Outfoxed

Chapter Five

Gabby dreamed about that kiss in the days that followed. She’d gone to a movie with Grady after that perfect peck. They still laughed about Sonia, and she thought it just one more point in Grady’s favor that he could love his brother after what Dean and Joy had done to him. How incredibly unselfish to put love and his sibling ahead of his own wants and needs.

But from what she’d seen, Grady’s wants included her. Now all his compliments and sly come-ons intrigued her, because she knew they were sincere. Her brother-in-law didn’t like them one bit, so she knew Grady wasn’t doing her family any favors by showing her so much attention. They didn’t spend much time together in front of the others, wanting to keep their new relationship special, just between them. She hadn’t seen much of Dean or Joy either but chalked up their absences as fortunate happenstance. Though Miles had given her and Grady a few odd looks, the rest of the pride ignored them in favor of the danger plaguing the Bermins. Apparently the threat in Miami might well follow them here.

Miles wanted to leave with his sisters, but Burke and the others—Grady too, to her surprise—rejected the idea. Miles and his sisters, they’d argued, would be safer among the Ac-taw at Cougar Falls. Gabby agreed, though she’d talked to Julia privately about making sure to stick close to Ty and the others. It didn’t need to be said Gabby would defend her unborn niece or nephew with everything she had.

Which reminded her—Ty and Julia had gone out on a date, leaving her free to meet Grady for a run tonight. Their first time running together in animal form.

In the four days since their first big date, they’d done coffee and played board games, which had been much more fun than she’d expected. Grady didn’t like to lose, and neither did she. They’d had a few rounds of miniature golf the night before last, followed by free ice cream at Millie’s. Last night they’d taken a break, because she had a few orders she had to work on. And now, Friday night, the weather cool yet not cold, Gabby rejected her old friend, the television, in favor of a run with a sexy Shifter due to meet her at any moment.

Excited yet nervous, she didn’t know which form to take. Both her animal spirits longed for freedom and to feel the earth under their paws. For years she’d exercised her fox but had to hide her cat, not wanting others to know of her dual nature. With the truth now out, it shouldn’t matter. So why did she worry what Grady would think?

Would her differences, seen up close and personal, put him off? Worse, would her fox try to make a move on the cat she already considered her own? He’d seen her as a cat a few times since she’d moved in with the pride. But they’d never turned together, naked flesh into fur.

She had goose bumps just thinking about seeing Grady’s finer-than-fine body again.

A faint noise startled her as she moved deeper into the woods, to the spot he’d shown her the day before, a good distance from the cabins but clearly still on the Catamount Ranch. She lifted her nose but didn’t smell anything off, unless an intruder stood upwind. Yet she heard nothing more and chalked up the noise to a curious rodent.

The sun had just begun to set, and shafts of warm gold filtered through the trees, lighting up paths of green and brown. A shimmer of magic settled on the air, as if the very earth knew tonight would be special. Gabby wanted Grady. She’d always liked him, but these intense feelings for the man grew stronger the more time she spent with him.

A rustling from behind alerted her to company. Grady walked free of the trees and held out a pink rose. “I’d have gotten you red, but I know how much you like pink.” He handed it to her and kissed her lightly on the lips.

The frequent touches and kisses impacted her on so many levels. She knew it was only a matter of time before they made love. Not quick gratification or a coming together mired in desperation, but a long, leisurely time spent exploring one another. If she had anything to say about it, tonight would be the night.

She smiled and stepped back. “You seem to know an awful lot about me, Grady Chastell.” The rose smelled sweet, and she inhaled its fragrant perfume.

“You like to read, watch chick flicks, and you’re really into the color pink, which is odd considering you’re not a girly girl. But I have to admit, you look good in it.”

“Not a girly girl? What does that mean?” Was she not feminine enough?

He grinned. “Remember, honey, I’ve seen you maul Hunters. Does that make me a weirdo that it turned me on?”

She flushed.

“See? There’s that pink I like so much on you. Maybe it’s my favorite color too.”

“Shut up.”

He chuckled and started unbuttoning his shirt. Mesmerized, she watched those long fingers release each button, exposing a broad chest corded with muscle. No chest hair on him, like most of the Ac-taw.

The wind blew his sandy brown hair, which looked in need of a cut. But she liked it a bit long. Wild, like the cat before her.

“Don’t make me get naked all by myself,” he said in a deep voice. “I’ve been looking forward to this all week.” His amber eyes glinted with heat. “Besides, nudity is no big deal to our kind.”

“Right,” she drawled and tried not to let her hands shake as she gripped the bottom of her long-sleeved henley. “And that’s why you have no problem flaunting your ass around the ranch. Because you’re so comfortable letting everyone see your manly parts.”

“Hell, Gabby. Nobody cares what I look like. The other females are mated, and the guys are just guys. It’s not everyone I want to see me. Just one stubborn, foxy feline who’s spent the past few months ignoring me.”

She would have asked exactly what he meant by that when he shucked off his shirt, toed off his boots and dropped his jeans. He wore nothing underneath. As before, when around her, he seemed perpetually hard. And God, what a sight. Grady Chastell naked was a walking piece of temptation.

“Oh yeah. I definitely need to not be the only one naked right now.” He winked at her, finally catching her gaze when she glanced away from his cock.

“You’re enticing me on purpose.” She wanted to be annoyed at his flagrant attempt to discomfit her, but she liked looking at him too much.

“Why? Is it working?”

She shook her head, laughing, and took off her shirt. Like him, she removed her shoes and pants but remained standing in her underclothes.

“Gabby.” He swallowed as he studied her from head to toe. “You are without a doubt the most beautiful woman I know.”

“Grady.”

“Seriously.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “But I’m trying to be a gentleman. And it’s really, really hard.”

“I can see that.” To her astonishment, his cheeks turned pink. “Grady, you’re blushing.” Delighted, she laughed. “You’re right. Pink is my favorite color.”

“Woman, quit making fun of me. Get naked and shift before I forget myself and we get busy right here, right now. You can see I’m up for it.” He inhaled and his grin widened. “From the scent of things, I’d say you’re more than ready as well.”

She couldn’t control her arousal around Grady, and knowing he knew it only made it worse. “Well? Are we going to shift or what?” She quickly stepped out of her panties and unhooked and dropped her bra.

“I’m for or what. God, I want you, baby. So much.” His eyes shifted, the pupils slit, as his cat took prominence. His fingernails sharpened, and the hint of fangs showed when he opened his mouth to better catch her scent. Then he seemed to bear down on the shift and forced himself to return to human.

“L-let’s run first.” She paused. “Does it matter which one?”

He frowned. “Which one…? Oh.” Interest blazed. “I’ve seen your cat and your fox. Both are amazing to me. You pick. We’ll run enough that you can exercise both.” He said something uncomplimentary about her aunt and uncle. “Hiding who you are was a terrible thing for them to do.”

She agreed. It had taken her years to ignore what her relatives said about her ability to become not only a fox, but a cat as well. Feline like her father, vulpine like her mother. Gabby wasn’t cursed. According to the town, she’d been blessed. Trust her obnoxious aunt and uncle to try to ruin a good thing for her.

“Okay. Here goes.” She let her animal spirits decide. The cat won out, only because she’d been closeted for far too long. Now the animal took every opportunity to show off her lean lines, the reddish coat a shade darker than Grady’s golden pelt. She felt the change overcome her and eased onto the ground on all fours. A blurring, warmth, and then her claws dug into the ground. The rich earth welcomed her roughened paws, while the scent of wildflowers, animal spoor and verdant evergreens encouraged her feline senses to explore. But all of that paled in comparison to the ripe, masculine scent of a male she intended to mate—make love to, she corrected her cat.

“Man, I love seeing that.” Grady grinned and followed suit, moving to his hands and knees. A shimmer of fur covered him in seconds, and he blinked those large, golden eyes at her.

“Ready to run, beautiful?” he asked in the way of the Ac-taw. When shifted, Ac-taw spoke to each other with their animals’ nonverbal cues, augmented by a telepathic ability. If the bond between Ac-taw was strong enough, they could telepathically communicate from human to animal as well. Gabby wondered if she and Grady could manage that. And if they could, what it might mean.

She flicked her tail, her whiskers twitching as the scent of a deer beyond the trees found her. “See if you can keep up, hot shot.” She darted into the woods, his low growl of laughter close behind.

The stretch of sinew and muscle felt amazing. She used every rock and tree root to her advantage, pushing off with her strong legs to maximize speed. The deer drew her, a prize to be won when—not if—she beat Grady to the animal.

She heard him close by and changed her angle to cut him off. When they hit an open area, she jumped over him to avoid knocking him over. Talk about fast. She thought she’d had an edge over him, having started first.

“Did I mention the winner gets the loser to dance for her?” she teased.

He showed his teeth before disappearing between the hemlocks and cedars once more. Loving the chase, she ran with abandon, determined to outdo her competitor. She wanted to show him just what she could do, her feline instinct to make him work to beat her as strong as her human compulsion to impress the man.

They didn’t use stealth when approaching their prey, so it was no surprise when the deer fled before they’d reached where it had been grazing. But having so much fun, Gabby didn’t care. She and Grady panted and took a short rest, eyeing one another in challenge.

Gabby pretended to stretch, but when Grady would have pounced, she darted away, running headlong into the trees once more. “Race you to the sunning rock.” A small, flat boulder the cats used to take in the overhead sun, it was a favorite spot of Grady’s he’d shared with her after she’d moved to the ranch.

“You’re on. I want that dance.” He threaded his way behind her, most likely keeping himself deliberately behind.

She liked that Grady could be devious. His pranks, his sense of humor, his need to win—all of it suited her. But she wanted more. They’d danced around each other long enough. She wanted to feel him inside her, to join with her completely. Her cat loved the idea, so she increased her reach, racing like the wind until she could no longer hear Grady behind her, intent on reaching the sunning rock first.

Except when she leaped up, she saw the cocky cat lazing on the rock, his head on his paws, completely at rest.

“Bastard.” She panted, still unsure how he’d beaten her. Gabby liked to think of herself as fast. Only Julia could beat her in a race, but that was fox to fox.

He yawned and blinked up at her. “Oh Gabby. Didn’t see you there.” His eyes glinted with mirth.

She compared herself to him, her smaller size, her reddish color, which complemented his tawny coat, and knew the time had come. She jumped up and stretched out next to him, then rubbed her body against his, less for companionship than because she wanted to spread her scent. This desire she had for Grady hadn’t abated. If anything, it had grown.

His lazy attitude vanished from one heartbeat to the next. The large male rubbed back against her, encouraging the contact. They rose to their feet. Her tail grazed him. He circled behind her. The feline inside her rumbled her pleasure. And then Grady rose over her.

The animal mating ended in moments, the physical copulation quick and repetitive—a fact her cat acknowledged before letting the satisfaction ease her firm grip on Gabby’s psyche, allowing the human aspect of her to regain control.

After Grady eased from her body and lay back on the rock, panting, she turned and regarded him with a woman’s need.

In tune with one another, they shifted back to human.

“Sorry. I meant to take my time, but my cat didn’t want to wait.” The man didn’t intend to wait either, if his growing erection was anything to go by. Though he’d just come, Grady, the man, seemed ready to go again.

She lay next to him on the warm rock. “That’s okay. I don’t think mine wanted to wait either.”

He pulled her into his arms so that he lay on his back, and she draped over him like a blanket. Where they touched, heat flared between them.

“This is what I’ve been waiting for.” He pulled her down for a kiss, his mouth taking charge and fogging her brain with unwavering lust. His hands stroked her back, then cupped her breasts.

He pinched her nipples and toyed with her until she couldn’t stand it. And all the while he teased with his tongue, his lips.

“Yeah, that’s it.” He gripped her hips and ground her over his cock. “You’re nice and wet. All for me.”

She couldn’t think, enrapt in his scent, his taste, the feel of him hot and hard beneath her. Grady, all hers. And only hers. Gabby lost herself in the hold of her own possessiveness and nipped him hard on the shoulder.

“Shit. Oh fuck. That’s good.” Trust Grady not to cry out but accept the rough gesture as she’d meant it. While she licked at the spot she’d unintentionally left, he positioned his cock at her entrance and pulled her down onto him.

So thick, so full. He impaled her with his shaft, which felt bigger than it had before. And he didn’t stop. Once seated inside her, he lifted her hips and urged her to ride him.

“Lean up, Gabby. Let me see you,” he rasped.

She couldn’t stop even if she’d wanted to. The desire to have all of him consumed her, and she made love to him with a passion she’d never before felt for anyone.

He palmed her breasts while she took him deep, increasing the speed of their joining until she had what she wanted. When he let go of one breast to reach between them, she moaned his name, praying for relief from this unending ache.

“So beautiful. Come for me, baby. Come hard.”

He put pressure on her clit at the same time he pinched her nipple, and she clamped tight around him as she came. Her orgasm took her to a new plane of pleasure, the scent of her lover mired with hers, a mating dance leading to a permanent bond that should have scared her, but only encouraged her to continue until no part of him remained unclaimed.

Grady swore and let her go, only to grip her hips with bruising fingers as he arched up and filled her once more. “Oh yes, yes. That’s it. Squeeze me, Gabby. Fuck.”

The sight of him in ecstatic agony imprinted onto her mind—he was so handsome, so innately wild and raw beneath her. The play of sunlight and shadow over his muscles entranced her, and she stroked his chest and biceps with the pads of her fingers, pleased at the way his nipples remained hard, like the thick shaft inside her…

“You came inside me.” She should never have had sex without protection, and she knew it. Though Ac-taw were immune to most diseases, pregnancy was always a risk. Yet she didn’t care. She’d claimed this male. He’s mine.

Gabby blinked down at him, caught by his and her mutual purring. “Oh wow. We’re…purring.”

“Content, eh?” He smiled at her and eased his hold on her hips. “Sorry. I lost my head.”

“That’s not all you lost,” she murmured, wondering when she’d start to feel upset that they might very well have made a baby. He’d taken her as an animal, and now as a human. Their scents mixed, a unique smell that would signal to one and all they’d joined in the most elemental and revered of ways.

“You’re finally mine.” The satisfaction in his face gave her pause.

“Yeah, well, you’re mine too.”

Instead of showing worry that he could no longer tomcat around town, the canny male winked at her. “Honey, I’ve been yours since you took a bullet for your sister.” He rubbed her left thigh, where not even a scar remained to indicate she’d been injured. “That kind of courage, inside that gorgeous cat, got my notice.”

He didn’t let her go, but continued to remain inside her.

She leaned down and kissed him again. “You just wanted a cat.”

He frowned when she pulled away. “Bullshit. I could have had any of the cats who are right now sitting around the pride. I wanted you.”

She knew the moment he remembered Joy, because his expression grew shuttered. Before she could say something to ease his pain, he rolled her over and proceeded to love her until she couldn’t move. The man shouldn’t have had the stamina, but he did. Lord, did he.

When he’d wrung another orgasm out of her and had made a real mess again, filling her up, she pleaded for mercy.

“Okay, okay.” She tried to catch her breath, feeling completely boneless. “I give up. You win.”

He grinned down at her, his face flushed with spent passion. “Honey, I’d say we both win.” He sniffed the crook of her neck, then licked her there. “Oh yeah. No going back now.” He opened his mouth to say something else, then froze.

“Grady?”

In seconds he’d pulled out of her and shifted into his cat. “Someone’s out there.”

Gabby turned into her fox without thought, the need for speed and cover overriding her concern about size. “Go. I’ll watch your back.” If they encountered real danger, she’d shift into her larger, more lethal animal.

“Be careful.” Then he screamed in warning at whatever awaited them and took off like a shot.

She followed, relying on her sense of smell and hearing, as her vision wasn’t as good in this form. When Grady stopped a few moments later, she stopped with him. He turned his head and opened his mouth to taste the scent on his tongue.

“Feline, but I don’t know him.” Grady shook his head, his ears back, alert. “He’s gone now, whoever he is. I didn’t detect aggression in his scent, though you never know. I’ll let Burke handle this. We have more important things to do.”

“Like what?” she teased.

“Let’s get back and finish this discussion.” Then his eyes widened when he took a good, hard look at her. He grinned. “You are so cute.”

“Cute? I’m vicious.” As a cat she would have bared her teeth at him, but as a fox, she lacked the facial muscles to do so. Instead, she pounced on his tail and gave him a warning bark.

He chuffed at her and flicked his tail away, but not before she’d nipped it.

“Ouch. Okay, Rambo. Let’s head home.”

Home. With Grady. She liked the sound of that. She trotted next to him, preening as she accepted his flattery and appreciative study. Her fox liked the nimble-tongued feline. And speaking of nimble tongues…

She whispered what she wanted to do with him when they returned, and he nudged her to hurry. She smiled. She couldn’t wait.

From some distance away, he watched them turn and leave, glad he’d had the foresight to roll in the carcass and entrails of the deer he’d killed earlier to mask most of his scent. Stupid to have gotten too close. But he’d wanted to see if the rumors he’d heard were true. Another feline, but one that could shift into a fox as well? Intriguing, and she would definitely be of interest back home. If he planned on telling.

Because Quince had no intention of helping the jackass currently ruining the pride with anything other than dying, and only after he’d seen to his own future—one that included a sexy cat with claws.

He needed to report something though, especially since the female had been claimed by a Chastell. Which brought him to a particularly sore point—Chastell’s bastard younger brother. Now what to do about him…and Joy? He climbed down the tree he’d been hiding in and ignored the urge to mark the spot as his. Instead, he wandered back into the forest, debating how far to take things. Initiative was a wonderful thing, but too much of it could get him killed.