The Cougar's Mate (5 page)

If you’ve enjoyed reading this short glimpse into Floyd and Glenda’s world, you can read more about the Foye family in the Desert Guards novels.

Obviously, this story was written and released out of order with the series, but I thought it was time. My reasons for releasing this little story are multitudinous, but suffice it to say that:

1) Floyd’s “gone” and the impact of his death is felt throughout the series, but I want folks to know they shouldn’t feel sorry for Glenda.

2) I don’t spend much time discussing the Baxters in the series, but I wanted to provide a bit of context for Lily, who’s introduced in the fourth book.

3) I wanted to show that the Foye kids are very much like their father in several ways, and even if they didn’t understand him, they still behave like him.

Here’s the series reading order if you need to catch up:

1 –
The Cougar’s Pawn
(Mason)

2 –
The Cougar’s Trade
(Hank)

3 –
The Cougar’s Bargain
(Sean)

4 –
The Cougar’s Wish
(Belle) ***Coming February 2016**

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Turn the page for a peek at
The Cougar’s Pawn
.

Ellery Colvard escapes her perfectly organized life for a camping trip with her friends, hoping for a tiny thrill. She’ll settle for a distraction, but instead she gets swept off her feet. Literally.

Alpha were-cougar Mason Foye needs a mate, even if he has to resort to drastic measures to get one. But when he and his brothers sweep up Ellery and her friends, the last thing he expects is a woman with a nasty bite of her own. Not only does Ellery know all about shifters, she’s got magic. In fact, the little witch is a bit scary. What’s more, Ellery isn’t convinced fated mates exist.

If Mason can’t persuade Ellery that they’re destined for a life of excitement together, he’s doomed to spend the rest of his days in his cougar form – without his son, his family, or the woman he’s already fallen for head over heels.

___

From CHAPTER TWO

Mason Foye leaned against the back of his pickup truck and crossed his arms over his chest while his younger brothers paced impatiently in front of him. Patience had never been a strong suit of theirs, which seemed to be a quality in direct opposition to their Cougar natures.

Cats were supposed to know how to wait—to be watchful and careful—but the Cougars had fallen out of the practice so long ago that no one could even remember when they’d stopped.

He couldn’t really blame them for their agitation, though. There were a lot of things they didn’t do the Cougar way, and half the time they were making shit up as they went along. They were sons of an alpha and should have known better, but Pop had kept them sheltered from the group—the Cougar
glaring
—growing up. He said he didn’t want them jaded by it, but that had been just one of Floyd Foye’s mistakes. Mason was still trying to clean up the rest of them. That’s why it’d taken the brothers so long to set out on their mate hunt. Well, that and the fact they thought their patron goddess was either edging toward senility or simply a sadistic bitch. Mason suspected the second. They hadn’t wanted to do a hunt at all. No one Mason knew of did them anymore. If they felt the compulsions, they ignored them. The goddess’s signs were usually so vague, and no one wanted to start the ticking time bomb that was trying to bond with the wrong mate.

Mason didn’t see where he had a choice. His dream had been unmistakable. Three women—one for each Foye—at a campground. Their one shot for perfect mates. Perfect
strangers
they had to convince to accept them within two weeks, or else they’d be stuck in their cougar forms until the day they died.

Not exactly ideal, but what else would they expect of a goddess whose rare edicts were regularly demoralizing and emasculating? After seven hundred years, the lady really needed to get over her ex.

“Chill with the pacing,” he said to Hank and Sean, only to receive a duet of scoffs in return.

“I can’t help but to feel like this is going to go really fucking badly,” Hank said.

“Ever the cynic.”

“Can you really blame him?” Sean asked. At least
he
stopped pacing. He leaned his butt against the bumper and folded his arms over his chest. “I mean,
shit
, man. Why us? And what’s the worst that would have happened if we’d just ignored your dream?”

Mason shrugged. “I don’t really want to find out. We have enough problems already without bringing down
La Bella Dama
’s goddess fury onto us.” Thanks to the legends of her earthly tribulations, he could imagine what the long-absent deity’s punishments might be. The CIA had nothing on her when it came to creative torture.

No, he didn’t really want to find out what she’d do to him, even if he hadn’t been ready for a mate. Hell, he hadn’t even been looking to get laid in over a year, and now he was supposed to sweet talk a stranger into being his forever lady? The goddess’s cruelty obviously had no limits.

Dad’s death had left Foye Woodworks in an upended state that had taken the brothers two years to dig out from, and then it took three more years for them to have enough money tucked away in savings for
just in case
. Financial chaos would never rule their world again if Mason could help it. It wasn’t just his job as big brother, but as Alpha, too. Cougars may have been independent for the most part, but they worked together when needed. Mason tried not to put too much stress on the glaring, and like his father, was slow in asking people to pitch in. Cats weren’t good at trusting.

Mom was the reason Mason and his brothers had gotten involved in the glaring at all during their teen years. They were Cougars, whether they wanted to be or not, and she couldn’t teach them how to be that. Like the women in the truck, she was just human. They needed to be around others like them, and not just their father. They needed to learn how to compensate for their untrusting natures and isolationist tendencies, but by the time they’d started to, Pops had to go and have a fucking heart attack and die.

Mason had stepped up as Alpha because of a sense of obligation. He was qualified, sure, but that meant nothing to him without the goddess’s blessing. The goddess hadn’t given any alpha in a hundred years her blessing, so trying to keep up with all the glaring requests seemed pointless on some days. He didn’t know if he was getting anything right.

“Look. There she is.” Mason nodded toward the main house. Mom padded down the front steps pulling her terrycloth bathrobe together and tying it at the waist.

Situated dead center in the middle of the Double B ranch, Mom’s place was in viewing distance of each
son’s own house, but far enough away that she couldn’t meddle. The Foye boys knew fuck-all about ranching. Had never needed to. Mom kept the cattle business running with the help of a few Cougar ranch hands, and the brothers kept the bills paid by woodworking. They unanimously agreed that staying out of Mom’s hair was a good thing. When they got pulled into her orbit, she nagged. Boy, did she nag. The worst part was that she was entirely entitled to—a know-it-all of the worst sort.

Mom hurried out to the driveway. Her gray-streaked red hair trailed on the wind behind her and she grinned, her anticipation clear on her face.

“I wonder what she’s going to think of her future daughters-in-law,” Hank said drily. He stopped pacing long enough to lace his fingers through his loose hair.

Mason sputtered his lips. “She’s either going to get three daughters-in-law or three wild cats for sons by the time all is said and done. I’m not placing any bets.”

The vengeful
Dama
had been pretty clear in his dream. Mate-snatching was a traditional trial for male Cougars of a certain age, but it was rarely done anymore, what with the advent of romantic love and all. Supposedly, only the bravest, truest of hearts snatch a mate and make her say, “Yes, I accept you and I’ll stay,” in two weeks. Most guys nowadays needed a little more time. Like a year. Five, if the guy was a Foye. Apparently, they had reputations for being a little stubborn. Mason was under no illusions that he was going to convince that angry lady in the truck to be his forever love.

He hadn’t told his brothers the rest of the dream. He knew exactly which woman was supposed to be his. Until the moment they’d lifted that tent, he’d hoped the dream wasn’t a true vision at all, but merely the result of sleep exhaustion and drinking too many cans of Tecate.

But there she was—angry as a scorpion and possibly the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. She was stunning with that halo of thick, curly hair and glowing skin. He thought she looked like some sort of wild goddess come to Earth to taunt mankind with her perfection. The captive named Ellery was very likely going to be the end of the two-legged Mason Foye.

Mom lifted her hands upon approach. “Come on. Open it up and let ’em out. Don’t keep ’em waiting. I thought I raised you better than that.”

“You tried.”

She sighed.

“There really isn’t an instruction manual for this sort of thing. They didn’t exactly come gently.”

“If they had, you wouldn’t want them. Trust me on that. I was no easy target, let me tell you.”

He believed it. He just bet she gave Pop hell. She never
stopped
giving him hell, but he usually deserved it. Mason grunted, wrapped his fingers around the top dome’s handle, and pulled the door up.

The women didn’t budge. They sat in the back, huddled against each other in their inadequate-for-camping clothes, slumbering under a shared blanket. They were good friends, probably, and not just acquaintances. That’d make the transition easier for them.

“Aw.” Mom pulled down the tailgate and climbed onto the truck bed. She eased in, cooing, “Wake up, girls. You’re home now. No one’s gonna hurt you.” She peeled the tape off the dark-haired short one’s mouth, and the little lady—Miles—immediately widened her eyes and drew in a breath.

“Please help us!” she said in a high-pitched voice. “We’ve been kidnapped.”

Mom patted Miles’s head and worked on Hannah’s tape next. “I know, honey. It’s their way, sometimes. I was taken, too, when I was just a girl of eighteen.” She rubbed the flowing tears on Miles’s cheeks with her thumb pads. “Everything will make sense soon enough, goddess willing. My boys may look intimidating, but they won’t hurt you on purpose.”

Ellery, with her mouth still taped, grunted and rolled her eyes.

Yeah, his girl had spunk. And he was supposed to figure out how to temper it without putting a stopper in it altogether? Mom was right. Weak Cougar mates were liabilities. He’d need her strong, yet capable of softness. He’d rather go to bed with a desert rose than a cactus, if he had to go to bed with either. He leaned onto the truck bed, watching her watch him. He was so screwed.

She narrowed her eyes at him and her cheeks tightened from the smile beneath the tape. It was positively hostile—as if she knew what he was thinking and reveled in his impending doom.

Mom started on Ellery’s tape.

“Leave hers on,” he said. “I think she has some things to say that may offend your sensibilities.”

“Oh, hush.” Mom peeled the tape.

“Shit!” Ellery said when the tape came off. She opened her mouth, moved her lips left and right, and scrunched her face. “That smarts like a motherfucker.”

“Told you,” he said.

The Cougar’s Pawn
is available now.

Holley Trent is an award-winning author of more than forty works of contemporary, paranormal, and erotic romance. Raised in rural, coastal North Carolina, she currently makes the Colorado Front Range her home.

In addition to her independently published works, she has books available through Crimson Romance and Kensington Publishing. See her full backlist of stories
at her website
.

Want to chat about
The Cougar’s Mate,
the cast of Desert Guards, or other topics? Catch her online on Twitter where she tweets under the handle @
holleytrent
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THE COUGAR’S WISH

Copyright ©Holley Trent

Published 18 January 2016

Excerpt from
THE COUGAR’S PAWN,
Copyright ©Holley Trent 2015

All Rights Reserved

Cover stock credits:

Background ©Irina K. (via Dollar Photo Club)

Badge ©atthameeni

Model ©VJ Dunraven Productions/Period Images

THE COUGAR’S WISH
is a work of complete fiction. All characters appearing in this work are fictional or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

WARNING: this story contains adult situations including sex and strong language. It is not intended for consumption by minors (age of majority as specified by your territory of residence).

For more information about
THE COUGAR’S MATE
or the Desert Guards series, please visit
holleytrent.com
.