All Kitten Aside: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Paranormal Dating Agency Book 11) (4 page)

SEVEN

Kasen grinned at the beautiful curvy brunette with hazel eyes giving him the death glare. She should be glad he stopped to help, but instead, she tapped her shoe-less foot like he’d done something wrong.

“Well, as you can see, your help is no longer needed.” She pressed her full, luscious lips into a line and continued to frown at him. “You can go on your way now.”

“You have a real problem using the words thank you, don’t you?”

She raised a haughty brow. “Excuse me?”

“You heard me. I came down here, gave up my time, hell, I broke my clothes, got full of blood to save your ass and you can’t even acknowledge my help and say thank you.” He saw the shock in her eyes. People didn’t talk to her like that. This got better by the second.

“I didn’t need your help,” she bit out through ground teeth.

“The Nile is not just a river in Egypt.” He laughed.

She rolled her eyes and slapped her hands on her waist, making her gorgeous chest bounce. “Really? That’s the line you’re going with?”

“I’m still waiting, princess.”

“For?”

“My thank you.” He knew saying the words was only going to antagonize her, but damn, if he wasn’t having fun watching her blush from anger and being turned on.

“You’re going to need a chair so you can sit and wait. Or you’ll get tired standing that long,” she threw back, a glint of fire in her eyes. He could be wrong, but he thought she might be enjoying this as much as he was.

“You’re a very anti-social feline.”

She raised both brows and laughed. “Have you met many cats that are social?”

Dammit, she was right. Cats, from the house breed to the shifter kind, weren’t social. They didn’t do people, and quite frankly, he’d never spent much time around one.

“Whatever,” she said. “Get your clothes back on and leave.”

He needed a shower damn bad. The last thing he wanted was to make a bad impression on his future mate. Showing up at her house covered in blood would definitely do that.

“Thanks for the permission, princess, but I don’t think I want to slide into clean clothes with me covered in blood.”

Her cute lips formed into a pout. Kasen loved it when women pouted. Especially when they didn’t realize they were doing it. It was such an adorable, innocent look that made this clear alpha look like a kitten.

She bit her lip and glanced down his body. Heat flared in her gaze. Not that he needed to look into her eyes to know she wanted him. The scent coming off her was driving his animal insane. Just his fucking luck that the wolf would want something totally against his kind. A feline. Lioness at that.
Too bad, boy
. Gerri got him a mate and the sexy brunette with the hazel eyes wasn’t it.

“There’s a river back there,” she motioned with her head. The blood covering her didn’t take away from her beauty. Especially when it came to her body. The nipped in waist, the wide hips, and he didn’t focus on other areas for fear of looking like an aroused teen in front of her. Her face was pure angel. Wide eyes with a small straight nose, but it was her full lips and stubborn chin that made him want to grin.

Weren’t you looking for a challenge?

He could only hope his future mate was this interesting. He didn’t know what the fight was about, but to have this female stand strong against four males almost twice her size was unheard of.

“Are you joining me?” He wasn’t an alpha if he didn’t attempt to get his way at all times.

She shook her head and curled her hands at her sides. Nerves. Interesting. “I have work to do. I’ll clean up at home.”

“What about the four idiots from before?” He hoped she’d give him something about the story. Right now, he wanted to know more about her. What would drive a woman to assume she could fight four men?

Pride. That’s all he could think of. Well, and stupidity, but he didn’t see anything stupid about this beauty. What he saw was determination and leadership in the way she stood proud, even though he knew she wanted to toss on clothes.

“They won’t be bothering me. I’ll take care of them.”

“Maybe you should have your mate teach those boys a lesson,” he said, taking a step closer to her. Her scent under the blood called to him. His wolf rose at the whiff of her lioness.

She gave a slight grin and her face transformed from don’t fuck with me sexy, to seductively gorgeous. Fuck! This was so not what he needed.

“I don’t need a man to fight my battles. Perhaps your women are used to that, wolf,” she said the word wolf with a touch of disdain, “but in my world, the cats rule.”

Ouch. Straight to the motherfucking heart. This woman knew just what to say to challenge his wolf. “It’s not all about having a man fight your battles, princess.” He came closer, only a few feet between them now. “Sometimes what you need is a reminder that someone’s got your back.”

She gave him a full blown smile that made his balls ache and his cock jerk. “Someone does have my back.” She met his gaze, her cat in her eyes for him to see. “Me.”

EIGHT

Andi shouldn’t be there. The longer she stayed around the wolf, the less she wanted to leave. She should be back at her pride, sending her guards to kick Josh and his friends in the balls. Possibly stop them from ever procreating.

Her lioness wanted to kill each of them herself, but at that moment, the stupid cat only wanted to watch the wolf. Ah, the wolf. Every time the man moved, his muscles flexed, his abs contracted and all she could think of was licking him. No! Bad, bad cat.

“Are you planning on showing me where this river is, or should I just stand here and stare at you all afternoon?” His smart assery was coming through loud and clear.

“Fine,” she grumbled with annoyance. Not at him either, her anger was fully directed at her very hyper cat and the happiness she was sending through their link. The bitch was happy to spend more time with the wolf. “I just need to check on something.”

Might as well make sure Cat and Belinda were fine. The last thing she needed was for one of those fuckers to return and do something while she’d been distracted with the wolf. Plus, there was a shed next to the cabin filled with clothes for anyone who happened to need them.

Shifters could lose clothes at any point, so everyone kept a visible stash. It helped since teenagers would shift uncontrollably the first few times. Learning to teach the animal who was in charge wasn’t always a quick and easy task.

At least if she had on clothes, she’d be able to talk to the wolf without watching his strong body make her hormones dive into a lust-induced coma.

The fight had taken place much closer to Belinda’s cabin than she would have liked. They were there in moments. She knocked on the door, but there was no noise from inside.

“Everything okay?” the wolf asked.

She frowned and turned to him, knocking on the door a second time. “I’m not sure. I came by a few days ago and they had plans to be here.”

He pulled her back and turned the knob, forcing his way into the cabin before her.

“Hey! Did it ever occur to you that I should be the one checking in on them, not you?” she hissed at him. “They know me.”

He gave her a lopsided grin that did all kinds of naughty things to her heart, not to mention her girly parts. “Next time we do this, you can get the door first, princess.”

She growled and followed behind him. Jerk. He was so full of himself. That was the problem with him. And now she had a clear view of his tight, round ass and all she wanted was to slap it. Oh, for fuck’s sakes, was this ever going to end?

The cabin was empty. She couldn’t scent either Belinda or Cat. Everything was tidy and organized as usual. She glanced around, wondering where they could have gone.

“I’ll check the kitchen,” she mumbled and left the wolf to check the bedrooms.

Small, efficient, and everything in its place. That’s how Belinda liked her house. When Andi got to the refrigerator, she saw a note with her name on it held up by a giant pineapple magnet.

She tugged the note and read.

Hi Andi,

Sorry to have left in a rush. I was too worried about Catherine. The truth is we’ve had a few of the older boys come by, some of the men, too, making advances as her heat neared. I know a lot of women mate young, but Cat, she’s not mentally there yet. I’ve taken her to my cousin’s place for a few weeks. She’ll pass her heat there and visit with other females of her age.

I’m sorry I didn’t stop by to see you before we left but it was a rush decision and I knew you’d come by and check on us. Thank you for all you do.

Love,

Belinda.

Andi folded up the note and sighed. Thank god. Josh and his friends wouldn’t have been able to get to Cat anyway. This gave her some peace of mind.

“I didn’t find anyone,” she heard the wolf say behind her.

“They’re gone.” She turned around to face him but didn’t expect him to be so close. Less than a foot of space stood between them. She glanced up and stared into his stormy blue eyes. Her breath came in fast spurts. “Come on, I know where we can find clothes. Don’t touch anything. I don’t want them to come back and find blood on their stuff.”

She slid past him, careful not to touch him. Touching people had never been a problem for her, but her body already had a hard time with him so near. Her lioness wanted him and she had too many things on her mind to add sex and lust to the mix.

“You say the sweetest things,” he joked.

People didn’t joke with Andi. She was the leader, the boss, the motherfucking person in charge. This wolf, he was pressing all her buttons and saying things to deliberately make her snap at him.

They left the cabin and went around back to the shed with clothes. She got the key hidden in the bottom of the birdhouse and opened it up. She rummaged through and found a plaid shirt and some shorts she could fit into. Then she glanced at him. He was big…all over. The lioness in her purred, and she was disgusted with the animal. Looks were not everything. So what if he looked like a sex god? That meant nothing.

Oh, it means a lot. A body like that, I can ride him like the stallion he is
. Stupid cat.

“You okay?” he asked, another one of those ‘I’ll fuck you so good you’ll forget your name’ grins on his lips.

“Yeah, why?” she huffed and started searching through the men’s clothes for him.

“Usually when someone growls, it means there’s something wrong,” he chuckled.

Bastard. “Just tell me your size, and I’ll find you something to wear.”

He told her and she managed to get an old pair of jeans and a T-shirt one size too small. Walking toward the river had always been something she enjoyed. The peace and quiet and seeing nature. Not so this time.

Being this wound up next to anyone hadn’t happened since she’d been in college. Her old roommate, Betsy, and Betsy’s boyfriend, Ward, had a very open relationship. Ward had a friend, Seyer. He’d been coming on to Andi since the moment they met.

At the time, Andi hadn’t realized just how open Betsy and Ward were until she walked in on them having sex on her bed with Seyer sitting in the common area, waiting for her reaction. Andi wasn’t sure what they’d been expecting, but she was positive it wasn’t for her to stand there and continue watching them.

Once they realized she was there, they’d gotten a bit awkward and Andi ended up pulling Seyer into the dorm room so she could get her rocks off, too. Watching the other couple fuck while some random guy ate her pussy had been one of the only times Andi had done anything fun. Anything free.

“You’re a leader. You’re a Prima. You’re in charge.” That’s what her mom had always said to her. So basically, she wasn’t going to have a life, and a whole host of people depended on her. She was, however, allowed to have a super active sex life and get her freak on in whatever ways she wanted.

But because pride males were so possessive, she had to go out of her way and find humans. Human males were weaker physically so she had to control her animal. Especially when she was in heat.

You could break one so easily.
That wasn’t what she wanted.

This wolf was making her want things by just being next to him. Her lioness pushed to be let out. To get closer to his animal.

“You’ve got nice land over here,” he broke through her thoughts with that sexy southern accent again.

“Thanks,” she said and moved up the pace so they could kill those last few yards keeping them from the cool river. She’d spent too much time with this guy and she wanted back in her bubble.

“Finally, she says the word.”

She drew her brows down and glanced at him in confusion. “What?”

“You finally told me thanks.”

With a shake of her head, she dropped their clothes by the edge of the river and ran in. A quick rinse and she’d be able to go about her day. The sun was already starting to set. She needed to get back to her office and handle Josh and his friends, but a quick dip wouldn’t do her any harm. In fact, it would probably help her clear her head of the wolf.

She came up from the cold water taking a deep breath. Her stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten anything all day. This wasn’t unusual for her. A lot of pride members thought she might be on the curvy side because she over ate, but it was just her body. She ran around enough and worked damn hard at keeping up with her fighting techniques to be a lot slimmer.

“Goddamn, this is some cold as fuck water,” the wolf sputtered once he came up for air.

She laughed at the beastly look on his face. Someone didn’t like the cold. “What’s wrong, wolf, not a fan of water?”

He shoved his palm over the surface of the water and sent a flash wave toward her face. She giggled and turned away. “I thought cats were the ones that didn’t like water.”

She snorted. “As you can see, that’s a myth, not a fact.”

“So then, what are facts about felines?”

That they shouldn’t want a wolf, she almost said. Her lioness made her keep her mouth shut because they’d both look stupid if she did.

“Doesn’t matter,” she cleared her throat and rubbed water over her face to remove the icky dried blood off her mouth and chest. Once she no longer tasted the metallic taste of blood, she rubbed her arms, then her hands together.

“How many prides live around here?” His bright gaze kept her in a trance. His dark hair clumped into wet spikes, but that beard did things to her that were probably not legal. Her clit throbbed, watching him rub his fingers over his face. He really did the wet god look well.

“A few. You from the south?” He had to be with that accent. She expected him to break out in
ma’am
and
y’all
at any second. Not that it would be anything but sexy on him.

His lips curled in a sinful, panty-shriveling smile. “No. My mother was from the south.”

“You sound like you were born and raised there.”

He shrugged and surveyed the area around them. “I guess with a few of the pack members who I always spent my time being from there, it was something I caught.”

She started wading out of the water until her feet reached the ground. The clothes were strewn over the rocks and broken branches. She picked up a shirt and covered herself, then shrugged on the size-too-big shorts and turned to face him. He was still in the water.

“Careful going home, wolf.”

“Wait―”

She didn’t wait. Really, there was no reason to. He was off-limits and her life was too busy and crazy to add more to it. She ran home, back to where she needed to be. Away from the temptation of the wrong type of shifter. An alpha one at that.