Marisa Chenery - Fated to a Cougar

Grady took a swig from his beer, then nodded in the direction of a group of women who’d just taken a table close to where he and his friend sat. “What do you think about any of them?”

Draven turned his head for a look before focusing back on Grady. “Not bad, but I think I’ll pass. They aren’t exactly what I’m looking for.”

“I have to say the same thing.” Grady watched one of the women put a plastic tiara on the head of another that had “Bride” on it. “It looks as if it’s a stagette, which means they wouldn’t be interested in a guy trying to pick them up, anyway.”

Draven chuckled. “True. They’re here for a good time that involves lots of alcohol. Don’t be surprised if their table gets noisy after they have a couple drinks.”

There was a loud outburst of laughter from that direction. “It’s already started,” Grady said with a smile.

Both he and Draven were single cougar shifters who had no interest in dating the females of their kind. Human women held more appeal, especially now that both his cousins Taylor and Blaise, along with his brother Jase, had ended up mated to humans and were extremely happy. Grady wanted that.

“I think this night is going to be another bust,” Draven said after he finished his bottle of beer, then signaled their waitress that he wanted another.

Grady first met Draven three months ago, after Jase introduced them. Draven was Blaise’s go-to guy for anything to do with computers and the internet. And when Jase had needed a way to track Caleb, Blaise’s cousin who’d tried to poison Blaise’s father, Draven had been the logical choice. He’d given Jase a computer program to track Caleb’s location every time the other shifter used his cell phone. It’d worked for a little while, but Caleb now appeared to have gone deep into hiding. And it was Draven’s project to see if he could find any clues as to where Caleb had gone.

“Maybe the bar scene is getting old,” Grady said. “We should try the mall or something like that instead. After all, that’s where Blaise met his mate Harley.”

Draven nodded. “I guess we could give that a shot. There definitely would be a lot of women there, but a grocery store can be just as good.”

“You’re welcome to try that, but you’ll be on your own. That’s not exactly my ideal spot to pick up a woman. I can just picture getting slapped if I went up to one and asked if I could compare her melons to the ones the store has for sale.”

His friend barked with laughter. “That’s what I like about you, Grady. You probably would do something that stupid just because you can.”

“Damn right.”

Another loud burst of laughter came from the women who were having the stagette. There was a tray of shots in the center of their table and they were pounding them back pretty fast. One looked at Grady and winked while she pursed her lips in a kiss. He smiled but made no move to go over there.

The waitress brought Draven a fresh beer. She asked Grady if he wanted another, but he shook his head. She then left to wait on another table. “So, any progress on finding where Caleb has slunk off to?” Grady asked.

“Nothing yet. The asshole has done a better job of keeping his tracks hidden than he did a few months ago. I think Caleb smartened up after his last encounter with Jase, which isn’t working in our favor.”

Jase had managed to track Caleb to an older apartment in the low-income section of Anchorage, a place none of them would have expected him to go. His brother had come close to capturing their prey, but Caleb had used Katarina, Jase’s mate, to make good his escape. She’d been the superintendent of the building at the time. And that had been the last time they’d seen Caleb.

Now it was Grady’s job to bring him in. As a cat shifter, Caleb wouldn’t be facing human law enforcement. No, his fate would be decided by Taylor and Blaise’s father Nate, the leader of their family group. Even though Caleb wasn’t Grady’s cousin, he was cousin to Taylor and Blaise. Their father was the older brother of Caleb’s father.

“Well, let’s hope he didn’t smarten up too much,” Grady said. “I need to find him.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not giving up yet. He’s bound to make a mistake. It’s only a matter of time.”

Grady hoped so. He was afraid that as time went by, the chances were Caleb was no longer in Anchorage. If that happened to be the case, it was more than likely that Caleb would never be found.

After Grady downed the rest of his beer, he said, “Since nothing is happening here, I’m going to head home.”

“All right. I’m going to finish my drink, then I’ll go home as well. I have a new game that’s calling my name. I’ll probably stay up all night playing it.”

Grady shook his head with a grin. Draven was a huge computer geek, but he didn’t look like one. He was the largest cougar shifter Grady had ever seen. At six-foot-seven, with a body thickly padded with muscles, Draven had the build of a werewolf.

“You’re going to fry your brain if you do that too often.”

Draven chuckled. “Not a chance.”

“I guess I’ll have to take your word for it. I’ll give you a call in a couple days to get together again.”

“Sounds good.”

Grady stood, pulled on his jacket, then headed for the bar’s entrance. As he passed the stagette’s table, the same woman who’d blown him a kiss let out an appreciative whistle. He smiled and shook his head as he kept walking. There was no way he was going to get involved with that. A group of women who’d been drinking large amounts of alcohol usually spelled trouble.

He zipped up his winter jacket once he stepped outside. A fresh layer of snow had fallen while he’d been in the bar. Now that it was mid-winter, the white stuff was piled high on the sides of the streets from the plows. Grady shivered as a gust of cold wind blew his way. He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and hunched his shoulders. He wished he could shift to his cougar form. His thick fur did a better job of keeping him warm than the jacket he wore.

Another gust of wind hit him, bringing the scent of another. Grady let out a low growl as he jerked his head in the direction the scent had come from. He took a quick look around to make sure no one was around, then put on a burst of speed no human would be capable of.

Grady followed the scent to the end of the street, which was a parking lot. He saw two men standing in the deepest shadows. He recognized one immediately. It was Caleb. And the man with him was human.

Not caring who saw him, Grady put on another burst of preternatural speed and ran toward his quarry. He’d be damned if he let Caleb slip through his fingers after having no leads on his whereabouts for months.

The wind suddenly changed direction and blew from Grady’s back and toward Caleb, who jerked around. Grady caught a flash of teeth as Caleb snarled and made a run for it. Grady didn’t give it a second thought as he gave chase.

His prey led him through backs of buildings and down alleyways. After turning onto one of the latter and coming out on a street that was lined with industrial buildings, Grady swore under his breath as he slowed to a fast walk. Caleb was nowhere to be seen. His prey had gotten a little ahead of him, but he hadn’t thought he’d manage to get away.

Grady came to a stop and looked around. Caleb hadn’t gotten that much distance between them. He had to be around there somewhere. A cougar shifter didn’t have the ability to just disappear into thin air. They had magic inside them, but not to that extent.