Fated to a Cougar

Chapter Two

“Ow. Would you take it easy?” Grady asked.

He sat at the kitchen table at his home that he shared with his parents, his brother and his brother’s mate. Katarina, who’d become mated to his brother Jase three months before, tended to Grady’s wound.

“Stop being such a baby,” Katarina said. “I thought all you cougar shifters were tough guys.”

“We are, but that freaking burns.”

“It needs to be disinfected with rubbing alcohol. I know it’ll be healed by tomorrow, but it’ll help to have it cleaned out.”

“Yeah, Grady, stop being a crybaby,” Jase said with a chuckle. He sat across from Grady as he watched his mate work.

“Bite me,” he said with a growl. “I still can’t believe Caleb managed to get the drop on me. But I guess he did me a favor.”

Jase gave him a confused look. “How can getting your skull almost cracked in two by a metal pipe do you a favor?”

Grady smiled. “I ended up with a date for tomorrow night.”

His brother snorted. “With who? An imaginary woman? Caleb must have hit you harder than I thought. You’re seeing things.”

“No, Sage was very much real. She’s the reason why Caleb stopped hitting me and took off.”

“He was afraid of a human woman? I’m assuming this Sage is human.”

“She is, and she’s a little more than just a human woman. She’s a cop. She saw Caleb with the metal pipe and turned on her flashing lights and siren.”

Katarina stopped poking at Grady’s head and leaned around to look at him. “You have a date with a police officer?”

“Yeah. I asked her out after I kissed her and she said yes.”

His brother’s mate whistled. “You kissed an on-duty cop? You’re lucky she didn’t try to arrest you.”

“I thought she might, but it was the best thing I could think of to distract her from calling an ambulance for me. She insisted I go to the hospital. I don’t think she would have taken no for an answer if I hadn’t laid one on her.”

“So you only kissed her and asked her out for that reason?”

“No. Sage is gorgeous. I would want to date her even if I hadn’t been trying to stop her from getting me to go to the hospital.”

Katarina went back to cleaning Grady’s head wound, and he sucked in a sharp breath. He had to be thankful his mother wasn’t at home. She would have been fussing over him too much. His parents had gone away for the week. They’d flown to the Gulf Islands, which was off the eastern coastline of Vancouver Island in British Columbia. They owned a cottage on their own tiny private island. It was big enough—and had enough trees for coverage—for them to shift to their cougar forms and go for runs. Grady figured his parents mostly went there to have some alone time without him and Jase hanging around.

“At least we now know Caleb is still in Anchorage,” Jase said, changing the subject.

“Yeah, but he got away,” he added. “And the male human he’d been talking to when I first spotted him was gone when I went back to see if I could pick up his trail. He must have had a car in that parking lot because I lost it there.”

Jase shook his head. “That’s too bad. It makes me wonder what Caleb was up to. It couldn’t be anything legal if he had that meeting in a dark parking lot in the middle of the night.”

Katarina gave Grady a tap on the shoulder. “All done. I have to agree with that, Jase. Who knows what he was up to, but it couldn’t have been anything good.”

“I was thinking he has to be running out of money,” Grady said. “The amount he had stashed in that apartment that he took before he went into deeper hiding won’t last him forever. And as far as Draven has been able to find out, Caleb still owns his house. There’s a lot of capital tied up in it. If it suddenly burns to the ground we’ll know what that meeting was about.”

“Actually,” Jase said with a nod, “that makes a lot of sense. That way Caleb won’t have to go through the hassle of having to sell it. He’d only have to collect the insurance money from it. That’s a quick way to turn it into cash.”

The more Grady thought about it, the more likely a scenario it could be. They’d have to watch Caleb’s house for anything suspicious taking place around it. And if Caleb did decide to do away with it like that, there was always a chance he’d risk returning there to take what he wanted from it beforehand.

Grady stood and walked over to the fridge, where he took out a bottle of beer. “I think I should tell Uncle Nate. As the leader of our family group, he could get others to watch Caleb’s house when we can’t.”

“Good idea.” Jase stood, then walked over to his mate and put his arm around her shoulders. “Now that your head is taken care of, Katarina and I are heading upstairs.”

He watched them walk out of the kitchen. He wouldn’t be seeing those two for the rest of the night. And with his room directly across from theirs, at times his damn sensitive cougar hearing allowed him to hear more than he wanted to. That was the only part that sucked about living with his family.

Grady went upstairs to his room. As he neared Katarina and Jase’s, the sound of feminine giggles came through the door. He continued into his bedroom and closed himself inside. He put the bottle on his bedside table and yanked his long-sleeved t-shirt over his head. The collar of it was stained with blood. Katarina had already put his winter jacket in the washer since it’d gotten the worst of it. Head wounds always bled like a bugger.

After putting his shirt in the dirty laundry hamper, Grady settled on the king-sized bed and turned on the large flat-screen LED television that hung on the wall across from it. He sipped his beer and a small smile played on his lips as he thought about Sage. He wondered if he asked nicely if she’d cuff him, then have her way with him.

Since Sage had worked the night shift, she slept until early afternoon the following day. Usually she would have slept longer, but having two days off and then going back into work on day shift, she had to get her sleeping times adjusted.

After she showered, she returned to her bedroom to get dressed. Seeing the almost overflowing dirty laundry basket, she could no longer put off doing the washing. Luckily enough, she had something to wear. She tugged on her last pair of clean jeans and a sweatshirt.

She lugged her laundry downstairs and put the first load in the washer in the main-floor laundry room. That’d been one of the big selling points for her when she’d put in an offer for the two-story semi almost a year ago.

That task done, Sage went to the kitchen and put the kettle on to make a pot of tea. She grabbed a muffin from the package she’d bought the day before and sat at the table to eat it while she waited for the water to boil.

Before going to bed she’d come to the conclusion it wouldn’t be a great idea to go out with Grady. She hadn’t been thinking when she’d agreed to see him in the first place, and she wasn’t looking for a steady boyfriend. Her work kept her too busy, especially now that she was striving to become a detective. As for having a short fling, she couldn’t separate her feelings enough to have one.

A knock on her front door brought Sage out of her musings. She went to answer it, having an idea who it could be. She pulled open the door and smiled at the woman who stood on the other side.

“I had a feeling it was you,” Sage said as she stepped back to let her older sister Macy walk through the entrance. She carried an infant car seat with her six-month-old son Josh inside, almost buried under all the blankets on top of him.

“Well, you did tell me you weren’t working today and that you’d be switching to day shift,” Macy said as she set the car seat on the floor, then took off her winter boots and jacket.

“Very true. I’ll take Josh.”

Sage picked up the car seat by its handle and carried her nephew into the living room. She pulled the blankets off him, then unbuckled the straps. She laid him on the couch while she took off his snowsuit. The poor thing looked as if he couldn’t move in it.

Macy sat on the couch once Sage picked up Josh. “So how goes the police business?”

“Not bad. I’m still working my way to becoming a detective. The hard part is finding the time to study to take the test.”

“You work too much. You don’t even have time to date. I know you feel your career has to come first and that you’re still young, but you won’t be twenty-four forever.” Macy nodded toward her son. “Wouldn’t you like to have a rugrat of your own someday?”

“Of course.” Sage gave Josh a kiss on his little pouty lips. She loved him as if he were hers. “It’ll just be something I do when I’m in my thirties. Unlike you, I won’t be ready at twenty-six to be married and already starting a family.”

“You know why I wanted both those things sooner rather than later.”

Sage did. They’d lost both their parents when Sage had been eighteen and Macy twenty. Their father had never been a great father or husband. Even though their mom had tried to hide it, there had been times when Sage and Macy had seen marks on their mother after their father had lost his temper with her. Once Sage turned sixteen, their mom finally kicked him out and told them the truth about her marriage. Then two years later, while Macy and Sage were away for a week with their grandparents, their dad had forced his way into the apartment their mom had rented and killed her. He took his own life afterward.

So Sage understood why Macy had wanted to have a family of her own. As for herself, Sage had made the decision she’d become a cop. She wanted to be able to help protect women who were in the same situation her mother had been in. Something she hadn’t been able to do for her mom.

“I know,” Sage said.

“This is a change in subject, but since you’re off tonight, do you think you could do me a favor?”

“What would that be?”

“Hank and I haven’t gone out alone since Josh was born. I was wondering if you’d agree to babysit so we can go out for dinner. I’d have Josh all bathed and ready for bed. We’ll bring the playpen for him to sleep in. He’s usually asleep for the night around seven thirty or eight at the latest.”

Sage thought it over, but quickly decided it would be the perfect way to get out of her date with Grady. She’d just tell him she’d forgotten she had to babysit. And with Josh already at her place when Grady arrived, it wasn’t as if he could do anything about it.

She nodded. “Sure. I don’t mind babysitting. In fact, why don’t you go out for dinner, then go see a movie. And if you want, you can even leave Josh here overnight.”

“Really? I only thought to ask you to watch him for a few hours.”

“Seriously, I’m okay with him staying over. I don’t get to see him as often as I’d like, and he’s growing so fast. It’ll give you a break.”

“If you’re really sure you want to have him all night, I’m not going turn you down. You might have to put up with me calling more than a few times to see how Josh is doing, though.”

Sage smiled. “You can call as much as you want.”

“All right. Then he’ll be all yours tonight. And that being the case, I shouldn’t visit for too long. I’ll have to get everything you’ll need for Josh ready. Nowadays, I swear I can’t leave the house with him without taking half of it with me.”

“Do you have time to stay for some tea? I put the kettle on. I just have to make it.”

“That would be great.”

Sage passed Josh over to his mother, then stood and headed for the kitchen. She took two mugs from the cupboard and smiled. Sage was actually looking forward to having Josh to herself all night, even if he’d be sleeping most of the time. For now, he was the closest thing to her having kids of her own.

Grady pulled onto Sage’s street and kept track of the house numbers until he arrived at her place. He turned into the two-car driveway and parked next to the vehicle already there. He got out of the car and headed over to the front door. Before he rang the doorbell, he ran his fingers through his hair to straighten it. The wind had blown it into his face. He touched the spot where his head wound had been. It was completely healed, he didn’t even have a headache anymore.

It didn’t take long for Sage to answer the door. He ran his gaze over her, thinking she was more beautiful than he’d remembered. Even in jeans and a sweatshirt she looked sexy. Her auburn hair was down and fell around her shoulders, which made his fingers itch to run through it.

“Hi,” he said with a smile. “I hope you remembered we have a date.”

“I do.”

He frowned a bit when she made no move to invite him in or get her jacket. “Are you ready to go?”

“Actually, no. I have to cancel. I forgot I’d promised my sister I’d babysit her son. I’m looking after him overnight.”

“That’s okay. Have you eaten supper yet?”

“No.”

“Then why don’t I come in and we can order something for delivery.”

Sage hesitated before she answered. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“You have my word I’m not some nutcase. Besides, you’re a cop. I’d be stupid to try something. I can help you babysit. I like kids.”

Grady did, but he hadn’t been around too many of them. Since cougar shifters lived to be around two hundred years old, they tended not to have too many kids. Family groups were mostly made up of extended family and others from outside of it who’d become mated to a member of the group.

She took a little longer answering that time. “Look, I’m going to be straight with you. I don’t think I have time to have a steady boyfriend. I hate to say it, but my career as a cop comes first. I don’t think it’ll work out. And I don’t date casually.”

Grady wasn’t about to let Sage push him away that easily. The kiss they’d shared the night before told him she wasn’t unaffected by him. He had to say it’d ranked up there as his all-time best. She was also the first human woman he’d ever kissed. He definitely wanted to see where their attraction for each other led.

He took a step closer. “I can understand that it would, but I’m willing to put up with that. At least take the time to get to know me better before you shoot me down.”

The sound of a baby crying reached his ears. Sage turned her head to look into the house, then back at him. She seemed to search for something while she gazed at him before she nodded as the baby’s cries grew louder.

“Fine,” she said. “You can come in and we’ll get something delivered to eat. I have to get my nephew.”

Grady stepped inside as Sage turned and walked farther into the house. He took off his boots and winter jacket before he followed her into the living room. A thick blanket was spread out on the middle of the floor, where he presumed the baby she held had been lying.

Once Sage noticed him, she walked toward him, then passed the baby. “I have to warm up a bottle for Josh,” she said. “You said you wanted to help, so you can hold him while I do that. After he’s done I’ll put him to bed, then we can order some food.”

Grady looked at the little person he held, not sure what to do. This was his first time holding a baby. Josh smiled, then proceeded to try to stick his drooly hand inside Grady’s mouth.

“Enough of that, you,” he said as he pulled Grady’s hand away. “You might like to suck on your hand, but I don’t.” Josh tried again, and Grady let out a quiet cat growl, which the baby thought was funny and giggled. “You like that, huh?”

He really was a cute little thing. Grady purred as he nuzzled the side of Josh’s neck, causing Josh to giggle again. The baby managed to grab hold of Grady’s cougar head pendant as he lifted his head. He held it in a tight fist and refused to let go.

“Don’t even think about putting that in your mouth,” Grady said with a chuckle. “You might like it because it’s shiny and has rubies for eyes, but I don’t need baby slobber all over it.”

“Here, let me help before he pulls too hard and breaks the chain on you,” Sage said as she came to stand beside Grady.

“I doubt he’d be able to do that. It’s pretty strong.”

Sage gently pried the pendant out of Josh’s hand. “Nice cougar. I’ll take Josh now and give him his bottle.”

“Thanks. All right.”

Grady couldn’t resist giving the baby a quick kiss on his soft cheek before he passed him over to his aunt. She settled on the couch with Josh, propped him into the crook of her arm, then put the nipple of the bottle into his mouth. Josh greedily took it.

“I guess he was hungry,” he said as he sat next to Sage.

“My sister has started him on solid food, but Josh still loves his bottle. She said he’ll fall asleep while he takes it, then that’ll be it for the night. He usually sleeps through.”

Already, Grady saw Josh’s eyes were fluttering closed. “In that case, we should decide what we’ll want to eat. I can order it while you finish feeding him.”

“Okay. I don’t think it’ll take very long.”

“Then what would you like to have?”

“It’ll probably be easier to order pizza. I like almost anything on it, except for onions and anchovies.”

“That makes it easy. Do you have a usual place you get it from?”

Sage told him of a pizza place not too far from her house. So as not to disturb the baby, who’d fallen asleep, Grady stood and went to stand near the entrance of the living room. He used his cell phone to find the restaurant’s phone number, then made the call.