The Cougar's Timid Little Lynx (Sweet Water) (2 page)

The house
felt right, like it had been calling to her. Being a lynx shifter, Alice always went with her instincts. She wasn’t strong and fierce like her breed of animal was known for, and maybe that was due to the fact she had been an outsider her whole life, introverted, and had absolutely no need to feel the violence that came when unleashing an inner animal. She wished she could bring her lynx out, handle her problems head on, but that wasn’t how she was made-up, not how her lynx worked, and she was okay with that. Alice wanted to be spontaneous and daring, and maybe leaving only after Joshua died was weak and cowardly, but she didn’t see it that way.

The house smelled of lemon floor cleaner and pine. It had been built just this past summer, so everything was new in it. The lynx in her picked up on all the subtle changes of the house, heard all the creaks of everything settling, the sound of the trees swaying right outside, and had never felt more
comfortable than she did standing in the living room of this tiny home.

“Momma.” She looked
down at Joey and brushed a lock of her dark brown hair away from her face. “Momma, I don’t feel very well.”

“I know, baby.” She walked into the bedroom and laid her little girl on the toddler sized mattress she had brought in just moments earlier. After tucking in Joey, Alice placed her hand on her forehead. Joey’s head was warm, maybe not feverish just yet, but she had been throwing up right before they got into Sweet Water. Alice just hoped this wasn’t the start of a full-blown
illness.

She left the bedroom door slightly open and went into the kitchen. Everything was so bare and open, and even when she did bring her measly belongings in it
wouldn’t really make a dent in filling in the rooms. None of that mattered, not really. She would make this place a home for her and Joey, and push away her past and everything that came with it. After she had grabbed a few necessary boxes from the truck and brought them back inside, she unfolded one of her cheap plastic dining room chairs and sat down. The drive from San Carlo to Sweet Water had been a grueling ten hour car trip, but she had driven straight through, only stopping for gas and bathroom breaks. She had been tempted to spend the night in Sugar Rush, a little town with cobblestone sidewalks that seemed nice and quiet, but she had kept driving through, because she just wanted to be
home
. She had just wanted to get out of San Carlo, had just wanted to start a new life, and, she hoped, make new memories to replace the bad ones. Even though she hated everything that had to do with Joshua, she was thankful that he never hit her in front of Joey, although Alice also knew that would have happened sooner or later, because over the years Joshua had gotten even more unstable and violent toward her. Alice closed her eyes and just let the silence move through her. There were times she found herself back there, feeling the sting of his hand on her body, and the wetness of her tears down her cheeks. The past could be an ugly bitch, and Alice had been right in the thick of it.

When she had seen the little house online with the thick forest nestled right behind it, she had fallen in love. And then when she had seen that she could afford it, she had called the landlord
immediately. A couple of weeks later and here she was. Alice continued to let the stillness settle deep inside of her body. She heard Joey’s soft, even breathing, listened to the electrical appliances hum softly, and smiled for the first time in far longer than she cared to admit. Her little girl was a human, taking after Alice’s abusive husband in that regard only. Sitting here all alone, with only her thoughts to bombard her, had Alice thinking about the things she tried to forget. Joshua had died nearly six months ago in a freak, yet ironic, accident. Her relationship with him had been wonderful at first, as they usually were when someone met the person they thought was genuine, but slowly, over time, he started to show her who he really was. With her mother dying in childbirth with her, and a father that had never been around, Alice had grown up in a group home that took care of shifter children in her situation. It was all she had ever known, and the love of a parent had never been something she experienced. Maybe that was why she had fallen into the trap of thinking Joshua had been someone he really wasn’t?

And maybe that was why her lynx had never once come forward, showing its strength? For her entire life she had felt the animal stir, sensed it rise close to the surface, but always it move
d back, deep inside of her, hiding like Alice wished she could do. She had stupidly thought Joshua had been her soul mate. He said the right things, touched her the right way, and made her feel as though she had found a kindred soul.

How wrong she had been. Was it wrong to feel relief when she had heard the news that he had been hit by a popular liquor company’s semi-truck, and that her alcoholic husband had died at the scene? Guilt over not feeling the sadness a widow
should have felt did fill her, but the freedom she now had far outweighed any of those other feelings. The only good thing that had come from being with Joshua was the little girl sleeping in the next room.

She was exhausted, but more mentally than physically. The fa
rther she drove away from San Carlo and the life she had back there the more she felt liberated, exhilarated, and energized. Right now the only immediate worry she had was getting her daughter acclimated to this new life. There were no doubts Joey would find joy in Sweet Water, especially when she started school next year and made some friends. Joshua had isolated from anything that didn’t have to do with him, but Joey was young enough that all of those factors wouldn’t hold her back, and that she would be able to find joy. Of that Alice would make sure.

It was getting dark
, and the temperature was dropping. Alice was just too tired to get anything else from the truck tonight. She stood and walked over to one of the boxes, rifled inside until she found the sleeping bag, and went back into the room where Joey was sleeping. She had enough money in her bank account to last her for a few months, but she needed to find a job. With no training or special skills, and no education aside from a high school diploma, she didn’t know what a small town would have available for her, but she knew she had to try. After checking once more to make sure Joey didn’t feel feverish, she curled up beside her little girl, closed her eyes, and told herself that everything would be okay.

****

It was a sad day in a person’s life when solitude sounded like a better option than companionship. It was also pathetic that after five years of breaking off his already failing engagement with Mina, Luke Landon still harbored this bitterness inside of him. He no longer cared for the female that had betrayed him with at least one male that he knew of, but it was even more aggravating that he was allowing these residual emotions to come between him and finding a female. He was a cougar shifter, a physician, and nearing thirty-five, yet he was alone. What was the point of being well off and having a nice home if he couldn’t share it with someone? He had his sister Talia and his niece who lived only twenty miles from him, but she had a family of her own.

There was a knock at his door
, and then Shelby, his very pregnant receptionist, poked her head inside. “Doctor Landon?” She smiled and pushed the door open wider. She was in her eighth month, and her uncomfortable, pinched expression made him feel like an ass for even allowing her to finish up the week before she went on maternity leave. In his defense Shelby may only be human, but she was a lot stronger and fiercer than many shifters he knew.

“Everything okay, Shelby?” He really wished she would just
go home and rest, but not even the temptation of this last month paid to her even though she wouldn’t be here wasn’t enough to have her listening to him.

“I’m fine, but your ten o’clock is here.” She
stepped up to his desk and handed him the patient folder. “It’s a new patient, and even though we really didn’t have an opening I squeezed them in because the mother sounded frantic on the phone and told me she’s new in town.” Shelby had a heart of gold, but he had made it clear to all of his staff that his patients came first, even if that meant he stayed late at the office to make sure all of them were seen. Sweet Water was a small town with a tight-knit community. He hadn’t realized any of that when he had first come up here for his would-be wedding with Mina, but over the last five years of living here and opening up his own practice, he had realized everyone was like one giant family.  “I knew you’d be okay with one more, especially since it was a little kid.” He loved children, loved his niece to death, and one day hoped to have a little brood of his own. Of course that thought had everything inside of him tightening, because first he would have to trust a female long enough to have any kind of meaningful relationship with her.

“Of course it’s fine.” He opened the file and smiled at her.

“I put them in room three. We need to get with the twenty-first century and have everything in the computer.” She smiled again, a teasing note in her voice.

Yeah, he would get on that, but having everything electronic seemed so impersonal to him, had when he worked with his father in a much larger scale practice, and
he hadn’t wanted to do that when he opened his own. She turned to leave, her stride holding a slight waddle that had him smiling, but also feeling sympathetic toward her.

“Shelby?” She stopped and turned around, her hand on her lower back. “Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? I can see how miserable you are.” She opened her mouth
, but he held up his hand to stop her and looked at his schedule. “I only have a handful of patients left. Maxine can handle checking in the patients and getting their vitals, and Claire can handle the front desk. You need to go home and get some much needed rest.” She pinched her lips and looked like she was going to argue, but he shook his head. “This time I’m not asking. Go lie down, and get some rest. I’m sure Michael would love to rub your feet.” After a prolonged second she exhaled and finally relented in her stubbornness.

“Yeah, I’ll make sure to tell Mike to rub my feet because it’s doctor’s orders.” They both chuckled. “Okay. I’ll wrap up this last patient and head home. Thank you, Doctor Landon.”

He hated that everyone in here was so formal, but he smiled and waved her off. Looking down at the file in front of him he quickly skimmed over the information: Four year old human female. Nausea, vomiting, and an elevated temperature of 103.4 that has persisted for the last twenty-four hours. He read over the rest of her vitals and background history before he stood to evaluate the little girl named Joey. He left his office and made his way down the short hallway, but when he stopped in front of the exam room everything inside of him tightened uncomfortably. The door was shut, but the unmistakable sweet scent that filtered from the bottom and wrapped around him caused him to brace a hand on the doorjamb. He forced himself to stay upright, forced himself not to growl in approval, and made his fucking cougar back down when it rose to the surface. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but all that did was cause him to inhale more of the most intoxicating scent he had ever smelled. It was like honeysuckle, and it had the threat of his dick hardening rise up inside of them. That wasn’t going to fucking happen now that he was at work. Forcing himself not to get hard, he straightened, brought his knuckles down on the door twice, and then gripped the handle and pushed the door open.

There she stood, her back to him, her long dark brown hair tumbling down her back in waves, and that saccharin
e scent coming from her like a fucking tsunami.

His
. She was his mate, and only
his
.

She straightened and turned, and when their eyes locked, and he started to drown in the bright blueness of her eyes, he knew there was no way he could walk away. The scent of her lynx rising up and the way her eyes widened and her whole body tensed, told him she knew what he was to her as well
, but also that her animal had risen up. He scented her surprise, and that had confusion filling him. It was like she had never felt her lynx come forward like that. For just a second he let himself have the luxury of taking her in. She wasn’t too thin, with a nice amount of curves that she tried to hide under baggy clothes. The cougar in him could tell she was afraid, could smell the spike of uneasiness, the trust issues, and the way she curled into herself. Luke picked up on all of that just from her body language, and the subtle change in her naturally glorious scent. First she had smelled like flowers blooming in the sun, and now all he could smell was the scent of falling rain.

He cleared his throat, smiled to try
to help soothe some of her unease, and turned his attention to his patient. The little girl, Joey, was a tiny thing, with a mess of dark hair falling in the same bouncy waves as her mother, and identical bright blue eyes. Her skin was pale, making the color of her eyes pop out even more. He didn’t have to be a doctor to be able to pick up on her not feeling well, because her sickness was evident across her face.

“Joey?” He smiled at the little girl, and closed the door behind him. “I’m Doctor Landon.” He opened up her folder and scanned the pages once more. This little girl was his complete focus now, and seeing that she got better, but he’d be lying if he wasn’t acutely aware of her mother. Like right now, even though he wasn’t staring at her, he sensed her move closer to her daughter, her motherly instincts kicking in. He didn’t blame her for her fear, but it wasn’t him that she had to be afraid of.
Whoever had hurt her had done a real fucking number on her, and his cougar wanted blood. Whatever caused her to act like this had him wanting to hunt, to let his cougar out to do so serious damage. He had never been much of a violent male, but after everything crumbled with Mina he had gone down a long slope of anger that came and went. But right now, the rage that he felt because he knew his mate had been injured in some way, and had been made to be wary of him, pissed him the fuck off. He pushed the animal down, knowing that he would deal with this later, but that right now he needed to be a doctor and not a mate.