Matt: Tales of the Were (Redstone Clan Book 5) (6 page)

Morgan had been involved in Christy’s divorce from a hateful, violent man, but beyond knowledge of Christy’s first marriage and its dissolution, Morgan didn’t know all that much. She had just assumed Sebastian had discovered Christy was his One after turning her to save her life, but she didn’t know the particulars. What the women were implying seemed a bit of a stretch. She hated to ask, but she was a cat and she was naturally curious…

“What did he do?” Morgan whispered, asking despite her best intentions not to pry.

It was Lissa who answered. “Sebastian arranged for Christy’s first meal to be shifter blood. Matt’s, to be precise. He held off consummating their relationship until he was certain Christy would be strong enough to face her past and never be frightened of a man again.” Morgan must have frowned because Lissa went on. “A vampire’s first meal is the most important of his or her existence. Kelly and I were converted more or less in the usual way, where our mate’s blood was the first we ever tasted. Our mates are ancient and powerful, so we get a measure of their strength. And being mates, we also have a psychic connection that helps us learn things directly from their minds, at times. It’s pretty awesome.” Lissa smiled and sent a wink across the room to her husband, who smiled back at her.

“But Christy had been through a lot. Sebastian arranged for her to have Matt’s magical blood a few times before he tested their attraction to find out if she truly was his One,” Kelly picked up the story. “Shifter blood is like supercharged or something, according to Marc. It gives us some of the traits of the shifter and some of their strength, for a time. It’s potent stuff. And having it for her first meal, Christy got some of Matt’s cougar agility and stamina on a much longer term basis—possibly permanently. When she shifts, she can become a cat.”

“A housecat,” Christy quipped with good natured humor. “That was the first form I chose. The guys laughed at me.” The other ladies chuckled with her.

For Morgan’s part, she was too appalled at the ideas that were running through her head to speak. She knew enough about vampires to know that they usually fucked when they fed. So, if Matt had allowed Christy to bite him, he had probably been inside her, at the time. From all accounts—multiple times.

The mangy alley cat.

“Lissa and I might take decades, or even centuries, to build up the kind of power and control necessary to shapeshift,” Kelly went on, apparently oblivious to Morgan’s inner turmoil. “But, by biting a shifter, Christy got that skill early. She also moves like a cat and can leap to heights that are kind of awesome.”

Christy blushed, even as she smiled and ducked her head.

Morgan had always liked Christy. Knowing what she did about her past and having dealt with her asshole of an ex-husband during the divorce, Morgan had developed a soft spot for the woman. She had felt like they had things in common.

But learning that, in all likelihood, Christy had slept with Matt—more than once—all feelings of comradeship were fading. Jealousy was springing up, making Morgan’s inner cat want to yowl and claw.
Down, kitty.

Appalled by both her reaction and the implications of Matt’s hound dog ways, she avoided his eye for the rest of the night. It was just safer that way.

But she couldn’t avoid him on the walk back to their cars, an hour later. After the plans had been picked apart and approved by the Brotherhood and the conversation had turned casual, Matt and Morgan finally took their leave. The vampires might be awake all night, but even shifters needed a little sleep before facing the new day.

And so, they found themselves walking back up to the office in the dark. The night closing around them in a way that made Morgan want to sprint away from the confusing man at her side. Her attraction to him hadn’t faded, even after learning what she had tonight. Matt slept around, and while that shouldn’t bother her because most shifters were a tad promiscuous before finding their mates, the fact that he’d slept with Christy—someone Morgan knew and liked—just struck a raw nerve.

Why it should matter so much to her, Morgan didn’t really want to examine.

“Where’s the fire?” Matt asked from slightly behind her.

She turned on him. “What?”

“You’re practically jogging. I just wondered where the fire was that you had to get to so fast.” He smiled in that disarming, totally charming way he had, but she was doing her best to resist. “It’s a beautiful night. We’ve both had a long day. Slow down and relax a little. Why the rush?”

Angry that she’d let her inner turmoil show, even the tiniest bit, she slowed her fast pace and allowed him to catch up. She was a lawyer. She didn’t show emotion when facing an adversary. And, sadly, Matt Redstone had, somehow, become her adversary, even though ultimately, they were working on the same side.

“Guess I was just thinking too hard.” She tried to sound casual, but even to her own ears, she sounded more brittle than bored.

Matt reached into his pocket and pulled out some change. Picking out a shiny, copper coin, he handed it to her.

“What’s this for?”

“It’s a penny. You know…for your thoughts?” There was that charming smile again.

She felt like she was under Borg attack.
Resistance is futile.

But she
had
to resist.

She handed the penny back to him. “I’m not sure they’re even worth that much. You’d better keep your money.”
And your charm and everything else.

But he didn’t cooperate. He took her hand and folded the penny into her fingers, wrapping his big hands around her fist.

“Keep it. For luck.”

The air around them suddenly grew intimate, and she was powerless to move. The haven of her car was only a few dozen yards away. Her fast pace had moved them swiftly from the mansion to the office, and escape was imminent, but she couldn’t make her feet move.

“There’s another traditional thing we do for luck…” Matt whispered as his head lowered toward hers. Again, she was powerless to resist.

Matt’s lips found hers, and she was a goner.

She melted into his arms as his grip moved from her hand to her shoulders, pulling her tight against his hard body. She felt…right. So many things felt like they clicked into place, but it couldn’t be. Matt Redstone was a player. A dominant Alpha male who seemed to think any woman was his for the taking.

He did kiss like a dream, though. The arguments against him faded as his tongue moved in to take possession of her mouth. Her blood began to heat in explosive ways, her body thrumming with…something.

Matt pulled back and looked deep into her eyes.

“There, now. That’s better,” he whispered, as if he was gentling some wild animal.

The cat inside her—the traitor—sat up and allowed his voice to stroke her ruffled fur. She wanted to roll around in his scent and let his hands stroke her all over. The woman wanted more of his kiss.

Morgan initiated it, this time, going back for more of the exquisite torture that made her feel things she had never experienced before with any of her human boyfriends. She’d never been with a shifter. She’d never even been this close to a shifter before. Matt was a totally new experience for her, and she was very much afraid he was addictive.

She kissed him for all she was worth, practically climbing his body like a scratching post, surrounding him and being surrounded by his warmth, his scent, his incredible masculinity. This, her inner cat purred, this was an Alpha male worthy of the name.

Passion rose between them. She felt the excitement running through her veins as never before. She also felt the hardness of his cock against her belly. Even with layers of fabric between them, he was formidable. And then, she purred…

Holy shit!

She tore herself out of his arms, breaking the kiss and stumbling back, away from him as he let her go.

To purr in human form was something incredibly significant to cat shifters. Even Morgan knew that. And, for just a split second there, she’d thought she’d felt an answering rumble coming from his chest.

Dear, sweet Goddess! It couldn’t be happening.

Turning tail and running as if the hounds of hell were on her heels probably wasn’t the bravest thing she’d ever done, but Morgan did it. She ran all the way back to her car, glad as she had never been before that she didn’t have to mess with keys. Her keyless entry and ignition were a blessing of technology that allowed her to get in the car and go, go, go!

She had to get away from the threat of Matt Redstone and his devastating kisses. Her primitive responses had never been so potent. For shit sure, she had never purred in human form before. And she wasn’t going to admit she had done so now.

Giving in to Matt’s allure would be the beginning of the end to all she held dear. She didn’t want to become some playboy alley cat’s little woman. She’d worked too hard to get to where she was. She wasn’t going to throw it all away for some man who had already slept with one of her friends.

No, siree. Matt was off the agenda. Damaged goods. Christy’s sloppy seconds.

Morgan had to keep coming up with reasons why she shouldn’t go back and discover just what it was about the man that made her purr. As she drove away, she saw him walking slowly to his car. He paused, leaning against his vehicle, watching as she reversed and then sped away. She didn’t acknowledge him, but she knew he knew that she saw him. Damn.

She had to get out of here. She had to think. She had to forget that incredible kiss. And the purring. Most of all, she had to forget the purring.

Matt watched Morgan speed away. He sent a silent prayer up to the Goddess that she would drive safely. She’d been in a state when she’d run from him, and he couldn’t really blame her. Matt was confused as hell, too. Confused, amazed, and still incredibly turned on by what, after all, had only been a simple kiss.

But it had been a life-altering kiss, just the same. Matt had finally answered the question that had been plaguing him since that first brief encounter, way back when. He’d been wondering for a long time whether or not he’d imagined his reaction to meeting Morgan, for the first time.

Now, he didn’t have to wonder, anymore. His instincts hadn’t been off. There was something truly special about Morgan.

Her kiss had made him purr, which among big cat shifters could mean only one thing…

He’d just found his mate.

CHAPTER FOUR

Morgan thought she was pretty successful in hiding from Matt Redstone over the next few days. She’d ducked him at the winery offices, working out of her downtown legal office, instead.

She had stayed informed about the progress of the new plans via Irma and her connections in the local planning office. She knew the new plans had been accepted, and Matt was busy coordinating the arrival of his work crews. They would be breaking ground today, in fact, and Atticus had specifically asked her to be on hand for the occasion.

Short of outright refusing a special request from her largest and very indulgent client, she would have to show up and make nice with all the
weres
at the construction site. And see Matt again…

She wasn’t sure she could handle it. Her nerves were tied up in knots just thinking about it.

Yeah, the closer she drove to the construction site where the ceremony would be held, the more certain she became that she was making a big mistake. Her life had been just fine without
weres
in it up ‘til now. She didn’t need to make nice with the shifters, no matter what the Brotherhood thought. And she most especially didn’t need to be anywhere near a particular
were
cougar anytime in the near future. Maybe not ever.

She almost turned her car around half a dozen times, but, then, she thought about Atticus’s reaction. And his mate’s. Lissa would tell her friends, and then, Christy might realize just why Morgan was behaving like such a scaredy cat. The green-eyed monster of jealousy had been riding her hard since that little get together at Atticus’s home.

No way would Morgan give anyone the satisfaction of knowing how deeply the thoughts of Matt with other women—one incredibly beautiful vampire woman, in particular—hurt. She would not have them whispering behind her back. She would tough this out and put on a brave face. Nobody would have the satisfaction of seeing her crumble. Never again.

Bravado was just about the only thing holding her up as Morgan parked her car on the dirt in the area that had been cleared for construction equipment. It lay all over the small area, big yellow machines dormant for the moment, civilian cars mixed in with the trucks and life-size Tonka toys.

She didn’t see any other people, yet, but when she opened her car door, the scents hit her. Wild. Wolf. Werewolf. And Others. She scented magic, too. Pure and good, its scent drawing her onwards, toward the center of the cluster of giant yellow machines.

As she rounded the first bulldozer, she was brought up short by the presence of a huge man. He stood a few feet from her, and she realized he was some sort of guard, looking out for strangers approaching the ceremonial site. He took a rather obvious sniff in her direction and relaxed marginally. Her instincts, and nose, said he was a werewolf. A big-assed werewolf with muscles on top of his muscles. The man was huge!

“You must be the lawyer,” he said in a gruff voice, stepping back, out of her way. “Go right on through. I think they were waiting for you to show before they got started.”

The man mountain even smiled at her, a slight baring of teeth that made her edge past him quickly. If this guy was any indication of what lay beyond the inner circle of equipment, Morgan had been right to be afraid. These
weres
were built on the massive side, and their every movement spoke of strength and the ability to tear her apart with a single swipe of one enormous paw.

Morgan did her best not to show her fear, but he probably scented a bit of her adrenaline. Hopefully, he’d put it up to the start he’d given her when he suddenly appeared. She didn’t want this big predator to know she was afraid. Surprised was okay. But fearful just wouldn’t cut it.