Marisa Chenery - To Lovea Cougar

His mother was more than capable of putting his father in his place. The only time she’d lost to him was when he’d banished Taylor. To this day she hadn’t let her mate live that one down.

Blaise sat in his room for forty-five minutes before he went to see his father. He’d heard Caleb arrive as scheduled and figured he had to be just about finished with his examination.

He tapped on the closed double bedroom doors before he opened one and stepped just inside. Caleb put his stethoscope into his bag and waved Blaise closer.

“I’m finished,” his cousin said. “I’ve only to give him his shot.”

His father struggled to push himself up higher on the pillows that were propped at his back.

“Wait until after Blaise and I have had a chance to talk. Whatever is in that needle leaves me tired and even weaker.”

Caleb nodded. “I have a little time to spare before I’m scheduled to arrive to see my next patient. But I’ll stay here to make sure Blaise doesn’t tire you out too much.”

“I have no problem with that. Besides being my doctor, you’re also my nephew. I enjoy your company.”

Blaise waited until Caleb had moved out of the way to stand near the end of the bed before Blaise sat in the chair across from his father. Caleb was the son of Blaise’s father’s younger brother.

His uncle had disappeared, leaving mate and son behind, when Caleb had been quite young. No one spoke of it much, and nothing had ever really been said as to why his uncle had left. His aunt hadn’t taken the separation from her mate very well and had ended up taking her own life a year later. Caleb had been raised by an aunt in his mother’s family group.

“How are you feeling today, Father?”

His dad shook his head. “Not much better than I was yesterday. Caleb says he’s mixed a new concoction that should hopefully change that.”

Blaise looked at his cousin to see him nod in agreement. He had no idea what was in the needles Caleb used. He’d explained it once, using scientific terms, and it’d gone straight over Blaise’s head.

“Let’s hope this is the one that will cure you.

I’m going out for a while, but I’ll be back for dinner.”

His father snorted. “I’m sure your mother made sure you would be. I still can’t understand why she had to invite those people over here.

They’re human.”

The words “they’re human” were said in a way that conveyed how distasteful his father found the idea of the visit. Blaise couldn’t understand why his father couldn’t get over the fact that his oldest had become mated to a human, and that she now was a member of their family group. It wasn’t as if Aspen would be leaving.

“I guess she wants to be friendlier with her new daughter’s family,” Blaise said. “I don’t have any problem with them being around.”

“Taylor is starting to rub off on you. You never used to think that way.”

Actually, Blaise had. He’d just never voiced his opinion about humans around his father until Taylor had returned and become mated to Aspen.

Blaise would be more than happy to have a human as his own.

From there they talked about mundane things until his father appeared to be tiring. Caleb stepped forward even before Blaise had a chance to say he would bring this visit to a close.

Blaise stood, then shifted out of the way for his cousin. Caleb pushed the sleeve up on his patient’s pajama shirt, then injected whatever was in the syringe into his upper arm. Blaise couldn’t help but notice how thin his father had become.

Too thin.

Once he was finished, Caleb straightened, then placed the cap on the end of the needle before putting it inside his bag.

It only took a matter of seconds before Blaise’s father started coughing. He’d been prone to coughing fits, but usually he didn’t have one right after Caleb injected him. His dad’s face turned red as the racking cough made it hard for him to get a breath. Caleb didn’t seem overly concerned by it, but that wasn’t the case with Blaise, especially when his father pulled his hand away from his mouth and there was blood in his palm.

Blaise’s gaze shot to Caleb’s face. “What the hell is that? He’s worse than before you gave him that shot.”

His cousin shook his head. “This has to be another manifestation of the illness.”

“Don’t you think that’s pretty sudden?”

His father’s coughing fit finally subsided and he settled back into the pillows. His eyes closed and he appeared to fall asleep. Blaise didn’t like how pale he was or how labored his breathing sounded. Blaise’s gut clenched as Caleb wiped some blood away from Blaise’s dad’s lips with a tissue.

Becoming all professional doctor, Caleb said, “Sometimes a patient has to get worse before he gets better. I’ll continue with this new serum I’ve come up with and monitor your father. If in a couple days he doesn’t show any sign of improvement, I’ll switch back to the old one until I can mix up something new.”

Blaise hated the fact his father had to be used as a guinea pig, but there was no other way. It wasn’t as if they could take him to a hospital.

Because he was a cougar shifter, if the regular doctors took blood, the results would come back showing the differences in their chemical makeup.

Plus, his dad’s illness being the one and only case in their kind, this was all new territory for Caleb.

Still worried over his father, Blaise said a quick goodbye to Caleb before leaving the room.

He continued downstairs and then out the front door. He wasn’t going to be the one to tell his mother about this new symptom. Caleb could do that.

Blaise drove to downtown Anchorage with no set destination in mind at first. He pushed thoughts of his father’s condition to the back of his mind. He was on a hunt for the human female who could potentially be his mate.

He lifted his hand and stroked the gold cougar head pendant he wore around his neck from a gold chain. All male cougar shifters were given one once they reached adolescence. It had a bit of magic embedded inside. When a female was meant to be his mate, the ruby eyes in the male cougar’s pendant would glow.

It wasn’t something that happened with a first meeting, or even the first time the couple had sex. It sometimes took months before the eyes revealed the truth. Once it happened it was the female’s decision to accept the necklace as hers, which would create the mating bond, joining the mated pair’s souls.

If the female didn’t take the necklace after the eyes started to glow, the male ended up walking a fine line. He’d be unable to eat or sleep, basically only able to think about having sex with his newfound mate to hopefully tie her emotionally closer with each bout of lovemaking. His condition would be caused by an increase in testosterone.

Blaise hoped he’d never get to that point once he found his mate, though the chances were good it could happen if she ended up being human. She wouldn’t have grown up knowing what a male’s pendant meant to her, or that she was to claim it, and him, as her own. He was more than willing to take that chance. If it happened, it happened, and he’d deal with it when the time came.

Since it was too early to do the bar scene, Blaise decided the next best place to meet women was where they liked to go shopping—a mall.

With that decision made, he headed for the Anchorage 5th Avenue Mall, which was right in the city’s downtown core.

Once he arrived at his destination, Blaise parked his sports car in the garage and headed into the mall. It being a Saturday, it was more than a little busy. He didn’t mind. It meant there would be a better chance to meet potential women to ask out. Now he just had to determine where he wanted to begin his hunt.