Authors: Stacy Mantle
He leaned against the red rock under the cougar, the shadows wrapping around him and making him one with the night.
With a silent curse, I resigned my initial plan of getting to bed at a reasonable hour for the first time in weeks and turned away from the balcony. Obviously this was not going to be the relaxing night I had hoped for.
I wasn’t sure what kind of game this man was playing, but it damn sure wouldn’t be played out on my property. The fact that a member of my pack hadn’t yet picked up the intruders was irritating to say the least. They should have sensed a strange cat and a Nephilim prowling nearby. Come morning, we would have words.
Shedding my robe, I pulled on a pair of jeans and reached for a dark shirt, not bothering to strap on the leather shoulder holster. Instead, I tucked my 9mm into my waistband—all the while focusing on what little I knew about the man who now stalked my property.
He’s dangerous, that much was obvious. Since he was Nephilim, I could also assume he had power and strength from his celestial ancestry; cunning and creativity from his human stock. He would be a master manipulator, clever, and more than likely, have some type of telepathy. What I knew for sure was that he had a quick temper, cocky attitude, perilous good looks, and a southern accent…
Apparently he also has a pet cougar.
I jogged down the stairs without passing a single soul. But as I passed the waterfall, I noticed Modnik resting with her two sleeping cubs in the branch of our large tree. She lifted her head, relaxed and observant as she watched me with her golden eyes, knowing that something was amiss. For a moment, I toyed with the thought of bringing her along with me as backup, but one look at Tau and Pasha tucked under massive paws changed my mind. They needed her far more than I.
Pushing my still damp hair away from my face, I glanced irritably at my watch before leaving the relative safety of the house and moving into the dark desert.
Where was my team? They couldn’t all be out hunting.
Once I hit the desert floor, it only took a few moments to gain a line of sight on the visiting cougar. The cat’s mental signature felt vaguely familiar, but I couldn’t quite figure out why. The nagging feeling that I had seen him before was distracting. But, for now I had other things to worry about. Tristan was lurking out there in the darkness and now that I knew where the cat lay hidden, it was time to locate its owner.
An owl circled overhead and I slipped into its mind to use the bird’s keen sight to my advantage.
A moment later, I was marching directly towards Tristan. He stood directly beneath the ledge where his cougar sat, both easily concealed in the shadows.
Despite what I may have thought growing up, my ability does have an occasional benefit.
My movement towards him obviously caught him off-guard and I couldn’t help but stifle a grin. He lifted the shadows that enveloped him as I approached, slowly shaking his head. From what little I knew about Nephilim, they couldn’t shadow completely—but like any other creature, they could learn to become mostly undetectable by the human eye.
“I thought we agreed not to see each other again,” I said.
“You’re good,” he admired.
“And you’re trespassing,” I observed.
“Should I make a run for it?” He grinned, with obviously no intention of doing any such thing.
“I don’t know — can you run faster than 1,200 feet a second?” I lifted my shirt just enough to show him the gun in my waistband.
He eyed the gun warily. “I was under the impression you weren’t in the business of killing… Isn’t that part of the Shepherds animal-loving, vegan pact?”
Despite my initial aversion to everything about this man, a part of me couldn’t help but admire his sexy grin and overconfident attitude. His long, ash-blonde hair fell over his golden eyes and he casually pushed his fingers through it.
“Maybe for some. I choose to embrace the carnivorous side.”
He squatted down, resting his weight on the toes of his feet as he scooped up a pebble and tossed it from hand to hand. “You’re arrogant.”
His words were more of an observation than an accusation.
“I’m confident,” I countered. “There’s a difference.” My voice was a low purr as I inclined my head, motioning for him to walk with me. I needed to get him away from the rocky outcrop and further into the desert — away from his cougar friend. A covert glance at the ledge above us told me the cat had dropped down to his belly, which meant he was either hiding or preparing to attack. Either way, I needed to be ready, and at this point, it was best that Tristan didn’t know I had seen his friend.
“Why are you stalking me?” I asked pointblank.
He assessed me slowly, his warm amber eyes holding mine, before tossing the pebble — an effort to startle anything that may be hiding nearby.
“Those are powerful words. Let’s not call it stalking, let’s call it observing.”
“Call it whatever you want — it makes no difference to me. I just want you to stop doing it.” I ran my eyes over him. “Quite honestly, you don’t strike me as the type who enjoys labor-intensive activities. So how about you tell me why a big, bad Nephilim like yourself has taken such an interest in a mere Shepherd?”
He grinned, a self-confident smile that told me he was willing to play games as long as I was willing to participate.
“You sound unhappy. I would think you’d be flattered that a thousand-year-old creature would actually take notice of you at all.”
“Flattered?” I choked out a laugh. “Don’t you have a mansion somewhere filled with beautiful virgins breathlessly awaiting your return?”
He flashed me a grin as his eyes roamed my body. It was a bold move, but nothing out of the ordinary for a Nephilim.
According to what little I knew about Nephilim, that is.
“Well, now — even gods can’t resist a walk on the wild side now and then. Besides, I have a particular affinity for Shepherds out wandering the woods without their flock.” He lifted his hands at the empty desert. “And your flock seems to have — vanished.”
I felt my jaw tighten with suspicion. He could stalk me, insult me, even threaten me; but the second he did it to my pack, we had a problem.
And the longer my pack stayed hidden, the more I felt my worry grow.
I opened my mind to scan the desert for any sign of my pack, but my ability to pick up on their thoughts was clouded—as if something were blocking me. I tried not to glance back at the powerful werecougar on the ledge only yards away. He was interfering with my line of communication. I can only be in one person’s head at a time and I didn’t dare extract from the big cat’s head yet. Not completely, anyhow.
Silently assessing my reaction, Tristan grinned, knowing he had my attention. He ignored the gun in my waistband and leaned in towards me, close enough to touch, before whispering, “Don’t worry about it, Sheena. Your pack’s safe with me…”
I took a step back.
“I’m not worried.”
But,
I was. “I’m more concerned about why you found it necessary to track me to my home.”
He shrugged. “I’m curious by nature.” His voice hinted at the danger I faced despite his relaxed attitude and ‘good ole boy’ demeanor. “And, truth be told, I was hoping that you and I might develop a working relationship.”
“Because we got off to such a great start?” Sarcasm edged my voice. “Other than the suspect you stole from me earlier, I don’t see that you have a lot to offer.”
“You might just be surprised, darlin’.”
I moved to the side of him, forcing him to turn. It was becoming very critical that I keep that damned cougar in my line of sight.
“Let’s assume I give you the benefit of the doubt. What’s in it for me?”
“I think you may be pleasantly surprised about what I could offer someone like you. He took a step closer to me.
In a flash, my gun was pointed at his forehead as he slowly lifted his hands and took a step back.
“That’s a might unfriendly. Why don’t you just relax a bit so we can have an adult conversation?”
I shook my head.
“Now you’re just wasting my time.” I lifted my chin and stared straight into his penetrating eyes. Wolves call the move posturing. Any wolf would have taken the bait and challenged me then and there, or backed down immediately— yet he didn’t make a single move.
And his inaction angered me.
Yet even as I felt my eyes blaze, there was a very small part of me that was happy he wasn’t taking the bait. This guy was an alpha in every sense of the word, and alphas traditionally don’t play well with others.
“Relax,” he admonished, his voice velvet smooth. “There’s no reason we can’t keep this civil. I’m just here to talk about a business opportunity.”
“Look around,” I said sarcastically, motioning in the general direction of my sprawling property. “Do you really think I’m looking for work?”
He gave a small, quick nod. “What I think is that you’re interested — for a lot of reasons — but none of them related to money. Besides, it’s not an offer yet. First we need to get to know each other a little better.”
I rolled my shoulders back and in the split second it took to blink, I felt the air stir, and the musky scent of cat roll over me.
I dove directly under the sound, hitting the hard desert floor with a lot more energy than I anticipated, as I rolled away from the rush of air. Too many years of unexpected attacks had taught me to act first and ask questions later. The caution had paid off this time as the three hundred-pound cougar, easily the largest I had ever seen, landed gracefully in a low crouch where I had stood only seconds before.
The sleek tawny cat advanced towards me, the taut muscles of its shoulders rolling smoothly as it advanced, but I didn’t retreat. I couldn’t. A quick glance behind me said I was caught between a very large patch of painful-looking cholla cactus and a very determined cougar.
Nowhere to run. No room to fight…
We stared at one another, its golden eyes dilating as we sized one another up, waiting to see who would make the first move. The beast snarled, revealing long, white teeth. Seeing no other way out of the tight area, I made the first move. Lunging towards the animal, I dropped to the ground at the last moment, letting the momentum roll me under its feet as it jumped straight up, yowling in anger. Catfights are always loud and often savage, but they are rarely fatal. Usually, once a cat loses its footing, a fight is over, no matter what its size.
But not this time.
Rising up behind the animal as it regained its footing and began to twist around, I gripped my hands together and slammed both fists against the base of its neck. It was a hard blow, not enough to snap its neck, but enough to keep the beast down.
With the large cat temporarily immobilized, I was free to turn my rage on Tristan. I met his eyes with a cold, angry gaze as he clapped softly in amusement. The gun was in my hand and pointed directly at his forehead before I even remembered reaching for it.
Nephilim are fast, but I was pissed.
A threatening growl rose in the man’s throat sounding more animal than human, but I was past the point of being intimidated.
“In case you were wondering, it’s loaded,” I cautioned softly. It didn’t matter what type of creature he was, a bullet of any kind could do some damage, but a head shot with anything coming out of the barrel of this gun would eventually kill him, and hollow points would do it in minutes rather than days.
“You want to keep pushing your luck?” My hand was steady despite my rage, and he slowly raised his hands. His chest rose and fell in steady movements, but it deflated something in me, reminded me that I was human; not animal, not vampire, not Nephilim.
I was something different…
I lowered the gun, just as I had done with countless other victims. I was a lot of things, but I was not a cold-blooded murderer… of any species.
His werecat had already phased back to human form and was now a very large, very well built, very naked black man lying on the ground and groaning. Tristan glared at his partner and shook his head in disgust.
“I told you she could take you,
Simba,
” Tristan said sarcastically, raking his longish hair away from his face.
The man tried to stand, despite his weakened state. Without taking my eyes off of Tristan, I pulled my second pistol from my jeans and pointed it in the would-be cat’s general direction.
“Stay,” I growled to the cat.
Tristan watched me through steeled eyes. He could have taken the gun from me. Hell, for that matter, he could have killed me easier than I could pull the trigger. I had already proven I was no killer. But to his credit, he didn’t make a move, just continued staring at me with a slightly stupid grin tracing the corners of his mouth. His focused eyes and tense stance were the only things that betrayed his annoyance at the turn of events. I backed away, moving out of their immediate reach in the event either man changed their mind about killing me.
He slowly removed his coat and laid it over a large boulder. Reaching into his shirt pocket, he pulled out a pack of cigarettes as I eyed his every move.
“Smoke?”
I shook my head as he removed a cigarette that was so crumpled I wondered how he even planned to smoke it.
“You really shouldn’t smoke around your pets.”
The cougar-turned-human growled at me, the sound decidedly animal. Pity, he missed the humor. Since he didn’t favor my refreshing wit, I turned back towards Tristan who seemed to find me a little more entertaining.
“Oh, he heals quick enough,” he said with a dismissive grin.
“Nice,” I mumbled sarcastically, retrieving Tristan’s long coat from the boulder and tossing it to the naked man.
The hint of a smile teased his lips. “Yes, well immortality has a tendency to make men a bit more reckless.”
“Convenient,” I observed. “All the pleasures of a life of decadence and none of the penalties.”
The cat had recovered from his shift and subsequent ass-kicking, and sat on the boulder, watching me with an air of cold defiance. I recognized the cat now. This is the same animal who took out the newborn in the alley not two days ago. Tristan smiled in a benevolent, yet condescending manner.