Page 35 of A Cougar's Kiss
“What if that works to our advantage?” he asked, his voice even as he still hadn’t quite convinced himself that this was a good idea. “If Rome’s plan is to work according to this treaty, then we can still bring the shifters back above ground. We can still fill the safe houses and aid in their transition back into the new world. That was always our goal anyway.”
“What about the no tolerance policy?” Gold asked. “That wasn’t our plan either. There was to be no negotiating with anyone when a shifter was wrongly hurt or killed. We were going to strike back like the predators we were born to be.”
“That component was never going to work,” Keller said. After speaking with the cop last night, he realized what would eventually happen. “If we kill everyone that we think is messing with a shifter, humans will stay on the offensive. We’ll all be living in a sort of limbo waiting for the next person to throw the first punch.” That painful discovery had also come in the middle of the night.
“We were going to revise that anyway,” Decan said. “We’re not killers, unless provoked. Our predatory nature doesn’t have to be violent. But that doesn’t mean we have to bow down and take their shit either. We just needed to come up with a better way of dealing with the specifics.”
“Like Rome did,” Keller said. The words were rough on his throat and he dropped his head back to groan after he’d said them.
“Fuck! She got to you didn’t she? What? Did she do all the things you like in bed to get you to agree with her and her precious uncle?” Gold’s question was barely out when Keller leapt across the room to wrap his hands around the jaguar’s throat.
“Hey, hold up! Back off, Kel!” Decan yelled as he struggled to break the two of them up. “Get a grip!”
Keller took a couple steps back after Decan manage to push them apart. Gold seethed, his sharp teeth pressing into his lips.
“Yeah, she got to you!” he spat.
“Don’t push the boundaries, Gold,” Decan warned. “You have no idea what beast you’re poking.”
“Keller’s no beast. He’s a cougar that’s always being led by his dick!” Gold continued.
Decan shook his and Keller sighed because he knew what the FL was about to say. “No, take a deep inhale, Gold. He’s now a cougar being led by thecompanheiro calor.”
Keller turned away from them. He yanked the door open and stalked out, hating like hell that Decan had picked up on what he’d only realized this morning as he’d watched Shya sleep.
He’d never wanted one, never needed to be with a person forever again, because forever was a very long time and inevitably, shit happened, and that time ended. It usually ended in excruciatingly painful ways that Keller hadn’t wanted to repeat. But telling himself that it wasn’t part of the plan or wishing he’d made smarter decisions wasn’t going to change the simple fact that somewhere along the way during his three month stay in Oasis and in these last few days with Shya in his arms, they’d mated.
Thecalorwas all throughout the room, surrounding them even though they’d both sought distance last night. It covered them now and there was no running from it, no escaping its heated hold. The second he stepped into the elevator he roared loud and long with that thought, hating it and yet welcoming it at the same time.
