Cherished by the Cougar_A Shifters in Love Fun & Flirty Romance

by Isadora Montrose

“Four years ago, Robin Fairchild caught us misbehaving ourselves under her roof, or at least under the roof of her inn, and insisted.” Ryan shrugged. “Claudia and I had met in Portland, but you know how straitlaced fairies are.”

  “I would have thought both of you would have taken marriage more seriously,” Tom thundered. “No matter what you damned catamounts do, Claudia was not brought up to treat marriage as disposable.”

  Ryan winced but did not defend himself or his clan. “We might have, sir – if it had been our idea. And of course until two weeks ago, I didn’t know about Jimmy. That makes all the difference in the world.”

  “What about Claudia?”

  “She is still the most beautiful girl in Oregon. And I am no longer in the Marines. I figure we have a sporting chance of making a go of things now.”

  “So what went wrong between you?”

  Ryan drew another deep breath. “I think that’s best left between Claudia and me, sir. Right now we’re going to let past grievances slide and concentrate on bringing Jimmy up right.”

  Tom ran a hand through his hair and finally sat down. “He’s already manifesting hybrid vigor. I don’t mind telling you that Virginia and I are worried.”

  “You mean that thing where he goes invisible and blinks on and off?” Ryan asked.

  “I mean his antisocial tendency to bite other children,” snapped Tom.

  Ryan laughed. “If I were you, I’d be more concerned about the invisibility thing. A couple of sessions with his cousins will teach him bite inhibition. Nothing is going to make him stop flickering whenever he wants to hide.”

  “Bite-fricking-inhibition! What is he? Some kind of animal?”

  “Yes, sir,” Ryan rejoined with scrupulous politeness. “He’s a baby mountain lion. Wrestling with other kids comes naturally. Nipping too. If he is denied his own kind, he’ll tussle with whatever or whoever is available.”

  “Hmph. What’s this about his going invisible?”

  “He doesn’t get that from the Rutherfords,” Ryan pointed out. “We cougars don’t have to literally disappear to make ourselves invisible. We rely on stealth. But Jimmy blinks out when he plays hide-and-seek, and probably every time he doesn’t want to be seen. Not that he has his talent under anything like conscious control.”

  “You’re sure?”

  Ryan nodded. “Of course. Jimmy hides like any other three-year-old. Giggles and peeks. And he would have to do better than go invisible to hide from a cougar. After all, he doesn’t turn his scent off.”

  Tom gazed in horror at his new son-in-law. “His scent?”

  Ryan sighed. “Our sense of smell is part of what makes us cougars great hunters, sir. I can handle a three-year-old cub. But I don’t know the first thing about dealing with a budding sorcerer. Jimmy won’t have his first shift to cougar until he’s twelve or thirteen – puberty brings it on – but he can already work magic. Is that normal for sorcerers?”

  “Not really.” Tom looked gray. “My wife and I are both sorcerers. I’m a weather worker. My talent didn’t really manifest itself until I was almost fourteen. But Virginia is a healer. She was healing people from infancy – so I’ve heard. Neither of us can bend light.”

  “And Claudia is a talent detector, right?”

  Tom froze. “Correct,” he forced out between stiff lips.

  “So where did this invisibility thing come from?” Ryan asked.

  Tom shrugged. “You have to understand that talent is different in everyone. And in every generation. Paragenetics isn’t much different than regular genetics. Every pairing shuffles the pack. My eldest daughter Madeline is a healer. Our middle girl Daphne is a weather worker like me. But Claudia is the first talent detector on either side of the family.”

  So Tom was going to stick with the party line. Even though Ryan was supposedly Claudia’s husband, he wasn’t going to get the truth. “So we can expect that Jimmy is going to just get stronger and stronger. Well, I can see why the Town Council is worried about him. Only use I can think of for that particular talent is cat burglary.”

  “That isn’t funny,” Tom barked.

  Ryan hadn’t been joking. “No, sir.”

  “And what the councilors are worried about is his mauling the other kids.”

  “Won’t happen. There’s not a scrap of viciousness in that boy. He’s as sharp as a tack and full of beans, but he’s also affectionate and sweet-tempered.”

  “You think so?”

  “I know so.” This did not seem like the moment to explain that he could detect vice by smell.

  Jimmy’s smell spoke of love and inquisitiveness. In fact, he smelled pretty much like Ryan’s nieces and nephews and there wasn’t a scrap of wickedness in those busy cubs.

  They got up to trouble if you took your eyes off them for a second. And they certainly needed lots of opportunity for physical roughhousing. And they ate like food might disappear. But none of them was evil, or ever did anything that couldn’t be best described as mischief.

  For all Jimmy’s tendency to get into trouble, there was nothing there that wasn’t manageable with two pairs of sharp eyes and a whole lot of structured activities.

  “You know the Council is set to throw Claudia and Jimmy off West Haven?” Tom asked.

  “Yes, sir. And the Rutherfords too. But seeing as Claudia and I are married, I don’t think it will come to a vote.”

  “So that’s why you’re here. You’re trying to hang on to the Rutherford land. I thought there must be an angle.” Tom rose to his feet and began to explain to Ryan in minute detail what would happen if he didn’t make Claudia deliriously happy and confine Jimmy to childish misbehavior.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Claudia~

  It wasn’t until they had dropped off Jimmy and were headed into Mystic Bay that Mom was able to ask the questions burning her tongue.

  “Where the heck did Ryan pop up from?” Mom demanded.

  “I think he’s been working in Portland,” Claudia said cautiously. She actually knew zip squat about what Ryan did or where he lived. And she didn’t think it was a great idea to mention that he was dying. She didn’t need to throw that worry into the mix this morning.

  “And you want me to believe that you and he have been married for four years?” Mom persisted.

  She was so not going to outright lie to Mom. “We have a marriage certificate to prove it. Robin Fairchild married us.”

  “And didn’t have the courtesy to tell either your dad or me?” Virginia yelped.

  “I think she felt obliged to honor our request for confidentiality,” Claudia said lamely.

  Virginia made a noise that boded ill for Robin Fairchild. Fair enough. Robin had engineered this entire mad scheme. She could deal with some of the fallout.

  “I never thought you would get married without your family,” continued Mom. “Your sisters had such nice weddings.”

  It was time to toss Mom a bone. “Ryan wants us to have a vow renewal.”

  “Does he? And exactly who does he expect to pay for it?”

  “I believe he sees it as his obligation,” Claudia assured her mother. “He’s talking next weekend.”

  “Is he? Well, he has another thing coming. We are not going to have any kind of hole-in-the-corner affair. You are going to have a proper dress, and a sit-down reception with the entire family. And his too. And our friends here on West Haven.”

  “He did say, ‘Queen’s Rules’. Whatever that means.”

  Mom began to laugh. “I always heard that the Rutherford men live under the cat’s paw.”

  “Huh?”

  “Usually that means a husband is henpecked. But it’s difficult to imagine those alpha males being henpecked. My guess is that they are proud of indulging their wives.”

  “Oh.” Ryan certainly seemed to think her word was law in her household. “Is that why they call their wives queens?”

  Virginia laughed harder. “Nope. That’s because a female cat is a queen, just as a male is
a tom.”

  “Well, Ryan already warned me about calling cougars toms. He says it’s like calling us sorcerers witches. But apparently queen is their preferred term for the women.”

  Virginia grimaced. “Which makes them kings, I suppose? I’ll have to remember that tom is an insult.” Mom sounded like she was savoring having one in reserve. “What do you plan to tell people?”

  “That Ryan and I are giving our marriage another shot.”

  “You’re going to get some blowback about dating Kevin Spicier,” Mom warned.

  “Probably. But it’s not as if it’s not perfectly legitimate for separated couples to date.”

  Virginia made a noise that might have been a snort. “Bet Kevin won’t see it that way. Nor the rest of the good folks of Mystic Bay. By the time those gossips at the Bean and Bran get through with you, my girl, you are going to have no reputation left.”

  Claudia sighed. “Probably not.”

  “I could tell that Jimmy was thrilled to bits to have a father. How’s Ryan coping?”

  “He gets Jimmy to mind better than I do. He keeps saying, ‘Did you hear your mother?’ As if disobeying me is worse than murder.”

  “Queen’s Rules?”

  “I guess.” Claudia began to laugh too.

  “You tell Ryan that you want at least two months to plan your wedding and get a nice dress. And in the meantime he can make himself useful teaching Jimmy not to bite.”

  “Ryan says that Jimmy only bites because he’s had no chance to play with other cougar cubs.”

  “Does he indeed?”

  “Yes. He doesn’t seem to think Jimmy is that different from other children in his family. Except for his uncanny way of knowing what you’re thinking.”

  “Hybrid vigor,” Virginia said in a worried voice.

  “I don’t think anyone has noticed except me and you.”

  “Your son is going to be powerful.”

  “I know. But I don’t see why Jimmy should be a criminal. He’s so sweet. No one on our side of the family is vicious. And the Rutherfords have never shown any signs of general delinquency. Have they?” She might as well try Ryan’s argument on Mom.

  “Lot of Rutherfords are in the services,” Virginia said. She paused in thought. “Is that why you and Ryan split up? Over his being in the Marines?”

  “You can tell people that if you want to. But Ryan and I are not planning to air our differences in public.”

  “They’re going to think it anyway,” Virginia said glumly. “They’ll write us Petersons off as unpatriotic.”

  “So, smile graciously and say you hope Claudia and Ryan will work harder at their marriage this time around. Make it sound like you think we were behaving immaturely when we split up. Then distract them with the wedding plans.”

  “Hmm. I’ll go see Robin after work,” Virginia announced grimly. “We’ll work on a date.”

  “Yes, Mom.” Claudia pulled up next to her mother’s storefront office on Main Street and leaned sideways to kiss her goodbye. “I’ll see you later.”

  She wasn’t that late to work, but her boss had his own ideas of punctuality. Like the rest of his family, Morley Parker was a mid-level intuitive with a flair for numbers. He wasn’t much past forty, but his fussiness and premature balding made him seem much older. Talking to him was like talking to the most officious elementary school vice principal in the USA.

  Even before she could take her coat off, Morley summoned her into his office to find out exactly what sort of emergency had delayed her. Morley was acknowledged as not merely Mystic Bay’s worst gossip, but probably the most diligent rumor-monger on the island, if not in the entire state of Oregon. He had earned his nickname.

  His bald head was gleaming with excitement, and he was all set to lecture her when she shut the door behind her.

  “My husband showed up this weekend,” she informed him.

  “I didn’t know you were married,” Morley said testily. Nosy Parker loathed not knowing things.

  Claudia gave him her best I’m-totally-in-control smile. “We split up before Jimmy was born. But this weekend we decided to give things another try. Naturally, I couldn’t send Jimmy off to daycare to announce that his daddy was living with us, without informing my parents first. They spent the whole weekend in Seattle.”

  “On the bank’s time?” interrupted Morley. But his eyes were glistening as brightly as his scalp.

  “It won’t happen again, sir. But you know how people talk.” He should. He did the most talking.

  Morley cut in. “Do we know your husband?”

  “I would think so, sir. Ryan Rutherford has been coming to West Haven all his life. The Rutherfords own all the land around Cat’s Head Bay.”

  His eyes bulged. “He’s one of those Rutherfords?”

  She nodded. “Hmm.”

  “But they’re hunters!” Morley nearly swallowed his tongue.

  “The Rutherfords are cougar shifters,” Claudia said as primly as she could.

  “Does the Town Council know?” he fussed.

  Morley looked dazzled. In addition to the thrill of being the first with scandalous chit-chat, he was probably thinking about all the money the Rutherfords had on deposit with his bank. It shouldn’t have been general knowledge, but Morley was incapable of not bragging about his wealthy clients. He demanded discretion from his employees but the number of people he took into his confidence was truly alarming. His eyes flickered toward his coat closet.

  Claudia sighed and accepted the inevitable. “I couldn’t say, sir. We haven’t made a general announcement.” Better not to tell him Sandy Mulcaster had had two days to rumormonger.

  A look of bliss replaced Morley’s discontented expression. He rubbed his plump little hands together. “You better get to your station, Claudia. I have an errand.” She just bet he did. He had a pressing engagement at the Bean to set the grapevine buzzing.

  “Yes, sir.” She gave it until noon before the entire town of Mystic Bay knew his garbled version of events.

  Morley was halfway into his overcoat before he stiffened and turned. He cleared his throat. “I suppose you’ll be giving notice, now that you have been acknowledged by the Rutherfords?”

  Acknowledged! That was a spin that she and Mom had not considered. “I haven’t had time to consider the matter, sir. But I enjoy working here.” Half true. She enjoyed working. “I’ll be sure to let you know what I decide in a timely fashion.”

  “Surely you will be going to live in Portland?”

  “No, sir. West Haven is my home. Ryan and I have no plans to leave it.”

  Morley almost ran out of the bank, pulling on his gloves as he went. Claudia went to take off her own coat. It was going to be a brutal day. Even before Morley returned from the Bean, the other tellers had noticed her rings and wanted the facts. Carey and Joanna were impressed by her ring and the Rutherford name, but too courteous to say so.

  “I hope things work out,” Joanna whispered before the matronly brunette signaled to the next person in line.

  Carey, who had been filling in for Claudia, patted her shoulder as they switched places. “Good luck,” she murmured as she returned to her paperwork. Carey, like Claudia, was a single mom. But since she and her ex were both psychics, no one on the Council gave a damn. Lucky Carey.

  Claudia opened her station and took the next person in line. Hope Greene had yesterday’s cash to deposit and her usual rolls of coins to collect. Mrs. Greene was a gazelle shifter who ran a souvenir store on Main Street. It was rather pretentiously called the Greene Gallery, but even this late in the season, she did a good business, so Claudia figured the name worked for her.

  After Hope left, the number of customers needing a teller was unusually high. Carey had to open her station. People, however, were politely skirmishing to get waited on by Claudia. Not all of them were successful. Long before her break, however, Claudia was heartily tired of being interrogated. Morley had certainly been flapping his gums.

 
; He came back to the bank with one of his fellow gossips. As soon as she spotted Margery Starkman’s helmet of exuberant gray curls, Claudia’s heart sank. Mrs. Starkman was a rabbit shifter and Wally Babcock’s mother-in-law.

  In addition to his two jobs, Wally was on the Town Council. And Mrs. Starkman thought that gave her the right to know everyone’s business. She had already given Claudia her two cents’ worth on the subject of Jimmy and Jess’ falling out. Well, more like her two dollars’ worth.

  “What a beautiful ring,” cried Margery as she set her big black carry-all on the counter. Behind her trifocals, her faded eyes were avid. Her pink nose twitched. “Do let me see.” She grabbed Claudia’s hand. “Until Morley Parker mentioned it, I had no idea you were married, Claudia.”

  Claudia retrieved her hand. And ignored the implicit question. “Didn’t you? What can I do for you today, Mrs. Starkman?”

  “I need to update my bankbook,” Margery said. “That’s not a topaz, is it?”

  Claudia only smiled and held out her right hand for Mrs. Starkman’s bankbook. “I’ll need your bankbook, ma’am. Would you like me to show you how to update it at the ATM?” she asked.

  “I understand that your husband is the youngest Rutherford boy.” Margery tittered. “I hope he doesn’t hold it against us that Jess blacked Jimmy’s eyes.”

  “Not at all,” Claudia responded.

  Margery rummaged in her bag. “Oh, silly me, I seem to have left my bankbook at home.”

  Claudia gritted her teeth and nodded. “I can give you your balance, Mrs. Starkman, if you swipe your bankcard.”

  “No, no. I’ll come back later.” Margery bustled away happily. By lunchtime she would be telling everyone who would listen that Ryan Rutherford had fobbed his mistress off with a chunk of glass.

  Next in line was Moira Fairchild Drake. Moira was a fairy and Robin’s niece. The town still hadn’t quite recovered from her marriage to a dragon shifter*. Moira owned Fairchild’s Art Supply and managed the West Haven Artists Cooperative. Claudia was startled to see that she was visibly pregnant. Rumor had it that her marriage was doomed to be childless.

  “Congratulations,” they both said at the same moment.