A Matter of Pride (5 page)

Dean beamed. “Yeah. Just think. You can ask them all kinds of questions about how they like their clothes to fit while roughing it.” He paused. “What a great idea. I’ll make sure to mention it to Maggie and Julia. Oh, Gabby too.”

I’m sure you will.

“I’d tell Rachel,” he continued, “but she likes to spend her time off at the local spa. Not like you.”

The bastard didn’t believe her for a second. He could obviously see the sweat and dismay written all over her face. She hated being dirty when human. Even as a feline she spent an inordinate amount of time grooming. But she did like to shift into her animal soul and lose herself in nature, feeling the earth beneath her paws, catching the scent of prey on the wind.

Followed, of course, by a day being pampered at an exclusive resort. She had a feeling she wouldn’t get the spa treatment after this weekend.

Dean chucked her chin as if she were a three year old and walked away a few steps to confer with Monty via his HF radio. He signed off while she finished resting her tired muscles. God, she missed the familiar comfort of her heels.

“One more mile until we hit our change spot.” Where they’d shed their packs, clothes and skin, and haul ass, catamount style.

“Finally.”

Dean chuckled before setting out at another grueling pace. While he walked ahead of her, Stacey remained conscious of the scents and sounds around her. Though her human form dulled what her cat could pick up, she sensed enough to know they weren’t being followed. At least the sight of Dean’s tight ass took some of the sting from her craptastic weekend.

They arrived at an open area surrounded by trees. No larger than the size of two of the ranch’s large cabins, the site had a picnic table, a stone ring for a fire and tiny cabins spaced evenly around the camp.

Dean followed her gaze. “Yep. Primitive. No sinks or toilets. No hot water, no feather beds. Just a few cots and protection from rain and snow.” Dean winked at her before dropping his pack on the picnic table.

While he fiddled with the pack, she dropped her own to the ground and sat on the picnic bench. Her shoulders ached, her feet hurt, a trickle of sweat ran between her breasts and she had to pluck the back of her shirt from her shoulder blades.

“Okay, Stace.”

“That’s Stace-
ee
, with a Y.”

“This is our home base. We’re going to leave our things here and carry on, on foot, for a few miles more.”

“Oh God. Why?” She couldn’t contain the whine.

He shrugged. “I have an itchy feeling we’re not alone. Just humor me, okay?”

She sat up straight, her eyes wide. “Why? What have you smelled or seen that I haven’t?” Her voice dropped and her heart raced. Was Lex here already? How stupid that she’d thought she could ditch Dean before Lex found her. What if Dean got hurt? What if Lex killed him?

He crossed to her in two strides. “It’s okay, honey. I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She took control of her runaway emotions, cursing herself for letting Dean scent her fear. “I’m not worried,” she said in as proud a tone as she could manage.

He rolled his eyes. “Of course not. It’s exciting to have a perverted son of a bitch panting after your fine body.”

She flushed at the backhanded praise. “Of course I’m concerned. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

He stared at her.

“Burke would be upset, and I’d be blamed.”

He scowled.

Pleased to have gotten the last word, she asked, “So where are we going for a few miles more?” She cast a last, lingering look toward the cabin nearest them.

“To check on a place not far from here. It’ll be safer to shift there, out of sight.” He took their packs into a cabin and returned after checking on the rest of the site. His seriousness and competency surprised her. She was used to charming, lazy, tricky Dean. She’d never before seen him so focused on a project. He hiked like a champ and knew his way around the equipment. She found his proficiency oddly attractive.

“Come on, princess.” Dean straightened, slapped his hands together and quickened his pace away from their home base after clipping the radio to his belt. “A mile and a half max and we’ll be there.”

They walked in silence. Stacey wondered what Dean thought about while they traveled. He’d never been a chatty cat, but he did like conversation. Was he being quiet because of possible predators tracking them? Or did he not want to talk to her? The latter hurt, because she liked arguing with him as much as she liked talking to him.

After a good mile, Dean pulled her off the path toward a darkened area leading to what looked like a cave at the bottom of the small hill.

“Where are we going? What’s down here?”

Dean didn’t answer. He hauled her with him and hurried into the cave. They moved deep enough that the sunlight had been eaten by the darkness inside. Only her enhanced night vision allowed her to see Dean.

He pushed her against the cold rock wall and crowded her space. “Okay. I’ve played along. Now how ’bout you tell me what the hell you’re really doing out here?”

“I-I don’t know what you mean.” Her heart raced a mile a minute. Oh hell, where was her anger when she needed it? For some strange reason, she couldn’t stop thinking about their shared kiss from yesterday.

“You’ve been looking over your shoulder all morning. You’re twitchy, nervous and have the smallest touch of fear clinging to your skin. What’s up?” Dean pressed her for answers. “I may look stupid, but I’m not. What has you worried?” His gruffness faded when she put a hand on his chest. He captured it with his own and nuzzled her cheek. “Tell me, baby. I’ll help you deal with it. I promise.”

She lost herself in his scent, the pure animal grace buried under the smooth skin of a man in his prime. Dean might wear a man’s form most of the time, but he was all cat. Toying with her like prey, getting her to lower her guard while his scent and the feel of him wrapped around her like a trap…for some strange reason, it made him all that much more appealing.

“It’s…I… Don’t…” she rasped, her thoughts lost in a haze of overwhelming desire.

“God, you smell good.” He licked her neck and nipped at her skin. She couldn’t do more than respond when his hand cupped her breast. “And you feel like heaven.” The low rumble of his cat turned her on so badly she wasn’t sure she’d ever turn
off
. Not without his help.

“Go away, hillbilly.” She tried. She really did. But the breathy entreaty didn’t sway the overgrown cat. She blinked into golden eyes blazing with need.

“Away? Hell no. Not when your scent is screaming at me to get closer.”

She cursed her inability to remain unaffected. But so close, she couldn’t pretend she disdained him, not the male her cat had stupidly declared her own years ago. Stacey had been fighting herself for years, but at some point, she’d known she would need to get Dean out of her system. Sure they had chemistry. He was easy on the eyes. But not only did they not suit, he chased after anything in a skirt.

Before she could say anything, he stepped closer.

“Wait a minute. Stop.” She intended to push him away, but the moment her palms brushed his large biceps, her fingers curled around his arms and refused to let go.

“Oh yeah. I like your hands on me.” Dean purred low in his chest. “I want you to touch me all over.”

“Don’t you want to know what’s wrong?” She tilted her head back and shivered when he kissed his way down to her collarbone. “W-why I’m so nervous?”

“It can wait. ’Til after.”

After he screwed her brains out. She knew the sex between them would be dynamite. Yet another reason to stay far away from Dean Chastell. Stacey didn’t do second place, and she wouldn’t stand for being left behind by a tomcat who’d already cut a swath through much of Cougar Falls. But all the sense in the world couldn’t turn her away from him right now. She wanted him in the worst way.

God, it had been so long since she’d been with a man. So long since she’d found anyone her cat and the woman found pleasing. She let him kiss her, accepted the stroke of his fingers over her breast, the knee riding between her legs, pressing up against her.

She moaned and he deepened the kiss, slanting his mouth over hers until there was no question of who was in control. For the first time in her life, Stacey let a man take charge, and her cat purred against him.

His fingers left her breasts and moved down her belly to the snap of her jeans. She clutched his shoulders, feeling faint. Her desire had reached an all new high. His leg pressed up against her clit, and then he rotated his knee, grinding into her.

“Oh yeah. You smell so sweet, princess. Like candy I’m going to eat up. One lick at a time.”

She shivered, ensnared by the predator looking down at her like he owned her, everything forgotten but the hunger to have Dean inside her, filling her up.

A faint noise at the mouth of the cave intruded, the sound of something creeping closer.

Between one kiss and the next, Dean pushed her back and darted for the cave’s entrance. She’d never seen anyone move so fast, and if she hadn’t been Ac-taw, she would have missed his shift completely. In one fluid movement, he ripped through his clothes and turned into a russet-and-gold mountain lion.

He attacked in silence, but the yowl that escaped their intruder warned he’d hit feline flesh. The cat swiped at Dean with claws but didn’t do more than rake a slight trail of blood. Dean had the cat’s neck in his powerful jaws and wasn’t letting go.

Stunned to immobility, Stacey willed away the shock and started on the buttons of her blouse, determined to help, when the cat under Dean meowed a name Stacey wished she’d never heard.

Talk about complicated. She stopped unbuttoning her shirt. “Hell. Dean, let him go.”

Dean didn’t move. If anything, his mouth tightened around the throat of the large catamount beneath him.

“Dean, let him go.” Stacey swallowed hard. “He’s not here to hurt us.”
I don’t think.

It took a moment, but Dean released the cat and stepped back. Then he prodded the other cat using the mental link most Ac-taw shared, the way they communicated when in their animal forms.

“Who the fuck are you?”
he asked the cat, slapping him with a large paw.

“
Ow! Damn it. Stop it.
” The cat batted at Dean to stop. “
My name is Jeremy. We’re watching out for you two.
”

“Who is we?”
Dean turned to her, his golden eyes narrowed. He snapped his tail, and she knew the time had come to tell the truth. Sort of.

“
We involves Quince, Lex’s right-hand man. Quince and Lex are battling for the pride, and I agreed to draw Lex’s guys out so Quince could take him. He’ll end the threat against my family and take care of the danger to all of us.
”

“And you didn’t think I should know?”

Dean’s fury poured from him in a low growl and the musky scent of danger.

The cat under him stilled, not moving a muscle. Stacey could only stare, never having seen this side of Dean before.

“First of all, you weren’t even supposed to be here. I tried heading out by myself. And Quince told me not to say anything.”

Dean hissed.

She took a step back and flushed, annoyed she’d instinctively backed down. “Quince said you wouldn’t agree to the plan, that you’d involve the pride and take away the element of the surprise. We needed to keep Quince’s involvement quiet so we can lure Lex out and take care of him, once and for all.”

“
Yeah
,” Jeremy agreed. “
Damn, Chastell. Go easy with the fangs next time.
” Bloody gouges marred his neck and flank. “
I didn’t mean to interrupt, but I saw you two head in here and wanted to make sure you were okay. What with Lex involving Hunt—
”

“Hungry predators out for blood,” Stacey interrupted. Oh wow. She hadn’t thought things would go from bad to worse. Quince had mentioned Lex had involved Hunters in pride politics. He hadn’t said anything about them being out
here
. If he had, she would have involved the pride, Miles and every Ac-taw in the vicinity, regardless of Quince’s warning.

She gave Jeremy a look he couldn’t miss. Dean could barely handle Quince’s involvement. If he knew Hunters were out here, he’d lose it for sure. It was all Stacey could do not to break down screaming. “We have allies watching our backs.”

“
And what about the pride? Who’s watching them while we’re out here?
” Dean looked from Stacey to Jeremy and back again. “
Don’t tell me. More of Quince’s cats, eh? I can’t believe Miles went along with this bullshit.
”

She glanced down and fiddled with her shirt.

“
Jesus. You didn’t tell him either? What’s with this Quince character?
” Under him, Jeremy shifted and tried to move. “
Why are you trusting him, but not your own family? Not your new pride?
”

She should have corrected him about Cougar Falls being her new pride, but the anger and hurt radiating from his deadly frame gave her pause.“I only did it because—”

“Because you don’t trust me to protect you. I know.”
The bitter twist to his words burrowed deep. She felt an odd drop in her belly, as if she’d tumbled off a cliff. Uncomfortable and painful, because she’d hurt Dean. Really hurt him.