Already Freakn' Mated (3 page)

*

Days later…

The full moon emerged, bathing the backyard and the ravine bordering it in a soft glow. Sitting in the window seat, which spanned the length of the bay window in the family room, Jiao stared mournfully outside, but not as sadly as her cat.

“Why can’t we go out?” she asked for the hundredth time, unable to mask the plaintive tone. The yard and the shadowy woods edging them looked so tempting. So perfect. The temperature crisp. The smells inviting. The chirrups of night birds taunting. Oh how she twitched to get out and stretch. Run a little. Chase something up a tree. Find some soft grass to roll in.

“I’ve told you a hundred times. We can’t let anyone see our felines. If word gets back to Kaleb…”

“Yeah. Yeah. Everyone is a spy. Blah. Blah. Blah. We’ll get kidnapped. Or stuck in a zoo. Or become the main act in a three ring circus. Hey, wait, that’s happened to us before and we survived,” she said sarcastically.

“You’re not being funny or fair, Jiao. I’m doing this to keep us safe.”

She knew that. Just like she knew six years ago she would have never joked about their time in captivity, objects brought out to entertain those rich and perverse enough to pay for it. She would never go back to that life. Ever. But freedom, or at least their version of, wasn’t as much fun or liberating as she’d hoped. In many ways, she was more bound now than when she lived in Kaleb’s prison.

Dejected – and her cat twitching – Jiao sighed and leaned her chin on the sill. “I know you’re protecting us. But I miss running outside. I don’t even remember what it feels like to climb a tree or do my nails, or hunt something.”

“I miss it too,” Sheng admitted in a low tone, putting his arm around her shoulder. “But, we can’t risk exposure.”

She gestured out the window where the distant howl of a wolf echoed. “They’re not afraid.” And by they, she meant the shifters who’d claimed the wild strip of forest backing the houses in this neighborhood as their own.

“They’re also not rare species. Wolves, foxes and bears are common to the area. No one would think twice about seeing them. Clouded leopards, though, are not indigenous to this area, which you already know, not mention they are rare even in captivity.”

“Wouldn’t people mistake us for a mountain cat? Or a lynx?”

“With our coloring?” Sheng arched a brow at her ridiculous hope. “No. We need to stay inside. Just have a little more patience. I know it won’t be quite the same, but I’ll get the basement done as soon as I can. Then you can at least let your cat out to exercise.”

Ah, yes the basement project. Good for him for diverting her attention. Her arms crossed over her chest. “And how is that coming? Fired any more good looking guys before they even have a chance?” Oh how she loved sweet sarcasm, a girl’s best friend in any fight.

Sheng’s lip drew into a tight line. “No. And I didn’t technically fire that Chris guy. I just didn’t want to hire him. I have had another shifter in.” An old guy with a belly to outshine most pregnant women. “And I’m expecting his quote any time. I’ve also got a line on a few humans.”

Her lip curled. “Humans? Really? And how are you going to explain you want a scratching post?”

“I’ll figure something out,” he mumbled.

“Did you talk to Patricia about other shifters who could handle the work?” Patricia, the only one who knew their secret.

“Yes. She again recommended the guy from Howling Good Renos.” Something Sheng didn’t sound happy about at all.

“You should give him a chance.”

“But –”

However, she’d had enough. Not only could she not change into her cat and hunt like she was meant to, she couldn’t stop thinking about Chris. Oh how she wanted to see him again. Smell him. Rub against him until he wore her scent. To call her irritable was putting it too mildly.

“No more buts,” she snarled, eyes narrowed and her claws extending as her cat rose to the surface. “I need something, Sheng. I can’t live like this. Can’t go on caging my other half. I want to tear my skin off. Gouge the walls. Kill something to stop this horrible ache inside. My cat is going mental. I need that gym. So stop imagining problems that don’t exist and call the guy everyone keeps recommending. Or I swear, dangerous or not, I’m going to strip naked in the yard, shift and run until the sun comes up. Maybe even chase that stupid neighbor’s tea poodle.” Yappy little critter. Worse, a shifter owned the dumb thing. What carnivore named its snack?

“He won’t come back.” Sheng stated it with a little too much pleasure.

Men and their pride. Her lip curled. “Oh yes, he will, because you’re going to apologize.”

“Am not.”

Jiao planted her hands on her hips. “Are too.”

“Forget it. Not happening.”

And that quickly, she snapped. Her body twisted and reshaped as she leapt at Sheng, her nightgown fluttering to the floor. Taken by surprise, she hit Sheng hard and took him down. He recovered quickly, his own cat springing forth until they tussled on the floor in a snarling, spitting, furry tangle.

Hair flew – probably in a direct beeline to that stupid velvet covered chair. Claws raked – and turned the maple hardwood floors into a distressed version. Teeth tugged, not hard enough to cause true damage, but she got her point across. Despite Sheng’s larger size, Jiao used her annoyance and his inability to harm her against him. While she didn’t manage to pin him, she did get her sharp teeth around his tail. Or as she well knew, his personal Achilles tendon.

He yowled.

She growled and shook her prize.

He tugged lightly hoping to get free.

Her teeth sank in deeper.

Beaten, he lay down on the floor and sighed, his spotted fur rippling.

Releasing his tail, she pranced around the room in victory.
I won!
Sheng would call. And she’d get to see the handyman again. In person. Not in her dreams or fantasies – and probably wearing more clothes than she’d imagined him in. A shame. But hey, at least if Sheng finally hired him, she’d get her gym. But that came second on the pleasure scale as far as her cat was concerned.

Excitement made her race around the room. She couldn’t wait to see if Chris still affected her. If what she’d sensed with him before would happen again, or if was an anomaly. If he did make her cat, mind, and body, go haywire again, then what? She’d deal with that hurdle when she encountered it, whether Sheng approved or not.

I didn’t escape one cage to live in another.
It was time to stop hiding from the world. Time to let herself live – and maybe even love.

On four feet he chased the scent. Sweet
.
E
xotic
.
I
t promised so many things.
Fun things. Naked and sweaty things.

Chris
never quite got a glimpse of
t
he
one he followed
, but she also did nothing to hide her trail. The minx! She wanted him to catch her
.
Taunted his canine
side
to
hunt
her feline one.

E
ager to end the teasing pursuit, he quickened his pace
, leaping through the foliage, taking care to move as soundlessly as possible through the fallen leaves
.
He didn’t quite succeed
,
t
he crinkle of his passage loud in the still night.

She moved much more quietly, slinking and springing with a grace only
cat
s could manage
,
t
he sign
s
of her passage seen only in the tremble of branches and the foliage
that still
cl
u
ng stubbornly
to almost barren branches
.
Even without the faint physical evidence, he would have tracked her by scent alone. Despite the incongruity of a wolf lusting after a feline, her delectable aroma called him.

Trotting out into a clearing,
a very empty clearing,
Chris
whipped his head from side to side,
muzzle
held
high as he
sniff
ed
the air.
Where had she gone?
As if washed away by a heavy rain, the
perfume
he followed disappeared.
Dissipated into thin air
along with her
.

Nose to the ground, he weaved
through
the grass, searching for
a trace
. Needing to find
a clue
. Needing to find her.

A whisper of sound and the change in air pressure
warned him
.
H
e managed to partially turn
, but didn’t move out of the way
.
She hit him
and they tumbled
, bodies rolling
through the long
, dry
grass
and fallen leaves
.
They landed in a heap of limbs.
She batted him playfully and he nuzzled her. But cats and dogs couldn’t mix, in their animal form
at least
.

Shifting shapes, he
enjoyed
a brief sensation of silky fur against his skin before she too morphed into her human form.
Skin to skin, he could have drooled in pleasure.
Even better, he ended up on his back with her straddling him
–
n
aked.

Sweet, freakn’ hell.
If
Chris
still
wore his
tail, he would have wagged it.

Lips curved in a teasing smile, she regarded him with dark eyes.
Her long dark hair hung over her shoulders, a tempting curtain over her breasts.
But he could imagine them; small handfuls, high and perky topped with succulent berries. Lower, her smooth skin tempted as
far as
he could see.
He longed to see all of her. To know if she shaved like a human girl, or, like most shifters
,
kept the fur between her legs.
Short of craning, he could only see her smooth belly with its dimple
d
naval.

Flattening her hands on his chest, she leaned forward. “Caught you,” she murmured, a mirthful lilt in her claim.

“
Did you?” he queried back as he placed his hands on her hips. The feel of her flesh, warm and pliant under his fingers, made his simmering hunger flare
,
and his cock grew hard where it butted up against her ass.
Oh how he longed to bury it inside her.
To f
ill her with his essence. Watch her face as he stroked her to ecstasy.
Claim
her
as
his
.

Wh
y w
ait?

Quicker than she could reply,
or taunt him more,
Chris
flipped them, cradling her body as he turned
so she didn’t hit the ground hard. He
rested atop her
, pinning her with his weight
. Not that she did anything to protest his
maneuver
.
Laughter spill
ed
forth
and
her sharp white teeth gleamed in the
moonlight while
her eyes crinkled at the corners.

“I do believe you’ve turned the tables. But what do you intend to do
now
, sir wolf
?”

Do? Why only w
hat he’d dreamt of since first meeting her. As a cloud passed over the moon, plunging them into deep darkness, he lowered his head, intent on capturing her
mouth
and finally tasting the
lips of the woman
who
h
aunted his every waking thought and dream since
t
he
day he’d
met her.

Before they could touch, sharp claws raked his back
and
a heavy body tumbled him aside. Rolling to his feet, four of them as he changed back to his wolf,
he wasn’t quite
quick enough to avoid another swipe of claws
.
Lucky him,
he faced a very angry cat
,
a
male cat who took offense at Chris seducing his woman.
Couldn’t really blame him, but it didn’t mean Chris would roll over and bare his belly. Not if he wanted to win
the woman who haunted him
. He assessed his opponent, the little he could see.

Dark as the night cloaking him, only the glowing eyes and the scent of pissed feline helped him gauge where the enemy stood. The one thing that stood between him and his mate. Between
Chris
and …

“Hey, numb nuts, wake up!”

The rough shaking and name calling by his brother, Stu, yanked Chris from his dream into reality. “Screw off, jerk face,” he mumbled, still groggy from sleep.

“I get better results when I screw on. And I wouldn’t talk about faces. You look like you hit the front end of a truck and lost.”

Patting his visage, Chris frowned. “What are you talking about? I don’t feel anything wrong.” The damage from the lacrosse ball to his face a few days ago was already gone. Thank God for his enhanced healing ability, an awesome shifter trait.

“Unlucky bastard. That’s just your natural look I guess.”

The punch he aimed his brother’s way missed, unfortunately. But Stu achieved his aim. Chris, willing or not, was awake. “Any reason you woke me? Or did you just miss my witty conversation?”

“I have a better time talking with Naomi’s babies.”

“Probably because you’re just about their age level,” Chris retorted.

“Nothing wrong with being young at heart.”

“Is that the line you use when you tell girls you still live at home?”

Stu’s reply involved yanking the covers off and letting Chris, who slept in the buff, shiver, not from cold so much as the loss of his cozy dream. “If you’re done being a douche bag, go away.”

“I will, but the real reason I came up was to mention you have a phone call.”

“And you couldn’t take a message?”

“Do I look like your secretary? Besides, dude insisted on talking to you. Said it was important.”

“Did he give you a name?” Chris asked as he rolled out of bed and yanked on some track pants left in a muddle on the floor. Screw the shirt. He’d hit the basement gym for a few minutes after he got rid of whoever was on the phone.

“No. But he’s got a heavy duty accent. You know the kind most often heard in a corner store.”

“Don’t let mom hear you telling racist jokes. You know how she feels about them.”

Flicking a worried look at the door, Stu didn’t reply.

Chris snickered. “Look at the big bad wolf. Scared of his mama. I should tell.”

“If you do, I’ll tell dad about the television you put on layaway.”

“I wish I was adopted,” Chris growled. He’d thought his recent purchase a secret. He needed something to cheer him up when flashes of the Asian woman kept haunting him. How he’d explain an enormous, big screen TV to his dad when it showed up at the house he’d yet to figure out but surely something would come to mind. He hoped.

Of more interest was Stu’s claim the guy on the phone sounded Asian. Could it be?

Heart thumping with excitement, Chris bounded down the stairs to the corded phone in the kitchen. His mother tossed all their wireless home phones out after claiming she was tired of hunting for the damned things throughout the house. Personally, Chris thought she liked the idea of having the phone stuck in the kitchen so she could eavesdrop. His mama made no bones that she liked to know what went on in their lives – and often meddled.

As for his cell phone… It probably died. Again. Stupid thing. Who remembered to charge it nightly? Not him, that was for sure.

Putting the thick plastic receiver to his ear, Chris pulled the handset connected to the base via a springy coil with him as he headed for the coffee maker. “Hello.”

“Mr. Grayson?”

“Yup.” Chris fought the elation bubbling up as he recognized the speaker.

“I’m afraid we might have gotten off on the wrong foot the other day.”

Wrong foot? Understatement of the year. “Yeah. We did.” He wasn’t letting the guy off the hook too easy, even if he salivated at the thought of seeing the woman again.

“I-um-that is. Ow. Damn it all.” The guy let out a curse and the scratchy sound of a hand covering a mouthpiece didn’t completely mute the dull murmur of voices. The douchebag came back. “I’m sorry I acted like an ass.” Oh, how grudgingly he said it.

“That’s okay. It happens to all of us at one point in our lives.” Oh yeah, Chris was the bigger man. “So, was there something I can help you with?”
Say like removing your
wife
’s clothes and doing really dirty things to her
while you
’re out somewhere
. Because despite his usual creed that married women or girlfriend were off limits, he felt no compunction about ignoring it in this case. Buddy deserved it. And she deserved better.

“I’d like you to come back and give me a quote on doing the basement renovation.”

Yes!
“No more slammed doors?”

“No,” the Asian dude growled.

“In that case, sure. I’ll swing by after lunch sometime, if that’s okay.”

“Fine. I have the day off, so anytime is good. Bye.” Before the dude hung up, Chris heard him say a terse, “Happy now?”

Well. Well. It seemed his Asian friend wasn’t too keen on calling him back. Of even more interest, it seemed the exotic lady haunting his dreams made him.

I’m coming back
to see you
, baby.
This time, married or not, Chris intended to figure out if she was his mate because if he had to jack off one more time in the shower, he’d probably kill his brother. Stupid jerk kept knocking right at the crucial moment.

Whistling, he bounded up the stairs and ran into said brother in the hallway.

“What’s got you grinning from ear to ear?” Stu asked blocking him from going into the bathroom.

“None of your business. Now move. I’ve got to get ready for work.”

“Wait second, little bro. Not so fast. You were just talking to that Asian dude on the phone. And now you’re smiling. I get it. Someone’s in love. I’m surprised. I didn’t take you for a dick lover. Ah well, more ladies for the rest of us.” Stu smirked.

Chris growled. “For the last time, I am not gay. Or have you conveniently ignored the fact I spend more nights out of the house than you?”

“And? It’s not like you’ve ever brought a girl home. I think your stories about spreading the love with the ladies is a cover for an oral appreciation of sausage.”

Oh he did not just say that. “For your information, pencil dick, I was smiling because buddy’s hot wife has a thing for me.”

“Oh my freakn’ god. You’re going to have a threesome.” Stu’s eyes bugged out of his head. “And to think you made fun of Mitchell.”

“I am not having a threesome. No way. No how. Over my dead body.”

“Is that a comment on my lifestyle choice?” growled Mitchell’s familiar voice.

Uh-oh. Chris turned and plastered a bright smile on his face “Mitchell. My favorite brother. I didn’t know you were here.”

“Obviously. I came to grab my bins of winter clothes. But I’m more interested in your views on polygamous relationships.”

“Gee, I’d love to sit and discuss the merits with you, but I really need to shower. And shave. Important meeting with a client you know.” One he preferred not to arrive to sporting a shiner. Chris healed fast because of his shifter heritage, but not that fast.

“Don’t forget to shave down there,” Stu remarked, gesturing to his groin. “Nothing worse than getting hot and heavy with a girl and her dude and having the pubes tangle.”