Cougar's Conquest (2 page)

Made clear she would continue to pay for her lapse in judgment over and over, for the rest of her life.

She was a shapeshifter, a cougar on each night of a full moon, and so were they. They lived in a world where they were outcasts, bonded uncomfortably together in an attempt to shut out the rest of the world—even though their feline instincts taught them to be loners. Regular humans didn’t believe in them, didn’t understand.

Regular humans ridiculed—and killed—whatever they failed to understand.

Was that why Brett was here?

Not that she expected him to pull a gun and shoot her. But there were other, less direct ways to end a life.

“I mean I have a proposition for you,” he said. “An offer you can’t refuse.” He laughed as he used the old expression that had come to mean that refusal meant death.

She shuddered, doubting she wanted to hear what he had in mind. “How did you find me, Brett?” she asked sorrowfully, as if knowing would somehow make their confrontation easier to bear.

“I’ll tell you that when I tell you the rest. I assume you don’t want to talk here, where your coworkers or some kids could barge in?” He’d made it a question, though it was a statement she agreed with.

“No,” she said. “That would be a bad idea.” So would going anywhere with him, but what choice did she have?

“I thought that’d be the case when I drove up the mountains to this area. I looked around for somewhere we could talk without anyone around—and you know what I found?”

She shook her head slowly, certain she wouldn’t like whatever it was.

She was right.

“I discovered an overlook, a really nice, remote ledge with a guardrail around it, with a view of the mountainside and Lake Arrowhead below. We can go there.”

Yes, they could. And it would remind her—and, undoubtedly, him—of a similar overlook they had adopted as their own in the Colorado mountains with a breathtaking view of a forest and a vast and scenic lake. A place that had come to symbolize their relationship, for every time they would go there it resulted in deep, heartfelt kisses that segued into nights in nearby hotels of endless, satisfying—completely wonderful—lovemaking.

“My car is nearby,” Brett continued. “You can ride there with me.” The unspoken threat, if she failed to agree? The challenge was in his eyes and became closer to being verbalized when he added, “I think you’ll find it worthwhile in many ways to come along, Gwynn. We’ll catch up on old times, then I’ll tell you something that you’ve probably never even dreamed of. That’s what my offer will be about.”

“Okay.” She tried to keep her sense of defeat out of her tone. “I’ll go with you.”

The view was, in fact, spectacular.

Brett looked past the parking area where they stood, down toward the vista of thick green trees below, broken up by the brilliant blue of Lake Arrowhead, with its myriad fingerlike inlets surrounded by expensive homes. He made himself study it.

But his gaze kept returning to Gwynn. And that view definitely was even more than spectacular. It was breathtaking.

He was with her again after all this time.

Locating Gwynn Katian—no, Gwynn Macka—hadn’t been easy initially, even for him. He knew his way in and out of, around and through the internet. Prided himself on his skills. Though he had suspected immediately after she’d disappeared that she had used a false name, even that hadn’t made his quest much easier.

But he had dug in, given it his all, and found her—relatively fast, too, once she had settled into her job here.

His success had filled him with elation, and not just because he had proved his computer skills yet again.

And amazingly, Gwynn wasn’t all he had found. He’d had to examine every aspect of his life-altering discoveries. Then, in fascination, he’d immersed himself in what he’d learned before coming for her.

Now Gwynn stood within arm’s reach, almost exactly where he wanted her to be. Yet not close enough.

Not yet.

“Nice view, isn’t it?” He spoke calmly, but even so she flinched at the sound of his voice.

“Yes, it is.” She still didn’t look at him. She seemed to attempt to avoid any kind of contact or even acknowledgment of his presence.

But he? He wanted her in his arms, beneath his caresses. And more.

Just one more time.

Gwynn, though, appeared to stay focused on the scenery below. She kept one hand on the wooden guardrail facing away from him. He doubted that she was enjoying what she saw since her posture was rigid, and not even her head turned to indicate that she was doing more than staring in one direction.

Not looking at him, avoiding him as much as possible in this small but far from intimate area.

He had no doubt, though, that her thoughts, like his, were on the past, when they had visited a similar vista in the mountains near Denver, where they had met.

When they had been anything but remote toward each other.

When their initial sightseeing had led to hugs, touches and, ultimately, a rushed journey to the nearest hotel where they had made love for the first time.

It hadn’t been the last.

So what if she now pretended to ignore him? That caused him no pain. He was in charge here. It was time to remind her.

“Ready for that proposition I mentioned?” He spoke in a friendly yet remote tone. If he allowed triumph to sound in his voice, he knew what her answer would be.

What he would tell her actually would be of more benefit to her in many ways than to him. But it would be good for him, too. She had no idea yet that he had joined the military. He was now recruiting, and the more successful he was, the faster he could be promoted to higher ranks with greater responsibility and prestige.

Not bad, for someone who hadn’t the unusual background of those who rose most quickly in the unit he had joined and now revered.

Alpha Force.

“Sure, I’ll listen,” she eventually said, sounding as if she didn’t care in the least what he had to say. “What is it?”

In the past, she had always looked him in the eye, smiling, soaking in his words. Not now. She kept staring into the distance, her expression guarded.

“Let me give you a little background first.” He took a few steps forward to join her at the rail, ignoring that she moved sideways to avoid him. “You know, you didn’t hang around long enough to find out what I thought about the fact that you were a shapeshifter.”

He heard her draw in her breath, and from the corner of his eye he saw her cringe, as if he had struck her.

He forced himself not to move, not to take her into his arms for reassurance. She would only recoil even more.

But it was damned hard being this near without touching her, even knowing she had fled from him before and probably hated seeing him now.

At her silence, he continued, “I’d never heard even fictional stories of a shapeshifting cougar before. Wolves, sure. Even birds, from that classic movie
Ladyhawke.
But a mountain lion? At first, I was shocked that my lover changed shape under a full moon.” He purposely refrained from saying “the woman I loved.” He had told her that before he’d realized she had kept something so vital from him—and before she ran away. “But after you were gone and I had an opportunity to think, I realized how fascinated I was by it. Too bad you didn’t hang around long enough for me to tell you.”

He did pause then, staring at her still-averted face. Waiting for some reaction.

She turned then to look at him. The expression in her dark eyes was skeptical. “Fascinated how? Like you’d just seen a carnival freak show? Or some crazy sci-fi thriller come to life? Or—”

“You’re the one calling yourself a freak or unreal creature,” he reminded her. “Not me.”

He again wanted to touch her as she winced, but refrained. What was it about this woman that brought out all his protective instincts? He’d wanted to take care of her from the first, but that was because she had always seemed so vulnerable—before he knew why.

Even now, after she had accidentally revealed the truth about herself and fled—leaving him in bewilderment and pain that continued to haunt him in unguarded moments—her reactions still caused him to want to fix things for her.

Well, he would do that, but not in any way she might anticipate.

“Fair enough,” she admitted. “And, well, for whatever it’s worth, I do apologize, Brett. I never intended to get so close to any man—anyone at all—and yet with you…” Her voice trailed off, and he saw tears in her eyes before she again turned away.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “I was upset when you left. But after thinking about it, I understood why you left, even if I didn’t like it. And my amazement and fascination—well, it did turn my life in a different direction. I don’t suppose you’ve ever heard of Alpha Force, have you?”

Her puzzled expression was his answer.

“I didn’t think so. They work extremely hard to keep it secret. I work hard at that now, too. Believe it or not, I’ve enlisted in the military, Gwynn. And I’m going to tell you some pretty incredible stuff. First, though, you have to promise to keep it as much of a secret as your shapeshifting.”

“You’re in the military? That’s so unlike you—well, it’s unlike how you used to be.”

He swallowed his annoyance that she didn’t answer his question. “You weren’t who I’d thought you were, Gwynn, so why do you think you know who I am?”

Her smile was wan. “You’re right about that.”

“So, do you promise not to reveal to anyone what I’m about to tell you?”

She shook her head, not necessarily in denial but in apparent puzzlement. “How can I promise to keep a secret when I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

“It’ll be to your benefit,” he promised. “But I can’t tell you more without your commitment. I can’t walk you through getting a highest level government clearance, especially not this fast, so I’ll just have to trust you. But before I can, I’ll ask you again. Will you keep what I tell you to yourself?”

She glared at him in apparent exasperation. “Okay, since you said it’ll be to my advantage, but—”

“No buts. Just yes or no. Will you keep it secret?”

“Yes,” she spit.

“Good. Now, just listen to this. I’m sure you’ll find it hard to believe, but I’m not just in the military. I’m part of the outfit I just mentioned—Alpha Force. It’s a highly covert special ops unit. And wait till I tell you what you have in common with many of its members.”

Her eyes widened as he paused. “You’re not about to tell me, are you, that some of the members are—”

“That’s right,” he said with a broad grin. “Shapeshifters.”

Gwynn couldn’t help it. She shook her head vehemently in denial. “You’re just joking, trying to get back at me for not telling you everything about myself. But it won’t work, Brett. I’m not that gullible. You’ve found me. You’ve shown what a great investigator you are. But—”

“I figured you’d react like this. I got permission to show you a video depiction on my smartphone. And, yes, I know pictures like that can be fudged by digital animation, like in commercial movies. But what I’m about to show you is something used by Alpha Force for recruitment. It’s real, and if you get interested enough to come with me to the headquarters I’ll prove it. Watch this.”

He’d already pulled his phone from his pocket. Brett pushed the screen for a very special app, and in moments there was a depiction of a man shifting from human form into a wolf beneath a three-quarter moon.

“That’s one of the first and most senior officers of Alpha Force, Lieutenant Patrick Worley.”

Gwynn watched the phone’s screen in fascination—and incredulity. When the shifting was done, she looked at Brett. “It’s real?” she whispered, knowing how unsteady her voice sounded. “There are more shifters in that unit, and, well, they work together?”

The only shifters she knew were her family members. They hated her. They hated one another. Talk about dysfunctional, and yet, they had to work together, like it or not, to keep the world from finding out about them.

That was why she had left home as soon as she’d been old enough, defying them. Surely, she’d believed, there were others out there. Even if she couldn’t find them, she still needed to get away from the horror that constituted her relatives.

She had managed to go to college, get a job at the company where she had met Brett, all without being detected.

But she’d had nowhere else to go after she had inadvertently allowed Brett to watch her shift. She couldn’t stay there, in Denver, after that.

She had come home and regretted it sorely ever since, yet she had not yet devised a better alternative, though she was working on it. Constantly. So far, though, her research had yielded nothing that made it worth trying to flee from here again.

But Brett had mentioned recruitment by this military group Alpha Force. A military group of shapeshifters? Was he trying to recruit her?

What did that mean?

She wanted to know more. She also had to fight with herself not to throw herself into Brett’s arms. She remembered only too well how much they once had meant to each other.

She had loved his hard, irresistible body and all it had done to hers. He had been her first lover. Her only lover. She had missed that when she had fled back here.

She had missed him.

But she wasn’t foolish. Despite what he had said, what she had seen on his phone, he might be here to exact a particularly painful kind of revenge on her.

To tempt her with salvation—and present her instead with even more devastation than she had experienced before, when she’d had to leave him.

“Shifters who work together?” he asked, repeating her question with a smile that suggested she was naive for even asking. “Oh, yeah. And more. Tell me, Gwynn. Have you ever shifted when there wasn’t a full moon?”

“No,” she retorted. She had her answer. He was just attempting to play her. Shifting outside a full moon? Despite the film clip she had just seen, it was impossible.

“Alpha Force members can shift anytime they want,” he told her. “The commanding officer, Major Drew Connell, is a medical doctor. So is Lieutenant Worley, whom you just saw. Drew has developed a really special form of medicine, an elixir, he calls it. When a shifter drinks it and has a certain kind of light reflected on him or her, shifting can occur anytime. I’m told it’s unusual for most shifters to retain their full human awareness while in animal form, but Alpha Force members who take the elixir do.”