The Cougar's Pawn (17 page)

“Nick’s got a red caboose and some welts on his thighs.” She pushed the cart away. “I don’t think it’s just diaper rash.”

Scolding him again.
Fine
. As long as she kept her brain on Nick, she could yank Mason around all she wanted.

Mason put back the two packages he held and followed her. “You mean his mom hasn’t been changing him enough? That fits Jill to a T, leaving him soaked until his pants leak.”

“That may be a part of it, but like a lot of kids, he’s probably sensitive to chemicals in that area. Who knows what kind of allergies he might have having two shifters for parents.”

“Beyond an allergy to silver, you mean. Mom thought he might have eczema.”

“He just might. His pediatrician would know.”

Mason had no idea who Nick’s pediatrician was. He’d asked Jill, and she said she took him to a group practice and would get Mason the info. She never did. “I’ll look into it,” he said bashfully. He didn’t do bashful. She obviously had that leash pulled tight.

“Do it soon.”

He grimaced.

“Eczema and certain food allergies tend to be comorbid, and you want to do all you can to avoid flare-ups. All that itchiness would make anyone insane. Can you imagine how bad it’d be for a baby?”

“I can imagine. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize to me. Just do better.”

Apparently, doing better was why he had
her
.

They navigated to the checkout line and Mason loaded groceries onto the conveyor belt. “What else do you need?”

“Need to get a litter box.”

“Don’t worry about that. Hank found an empty storage tote and cut a dip in the front. He put some of the wood shavings we swept up this morning into it, and your little monster seemed to tolerate that just fine.”

“That monster’s name is Pumpkin Pie.”

He snorted.

She gave him a long blink.

“Seriously?”

“That’s her name. Pumpkin Pie. My sister also has an orange-and-white cat from the same litter. Her name is Candy Corn.”

“Themed names. That’s cute.” If he’d had to name a cat, he’d probably give it a heavy metal name like “Asgard” or “Kickstand.”

She shrugged. “We get our fun wherever we can find it. I know it’s pitiful, but naming those cats kept us laughing for at least three weeks.”

“That’s not good. You should have more stuff to laugh at.”

“You offering to give me something?”

“Sure. I’d love to make you laugh, assuming the thing you’re laughing at isn’t
me
.”

“Ha.” She sucked her teeth and picked up an
Us Weekly
from the rack over the chewing gum. “Haven’t read one of these in years. Usually get all my celebrity gossip through apps on my phone.”

And he had her phone, and Miles’s and Hannah’s, too. He’d locked them into the shop safe. He cringed. She had to have been feeling pretty disconnected. Being taken as a Cougar mate must have been so much different during the era of isolated, insular communities—back when getting in touch might have meant a journey of several days. Those mates might have feared they’d never see their families again, but they would have thought they had good fortune to be picked. Mason was under no illusion that she’d hit the jackpot with him. He pitied her.

“Get it,” he said. “You can tell me who all those people are who I don’t know but should at least be able to recognize.”

Grinning, she tossed it into the conveyor belt along with a pack of Rolo. And then another. He could tell it was for spite by the way she narrowed her eyes at him when she reached for it. A dollar-fifty of candy was hardly going to break him. If he were lucky, that was as expensive as her tastes got. A fancy girl wouldn’t get on very well at the ranch.

“Hey, Mason.”

Damn. Too late to back out.

He always tried to avoid Millie’s check-out lane, because she always had some new shit to ask him to do.

The older witch swiped his value card through the machine and thrust it at him.

He groaned inwardly. “Hey, Mill.” There was always something with Millie. She kept him hopping. Every damned time he saw her, she needed something. He couldn’t exactly say no. As the alpha Cougar, helping her was part of his job. He was supposed to assist the leaders of other supernatural groups in the area—to act as an ambassador and investigator, when necessary. He was supposed to build bridges, not burn them. But Millie was needy.
So
freaking needy. His mother would pinch the ever-loving shit out of him if she found out he’d given the ditzy old bat a hard time, though.

“Gonna be at the barbecue this weekend?” She kept scanning groceries, but her gaze flitted to Ellery. Feminine multitasking at its finest.

Ellery was too busy unbuckling Nick from the cart to pay any attention.

“Maybe,” he said. “We’ve got a pileup of orders at Woodworks. It depends on what’s left to do Friday night.”

“Miss seeing you around.”

He shrugged. “You know how it goes. You get busy and all the social stuff goes down the toilet.”

“Know the feeling. I haven’t gotten out much since I got my goats.” She picked up the oatmeal and scratched off the adhered manufacturer’s coupon, still watching Ellery.

Ellery squeezed behind him with Nick and stopped at the end of the lane. “We’ll wait outside.”

“’Kay.” He didn’t think she was going to try to escape with Nick on her hip, so he didn’t bother with the stupid
I’m watching you
warning.

Millie blinked at him.

“What?”

“Who is she? And do you need any stamps today?”

“Why do you ask? And no.”

“I know what she is. She’s not Cougar. She doesn’t have your kind of energy and you all have a special stink about you.”

“Only you would think that.” Ellery had thought he smelled nice enough. Just to be sure, though, he snuck a whiff of his arm. Smelled damn fine. He turned to check behind him. No waiting customers. Next cashier was two lanes over and busy sorting coupons. “You really know what she is?” he leaned in to whisper.

“That’ll be one-twelve fifty-seven. Those diapers were five dollars cheaper yesterday, by the way. I’m 90 percent sure, but there’s some kind of odd fingerprints in her aura. Don’t see too many of those.”

“You’re making no sense. Tell it to me in language a cat could understand.” He swiped his debit card.

“She’s a witch. Like recognizes like, and I’d guess she’s too polite to say anything to me about what she believes I am. Don’t know what kind she is, but I’ve never encountered a witch with so much contamination in her energy.”

“Contamination of what sort?”

“Angelic. Something else, too.”

“Godly, maybe?”

Millie guffawed and her glasses slipped off her narrow nose only to be caught by the chain dangling from her neck. She put them back on. “I don’t know any acquaintances, not even on the internet, who’s been up close and personal with a god. They don’t tend to meddle so closely.”

He groaned. “No, they don’t tend to. She’s a special case.”

Millie raised an eyebrow. “Tell me more.”

“Nah. I need a hundred in cash back if you’ve got that in the drawer.”

“Then push the button and tell that to the machine. What aren’t you letting on?”

“I’m not letting on much of anything, so be more specific about what you want me to tell you.”

She stamped her foot—a most hilarious action for a woman who had to be sixty if she was a day. “Tell me, dammit! I swear, you Foyes … ”

“Shh!” He looked behind him and double-checked that there was no one in earshot. A shifter might have been able to hear her from across the building. He whispered, “Let’s just say that she keeps some very interesting company.”

“You’re killing me.” The drawer popped open and she counted out five twenties. “I’d like to talk to her. Invite her to check out our coven. Probably not as strong as the one she’s used to, but we have good cake.”

“Grocery store cake? That frosted sandpaper you sell two days past its natural expiration?”

She shrugged. “It’s free. Sue me.”

“I’ll let her know about your invitation. I’m not really ready to let her out of my sight yet, though. Hasn’t told me yes yet.”

“Oh.” She gave a slow nod and pressed her fists to her bony hips. “Ugh.
Man
, good luck, kiddo. Better hope she’s as practical as your mother.”

He rolled his eyes.

“I imagine you wouldn’t be ready to let her come, then. You could always tag along as long as you keep that cat energy of yours reined in. It disrupts the flow of magic and puts all the ladies on edge.”

“Bingo starting five minutes late puts you ladies on edge.”

“Be like that, then, Mason Foye, so I won’t have to tell you what I shook out my grapevine about your Cougars.”

Oh, hell
. He took one more glance behind him, and as there was no one close, he leaned in. “What happened?”

She circled his savings on the receipt and folded the paper to wallet size. “Nothing’s happened yet, but you’d better watch your back. One of my coven mate’s daughters went on a blind date with a Cougar. She was too ashamed to say who, but he was allegedly foaming at the mouth talking about how it was time for some leadership. He got so drunk, he probably didn’t remember he’d even said it the next day. I know you think I’m paranoid, but watch your back. I’d hate for anything to happen to you, and that’s not just because you’re my godson.”

He sighed. “What’s one more fight, Millie?”

“You need to figure out how to make them not even want to try you, you know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I get you.”

“So, see you on Saturday?”

“No promises.” He tucked the bills and receipt into his wallet. “I’ll try to bring her to your cookout on Saturday if she hasn’t hexed my nuts off by then.”

“She can do that?”

“Don’t know. She’s threatened to, though. I don’t really want to push her to prove she actually can.”

“No, I imagine you wouldn’t. And Mason?”

“Yeah?”

“I don’t mean to pile on while you’re busy—”

“Liar.”

She stuck out her tongue and nudged her reading glasses up. “There’s some unidentified scat behind the candle store. Might be from a wild animal, but there are man-sized footprints a few yards away. Can you check it out and see if—”

“Ugh.” Fucking out-of-towner shifters. Maybe it was the same type that had scratched up Darnell. At times, he wondered if the local groups made the place a bit too welcoming.

He found Ellery and Nick out front on the coin-operated horse ride, but the more interesting ride at the moment was the one pulling away from the curb.

Edgar Sheehan hit his brakes and gave Mason a mock salute through the open window of his Ford Fairlane. “Afternoon,
Alpha
.”

Mason tipped his chin in acknowledgement.

Nick squealed behind him, but he didn’t turn. He kept his gaze locked on Edgar who was now leaning onto his door and grinning in that smarmy way he did. Mason didn’t understand it, but women seemed to like it well enough. He hoped Ellery wasn’t one of those women. Had they been talking before Mason stepped outside?

If Ralphie tipped this shitstain off …

“Who’s your friend?” Edgar asked. “I tried to say hi to Nick and she gave me the stink-eye. I guess I can’t blame her.” He laughed and shook his head. “What with stranger danger and all. Can’t be too safe nowadays.”

Now Mason did turn to look.

Nick grinned and waved his arms wildly as the horse dipped and down, and Ellery just held him there, cutting a sideways glare at Edgar.

Interesting
.

“Nice seeing you,” he said to Edgar. Mason hoped he’d get the point and go away.

Edgar drummed his fingers on the windowsill for a few beats, twisting his lips side to side, before driving away. “See you soon, Alpha,” he shouted.

“Not if I can help it,” Mason muttered.

The whole fucking Sheehan family was shady. Dad had always skirted around the whys and hows when it came to the Sheehans, ostensibly because he didn’t want to taint his sons’ perceptions of them. Mason had learned plenty enough on his own through the years that he didn’t need Dad’s lessons. Everyone knew the Sheehans had ambitions to rule the town in any way they could. They hadn’t yet figured out a way to make it happen.

Ellery gave him a pleading look when he finally turned back to the horse. “Found a quarter in your truck. That quarter has kept this thing moving for five minutes. I think it’s busted.”

“Good luck for Nick, then.”

She crossed her eyes.

“Hey, I’m certain you were once so easily thrilled.”

“I’m sure there may have been some point, though I can’t remember it.”

“You need to let your hair down and have a little more fun.”

“I thought I was doing that by going camping, and look what happened.”

“Touché.”

“So … first things first. Guy in the rust bucket is a Cougar?”

Mason leaned against the shopping cart and forced out a breath. “Yes.”

“He has a big energy field. Happens sometimes with shifters who have massive egos.”

Mason opened his mouth to ask how big his was, but he was pretty sure he’d be opening himself up to a fresh insult if he did. He didn’t want to give her any new reasons to denigrate him, even if he deserved it.

She tipped her head toward the store window. “Lady at the register. She’s a witch, right?”

“Yep. I guess you can identify each other the same way shifters can.”

“I can usually point out other natural witches, yes, though I may not necessarily be able to tell what kind of witch they are or who or what their power originates from. My brother-in-law has been teaching my sister and me how to tell the different power flavors apart, but that’s not exactly Witchcraft 101. It’s easy for him. He’s over two hundred years old and has been there and done that. Gail and I are still at the bottom of the learning curve, and she’s way farther ahead than I am.”

“Two
hundred
? What is he?”

She cringed. “That’s … complicated.”

He waited for her to elaborate, but she hadn’t yet demonstrated possession of a strong urge to volunteer information, and likely wasn’t going to start. He’d have to figure out how to get words out of her soon. He wanted to know what made the witch tick. Him, not his eager inner cougar.