As Grady let out a strangled moan and his cock pulsed inside her, Sage fell into her own orgasm. Her pussy clutched and released his shaft, milking him as wave after wave of pleasure tore through her. Once it was over, she collapsed onto his chest, gasping for breath. She found his cougar head pendant with her hand and held on to it.
“That was pretty intense,” Grady said.
Lost in the moment, Sage blurted, “I love you.”
Grady cupped her face and brought her lips to his. He kissed her slowly. “And I love you.”
His pendant warmed even more. Sage opened her hand and looked at it. “Why are the cougar’s ruby eyes glowing?”
“They are?” Grady asked with something akin to hope in his voice.
“Yeah. Look.” She sat up and lifted the pendant for him to see. “And why do I have this almost overwhelming urge to put it around my own neck?”
She couldn’t see what made the rubies glow. The light was dim at best in the room since the curtains were closed and it was getting dark out. It being the middle of January, the sun set around four thirty in the afternoon.
“Take it.”
“What?”
“Take the pendant. You’re meant to have it. I want to see you wearing it.”
The way Grady spoke, it was if the idea of her doing what he’d said was something that would mean a lot to him. Sage couldn’t deny the fact she really, really wanted his necklace. And she wasn’t even one for wearing jewelry.
“Take it,” Grady whispered.
Sage gripped the pendant again and slowly pulled it over Grady’s head. She turned it over and looked at the glowing eyes before she focused back on him. He lay there intently, watching her with a look of anticipation on his face. She took hold of it by its chain, turned it so the cougar head would face out, then slipped it over her head.
Grady held his breath as Sage lowered his pendant around her neck. Once it settled on her chest just above her cleavage, he sucked in a breath. The mating bond formed in an instant, joining their souls. From the look of surprise on her face, he guessed she felt it too.
Katarina had been right. Sage was the one. She was now his mate since she’d claimed him when she took his pendant as her own. Not that she knew that, but Grady did. Seeing her wear it, the love he had for her solidified. She was his. The moment the bond formed between them, he’d gained not only a mate but a nephew as well.
“What was that?” Sage asked as she searched his face. “I felt something—”
He cut her off by sitting up and taking her lips in a heated kiss. His cock went instantly rock hard inside her. He wanted her again. He needed to show her with his body how much he loved her and was glad she was his.
Grady held Sage close, then took her down to the mattress on her back. He pumped between her legs, glorying in the feel of her pussy taking his cock. She clutched his ass and pulled him in tighter as she lifted her hips to meet each thrust.
He already knew he wasn’t going to last long. Grady hooked one of Sage’s legs over his arm and spread her wider. He sank deeper. He angled his cock in just the right way so it hit her G-spot. She moaned, her fingers digging into the tops of his shoulders as she held on to him.
Then she panted his name as her inner muscles squeezed and released his shaft. As she came, his balls rose closer to his body and his point of no return tried to rush to the surface. He pushed it back. He wasn’t ready to come just yet.
Grady waited until Sage settled under him after her climax ended. He pulled out of her, then shifted to her side. With gentle hands, he urged her over onto her stomach, then up onto her hands and knees. Once he had her in that position, he came up behind her and stroked his hands down her back to her hips.
He held her still as he probed her slick entrance with the head of his cock. Grady purred at the feel of her wetness bathing the tip of him. He stroked her pussy without entering her, rubbing her clit with each pass. Sage pushed back and moaned.
Grady kept hold of Sage as he pushed forward and seated himself to the hilt inside her with one stroke. He stilled as her pussy spasmed around his length. After it ceased, he stroked in and out of her. She took more of him in this position, and his balls slapped against her with each thrust.
He reached around her and found her clit. He rubbed it as he surged into her. It ended up being enough to send her into another orgasm. She moaned with her release and that pushed him over the edge. Grady pumped his hips faster, then with a groan that bordered on a growl, he climaxed, filling her with his cum.
With no more left to give, Grady wrapped an arm around Sage and took them down onto the bed on their sides. Both of them were breathing as if they’d run a marathon. He was satiated and didn’t know if he could move again. All he wanted to do was hold his mate in his arms.
After what had just happened, there would be no getting around telling Sage about him being a cougar shifter later that night. He should have had that conversation with her once the ruby eyes in his pendant had glowed, but he’d wanted to see if she would take it from him. Hopefully she would accept him for what he was and not get too angry with him for not telling her before the mating bond formed between them.
* * *
Sage and Grady arrived at his house twenty minutes after they’d made love at her place. She helped him haul all the things they’d brought inside. Olivia had greeted them and informed Sage that Josh had gone down for a nap and that she’d put him upstairs on the bed in the master bedroom with pillows around him so he wouldn’t roll off. Olivia had then asked how everything had gone at the funeral home.
“Good,” Sage answered as she set down the bag she carried.
“And will Josh’s grandparents be coming for dinner?”
“Yes. They asked me to thank you for the invitation.” Sage shrugged out of her winter jacket.
“Oh my goodness,” Olivia said as she looked at Sage, then at Grady and back to Sage again.
“What?” Sage asked, not sure why Grady’s mother looked awfully happy all of a sudden.
“You’re wearing Grady’s pendant.” Olivia’s smile grew even bigger. She then gave her a hug.
Sage tentatively hugged the other woman back. “Ah, yeah, I am. I didn’t realize it was that big a deal.”
Olivia let go of Sage and looked at her son. “You didn’t tell her, did you?”
Grady gave his mother a pained smile. “It happened really suddenly. I sort of didn’t want to spoil the mood. I’d already decided we were going to have a talk with the rest of you. I figured it would be easier that way.”
“Be sure you do, but I have to say I couldn’t be happier. Now I get my wish.” Olivia gave Grady a kiss. “I have to go tell your father, Jase and Katarina.” She then headed up the stairs to the upper level.
Sage turned to face Grady. “What was all that about? The way your mom talked, you’d think we’d just gotten engaged or something.”
“I’m going to leave it at you taking my pendant is a bigger deal to my family than you know. The rest I’ll tell you later tonight once Josh’s grandparents leave.”
“Okay, I think.”
She wasn’t sure what to make of what had passed between Grady and his mom. It was obvious they were keeping something from her for some reason. They didn’t appear to think it was bad, since Olivia had been happy about Sage wearing Grady’s pendant. That could stem from the fact the other women of the house wore the same necklaces as well. Maybe in their eyes Grady giving her his pendant was tantamount to him asking her to marry him, and she, not knowing the significance, had accepted while in the dark about the whole thing. She guessed she’d find out one way or the other later.
* * *
Sage spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of Josh. Since they were eating dinner in the early evening shortly after the baby went to bed for the night, she made sure she had him bathed and in his pajamas before Hank’s parents arrived.
Bathing a six-month-old was a new experience for Sage. She probably wo
uld have done a quicker job of it if Grady hadn’t offered to help by getting into the whirlpool tub with Josh to hold him while she did the washing part. Her nephew had a ball splashing them both, and he moved around so much Grady said it was like holding on to a slippery fish.
After Hank’s parents arrived, they took turns passing Josh between them. It’d been a month since they’d last seen their grandson. Hank’s mom Kate got a little teary over the fact Josh looked more and more like his father the older he got.
Once Sage got the baby upstairs to bed in Grady’s room, the adults sat down to dinner. They talked about the services for Macy and Hank that would take place in two days. Much to Sage’s surprise, all of Grady’s family said they would be attending. Even Jase and his dad stated they would be around to help with the heavy lifting when the time came for Sage, Kate and Max to empty out Macy and Hank’s house.
That was something Sage still dreaded, but it had to be done and put on the market. There was no way she could keep both her house and the other one. And she couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage for Macy’s with only her income. And Max and Kate had their own place in Fairbanks.
Hank’s parents said their goodbyes once it grew late and promised Sage they’d talk to her the next day. After they left, everyone else headed back into the living room. She couldn’t help noticing how nervous Grady looked all of a sudden.
They all sat, spreading out on the couch, loveseat and armchairs. Sage and Grady ended up on the loveseat, which was across from the couch. At first, Sage wasn’t sure anyone was going to start the conversation since the others all seemed to be waiting for something.
Grady cleared his throat. “I guess I’d better be the one to get the ball rolling.” He cleared his throat again and took hold of Sage’s hand and looked her right in the eyes. “What I’m about to tell you, I’ve never told anyone like you before.”
She gave him a confused look over the “anyone like you” comment. Was he referring to her being a cop or was it something else entirely? “Okay.”
“I’ve been told it’s best if I just come right out and say it without easing into it too much. So here it goes.” His face grew serious, not showing any emotion. “Sage, I’m a cougar shifter. You set off the magic in my pendant and made the cougar’s ruby eyes glow, which means you’re my mate. When you took it from me and put it around your neck, you claimed me as yours and the mating bond formed, joining our souls.”
Chapter Seven
Grady watched Sage’s face carefully to see what her reaction would be to his confession of being a cougar shifter and what she was to him. At first, her expression remained blank, as if she really hadn’t heard what he’d said. Then it switched to one that was guarded, almost as if she thought he wasn’t all there in his head.
“You’re a cougar shifter?” Sage asked. She looked around the room before focusing back on him. “And your family already knows you think of yourself as being one?”
“We’re all shifters.”
“Except for me,” Katarina said. “I’m just a regular human like you, Sage.”
Sage shook her head. “I’m sorry, but do all of you think you’re doing Grady any favors by playing along with his delusions? And that’s what it has to be.”
Grady blew out a breath. “I really don’t want to shift to my cougar form in front of you just yet. I need you to accept it a bit more or it’ll freak you out. You can’t deny you felt something pass between us when you put my pendant on. That feeling of an invisible bond forming, tying us together was the mating bond. I felt it, and from the look on your face then, I know you had to have as well.”
“I can admit I did feel something. But how can you be sure it was our souls joining? For all you know it could have been us only caught up in the moment, if you know what I mean?”
“It wasn’t that. It was the magic inside the pendant. Every male cougar shifter is given one once he reaches adolescence, and when we meet our mates, she sets off this bit of magic, which makes the rubies glow. To have the mate bond forming, the female has to be the one to take the male’s pendant and put it around her neck.”
Sage skipped her gaze over Olivia and Katarina. “So your mom and Katarina wearing cougar head pendants means they claimed their males too.”
“Yes.”
“Look, Grady, I’m a cop. Do you have any idea of some of the weird stuff I see sometimes on a daily basis? I have to say this ranks right up there.”
“You’re going to have to shift,” Jase said. He put his arm around his wife. “It’s too bad Sage didn’t grow up with an uncle who is a werewolf like Katarina. It would make this so much easier.”
“Werewolf?” Sage asked, really thinking things couldn’t get any stranger than they already were.
“The hell with it. I’m shifting,” Grady said as he stood and stepped in front of her.
Sage watched, transfixed, as Grady’s body blurred and shimmered. Then in a matter of a few seconds, a large cougar took his place. She opened and closed her mouth a few times and looked around at the other people in the room. They didn’t at all seem surprised. Actually, Olivia appeared happy with it.
The cougar Grady had become took a step closer, which snapped Sage’s attention back to him. He purred loudly, then rubbed his furred cheek against her knee. She didn’t know what to do. She felt frozen in place, her mind desperately trying to make sense of it all.
“It’s okay, Sage,” Katarina said as she crossed over to her and took the spot where Grady had been sitting. “Touch him. It’s still Grady inside there. He’s able to think and react as he would in his other form. He just can’t communicate with you.”
Katarina took Sage’s hand and led it to the top of the cougar’s head and got her to stroke him. Maybe it was because the other people in the room weren’t freaking out or acting afraid, or because Sage was already an emotional wreck from her sister dying, but whatever it was, she wasn’t having an “Oh my god, run for your life” moment.
She pulled her hand out of Katarina’s grasp and petted Grady one more time before she said as she looked into the cougar’s eyes, “Okay, I believe you now.” She then looked at the others. “Do you mind if Grady and I talk alone?”
Olivia stood first and came over to Sage. She bent and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. “Welcome to the family.”
“Family?” Sage asked as the notion took her by surprise.
“Yes, family. You’re no longer alone, my daughter. Being Grady’s mate, you’re now a part of our family group and are one of us, as is Josh. We’ll take care of the both of you.”
Sage lost it. Tears welled in her eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Through a sheen of them she watched the others leave the room. Everything she’d kept bottled up inside since losing her sister came out. Sobs racked her body as a strong pair of arms gathered her close. Grady had shifted back to his human form, but she hadn’t noticed until he sat her on his lap with her head on his shoulder.
She had no idea how long it took for her to cry herself out, but he sat with her through it all, gently rubbing her back, telling her how much he loved her and that everything would be all right. Once her sobs subsided into hiccups, Sage felt as if she’d been through the wringer.
“Are you okay?” Grady asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Are you okay with what I am and what you are to me?”
Sage wiped her eyes with her sleeve as she sat up and looked at him. “Surprisingly, yes. It was what your mom said about me now being part of your family. It’d only been Macy and I since I was eighteen and she was twenty. Losing her, it was as if I’d lost everything. I know I have Josh, but he’s so little and dependent upon me. Now I have you. I can lean on you and you’re always going to be there.”
“And I will be. You’re my mate, a part of my soul. I love you, and I’ll love Josh as if he were my own child.”
She cupped the back of Grady’s head and kissed him, long and deep. After she lifte
d her head, she said, “I love you too.” She gave him a small smile. “I guess you being a cougar shifter is the reason your head healed so fast, huh?”
“Yeah. We heal a lot faster than humans.”
“I guess I have a lot to learn about what you are.”
“Don’t worry. No one is going to test you on it,” Grady said with a crooked grin.
“Good.”
“Now let’s go tell everyone that you’re okay with us and that you’re feeling better.”
Grady stood and put Sage down on her feet. She put her arm around his waist as he wrapped his along her shoulders, tucking her up against his side. She was sure she’d have a ton of questions but right at that moment, all she cared about was the fact he was hers and would never leave her. Facing a life with no family scared her more than him being able to shift into a cougar.
* * *
It was three weeks after her sister had died and Grady had revealed what he was to Sage. She was back on the job, but only temporarily. She’d given her two-week notice and would no longer be a cop after that. Raising Josh was more important and she wanted to be the kind of aunt slash mother Macy would have wanted for her son. Her sister had planned to be a stay-at-home mom, so Sage would be as well. And it wasn’t as if she needed to work. Her mate had more than enough money to support the three of them.
After going through her sister’s belongs and getting the house on the market, Sage had then focused on selling her own as well. She and Josh had moved into Grady’s family home. The baby even had his own room right next to hers and Grady’s. It’d been a guestroom, which Olivia had turned into a nursery. She’d even slipped in a few stuffed cougars instead of teddy bears.
This was the last day Sage would be on duty. It was an afternoon shift, but she didn’t worry about Josh. The rest of her family was always there whenever she needed them to watch him. That was one thing she really liked about cougar shifter family groups. They always looked after one of their own.
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