by Danica Avet
“Hold it right there, jackass,” the low threatening growl came accompanied with the ominous click of a hammer being cocked.
Colette’s heart dropped to the pit of her stomach, all the blood draining from her face as she realized the warden had pulled his gun. “No!” she shouted, trying to reach out to the other boat to pull it or herself closer. “Don’t shoot!”
The annoying drawl muttered something she couldn’t hear, but seconds later Zach’s head popped over the edge of the boat. His face was stark white, his eyes glittering dangerously as he moved to let the warden up. Both men had red marks on their faces from the fight and the warden’s nose looked a little bloody. But none of that mattered when she saw the gun in the warden’s hand.
“Zach,” she said through numb lips, all the strength in her body fading as she pictured the man she loved being blown away before her very eyes.
“It’s okay, Colette.” While his face was pale and tight, Zach’s voice was steady and sure. “The agent and I just had a little disagreement. We’re cool now, right, Roscoe?”
The warden’s eyes raged with cold fire as he glared at Zach, but he nodded. “We’re cool. Just get the fuck back in your boat, cat.”
Colette watched as Zach flashed massive fangs at the wildlife agent before he casually leapt back into her boat, barely rocking it. He sauntered closer, coming to stand beside her, his warmth pushing away the chill that invaded her at the thought of him dying right then and there. She shuddered, nausea crawling up her throat, but he threw an arm around her shoulder, pulling her into his side.
The warden watched them, something calculating in his gaze before he looked directly at Colette. “Y’all be careful now,” he said with a smirk that threatened to destroy the cocoon of warmth Zach lent her. “I’ll be seein’ you around, miss.”
With a shuttered glance at the tiger standing next to her, the warden turned over the engine and drove away, the wakes of his waves causing her boat to bounce. Still, Colette couldn’t speak. The only thing she was capable of was throwing her arms around Zach and squeezing him tight.
Zach breathed in her scent, the underlying fear nearly drowning out his markings. He closed his eyes and buried his face in her hair, holding her close. Her heart pounded against his chest, but he couldn’t say or do anything more than hug her, let her hug him. He’d never come so close to dying before. Looking down the barrel of a gun with a cold-eyed shifter on the other end gave him a new appreciation for how a deer felt.
And for the wolf to whisper, “It ain’t time for us to dance just yet, pahdnah.”
He shook his head and tightened his hold on Colette. There was something wrong with that wolf. Maybe he’d do a little snooping, talk with Sheriff Picou when he got back to town, but whatever he did, he wouldn’t allow that bastard to ruin what he and Colette had just shared.
“It’s okay,” he murmured against her crown, tenderness crowding out some of his anger at the wolf. Colette had been genuinely worried about him and he didn’t think it was the general empathy most people had for each other. She cared about him. She had to, right?
“I thought he was going to kill you right in front of me,” she whispered into his chest, her body shivering. She tilted her head back to look at him, her eyes nearly swallowing her face. “I’m sorry, I just need a minute, okay?”
He kissed her forehead before tucking her back against his chest. “What’re you sorry for? You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Her small laugh was shaky at best, but some of the tension left her. “I’m sorry for falling apart like this. I just…I don’t know, I’m usually better at keeping it together.”
Zach allowed himself to smile, her hair hiding his expression. She did care. His tiger liked the idea too, although it was tempered by the arrogance only an apex predator could feel. There had been nothing to worry about. The tiger had excellent reflexes and had scented the wolf didn’t want to shoot him. There’d been something decidedly weird about the way the wolf acted, as though he was following script. But he pushed the thought to the back of his mind to think about later.
Right now, his mate needed the security of his embrace. A purr rumbled in his chest at the thought of her finding solace with him for the rest of her days. Soon, Zach told his tiger. Soon she’ll come to us for everything. But not until we know for certain it’s what she wants.
After several moments, her trembling stopped and she made as though to move away from him. Zach wasn’t ready to let her go, though. When was the last time someone worried about him? Had hugged him just because they had to assure themselves he was safe? Never, that’s how long. His grandmother, while she loved him in her own way, had been a tiger shifter. By the time he showed up on her doorstep, he’d been a little too old for her to coddle in the way of maternal cats.
She hadn’t neglected him, by any means, but his childhood hurts had been treated as a lesson in how to hunt, how to avoid being injured and any number of life lessons she felt he needed to survive. He was glad she hadn’t babied him, except he would’ve enjoyed a hug now and then just because. The way he had a feeling Colette would treat any cubs he gave her. She’d be a tough mother, but she’d also fiercely protect her children and baby them when she could get away with it.
“I’m okay,” she mumbled into his chest, her breath washing across his bare skin.
Up until that moment, Zach had been able to repress his desires. They hadn’t been important when faced with her fear. Now though, the danger had passed. They were in a gently rocking boat in the middle of nowhere and his keen ears and nose detected nothing suspicious. His hold on Colette turned from protective to hungry, his lips trailing down her silky hair to nuzzle the hollow behind her ear.
Her breath caught and her movements to get away stilled. “Zach?”
The soft scent of her arousal wafted to him the more he lapped at and nibbled on her neck, his tiger’s purrs growing louder. “I had a near-death experience,” he rumbled against her skin. “I think there’s a chance I need to do the reaffirmation of life thing.”
Colette looked up at him suspiciously, her eyes narrowing on him even as the pupils expanded when he rubbed his swiftly swelling cock against her stomach. “Oh really?”
“Mm-hm,” he purred and smoothed his hands down her lean back to cup her ass. “Really. Do you mind?”
She was silent so long, Zach lifted his face from where he’d been nuzzling her cleavage through her shirt. She was biting her lip, a thoughtful expression on her face, but there was no mistaking the aroma of her cream filling the air around him.
“I think I need to make sure you’re not really hurt,” she finally said, her hands sliding around to his front where she made short work on the button of his jeans.
Zach couldn’t have stopped himself from smiling, even if the warden held that gun to his head again, and let his mate have her way. Right there in the boat that added a little more motion to their lovemaking.
* * * * *
“Holy hell, where did all this stuff from? Did you win the lottery?”
Colette looked up from where she was adding markings to the crab traps to see her dad and uncles looking at the bounty Zach had brought her. A secret smile threatened to overtake her face, but she swallowed it down when they looked at her again.
“No, I didn’t win the lottery.” She dropped her gaze to the ropes she tied to her traps.
She didn’t say anything else, but heard her relatives exclaiming over the traps, over the new equipment. She wasn’t entirely sure what she’d tell them. If she were honest with them, telling them Zach had bought them, they’d immediately jump to the conclusion that he was trying to buy her affections.
A familiar pair of boots appeared in her vision. She kept her head down and tied a knot before placing that trap on the side and reaching for the next. Except her dad’s hand caught hers.
“Cher, why you don’t tell me where you got this from, hanh?”
Stifling a sigh and knowing she couldn’
t lie to her dad, Colette finally looked up at him. “Zach gave them to me to replace the ones he broke.”
It was sad, really, but she actually enjoyed the look of shock on his face. Her dad hadn’t held back his opinion of Zach while he helped her clean up, had been quite vocal about how he didn’t like the tiger shifter. But now he looked stunned.
“Co faire?” he asked, his face darkening. “This cat thinks he can buy you?”
Colette sighed deeply and put the trap aside. “No, Dad. He felt bad for breaking the others and for uh,” she glanced at her uncles, who were watching them with rapt attention, “for marking the rest of my equipment.” That didn’t seem to go over well with her dad, his face growing redder by the second. “Look, he wanted to make amends and I needed the equipment so I accepted it.” Her dad opened his mouth, but she cut him off. “I’m planning to pay him back as soon as I can set my traps.”
His nostrils flared and he exchanged a dark look with his brothers that made the hair stand up on the back of her neck.
She leapt to her feet. “No,” she shouted. “No. Whatever y’all are planning, better stop now.”
“Colette, bébé, he’s good for nothing, bon rien. He only wants—”
“Willis,” Uncle Tudu cut in sharply and turned to Colette. “Your dad is just worried, cher. This cat, we’ve heard of him many times. You don’t go to town as much as we do. Cet homme est beaucoup amoureux.”
She glared at her uncles. “He is not a womanizer!” Much. She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter what you say, okay?” Sucking in a deep breath for courage, she met her dad’s eyes with her own. “I love him.”
His jaw dropped and his eyes widened. He didn’t seem to be breathing and after a moment, Colette reached out to him, but he slammed a hand to his chest. “C’est pas vrai,” he gasped.
She wanted to roll her eyes at his dramatics. “Yes, it’s true. I love him and I’ve loved him for a long time.” The sheer shock on his face told her he still didn’t get it and her shoulders slumped. She lifted a hand to rub her forehead. “I know the chances of us having a future together are slim. I’m aware, but the heart goes where it wants, yeah? And my heart wants Zach Trahan. Even if it’s just for a little while.”
Something shifted in his eyes, the shock fading a little beneath understanding, but he didn’t relax his stance for a long time. Colette didn’t try to defend herself or Zach. Her dad would come to either love him as much as she did, or hate him for any number of offenses. One of which would become a broken heart if things didn’t work out between them. She shook the negative thought away. Zach cared. How much, she couldn’t say and wouldn’t hazard to guess. Not yet anyway.
Finally, her Uncle Frog broke the tension between Colette and her dad with a, “Is that a new pair of waders?” He pushed past his older brother as he went to admire them.
Her dad gave her a stern look. “You tell me if he hurts you in any way, yeah? I’ll take care of it.”
Colette blew out a hard sigh and smiled a little. “If he hurts me, do you think there’d be anything left for you to take care of?”
Her dad and Uncle Tudu let out nearly identical laughs, slapping her on the back as the tension faded completely. When her dad pressed a hard kiss to her forehead, she knew he’d let her handle this thing with Zach on her own. He wouldn’t be happy about it, but he’d trust her judgment. Of course, if things went sour, she’d have to make sure to hide all the guns in case her dad decided to seek retribution the Robicheaux way.
* * * * *
Zach hurried through his shower, having slipped up the stairs to his apartment to avoid running into any of his employees. He was dying to sleep, but knew he only had so much time before Colette showed up at his apartment. Saying he was a little excited to cook for her was an understatement. But he knew that wasn’t the only reason he was happy. She was coming to his territory. His dick hardened at the thought of having her here, in his home, her sweet scent clinging to his furniture. His tiger purred with contentment.
That last time, in the boat with the sun shining on them, Zach had come very close to sinking fang in her and keeping her without her consent. As he pounded into her, rocking the boat, his fangs had burst out of his gums. Only lifting himself away from the tempting curve of her neck had kept him from doing something she’d later regret.
His cock deflated at the thought of Colette hating him for marking her. He growled and fisted his hands against the shower tile. He hated being uncertain about anything, but his mate left him feeling as shaky as a cub learning to shift for the first time. It wasn’t like him, except there was no denying his skittishness. So he tried logic.
On one hand, he was certain she felt something beyond lust for him. She wouldn’t have clung to him the way she had if it was just sex. And when she’d looked him over for injuries, she’d really studied him, pressing at bruises forming with a frown furrowing her brow. She did care. That was proof positive.
But she didn’t look at him with starry-eyes the way he’d seen Daisy or Kitty look at their mates. Colette’s eyes were shuttered when she didn’t look at him as though she could eat him. Or when she was eyeing him as though she were measuring him for a fur rug. He winced. Okay, maybe he irritated her a little much, but she hadn’t shot at him again and that was a major plus.
Banging sounded on his door, drawing him away from thoughts of his favorite torment. Zach stuck his head out of the shower and bellowed, “I’ll be down in a fucking minute, Emily!”
“You’d better be, dammit,” she shouted right back.
Zach rinsed off and stepped out of the shower, drying himself off with brisk efficiency, his mind turning to matters that would normally have distracted him from Colette. Except she wasn’t the kind of woman he could easily dismiss. Even as he dressed and thought about everything Emily would no doubt want to talk with him about, his mind churned with ways to make Colette see him as a mate. The meal he planned to make for her tonight wouldn’t be pretentious. No, he planned to make her something familiar and obviously home cooked. Comfort food as a main meal and then he’d dazzle her with his desserts.
Zach didn’t bother shaving. Emily didn’t sound as though she had patience, which was strange since his coyote shifter assistant was patience personified. Yet when he opened his apartment door, she growled at him, her eyes pale yellow as her canine rose to the surface.
“You took long enough,” she accused as she stepped over the threshold and surveyed him from his wet hair to his bare feet. “What the hell is going on with you? First you tell me to handle the McElroy wedding. Then you leave a message on my phone at three this morning saying you aren’t coming in? To just handle things as I see fit?” She planted her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “Are you on drugs?”
His tiger found the entire conversation boring and curled into a ball to get the sleep Zach so desperately wanted, leaving him to handle his irate assistant. He stifled a sigh and tried to think of a rational explanation for his sudden absence at the business he’d lived and breathed for years.
Emily’s eyes widened and she staggered back a step. “You’re in love!”
The shock in her voice had Zach frowning at her. “Why do you say it like that? I’m not a machine.”
“Really? You’re going to say that when I’ve worked for you since you took over the bakery?” She snorted and ran a hand through her short hair. “You remember when Dwayne asked you for the weekend off?”
Zach waved her story away and turned to his kitchen. It wasn’t nearly as big as the one he had downstairs, but the appliances were top of the line, the stainless-steel worktable doubled as his kitchen table and he had enough room to work. This was where he spent a lot of time experimenting with new dishes before he brought them downstairs to the bigger work area.
“He was having his mating ceremony,” Emily continued, undeterred by his dismissal. He really needed to do something about her impertinence, but she was a decent baker and he always worried he’d have a h
ard time replacing her. “You asked him if that was something he really wanted to do. In front of his mate.”
Zach hunched his shoulders because he did remember saying that to the chef who acted as his assistant on the catering side of things. “He only knew the woman two days. I was only looking out for him.”
“And exactly how long have you known the human hunter? A week?” she scoffed.
Okay, she had a point, but he was taking the time to get to know his mate better. That had to count, right? He hadn’t just rushed out and bit her as if he were playing tag or something. He was giving her a chance to learn more about him, to fall in love with him the way he’d fallen for her. Humans weren’t like shifters. They needed the whole courting thing before they committed to each other. Dwayne’s mate had been a cougar shifter just like Dwayne. It was perfectly fine and acceptable for shifters to meet and know they were instantly connected. It was normal. Humans, though, were an entirely different matter and Zach worried they were too different for Colette to see him as someone she wanted to spend her life with.
Ignoring Emily’s expectant silence, Zach began to take out the ingredients he needed to make a meal suitable for his female. “I’m going to be relying on you a lot in the upcoming weeks,” he told her without turning around. “Don’t fuck up.”
There was a beat of silence. “Are you serious?”
Thinking back to the conversation he and Colette had as they took their time returning to the landing, Zach knew this was the right time to do this. The advice she gave him the night before in the guise of talking about her family business had helped him realize he was killing himself trying to run two companies alone.
