Alistair (Golden Streak Series) (10 page)

Alistair opened his file, and the first
thing he saw was a picture of a lovely young woman. Keith nudged him, and he
stood up. He’d forgotten they’d had a plan in the way they were going to
explain what they had. Laughing, he stood.

“Sorry. I’m a little nervous. The woman
in the first picture is Delia Fry, first wife to Isaac. She was murdered in a restaurant
about ten years ago, after only about six months of marriage to Isaac. She had
filed for divorce from him two mornings before she was killed. There has been
no evidence linking him to her death, but there has been speculation.” The
second picture was of these men’s child. “Paula Cross was married to Isaac for nearly
five years before she died. But a great deal of that had been while she was in
a coma. Her death was marked as suicide, but from what I was told today, that
may no longer be the case.”

“I’ve gotten the okay to have her body
exhumed and an autopsy performed,” Marcus said as he took over the story. “When
she died in the hospital all those months ago they said that there was no
reason for one and refused to give one to me. I had hoped to prove that she was
murdered and hope that I’ll be proven right when she’s checked out.”

“My granddaughter would never have
killed herself. I don’t care what sort of shape they think she was in. I think
he gave her something to make all her organs fail like they did. There are
several drugs that can do that, and I’m hoping they’ll find one of them in her.”

“Her liver and kidneys were failing, and
they said the pain would have been horrific.” Marcus pulled out a handkerchief
and wiped at his eyes as he continued. “She told me that she was thinking she’d
made a mistake in marrying that bastard, and she’d told me that she needed my
help in divorcing him before she found herself shot like his first wife. It
wasn’t until after she was in the coma that we discovered that the Isaacs were
broke and getting broker by the day. They wanted her money, and when I wouldn’t
release it to them, he….” He looked at Ally.

“He married me.” He nodded. “I had him
sign a prenup. He wasn’t happy about it, but he did it. It was that or I was
never going to marry him. Especially after he’d hit me. My mother said I was
making it look as if I didn’t expect our marriage to work out, but after she
died I didn’t care any longer. And the third time he hit me, I’d had enough and
filed for divorce the same day.”

“Wait. Are you telling me that he married
for their money?” His mom looked around the room. “That’s…. What does he do? Look
for some rich single woman and marry her, kill her off, and then inherits her
livelihood? That’s not right, is it? Please tell me that I misunderstood.”

Keith shook his head and stood up. He
handed everyone several sheets of paper and looked around the room. “That’s not
only right, Mom, but it’s much worse. He takes out huge insurance policies on
them. Then kills them. He has done it twice now. And what I just handed you is
a sort of confession that his mom is helping him.”

“The mother fucker.” Alistair looked at
Marcus, thinking the man had said it perfectly. Lance Isaac was a monster.

Chapter 10

She tried to sit still, but every time
she did something else would pop into her head and make her get up to pace. Lance
had told her that he’d taken out a policy on her and had told her that she
should simply tear up the prenup and believe that he loved her. She had told
him that she would and was glad now that she’d never done it. Not that she
thought she ever would.

“He’s not going to get you, love.” She
looked at Alistair as he sat on the couch. His family and the Cooks had left
over an hour ago. “He’s going to try, but he’s not going to get to you.”

“I almost wish he would try.” She
shivered at what she said. “I didn’t mean that. I don’t want to hurt him, but I
do want him out of our lives.”

“So do I. And what he said to his mother
on the phone was even though we can’t use it in a court of law we still use it.”
She nodded at him. “What else, Ally? What is really bothering you?”

“He was going to kill me. He was going
to simply murder me for my money.” He reached for her, and she pulled away. “He’ll
come for you now. You said so yourself that he’ll come because he’s pissed and
afraid. I want you to let me leave you so that you—”

She backed up when he was suddenly in
front of her. “You’re not leaving me, Ally. Not now, not ever. I love you, and
I can’t let you go. We’ll work this out together. We’ll win against him.”

She let him pull her into his arms, but
she was afraid. He held her for several minutes before she spoke, and when he
laughed, she wanted to slug him.

“I don’t think this is funny. I just
wanted us to have a nice sex-filled evening, and now he’s fucking that up, too.
If he were here right now, I’d change into a big tiger and tear his dick off.” Alistair
laughed harder, and she joined him. “I’m sorry. But damn it. What does he think
he can gain now? Nothing. I’ve already spoken to my lawyer, and everything is
settled.”

He lifted her chin and looked down at
her. “What have you settled? If you’ve given Isaac money, I will blister your
ass so hard that you won’t be able—”

“No. I didn’t…I wouldn’t give him the
time of day. No, you have it. I mean you have what I have. It’s not as much as
you already have but it’s a nice, tidy sum.”

“I don’t need your money, Ally. I have—”
She hit him in the belly. “What the hell was that for?”

His laughter made her know that she’d
not hurt him, but she was still pissed. “Why is it our money when it belongs to
you, and when its mine you don’t want it? Hum? Is there something wrong with me
wanting to contribute to our household?”

“No. But….” She glared, and he stopped.
“Okay, how’s this? I’d love to add your money to our money.”

“Was that so hard?” He leaned in and
nipped at her shoulder, and she felt her eyes roll to the back of her head. There
was something so arousing about him biting her like that.

“No, but I am.” He rocked into her, and
she moaned. “I was wondering if you’d like to go outside, and so I can watch
you shift. All I’ve thought about all day is what you’re going to look like as
my little cat.”

“I’m a little afraid. When we did it
this morning, I was so wrapped up in having you inside of me that I didn’t
think about it, but now....” He licked along her throat, and she stepped back
from him. “We’re not going to make it outside if you keep that up.”

Laughing, he took her hand, and the two
of them went out from the kitchen door, telling Jed they were going to be out
late. She had convinced the man to stay on the property from now on, telling
him that she liked having him close. The house that had been built for that
purpose was perfect for him. He’d told her he’d stay until things were settled.
She planned to make sure he stayed forever.

Once outside, all her nerves went on
high alert. She was going to change into something not herself and then have
Alistair chase her and run her down. When he held her, she knew that he was
calming her, she could feel his excitement, and she was afraid of disappointing
him.

“If you don’t want to do this, we don’t
have to. You’ll be a cat for the rest of your life and nothing has to happen
tonight.” She believed him, too. Not about the cat part. She knew that was the
truth, but the part that he didn’t care if he wanted to do this or not. She
looked up at him.

“I love you. Very much.” He kissed her
gently on the mouth, and she felt his love for her there. Taking a step back,
she closed her eyes and thought of the cat.

“Listen for her. She’ll tell you what she
wants.” His voice soft and low seemed to settle over her. “She can feel your
fear of her. Is she comforting you? Purring along your skin to let you know
that she’d never hurt you?”

She felt her then. The softness of her
fur as it seemed to stroke against her. When she heard Alistair’s intake of
breath, she opened her eyes and had to blink several times to bring him into
focus.

“Christ, you’re more beautiful than you
were this morning.” She moved to him and stumbled a little. “Careful, love. You’ll
need to get used to walking on four feet rather than two.”

Looking down at her body, she saw the
cat and knew it was her. She looked up at him, wondering for a moment how to talk
to him. He moved his hand along her head, and she purred. The cat moved along
his leg and rubbed against him.

“She’s marking you.”
He laughed.
“I
neve…we are two separate people, aren’t we?”

“Yes. And I wish you could see you like
I do.” He reached into his pocket. “Stand against the deck with your paws up on
it. I want to show you what you look like.”

She did as he said and heard the shutter
open and close and the small sound the phone made when he took several
pictures. Ally looked out to the forest that seemed to be behind all the Golden
men’s homes and saw things she knew she’d never see as a human. A deer paused
at the edge of the tree line. An owl was sitting on a branch several feet from
the ground and watching for prey. She looked back at him as she pulled off his
shirt.

“I want to run.”
He told her to
wait
. “I can’t. Please, I have to run now.”
She leapt over the deck and
landed on her front paws just as her back ones came down softly behind her. The
deer that had been so still took off and she wanted to chase it. Taking off,
she bounded over the backyard, eating up the distance in seconds. When Alistair
shifted, she felt it. Her cat seemed to know the exact moment that he was
coming for her and took off more quickly.

~~~

Alistair wanted her to stay with him,
but he knew she was having too much fun. He watched her and the area around
them to make sure that no one came near his mate. When she tired of chasing the
deer and simply played in the forest like a small child, he wished several
times that he’d stayed human just to take pictures of her. She was so beautiful
that every time she ran near him, he felt his heart skip several beats.

When she finally came toward him and lay
down next to him, he leaned over and licked her. His cat needed this as much as
she had. When she looked up at him, he could see Ally there in the cat’s eyes,
and fell in love with them both.

“What makes me a cat?”
He was startled
out of his musing when she spoke.
“I mean, I get that it’s a chemical thing,
I guess, but what happened when my cat came out? What happened to me?”

“You’re still there, but now there are
more of you. You can reason like a human, think and speak like one to others
like us, but the cat is more powerful, and she can do a little more than you.”
He watched as
an owl swooped down and took a mouse for his dinner.
“Is that what you mean?”

“So my cat, she’s a part of me but not
really? Which of us is dominant? I mean can I make her do things and she me?”
He thought
about that before answering her.

“You’re her, but you’re also Ally. But can
you dominate her? I suppose, but when you’re in danger or afraid, she’ll make
her presence known to you. Especially when you’re in danger. You’ll feel her
run along your skin because she knows that she can help you where you might not
be able to. Also, and this is important, when you’re hurt she can heal you, and
when she’s hurt you can heal her by shifting. It takes a great deal of strength
out of you do it, but it may save your life.”

He felt someone in the yard seconds
before she did. When she started to stand, he told her to lie close to the
ground and wait for him. She did what he said, probably sensing the seriousness
of it. He moved along his belly waiting for someone to show himself when he
smelled who was there. Telling Ally to be still, he moved forward and leapt on
the back of the large wolf there.

Alistair rolled him over onto his back
and held his jaws at his throat. The wolf, not anyone he knew, didn’t move. He
felt his brother, Brock, touch his mind and started to snarl at him.

“You want to let my man go? He said he’s
afraid you’re going to snap his neck if he tries to shift to tell you who he
is.”
There was laughter in Brock’s voice, but Alistair wasn’t amused.

“I should kill his fucking ass for
scaring Ally. What the hell is he doing so close to the house anyway?”
Alistair let
him go but growled low when he started to stand. He waited for Brock to get
back to him.

“He said that you and Ally had been
playing in the woods and he didn’t hear anything for the past hour. He was checking
to make sure that no one had come at you from the other side. I think he’s
relieved that the two of you weren’t having sex. I think he’d have preferred a
mass murderer over that.”

“Tell him to get the fuck away from here
before I have to kick his ass.”
Brock said he would, and the wolf took
off running in the opposite direction. Alistair told Ally what the man was
doing.

Alistair nipped at her shoulder as she
moved along his body. The excitement had gotten his juices running hot, and now
he wanted an outlet for it. And taking Ally out here in the forest was just the
thing. He bit her hard again and watched her still.

“Remember when I first met you I told
you not to run? That I would chase you down?”
She said that
she did. He nipped at her again before looking her in the eye.
“Run.”

Several seconds passed before she took
off. Her arousal, the sweet smell of it, still lingered after she was gone. Taking
as much of her scent into his mouth and nose as he could, he took off after
her. He knew that as soon as he found her his cat was going to fuck her until
he was satisfied.

He let her get just far enough ahead of
him before he decided he’d had enough. But bringing her down wasn’t as easy as
he’d thought. She’d fought him, and fought him hard before he could get her
beneath him and hold her down. She turned to snarl at him, and he growled.

“Christ, taking you like this is
something I’ve dreamed about my whole life.”
He bit into her shoulder when
she tried to get away.
“Be still or I’ll hurt you.”

“She wants him. She hurts so badly
because she wants him to take her.”
He growled again and nearly came on her
when her ass came up to meet him. Holding her down with his massive jaws, he
slammed his cock into her.

Her scream made him hope the wolf didn’t
come back, but then she moved beneath him, and he could only think of how good
she felt, how tight she held him within her. Pressing her shoulders down to the
ground, he fucked her hard and quick. Each time his cock moved deeper into her,
she moved back against him. When his balls tightened to his body, he bit harder
into her and felt her blood fill his mouth. Marking her this way was what his
cat wanted, and he tore deeply into her flesh. Her scream again made him
realize that she was hurt, but his cat needed everyone to know that she was
his. When she cried out, both the woman and the cat, Alistair felt his cat come,
his cock filling her with his seed as he continued to hold her down. As soon as
he dropped onto her, he knew she needed more.

Lifting from her body, he commanded her
to shift. He watched, mesmerized, as her body went from sleek cat to beautiful
woman in seconds. She rolled to her back, and he licked her pussy before
standing and shifting.

There was no foreplay this time. Need
coiled in his body so tightly that he knew the second he entered her he was
going to come again. He wanted that, wanted it more than his next breath, but
he wanted her pleasure, as well. Dropping between her legs, he lifted her up so
that only her shoulders touched the ground and ate her.

She tasted of him and her, their cats. Fucking
her hard with his tongue, he drank deeply from her with every curl of his
tongue. Settling her to the ground, he never lifted his head or stopped tasting
her, knowing that she was enjoying this as much as he was. When her legs
wrapped around him, he opened her nether lips with his fingers and continued
his assault on her until she was begging him to fuck her. Moving up her body to
fill her, he bit hard at her breast, and she cried out again.