Savage Yearning: Fierce Mates: Cougar Pride, #1

1

The bar top was warm beneath Dristan’s forearms as he hunched over it, trying to ignore the humans around them. He didn’t know why he’d let his brother talk him into going out—he not only hated going out in the snow, but lately he hadn’t felt very social. If he wanted to drink with his brother, they didn’t have to go any farther than the fridge in their apartment. But Frasier had some messed-up notion that Dristan needed to get off his sad stick and go someplace fun.

Thus, here they were at Hart’s. It used to be an old farmhouse, but the lower level had been opened up into a large room, booths added along the sides, pool tables in the center. There was an arcade upstairs, along with a few more pool tables, but tonight Dristan didn’t want to stray too far from the bar.

He felt like he was living in one of those country songs his buddy Rafe liked to listen to so much. Cold Montana winter, brooding man at a bar, trying to forget the girl who got away.

You ever feel like you’re living in a song, Fraze? he asked his brother.

Only when I’m feeling melodramatic and self-pitying and generally no fun to be around. Frasier’s smile was swallowed up by his bushy beard, but his dark gray eyes danced.

Asshole.

"I’m rubber, you’re glue, Frasier quoted in a sing-song voice. Whatever you say bounces off me and goes back to you. Go get laid or something. You haven’t been the same since—"

I know. Since he and Laura had enjoyed a beautiful, perfect night in each other’s arms…and then she’d pretended it had never happened. For almost a year. It hadn’t been fun watching her go on with her life as if Dristan didn’t exist. He took a drink from his pint glass. Why do you always think sex is the answer to life’s problems?

If you don’t start having fun on your own, I’m going to have to take drastic measures, Frasier said. There’s a blonde in the corner, sexy red dress. Or no, that cute little brunette in the silver halter top. She can’t take her eyes off you.

Dristan didn’t even bother looking in either woman’s direction. If she’s in a halter top, she’s a damn fool. It’s too cold for that kind of nonsense.

I’m no fool, a familiar voice said from behind him.

Shit. Frasier had played him. Laura?

She shimmied around him and propped herself on the stool between him and Frasier. Her brown hair shone in a straight fall down her back, and her green eyes appraised him coolly. Rafe, Mateo, and Justine are on their way. What game are we playing tonight? Take a drink every time a woman looks at Dristan?

Was she teasing him on purpose? It was the same game they’d played the last time all of them had come to Hart’s—the same night that he and Laura had spent together afterward. He didn’t need this woman messing with his head. Couldn’t he get a drink in peace? He glared over her head at Frasier.

I’m playing pool, Dristan said. He didn’t ask either of them to join him.

Laura shrugged, and the silver bit of nothing she wore as a top moved with her shoulders, exposing a sliver of tan midriff.

Fuuuuuuck. He hated what she did to him. After slamming back the rest of his beer, he got up and walked to a free pool table and started lining up the balls.

Had Frasier invited everyone without telling Dristan? Dristan would make him pay, somehow. He lifted the triangle and lined up the cue ball for his first shot. He’d hide Frasier’s coffee grounds tonight, so when Frasier woke up in the morning, hungover and under-caffeinated, he’d have to face the cold, snowy morning in order to get his fix. Or maybe he’d find some dog shit and spread it under the floor mats of Frasier’s precious Chevy. Or maybe—

You look like you want to murder those pool balls, a feminine voice said in front of him.

He glanced up, taking in the vision of beauty crammed into a too-small red dress. The blonde that Frasier had been talking about.

They cheat on you or something? Playing around with others when you’re not here?

He grinned despite himself. Nope. They just ignore me.

She got between him and the pool table, crowding into his personal space. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, just once, to try to forget Laura. He turned to the side, so Laura wouldn’t be in his line of sight.

I’d never ignore you, the blonde said.

Wanna play? he asked.

Do I ever. She got a cue and chalked it, then leaned over the table, lining up her shot. Or rather, lining up her ass and cleavage so they were on display. This woman was less interested in playing pool and more interested in playing Dristan.

It didn’t feel quite right, but maybe he was tired of letting that matter. He hadn’t been with a woman in almost a year.

Despite the sexy show she was putting on, she made a good shot and Dristan nodded, impressed. Nice one…sorry, I didn’t catch your name?

Yvonne.

I’m Dristan. He held out his hand, which she shook. There was no spark, no attraction between them. From the corner of his eye, he could see Laura, sitting next to his brother.

This isn’t going to work, is it? Yvonne said, pouting.

He shrugged. Let’s just play. You never know.

True.

He liked her—they were both being adults about this. What do you do? Sorry, boring question, but we might as well talk.

No problem. I’m a psychologist.

That sounds very smart, he said. And probably made good money. He needed a woman from humbler beginnings, someone who’d be happy with little.

I like to help people, and there are a lot of people who need help, especially now.

Why’s that?

Have you been living under a rock?

No? he said, making it a question.

It’s all over the news, so I’m not breaking any client privileges by telling you that a whole bunch of people have been disappearing. They come back with gaps in their memory.

A flash of silver halter top caught his eye, but he forced his attention back to Yvonne. That’s really strange.

Right? She nodded excitedly. My sister-in-law thinks there’s aliens abducting people, then returning them to their homes.

Dristan laughed.

Yvonne glared. You got any better ideas?

Nope. But aliens, really?

She seemed to be fighting a smile. I know, I know. It does sound far-fetched.

Dristan squeezed her shoulder as he rounded the table. Who was he to laugh at her for considering the possibility of alien abductions? He was, after all, a shapeshifter. I guess you never know.

He lined up his next shot and took it.

Good shot, she said, watching various balls fall into pockets. Show me how to do that?

Sure. He got up behind her, smelled the sweet scent of her body lotion. She turned her head, and her cheek rubbed against his. He brought his arms around her, showing her how he held the cue. Her body was warm and soft.

He felt the faint stirrings of arousal, his cock growing harder.

Maybe they could make this work for tonight, anyway. Two lonely people taking comfort in each other.

2

Laura pasted on a smile and clinked glasses with Frasier. Fraze, I am so glad you suggested this. I was going stir-crazy back at the lodge.

Rapunzel, trapped in her tower? Fraze asked, using the nickname he’d made for her ever since high school, when her dark hair had been down to her waist. Fraze had insisted that Rapunzel didn’t need to have blond hair.

Something like that. She forced her gaze away from Dristan and the bimbo. No, not a bimbo, she mentally corrected herself. A sexually attractive woman who was searching for an evening of fun. It wasn’t the woman’s fault she’d chosen the completely wrong guy to go after.

It was Laura’s fault, for not claiming him like she should have.

Fraze’s gray eyes were locked on hers. Why don’t you go for him?

Her family would go apeshit, that was why. Not only her parents, but the alpha and her mate, who also happened to be her parents’ best friends. I can’t talk to you about this—you’re his brother.

But I’m also your friend, Rapunzel.

She clinked her pint glass to his again and smiled sadly. That you are, my prince. That you are. But this—I’m sorry. I just can’t talk to you about it.

All right, then. Friend talk. Tell me how the Guardian training is going.

Laura lifted the edge of her top, showing him a bruise that spread along her ribs. Pretty harsh, actually. I think Marlana’s asking the others to go harder on me on purpose.

She doesn’t really want you to be a Guardian, do you think? Fraze asked.

Ah, ah, Laura said. Far be it for us mere mortals to question our alpha’s motivations.

Either she’s pushing you because she wants you to give up, or she’s pushing you because she wants you to be the best, Fraze said, nudging his empty pint glass forward on the bar and waving at the bartender for another beer.

If it’s the former, she really doesn’t know me that well, Laura muttered.

Her phone chimed with a text. Rats, she said. Mateo and Justine can’t make it. One of their guests disappeared and everyone’s out searching. Rafe’ll be here soon, though.

When she glanced up from her phone, she caught sight of Dristan and Red Dress standing really close against the pool table. Damn, this hurt. She hadn’t expected it to hurt so much, but the lion inside her was practically screaming at her to go after Dristan and drag him away from the clutches of Red Dress.

Rafe’s not helping with the search? Fraze asked.

She tapped the question into her phone, and Justine responded immediately. He’s been searching for hours with Corona Mountains Rescue. They’re kicking him off the team to rest.

She couldn’t help but feel a little envious of Rafe. He’d wanted a change in the direction of his career, and he’d taken it, and the pride barely blinked.

But when Laura put her foot down and said she refused to be an Exchange to be sent somewhere else and probably married off, their alpha, Marlana Corona, had thrown a big freaking fit and told Laura that under no circumstances would Laura be flouting Marlana’s authority. In a rare act of graciousness, Marlana had added that Laura could either become an Exchange, or she could become a Guardian.

Laura had hoped she could go to her mother, but no luck there. Laura’s mom had said in no uncertain terms that she would not intervene or even try to talk to Marlana on Laura’s behalf. It had stung, that was for sure, and in the end, Laura had still needed to make a choice.

So Laura had chosen to become a Guardian. It meant hours spent in brutal training, which she had to fit around her hours working at the lodge in