Captured by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 2) Page 3

  The door opened and she refused to look at him as she felt his eyes on her, boring into the side of her face. They moved from her, and she snuck a glance at him, caught him putting the empty plate she had left on the side into the sink with his one.

  He dumped a white plastic canister of water down on the counter where it had been, unscrewed the cap and poured half of it into a glass pitcher. He put the cap back on, set the canister in the corner of the kitchen area, and used the pitcher to fill a coffee machine.

  She wanted to ask if they had electricity again, but held her tongue.

  He didn’t look at her as he cracked the window above the sink open, one that wasn’t large enough for her to escape through but one that allowed fresh air to roll into the room. It was sweet with the scent of pine and dew. He left, slamming the door behind him.

  Gabi eyed the coffee maker with suspicion.

  She was starting to get the impression his new tactic was to convince her to talk by showing her kindness.

  She would talk, but she doubted he would believe a word she said so there was very little point in talking to him. If he let her see Ivy, then she would tell her everything, because she was sure Ivy would believe her and would help the pig and his brother, Rath, see that she had nothing to do with Archangel.

  She didn’t want to understand why he didn’t trust her, why he presumed she was in league with them, but she could.

  Archangel were an organisation that had cells across the world, one dedicated to something that had sounded insane to her when she had found out about them barely a few months ago.

  They hunted non-humans in order to protect people.

  Non-humans.

  People like her captor, who could shift into the form of a cougar.

  She still felt she was going crazy whenever she thought about that.

  The aroma of coffee pulled her onto her feet and she meandered around the couch to the machine, found a mug and helped herself.

  She lifted the mug to her lips, blew and braved a sip, and wanted to moan. Strong and dark, just the way she liked it.

  Her eyes settled on the man where he stood near the deck, talking to another one who resembled him a little, but he was shorter by a good inch and slimmer too, and where her captor’s hair was sandy, his was jet black and hung in waves around his nape. Where her captor liked tight black jeans and t-shirts fit for a biker, the other man wore practical clothing of a shirt that hugged his body and dark brown trekking trousers, and hiking boots.

  The similarity of their square jaws, straight regal noses and the cut of their mouth, and the intense grey of their eyes said they were related though.

  Another brother?

  The black-haired man smiled as he watched the blonde woman, the scar over the left side of his lips tugging at them. “She grew up fine.”

  “More than fine,” her captor rumbled and slapped a hand down on his shoulder, fingers creasing the man’s dark blue shirt. “Flint, she’s a work of art.”

  Flint. Rath. She knew two of their names but not his.

  Pig.

  Her heart supplied that word, and she wanted to grin, because if he got to give her a nickname, then she got to give him one too.

  Pig lived up to his name by running his eyes over the woman’s fall of blonde hair, the deep brown sweater that hugged her curves, to the practical black trousers that moulded to her ass and long legs.

  He tossed Flint a salacious grin. “I’d tap that.”

  Flint chuckled. “You’d tap anything with a pulse.”

  Except a human, her mind whispered. No humans apparently.

  His grin widened and he swept a hand down himself. “It’s not my fault I was born looking like this. They practically hurl themselves at me and beg me. It’s a crying shame we can’t take part.”

  Flint sighed in agreement.

  Take part in what?

  That almost overshadowed what he had said about how he could have his pick of women.

  Almost.

  Well, he couldn’t have her, so he was wrong about that. He might have been born good looking, but from where she was standing, it had corrupted him, warped him into just another man who thought their looks would get them anywhere they wanted to go.

  He was just like Alexander in that respect.

  God, she could imagine how the brute would react if she told him that.

  It was almost tempting.

  When he held up a bag and jerked his chin towards the cabin, she ducked away from the window, missing what he said to his brother.

  The door opened a split-second later, and his eyes landed on her where she stood near the log burner, the mug of coffee in her hand.

  “Drinking my coffee now?” He arched an eyebrow at her, and she ignored him, because he wasn’t angry with her.

  No. There was a satisfied glint in his grey eyes that said he had wanted her to fall for the coffee trick and was sure she was going to fall for whatever one he employed next.

  He held up the bag and waggled it. “Ivy and some of the females donated to your cause. Must make a change… being shown charity?”

  He opened the bag when she didn’t respond and peered inside it.

  “Ooh…” His shoulders trembled beneath his black woollen jumper as if he was shuddering. “All kinds of goodies. Clothes… candy… other necessities to keep you beautiful.”

  That gave her pause.

  Keep her beautiful?

  Pig thought she was beautiful?

  He didn’t seem to notice his choice of words, because she was sure that if he had, he would have been horrified by them—by finding a human of all things beautiful.

  He pulled out a near-empty bottle of perfume, and some deodorant, plus a toothbrush and razor, and damn, she wanted them but she wasn’t going to let him see that. She wasn’t going to let him win.

  She folded her arms across her chest. “Let me go. I’ve done nothing wrong. You can’t keep me here… like a prisoner.”

  “Like a prisoner?”

  She nodded.

  He smiled coldly. “Little Bird, you are a prisoner… and I’m your jailer… and until you tell me what I want to know, you aren’t going anywhere.”

  She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You know this is illegal, right?”

  “You’re trespassing on our land, you brought assault rifles and intended to slaughter us all… and you think you have a right to say what we’re doing is illegal?” he barked and she shrank back, but then rallied and stood her ground. He advanced on her, but she refused to let him intimidate her. “I can, and I will, do whatever it takes to protect my kin.”

  Gabi set her jaw as her heart began to pound, anger trickling through her veins to heat her blood. “I swear, I’m not going to tell anyone. Who would believe me anyway?”

  “Archangel,” he snarled and stepped into her, his huge body crowding her as she tried to hold her ground. “The people you work for. I’m sure they’ll believe you, and they’ll come back with more guns… more hunters… and I can’t allow that.”

  “I told you… I don’t work for Archangel!” She squared up to him, which did nothing. He just glared at her, his eyes blazing gold, triggering an instinct in her that screamed at her to run because she was in danger. She had nowhere to run, so all she could do was fight. He had her backed into a corner but she was damned if she was going down without a battle. “So that’s it then… I’m just going to be your prisoner forever?”

  “Unless you tell me what I want to hear, that’s pretty much the case, Little Bird.” He glowered down at her, his jaw muscles tensing beneath his golden skin.

  “I’m not going to accept that,” she bit out. “I want to talk to Ivy.”

  “You’ll talk to me.” He grabbed her arm, the press of his fingers hot and hard, making her aware of him and how close he was to her.

  His body brushed hers, her breasts against his stomach, his thighs against her hips.

  Her breathing quickened as his proximity w
reaked havoc on her, had thoughts spinning through her mind that she damned well wasn’t going to entertain.

  “Get your bloody hand off me.” She meant it to come out loud and forceful, but it left her on a whisper.

  “No,” he muttered and his deep voice was as strained and low as hers.

  His eyes darkened, but it wasn’t anger in them.

  It was desire.

  Fire that lit up the gold of his irises.

  She was seeing things, her tired mind messing with her, because the pig didn’t like humans, he liked his women fast and forgettable, and she didn’t like her men going furry and feral.

  But then his eyes dropped to her lips.

  It was just the briefest glance, but she caught it and how his eyes darkened further.

  Oh, cougar boy wanted her.

  Gabi couldn’t resist tilting her head back, part of her wanting to lure him in even when she wasn’t sure whether she was doing it because she wanted to find a way to escape and gaining his trust in this way felt like the right move to make, or because she wanted to kiss him too—burned with the same fire that was in his eyes.

  He glanced at her mouth again, and for a heart-stopping moment she thought he would kiss her, braced herself for it and found herself fiercely wanting it.

  Fool.

  His lips quirked in a cold smile. “You’re not my type. I prefer my females to have a heart behind their breasts and without a knife in their hand, ready to stab me in the back.”

  Son of a bitch.

  That hurt even when she tried to let it glance off her. It cut deep, his aim true.

  “You flatter yourself a bit too much,” she bit out, venom in her tone, and he leaned back and frowned down at her. “I have a fiancé… one who will be looking for me… a very powerful man.”

  One who she doubted was really worried about her since the match had been Alexander’s idea and she had only gone along with it at the time to help him out when he had needed an investor to save his business.

  Her words had the desired effect though.

  The man released her, looked at her through truly dark eyes for the first time, no flicker of light and warmth in them at all, and left, slamming the door behind him so hard that one of the glass panes cracked and she flinched.

  She had the feeling she had upset him, just as she had wanted, but it didn’t make her feel better.

  It only made her feel worse.

  Gabi sat on the couch, keeping still and silent, lost in thought as she stared at the flames. Day drifted into night, and when he didn’t return, she settled in his bed and slept as best she could, expecting to wake when he came home and stomped around the cabin, making her aware of his mood.

  Only she woke the next morning and there was no sign of him.

  She padded across the wooden floor to the bag he had left on it near the kitchen, picked it up and emptied the contents one by one on the polished wooden counter. She glanced at the door, but didn’t bother to check it. The key was missing, and she had no doubt he had locked it while she had been busy flinching.

  Gabi used the supplies he had given her to clean up in his small bathroom. The water was freezing. She hurried through washing herself, and used the deodorant but not the perfume, and dressed in the dark green t-shirt and the brown trousers that were a few sizes too large for her. Ivy’s?

  She cinched them at the waist with the supplied belt and went into the kitchen, finger-brushing her blonde hair as she gazed out of the window at the woods and the strip of the clearing that she could see.

  There were another three men she didn’t recognise today, together with two more women, both of them very pretty and both of them brunettes. They reminded her of Ivy, and she ached to see the woman she had come to think of as a friend, her heart heavy as she stood in silence in the empty cabin.

  She just wanted to see a kind face.

  She went through the process with the coffee machine, replacing the filter and grounds, and the water, only to realise the power was out again.

  Had he disconnected it to punish her, because she had tried to punish him?

  Tears filled her eyes but she sniffed them back. “Screw him. Bloody bastard. You can’t keep a good Gabi down.”

  She rifled through his cupboards and found a steel kettle and a cafetiere, and grinned. She filled the kettle with water, set it on top of the log burner, and went back to the window as she waited for it to boil.

  Pig appeared, dressed in the same black jeans and jumper he had been wearing yesterday as he crossed the grass, heading over to one of the women. He smiled as he spoke with her while they walked, following the path towards the woods and his cabin, each one a needle that pierced Gabi’s chest and made it sting for some reason.

  His eyes remained locked on the woman as they stopped near the cabin, in full view of Gabi. The hunger in his gaze made her want to look away, even though it was a pale shadow of the way he had looked at her yesterday, before he had spent the night away from the cabin.

  With one of the women?

  She remembered what he had said to Flint—that he wanted in on the action.

  He wanted these women.

  He glanced in her direction, and smirked at her, and she looked away from him, refusing to let him win. He was doing it to spite her, to hurt her because she had hurt him.

  She was sure of it.

  He wanted the women who were coming to the area.

  But he wanted her more.

  And damn her.

  She wanted him too.

  But she wasn’t going to give in to him.

  Never.

  CHAPTER 4

  When Gabriella disappeared from view in his cabin, the urge to go and find her was strong, almost had him moving away from the female and certainly had him not listening to a word she said as she flirted with him.

  Storm stared at the cabin door, reeling as the need to see Gabriella went through him.

  He tried to brush it off as he dragged his eyes away and fixed them back on the brunette beside him.

  Taya smiled, flashed come fuck me eyes at him like a pro, but he felt nothing as he stared at her, said words he didn’t hear and could have been utter gibberish as the need to see Gabriella pounded in his blood.

  Drummed in his veins.

  She was human.

  Her kind had burned him before and he wasn’t interested in taking another trip down that dark path. Never again.

  But his eyes strayed back to the cabin and his senses locked onto her.

  His ears rang with her words as Taya did her best to seduce him into forgetting his role as a protector.

  She had a fiancé.

  A very powerful man.

  He had felt that jab as a knife between his ribs.

  He was powerful, and she fucking knew it, had no right to question his strength or his prowess as a male.

  “Storm?” Taya’s soft voice, murmured close to his ear, shattered his thoughts and he looked at her. “Trouble with the human? You know the whole of the creek is talking about her. She’s a complication and she needs to be dealt with.”

  He wanted to growl at that.

  Little Bird was a complication, he was well aware of that. She was a complication he certainly didn’t need—a beautiful, alluring, and fucking tempting complication.

  But she was his complication.

  “I hear any word around the creek that anyone… and I mean anyone… is thinking about doing something they shouldn’t be, they’ll answer to me. Got that, Taya?” he growled and she blanched and nodded, a flicker of fear crossing her dark eyes as he bared his emerging canines in a show of aggression, and dominance.

  “About that coffee…” she murmured, quiet and lacking the confidence she had been throwing in his face just seconds ago.

  “Not going to happen.” He pivoted away from her, leaving her staring after him as he stepped up onto the deck of his cabin and approached the door.

  He opened it, and damn, Rath would kill him if he knew he h
ad left Gabriella unattended all night in an unlocked cabin, giving her ample opportunity to escape.

  He had needed the run though.

  She had fired him up, had lured him damn close to kissing her, and then she had slapped him in the face with a fiancé and roused his cougar instincts.

  It had either been running, fighting or fucking.

  No males had been around to fight when he had stormed out of the cabin.

  The few females who had given him the eye had left him cold inside.

  So running had been his only option.

  Gods, he had run so far, so fast, until every muscle had burned from the exertion and he had been forced to rest in a glade close to fifty miles from the creek, deep in the wilderness. He had hunted, had scent marked, and had done a few loops of the mountain trails in the area. He had even tangled with a cougar—not a shifter this time—a young male who had thought to challenge him and had then thought the better of it.

  Storm had let him off with a gentle beating.

  When the sun had been close to rising, the need to return had bloomed inside him, calling him back to the creek.

  He had arrived an hour after dawn, to a very unimpressed looking Rath as he had strolled out of the woods on the other side of the river and disturbed the bears that Ivy had been photographing for her work.

  Ivy had asked about Gabriella, concern shining in her soft hazel eyes.

  Storm had remained in his cougar form to avoid having to answer her.

  Because he hadn’t been sure how she was.

  He looked at her where she sat on his couch, glaring at the log burner and the kettle on it. When it whistled, she stood and reached for it.

  Storm beat her to it, swatting her bare hand away before she could touch the handle. “You want to burn yourself?”

  She just turned her glare on him. “Maybe if the power was working, I wouldn’t be forced to endure the rustic life.”

  The power was out again?

  Fuck.

  At this rate, he was getting a generator and Rath could complain all he liked about the noise. He was sick of the power in his cabin going out.

  He grabbed a cloth, wrapped it around the handle and lifted the kettle from the top of the log burner. He carried it to the kitchen, filled the cafetiere with the hot water and then placed the kettle in the sink. He stared at the cafetiere for a few minutes, ignoring the way Gabriella’s gaze burned into his back, stoking a need to look at her, anger rolling off her that had nothing to do with him chastising her about trying to burn herself or the lack of power.