by Anthology
“Can’t blame you for being a little skittish, Blue. Honestly.”
“But I’m not skittish around you, and I’d like to understand that as well.”
“You have a problem not being skittish around me?”
“Not at all. In fact, I think I like it. Now, spill the beans already. What am I getting into?”
“Getting into?”
“Oh yes, darlin’. Definitely getting into.” He glanced back at her just long enough for her to catch the gleam in his eye. It set off a sizzling chain reaction that traveled from the spot where the hair stood up on the back of her neck, clear down to her little pinky toes.
Clearing her throat once, then again for good measure, Kotara gave him a history lesson in shifter genetics. And to her great pleasure, he looked at it like any peer would—as a physical and physiological phenomenon.
She left out details about her family, hoping against hope that Koreas had good news. Some things just weren’t shared with a person who wasn’t a mate.
Dear Santa, please, please let this gorgeous, generous man be my present this holiday season…
* * *
Blue drove his snowmobile up onto the trailer and connected it to the hitch on the back of Kotara’s monster ride. Since he knew the roads and trails much better than she did, Kotara asked him to drive. In no time, they were headed back to Casa de Blue.
The ride back was filled with a mix of comfortable silence and the kind of chit-chat that happens when two people are getting to know each other. In the middle of explaining why disco music and roller skates should make a comeback, Kotara’s comm unit buzzed.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but I need to take this. It’s my sister.”
At his nod, Kotara keyed in her access code and sent a message letting Koreas know she was not alone. An acknowledgement came through followed by a note that made Kotara bite her lip to keep her mouth from falling open.
“Your blood shows elevated levels of mating hormone! I couldn’t keep you in suspense. Now, what are you going to do about it? Does he know? And I still want that blood sample of his.”
“Oh my God, really? Kory, I wish I could tell you what I’m dealing with. I asked him point blank if he was a shifter because of the way he moves, and he’s not. But there’s something about him I can’t pin down.”
Until recently, it had always been their experience that shifters couldn’t tell one of their kind from a human unless that particular shifter had gone rogue. Then all of their lives had changed when Derria had chased one of her mates, Kerr, to his home in the North Carolina mountains.
There she’d met the two men who were now both hers—Lakota Phillips, a gentleman jaguar shifter, and Kerr, a grumpy but gorgeous wolf.
While hunting, Dare had suddenly developed the ability to literally sniff out others of their kind, rogue or not. In fact, that whole area where Lakota and Kerr were born was full of felines, wolves and psychics that could not only discern if they were hanging out with other paranormals, but could even nail down what kind of para they were dealing with. The question in Kotara’s head was, why there but nowhere else? Or at least nowhere else that they knew of.
Since returning home to Wyoming, Derria’s new instinct was still firmly in place. Thanks to that little debacle of a bounty hunt, Pryde Industries had more medical mysteries to solve than they could shake a stick at. If there was one thing that Kotara and Koreas Pryde were good at, it was chasing down scientific weirdness.
“By the way, is Derria’s super spidey sense wearing off yet?” Kotara typed.
“Nope. I think it has to do with her mating with someone from that part of the country. It’s like she’s taken on some of their traits or something.”
“Interesting. Well, I have some information to share. As soon as we get back to Blue’s place, I’ll call in with a situation report.”
“Got it. Congratulations, though, Tara. Mating is awesome.”
“Thanks, Kory. I love you, sis.”
“Back at you. Be careful and we’ll see you soon?”
“Yep.”
Even as the thought of going home cleared the ether of her mind, Kotara already dreaded leaving this place because there was no guarantee she would be leaving with her mate…or alone.
* * *
“All right, time to report in,” Kotara said as she hauled her gear bag to the kitchen and pulled out an electronic notebook. As she set up her tech on the dining table, Blue came up behind her and slid warm hands over her back and around to her belly. Soon, she was wrapped up in Blue’s embrace and her body immediately warmed. Her hair was up in its typical poufy bun, which gave the man plenty of room to play. As a soft kiss landed on the back of her neck, Kotara shivered. It wasn’t just her body’s reaction to Blue that blew her mind, but her mind’s reaction to him. It was like hanging out with an old friend, as if he’d always been there rather than just arriving in her life.
The question was, did he feel the same? She’d grown up learning about mates and the life of a part-woman, part-lion. This man would know nothing about what to expect. And unfortunately, what she knew of humans was that they typically resisted what they didn’t understand, no matter how well-meaning and open-minded.
Sigh.
“You can worry about whatever is on your mind right now, or you can kiss me,” Blue whispered in her ear and she giggled.
“That tickles,” she said, easing away from him.
But with every backward step she took, he took a forward step until her back ended up flush against a wall next to that oh-so-lovely freezer she knew was full of homemade ice cream.
“Ice cream or me?” Blue asked.
“Damn, that’s hard. Can’t I have both?”
Kotara eased her arms around Blue’s neck and she could swear his eyes literally sparkled as he lowered his head and kissed her.
His taste rushed through her and infused her head, then streaked through the rest of her body like a shot of adrenaline. So unique and delicious was that kiss, Kotara leaned in for more. Sweet and seeking became wild and wanton. Blue pressed fully against her, moaning into her mouth as she was flattened against the wall. The man had her so fully surrounded, she couldn’t move…and didn’t want to. He bent until he could loop his arms behind her thighs, and then lifted her clean off the floor. Kotara’s knees were in the crook of his elbow, legs spread wide as he pressed his swelling cock flush against her warming center.
Blue ground until she was simply so close to coming, even her lion roared in her ears. And then they were moving together.
Grinding.
Growling.
Moaning.
Begging.
“Oh God, I want it. Want you,” she breathed in between nips and licks of his talented tongue against hers. She inhaled his scent at the crook of his neck, then bit that same spot. Blue hissed and did a rolling-rocking motion that made her imagine him sliding deep into her body, where she wanted him.
“And I want to give it to you. Do we have time, Tara?”
“Time? Time for…? Aw, hell. I totally forgot about calling home.”
“Just that fast, woman?”
“Yes, just that fast. Your fault.” Then he damn near preened. “Good God, save me from the egos of men.”
He dropped a quick peck on her lips then lowered her to the floor.
With a huff that sounded as frustrated as she truly was, she headed back to the table and started the con call with Blue seated right next to her.
The screen lit up and she entered her access codes. The next thing she saw were the faces of her entire family, which in itself was unusual.
S.W.A.T. kept close tabs on lion shifters because they were known to aggressively defend their territory for a hundred miles if not kept in check. To keep their family safe and under less scrutiny, S.W.A.T. believed there were only two Pryde sisters, Neesia and Kotara. No one, no one, outside of family knew there were four bad ass African lion shifters, and their equally dangerous mates, roaming the pl
ains of Wyoming.
Even the scientists who worked in the Labyrinth, who knew all of the Pryde family, had no knowledge of S.W.A.T. or that the Prydes moonlighted as bounty hunters.
The fact that Koreas knew to expect a call for a situation report and the entire family was present meant that the beans had already been spilled and her nosey pride wanted to get a peek at her possible mate.
After introductions were made, rather than wait for her family to start asking questions, Kotara launched right into the issue at hand—Blue hadn’t set up Kerr. He was innocent.
“We’ve got a bit of an urgent situation here, guys. I need Kerr to be fully onscreen. I can only see part of him with all of you gathered around.”
A moment later, the handsome face of Kerr Blackwood, grumpy wolf extraordinaire, filled the screen.
“Blue, look carefully at the image that is coming up on the screen. Is this the man you saw commit the crime?”
Without hesitation, Blue said, “No. Like I told you before, I didn’t see who committed the crime.”
The line went quiet and Kotara knew they all reeled with this new information, just as she had when she’d first heard it.
“Go on,” she encouraged.
“The guy who came along right after I did said he’d been chasing someone through these parts. He gave me a description and said he knew for sure who’d killed the victim.”
Derria jumped into the conversation. “Then why did you report the crime to S.W.A.T. as if you’d seen who’d done it?”
“I didn’t report any crime,” Blue snapped. Kotara couldn’t blame him. What honorable man would appreciate being accused of something he hadn’t done? “After coming up on the body, I didn’t know what to do or who to call. The other S.W.A.T. agent said he’d handle it, so after I got home, I just kept my mouth shut and ordered extra ammo in case one of those things,” he looked up at a scowling Kotara. “I mean, another shifter came calling.”
“What else did the other man say? The one who claimed he knew who’d killed the human?” Jason asked.
“Said the murderer’s name was Kerr Blackwood and that he needed to call it in. I have to admit, I didn’t believe the whole shifter thing until…” Blue paused a second and looked toward Kotara. She nodded, encouraging him to go ahead and spill it all.
“Well, the guy said he was an agent for a group called S.W.A.T. and he asked me if I saw the dead man shift before he died. He wanted to know if he’d said anything to me before he lost consciousness. I didn’t answer. Instead, I just looked up at him confused, because honestly, I was confused. Then he…changed.”
“Shifted? Right in front of you?” Niah asked.
“Yep. Turned into the biggest snarly wolf I ever saw.”
“How did you know he wouldn’t attack you?” Jason asked.
“I didn’t. I may not be in the Navy anymore, but I’m certainly not stupid. After getting out of the military, I maintained my concealed carry license. The .45 caliber pistol I keep on me ensured I’d have at least a fighting chance if the wolf decided to try to tear my throat out.”
Neesia summed it up neatly. “Bottom line is, people, we have a very good impersonator on our hands. First, whoever this bastard is pretended to be an agent of ours as he talked with Blue. Second, our mystery man called in the murder to S.W.A.T. claiming to be Blue while blaming Kerr. And our agency, one of the most sophisticated and competent in the world, missed all of this.” Neesia sounded pretty pissed, which was understandable because Kotara was pretty pissed herself.
“So now what?” Kotara asked. “We have no way of knowing—”
“Wait. Blue, what did the man look like who gave you Kerr’s name?”
“In which form,” he asked. Smart man. Very, very smart.
“Human,” the entire table yelled all at once.
“Hey, don’t start hollering at Blue,” Kotara snapped. “He’s trying to help us, dammit.”
He whispered, “You don’t need to protect me from them but I must admit, it’s pretty sexy when you get all riled up.”
Her cheeks immediately felt as if they’d been lit on fire…especially after he leaned in and nipped her on the jaw. In front of everyone.
Now the silence was one of shock rather than outrage.
“Uh, Tara?” Neesia spoke into the pin-drop quiet of the moment. “Is there something we should know?”
There was no way of wiping the damn grin off of Blue’s face any more than she could reach through the screen and smack her sisters, who were all cheesing equally as much as Blue.
“Can we just get back to business, please?”
As Blue gave the description of the man who’d caused him to piss his pants when he turned into a wolf, Kerr and Lakota both shot to their feet with equal amounts of cussing and threats.
“Uh, you guys recognize the description Blue just gave?” Niah asked.
Kerr spoke up while Lakota growled low in his throat and sounded like the very dangerous jaguar that he was. “We recognize it all right. Same idiot who was the mastermind of a recent kidnapping. He’s a Blackwood, and as quiet as it’s kept, he’s related to one of the council members of my former pack.”
“But your pack was banished and separated from the others,” Derria pointed out.
Kerr pinned his mate with a hard glare. “Guess blood is thicker than water.”
“So now what?” Niah asked in her typical calm, logical timbre.
“We give the details to Captain Johns and let her run it down. Our job was to find Harrison, get some details on the incident he supposedly reported and get out. So technically, Tara is done with her mission, and just in time to get home for Christmas. Blue?” Neesia asked.
“Ma’am?”
“If you don’t have plans to visit your family during the holidays, you’re more than welcome to accompany Kotara home. We would love to meet you.”
“Yeah and feed you until you pass out or die,” Koreas whispered, but not quite quiet enough for a room full of people with super sensitive hearing.
Neesia threw a balled up piece of paper at her head while the rest of the family quietly chuckled, looked up at the ceiling or whistled little tunes that said they knew better than to talk just then. After all, Koreas was right—Neesia Pryde took great care of her family and loved to feed them. Only their genetics kept them from turning into stuffed, overweight turkeys themselves.
“Thank you kindly for the invitation, Ms. Neesia.”
Kotara turned and regarded him carefully. A very polite “thank you for the invitation” was not the same as “yes, I’ll be there”, and far less than a commitment.
“Tara, when are you coming home?” Koreas asked.
She felt Blue stiffen beside her, but there was nothing she could do about what she was going to say next.
“I’ll head out day after tomorrow. I’d like to spend a day with Blue convincing him to come home with me.”
7
After the call, she retreated to Blue’s bedroom to put her gear bag back at the foot of the bed, where it had been since she’d landed in the Sawtooth Mountains. She felt Blue come in from the kitchen before she saw him. God bless a man who brought a girl butter pecan ice cream after such a stressful, yet relieving conference call.
She spooned up a bit and moaned. It was so, so good. A few bites into the creamy deliciousness, Kotara remembered something else she needed to do.
She set the napkin Blue had given her on top of the sturdy wooden chest she’d sat down on and her bowl followed, still half-full.
“You know I’m a scientist, right?”
“Of course.” Blue licked his spoon and winked at her.
“Well, I have an unusual request. My twin and I are on the trail of figuring out how mating heat works.”
“Mating what?”
“Mating heat. It’s a biological reaction we have to a person who has the genetic predisposition to mate with us. My sisters are all mated to other lions, except for my twin. She’s mated to a h
uman.”
“Really?” His beautiful deep blue eyes were round as saucers, but she sensed a mix of both fascination and something less than fear, but more than a passing concern.
“Yes, really. I think part of why we’re so in tune with each other, and attracted to each other, is because we’re mates. Or we can be if it’s something you can accept.” She sucked in a deep breath and looked him straight in the eye without wavering, no matter how much her stomach jumped around beneath the skin. “I believe you’re mine and I’m yours…but the question is, why? Would you mind giving a sample of a drop or two of blood so we can run some tests for our research?”
“Tests? What kind of tests?”
“Hormone levels and the like.”
“Hormones? So you think I’m on my period?”
A laugh burst out of her chest before she could stop it. It was pure unadulterated joy at the snark and humor of this man. Yep, they were made for each other all right. They should get t-shirts that said “Snark One” and “Snark Two”.
He reached out and pulled her into his embrace, then tickled her until she cried for mercy. Between giggles, trying to catch her breath, and twisting and kicking, Kotara had to rely on her shifter genetics to actually get loose. Wow, the man was strong. When she was finally free, she danced out of reach and tossed a few choice words his way.
“You kiss your sisters with that dirty mouth?” he teased.
“I sure as hell do.”
“Good. Glad you’re this way all the time. Or I’m assuming you are. Now, about the whole period thing.”
“As you know, Doctor Blue, men and women secrete different kinds of hormones. We’re sure it plays a part in mating heat—”
“Heat? I like that word.”
“I bet you do, cowboy. So anyway, we’ve never taken a sample of blood from the male mates and we’re trying to learn if that’s where we’re coming up short in figuring this out.”
“Makes sense. So, how do we do this blood thing? I don’t have the proper equipment here.”
