Best Intentions: A Ghost Cats Story

by Mandy M. Roth

  “Thank you, brother,” Brayen pushed out with his mind.

  “Go see to your woman,” Mason said, running after the alpha. “If she has been bitten and exchanged blood then she will turn.”

  The thought of Lily turning into a shifter scared the hell out him. Few survived the change and she was already so small, so delicate.

  Lily screamed again and Brayen shifted back into human form before jumping between the wolf and her. He caught it in midair and twisted its snout hard. He felt its jaws breaking under the weight of his grasp and he had to fight back a smile.

  “Get off my property! I will kill you if you set foot on it again,” he said, throwing the whimpering lycan across the yard. He whirled around to check on Lily. Her eyes were wide as she crab crawled away from him, shaking her head. He’d taken every precaution to prevent her from seeing him shape-shift so he didn’t understand what the problem was.

  He made another move towards her and she fell onto her backside. “You’re bleeding and you’re…naked.”

  Shit, forgot about that.

  Brayen glanced down at himself and back at Lily. “I don’t suppose you could overlook the fact I’m walking around in the buff and trust me to get you to your cabin safely?”

  She blinked twice before settling her gaze on his groin. The minute her green gaze locked on him, his cock acted of its own accord and hardened instantly. Painfully. The need to bury it in her was too great. He’d already denied himself too long. It was foolish and pointless. She was his woman. The gods had their reasoning for crossing their paths and he’d be damned if he forced her away from him again.

  He stalked over to her and didn’t ask if it was all right to pick her up. He just did. Her desire for him filled his nose. She wanted him damn near as much as he wanted her and that did little in the way of helping his throbbing problem.

  “Put me down,” she whispered. “You’re bleeding all over the place.”

  “I’ll buy you new clothes.”

  She balked. “I don’t care about my clothes. I’m worried about you hurting yourself more by carrying me. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re huge and if you should happen to pass out I’ll never be able to get you to safety if the wolves come back.”

  “They won’t come back.” Brayen slowed his pace and stared down into her sweet face. No one had ever worried about him before. He was the guardian, the keeper of the lycans. He made sure they were safe. No one looked out for him in such a manner. Need pulsated throughout his veins.

  “Lily, if I carry you into your cabin I’m staying the night with you. Tell me now if you don’t want me because once my foot crosses that threshold there will be no turning back. And I think we both know what will take place if I stay with you.”

  “Carry me in.”

  His heart stopped. “Are you sure?”

  “I think you’ve lost too much blood and it’s affected your hearing. Carry me in already, would you?” She pursed her lips. “Unless the longer you hold me, the less you want me and the more you realize I’m not your type.”

  Her sass appealed to him even more than if she’d been submissive. “Woman, I think we’re both well aware that I was lyin’ through my damn teeth—trying to keep from fucking you where we stood.”

  The look in her eyes said she wasn’t so sure he’d been lying.

  He stilled, staring down at her. “Lily, you’re everything I want in a woman. Everything.”

  “Brayen.”

  “Shh, beautiful,” he said. The need to claim her drove him onward even though his neck was raw and she’d been right. He had lost too much blood. The werecougar in him made him able to stand more pain and to sustain injuries that would kill a human. It also made his lifespan close to ten times longer than a human’s. He didn’t want to think about outliving Lily.

  He couldn’t.

  He opened the door to her cabin slowly, watching the expression on her face as he went. There was no way he’d take her without her consent. It didn’t matter that he’d die from need. He’d see to his mate’s happiness first.

  He set Lily down on the bed and backed away from her slowly, letting his eyelids flutter shut for a moment. The cougar in him was trying to surface and he wouldn’t let it out. He wouldn’t let it claim her without restrictions—without assurance she’d be safe.

  “Brayen?”

  “I need to clean up. I’ll be right back.”

  “You need a doctor.” The worry on her face made him want her even more.

  He reached out and caressed her cheek gently. “I’ll be fine. I promise. I just want to wash the blood off me. You deserve better than this.”

  Lily averted her gaze and he watched closely as her expression changed. “Please don’t put me on a pedestal. I don’t deserve that.”

  Something in her tone told him this was bigger than she was letting on. “Lily? Do you want to talk about it?”

  Her gaze came back to him. “No, I don’t want to talk. I just want to be with you.”

  Need rippled through him as he looked down at her. “I’ll be right back.”

  Chapter Four

  “Hey, can I help?” Lily’s asked, her voice sugary sweet.

  Brayen stiffened as Lily opened the shower door. His hungry eyes skimmed over her naked body, soaking up its glory. His cock responded instantly. The need to pull her into the shower with him was great and he gave in to it.

  “Oh,” she gasped as he lifted her quickly.

  “Oh,” he echoed with a small grin.

  With her in his arms, she was finally high enough to kiss comfortably so he took full advantage of the fact. Pressing her tiny body against the cool tile, he found her mouth and forced his tongue into it. She met him with a fury, her arms going around his neck and her breasts pressing against his chest. The feel of her hard nipples against his skin made his cock throb.

  “Wrap your legs around me.”

  Lily obeyed and as she wrapped them around him, he felt her hot core near the tip of his cock. “You’re wet.”

  She let out a sultry laugh and kissed his jaw line. “Because we’re in the shower, silly.”

  Brayen worked his hand down her side, running his fingers over her breast on the way down to her core. “That’s not what I meant,” he said, shoving his finger into her, finding her even wetter than he’d first thought. He licked her lip and bit at her tongue gently as it came out to greet his. “So tight.”

  They moaned together. She tipped her head back, pushing her breasts up into his face. He was left with no choice. He had to enter her or burst. He positioned the head of his cock and thrust in hard and fast. Lily cried out and clutched onto him. He stopped in mid motion.

  “Did I hurt you?”

  Her gaze found his as she dove at his mouth, tugging his bottom lip with her teeth. “More.”

  He obliged. Pumping the length of shaft into her repeatedly, savoring every second of having her tight pussy encompassing him. “Do you feel that? You were made for me.”

  She answered him by planting tiny kisses on his throat. She pulled back quickly and caught his face in her hands, forcing his eyes to hers. “You’re healed.”

  He tensed, his cock still deep in her.

  She narrowed her gaze. “What are you?”

  The thought of lying to her never entered his mind and that should have scared him. The existence of his people depended on humans not knowing about them. Brayen did use his gifts to coat his voice with a bit of reassurance. It was easy to do, yet he found he rarely used that talent. “I’d never hurt you, Lily. I’m a shape-shifter. Like the legends of old. My animal is the cougar.” He eased his cock deeper and then held steady, unsure if she’d still accept him.

  Her eyes widened and he waited for her to scream. She didn’t. “You were the tan cat that saved me from the wolves.” She glanced away a moment. “Those weren’t ordinary wolves, were they?”

  “No,” he answered honestly.

  “They would have killed me?”

&nbs
p; “Among other things.”

  Lily ran her hands through his hair and traced her way over his shoulders, down the length of his arms. He began to move within her, slowly, unsure how to take her calmness. He expected hysterics.

  “Is your condition genetic?” she asked between pants.

  Her question caught him off guard. He’d set himself up for her to scream bloody murder and demand he exit her body immediately. “Umm, I guess, but I don’t know. I can’t have children until I find my life mate.”

  She looked saddened by his news. “How many life mates do you get?”

  He pumped himself into her slowly, filling her, feeling her body tighten around him, trying his best to stay focused on their conversation. It was hard to do when her breasts seemed to swell beneath his touch. “I only get one. Do you want me to stop? Are you afraid of me?”

  “I’m not afraid of you for the reason you’d think. I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk away from you.”

  “You don’t have to walk away, Lily,” he said. “You could stay with me.”

  “Shh,” she said, pulling his mouth to hers. He quickened his strokes and let out a muffled moan as she bit gently on his tongue.

  He reached down and rubbed his fingers over her swollen clit. She jerked and bit down harder on his tongue, drawing blood and pulling the beast within him to the surface. A growl emanated from him as his body shook. Lily’s tight pussy milked him and brought his own release on suddenly. Brayen almost lost his footing as the water beat down on his back and his seed spurted into her womb. His incisors lengthened and he bent his head, sinking them into her soft skin.

  Lily cried out and grabbed hold of his hair as her blood flowed into his mouth. Her channel constricted again as the pleasure of his bite brought another orgasm. Before he knew it, he was coming again as well, spilling his seed into her once more, filling her womb with his power.

  He pulled back from her slowly, running his rough tongue over the bite mark. The realization of what he’d just done sunk in. He’d marked her while having sex. He’d mated with her. Brayen pulled back from her quickly and let her legs slide down him.

  She stood before him and ran her hands over his stomach before wrapping her arms around him. Her embrace felt so right, so perfect. She was his other half. The one he’d searched for all his life, yet she was human. He couldn’t explain it to himself, let alone to her.

  “Come on,” he said. “Let’s get you cleaned up before the shock of what I am sinks in.”

  Lily tightened her hold on him. “I’m not shocked at all. My grandmother told me about you. She said men like you existed and that I was born to walk among them. Of course, I took everything she said with a grain of salt. That will teach me,” she said, with a laugh. “I mean who believes they were destined to meet people who can turn into animals?”

  Brayen paused, wondering if her grandmother was a supernatural. It would make sense. Lily was something slightly more than just human. He just wasn’t sure what. “Did she also tell you that you’d end up mated to one the rest of your life?”

  Lily’s arms dropped away from him. Sorrow filled her voice as she spoke. “We have the weekend, Brayen. That’s all we’ll ever have.”

  Like hell.

  “No, we can have eternity. All you have to do is say the word.”

  She put her hand on his chest, her palm scorching his skin as she shook her head. “I can’t give you any more than the weekend.”

  If she thought for one minute he’d let her walk out of his life she was not only wrong, but crazy as well. They were married in the eyes of the shifter community and that was not something to be taken lightly. She was now the guardian’s wife—his mate, and hopefully, if they should happen to be blessed enough, the mother of his children.

  He turned off the water and lifted her from the shower. The sweet smell of her sex permeated upwards and he found himself instantly aroused. Her tiny fingers wrapped partway around his shaft, causing him to moan.

  “You are insatiable,” she whispered.

  “When I find something that makes me happy I tend to run with it.”

  “I see that.”

  “Say you’ll stay longer than the weekend,” Brayen pleaded, needing to hear she’d consider it. Though he was sure she had no idea just what she was to him now. In her eyes, he was a one-night stand. In his world, she was his wife.

  He led her into the bedroom area and to the bed. He laid her damp body out on the bed and pushed her legs apart with his knee. He edged the head of his cock near her still-soaked pussy and leered down at her.

  She bucked beneath him, trying to get him to enter her. “Please.”

  He refused to give her what she wanted. “Promise me more than the weekend, Lily.”

  “I can’t.”

  He let the tip of his dick slip into her. Still tight, her cunt seemed to seize hold of him. It took everything in him not to slam himself down to the hilt. He needed to hear her promise to stay. He wasn’t sure why it was so important to him, but it was. “Lily, let me love you more than a few days.”

  Let me love your forever.

  “Brayen,” she sighed out his name.

  Seeing that he had lost this one battle, but refusing to lose the war, he plunged into her, determined to lay claim to her in as many ways as he could. A scream tore from her as he sank his teeth into her breast, riding her body the entire time. Each thrust, each draw of her blood, put him closer to the edge of sanity.

  Lily raked at his back. He felt the blood running down him as the fiery hot feel of her sharp nails continued to dig into him. She came with a start. “Brayen, oh yes, Brayen, yes… Fill me, give it to me.”

  How could he resist such a simple request? He thrust into her again, this time holding himself in her as his cock pumped, shooting forth his come.

  Chapter Five

  Brayen took a deep breath in, holding Lily’s sweet scent in him. His insides churned. He’d never experienced anything like this before. Waking up with her tiny body wrapped around him after a night of unbelievable lovemaking was almost too much.

  For a tiny thing, Lily was insatiable. They’d had sex nearly every way possible in the tiny cabin. So many times, in fact, he’d thought for sure they’d both be unable to move for days.

  He reached down and ran his hand over her lower abdomen. Afraid to say it aloud, he just let his hand rest there, hoping the gods would see fit to give them a family someday. After the passion they’d shared, Lily couldn’t just walk out. She could say they had only the weekend until she was blue in the face, but leaving him would hurt her as much as it would hurt him. They were connected now—mated.

  “Cougar,” Mason’s voice pushed into his mind.

  He stirred slightly, careful not to wake Lily. “What is it?”

  “The rogue wolves were spotted in the area again. I’m going to take a group out to hunt them at dusk. I thought you might want to come too.”

  Brayen looked down at Lily and exhaled slowly. “I can’t.”

  “I understand. Stay with her and I’ll do my best to ensure she doesn’t see any of us shift.”

  “She knows what we are.”

  Dead silence greeted him. He knew Mason was attempting to understand why Brayen had told an outsider about them. The laws of their kind were clear. No outsider was to know of them and live. Lily wasn’t an outsider anymore. She was his mate.

  “Cougar…”

  “I took her as my mate,” Brayen said quickly, not wanting Mason’s wheels to spin.

  “She’s not one of us.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t change the fact she’s my mate. Look at us. You consider me your brother, yet my mother came here, pregnant and alone, without an ounce of Lakota blood in her. Running Elk took me in. I’m as different as she is, yet I’m your family.”

  He felt the weight of Mason’s thoughts. “That’s different, Brayen. Grandfather knew instantly you carried the traits of a cougar in you. The human doesn’t carry a were gene… Not
unless you infect her with it. That could be the answer to all our problems.”

  “No!”

  “Brayen?”

  He cut communication with Mason instantly. He wouldn’t entertain bringing Lily over. The change could kill her.

  Brayen gathered Lily in his arms and pressed his lips to her forehead. She was his now and he’d never give her up or let harm come to her. If his people weren’t willing to accept her as she was then he’d leave. It was that simple. His wife came before all else.

  Lily woke slowly, still sore from the incredible night of lovemaking she’d shared with Brayen. How a man could go that many times in one night was beyond her. They’d done so many things, things she’d never dreamt of doing, that she blushed again thinking about them.

  She smiled sheepishly as she thought about Brayen holding her hair as he commanded her to “suck him off”, and oh, how she had. She had taken every last inch of his abnormally large cock into her mouth until it had hit the back of her throat. She could still hear his soft moans of pleasure and feel his abs tighten under the weight of her fingertips as he spit seed down her throat. It was one of the most erotic experiences she’d ever had with a man, and it hardened her heart to think about it.

  I have to walk away. I have to go home. I have a life there, waiting for me to put it back together again. She tensed. I can’t leave Brayen. I’ve fallen in love with him.

  Love? Where the hell had that come from? What had provoked her decision to stay? She hardly knew the man and the little she did know would have scared anyone else to death.

  Lily shook the thoughts from her head and looked around the cabin for Brayen. He was nowhere to be found. She sat up slowly. The discomfort from being ridden hard by Brayen left her a bit worse for the wear.

  She crept over to the cabin door, tucking the sheet from the bed around her more. She opened the door slowly. Shocked at first by the fact it was dark out again, she inched her way out of the cabin. She would have turned around and waited in the cabin for him, but the sound of his voice, raised in anger, grabbed her.