Today, I’d like to share an excerpt of A Cougar’s Mates. I’m still writing this story. This is about one thousand words from Chapter One. I hope you enjoy!
Leslie tossed back her drink and looked around the bar. The Wild Beat was rocking tonight and packed with cougar females. That was because she’d set up a plan. She couldn’t avoid the Chief forever. His brothers were home now or they would be soon. She wasn’t sure.
They added to the factor of possibly running into one of them when she was out. She did not want to run into one of them and go to their home to find it smelling like another woman. She felt possessive of them and because she’d caught John’s scent, her body had kicked into high gear.
She was pumping out pheromones, but luckily, they didn’t affect every male. They’d only heighten the arousal of her mates as theirs would for hers. Although other shifters around her would realize something was different about her.
In the last week, she hadn’t been comfortable. Not just because everything within her pushed her to go find her mate. No, she’d worried she might run into John every time she left her house. She knew he didn’t do traffic patrol much, but he had been known to take a shift. She hadn’t been able to enjoy driving within the city since she’d caught the man’s scent.
She wanted him to realize he didn’t need to look for a mate, that he had a mate and she was right here in the town. There was nothing to slow a male cat’s roll like realizing he had a mate. On the other hand, she didn’t want the man to realize who exactly that mate was yet. She was still pissed about the almost daily turnover of lovers in his bed. So she’d enlisted the help of almost every cougar female she knew.
Chloe’s mates came by to see her almost every girls’ night they had. Today, Logan would definitely be by to see her. He’d worked nights last week and had just started the morning shift. So he hadn’t seen her all day. He’d come by just to see her and then he’d join Jason and the others at another bar. Leslie hoped John would be able to catch her scent off Logan, because she planned to make sure he had the scent of other cougar females on him as well.
“So, plan Man whore Take-down is in full swing?” Chloe met Leslie’s eyes.
Chloe was resplendent in a green and black top and a black skirt tonight. She looked good with her red hair falling down her back. The slight frown when she thought no one was looking did concern Les, as did the tightness in her shoulders and jaw.
There was something going on with that girl. Well, other than the whole trying to get pregnant thing and having enough sex to make every woman around her jealous. She wasn’t pregnant yet and last week, she’d been upset about that. But she’d seemed to have calmed down about that by the end of the conversation with them. So why was she tense and quiet tonight?
“Yeah, with luck and your big man’s unknowing cooperation, the big manwhore will realize he has a mate, but not know who the hell she is. I’ve got a few friends here and they’ll come into contact with Logan as he comes over here and as he leaves.” Les smiled at the thought. She’d like him to feel something close to the frustration she’d felt over the last weeks. She adjusted the position of the straps on her sleeveless violet top.
“You’re lucky I like you or I might get a little upset about the thought of other women touching my Logan.” Chloe narrowed her eyes on Leslie. “Anyone else suggests allowing women to bump into him and rub against him and I might have to bounce them across the parking lot. The only thing saving them is the fact that I know they’re doing it to help you leash that tomcat.”
“Thank you for being so cooperative.” Leslie smiled. “I can assure you that they don’t have any designs on your man, even if he is gorgeous, and are doing it only because I’m their friend.”
“Have you heard anything from said gorgeous man?” Shonna asked.
“Not—” Chloe’s voice cut off as her text tone cut through the lull of noise between songs. “Well, this is from him. He says he’ll be here in about five minutes and he’d like a big kiss since a quickie in the back room is out of the question.”
“More information than I ever needed to know about that.” Dixie scowled at Chloe.
“Maybe I should feel sorry about tormenting you, but I don’t. Mainly because you revel in doing the same to me.” Chloe grinned and took a long drink of her nonalcoholic cocktail. Wild Beats had become inventive with their offerings in that variety since Chloe had decided to get pregnant.
“Yeah, enjoy it, girlfriend, because I will be getting you back.” Dixie folded her arms across her chest.
“Will you?” Shonna glanced to Dixie. “You know you haven’t found your mates yet. There’s still the anxiety and issues that come with doing that. I’m sure she’ll enjoy watching you go through that the same as you did her.”
“And you’re in the same boat. You haven’t found your man.” Dixie turned glare at Shonna.
“Yeah, but I’ll only have to deal with one. Much easier and fewer issues.” Shonna chuckled. “I totally don’t envy you bears and cats that part.”
Two people stopped by the table. Les turned her head and smiled widely. She’d hoped the black-haired woman would stop by. She didn’t recognize the human woman beside her, but that wasn’t a surprise. She normally saw Maggie when they were at Pride functions.
“Everyone, I’d like to introduce Magdalena Black. She’s the sister to our illustrious alpha cat.” Leslie glanced over at her friends. “And she’s a good friend. I’ve known her since we were both kits in the same child care center.”
The others said hello, but Les saw them glance to the woman with Maggie.
“Hi, you can call me, Maggie. Almost everyone does. This is my friend, Penelope Steele. She goes by Penny though. This girl helped me get through college calculus.” Maggie gestured to the woman at her side.
Penny said hello. “Hi, I hope you don’t mind me being here. When Maggie told me what was up with the calling together of the cougar females, I had to meet you. A couple of my friends got hit by the John Dark sex them and kick them to the curb train. They totally weren’t expecting one night and then nothing more.”
“You have some experience with male cats?” Leslie tilted her head. The girl didn’t strike her as the type of woman who chased shifters for sex.
“Ah, no, Maggie clued me in early about shifters only getting serious with their mates. I’ve never been one for casual sex so if someone showed interest, I didn’t give them any encouragement. From what I know of mating, I was pretty sure that they’d let me know if they were my mate.” Penny smiled.
“Yeah, they would, but until they meet that woman, a good portion of shifter males are man whores.” Les shook her head.
“And afterward, they’re just stupid.” Maggie slid a glance at her friend.
Happy Reading!
