He actually threatened me if I ever hurt it again. Like I’d hurt its feelings.”
“They’re a whole different culture, son. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t God’s children, too.”
“You sent those things to protect Kati. How long have you known about them?”
“Since I served in the Marines over thirty years ago.” Frank got up and walked over to the stove and poured himself a cup of coffee. Glancing at his son, he held up an empty cup. “Want some coffee?”
Ray nodded. “Maybe half a cup. I’m hoping to get about twelve hours of sleep after I get home.”
Frank poured the coffee and set the cup down in front of Ray. “I met Carter Banner in basic training, and we just hit it off. It was like we’d been friends all our lives.” He took a sip of the steaming brew and then cleared his throat. “We were on training maneuvers in Hawaii when the brakes failed on our truck, and we went over a fifty foot embankment.”
Ray caught his breath. “How bad were you hurt?”
“I’d have died if Carter hadn’t been there to pull me from the wreckage.” He added some sugar to his cup and began to stir. He seemed to be lost in thought. After a moment, he looked up at Ray. “Carter was hurt pretty bad himself. Hell, he had broken ribs, and the bones in his right leg had come clear through the skin. I thought we were both goners.”
“What happened to save you both?” asked Ray.
“Right in front of my eyes he changed into a huge, gray wolf.” Frank laughed. “Hell, I thought I was hallucinating from the pain until he changed back into a man. Carter told me that the change allowed his body to mostly heal, and then he carried me back up to the road and went for help. He swore me to secrecy, and I never broke that promise until now. When the cartel started hunting your sister I had to do something. So, I contacted my old friend to see if he could help. The rest you know. He sent two of his people to watch over her. Nobody had any way of knowing she would be their mate.”
Ray cursed and set his coffee cup down so hard the liquid sloshed over the side. “That’s another thing. What is this mate crap? Kati said the same thing, but how can a human woman be the mate to an animal, much less two.”
“Keep a civil tongue in your head when you’re in my house, boy. Saying she’s their mate only means they’re fated to be together. Call it soul mates if you will.” When Ray snorted, Frank got to his feet. “Laugh all you want, but those men would die for your sister, and nobody is going to come between them. If you try, you could end up getting hurt.”
Ray stood and pushed his chair up to the table. “It’s unlikely I’ll get between them, because I’m not going.”
Frank grabbed his arm as he tried to slide past him. “Yes, you are going. I’ve already told your sister we would be there. She wants us to spend the next four weeks with her, getting to know her men and their family.”
“Four weeks! I can’t take a month off. There’s no way my captain would go for that. He let me have a couple of weeks after the kidnapping. I don’t have that much vacation time left.”
Frank shook his head. “I’ve already cleared it with the department. Even a retired lieutenant still has a little pull. We have plane reservations the day after tomorrow.”
“Pop, I can’t—”
“That’s enough, Ray
mond. This is important to your sister, and she has never asked us to put ourselves out like this before. We’re going to spend a month with her and be present at her joining ceremony with her two men, because it will make her deliriously happy. Do I make myself clear?”
Ray closed his eyes for a moment and then took a deep breath. “Fine! I’ll do it for you, Pop. Where are we staying?”
“Kati and the guys just moved into a new house on the mountain. She said we could stay with her and share a room, or their alpha offered to put us up at their house, which I’m told is a lot bigger and not very far away.”
Ray shook his head. “No way am I staying in the house with any of those animals. If I go, I want a motel room.”
Frank sighed. “Okay, son. I’ll give her a call and get it taken care of today. Why don’t you go on home and get some rest so you can get packed up in the morning. I’ll have my taxi swing by and pick you up at noon the day after tomorrow.”
Ray went toward the front door shaking his head. “Great! I get to spend my vacation at wild kingdom this year.”
* * * *
Rennia Wind River watched the women of her family as they chatted around the huge, oak claw-foot table in the alpha’s kitchen. Her mother had forced her to come to the impromptu wedding planning session, and it looked like she was the only one there under duress. Everyone was smiling, leaning over the bride-to-be’s shoulder while they picked out sugar confections from a catalog that would probably make the majority of the pack’s pups sick. Rennia wished she could be anywhere else, away from the festive atmosphere. I’m never gonna have this with my mate. She’d never forget the look on Ray Mathews’s face when he backed away and told her to stay the hell away from him. A part of her soul had died that night. He’d seemed to accept her cat. She could tell he enjoyed the gentle purring against his strong chest. Then she’d lost him when she shifted into her wolf. It’s not like I could help it. When she senses danger the wolf always pushes forward. They were threatening my mate with a gun. I couldn’t have stopped her if I wanted to. Rennia was the only natural offspring of a mating between a pair of wolf shifter fathers and a mother who was part wolf and cat, who could only shift into a cat. She had inherited all their traits.
Do You Take This Cat [Wind River Pack 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 1
