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  “Come on, dear—don’t be shy,” Fiona urged, beckoning to Sadie again. “We’re all friends here—we want to get a good look at you.”

  “Thank you.” Sadie glanced at Mathis uncertainly and finally came forward.

  Mathis glared back at her, remembering exactly how good a look he’d gotten at her that morning. The memory of her lush naked curves and dark pink nipples made his cock throb again and he had to bite back a muffled curse as it pressed insistently against the denim of his jeans.

  “So where are you from, Sadie?” Fiona asked, her many silver bangles jingling musically as she held out a hand.

  “Tampa originally.” Sadie shook with her. “But I live here now—I opened up an accounting firm just a few doors down from you. Well . . .” She laughed self-deprecatingly. A soft, feminine sound Mathis couldn’t help liking even though he didn’t want to. “I say ‘firm’ but it’s really just me. I’m a CPA.”

  “Is that right?” Fiona nodded thoughtfully. “Well we could use someone like you in this town. I can’t speak for Mathis here, but my own books are in an awful snarl.”

  “Really?” Sadie leaned forward eagerly, her long hair brushing against Mathis’s arm, sending another surge of desire through him. “Because I’m good at untangling snarled books. I used to do all the accounting for my husband’s business. Uh . . .” She stopped, the eager expression leaving her face. “I mean my ex-husband.”

  “You two had a parting of the ways, did you, my dear?” Fiona tsked sympathetically. “A pity. But as Lady Moon wills beginnings, so too, does she will endings.”

  “Um . . . sure.” Sadie was looking uncertain again.

  “And I see that she has willed a beginning here—I’m sure we’re all going to be great friends.” Fiona gave her a warm smile.

  “Well thank you.” Sadie smiled back, just as warmly. When Fiona looked at you that way, it was hard not to respond, Mathis knew. “But I really didn’t mean to interrupt. I should probably get going.”

  “Nonsense, my dear. Why, Mathis here was just consulting me about his special pills.” Fiona tapped the bottle of green-and-brown anti-rut pills with one shapely fingernail. “They usually help him a lot but just now they don’t seem to be working—isn’t that what you were saying, darling?”

  She looked at Mathis who shifted uncomfortably.

  “You said you’d make me a new batch,” he growled. “I think those have lost their, uh, usefulness.”

  “I’ll do my best but I can’t promise anything,” Fiona said. “So tell me, Sadie—you say you’ve just had an ending with your husband—how old are you anyway?”

  It was a question Mathis would never have asked a female—some of them could be so touchy about things like age and weight. But Fiona made it sound perfectly natural.

  Sadie flushed but answered readily enough.

  “I just turned forty. In fact, today is my birthday.”

  “Well, many happy returns, my dear!” Fiona smiled and gave Mathis a meaningful look before turning back to Sadie. “And tell me, when was the last time you and your husband were intimate?”

  “Excuse me?” Sadie’s eyes widened and she darted a sidelong glance at Mathis who was still standing there, feeling like he couldn’t leave for some damn reason. It was just because his business with Fiona wasn’t finished, he told himself. It had nothing to do with the irritating little Juvie and her bewitching scent.

  “I mean when did you last have sexual relations?” Fiona clarified her question.

  Again, it was a question no one else could have asked and gotten away with. But Fiona made it sound so natural—so innocent.

  This time, however, Sadie seemed at a loss for words. She just stood there, her cheeks extremely pink. Almost as pink as they’d been when he had seen her naked that morning, Mathis thought, and then tried unsuccessfully to banish the enticing mental image.

  “Just tell me this, my dear—has it been at least six months since you had relations with a male who claimed you as his own?” Fiona asked.

  “Um . . . yeah. Yes, I guess so.” Sadie’s voice was nearly a whisper.

  “At least six months . . .” Fiona leaned forward, eyeing her with even greater interest. “Well isn’t that something?”

  “I guess it is.” Sadie looked like she had no idea what to say to extricate herself from the awkward conversation.

  Mathis had a flash of pity for her—Fiona was wonderful but when she got going on you, it wasn’t uncommon to feel like you’d been run over by a steamroller. He wished briefly that he was a different kind of male—charming and suave like Keller or funny like Reese Cooper who ran Fox’s Auto Body. Someone like that would have been able to think of something witty to say to break the tension. But Mathis wasn’t like that—or he hadn’t been since Kathleen had died, anyway.

  The memory of his lost mate brought him up short. Why was he having pity for this female when she’d been nothing but a thorn in his side since the moment she moved to Cougarville? He glowered at her again.

  “Well, Sadie, my dear,” Fiona said, apparently willing to keep up the conversation on her own, despite the awkward pause. “Tell me something else. Do you—”

  “I don’t mean to interrupt,” Sadie said quickly. “But I really should be going.”

  Fiona opened her dark eyes wide. “But why, my dear? You just got here.”

  “Well, I . . . I . . .” Sadie seemed at a loss for words. Then she took a deep breath and straightened her shoulders. “I only have an hour for lunch and I want to explore as much of my new town as I can. And meet my new neighbors. Speaking of which . . .” She turned to Mathis and a determined look came over her lovely face. “Before I go, you’re Mathis Blackwell—correct?”

  “Yeah, that’s me.” Mathis heard the growl in his voice and didn’t care if she did too. This little Juvie had been tormenting him from the moment she moved in—and she was still at it. Her scent was making him want her so badly he felt like he was going to crawl right out of his skin and she just stood there like it was no big deal to torment a male that way.

  “Why, Mathis—you never told me you had a new neighbor.” Fiona looked at him accusingly.

  “Yup—I moved in beside him a little while ago.” Sadie nodded. “But we’ve never been, um, formally introduced. Until now, I guess.” She held out a hand. “I just want to say I’m sorry about any . . . misunderstandings. I really am pleased to meet you.”

  Mathis glared at her small hand, keeping his own clenched into fists at his sides. Damn it, he didn’t want to touch her—not even to shake her hand. It would make everything exponentially worse if he did.

  “Mathis, where are your manners?” Fiona scolded. “Take the lady’s hand.”

  When the wise woman turned the full force of her large dark eyes on him Mathis knew he couldn’t refuse. Unwillingly, he extended his own large, hard, work-rough hand and enclosed Sadie’s delicate cool one.

  A surge like a bolt of lightning went through him—an electrical rush of lust so overwhelming he nearly came in his pants like a horny teenager.

  “Oh!” Sadie gasped. Her big brown eyes—doe eyes, he couldn’t help thinking—went wide with shock and she nearly collapsed. In fact, she might have fallen right on the pharmacy floor if Mathis hadn’t reached out and grabbed her upper arm, hauling her to her feet before ripping his hand away from hers.

  “What . . . ?” She looked at him, her face stunned. “What did you—”

  “Gotta go,” he growled, heading for the door.

  “Mathis, darling—don’t forget your special pills,” Fiona called, tapping one shapely fingernail on the high pharmacy counter.

  He shook his head. “Forget it. They don’t work anyway.”

  “I’ll make you a new batch like I promised and bring them over,” she called, but he was already out the door, the bell jingling angrily behind him.

  Four

  Sadie wobbled on her feet, feeling like her knees were made of spaghetti. What the hell just happened
to me?

  She had no idea but it had been completely bizarre. One moment she was confronting her surly neighbor—and God, he was absolutely huge close up—and the next she was almost knocked to the ground by a massive jolt of pleasure so intense it felt like her lady business had been electrocuted.

  I think I just came, she thought dizzily. Either that or I had some weird kind of below-the-waist stroke. What’s wrong with me?

  “Are you quite all right, Sadie, dear?”

  The proprietor of the shop—Sadie still couldn’t guess her age—was looking at her with mild concern.

  “I think so.” Sadie kept a hand on the counter to steady herself. “Something strange just came over me all of a sudden.”

  “It’s understandable,” Fiona replied obliquely.

  Sadie wanted to protest that she didn’t understand at all but she didn’t want to get drawn into another long strangely intimate conversation. God, she still couldn’t believe Fiona had gotten her to admit not only her age but the fact that she hadn’t had sex in over six months—and right in front of the glowering Mathis too! It was so damn embarrassing—almost as bad as him seeing her naked that morning.

  “I really should go,” she said. “I wanted to grab some lunch before my hour is up. What do you recommend—the Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy or the Cougar’s Den?”

  For the first time, Fiona looked genuinely alarmed.

  “Oh no, my dear—don’t go into the Cougar’s Den! That isn’t a safe place for an unmated female at all.”

  It seemed strange to Sadie that she would say “unmated female” instead of “unmarried woman” but she supposed maybe it was just Fiona’s slightly eccentric way of speaking.

  “Okay,” she said, forcing a laugh. “The Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy it is.”

  “That’s a good idea—a safe place.” Fiona got a worried expression on her face. “Well, relatively safe, anyway. Are you sure you didn’t pack a lunch? Maybe it would be better to eat in your office. Alone.”

  “I . . . didn’t have time to pack one.” Sadie was taken aback. “Besides, I wanted to get to know the other people in town. I live here now and it seems like a small, tight-knit community. I figured the sooner I started making friends the better.”

  Fiona sighed doubtfully. “This close to the full moon? Well, I guess you can try.”

  What’s that supposed to mean?

  But Sadie was too well bred to say it out loud.

  “Thank you for your advice,” she said politely, heading for the door. “I’ll be sure to keep it in mind.”

  “You do that, dear.” Fiona’s dark eyes danced, as though she was laughing at some private joke. “Oh, and come back at the end of the business day, around five, won’t you?”

  “You want me to come back?” Her hand already on the knob, Sadie looked back in surprise. “Why?”

  “Why, to talk about the state of my books, of course!” Fiona gestured with both hands, her bangles jangling. “I told you they’re in a dreadful snarl. I need a good accountant to straighten them out.”

  “Oh, well . . .” When she put it that way, Sadie could hardly refuse. After all, a client was a client—even if she was an extremely eccentric woman with a habit of asking embarrassing personal questions in front of complete strangers.

  “I’ll see you at five.” Fiona nodded comfortably, as though it was a done deal.

  “All right.” Sadie nodded. “Five it is.”

  “Thank you. Oh, and when you go to the Lemon Squeezy, be sure you try to get a slice of their lemon icebox pie—it’s world famous. Won first prize in the state fair five years in a row.” Fiona smiled.

  “I will. I love lemon pie.” Sadie smiled—maybe small-town life wouldn’t be so bad after all. She opened the door, jangling the bell, and a gust of fresh fall air swirled around her smelling of dried leaves and sunshine.

  “And tell them I sent you—that way they might actually serve you,” Fiona added. “Goodbye, dear.” And she bustled back behind the rows of shelves behind the pharmacy counter, leaving Sadie to look after her uncertainly.

  “I know it was you that sent her, and I want this to stop right . . . fucking . . . now!”

  Mathis charged into the Cougar’s Den, more like a bull than a Buck. He centered himself directly in front of Liam Keller, the head of the local Den and owner or part owner of most of the businesses in Cougarville.

  Keller looked up, irritated, from the round of poker he’d been playing with several other Cats as well as Reese Cooper.

  “What are you speaking of, Blackwell? What’s chapping your oh-so-sensitive hide now?” he drawled.

  Around them the business of the bar had come to a hushed standstill. The friction between the town’s largest herbivore Shifter and its most influential carnivore was well known. Of course, the enmity between prey and predator was understandable, though no one in their right mind would look at Mathis as prey. A whole pack of Keller’s kind might bring him down—if the damn Cats weren’t too lazy and self-interested to work together—but a single Cougar alone wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Nevertheless, Keller continued to make a fucking nuisance of himself, especially during full-moon nights when all Mathis craved was a little privacy. He was sure that the other Shifter had decided if he could annoy Mathis enough, he might pack up and leave. When that hadn’t worked, he’d brought in the Juvie, although damned if Mathis knew where he had found her—unclaimed Rejuvenated females were as rare as diamonds in dirt around the Shifter community.

  “Cut the bullshit, Keller,” he growled, looming over the other male menacingly. “You know damn good and well what I’m talking about—you wanted my property and when you couldn’t get it, you brought a Juvie out to move in right beside me and make me crazy.”

  “A Juvie, you say?” Keller’s sleepy pale green eyes—like the silvery underside of a new leaf—were suddenly wide awake and interested. He rose and came around the poker table to stand eye-to-eye with Mathis.

  Though Mathis was six foot seven, the other Shifter matched him in height. He had dark brown hair and an almost Nordic slant to his eyes. An air of sleepy menace hung around him like a cloud of pheromones.

  “Yes, a Juvie!” Mathis snarled. He wasn’t buying the other male’s oh-so-innocent act. “You thought she’d drive me crazy enough to move out—well it won’t work!”

  “The trip to crazy appears to be a short one for you, my friend.” Keller grinned insultingly, showing the extra-long canines of his kind. “And I have no need to drive you—you are doing an excellent job getting there yourself.” He raised an eyebrow. “But I would like to know more about this Juvie.”

  Mathis wanted to wring the other male’s throat—clearly Keller wasn’t going to admit to anything. Which wasn’t surprising—Cats were as twisted and conniving as they came and Keller was one of the worst of his kind.

  “Just tell her to back the fuck off or you’re both going to be sorry,” he snapped, poking the other male in the chest. “I mean it.”

  Keller ignored the obvious threat and looked at Mathis in wide-eyed innocence.

  “I would be happy to pass on your warning if only I knew who this enchanting creature is. You say she moved in beside you? Is she unattached?”

  For the first time Mathis felt a touch of unease. Was the other male telling the truth? Did he honestly have no idea who Sadie was and where she’d come from?

  “Forget it,” he said. “Just drop it, Keller.”

  “But how can I drop such an intriguing subject? Especially so close to the full moon.” Keller had a hungry look on his face—the look of a predator that scents a weak, wounded creature and wants to devour it whole.

  Mathis knew that anything he said would only make things worse but he couldn’t help himself—he had to answer the other Alpha’s threat.

  “I said leave her alone,” he said flatly. “She’s on my property.”

  “Which adjoins my property, as you may remember,” Keller was nearly purring with interest
now.

  “That’s not saying much—everything in this town adjoins your property, Keller,” pointed out Reese Cooper, who was watching the confrontation from the poker table.

  “Just stay away.” Mathis knew now he’d made a mistake—a serious one. He’d just drawn the attention of the most dangerous male in town to the little Juvie. But there was no way to change that now. “Stay . . . away,” he repeated, glaring at the other male.

  “Why should I?” Keller demanded. “Have you claimed her?”

  Mathis thought of the powerful jolt he’d gotten just from shaking her hand. It was what Fiona would call “a telling sign” but it in no way denoted any kind of claim or ownership.

  Keller seemed to take his silence for a negative.

  “So you haven’t claimed her.” The hungry light in his eyes grew. “Have you given her any gifts? And has she accepted them?”

  “No,” Mathis growled unwillingly. “But . . . she’s under my protection.”

  “Oh, really?” Keller raised an eyebrow skeptically. “First you come in here demanding that I get rid of this female—this Juvie—and then you change your tune and claim she’s under your protection. Forgive me, my friend, but I have a difficult time believing your assertion.”

  “Believe what you want,” Mathis said shortly. “I’m leaving and I’d better not see you on my land. Or anywhere near it.”

  He turned and marched out of the Cougar’s Den, trying to ignore Keller’s soft laughter, which came floating after him.

  Damn it—he’d really stuck his hoof in it now, declaring the Juvie was under his protection. Such a declaration was binding in the Shifter community. It was probably just the rut coming on, making him act like such an idiot, but it didn’t matter—there was no excuse and no taking his words back.

  He’d just bound himself to a female he didn’t even know and wanted nothing to do with.

  What the holy blue hell was he going to do?

  Five

  “Well that was a day from hell.”

  Sadie sank back down behind her desk, her earlier good mood completely evaporated.