Cougar's Gift: Pacific Northwest Cougars: (Shifter Romance) (3 page)

T
urning
the wrench to loosen the spark plug on the hatchback he was working on, Stryker heard Bud talking on the phone in the other room. Granted the door was closed, but his hearing was still picking up every word.

The door swung open and Bud stuck his head out.

“Hey man, you gonna be around this weekend? Tyler wants to bring his truck in. Sounds like a busted axle from taking it out mudding. Tow truck is on its way, but it will take me a few days to get the axle ordered,” Bud asked him.

“Sure,” Stryker replied.

Bud nodded and shut the door. He didn’t have any other grand plans, replacing an axle wasn’t hard and it would take a while and keep him busy. He kept up at the spark plugs until he heard the roar of a number of motorcycles coming down the street.

Straightening from under the hood he walked out of the bay and looked down to see Declan Kane and at least a half dozen of his motorcycle club cruising down the street.

Stryker had met Declan and his shifter club when he came into town. They weren’t so much a formal pack as a group of pack-less wolves that formed a club. They all had their reasons to not be in a pack but their need to belong had them seeking out others like themselves.

Declan had formed the group a number of decades ago. Most wore the symbols of military services on their vest along with their patch for their club. Redemption MC.

Stryker walked out wiping his hands as they pulled to a stop in front of the shop. Most of the men just turned off their bikes and stayed astride them. Declan got off and walked up to Stryker, offering his hand.

“Hey man, surprised to see you still hanging around these parts.”

“Nowhere else I need to be,” Stryker returned.

“Well, it’s good to see you. Hey, I’ve got a list of parts the guys are needing for their bikes. They can do the work, but figured it couldn’t hurt ordering local.” Declan handed over a piece of paper to Stryker.

Looking over the list he nodded and said, “Bud can order all of this, probably take a week.”

“We’ll be around. Any chance you’ll be up for a ride? We were planning on doing the coastline up to Port Angeles next week,” Declan offered.

“Sure,” Stryker said with a nod.

Declan chuckled. The shifter’s sparse use of words made his wolf laugh. “All right, I’ll give you the times and info when I come back for the parts, yeah?”

Stryker gave him a chin lift and grunt.

Declan laughed again and headed back towards his bike. After meeting Stryker he decided it would set a good example for his club to see their President mingling and playing nice with other shifters.

Most in his club didn’t get along with humans let alone others like themselves. His club was a mishmash of loners, lost souls and scarred men. Declan knew the club was more than a place to hang out. For some of his crew it was their only lifeline. Coming into town also showed his boys that playing nice with locals and obeying the law was creed and code for them.

As he was about to get back on his bike he saw something flash from the corner of his eye. A girl, no scratch that, a young woman running across the street. Straight towards them for some reason.

He turned and looked at Stryker who was looking down at the list and hadn’t noticed the girl yet. His club all had eyes on her. She was pretty, sweetly so. She was wearing a long flowered skirt and light blue blouse with bell sleeves. And as she ran the garment floated around her.

Declan turned back to Stryker when he realized the young woman had eyes for only the cougar. He watched said shifter take a sniff then his head shot up seeking out what just set his cougar howling inside him.

L
ibby wasn’t
sure what the hell she was doing, but her feet seemed to have a mind of their own. She had just gotten to work and heard the roar of motorcycles outside. Clearly it wasn’t one motorcycle, it was a number of them.

Her body was pulled to the doorway. She spotted her mystery man standing in the driveway of the mechanic’s shop. As the motorcycles pulled up and she saw the leader get off his motorcycle. Her first thought was that something bad was going to happen.

This is what made her start to move towards him at a fast pace. Even as she saw the two men shake hands and clearly not about to rumble, she kept heading their direction. In fact, she was gaining speed and was almost at a run.

The biker dude spotted her first and she could see an odd smile form on his face. She didn’t have time to figure that out. As she approached her mystery man she saw his head tip up and his eyes zeroed in on her in a heated stare.

She stuttered to a stop as she was a half a foot from him. Without thought her hands flew out and landed on his chest giving him a shove. He didn’t budge.

“Where the hell have you been?” This was screamed. Yes, screamed out at the stranger. Crap, she was losing her ever loving mind.

The mystery man didn’t respond although his nose flared and his eyes flashed a number of colors. She really wasn’t aware of enough to acknowledge the exact shade. But he didn’t say anything. He looked angry for some reason.

Libby heard the biker guy laugh behind her, but she ignored him.

“Well? You’ve been gone almost a month! What do you have to say for yourself?” This again was said with a screech.

“Yeah man, what do you have to say for yourself?” This was asked by Declan who was still laughing.

Stryker’s only response was to shoot a glare at Declan and growl low in his throat. This brought another chuckle from the club leader and caused Libby to take a step back.

Seeing her move away from him Stryker’s eyes cut back to her.

She froze.

Stryker’s brain was trying to keep up with the sheer overload of information that was smashing into him all at once. He was talking to Declan, or rather Declan was talking to him. Then his mate ran across the street and hit him.

His mate.

His cougar was roaring in his head, one hundred percent sure, beyond a shadow of a doubt that this woman was his mate. Their mate. He wasn’t sure what to say. He knew she smelled like flowers and spice, kind of like a sweet tea.

Her long brown hair was pulled up on the top in a braid that crossed over the top of her head. The rest flowed down her back. It was so long and beautiful he wanted to bury his face in it. That thought made him want to nuzzle her neck and fill his lungs with her scent. All of these thoughts running through his head at once.

She was still staring at him he realized, so was the wolf and his club. Shit, fucking hell. He wanted her away from them. He wanted her to himself. How was he going to do that?

Libby stared at him, there was something dangerous radiating off of him. Something scary and sexy at the same time.

Her instincts told her she needed to stand still not startle the large man in front of her. When her hands had made contact with his chest all she felt was firm solid muscles. It was a millisecond of nice.

He looked like he was struggling to say something to her. The seconds were ticking by. She didn’t want him to leave, but she was getting uncomfortable so she whispered this time, “Where have you been?”

His eyes that had been roaming her flashed back to stare into hers. He sucked in a breath like he was shocked to hear her voice again.

She watched as his mouth opened then closed. He swallowed then his lips parted again as he said, “I’ve been here, waiting for you.” His voice sounded rough and a little unsure.

Not what she expected. It was her turn to suck in a breath. What the heck did that mean?

“Oh man, seriously? Congratulations!” Declan called out, when he realized the extent of the shifter and human’s connection. The pack of bikers behind him started applauding and Libby managed to pull her gaze from Stryker to look over her shoulder in confusion.

The bikers all rough and tough looking were smiling big goofy grins and clapping. What in the world could they be applauding for she wondered.

As her eyes focused back on her mystery man she saw his eyes waited for hers to return. Once he had them back he let his eyes flash to the man behind her.

Reaching out he gripped his hands around her upper arms and pulled her towards his chest. They made full body contact and Libby felt him vibrate. She’d stopped breathing when he touched her. It wasn’t hurtful but it was very firm.

“Mine,” he snarled to the group of men.

“Yeah, yeah, I got that man. I’ll leave you to it. But hey, man,” he started looking at Libby’s shocked expression. “Take it easy, yeah?” He waited for Stryker to give him a short nod then offered, “Good luck.”

Declan called out to his club with a whistle and the roar of half dozen cycles revving up and driving away couldn’t pull Libby away from the man in front of her.

As the noise quieted, the only sound left was each of their ragged breaths at least to Libby’s ears. To Stryker’s, he could hear every beat of her heart. It was the most beautiful sound he’d ever heard.

“Who are you?” she managed quietly.

He ran his hands up and down her upper arms trying to soothe her while he still got to touch her. He wanted to kiss her; he needed to know what she tasted like. Instead, he answered her.

“I’m yours,” he said.

Libby saw his head move towards her and tilt like he was going to kiss her. She jerked away instinctually. Damn, she missed the opportunity to have this sexy man’s lips on hers! How stupid was she?

“No. I mean, who are you? I’m sorry by the way for shoving you. I don’t have a good explanation for that,” she said, embarrassed by her actions.

“It’s okay. My name is Stryker. Stryker Hayes.”

“Hi, Stryker,” she said shyly. Wow, could his name be any freaking cooler? Who named their kid Stryker?

“You?” he grunted.

“Liberty, but everyone calls me Libby,” she offered.

“Libby,” he said, rolling her name with a purring sound.

She couldn’t help it, the way he said her name was sexy as hell. She swallowed and saw his eyes zero in on her throat.

“Uh, well, sorry about the shove. I get a little carried away sometimes. I was surprised to see you back in town and something came over me. I really am sorry about touching you. I know pushing people is wrong. I did learn that in elementary school. I must have forgotten it temporarily,” she said with a laugh.

She was awful at joking banter, yet she always tried to incorporate it into conversations.

“You can touch me,” he said with a low sound coming from his chest.

Well, damn, she thought.

Laughing, she started to take a step back. “Well, nice to meet you.” Before her foot could land behind her his hold on her arms slid down to her hands squeezing them tightly. His touch was strong and his hand oddly warm.

“No,” he said. It wasn’t angry, more concerned.

“No, what?” she said. Her brain was telling her to pull her hand from his. He was being a little too touchy for a two-minute acquaintance. Her other parts, the ones that for some unknown reason were throbbing and most assuredly wet, thought hand holding wasn’t enough.

She watched his nose flare as he seemed to suck in another lungful of air and his eyes closed. She heard an odd rumbling sound coming from him and couldn’t pinpoint if it was a groan or something else. When those pretty brown eyes opened she saw they had a ring of golden yellow around them. They were stunning.

“You can’t leave,” he said. As the words came out he saw too late that was not something you said to a woman alone. It was creepy and probably scary. Fuck him, he wasn’t doing this right.

“I want to talk to you,” he said hurriedly, trying to cover his aggressive tone.

Maybe he wasn’t used to talking to girls. Libby had met a number of guys like that in college. And he was probably still recovering from the town’s crazy librarian rushing across the street, shoving him and yelling at him. In front of a group of bikers no less!

“I’m actually working. I work across the street. I’m the librarian. I need to get back. Uh, it was nice to meet you, Stryker.” She pulled her hand from his but delayed moving away in case he reached for her again. She wouldn’t win in a tug of war she was quick to assess.

His eyes looked a bit frantic at her words. “Please, I need you to stay.” This was all he could manage to get out. His cougar was roaring in his head telling him to grab her, kiss her, mate her. It didn’t want to talk, it didn’t want to get to know her, it wanted to fuck. His cougar was a simple animal.

Stryker’s human side knew none of these were possible right now. He hated it, he wanted to drag her back to his cabin and lock her in. But that would probably land him in jail. His mate wouldn’t ever trust him again. How did he do this?

Working out a plan quickly, as it was clear his mate was ready to move away from him, he said, “Can I come there?”

“The library? Of course, it’s open to the public. I work until six.” Libby wasn’t sure why she so freely offered this information.

Her daydreams aside, being alone with this man for the last few minutes was more overwhelming that she could have possibly imagined. He was all man and sex. He smelled like outdoors and grease, and it was a heady combination. She needed some breathing room.

She needed to figure out how to close early and hide away at home until she came to her senses and figured out what drove her to march her ass across the street to confront him in the first place. Maybe she was having a mental breakdown. Her father would probably prescribe yoga and fasting to cure her of her insanity.

“I’ll come there,” he said shortly. Shit, fucking hell. He sounded like a goddamn caveman. How was he supposed to talk to her?

“Erm, okay. Great. Bye, Stryker.” She pulled her hands free with a tug and spun on her heel to quickly walk back across the street. She told herself to not turn around, but did she listen?

Nope, halfway across she twisted back to see him staring at her, his face almost angry looking with a hint of disappointment. Whipping back around she made it to the front door of the library and shut the door behind her with the heat of his gaze on her the whole time.