Colin: McCullough's Jamboree - Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (McCullough's Jamboree Book 1) (8 page)

“I have the house nearly finished. Thanks so much for looking in on it while I was gone. The furniture in the bedrooms looks good.” She walked a little more, then stopped. Lauren knew she was pushing herself, but she needed to get back to her job. Someplace other than here. As she sat down on the log next to her, Pete came to lay at her feet. “What’s up, big guy? Dad pissy with you again? I told you to back off with the smart mouth shit. He’s not gonna take it like he does with me.”

Running her hand over his head, she felt him purr. His body leaned heavily into hers, and she had to push him back or be knocked off the log. Before she could tell him to settle down, she was on her back and he was over her. Only it wasn’t Pete, but Colin. The change to human startled a scream from her.

“I won’t hurt you.” She told him to get off her. “No. I don’t think so. You see, if I get up, I’m going to be exposed to you. Like I’m naked exposed.”

Her body chilled, then warmed. As he moved, his hardness adjusting to fit over hers better, she felt his cock as it touched the top of her naked thigh. Her shorts, not at all modest anyway, were riding up as he moved again.

“Stop moving, damn it.” He chuckled at her as he leaned into her throat. Jerking his head up off her, she lifted her head to butt him with it when he moved back, bringing his groin deeper into her pussy. “Let me up, at least, while you find your clothing and get dressed.”

“I need to talk to you.” She struggled to get out from under him when he stilled her with his hand to her hip. “You keep moving like that and I’m going to come all over you. And that would be such a shame, since I’d like nothing more than to be buried deep inside of you right now.”

“We’re not having sex.” Her body screamed at her that she was so fucking wrong. He must have thought so too, because he rocked into her again. “Don’t do that, Colin. I don’t even like you.”

“I know, and that’s my fault too.” He just lay there, his body pinning hers down to the ground, while he looked at her. “I want to talk to you anyway. If I shift and go meet you at your home, will you allow me to talk to you?”

“I don’t have anything to say to you.” He didn’t move. “Why do you even care? It’s not like we have mated or anything. Your kind can go for years knowing their mate and not going insane when you can’t have her. Not like wolves.”

“You know a great deal about us. I’m assuming that’s because of who your stepparents are.” She told him they were her parents. “I talked to Peter and Mary this morning. They told me who you were. And why you’re human. I was surprised about that. I just assumed they were humans too. I’m glad that they took you in.”

Lauren told him to get off her. He moved then, his back to her, while she tried to regain control of her emotions. They’d been a little haywire lately, and she thought it was all because of this man.

“You had no right to go to them demanding answers.” He told her that he’d not demanded anything. But that he’d been polite. “You don’t know how to be polite. You order people around to your way of thinking, and damn them if they don’t do as the high and mighty McCullough says. What are you doing here anyway?”

“I came to talk to you. Mostly to beg you to forgive me.” She didn’t say anything. There was nothing to forgive, really. “I’m going to shift and go to get dressed. Can I go to your house?”

“I have to finish this walk.” He said he’d walk with her. “No. You won’t. I want you to leave me alone. I have to get my body back in shape before they’ll let me rejoin the service. I have nothing here to hold me, and I’m going back.”

Colin turned and looked at her, then let his cat take him. She sat there for several minutes longer thinking about what the doctor had really told her yesterday, and not what she’d told her parents. She didn’t want to think about what had been done to her, nor what was still happening to her poor beaten body.

“You won’t be able to go back on active duty, at least not what you’ve been doing up until this happened, Lauren. You have three pieces of metal in you that could move and kill you at any moment. Recruiting will be better suited to you now if you want to stay in for your retirement, but knowing how badly you were hurt and what you did, I’m sure there can be special jobs someone like you can do now.” She asked him what kind of special job he was talking about. “No more people firing at you. One where you don’t have to wear a great deal of weight to move around. Your vision is off too. You won’t be as expert at firing a weapon as you had been. And then there is the metal I was talking about. The one in your back is close to your spine. A wrong move and you’ll be in a wheel chair with someone cleaning your feeding tube for the rest of your life. And the one in your leg could shift as well and you’d lose your leg. I’m not sure why the doctors didn’t take it out in the first place, but I intend to find out.”

Lauren had a feeling that whatever the reason had been for it, it wasn’t really going to help her all that much. She was grounded. And she was pretty sure that she wasn’t going to last long in the civilian world. Getting up, she started out on her walk again, trying not to think about how much pain she was in.

Her legs had cramped up again, so she had to limp for a while before she could get moving. Her left leg was stiff most of the time, and failed to do what she wanted it to do most of the other times. Her fingers were too sore some mornings to even zip up her pants, and tying her boots was too much effort as well.

By the time she got back to her house, not only was Colin there and dressed, but two of the men she had walking the perimeter for her were on the porch talking to him.

“Major.” Nodding at the man to her right, she stared at Colin while he explained what they’d found. “The northern part of the property had a break in the fence. We’re seeing to that now. And those people you had us looking into, they’re still where you said they’d be. Not much of a mover, are they?”

“No. So long as they can order what they want, they won’t do anything else. They have two days left to get out. If they’re there after that, I want you to get them out any way you see fit.” The second man laughed a little and she turned to him. “You think something is funny?”

“No ma’am. Yes ma’am. What I mean is, those people, I was thinking that they’re the most complaining people I ever saw. Even when they got it in the lap of luxury, like my grand mammie used to say, they still find fault with their arrangements.” She told them again what she wanted, then looked back at Colin, asking why he was allowed to be there. “He told us he was your mate.”

The couple that were staying at the other end of her property needed to be moved soon. She’d found them there almost as soon as she’d gotten back to this house. And twice now she’d talked to them, and both times they’d had some reason why they weren’t able to move on. Squatters were hard to evict once they set up a base point. And from what she could tell, they’d been there for some time.

“He thinks he is, but I’m not mate to anyone.”

Neither man said anything as she told them she had it now. Moving by the three of them, she entered her home just as one of the workers came out of the dining room. He looked…well, guilty came to mind. Before she could find out what he’d been up to, Colin came in the house behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Heat didn’t just touch her but seemed to consume her. The man, the worker, stared at her and Colin like he was going to have a quiz later and they were his cheat sheets. As Colin’s hand moved up her waist to just under her breast, Lauren felt her heart rate triple. The moan that escaped her lips hummed out what she was feeling. Then the man in front of her laughed.

“Pretty good setup you got here, Lauren.” Her body went from heated too cold in just that second. Grabbing Colin’s hand, she shoved him back and to the floor even as the man reached into his jacket. Her own gun was out and at his head before he cleared whatever he’d been reaching for. “I wasn’t gonna hurt you. I was sent here by Phillips. I was giving you my orders, ma’am.”

She reached into his pocket where his hand was still resting and felt the gun even before he moved. He jerked his weapon out and was pointing it at her even as she kicked out. Pulling the trigger on her own weapon as they both moved only resulted in her wall being shot to fuck and the guy falling backward from the impact of her kick. His weapon went flying across the room just out of his reach as she tried to move without screaming in pain. Just as she was ready to fire again, Colin, as the big cat, was on the intruder’s chest with his mouth over his throat. Lauren slid to the floor, her knees suddenly too weak to hold her up.

“Ma’am?” The voice behind her had her turning and firing again. The curse words that came from the other room might have been funny had she not still been running on pure terror and pain. The man had been there to kill her was all her mind could focus on, beyond how badly she was hurt again. “It’s Roger, ma’am. The man who you just saw on the porch. I’m a friend of Colin’s. A cat too.”

“What the fuck do you want? Christ. Do you want to borrow a cup of sugar or some shit? Just so you know, I’m in no mood to be social.” She thought she heard him say no shit, but he spoke again before she could ask him.

“Colin wants me to tell you what he’s saying so you can tell the fool under him. Not his words, mind you, but I can’t…you’re a ma’am even if you scare the crap nuggets out of me.” She looked back at Colin, who was still holding down the piece of shit who’d started this all. “I’m gonna come on in there. For the love of James and Sandra, please don’t be shooting me dead.”

The younger of the two men came into the room with his hands way up over his head. Putting her gun in her lap but not letting it go just yet, she asked him who James and Sandra were.

“My son and daughter. I just don’t want to leave them without a daddy too.” He moved completely into the room then, and she could see that the man was really afraid. Not that she blamed him. It had been pretty intense for those few seconds. “You gonna shoot me?”

“Not if you don’t make me.” She nodded for him to put his hands down. “Tell me what he’s saying and we’ll go from there. Just don’t…please don’t make any kind of sudden moves. I’m running on low fuel for stupidity right now.”

“Colin said thanks first of all. For not killing me when you had the chance. I’m real grateful for you not killing me too. Like I said, I got me a couple of kids at home, and they already lost their momma.” Lauren smiled but said nothing. “This man…Colin wants to know if he needs to have his throat ripped out. Colin said to tell you he’d do it, no problem. I’m pretty sure he’d do it too. Never seen him so pissed before.”

The low growl from Colin had her looking at him again. Roger told her that he didn’t want him to elaborate, just tell her what he said. Again, she had the urge to laugh but only nodded.

“His brothers are on their way. He said to tell you not to kill any of them either. His mom and dad are coming in the car, but they’ll be people, human looking I guess. They were headed out anyway and are on their way here to have a look around.” She asked him what they were looking for. “He wants to make sure there ain’t no more idiots around.”

She took her cell phone out of her pocket and called Phillips. He answered the phone laughing, and she cut him off. “There is a man in my dining room with Colin at his throat that claimed that you sent him.”

“I’m assuming that you don’t believe him. And by at his throat, I can also surmise that Colin isn’t giving him a hug.” She told him he was right on both accounts. “Tell me what he looks like. And no, I didn’t send anyone to you. When I get there, and I’m on my way, we’ll work out a system that you won’t have to guess the next time.”

“Big, stupid looking brut. Not very quick on his feet by the way, and he knew my name.” Roger spoke then. “And apparently he’s a bear shifter. Colin can…I guess taste him.”

“Christ. Colin will be able to tell if he’s lying then. Ask him if his name is Penick. Then check him for a tat on his upper arm. It says mother, but spelled with an
a
instead of an
o
.”

She moved, her body hurting more from the two falls she’d had today than anything she’d felt in a few days. Groaning as she reached for the knife in her shoe, she cut away the sleeve of Penick’s shirt and sat back down. The pain wasn’t just hurting her now, but she was afraid she was going to be sick with it. She asked the man if his name was Penick and Roger confirmed it.

“The tat is there. Who the hell…? Never mind. Colin said that he’s him too, that he’s not lying to me.” Leaning against the wall behind her, she nearly closed her eyes when Philips started cursing. She smiled again…twice in one day she’d made a man curse like she did. “Tony, I’m fading fast here. It’s been a very long morning and I’m hurting like a motherfucker. Who is he, and should I just let Colin kill him? It would make me feel better if I could and put his head on a pike out front for other would be assassins to see when they think about coming here.”

“I have a transport four minutes out. If you have to kill him then so be it, but I’d prefer that you waited.” Lauren told Colin and Roger laughed.

“He said to tell you that he’s getting a cramp in his mouth, so if the man dies because of a muscle spasm, it’s good to know he’s not going to go to prison for it.” Lauren nodded, too sick now with whatever was going on in her body to care at the moment. “Ma’am, Colin wants to know if you’re going to be all right.”

“No. I’m sick.” She leaned over then, her belly finally catching up to whatever was wrong. And as she started to throw up again, she heard doors opening and closing and almost hoped they were there to kill her. When she was lifted up, Lauren looked into the face of Colin and wondered briefly where Penick was.

“Hawkins has him. Let it go, Lauren. Just let the pain take you away.” Sounded like a good idea, and she let it swallow her up.

~~~

Tony watched the team as they cleaned up the mess. One of them was bagging up her vomit, and another one was watching the entire procedure with his gun pointed at the man. It was tense there for a little while. Colin’s family had gathered their wagons around Lauren, and it had taken him showing up before anyone could get into the house without bloodshed. Tony was kind of glad for it really. If anyone needed watching over it would be Lauren.