Page 10 of Wrong Number, Right Cougar

Oh, now I put two and two together. My uncle’s handyman was the one Noah thought could sell the place for me. He’d said on the phone that the place wasn’t for sale. Maybe he had a financial stake in it or he’d expected to. Damn, I was geared up for a long and expensive legal battle.

“You’re the new owner.”

I nodded.

“Don’t want you to sell. I think with a few repairs, the lodge can be brought back to its former grandeur.”

Hmmm, must have been a while ago, as it didn’t have much of that grandeur.

“I’m sorry if I didn’t explain myself on the phone.” I needed Wilder on my side, preferably on top of me or underneath with him lodged inside me. Whew, that was a lot. I brushed sweat from my brow and followed him to the front door of one cabin

“You explained yourself plenty.” Wilder put his hands on his hips as he looked upward. I followed his gaze to a bird’s nest in the eaves. “But after seeing the place, I’m hoping you’ve changed your mind about selling.”

“What does it need?”

I needed a cold shower and a change of clothes, but I was hoping Wilder wouldn’t notice my discomfort.

Being beside him was going to be problematic. How could I explain my red cheeks and constant sweating?

6

WILDER

Scenting my mate and leaving was one of the hardest things I’d ever had to do. If there had been any other choice, I’d have made it. There wasn’t.

Not only was the situation complicated as fuck, there was no denying that my mate was human. Scents didn’t lie. And being human meant leaving. Showing up as my cougar or a naked man was probably a good way to ruin everything. Either he’d think I was going to kill him with my claws or with an ax. Neither was a good first impression.

Instead, I raced home, threw on some clothes, and hiked back, hating every single second I was gone. My cougar was pushing at me hard. Unlike last time, I knew what to expect, and I was able to contain him. I didn’t need to go through round two of getting my human on so I could finally meet my mate.

When we finally came face to face, all I wanted to do was go in for a kiss, to inhale his scent directly from the source, rub myself all over his body, strip him bare, mark him, and make him mine. I did none of those things.

Instead—what did I do? I was a grumpy asshole. I wasn’t even sure why. He was nice enough to me and still I snapped at him.

I was lucky that he hadn’t kicked me out. I’d have deserved it if he had. He knew who I was, which was good… I guess… but also, knowing that made the conversation we had on the phone even weirder, because why didn’t he ask for me by name? That would’ve made the past few days a whole lot easier.

I needed to figure out a way to have him keep the place—now more than ever—because it wasn’t just about maintaining what was left of Cougar Lake. It was so much more than that. It was keeping my mate here until… until I wasn’t sure what. The whole being human thing added so many levels of complication.

There was no human-shifter handbook for me to reference, and the last thing I needed to do was scare him away so that he drove gods knew where and never came back. Which meant he couldn’t see my cougar until he was ready, I couldn’t be the naked serial killer of Cougar Lake, and I had to stop being a grumpy-ass loser face. All of that was a thousand times easier said than done.

Somehow, I found myself at Old Man Blaze’s table with my mate sitting across from me, both of us with crappy cups of coffee in our hands and legal pads in front of us, making a list. A list of all the things that needed to be done around here. It was far from exhaustive and already filled an entire column.

The resort hadn’t been fancy or well kept, not in the time I’d been around. It wasn’t Alexei’s priority. He was more about enjoying time with the few people who still came here. He’d wanted Cougar Lake to be what it once was, and that was how he did his part.

Me? I did it by showing people around and helping them navigate the wilderness. I started it for fun, but over the years, I’d managed to make some decent money doing it. For shifters, my rate was nominal. They didn’t really need me. But humans? I swore they sometimes had a death wish, making every survival mistake possible. For them, I charged a ton. It was fair given I was the only thing keeping them alive half the time.

I read through the list again. Part of me wanted it to be pages and pages long so that he’d have to stay here while I fixed everything—stay here while I slowly drew it out and kept him here longer and longer, with the hopes that one day he would just figure it all out and choose me as his one and only for always and forever.

That one day preferably being today.

But there was a real risk in that strategy. If the list got too long, he might get fed up and just say, “Nah, it’s not worth it. Time to sell.” The place didn’t have any liens on it, from what he said. He’d inherited it free and clear. Selling it would be easy, and the condo rumor could easily become reality.

I had known that Alexei had a weird relationship with his family, but that weirdness taking the form of his nephew not even knowing him wasn’t something I’d expected. There was a lot that went along with that, but one thing stood out: Thorn wouldn’t have the sentimental connections to this place. He wouldn’t look at the mismatched cups and know that his uncle’s favorite thing to do had been to go to yard sales and get random mugs and cups for the resort. He’d thought it was clever and cute, where so many people would think that it was cheap-looking.

I was with Alexei on that one. I enjoyed not knowing which cup I was going to get next. There were lots of little things like that around here that mattered on some small level to me and probably didn’t even register with Thorn. To him, this place was probably filled with junk.

“And you know how to do all of this?” It wasn’t the first time he asked me, and I didn’t know if I should be insulted or just be glad he was talking to me.

His voice was one that was now embedded in my brain. It was rich and sexy, but also had a playful hint—even though I didn’t get the impression that part was intentional at all. The guy could read me the cereal box and I’d ask for more.

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