Courted by her Cougar (Cougar Creek Mates Shifter Romance Series Book 3) Read online

  The day was wearing on when she pinned the final bandage around Jey’s thigh and sat back, used the fresh pitcher of water someone had brought her to clean off her hands and steeled herself.

  She looked up at Rath as he signalled for some of the men to come to him. Stood on trembling legs as the men carefully lifted Jey.

  Sucked down a deep breath as Flint broke past his brother and stormed towards her, his eyes burning into her.

  She looked from Rath to Flint, and then at Ivy.

  “I guess I have some explaining to do.”

  CHAPTER 6

  Flint trailed after Yasmin, Rath, Ivy and Cobalt as they followed the males who were carrying Jey back to his cabin, everything that had happened in the past few hours racing across his eyes on repeat, fragmented and colliding, impossible to believe.

  Yasmin knew what he was.

  How?

  He wanted to hear her explanation, was waiting for her to gather herself and find the strength to start talking just as much as the next person, but it was hard to focus when he kept seeing her touching Jey, and kept replaying how he had reacted.

  With a visceral need to get her away from the unmated male.

  “I know about immortals.” Those softly murmured words had him snapping back to her, had her stealing the whole of his attention, as if she was the only person in the world.

  He drew closer to her when he sensed her distress, and a flicker of fear that tainted her sweet citrus scent with a bitter note.

  Why was she afraid?

  Whatever the reason, he wanted to take it away, wanted to make her feel safe again.

  She glanced at Ivy, and the reason became clear. “I wanted to tell you for so long… since we met and grew close.”

  Ivy smiled warmly and touched her friend’s bare arm beneath the sleeve of her tight pale grey scooped-neck t-shirt, a reassuring caress that seemed to steal away some of Yasmin’s fear and give her relief.

  “I came here because I was worried about you, and when I scented what everyone here was, I knew I had to stay to make sure you were safe.” Yasmin stopped and clutched Ivy’s hand. “I was scared that you didn’t know.”

  “I was scared you might find out and freak out.” Ivy offered another high-beam smile and shook her head. “I’m so glad you know though. It’s such a load off my shoulders.”

  “Same here.” Yasmin looked as if she wanted to hug her friend, but then Jey groaned as the males carried him up the steps to the deck of his cabin near the fringes of the creek, and her attention whipped towards him.

  Flint growled.

  Her eyes zipped back to him, something warm in them for a change, something that looked a hell of a lot like concern. There was a question there too.

  One that had him looking away from her because he didn’t have an answer for her.

  He didn’t know why he had lost his shit when she had started touching Jey.

  Fuck.

  He stayed rooted to the spot as she moved away from him with the others, heading into Jey’s cabin, and scrubbed his hands over his black hair, clawing it back. He turned his back on the cabin and her, tipped his head up and stared at the broken sky through the canopy of the forest.

  Maybe he did know why and he just didn’t want to acknowledge it.

  He stood still and silent as he mulled over that, watching the faint ribbons of cloud drifting overhead, listening to the noises in the cabin behind him. Picking out every word Yasmin said and savouring the sound of her voice as if it was the finest wine.

  Part of him wanted to go, needed to shift and run, to work off some energy in the hope it would take the edge off his mood and help him calm down.

  The rest of him refused to leave her.

  The voices in the cabin weren’t the only ones he could hear. The pride were talking about her already, speculating. A few thought her a shifter, but he already knew that wasn’t the case. He would have scented it on her.

  She was something else.

  The door behind him opened and he looked over his shoulder. Rath led Ivy down the deck, Cobalt on his heels. Flint glanced beyond them to the cabin.

  “Yasmin is going to stay until she’s satisfied Jey is settled.” Rath answered the question before Flint could voice it, and he didn’t look at his brother as he nodded, silently letting him know that he wasn’t going to let Yasmin out of his sight.

  He waited for his brothers and Ivy to move to the edges of his senses before he stepped up onto the cabin’s deck, rested his back against the wall near the closed door, and folded his arms across his chest as he planted the sole of his right boot against the logs.

  A few passing cougars glanced his way and he frowned at all of them, making it clear that coming near him, and near Yasmin, wouldn’t end well for them.

  Some of the males lingered in the shadows of the trees as night began to fall, watching the cabin, exchanging whispers about Yasmin. He bared his short fangs at them, trying to get them to leave without stepping away from his post, but they weathered his threat.

  Because Yasmin had just become fair game in the gathering.

  The fact she wasn’t human, and the fact she knew they were cougar shifters, meant the males could approach her, were free to try their luck with her without risking anything.

  Well, anything other than him killing them.

  He growled when they persisted, and it seemed to get the message across, because they dispersed. He tracked them with his senses until he was satisfied they weren’t coming back.

  The door beside him opened.

  He pushed away from the wall and Yasmin lifted her head. Surprise danced in her tired eyes as she noticed him, but then there was a flicker of something like relief as she slowly exhaled, and he got the feeling she was pleased he had stayed.

  “I can escort you back to Rath’s cabin if you’re done?” He resisted the urge to hold his arm out to her, even when she looked as if she needed the support.

  She was paler than before.

  When she nodded, he led the way, making sure to stay close to her, and to monitor his pace so he didn’t rush her. She was quiet as they walked, lost in thoughts that were clearly troubling her. Thoughts he wanted to know. Troubles he wanted to erase.

  When they reached the clearing, her steps slowed, and her eyes landed on him.

  Flint looked back at her, turned when he spotted the emotions flittering across her face, and moved closer. He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong.

  “Can we maybe go to the river?” She sounded ashamed as she added, “I need a moment.”

  “Sure.” He held his left arm out towards the river and she lowered her gaze to the grass as she passed him.

  He fell into step beside her, keeping close to her as they passed Ember and her mother, leading her towards the opposite side of the clearing to a log that lay there, a spot where Ivy often liked to stalk the bears.

  He could understand why Yasmin wanted to be away from everyone for a while. There were going to be more questions and she was tired. He could feel it in her. He could also sense that she didn’t want to face everyone yet.

  And that she wanted to be alone with him.

  That did funny things to his insides that he didn’t want to look at too closely.

  When they reached the thick log, she settled on it with a long, deep sigh, and wrapped her arms around herself, her hands skimming up and down her bare skin.

  He tugged his black fleece off and offered it to her. It was chilly, and he was going to feel it in his black t-shirt, but he didn’t care. He could put up with a little cold if he knew she was warm. She took it with a smile and he pretended that the way she immediately pulled it on over her head didn’t make that strange flipping feeling in his chest grow more violent.

  Pretended that he didn’t like that she had just unwittingly stamped his scent all over her.

  He settled beside her, keeping a few inches between them so she didn’t spook.

  Her eyes drifted over the forest on the
other side of the river, and then the distant mountains. They were barely visible now, the sunset fading into a night that looked as if it would be clear and full of stars.

  Gods, it was comfortable as he sat beside her in silence. Strangely so.

  He had never been one for sitting in silence and stillness with a beautiful woman, but he was enjoying doing it with her.

  “You…” Her soft voice broke the silence, and he felt her glance at him but kept his eyes fixed on the sky. “Back then… the way you reacted…”

  “It was nothing.” It might have come out a little too quickly judging by the way she leaned forwards and tried to see his face. “I thought you might be in danger.”

  A reasonable explanation, but not the truth.

  In reality, he had been feeling extremely territorial.

  Still felt extremely territorial about her.

  “I can handle a half-dead cougar.” Her words were light, but he turned a frown on her.

  “He was dangerous, and your guard was down.” That might have come out a bit harsh, because she frowned right back at him, but then her pretty face softened again and she sighed.

  “I’m stronger than you think.”

  “Apparently so.” Did he sound bitter? He felt as if he sounded bitter. He tried to keep it from his voice as he huffed. “You never mentioned you were an immortal. I can’t feel it on you either. You feel human to me… but different.”

  He glanced at her.

  Slender moonlight kissed her olive skin, making her eyes sparkle like stars and the smile that curved her lips hit him hard.

  “You never asked… and you never told me you were a shifter. Not that you needed to.” She lowered her eyes to her knees and picked at some fluff he wasn’t sure was there. “I always know the species of the people I meet. It helps me in my role in life.”

  “What role is that?” Curiosity was the downfall of many cats, a plague that none of his kind could shake. Once piqued, it refused to relent until he had an answer.

  She looked as if she didn’t want to give him that answer, which wasn’t going to happen.

  He got that she was uncomfortable about discussing herself, feared it for some reason, but he needed to know what she was. If she wouldn’t answer a direct question, maybe he could make her feel more comfortable by making it sound as if it wasn’t a big deal to him and draw it out of her at the same time.

  He dragged his focus away from her, settling his gaze on the river to watch the water as it rippled over the rocks.

  “I think there’s a pool running on what species of immortal you are.”

  She leaned forwards, rested her elbows on her knees and looked at him. When he glanced at her, she almost smiled, and he could feel her relaxing, that fear he had spiked fading away again.

  “They’ll never guess.” She studied the mountains, and he studied her, scrutinising her face and drawing another hint of a smile from her.

  “A siren?” he offered.

  Her dark eyes widened and landed on him, horror written across her face.

  He grinned. “Succubus then?”

  She slapped his arm for that one, and fuck, it stung, showed him just how strong she was. She smiled as she did it though, revealing he hadn’t really offended her by picking the two most notorious female-only species in the immortal world.

  Her expression shifted, becoming serious, and she looked away from him, sighing at the river. “I’m a goddess.”

  She said it so quietly, he figured he had misheard her.

  “A goddess?” He frowned at her, struggling to believe it.

  Goddesses didn’t just hang out in hospitals doing human work. They didn’t make friends with mortals, or even walk in the same world as him. Not as far as he knew anyway. He had never met one, had figured them to be a rumour, a fable spread among immortal kind.

  As much myth as the humans made his kind out to be.

  She nodded though and loosed another long sigh. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

  As he looked at her, taking in her profile and recalling the graceful way she moved, and sensing her rising fear, he blurted, “I believe you.”

  Sort of.

  She was a goddess. A real-life fucking goddess.

  She was beautiful enough to be one.

  Serene as she regarded the world around them, her eyes dancing over everything before they shyly landed on him.

  He wasn’t sure how he had missed the fact she had been born of such noble stock.

  “What are you a goddess of?” He lost himself in her dark eyes again, in the way her cheeks flushed a little in response to his staring. “You said you had a role in life…”

  She nodded. “I was born to take care of others. My blood comes from Iaso, one of the Greek goddesses of healing.”

  That had his curiosity growing stronger, and he leaned towards her, fascinated and eager to know more. “Have you always been drawn to healing?”

  Another nod, and a little sigh that teased his ears as she relaxed again, made him want to puff out his chest because he knew it was because of him. She liked talking to him. Did she find it as easy to talk to him as he found it to talk to her? He had never been big on talking, but something about her made him want to open up and share shit.

  Shit he never shared with anyone.

  “It’s in my blood.” She returned her gaze to the world, and for a moment, he thought she might drift away from him and stop talking just as she had him aching for her to continue, needed to know about her. “My mother lived for centuries before she met my father. She was drawn to him as a healer. It was how they met.”

  Her mood faltered. He felt it as it took a nosedive, as whatever happiness she had been beginning to feel on thinking about her parents washed away and left her cold.

  “I only wish she could have healed herself so she could have seen me grow into a woman.”

  Flint could sense this was a source of great pain for her, and that need to soothe her returned, had him opening old wounds that refused to heal.

  He focused on the river, because if he was going to do this, he didn’t want to see every feeling that would cross her face, didn’t want to know if she pitied him or thought him pathetic.

  He blew out his breath.

  Opened the fuck up for the first time in his life.

  “Around four decades ago hunters came… back when we lived in another part of British Columbia… we lost a lot of the pride that night.” He swallowed hard. “My parents included.”

  His throat closed as Yasmin’s eyes landed on him and he tried to clear it, but a lump stuck in it, had him sounding as raw as he felt when he pushed himself to continue.

  “I… cougars… we mature at a century, and I was fifteen years off it.” He cursed himself when tears burned the backs of his eyes. He had thought he could talk about his past without it affecting him, but it was ripping him apart, shredding his heart as he remembered that night. “My parents… I tried to stop them but they locked me in the cabin. Told me to stay where I was. I had to watch as Storm, my brother, was taken down… as Cobalt protected him… as Rath fought alongside my parents… as my parents…”

  He closed his eyes and drew in a deep shuddering breath, pulling himself together.

  “The point is… I know the pain you feel, Yasmin. I had to stand there and watch my parents die, unable to help them.” He growled and bit out, “Useless to them.”

  Yasmin’s hand settled on his back as he leaned forwards, buried his head in his hands, and clawed his hair back.

  “You were young… they were trying to protect you.” Those words didn’t soothe him as she had intended.

  They only set fire to his temper, made the pain he felt whenever he thought about that night burn hotter, until it consumed him.

  “I should have fought… I should have helped them,” he barked and turned a frown on her that faded a second later as all his fight left him. “I could have saved them.”

  “You don’t know that… just as
I don’t know whether I could have saved my mother if I had tried. I watched her die, and it tore me apart, and while I had wanted to try to help her, I feared it would only end in me killing myself. I was afraid… I didn’t want to die… so I didn’t take the risk.”

  Gods, he knew that feeling well. It had been his companion then, torturing him. Fear of death had held him back, doubt filling his mind with whispers that he was too weak, that Storm had almost been killed and he had been stronger than him, closer to maturity.

  It didn’t stop him loathing himself for the fact he hadn’t been able to help them, the fact that he had been useless to them and had been forced to watch them as they fought, as they were injured, and as they died.

  The scent of wood smoke filled the air as the stars began to emerge and he lapsed into silence, struggling to tame the pain that burned inside him, to stamp it out again and forget about the past, even when he knew that was impossible. It was branded on him, had him questioning his strength whenever he fought, and drove him to fight because he wanted to prove to himself that he was powerful now, could easily defeat any enemy that tried to best him.

  His ears twitched when he picked up the conversation happening a hundred metres behind him to his left, on the edge of the clearing where a firepit had been set up a week ago, giving everyone a place to hang out at the end of the day.

  Someone mentioned that Yasmin was a goddess.

  A male at that.

  Damned son of a bitch must have been listening in on their conversation.

  Yasmin’s sigh said she had heard the male too.

  “Guess the cat is out of the bag now,” she murmured.

  The chatter grew more animated and lively as others jumped in on the conversation, making wild guesses about Yasmin’s heritage that made it clear to Flint that while the male had overheard Yasmin confessing that she was a goddess, he hadn’t hung around to hear the rest.

  Thank fuck for that.

  He didn’t need the whole creek getting wind of what he had told Yasmin when he had thought they were alone, their conversation private. His personal pain was his to bear, and he didn’t want his brothers knowing about it. He never had liked being coddled.