Cougar's Conquest Read online

  She was fascinated—not only by Brett’s description of how he had found this Alpha Force, but also by the fact that he’d changed his whole life as a result of seeing her shift.

  Because he’d liked it? Or because of his keen intellectual curiosity, which had attracted her in the first place?

  It didn’t really matter. As much as she cared about him, as wonderful as it was to make love with him, they were much too different to stay together even if she dared to leave again and follow him. She was a loner. She had to be.

  Her family had taught her that. The hard way.

  Her family. As she’d listened to Brett, a major part of her mind remained churning about how she was going to handle tonight. A lapse of a mere hour or two? They’d jump on her as if it had been another year.

  When fleeing from Brett because he had seen her shift, Gwynn had considered alternatives besides returning to her childhood home. Nothing had seemed any better—not when she knew she had to hide that she was a shapeshifter, and her family, as difficult as they were, had been good at keeping that secret about all of them.

  Now, she was under her family’s control, despite her quest for where she could go next, what she could do.

  How on earth would she approach leaving long enough to go visit Alpha Force?

  She would do it, though. She had to. In case it was real, she had to check it out.

  “Isn’t that fish any good?” Brett asked. When she glanced at him, startled at his question, she noticed that his plate was empty while hers was still practically full of food. “I thought felines liked fish,” he said more quietly.

  She forced a smile. He didn’t need to know all that was on her mind. He had been so protectively male before that she knew he would try to interfere, which could be a horrendous mistake.

  “I do like fish,” she said. “And you obviously like pot roast. Now, tell me again about how we can travel most easily to Ft. Lukman this weekend.”

  “You’ve decided to go?” His handsome face looked so pleased that she wished they weren’t in public. She wanted to lean over and kiss him.

  What the hell? She leaned across the table and placed her lips on his. She’d planned on it being just a quick kiss, but it went on for longer than she’d anticipated.

  When she finally pulled away, she sat back down and nodded, knowing her face was flushed and her hands were shaking.

  “I’ve decided to go,” she confirmed.

  Chapter Six

  “Where the hell were you?” demanded George Macka, Gwynn’s father.

  Filled with misgivings yet having no choice, she had finally returned home. It was nearly nine o’clock that night. Not very late in the scheme of things, but later than her controlling family permitted.

  They’d all been waiting for her in the tiny, drab kitchen of their wooden cabin secluded deep in the mountainous woods near Big Bear Lake. Ready to pounce, figuratively, at least, on this night when the moon was not yet full.

  “I’d say that my dear little sister was out screwing some guy,” said her brother Eddy. “But no one sane would screw around with a bitch like her. Besides, she wouldn’t dare. She knows what we’d do to a fool human who touched her.”

  As always, her mother, Genevieve, stayed quiet, watching Gwynn with anger and accusation written all over her face.

  The two men in her family resembled each other, from their short, pale brown hair and portly builds to their choice in clothing—fraying jeans beneath plaid shirts that were too tight. Her father was clearly the patriarch, though, with heavy jowls and deep wrinkles in his forehead and at the edges of his eyes.

  Their mother, less wrinkled yet with deep, disapproving grooves beside her mouth, preferred shirt dresses in solid colors. Her hair was as light as theirs and much shorter than Gwynn’s.

  Gwynn didn’t feel as if she were part of them, despite the one incontrovertibly distinguishing characteristic that they all shared.

  They were all shifters. Cougars. Wild and angry and dangerous once a month beneath the full moon, they were each a loner then, like real mountain lions.

  If only Gwynn didn’t have to get past that hurdle tomorrow night. At least she would be able to take off with Brett for the weekend, after her school day on Friday. Maybe he’d been lying through his teeth to her. But in case it was real, she owed it to herself to check it out.

  “Good thing it isn’t tomorrow,” Eddy said, startling Gwynn with his words that partly paralleled her thoughts. He stomped out of the kitchen, followed by their father.

  George turned back at the door, though. “I’ll let you go to that damned school tomorrow,” he said. “But you’d better be here before five o’clock or else.”

  She knew what “or else” meant. He’d confine her during the time of their shift, as punishment. Not allow her to participate in the only good thing about their shifting routine each month: prowling wildly, alone, through the mountains, enjoying the rare sense of freedom.

  When the men had left, Gwynn prepared to hurry off to her bedroom down the hall. To spend the night thinking about everything that was to occur in the next few days.

  But before she did, her mother’s voice sounded tiredly from behind her, where she sat at the small kitchen table. “I don’t know what you may have been up to tonight, but your brother got back here only a little while before you did.”

  Gwynn turned. Her mother looked exhausted rather than angry. Sometimes she acted as if she was on Gwynn’s side, but rarely. Mostly, she didn’t counter the men who controlled them.

  “What do you mean, Mother?” Gwynn was afraid to hear the answer.

  “The way they were talking—well, I hope that whatever your reason was for getting back here late it wasn’t anything they shouldn’t know about. I got the impression that Eddy was following you. Which might be a good thing, if you’re pressing your luck around here again. I’m tired of having to act like you’re part of this family.”

  With that, she stood and stomped out of the room.

  Gwynn couldn’t sleep that night. She pretended nothing was wrong in the morning when she drove back to school in her car, which she’d picked up in the same parking lot last night after Brett dropped her off and waited till she was safely inside. She wasn’t sure whether he’d tried to follow her home, but she’d gone by a circuitous route until she’d reached the narrow road that led to her family’s house.

  Knowing where she lived would not be a good thing for Brett. Especially that night.

  Before classes started that morning, she tried calling the cell phone number he’d given her but he didn’t answer. Because of her family’s reaction last night—and the possibility that Eddy had been following her—she intended to tell Brett to get lost. That she was dumping him again.

  Anything to make him leave before tonight, when the moon would be full.

  Anxious since she hadn’t been able to speak with him directly, she left him a voice mail and sent a couple of text messages asserting that, though she’d had fun with him yesterday, she never wanted to see him again. That it was time for him to get out of her life for good. Leave this area immediately.

  Tomorrow, once the shift was behind her—and the shifts of the rest of her unpredictable yet ferocious family—she’d contact Brett again. Apologize without explanation and tell him that she was ready to go with him to Ft. Lukman, or even just meet him there if he’d tell her where it was.

  But for now, she was worried about Brett. If Eddy had in fact seen him with her last night…well, the only way to fix that would be to ensure he wasn’t around for her family to deal with in their own destructive way tonight.

  But students were streaming into her classroom. She had to get to work.

  This school day was much like every other, except in her mind. She diligently worked with her students, explaining fundamentals of biology as accepted by regular humans, answering questions and doing everything else that she usually did.

  But her thoughts were on Brett. She hadn’t gott
en a return phone message or text from him by lunchtime, or even by the time school ended for the day.

  Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe his being here had been just to let her know he’d found her, to torment her with the sad joke of bedding her once more and being the one to leave.

  Or perhaps he’d bought into her nasty messages and had already left town.

  As devastating as that all sounded to her, she hoped, for his sake, that it was so.

  The school day was over. As she had between classes and at lunchtime, Gwynn pulled her cell phone from her purse as she sat at her desk in her empty classroom and looked at it.

  No missed messages or texts. Brett hadn’t called back or otherwise attempted to get in touch.

  It was better that way, she told herself as she started gathering her things to head home, in plenty of time not to incur her family’s wrath. Not tonight, of all nights, with the full moon about to rise.

  But she couldn’t help thinking that, as determined and obstinate as Brett usually was—at least used to be—she’d assumed he would at least call back to let her know he had given up on her.

  Even though, on some level, she’d hoped he hadn’t.

  Her purse strap over her shoulder, she locked her desk and stood.

  “Hello, Gwynn.”

  Startled, yet not entirely surprised, she looked up to see Brett in the doorway. He wore jeans again, and a black T-shirt that hugged his muscles.

  “I thought I told you—” she began, ignoring the flutter of relief and even happiness that let loose inside her.

  “Never mind what you told me. I want to know what’s going on.”

  He had walked inside the room, and she hurried to confront him. Voice low, she hissed, “You know exactly what’s going on.”

  “The full moon tonight, you mean?” His tone was muted, too, fortunately.

  “Yes. I’ve got to go. And you need to leave this area. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” She tried to edge by him, but he grabbed her arm over the sleeve of her cotton blouse.

  “What’s really on your mind, Gwynn? You know I’m aware of what’s going to happen tonight, so it can’t be that. Is there something else I should know?”

  She couldn’t help looking into his troubled yet curious hazel eyes. She shook her head. “No. Please—”

  “If you want me to stay away, you need to tell me why—and it’s not just because you don’t want me to see you shift. What is it?”

  She gnawed on her bottom lip, her mind racing to decide how to play this. “If I tell you, will you promise not to try to watch me? That you’ll hang out in your hotel room tonight?”

  “Sure.”

  Could she believe him? She doubted it, but she had to try. It was the only way she could protect him, knowing that her family was apparently aware of her having been with him yesterday and might do something this night to harm him if they happened to see him.

  “I mean it. You need to stay far away tonight. My family…well, I never told you about them, but when I left for Denver, it was mostly to escape them. I had to come back, though, when…when I had no place else to go. I can deal with them. But I have reason to believe they’ll be watching for you if you’re around tonight. They can be vicious even when they’re not shifted. And when they are, like tonight, vicious doesn’t even begin to cover it. So please, please, keep your promise and stay away.” She searched the planes of his face, the stony look in his eyes, for some kind of guarantee.

  She saw none.

  “Please,” she said again, and reached up to kiss him.

  “Okay,” he said, sounding reluctant as she finally broke away. His gaze was searching but not readable.

  She only hoped he was telling the truth.

  Brett never liked lying. But he did so easily when he had a good reason.

  He had one now.

  As nighttime approached, he left his hotel room carrying full nighttime camouflage gear to don later in his rental car. Though Gwynn hadn’t appeared to want him to know where she lived, he’d already found out. Checked out her family—two parents and a brother and her, living in a house in the woods that Google Earth had located via satellite and shown to be a small, run-down shack.

  Before dark, he drove to a gas station with a convenience store that appeared to be the closest retail facility and parked there.

  Then, changing clothes out of the sight of any store employees, he slipped into the forest and hiked until he located the house.

  He had purposely chosen this timing to confront Gwynn here, where she had fled into the mountains. He had also known her family was here.

  He hadn’t realized, before this afternoon, though, that she was afraid of them. She’d obviously wanted to protect him, whatever the problem was. But did she need protection, too?

  He was damned well going to find out.

  She’d already said that her family members were shifters, too. He’d come with photographic equipment to record how things went. He would figure out later if, and how, he could use the evidence.

  He had talked to Major Connell several times during the day. He’d listened to Gwynn’s messages, read her texts, and chosen not to respond until he’d confronted her in her classroom.

  Tonight would mostly be observation, unless her family in some way attempted to harm Gwynn.

  Then, it would be time for action.

  In any event, tomorrow would be one for activity—to gather her up and get her out of here over the weekend.

  And then…well, he’d have to see about the future and how Gwynn fit into Alpha Force.

  Or not.

  And how his own life would be affected by her decision. Probably very little, once he’d recruited her and he backed off. It was one thing working with shifters, and something else to get more involved, something he doubted he wanted to do.

  Night was falling. He now moved around through the trees until he was able to watch for the moon to emerge over the horizon.

  The full moon.

  As promised, Gwynn had come home right after school, as soon as her confrontation with Brett was over. The energy in the household was almost palpable early that evening.

  Her family was jazzed. Ready to change and to roam.

  And her? She was even more ambivalent than usual.

  Oh, yes, she loved how it felt to be shifted, a feline in the wild. She always had.

  But being alone, as she’d been in Colorado, was preferable to knowing that her family members were nearby and treated her like the lowliest form of dirt imaginable.

  “Come out here, Gwynn. Now.” That was her father. He was on the back porch of their house. She felt certain that the rest of the family, except for her, were there, too.

  She felt especially uneasy this night. Could she trust Brett to stay away?

  He might not know exactly where she was, but he had traced her to this area. He was smart, innovative, and in some ways unstoppable.

  Even though she was inside and not directly in the glare of the full moon, she felt the initial tugging beneath her skin that told her that her shift was beginning.

  Sighing, she did as she was told and headed to the back porch to be with her family.

  Her parents, her brother, were all illuminated somewhat by the light of the moon, barely visible near the horizon beyond the stand of nearby trees. They appeared to be in varied degrees of discomfort, limbs twisted, the beginning of their cougar pelts erupting from beneath their skin.

  None wore any clothing, of course. The change took place whether a shifter was dressed or not, but its discomfort was somewhat lessened by nudity.

  Gwynn stood just outside the doorway, undressing quickly. A good thing, since her own change had begun. She writhed, staring at her arms as they lengthened and she sat back on her haunches, fur growing quickly on her limbs, her body.

  She heard a roar deep in the throat of her father, followed by answering growls of her brother.

  They were staring into the woods beyond the clearing around the
ir home.

  Her gasp sounded almost human to her as she realized what they were growling about.

  There, only partially hidden behind the trees, was Brett, dressed in black, but still visible.

  An intruder.

  A human.

  One who was very much in danger.

  Chapter Seven

  Fascinating.

  Brett was shooting a video on his special camera, watching as the four people on the back porch of that small, decrepit cabin morphed from human form into cougars.

  Just like he had seen one of them do so many months ago: Gwynn.

  He’d been amazed, horrified, almost sickened then, until he’d had time to think about it.

  Now, he was still amazed but fascinated. Excited. Drawn to them.

  Maybe the entire family could be encouraged to join Alpha Force.

  On the other hand, if his impressions about Gwynn’s fear this afternoon were real, Alpha Force would not want her possibly out of control family members.

  Back when he had known her before, she’d never answered any questions about her origins or her family. He had the sense that something was wrong there, although he didn’t know what.

  He’d developed some theories, though. After seeing her change, his huge amount of research had included not only shapeshifters but cougars, too.

  Like all felines, they tended to be solitary hunters. Staying in family groups was not natural when they were fully grown. Not while they were in feline form.

  Having the group together like this as humans—did that lead to problems, too?

  He’d watch them now. Follow Gwynn to memorialize with his camera how a changed cougar with only limited human awareness, if any at all, acted during a shift.

  And to make sure she remained safe. That took precedence over his promise to stay away from her tonight.

  He hadn’t had a camera with him the last time he had seen her change. Not even a smartphone.

  Of course then he hadn’t been anticipating what he’d seen.