Furbidden Mate

by Jessica Snow

  “Oh, Kat, I have so much to talk to you about,” McKenzie replied calmly, and Kat noticed that her sister sounded more mature that she had even a few months ago. Then again life had been a lot different a few months ago. Still, there was a part of her that thought of McKenzie as her high-school-attending little sister, and that part of her was angry.

  “Stop right there, sweetie. I haven’t seen you in nine months. Where the hell have you been? Do you know how many times we’ve gone out searching for you?”

  McKenzie wiped at her eyes, but she didn’t look upset at all. Or at least not as much as Kat thought she would. “I’m sorry, but Mom wouldn’t let me get in contact with you guys.”

  “Mom?” Kat asked, absolutely shocked. “You’ve been in contact with Mom?”

  “Actually,” McKenzie said, looking a little chagrined the first time, “Mom never left us.”

  “I think this is the point at which you and I need to take the little ones out for a walk,” Carly said softly to Elizabeth. “Come on you three, let your Mama and Aunt McKenzie have a talk.”

  Carly came over and scooped up two of the triplets, with Elizabeth picking up the third and leaving the cabin. When the door closed, Kat looked at her sister, shock, and distrust on her face. “You need to start talking and you need to start talking now.”

  “Wouldn't it be better for us to wait for everybody else?” McKenzie said. “What about Liam?”

  “He’s trying to track what the hell and who the hell attacked the cave,” Kat said. “I am not saying you have to tell me everything that’s happened, but you need to explain what do you mean that Mom never left us?”

  Rosie, who had followed them inside, picked that instant to swirl around Kat’s legs, her tail swirling and switching side to side. McKenzie bent down and picked her up, setting her on the table. “Kat, say hello to your mother.”

  Kat was glad that Liam was back. Not only did his presence reassure her that he was safe, but she felt she needed his support right now. His reassuring touch and the smell of him reassured her that she hadn’t hit her head, she hadn’t gone temporarily insane, and that this wasn’t a dream. Of all the craziness in her life over the past few months, hearing that her mother, who she thought had been missing for years and who have walked out on the family, was, in fact, her cat… that shit fucked with her head.

  It screwed with Liam’s head too, which was more reassuring to her in some way. If he was flabbergasted, then her own reaction wasn’t all that abnormal. “So, Rosie… is your mother?”

  McKenzie nodded her head slowly, looking Liam up and down, and Kat had to give her credit, she didn’t flinch at all from Liam’s look. In a weird testament to their family connection, one of each of the triplets had curled in each of their laps, with Selena choosing her mother, Hunter his father, while Edward was curled up with McKenzie. The rest of the group huddled around the small single room that made up the rest of the hunting cabin outside of the two decent-sized bedrooms that they still had to divvy up for later. “She got forced into this form from a witch’s duel. The other woman gave up her life to force my Mom into remaining a cat. Didn’t you ever find it ironic that Rosie showed up one morning just a few days after Mom left?”

  Kat shook her head and shrugged. “Honestly, at that point, I wasn’t thinking too clearly. So, does Rosie... I guess I mean Mom, understand us when we talk to her?”

  McKenzie glance at the cat, and laughed softly. “She’s understood everything you told her from the minute she showed up. She just reminded me that you showed her a lot of things when you thought she was just a stupid cat that you probably would not have told your mother.”

  Kat blushed, then reached out with a trembling hand and set it on Reba’s back. “I guess you’re probably right. I’m sorry for all the hard things I said about you, Mom. I thought I was talking to a cat.”

  Kat and her mother looked into each other's eyes, the greenish brown so different from Reba’s normal eyes, but Kat still felt better. She could see now the intelligence that was behind those eyes. “Mom says that she tried every day to tell you that she loved us. But we should save the mushy family reunion stuff for later. We’ve got a lot of shit on our plate. Including getting Dad back.”

  “How are we going to do that?” Carly asked for the first time. After Zack and Ashley came in, she’d been quiet, trying to be mature as she saw the quickly reunited couple of McKenzie and Zack ignore the nine months of separation and embrace, all her attention on Zack ignored in an instant. Elizabeth noticed, however, and was doing her best to be a friend to the young teenage werewolf by sitting next to her and sometimes putting a reassuring hand on her arm or leg. Maybe it was starting to work. “I don’t even know what happened when you went to the Wardens’ compound, you guys didn’t give any details. I just don’t see anyone I could call Big Mike anywhere around here.”

  Carly’s question was temporarily shelved as both sides of the group started to tell their tale. First, Liam, Kat, Zack, and Ashley talked about the massacre at the Wardens’ compound, and how they have been betrayed from inside. If Kat needed any more proof that Rosie the cat was, in fact, her mother, watching the worried twitch and pacing as they deliver the news ended any questions for her. “It was right about then that you guys called Ashley, and we came. Now tell us about the attack on the cave?”

  Elizabeth spoke up. “I had just put out the hamburger for the kids like you wanted when Carly heard them approach,” she said. “She was able to change into her wolf form and I had the shotgun when the first one came in. If you want a blow-by-blow description, I can’t really tell you much. I just remember the way the shotgun felt and how I kept firing over and over. It was empty before I think I even had a chance to take a second breath, and after that, I was reloading and firing as quickly as I could. It was dark obviously, so in less than a minute I was flash blind, and all I could remember was being scared. Carly, I remember, got the first one out of the cave, and the babies stayed right behind me. How many there were I don’t know. But Liam, if you ever want to doubt your cousin’s abilities, don’t. She fought her ass off.”

  Carly blushed and looked shyly up at Liam. “I really tried, cousin.”

  Liam reached out with a big hand, setting it affectionately on his little cousin’s shoulder. “I know you did. And I know that I owe my family’s lives to you. To both of you. But...”

  “But it was two of us, and Crystal had about a dozen with her,” Carly continued. “Elizabeth was able to wound a couple of them, but we didn’t have silver shells, so the best we were able to do was slow them down. I had crippled two more, but we were being forced back into the cave when McKenzie showed up.”

  At the mention of McKenzie, Kat’s questions about the past nine months for her sister came to the front again. “Just where have you been, McKenzie? That’s twice now you’ve saved our lives, kicking ass and taking names. For the nine months, in between we don’t hear a damn thing from you, and before that, I was worried that you were dead.”

  “I almost was,” McKenzie replied, her voice dropping as she started on her story. Kat winced more than once as she listened to the terrible recollection, and what had happened. “So, your friends?”

  “Mom told me that if Daisy and Annabelle did survive me breaking out of there, they are most likely vampires now,” McKenzie said sadly. “The problem is, I would have come to you earlier guys, but I can’t seem to be able to control my magic very well unless I am very emotional. Unless I am pissed off or scared for my life, David Copperfield kicks my ass.”

  “So, you hid in order to train,” Liam said. “Kind of like what we did.”

  McKenzie nodded, looking at Kat with a sarcastic chuckle. “Yeah. How’s that working out for you anyway?”

  Kat grinned darkly, shaking her head. “Kinda like you. Unless I’m in full on emotional mode, I’m stuck in my human form. I haven’t been able to change since the triplets were born.”

  “At least they’re cute,” Elizabeth counte
red, stopping when everyone looked at her. “What? They are. Seriously, they’re like the cutest babies ever, a trio of little fuzzballs that just… never mind.”

  “So, like Carly said, what do we do now?” Zack asked, turning everyone’s attention back to the problem at hand. “We know that my crazy sister, Crystal, is now in charge of the outcast pack, and I guess we know where your father is. In my opinion, the first problem is getting Big Mike. Especially if Crystal is already starting to lose some of her pack members. She could self-destruct on us. Or she could just get eliminated on her own. Liam, you said that the other wolf packs are going to at least keep their eyes out for her, too. So, getting Kat’s father back seems to be the more pressing issue.”

  “Yeah, but how do we track him?” Kat asked. “McKenzie, you seem to have some sort of knowledge or information that I don’t. Fill me in.”

  “I think I can do that,” Ashley interjected. “if we can find your father’s Bear Stone, then we can find him easily.”

  “What’s a Bear Stone? I feel like one of those video game characters that has all these powers and abilities that nobody tells you about when you start playing the fucking game,” Kat complained, clamping down on her frustration hard. “Someone fill me in.”

  “A Bear Stone is one of the main differences between werewolves and bears,” Ashley said. “Maybe your mom can correct me, but I think when the witches made werebears, they knew that your more solitary, independent nature would make controlling you more difficult.”

  McKenzie spoke up. “Not control, although it could be seen that way. They knew after the mistakes they made with werewolves that they had to have a way to keep track of their creations.” She looked at her sister and took a deep breath. “Every bear has a Bear Stone, it’s created soon after they’re born by their own natural magic. It looks like a jewel, Mom said in your case it looked like a piece of amber, or maybe tiger eye. We can’t control you with it, but if we have your Bear Stone, we can find you anywhere on the planet in case of trouble. Even a non-magical human could find you because the magic is in the stone itself.”

  “That was why for so long, even the Wardens and the Guardians thought that werebears were extinct,” Ashley said. “Your father disappeared from our databases back when he was a child. His Guardian was killed by vampires, and afterward, the investigators could not find his Stone. For almost twenty years, the Guardians thought that Mike had been killed along with his Guardian. It wasn’t until after you were born, Kat, that people began to suspect again. It was how I was assigned to be your Guardian, even if you had never manifested yourself.”

  “So where is this Bear Stone?” Kat asked, before turning her attention to her mother. “By the way, you and I have quite a long private conversation we need to have, another time, about you keeping information from me. I don’t want McKenzie to hear some of the things I need to say to you, and right now she’s the only way you can talk to me.”

  “Mom says she understands,” McKenzie replied. “As for Dad’s Bear Stone, Mom said she’s never seen it, but if it still exists Dad would have had hidden it inside our house. She hid yours soon after you were born in your room, but as for Dad’s, she’s not sure.”

  “Then tomorrow, after the sun is up and we only have to worry about Crystal and the outcasts,” Liam said, “We’ll go and tear that house apart down to the studs in the walls if we have to. By the way, what about Kat’s Stone?”

  Ashley reached into the pocket of her pants, pulling out a small brown stone which to Kat did look a little bit like tiger eye, or maybe a polished sandstone. She held it out to Liam, looking embarrassed for once. “Here. When I took this from Kat’s room, you were my enemy. Not anymore.”

  She set the small stone on the table, and Kat looked at it, surprised that her friend, who seemingly had a thousand secrets, had one more. “You’ve kept this all this time Ashley?”

  “Hey, I remember when you got that,” Elizabeth said suddenly before blushing. “Sorry, Kat. It was the day I got let in on all the secrets. I guess it slipped my mind when compared to all the other stuff that went on.”

  Kat shook her head, letting go of her distrust and putting her faith in her friends. “It doesn’t matter. In any case, maybe you should hang onto it, Ashley. Liam can track me with his nose. You need a little bit of help, and I can use another protector. Besides McKenzie.”

  “Actually,” McKenzie said, “According to the way this works, and the way Mom told me, you’re kind of my protector.”

  Kat laughed softly. Like that was any different from their lives up until now anyways. “I can deal with that. But for now, let’s find Dad’s Stone tomorrow. You are staying the night, right?”

  “I’m staying next to you until this is over,” McKenzie replied. “I… convinced Mom that if she didn’t let me reunite with you guys, I was going to run away and do it anyway. Mom’s pissed, but then again, she’s still stuck as a cat.”

  The indignant meow that followed made everyone chuckle, and the group broke down, Ashley, Carly, and McKenzie taking the one bedroom, while Zack stepped out. “I’ll keep my head on a swivel, but I need to check some things out in town. I’ll check in with Winston and the Delgado twins. I know where they hang out. I’ll be back tomorrow morning.”

  After everybody had gone to sleep, the triplets bedded down on a warm blanket with their grandmother, Kat and Liam looked at each other. It felt strange, it was strange, but after the stress of the day, it felt right. “Join me in the woods?” Liam asked, holding his hand out. “We don’t need to go far.”

  Kat nodded, taking his hand. “Let’s stay close.”

  At the door, Kat was surprised when she heard a soft meow and she looked to see her mother looking at them with what could only be approval in her feline eyes. She meowed again, then put her head down, wrapping her tail around her grandchildren and closing her eyes. Kat felt tears coming to her eyes, as she knew it was her mother’s way of giving her blessing to what was about to happen.

  The night was not too cold, although the breeze coming from the distant lake was chillier than what she was used to. “You’d think with me being a bear, and spending most of the winter in a fucking cave, I wouldn’t get chilly anymore.”

  Liam chuckled softly, leading her into the woods. “You’d think that. Then again, I spent the whole run from the barn until I got close to the cove wondering just how in the world I got to the position I am. When I was a boy, and I thought of my future as an alpha pack leader, I never expected that pack would include a bear, a witch, another witch that is trapped in a cat’s body, two human girls, my own cousin, and Zack Lilly of all people. Hell, looking at it, Zack and Carly are the most normal members of this pack. Do you think we could find a leprechaun, or maybe a fairy?”

  Kat chuckled. “You know my love when you made love with me that first time, I knew deep inside me that our lives would never be the same. Would you want to be a regular pack leader now?”

  “No chance in hell,” Liam said, pulling her to him. “You’re mate and my love. And I want you now.”

  Kat, even before becoming a bear, had been a strong woman, and as a bear was even stronger. But feeling Liam's passionate embrace made her feel as normal as any other woman. His lips crushed against hers as his hands roamed over her curvaceous backside, squeezing and kneading the ample flesh. Kat moaned, her body meeting the reassurance of her mate’s desire, their tongues sliding over one another. Liam kissed down her neck his claws extending just enough to shred her T-shirt and expose her skin to his lustful devouring. He pushed her against a nearby pine tree, sniffing and tasting her skin, his tongue swirling around her left nipple and making her gasp. “Oh fuck,” Kat groaned, the heat quickly gathering between her thighs. “Oh, my God, Liam, I’ve missed this.”

  Liam’s growl of desire as he sucked and nibbled at her tender flesh reassured her even as he lifted her, using his massive strength to hold her in the air against the tree as he sniffed and licked his way down to the moist treas
ure between her legs. She was still wearing the jeans she had put on, but the feeling of his nose and his jaw working over the damp denim sent waves of heat through her body, and Kat clutched at his head, pulling him deeper into her. It was maddening because she knew that no matter how much it felt good, there was no way in hell that she could get what she wanted here, but at the same time she was reluctant to let him stop, it was so good.

  “Let me down,” she said, pulling on his hair when the desire to come became bigger than the pleasure of his continued tastings. “I need to get these pants off.”

  Liam set her down carefully, his eyes glowing golden in the soft moonlight. “And I need to get my pants off too,” he said, reaching for the waistband of the cheap sweatpants that Ashley had tossed him from her car, a tool she had started to use once she became used to the fact that she would spend a lot of time around werewolves who would show up naked in human form, cheap clothes from the thrift store, just in case. “How do you want it?”

  “You know the way I like it,” Kat said, pushing her jeans down. She got down on her knees, turning around and teasing him with her ass. “And I know you like it this way too.”

  It had taken Kat a little while to convince Liam that there was nothing wrong with the two of them enjoying sex in the classic ‘doggy style’ just because of their unique situation. If anything, enjoying it this way made even more sense, as it spoke to who and what they were. Not that she didn’t enjoy any intimacy with Liam, but the primal joining of feeling him take her body in his hands and possessing her thrilled her to the core.

  Kat was expecting Liam to take her quickly with his thick, massive cock, but instead, she was treated to the not unexpected, but still welcome surprise, as he bent down and started sniffing and licking at her hot, wet pussy from behind. He buried his face in between her wet folds, his tongue caressing and setting every nerve inside her on fire. Who gave a shit if his skill with oral sex was because of his werewolf instinct or just his natural talent? Kat felt swept away with the pleasure. Her pussy gushed all over his tongue and face, soaking him in her essence and driving her unique aroma into his brain, searing the connection between them even deeper into his soul while at the same time his tongue was binding her to him more and more.