The Cougar's Pawn (23 page)

“Why don’t you ask them when you see them?”

“I just might.”

“Darnell? That you?” Mrs. Foye called out from her back door. She stood at the steps holding her gardening gloves in one hand and her sun hat in the other. “Shouldn’t you be seeing to some cattle?”

“Uh. About that … ” He jogged toward her, holding his cowboy hat down on his head as he went.

Ellery turned to Mason. He wasn’t off the hook about that
Alpha’s woman
thing, and like hell if she’d let him think he was going to let it slide without discussion. Before she could get any words out, though, he said, “I wonder what’s taking Hank and Sean so long. I’m going to go call them and see where they are.”

He pulled open the door, and she stood there flapping her jaw a few beats.

Retort. Say something.
Use words.

She had none. Didn’t know what she felt, and didn’t know what to say. She was tired of lashing out with half-formed emotions. Nick cried out, reaching for her, as the door swung closed at Mason’s back. That got her moving.

“All right, killer.”

She scooped him up before Mason could set him into the playpen, and Nick burrowed his face against her shoulder and twirled the ends of her hair.

“Sorry,” Mason said as he wedged his phone out of his back pocket.

“For what?”

“About Nick. He’s not generally so clingy. You think maybe he’s sicker than you thought?”

“No.” She didn’t really want to say what she thought. She’d never met Jill and didn’t presume to judge the woman.

Mason pushed up an eyebrow and tapped his phone screen. “Just no?”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like I’m going to be holding him for the rest of his life.”

A little less than two weeks. That was all, if she refused Mason. She had twelve days to make a little boy feel safe and cared for, and it didn’t seem like enough.

“Are you sure you’re not using witchcraft on my kid?” Mason asked softly.

“No more than I’m using it on you.”

He turned his phone over and over in his hand and fixed her in his gaze. “I’m not convinced you aren’t. The inside of my head is a mess right now of your making.”

“Sorry.” She didn’t know what else to say. She wasn’t handling that “thinking” thing so well herself.

Mason let out a long exhale, turned from her, and put his phone to his year. “Yeah. Hank drives like a maniac. They should have been back already unless they found some trouble to get into.” He walked into the woodshop with her on his heels.

Change of setting, more distractions. Things to fiddle with and look at.
Good
.

“How often does that happen?”

“What, them getting into trouble?”

“Yes.”

“Frequently. They’re delinquents, but I love them anyway. Here he is. Hey, Hank. Where are you? Got orders piling up here.”

And sawdust, too. Ellery leaned against the column, her back to the door, and worked a little wind magic to blow all the detritus into a neat-enough pile. She could sic the vacuum on what was left when Mason got off the phone. It was the least she could do. Nick wasn’t exactly a handful, and as badly as she’d needed a vacation from the hospital, she didn’t like being so unproductive. She needed things to do. Lists with items to tick off. Busywork so she didn’t fret about and fixate on That Cougar.

“Well, that’s good,” Mason said into the phone. “You should be pulling in shortly, then. Any trouble at the campground? Everything look like it was still there?”

Ellery’s ears perked up. She really wanted her dagger back. Agatha or Claude would eventually get her another, but she’d already bonded with the one she had. Wielding it no longer felt foreign to her. It was an extension of her arm and hand.

“We’ll let the girls sort through it when you get here. Nah. It was a pretty uneventful night overall.”

She scoffed.
Uneventful, huh?

“See you in a few.” He ended the call and tucked the phone into his pocket.

As he passed, she gave him a poke to her shoulder. “Uneventful?”

“Little white lie. They’re going to smell it on me, anyway. No need to start the commentary before they even get here.”

“You showered.”

He grinned. “It was a nice shower, and your assistance was very thorough. Do your knees still hurt?”

She rolled her eyes. Lechery always went a long way in dousing emotions. She considered thanking him for it.

He laughed. “Really, the Were-cougar sense of smell is pretty phenomenal, even when we’re in our human forms. Your scent is going to linger on me and they’re going to catch it. Doesn’t matter how much soap I use or how much scalding water I let beat on me. And they’re going to tease and tease and tease a little more until I shift from patient big brother to kick-your-ass Alpha.”

“Why would they tease?”

He shrugged and picked up what looked like a table leg and eyed it. “They may not have been interested in mate-hunting until being forced, more or less, to do it, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t chase tail.”

“And you didn’t.”

“Nope. Didn’t have the time, energy, or inclination.”

“All I’ve had in the past year was
inclination
.”

“But?”

“Small dating pool. I didn’t want to date a normal guy.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

“Why?”

“If you’d gotten attached, my job would be that much harder. I’m not winning blue ribbons for charm any time soon, and I know I wouldn’t be able to compete.”

“Is that what you think?”

“It’s what I know.”

He sounded so certain. It made her a little sad. He had a lot to offer a woman, but he probably needed the right woman to recognize it.

And that reminded her—she still needed to have a conversation with Agatha about her sudden
recognition
. If Ellery’s hunch was right, she’d have a major decision to make quickly. She was being offered something someone thought she needed. It was up to her to decide if it was enough to turn her life upside down for.

“Ugh. There’s something sticky on the table. I think Sean’s been eating in here again.”

Sticky
. Another reminder—this time about something Darnell had said.

“Question,” she said.

He grabbed a rag from a nearby shop table and bobbed his eyebrows at her. “Lay it on me.”

“Darnell said that I only smelled a
little
like you as if there were space for someone else. What was he getting at?”

He blew his hair out of his eyes, scrubbed the tabletop, and switched on some table-mounted power tool she hadn’t learned the name of yet. No response.

No, that wasn’t suspicious at all.

“Answer me.”

“Fine.” He tossed the rag aside and groaned at the ceiling. “If you weren’t a witch and already familiar with some of the more out-there customs amongst preternaturals, I would never tell you. This stays between you and me. Got it?”

She approached the table and pressed her one free palm to the edge. “Don’t tell Miles and Hannah, you mean.”

He didn’t look at her, just worked his lower lip between his teeth and stared at the machine’s blade.

“Tell me.”

“All right. When a Cougar claims his mate, there’s a build-up period before the pairing … sticks.”

“What do you mean?”

“Understand that me telling you this is essentially giving you the keys to renegotiation truck.” Now he did look at her. His expression was impassive. More staid Alpha than the lustful man who’d put her to sleep in the best possible way overnight. His energy gave no clues because he’d drawn it back in. There were no wispy tendrils seeking her and trying to draw her close. He was keeping his hands to himself, figuratively speaking.

“I … can’t promise I won’t use it against you.”

“Yeah, I know. The thing is … technically, right now, you’re fair game. Any Cougar could challenge me for you, even if they didn’t plan on keeping you.”

She let the words settle into her brain in pieces. “Challenge you? Why would anyone challenge you for me? I thought your goddess directed you to me specifically.”

“Cougars challenge each other for all kinds of bullshit. We’re territorial creatures and sometimes we pick unnecessary fights. People are going to see something that belongs to Alpha, and they’re going to want it.”

“I can’t just be snatched up like some kind of commodity.”

“I did that.”

Oh yeah.
How could she possibly forget?

“The reason I had to have you here for two weeks isn’t just because that is
La Bella Dama
’s consent deadline. It also takes fourteen days to complete a mate bond. My cougar is pretty calm right now, but a couple of weeks from now, he’ll be more aggressive. Something about taking a mate fucks with our hormones.”

“Aggressive in what way?”

“Less forgiving. Less inclined to give second chances or second thoughts.”

“Not necessarily a bad thing for an alpha, right?”

“You should be more afraid.”

Of Mason?
Nah
.

Nothing in his energy scared her. The longer she spent with him, the easier it became to sift through it and read its components. Sure, there were some dark spots in his energy, but everyone had those. They were the anger people drew on when they needed to fight. Given the disorder in his life, she would have expected his to have been larger than they were.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

“Yeah, you’ve proven that.” He bobbed his eyebrows and rubbed his upper arms as if he’d suddenly caught a chill. “There are a few benefits to mate meshing. You’d carry my imprint—my scent. Cougars would know who you belonged to and possibly think twice about doing you any harm. There are also some perks that tie in with that psychic tether I told you about a couple of days ago, though they vary with every match depending on a Cougar’s rank. Mom and Dad never talked about theirs. Said it was personal, so I can’t say what they’ll be. And … taking a true mate makes a Cougar stronger.”

Ah.
Funny how he’d saved that for last. It was pretty damned important.

“And you only have two weeks to mesh.”

“Something about our energy being most open immediately after meeting. You’re my one chance. Other Cougars would know that.”

Her turn to shake her head. “That seems extraordinarily cruel. Stripping someone’s mate from him before she’s had a chance to—”

A blinding white flash just beyond the wood shop door made her cover her eyes and pull Nick tighter against her chest.

“Did I miss hearing thunder?” Mason asked. His footsteps thudded away from her, likely to the front of the building.

She peeled her eyelids open and followed him in spite of her spotty vision.

As she approached the door, he threw himself in front of it and his unholy hiss made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. “Stay back,” he growled.

She stood on tiptoes and tried to see around him. “Mason, move.” She’d bet two weeks of her paid time off she knew what, or
whom
, had generated that flash, and it wasn’t lightning. Those idiot cambions never could travel without creating a commotion.

She grabbed a back pocket of his jeans and gave it an ineffectual tug. She couldn’t get much leverage using just one hand. “Mason, move!”

“Hank and Sean are pulling in now. We won’t be outnumbered. Just stay here and I’ll take care of it.”

“Mason.
Really
.”

“Stay here.” He pulled the door open, exited, and pushed it shut on her. “Stay,” he repeated.

She narrowed her eyes at him. As always, he seemed entirely unaffected. He walked away taking for granted that she’d obey him. By then, he should have known better.

Sighing, she looked down at Nick. “One of these days, your daddy is going to have to learn to listen to me.”

“Ba.”

“Yeah. Bad. Bad listener.” She put her shoulder to the door and stepped outside just in time to see three Cougars having a shoving match with three cambions.

“For fuuuu—” She pressed her lips together remembering the impressionable youngster on her hip. “For frick’s sake, y’all.” She stepped into the middle of the would-be fracas.

“Ellery,” Mason warned.

“Nope. Jeez. Tried to tell you.” She reached up, grabbed Claude’s baseball cap by the brim, and smacked his arm with it. “You three dopes would walk into biker bar wearing the rival gang’s colors.”

“Fuck,
fille
.” Claude snatched his hat back and shoved it over his uncombed curls. “Thought you’d be happy to see us.”

“You know these men?” Mason asked.

She couldn’t help but to notice he’d all but insinuated himself between her and Claude.

“Take it easy, dirty red. This tactless disaster is my brother-in-law Claude.”

“I’ll tell Gail you said that.” Claude stuck out a hand to shake.

Mason glared at him.

Ellery kicked the back of Mason’s boot. “Make nice with him.”

“He smells weird. They all do.”

She sighed. “Have a little tact, Alpha.” Claude smelled as he always did to Ellery, minus the cigarette stink. He must have been trying to quit again. Maybe he’d finally make it stick.

Charles crossed his arms and blew his hair out of his face. It was out of his usual ponytail. Either he had become more casual as of late or his wife Marion had been petting it again. “Humor me. What do we smell like?”

Sean grunted. “Hard to say. It’s not one particular thing. There’s an undercurrent of … sameness, but everything on top of that is wildly different.”

“They all have the same father,” Ellery said.

Sean grunted again, and rubbed his chin. His nostrils flared as he sniffed. “That accounts for it, I think. They all have about the same amount of … whatever.”

“It’s a little brimstoney, right?” Hank said. “Is that what we’re trying not to say? I mean, that
is
why we’re on high alert right now, right? Because they’ve got a tinge of the demonic about them?”

Mason walked toward John, nearest him, and took in a long draw of air.

John, ever-curious, pushed up one blond eyebrow. “Should have told us there’d be party games, Ell. I would have brought Pictionary.”

“No. This one doesn’t have that,” Mason said. “Ozone, not brimstone.”