A Cougar's Claim (Charmed in Vegas Book 7)

by Jennifer James

  “You know I’m always looking for a new market. The human FAA is giving me some grief, but I’ll find a way around them. Some promo photos with you on my back in the flame themed costume would be amazing. Don’t even think about saying no.” The dragon grinned, flashing the ever-sharp points of her canines. “We’ll hammer out a deal for upfront payment and something to take care of you on the back end as well. Where have you been? I haven’t seen you much at the club.”

  If Inila ever decided to expand her empire into loan sharking, she’d take over the entirety of Vegas inside a month. The woman had unparalleled business sense.

  “My mother got sick. I went home to check up on her,” Rhiannon cleared her throat. There’d been more to it than just checking up, but family business was best kept private. And now she had to find Jase. The dick.

  Inila bent down and kissed her on the cheek, a subtle way of marking her with a measure of protection. “You smell like this male. I thought you were done fucking shifters.”

  “I am. He grabbed me before I could get out of arm’s reach. Typical alpha-hole.”

  “Really? I thought maybe you fell with your mouth open and landed on his face.” Inila snorted in irritation.

  Well, maybe she deserved the derision. Inila had witnessed the walk of shame and the accompanying battles with ice cream too many damn times.

  “No. This was all him. Him and his grabby hands and his muscles and his freakin’ sexy ass mouth—”

  Kit smirked. “You liked it.”

  “Go away Kit.” A flush prickled over her cheeks and across her chest. She shoved against his heavy chest with both hands. Muscles tensed under her palms. Kit sucked in a deep breath and before she could snatch her hands back he trapped them beneath his.

  “No.” Turning so he obscured her view of Inila, Kit dipped his head and captured her gaze.

  She stared, transfixed, as his eyes flared with magic and his beast looked out at her. A shiver raced over and through her, and every tiny hair on her neck rose. “Hi?”

  A barely audible purr vibrated past his lips.

  A deep, grinding growl that sounded like rocks sliding against each other rolled out of Inila’s throat. “Keep your hands to yourself shifter, or I’ll rip them off and eat them.”

  Sparks rose and fell in Inila’s irises, a sign of her magic awakening. Not good. She didn’t want Kit to die, even if he had broken her heart and then thought he could randomly show up out of nowhere and molest her with his mouth. If Inila decided to shift and fry Kit, there wasn’t much anyone could do. Dragons were nearly impossible to kill—rumored to only be vulnerable to weapons made from dragon bones and scales.

  Rhiannon doubted those weapons even existed. If dragons ever died, they slunk off alone in the night and hid their body like a sick pet cat.

  Rhiannon cleared her throat. A messy ball of hurt and confusion crawled up her throat. “It’s fine Inila, don’t worry about it. He’s made it clear he’s not into being with me for anything other than a one and done.”

  “Rhiannon—” Kit’s voice was a snarl she felt more than heard.

  “Look Kit, I’m trying to find my...friend Jase. The desk clerk told me he rented this room.” Inching away, she wriggled her hands free and tucked them behind her back. Anything to keep her stupid hands from reaching for him. “How’d you get in here? Do you have a key? Are you here with Jase?”

  Deep wrinkles formed between Kit’s eyebrows and bracketed his mouth. A muscle near his eye twitched. “I’m not here with Jase.”

  “Well, do you know where he is? I have to find him.” A tiny spurt of hope ignited in Rhiannon’s chest. Finally, she was getting somewhere with this search that’d taken her into almost every bar and club on and off the Strip.

  “He’s not here. And I’m not sorry about the kiss, in fact, I’m going to fucking kiss you again.” He crowded in closer.

  “Back off pussy cat.” Inila sidestepped between them and elbowed him in the gut hard enough to force him into the middle of the hallway. “The clock’s ticking. Every minute you waste out here in the hallway is going to cost you.”

  “What the—? I told you, I didn’t call you.” Kit tried to get around Inila, a scowl turning his lips down and the reflective gold of his cougar’s eyes glinting. “Damn it dragon, get out of my way.”

  “I don’t think so.” Inila crossed her arms over her chest and popped a hip out. “Rhia, if you’re going, it’s a good time to get gone.”

  God, her friend was right. She had to leave, now, before Kit touched her again. Each moment of skin-on-skin contact made it more difficult to leave him. If he kissed her again, she’d lose control and give zero fucks about the consequences. Rhiannon shook her head and turned on her heel. Deciding to let Inila play guard dragon with Kit, she stuffed all the hurt and confusion inside down deep where she’d hopefully be able to forget about them until she’d found Jase and the money.

  She didn’t need men like Kit Barrientos in her life. Tossing her hair out and over her shoulder, she put some serious sway into stomping down the hallway like she’d just destroyed the runway.

  Maybe one of the staff members had seen Jase sneak out. Desperation threatened to overwhelm her, gobble her up like the ogre she’d taken the loan from. Mancini had been happier than hell when she’d begged for an extension to get the money because he thought he had her backed into the perfect trap with no way out.

  She’d be held captive in his lair underground for five years, forced to dance at his whim.

  To perform the...duties of his personal harem.

  Bile burned her esophagus.

  Fucking shifters. If she shaved Jase and Kit bald while they slept, would they shift and look like one of those creepy furless house cats?

  Oh, they deserved that and so, so much more.

  Ignoring the ruckus of her friend tussling with the only man she’d ever loved, she refused to resign herself to defeat. She’d find Jase, she’d find the money, and then she’d get the hell out of Vegas.

  “Rhiannon.” Kit called her name, and she’d be damned for it but she paused.

  Turned on her heel, raised her eyebrow, and stared back at him.

  “I’m coming for you.”

  A grin spread across her face, her pulse sped up, and she flipped him off with both hands.

  Chapter Three

  A laugh rose up from somewhere deep inside him. Kit smothered the sound. Hot damn, she was fierce and gorgeous and he couldn’t wait to have her beneath him.

  She wanted him to hunt her, to fight for her. The only option was to give her what she wanted. No way would she slip through his fingers this time. He’d do things right, woo her, seduce her, earn her forgiveness.

  First he had to get rid of the guard dragon his mate had set on her. The rational part of him was glad Rhiannon had gained the loyalty and friendship of such a powerful being. But right now, he needed this woman to get the fuck out of his way so he could claim his mate.

  “Go ahead and try to chase after her. I’ll catch you and burn the family jewels off.” Tiny red-orange flames swayed in Inila’s palm.

  “Damn you, get out of my way.” Kit lunged in an effort to push past Inila’s tall, slender form, his cougar screaming inside his head. Claws extended, canines sharped to sword-sharp points, and he dropped halfway to the floor. “You know I didn’t call for you.”

  Surging toward the dragon shifter, he slashed out with his claws. Inila giggled and knocked him into the hotel room with a simple palm strike to his chest. Setting the bruises to his male pride aside, he forced himself to calm down and think. He hadn’t survived as the second in his clan by being an idiot ruled by testosterone. Dragon shifters possessed magic and power far beyond that of other shifters and he’d never heard of someone taking a dragon on head to head and coming out alive.

  This woman could crush his skull with one hard swat to the head. If he died, what would happen to his mate?

  “This is the only warning you’re doing to get.”
She straddled him, heavier that she should have been, crushing his abdomen for a few seconds. “You hurt my friend. Dragons don’t usually have friends. It’s too hard to resist eating them or stealing their wealth. Or both. I will kill you if you force me to.”

  Huffing every breath, Kit tried to think rationally, to find the cool, calculating, cunning part of his beast that could lay in wait for hours while on a hunt.

  Yeah, he was a powerful shifter half-insane with needing his mate, but he was also smart enough to know when to negotiate. Dragon shifters liked to take on assassination jobs because they got to eat the target at the end of the hunt. Fighting this dragon would only end up with him dead.

  He couldn’t claim Rhiannon as his mate if he was dead.

  She’d be alone, unprotected. Vulnerable.

  The cougar inside paced, swatting with unsheathed claws and snarling to slide free of his human skin and track her down. He wanted to hunt her, drag her somewhere secluded, and keep her there until she bore the mate bond.

  Her scent lingered on his shirt, the taste of her skin on his tongue. Irresistible.

  The dragon cocked her head, smirked, and rose to her feet. “Not used to losing a fight, are you?”

  “Who says I lost? Maybe I’m just waiting for the right opportunity.” Kit curled up into a sitting position. If he thought of this as a hunt, where the ultimate prize was Rhiannon, naked and sweaty beneath him, staying still wasn’t as hard. “We both know I won’t be able to sit here for long. She’s my mate.”

  “Three minutes and I won’t kill you when you run after her.” Red hair kissed with yellow, white, and blue highlights tumbling down her back, Inila looked like someone he’d be able to break over his knee with one hand. “Have you ever seen her dance?” She tossed a phone large enough to be a tablet at his head. “She’s headlining at my club next month.”

  “Three minutes.” Kit caught the device in one hand, careful not to squeeze too hard and damage it. Dragons didn’t play well with those who broke their toys.

  A video played on the screen, Rhiannon on stage, clad in a glittery costume that she kept removing pieces of until all that remained were a pair of pasties, tiny panties, and a couple of bangle bracelets.

  The costume almost undid him. It exposed lots of creamy skin. And the way she moved, the athletic grace of her dance...she’d mastered the art of the tease.

  “She’s amazing.” The happy smile, the laughter bubbling out of her as she paused on the edge of the stage to talk to a few audience members, left his emotions in a ragged tangle. She was radiant. So happy.

  He wanted to cover her in a blanket and gouge the audience members’ eyes out. But he couldn’t do that. Rhiannon would be hurt by that and he never wanted to do something that would cause her pain ever again.

  An unwelcome and unfamiliar sense of inadequacy trickled into his guts. Would he be enough for her? The life he offered was far from the crowds of a large city like Las Vegas. The thought of watching her perform on stage for a crowd of horny, unattached males seared him, might drive him insane with jealousy.

  Perhaps he’d learn to live with her need to express her talent for dance and performing in time.

  This kind of life wasn’t for him. One endless party where the city never quieted and the only escape lay miles outside town in the mountains. He craved the lush, cool forests of his home. Miles of wilderness to wander in, rivers and hidden lakes, plenty of wild game, and privacy. Solitude.

  Rhiannon might find life mated to him a trap. Instead of the freedom he found far from a large city, she might feel enclosed and caged. All things he’d worried about a decade ago when he’d ignored the mating urge.

  The more time he spent in Vegas, the more he yearned to return to his cabin in the mountains where the nearest neighbor was five miles away and life moved slower. Simpler. He couldn’t change that part of himself.

  There had to be a way to compromise with her. First she had to forgive him. And he’d already screwed that up with snatching her off the ground and treating her like she was nothing but an object to slake his lust on.

  “I think it may be her last performance. That’s how I’m going to bill it. Ticket sales will shoot through the roof.”

  “Why would it be her last performance?” Kit inched toward the door, ready to bolt down the hall the second he had an opening. It took all his concentration to hold the cougar inside under thrall. He’d be no good to Rhiannon as a dead man.

  “You’re her mate. You don’t live here. You don’t even like it here. Aren’t you going to make her move with you?”

  The query came out as a velvet covered barb, all sugar sweetness over a hard, sour center. “I’d never make Rhiannon do anything she didn’t want to do.”

  Snorting in disbelief, Inila grabbed her phone, tapped the screen with her thumbs so fast he couldn’t make out the pattern, and said, “You owe me four hundred sixteen dollars and sixty-seven cents.”

  “Are you fucking joking?” He reached for the device.

  She smacked his hand away. “You hurt my friend. I could smell it on her. And now I’ve had to sit here babysitting you while you interrupt my real appointment. You owe me.”

  “I owe you? I owe you?” Voice rising with every word, his vision darkening at the edges, Kit roared. “You knew I wasn’t here waiting for you. I could be with her right now you crazy—”

  Thick smoke and the crackle of flame slammed into his senses. The cougar inside hissed, ready to fight, ready to race to his mate.

  A sound not unlike the snap of a sail in the wind sounded, and a pair of magnificent, leathery purple wings spread behind Inila, their expanse wide enough to touch the opposing walls. Fire danced in a red-orange jet from one palm to the other and enclosed her in a chin high ring of flame.

  “I’m not the one who screwed up. You are. You did something to hurt her and you’re wasting my time. You should be happy I didn’t just kill you the second Rhiannon got on the elevator,” she smirked, magic crackling like static electricity gone wild. “She’s headed downstairs right now. In fact, she’s singing to herself. So pay me and I’ll be off.”

  “Greedy ass dragons. For a species at the top of the food chain, you sure do get off on screwing people over.” If only he had hearing superior enough to track someone through a building. Maybe he’d have gotten to his cousin before the dick had a chance to take off. He’d have definitely closed the door on this con artist’s face before she had a chance to screw him over.

  “Just put the damn fire out.” He fished his wallet from his pocket and flicked the worn leather open with a quick snap of the wrist. Less than ten minutes with the dragon and she’d managed to nick almost every penny he’d had left after paying the taxi fare from the airport. Not paying her would put him on a hit list for the rest of his life. She’d be following him from one place to another, demanding money, food, that he do her laundry... “The damage to the room is going to cost the clan.”

  “Should have gotten the optional insurance for supernatural damages.” Inila plucked the cash from his fingers, the bed a smoldering ruin behind her.

  Kit crossed the room and opened the door to the balcony. Hopefully the smoke went out through the open glass door before the fire alarms went off.

  The unending hum of the Strip beat against him, palpable and unforgiving. How did people stand it? Everything here was hard, hot, and messy. All concrete and glass. The trees and plants appeared unnatural, too sculpted and full of sharp angles.

  If he had to, he’d learn to love this dry, angry landscape. If that’s what Rhiannon needed.

  “I wish you weren’t Rhiannon’s mate. I haven’t had cougar in centuries, and I would very much enjoy ripping your limbs off one by one and gnawing on them like chicken wings.” She approached him from behind, and he let her.

  Unsure if she was serious or not, Kit suppressed the grossed-out shudder that tried to roll over him. This was a dominance game, and if he turned to face her now, he’d lose. Inila was physica
lly stronger than him, so he had to prove his mettle with intelligence. “She’s lucky to have a friend like you.”

  His cat paced inside him, ears pinned back and snarling, but he kept his claws sheathed, his fangs tucked away, his growl from erupting from his throat.

  Inila chuckled, her breath a whisper along his hair line. “Oh, I can see why the alpha wants you to take over Kit. Jase will be a disaster as alpha. Your clan would fall to ruin within five years.”

  How the hell did she know anything about his clan? About him? She’d thrown the statement out there to try and get some kind of rise out of him, perhaps as a way to gather more information. No way in hell was he going to walk right into that trap. “You damn dragons really do have your claws into everything, don’t you? I have a mate to catch. I agreed to three minutes, I’ve paid for three minutes.”

  Sprinting for the door, he sneezed, trying to expel some of the sulfurous stink from the dragon’s flames. Taking a risk, he tossed out a parting shot. So he’d gotten his ass handed to him by a female dragon—that didn’t mean he couldn’t get his back. Inila needed to know she wasn’t the only shifter with a paw to the ground and an ear for information. “Better hide your hoard. I hear your lover boy Herodes is looking for you.”

  Stunned silence and then loud, raucous laughter reached him. “Maybe I won’t burn your balls off after all. Convince her to take a loan from me to pay off her current debt and I’ll help you with your alpha problem.”

  “No dragon offers a loan on fair terms.” He halted with one hand on the door knob. Mind reeling, Kit tried to figure out why Rhiannon would need a loan from a dragon.

  “She’s out of options. You’ll find Jase before she does, and when that happens The Ogre will have her.” Inila sauntered into the hall.

  “Who?”

  “Local mob boss and real, live, slobbering pig of an ogre. Never liked eating ogres. They’re too greasy and taste like moldy, rotted sweat socks.”

  What the hell had his idiot relative dragged Rhiannon into? No way Jase wasn’t to blame for this mess. “What did Jase do?”