A Game of Cat & Mouse (7 page)

Caleb tensed his abdomen, and Miranda looked up to watch him carefully as she repeated the action. Again, his abdomen tensed, and he squirmed. Caleb was ticklish! Filing that away for later fun, she let her hands drift lower, never taking her eyes from his, and wrapped her hand around his sizeable erection.

Caleb’s hips pumped forward, his

erection gliding through her grasp. His hands tightened on the side of the tub.

Miranda leaned forward and licked his lips.

He captured her tongue and sucked it gently into his mouth. Her core clenched, and just like that, she wanted him inside of her. She couldn’t fathom ever getting enough of this man.

Easing forward, Miranda straddled Caleb, bringing her breast-to-breast with him.

Moaning at the sensation of rubbing her naked breasts over his chest and lifting upward, she kissed Caleb as his hands captured her hips, helping to align their bodies. Miranda eased down, taking him into her body.

“That’s it, sweetheart; you feel so good,”

Caleb said.

Miranda nibbled at his jawline as she impaled herself fully on him. He grasped her hips in a silent plea to move, to ride him. She obliged, lifting and impaling herself in an easy rhythm. His hands drifted from her hips to her breasts, toying with the sensitive nipples. She moaned in frustration as she attempted to gain more leverage to move faster, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t.

“Caleb!”

He must have sensed her inner turmoil or his need to pound into her overwhelmed him because he lifted her, the loss of his cock causing her vaginal muscles to clench in protest.

“Turn around, baby.” His voice was laden with lust, husky. It scraped over her nerve endings, creating small shards of pleasure to tingle through her body.

Miranda turned and allowed Caleb to adjust her over his erection. Taking her hands, he placed them so she could grab the sides of the tub. She leaned forward instinctively as he slammed her down on his cock. She cried out as her channel clenched greedily at his shaft.

Using her legs and grip on the tub, Miranda followed the pace that Caleb set with his hands on her hips. She couldn’t believe how deep he felt. Her pleasure seemed to build quickly, their moans and groans mixing as echoes within the

bathroom. Water sloshed, splashing to the floor as she moved faster and harder.

Caleb trailed his hands over her, one to her breasts to toy with her nipples and the other to pinch and release her clit on the downward slide. She screamed and stilled as her orgasm claimed her, more powerful than any orgasm she’d ever experienced.

Distantly she felt his hands clenching on her hips as he filled her sensitive sheath with his own completion.

Caleb withdrew from her and picked her out of the tub. He dried her carefully before carrying her to the bed. Miranda yawned, and he kissed her nose.

“Sleep, sweetheart. I’m going to check on a couple of things, and then I’ll be back.”

“Okay.” Miranda said, her eyes already drifting closed. She heard as he dressed, and her mind allowed her to undress him as she slipped closer to oblivion.

“Don’t punish Gunner. Please. I need to talk to you about that first.” Caleb looked undecided. He opened his mouth, and she knew he was going to say he had to ensure that Gunner understood what he did was wrong. “Please, Caleb. I know you didn’t trust me enough to tell be about you being the alpha, but something about what happened with Gunner isn’t adding up.”

Caleb looked down at her, shocked, his eyes displaying a hurt she wished she could erase. She wished she could take back what she’d said. However, she couldn’t, and that was exactly how she felt when she found out that he was alpha.

He’d disregarded telling her one of the most important parts of his life, especially when they were destined to be mated.

Caleb’s status as alpha affected her.

Selfish though it may be, it meant that, in reality, he would be focused on far more than just her by being forced to ensure the stability and safety of his pride.

“Is that what you believe? That I didn’t tell you about being pride alpha because I didn’t trust you?”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Miranda’s voice cracked as the tears filled her eyes.

Damn this man! How could someone she loved so much keep something so

important from her? Love? But deep down, she knew it was true. Despite how little time she’d known him she loved him.

Caleb rested his head in his hands, his shoulders slumping in a sign of defeat. “I don’t know.” Caleb stood and walked toward the door, not looking back at Miranda.

Miranda’s heart hurt.

“Caleb?” He turned back quickly, his face shadowed in misery, but a sparkle of hope was there in his beautiful golden brown eyes.

“We can talk about it later?” Caleb nodded and turned to leave. “Caleb! About Gunner—”

“I’m going to address sealing the mine permanently. I will wait to address what Gunner did after you have explained. I trust your judgment, Miranda. Besides, as alpha female, your input will be

important.”

Then he was gone, and Miranda was

reeling with the announcement of her becoming alpha female. Of course, you idiot, you’ll be his mate!

***

Brenna threw her glass at the wall, but its shattering could not suppress the rage that lived deep inside of her. The burn of the liquor still resonated through her, still not enough to subdue her rage. Ever since her mother’s death three years before, Brenna found it difficult to control her ever-present anger. She’d lost her tether to peace. However, she couldn’t forget.

Never would forget.

Sliding down the wall of her small house, she fought the memories that always assailed her when she drank. Yet, she couldn’t help herself. The beatings came back. Her dad, her mother’s mate, getting drunk. Then he would become mean, first beating her mother until she could not defend her daughter.

The beatings were always worse when her mother protected her. Brenna

shuddered. But in the end, she’d showed him, had showed them all, as the blood ran down her throat, that she was one cougar who couldn’t be messed with. That day she’d made herself a promise. No matter how long it took or what she had to do, she would become alpha female of a

pride. Her mother’s discreet acceptance into Pinewood Creek’s pride was a

surprise. Her eventual successful removal of the alpha pair was only the first step.

Now all she needed was the current alpha to claim her.

But that stupid bitch kept getting in the way. She’d saved Gunner when Brenna was supposed to do it and become the hero. Never mind she’d hid the brat in the first place. Picking up the book that held the bylaws of the pride, Brenna James smiled. Maybe, just maybe, she could end this with the rules that bound them all.

***

Caleb stood, his mind working over what Miranda had said before he left her naked and well loved. Had he refrained from telling her he was alpha of his pride because he didn’t trust her? He dismissed that thought almost as quickly as it passed through his brain. He trusted Miranda, almost instinctively. It was if he’d known her his whole life. So why hadn’t he told her?

Honestly, he hadn’t told her about his alpha status because he feared she’d run.

But that wasn’t the whole of it. He’d still didn’t feel like an alpha and was striving to become like his father, who’d embodied the meaning of alpha.

“Alpha?” Zackary’s voice pulled him from his personal struggle. He looked up to find several members of the pride regarding him with curiosity.

“Sorry. I called all of you together to help ensure that this mine is closed for the safety of the other kittens in the pride.

Apparently, the boards we placed were not enough to deter a certain kitten from wandering in. We need to collapse the entrance, but I’m not sure how we should do that.”

“I could rig a small explosive.” Zackary said.

Caleb smacked Zackary behind his

head. “What?”

“How about you don’t advertise you

know how to make an explosive.”

“Hey! I don’t really know how to make an explosive per se, but I was implying we take out the structural integrity of the mineshaft and allow it to enclose itself.

You don’t have to make a bomb.”

Caleb regarded Zackary warily before the wisdom of his words sank in. Of course, it would not be easy, but he could always document it as a safety training exercise and get a few sticks of the explosive they used to destroy buildings.

Zackary’s uncanny intelligence, combined with Caleb’s experience in architecture, this could work.

“Okay, but I’ll order some real explosives made by professionals to reduce the risk of misfire. Map out where you think the explosives should be set and get it back to me in a few days. I have to get back.

Thanks everyone for your input.”

“What are you going to do about

Gunner?” someone yelled out as he turned to walk away.

Caleb turned back and sighed at the inquisitive faces that looked at him expectantly. “Gunner is a child, and despite what we’ve taught them, they will make mistakes. I promised Miranda that I would wait until she talked with me before I spoke to or punished Gunner.”

“What does Miranda have to do with

anything?”

Before Caleb could control himself, he held the man by his neck. The fact that he would dare to discount his mate as his alpha female was more than Caleb’s

frazzled nerves could take.

“You will not speak of your alpha female that way!” he said through clenched teeth, his claws extending and retracting, drawing blood from the male’s neck. A hand on his shoulder pulled his attention from the prey his cougar had cornered.

“Alpha, he didn’t know. Not everyone knows yet.” Zackary’s soft-spoken words filtered through his mind, ringing with clarity. Caleb had yet to claim Miranda, bowing to her wishes of slow and

methodical. He wanted to make her

happy, but his cougar was impatient. It wanted its mate, and it wanted it now.

Caleb was unaware of how close to the edge he’d become since meeting Miranda.

He had been uncharacteristically sharp with his pride. Something his father wouldn’t do. He was not fit to be alpha.

Taking a deep breath, Caleb released the male, only then realizing that the male he was strangling was Winston Dawson, a man who owned one of the stores in town.

He was by far one of the nicest people Caleb had ever had the chance to meet or know.

“I’m sorry, Winston; I don’t know what came over me.” Winston surprised Caleb by laughing.

“I understand. If I’m not mistaken, your father bruised a few people before he claimed your mother.”

Miranda stirred from her nap to awaken in darkness. She looked around and finally found the glow of the alarm clock on the bedside table. 9:30 p.m. Miranda sat up and stretched, her heart nearly pounding out of her chest when she noticed Caleb sitting in the shadows, his eyes following her every movement. “Caleb?”

He moved slowly as he stalked toward the bed, crawling up and taking her lips.

Miranda melted into him, as she always did, her body readying itself for his possession. Caleb moved from her lips to her throat, bathing her pulse point with his tongue.

“I missed you,” he said against the skin of her neck.

“I missed you too, Caleb, but I haven’t been anywhere.”

“I’m going mad, Miranda, knowing that you are right here, but I have not claimed you. My cougar is going crazy.”

Miranda sighed. She knew it would be hard on him, but the truth was she couldn’t see tying her life irrevocably to a man she didn’t love. That wasn’t the case, though, not anymore. Mirada did love him, so what held her back? Was she still smarting from his omission of his alpha status? Was it the fact that the relationship was so new?

She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something inside of her would not allow her to say yes and allow him to claim her.

Miranda lifted her hands and pulled his face to her so that she could peer into his eyes.

“Caleb, I think we need to talk.”

Caleb sighed and rolled to the side, leaving Miranda feeling oddly bereft without him, but this had to be done.

Didn’t it? Miranda sat to face him, pulling the sheet to cover her chest. Miranda smiled and tapped Caleb’s chin to bring his eyes back to her face. No matter what her insides were screaming when it came to committing fully to this man, it made her feel beautiful when he looked at her, his eyes taking her in as if she were the most beautiful creature in the world.

“About Gunner, I know that you want to punish him, and I even understand the why. I would punish my child if he’d put himself into danger like that, and as a teacher, I know that children need

discipline. Without it, they have no roadmap to follow. Now when I found Gunner, he was in the mineshaft covered with a piece of wood inside a small cart.

At the time I wondered how he got into the cart, but he can transform into a cougar, so whatever. But, Caleb, he was fully clothed, and when I led him to the entrance, he couldn’t get out of the entrance without his mother and me removing some of the

boards.”

“What are you saying, Miranda?”

“Well, when I was at Gunner’s house, I scented him in his room, his child smell mixed with the tuna fish sandwich he’d eaten at dinner. Of course I also smelled his mother, Essence, and even more faintly Zackary, but there was someone else’s scent. It never sent red flags up until I found Gunner in the mineshaft and that same scent was detectable around the area.”

“So you don’t think Gunner got into the mineshaft by himself? And, by scenting, you mean you smelled all of this?”

“Yes, Caleb. I’m a mouse. It is my best sense. As for sight, when I am a mouse, it is rather blurry. Thank goodness my eyesight is better in human form.”

“So you believe someone placed Gunner in there?”

“Well, it makes the most sense, given he couldn’t even get out of the small spaces between the boards. Essence didn’t even want to look there because she said none of the children go out there. I mean how often has a child gone out to the