Fated to a Cougar

Chapter Five

Grady gave Sage one last look before he headed out his bedroom door. She was sound asleep. He’d gently eased out from under her and gotten out of bed without waking her up. Now dressed, he went downstairs to see how his other guest was doing.

He found Josh being showered with attention from his mom and Katarina in the living room. They had a thick blanket on the floor, which the baby lay on as the women sat on either side of him, smiling and laughing at what he did. Jase and his father were on the couch watching them.

“You two are going to spoil him if you’re not careful,” Grady said as he went to join Katrina and his mom.

His mother looked at him and smiled. “You can’t pay too much attention to a baby. Is Sage asleep?”

“Yes, but I have to wake her up in a few hours. She has to go to the funeral home with her brother-in-law’s parents to make arrangements for Macy and Hank.”

“Will you go with her?” his dad asked.

“If she’ll let me. I already know none of you will have a problem looking after Josh for us.”

“Of course we won’t,” his mom said. “Jase and Katarina were telling your father and me how you met Sage, and that she’s a police officer.”

“Yes, she’s a cop. And I suppose you also know Caleb got the jump on me.”

His dad nodded. “And Jase told me about your assumption of what he could have been doing meeting a human in the middle of the night in a parking lot. I have a feeling if we don’t capture him soon he’s going to leave the country and we’ll be lucky if we find him again.”

“I know. Draven is working on something that will hopefully help us find him. I don’t know how he plans to do it, and quite frankly, I’m not going to ask since I’m sure it’ll be illegal.”

Josh whimpered, and Grady went and picked him up. The baby smiled and rubbed a hand wet with drool over Grady’s face. He didn’t care. During the night when he couldn’t get Josh back to sleep right away, he’d had lots of time with him. He’d grown attached to him, as he had Josh’s aunt.

His mother sighed. “What?” Grady asked.

“Seeing you holding a baby, it makes me want grandchildren.” She then grew serious. “You feel something for Sage, don’t you? For only knowing her a short time, you’ve taken on a role of a mate for her by standing with her during a bad time in her life. And for someone who has never looked after a baby before, that didn’t stop you from taking care of Josh all night. Plus, you brought them both into our home so you can continue to look after them.”

Grady kissed Josh’s cheek. “I’ll admit I’m falling for Sage. And I have no trouble with Josh being a part of her life. I’m just not sure how she feels about me yet.”

Jase chuckled. “Well, from your scent, which smells like sex and Sage, she has to have some feelings for you if she slept with you, especially considering the state of mind she’s in.”

“Jase,” Katarina said as a rebuke.

“It’s okay,” Grady reassured her. “She at first wanted to cancel our date, but she reluctantly invited me into her place. Now, losing her sister who was her only relative, I think she feels as if she’s alone. I’ll do everything I can to show her she isn’t, that I’ll be here for her.”

“Don’t be surprised if she sets off your pendant,” his dad said. “It already sounds as if you’re falling in love with her.”

Grady didn’t dislike the idea of that. The few short hours he’d been with her and then helping her through her loss, he had to agree with his dad that he truly was falling for Sage.

His brother chuckled. “If that happens, Grady will be an instant father and Mom will be a grandmother like she wants.”

“True,” he said. Then softly laughed as he pried his cougar head pendant out of Josh’s grasp before the baby put it in his mouth. “He’s always trying to put drool all over my pendant or tugging on it. Sage is the same, minus the drool. She fell asleep on me before I came downstairs. I had to get it out of her hand. She has a tendency to want to hold it too.”

Katarina smiled. “I have a feeling she’s your mate. Aspen, Harley and me have been talking about what it’s like being human and mated to a cougar shifter. All of us agreed about one thing—we were all drawn to our mate’s pendant, wanting to touch it, claim it, even before we set off the magic inside. We also found it warm, warmer than it should be just from normal body temperature.”

“Interesting,” said his mother. “Cougar shifter females don’t experience anything like that when we first meet our mates. I guess a human mate must affect the magic differently.” She then turned to Grady. “If what Katarina says is what’s happening to Sage, how do you feel about that?”

“I would want her as my mate, and I would accept Josh as mine as well.”

“Then you’ll have to let her know what you are either before she sets off the pendant or after.”

“I know. The only problem is when to do it. Right now she already has too many emotional things to handle. Me telling her I’m a cougar shifter might just push her over the edge. She’s barely hanging on as it is. She’s fighting to stay strong and won’t let herself mourn her sister yet.”

“That will come,” his mother said. “I think you’re right about now not being the time to tell her. I’d wait until after the funeral, which I’m sure will be sometime this week.”

“I would imagine so.”

Grady kept hold of Josh and sat in the armchair kitty-corner to the couch. He could handle being a father. And if what Katarina said was true about Sage possibly being his mate, he was all prepared to settle down with her and the baby. All that remained to see was if she did set off the magic in his pendant.

Sage awoke from a bad dream, calling her sister’s name. She snapped open her eyes and looked around. It took her a few seconds to remember where she was. She sat up and glanced at the clock on the bedside table next to her. According to it, she’d only been sleeping for an hour, and she seriously doubted she’d be able to go back to sleep.

She rubbed her eyes, remembering what she’d dreamed about. She’d been calling for Macy, searching for her, knowing she had to find her. When she did, her sister lay bloody and broken, her eyes staring sightlessly at Sage. Tears threatened to rise to the surface, but she pushed them back. There was too much to do. She had to call Hank’s parents in an hour to arrange a time with them to go to the funeral home. She dreaded it.

Sage lay back on her side and clutched the other pillow to her chest. It smelled like Grady. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Without him, she didn’t know how she would have been able to keep it together. And making love to him had her not wanting to lose him. For the first time in her life, she wanted to depend on a man.

Even though her emotions were in turmoil, Sage was falling for Grady. After having the kind of father she’d had, she’d never believed she would be able to fall in love with someone so quickly, or even at all. Macy had found it with Hank, but Sage hadn’t thought she’d ever have it for herself. That was part of the reason she’d focused so much on a career that a relationship came last.

Now she didn’t know how she was going to handle being a cop and raising Josh. There was no way she could continue working the night shift. He’d lost his parents, he didn’t need her being absent most of the time. At least she’d be given time off because she’d lost a family member, and more after that since Josh was now hers. She could get maternity leave, she hoped. It wasn’t something she paid too close attention to.

Giving up on sleep, Sage threw back the covers and got out of bed. She’d changed her clothes before leaving with Grady, but she hadn’t had a chance to take a shower. She didn’t think he would mind if she took one. It would help wake her up.

Sage took her first good look around Grady’s room. It was huge. There was a small sitting area complete with a couch, side table and brass floor lamp. She figured there would be an en suite bathroom since this was more like an apartment than a regular bedroom. The first closed door she tried opened up to a large walk-in closet. Grady’s clothes took half the space. The second door ended up being the bathroom.

Like the rest of the room, its proportions were huge. There was a two-person whirlpool tub at one end, two sinks set in a granite countertop and a glassed-in shower stall that had been done in black-veined white marble.

Sage found some fluffy bath towels on a shelf near the shower along with shampoo, conditioner and a bar of soap. Already naked, she stepped into the stall and closed the door behind her. Once she had the water at just the right temperature, she ducked her head under the spray. She didn’t take very long to wash her hair and body. The water did help wake her up. She turned off the faucet, then stepped out and dried herself.

As she walked out into the bedroom Grady came in from the hall. She gave him a small smile. “I hope you don’t mind. I took a shower.”

He closed the distance between them and gave her a kiss. “Of course I don’t. What’s mine is yours while you’re here. I was only coming to check on you. I figured I’d let you sleep for another hour.”

“I couldn’t sleep anymore. Do you have a comb I can borrow?”

He took her hand and led her over to the dresser, then handed her the one that sat on it. “Here.”

“How’s Josh?”

Grady smiled. “Fine, and getting spoiled rotten by my mom and sister-in-law. They’ve pretty much claimed him as their own and won’t let anyone else have him.”

Sage nodded. “Would you mind watching him again while I go to the funeral home? I don’t want to take him there.”

“How about I have my mom and Katarina look after Josh and I go with you? You shouldn’t deal with that alone.”

“Hank’s parents will be there.”

“I know, but they have each other to lean on. I want you to feel you can do that with me.”

She finished with her hair and put the comb on the dresser before she turned to face Grady. “I’d like that. I’ve always been strong, but going through this shows I’m not all the time. I thought it was hard when my parents died. I was just a teenager then.”

“What happened to them?”

“My dad killed my mother, then killed himself. He was abusive and didn’t like the fact she’d left him.”

“That would have been rough.”

“It was, but it also made me want to be a cop so I could protect other women from suffering the same fate as my mother. I just wish I could have done that for Macy.”

Grady tugged Sage into his arms with the side of her face pressed against his chest. She reached up and held on to his cougar head pendant. Holding it made her feel more connected to him for some reason. A part of her wanted to take it from him and put it around her neck so she’d have something of his on her all the time. The old her before her sister’s death would have told her to smarten her ass up and not be so needy, but this new her didn’t care if it made her appear weak.

“How about you get dressed, then I’ll take you downstairs for something to eat. The last thing you ate was the pizza we had last night.”

Sage lifted her head and kissed Grady’s chin. “All right, though I’m not very hungry. I’ll force myself to eat. I can’t be passing out from lack of food. Not when I have Josh to think about.” She kissed him again when he angled his mouth in her direction.

“No, that wouldn’t be good.”

“Thanks for looking after us.”

“You’re welcome. I’m glad I can help.”

With her free hand, Sage reached up and traced Grady’s lips with her fingertip. “I probably shouldn’t be saying anything right now, but having lost Macy, I’ve come to realize how quickly I can lose someone. I don’t want it to happen before I get a chance to tell a person in my life how I really felt about them.” She paused for a few seconds. “Don’t take this the wrong way, thinking I’m usually this quick when it comes to relationships, because I’m not. Grady, I want you to be a part of my life. For the first time, I have strong feelings for a man.”

He cupped her face and smiled. “I feel the same way about you. When it’s right, it’s right.”

“Really? I didn’t think you would since I tried to get rid of you last night.”

Grady chuckled. “I didn’t let you, though. I think I started falling for you when you stopped me from getting my head bashed in and tried to take care of me.”

Sage let go of his pendant and with both hands angled Grady’s head down. She ran her fingers through his hair along the spot where he’d been hit. Much to her surprise, there was nothing there, not even a scabbed-over cut. It’d only been two days. There was no way it would have healed that quickly, even if it had been minor as he’d told her last night.

She pulled her hands away and met his gaze when he lifted his head. “There’s nothing there. I can’t feel where your wound was. That shouldn’t be possible.”

Grady ran the backs of his fingers along her cheek. “For me it is. It’s something we can talk about, but not right now. Let’s wait until after you’ve gone through what you have to do for your sister.”

“Tonight. We’ll talk about it tonight.”

“I don’t think you’ll be in the right frame of mind for it.”

“I’m going to be up front with you. I can’t stand being lied to or have people keep secrets from me when it’ll affect me. You do either of those things, we won’t work out, and I don’t want to regret accepting you into my life.”

“Then tonight we’ll talk. And if you don’t mind, I want my family there when we do.”

“Okay.”

“Now get dressed.” Grady stepped away. “I’ll wait for you in the hall because if I stay in here I can’t promise I won’t take you to bed again, and that wouldn’t be good.”

Sage smiled. “You’d make me late. I won’t be long.”

After Grady walked out of the room and closed the door behind him, Sage took off the towel she wore and dressed. She was now intrigued as to what he’d tell her if he wanted his family present when he did so. And she wasn’t sure what he’d say to explain why his head had healed quicker than should have been possible.

Once she was ready, Sage stepped out into the hall, where Grady waited for her. He took her hand in his as he guided her to the stairs. They walked down the curved stairway to the foyer, then into a large living room. His parents were there along with another couple Sage assumed were his brother Jase and his wife Katarina.

Grady’s mom held Josh. She stood when she saw them. “There’s Auntie Sage.” She passed the baby to Sage and asked, “Couldn’t sleep?”

She shook her head. “No. Thanks for helping to watch Josh.”

“It was no hardship. And I’ve already told Grady I’ll look after the baby when you two go to the funeral home. I also want you to invite Josh’s grandparents over here for dinner when you’re finished. They obviously haven’t seen him since they arrived.”

“Thanks. I’m sure they’d like that.”

“Good. And you and Josh are more than welcome to stay the night with Grady. You shouldn’t be alone at a time like this. It’s not as if we don’t have the room.”

Sage couldn’t help noticing how young Grady’s mom looked. Olivia didn’t look old enough to have two adult children. If Sage had passed her on the street, she would have guessed her to be around thirty-five years old. Even his dad Charles looked the same age.

“I guess we can stay over,” Sage said. She actually didn’t like the idea of being alone. She’d have too much time on her hands and would think about Macy and how she was gone, which wouldn’t be good.

“Great. You must be hungry. I’ll have our chef whip you up something to eat.”

Olivia hurried out of the living room. Sage looked at Josh, who smiled. She still thought it was a blessing he had no idea what was going on. But she wouldn’t let him grow up not knowing about his parents. She would make sure he’d know them, and he wouldn’t be calling her “Mom” either. She’d only be Auntie Sage.