Cougar Bait

  “I know that now.” She smiled at him through her tears. “I know that and I love you too, L—”

  Keller thought she was finally going to call him by his first name. But then her eyes widened and she screamed, “Lounds!”

  Chapter 25

  Keller twisted quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid the attack. Lounds had Shifted back to his human form as well, and had crept up from behind while Keller and Samantha were talking.

  As Samantha watched in horror, the Hyena Shifter raised the razor-sharp scalpel he’d been about to use on her earlier and plunged it into Keller’s back.

  Keller gasped and stiffened, his back arching in pain as he turned to grapple with Lounds. Blood gushed down his muscular side, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing, but still he fought.

  “You bastard!” Samantha heard the rage in her voice and the Cougar—her own Cougar—roared inside her, telling her the Hyena was hurting their mate.

  Samantha wanted to attack, to help defend Keller as he had defended her, but she couldn’t risk letting the other half of herself—the beast half—out. Not now. Frantically, she looked around for a weapon—anything she could use to help her mate.

  Nothing came to mind, but then she rolled over and felt something hard against her hip. Reaching her hand into the pocket of her white lab coat, she pulled out the small case which contained the syringe Keller had given her what felt like a lifetime ago.

  Her ankles were still bound to the bed rails, but that was all right—the fight was happening right in front of her, practically right on top of her—as the two Shifters, both naked and bleeding now, grappled at the foot of the birthing bed.

  Sitting up, she pulled out the syringe of blue fluid and thumbed the cap off the sixteen-gauge needle that topped it.

  “This is for trying to hurt my baby, you asshole,” she snarled. Leaning forward, she took aim and stabbed the huge, sharp needle directly into the side of Lounds’s skinny throat. Then, for good measure, she pushed the plunger with her thumb, injecting him with the reverse-Rejuvenation compound.

  The effect on the Hyena Shifter was immediate and dramatic.

  He stopped fighting Keller at once and gasped, his hands going to his throat as though trying to pull the syringe out of the side of his neck. Then, as Samantha watched, his thick black hair started thinning and turning first gray, then white. The agonized lines of his face caved in and wrinkles magically appeared, creating deep grooves and lines around his eyes and nose and mouth. Everywhere on his naked body his flesh drooped and sagged.

  “Oh . . . oh my God,” she whispered, scrambling to get back from the man who was desiccating like a mummy before her eyes. Her feet were still tied, however, so she couldn’t get far. She could only watch as Lounds aged dramatically and so rapidly it was like watching time-lapse photography.

  “God!” Keller stood back too, releasing his hold on the other Shifter.

  “What’s happening to him?” Samantha whispered, watching Lounds, who now looked like a ninety year old man and was still aging. “I thought you said the compound just reversed Rejuvenation.”

  “It would—in a female Shifter,” Keller said. “But it was formulated specifically for you. As a male, Lounds has a lot more testosterone—I think it must have reacted to the compound.”

  “Something sure as hell reacted,” Samantha muttered. Lounds looked incredibly old at this point—so ancient and shriveled he really did look like a mummy now. Yet somehow he was still breathing. He seemed to be trying to say something to her. Cautiously, Samantha leaned toward him, making sure to keep well out of reach of the arthritic claws his hands had become. “What is it, Lounds?” she muttered.

  “ . . . the last,” he wheezed, glaring at her from rheumy, clouded eyes. “You’re not . . . not the last, Samantha. There will be . . . more . . . like you.”

  His eyes briefly flared yellow, and then the light went out of them altogether. Samantha watched in horror as he drew in a last, gasping breath, and then his skinny ribcage stilled and he stopped breathing.

  “I think he’s gone,” Keller growled, still frowning at the dried-up husk Lounds had become.

  “He is, but look—his body is still aging.”

  They watched in amazement as Lounds’s body dried and aged until it began to resemble something an archeologist might dig out of the sand at an ancient burial site. Soon it was nothing but a fragile shell. When Samantha put out one finger to poke it, the whole thing disintegrated.

  “Ahh!” she gasped as what was left of Lounds turned into a pile of brown dust at the foot of the bed.

  “He’s gone,” Keller said again. He took a deep breath, or tried to, but coughed instead. He covered his mouth, but Samantha was concerned to see his hand come away from his lips bloody.

  “Keller, come here and let me see you,” she ordered, forgetting about the mummy dust Lounds had become. “He must have stabbed you in a lung—you’ve got a pneumothorax!”

  “Easy enough to fix.” He shifted to his Cougar form, trebling in mass and weight instantly.

  Samantha watched him with awe. She couldn’t help it—even though she was now a Shifter herself, watching Keller change from human to animal and back again was still like the best magic trick she’d ever seen.

  She expected him to change back right away, but instead, the big cat leaned forward and found the straps that tied her to the bed. Delicately, he took them in his mouth and bit them in two, freeing her at last.

  “Thank you.” Samantha scooted up to the head of the bed, trying to put more distance between herself and the mound of brown dust that was Lounds’s remains.

  Still Keller didn’t change back. He leapt lightly onto the mattress and sprawled beside her, making himself at home, although there shouldn’t really have been room for a creature so large on the birthing bed.

  “Keller?” She looked up at him uncertainly.

  Leaning his huge, furry head toward her, he lapped gently at the wound on her temple, where Lounds had hit her with the butt of his gun.

  Healing me. He’s healing me, Samantha realized, and tears pricked at her eyes.

  “Oh, Keller.” She threw her arms around the Cougar’s neck, just as she had that dreadful night in the Everglades, and buried her face in his ruff. “I’m so sorry for all of this,” she whispered. “And I’m so glad you came for me anyway, even when I was being an idiot.”

  The big cat gave his deep, rumbling purr and Samantha thought she caught the faintest hint of a thought from him. . . .

  “Sorry too. Together now. Everything all right.”

  Her eyes flew wide, and she pulled back and looked into his pale-green, lamplike eyes.

  “Keller, did you just . . . but I thought our bond was gone! So how . . . ?”

  Closing her eyes, she sought to answer her own question. Finding the space which had been cold and dead after he blocked her, she saw what looked like a tiny, slender root growing. A tiny golden tendril that seemed to promise more to come.

  A fear she hadn’t dared to acknowledge—What if the bond is gone forever and we can never get it back?—was suddenly laid to rest, and Samantha found herself crying even harder.

  “All right—everything is going to be all r-right,” she whispered, echoing Keller’s Cougar’s affirmation to her. “You’ll see—b-both of us are going to be all right.”

  The big cat pushed against her, nudging her with his head. He scooted down and pressed one furry cheek to her lower abdomen. Purring gently, he nuzzled her belly and looked up at her, as if for confirmation.

  “Yes,” Samantha said aloud, half laughing through her tears. “You’re right, Keller—all three of us are going to be all right. God, I love you so much!”

  “Love you too, Sammie. Let’s get out of here.”

  Chapter 26

  Samantha woke up the next morning with the most extraordinary sense of well-being. Her whole body felt like it was humming along in perfect order, with no aches or pains anywhere—nothing
but a warm, happy satisfaction that seemed to suffuse her whole self in a golden glow.

  “Mmm . . . why do I feel so good?” Stretching, she rolled over onto the other side of the bed and found a pillow still warm with Keller’s scent. As she breathed in his spicy, male fragrance, it suddenly came back to her why she felt so amazing.

  She and Keller were together again—for good this time. And they had certainly made the most of their reunion.

  Samantha blushed as she remembered it. The first thing they’d had to do before leaving the hospital was get something for Keller to wear, since he’d ruined his expensive suit during his Shift. Samantha had gone down to the OR changing room and gotten them both new scrubs, though it was difficult to find any in Keller’s size. On the way, she’d also called Sadie to reassure her, and then phoned a colleague and asked him to cover her surgical call. She didn’t want anything to distract her once she and Keller finally got back to her house.

  They didn’t say much on the way home, but Samantha had felt something growing inside her—an urgent need she couldn’t understand. The minute they got into the bedroom, Keller took her in his arms and buried his face in the side of her neck, breathing deeply. When he looked at her again, his silvery-green eyes were filled with lust.

  “Your monthly urge is on you, Sammie. I can smell it all over you,” he growled.

  “Is . . . is that what this is?” she asked breathlessly. “My Shifter cycle heating up?” She’d been wondering why her breasts felt so full and tender and her pussy was so hot and wet. At first she’d been afraid that she might be flowing with nectar again, but now she realized what she was feeling were symptoms of sexual lust.

  “That’s exactly what it is,” Keller had murmured, kissing her neck. “God, you smell so sweet!”

  “But . . . but I’m pregnant already,” Samantha protested. “Why . . . why do I still have monthly urges?”

  “It’s part of being a Shifter,” he told her. “Some say it’s Lady Moon’s way of keeping her children together, no matter what their circumstances.”

  “And what do you say?” Samantha asked, looking up at him.

  “I say I want to make love to you, Sammie,” Keller murmured, looking into her eyes. “Not fuck you . . . not breed you—I want to take things slow this time. I want to show you how I feel, how much I love you. And I want to renew our bond.”

  “Will . . . will making love help renew it?” Samantha’s voice was coming out high and breathy, but she couldn’t seem to help herself.

  “Mmm-hmm.” He kissed her, taking her mouth with a gentle intensity that sent sparks of pleasure shooting through her entire body. God, she wanted him!

  “Then make love to me, Liam,” she whispered, using his first name at last. “Make love to me and make me yours all over again.”

  “God, baby—love it when you talk like that.”

  Keller had picked her up and carried her over to the bed. But after undressing her slowly, he’d first insisted on healing the small wound Lounds had made right below her belly button. And then somehow his talented tongue had wandered lower and lower until Samantha was moaning and bucking against him as he buried his face between her thighs and lapped her to multiple orgasms.

  She thought later she would never forget that night because it was the first time she allowed herself to receive pleasure from her lover with no doubts or uncertainties between them. She wanted Keller—wanted him with her whole heart, and so she was able to open her body to him without fear or misgivings, and give herself completely.

  After lapping her pussy for what felt like hours, Keller had made love to her. Face to face, he cradled her in his arms and spread her thighs wide to receive him. He stared into her eyes as though he wanted to memorize her, to burn this moment into his mind forever as he took her.

  “Feel me, Samantha,” he’d murmured as he held her gaze with his own and stroked deeply into her. “Feel me filling you, taking you. You belong to me now and I belong to you. Forever.”

  “Yes,” Samantha had breathed, loving the feel of his thick shaft thrusting inside her, stretching her open. “God, yes—forever.”

  And as they came together, she’d felt their bond strengthen and grow until it was ten times, a hundred times, stronger than it had been, even before Keller had blocked her.

  Together, she’d thought. We’ll be together forever and this baby will be the first of many.

  The thought had brought no trepidation with it—only joy. And when she’d felt the answering burst of love and elation from Keller through their healed and strengthened bond, she’d nearly cried with happiness. It was so perfect . . . so right. . . .

  “Good morning, beautiful. Are you up for some coffee?”

  Keller’s deep voice interrupted her reminiscences. Samantha looked up and smiled as her mate came in the bedroom wearing his scrub bottoms from the night before and carrying a tray with two steaming hot mugs on it.

  “Mmm . . . coffee sounds perfect,” she said, sitting up in bed.

  “Maybe in a minute.” Putting the tray down on her dresser, Keller climbed into bed with her—literally. He started at the bottom of the bed and climbed up under the covers.

  “Keller!” she protested, laughing as his head popped up between her legs. “The coffee will get cold!”

  “No, it won’t.” He was already nuzzling between her thighs, trying to get her to spread wider for him. “Let me in, Sammie. I bet I can make you come before it even stops steaming.”

  “Keller!” she protested again, but this time his name came out as a moan. He was already lapping her inner thighs, his rough cheeks scratching delightfully against her tender flesh. “I shouldn’t . . . shouldn’t let you,” Samantha moaned, opening the covers so she could see him better. “I’m still messy from last night.”

  “I know it—I’m the one who made you messy.” His eyes flashed with lust. “So let me be the one to clean you up. Come on, baby—lean back and let me make you feel good.”

  After that, Samantha stopped protesting. With a moan of pleasure, she allowed him to press her outer thighs to the mattress and spread her as wide as possible. With long, slow, tender licks, Keller made love to her pussy. Opening her with his thumbs, he bathed her aching clit with his tongue until Samantha began to shudder and gasp, her hips jerking upward as she neared the edge.

  When Keller slipped two long, strong fingers into her and sucked her throbbing button between his lips, she finally came, crying her pleasure and grasping his thick hair, pulling him shamelessly between her thighs.

  “Keller!” she cried. “Liam—yes!”

  It was the perfect way to wake up, although Samantha found herself less awake and more in a state of blissed-out languor afterward, when Keller held her, and they sipped their coffee together.

  “So do you think we should put a crib in here or did you have another room in mind for the nursery?” he asked as they cuddled.

  “You’re moving in here with me?” Samantha looked up at him in surprise.

  “Of course. Your work is here.”

  “But yours is in Manhattan,” she pointed out.

  “True, but I’ve actually been thinking of taking a less active role. Maybe even going into semiretirement.” He smiled at her and patted her belly fondly. “I need to be around to be the house husband once this little guy or girl shows up.”

  Samantha looked at him in surprise.

  “You’d really do that? Put your career on hold to stay home with the baby?”

  “Absolutely.” He nodded firmly.

  “So . . . you’ll change diapers and do midnight feedings and schedule play dates and all the rest of that?” Samantha asked.

  “I can’t wait.” Keller smiled and dropped a kiss on her forehead.

  “Wow. . . .” Samantha took another sip of her coffee and smiled. “That’s amazing.”

  “It’s part of being a Shifter father,” Keller said seriously. “My own father was very involved in my childhood. So . . .” He put down
his coffee and turned to her. “You never told me where you want the nursery.”

  “Not here,” Samantha said, frowning.

  “Not in the master bedroom? I understand.” He nodded. “We can always put the baby’s room right beside ours and just have a monitor.”

  “No, I mean not here in this house. In fact, nowhere in Florida.”

  “What are you saying?” It was Keller’s turn to be surprised. “You want to move?”

  “You know, I think I do,” Samantha said slowly. “There are a lot of things I love about Tampa, but the main thing holding me here was that Sadie lived here too. Now she’s up in Cougarville and, well . . . I miss her.”

  “The Asheville branch of VA Medical where you saved my life is only ten miles past the Cougarville town limits,” Keller pointed out.

  “They’ve already extended me hospital privileges,” Samantha said thoughtfully. “I wonder if they need another trauma surgeon on their surgical rotation.”

  “They’d jump at the chance to have you.” Keller smiled. “But are you sure you want to move so far from home?”

  “Where you are is my home.” Samantha put down her coffee and snuggled closer to him, pressing her cheek to his broad, muscular chest. Breathing in his warm, spicy scent, she thought she had never felt so perfectly happy in her life.

  “I feel the same way about you, baby—which is why we can live wherever you want.” Keller dropped a fond kiss on the crown of her head.

  “Good.” Samantha sighed contentedly. “Then let’s move to Cougarville. It seems to be where all the action is.”

  She had no idea how right she was . . . but that is a tale for a different time.

  Epilogue

  “I’m so glad you’re settling up here in Cougarville with Mathis and me.” Sadie smiled and took another sip of the milk and thistledown tea Fiona had prescribed for her.

  “I figured if we’re both having babies, we might as well have them together.” Samantha took a sip of her twin sister’s tea and made a face. “Ugh! How can you drink this stuff?”