Mated to the Cougar

  Table of Contents

  Mated to the Cougar (Colorado Shifters, #3)

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  FITNESS AT FORTY

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  Strassel, Kristen. Mated to the Cougar (Colorado Shifters - Book Three)

  Photo by Novel Expression Cover design by Sotia Lazu

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  MATED TO THE COUGAR

  Arielle Owens is forty, curvy, and the only werecougar in the pride who has yet to find her mate. She feels more and more distant from her pride, and worst of all—her cougar nature. When Ari's sister buys her a personal training package for her birthday, she'll do just about anything to get out of it, but when she meets her new trainer, suddenly fitness doesn't seem so daunting.

  Ten years ago Dylan Wylde left Woodland Park a weak and afraid werelion. Now he's returned to work as a personal trainer, but he's also got something to prove to his estranged twin brother, Leo, the traitor who mated with a doe. When Dylan's first client at the gym turns out to be a werecougar, he makes it his mission to help her rediscover the untamed shifter inside her, but soon finds himself crossing a line that could have consequences for them both.

  Rules have been broken. Traditions ignored. And when the mate is forever, no challenge can ever be avoided.

  Chapter One

  ALL MY FRIENDS LOVE Girls’ Night out. They look forward to escaping their kids and mates for a couple hours, not to mention the chance to drink too much wine and let loose. But for me it was a reminder I didn’t have any of those things to leave behind.

  As everyone’s families grew, girls’ night happened less and less. And that was fine with me, it saved me from making excuses not to go. After a while it got awkward. I don’t know anything about soccer practice, or potty training, or home equity. And I couldn’t remember the last time anyone asked me if I was seeing someone. Thank Gods. Because then they would try to play matchmaker.

  But tonight, Girls’ Night was unavoidable. My younger sister Katera came down from Denver for the weekend and invited her best friends to come out and celebrate with us. There was no bowing out of this one, I was the guest of honor.

  Tonight was my fortieth birthday.

  Turning forty wasn’t bad at all. I certainly wasn’t old, and I was happy with who I’d become. I might not have the two point five kids or the picket fence, but I love my job as a reporter at the local newspaper, and I have a cute little apartment. Nobody ever guesses that I’m much more than thirty, so I can’t look that bad. All of the cougars in the pride aged well. Say what you want about the extra pounds I’m carrying, but fat trumps wrinkles any day of the week in my book.

  “I’m so excited to try this new club!” Kat was trying way too hard to show me a good time tonight, like she’d found out I was terminal instead of forty. “The owners have a club in London, too. I checked out a few years back when I was over there for work.”

  Anyone would guess Kat and I were sisters, we looked a lot alike with our long blonde hair and hazel eyes. But she was taller than me and her body was absolute perfection. I envied her, but I also knew how hard she worked to look like that. And it paid off. It had taken her around the world, working as a model, her feline grace photographing beautifully. Now that she was in her thirties, she was actually busier than ever, with a never-ending call to play mommy in commercials.

  “Do you think we’ll get in?” I raised an eyebrow as I wiped off some of my blush. Kat’s makeup was perfect, and mine was bordering on streetwalker. Whoops. I hardly ever wore more than the absolute basics unless I was going someplace like this. “I hear that place is super picky. I’m happy going to dinner, you know. We don’t have to get crazy.”

  “Arielle Marie.” Kat came up behind me and pretended to scold me, but I started laughing instead. “It’s your birthday. We are going to dance the night away and have handsome strangers buy us drinks.” Like she needed a handsome stranger. She’d been with her boyfriend, Nolan, for almost a year, and it was a matter of time before he claimed her. Her face lit up. Oh, man. “You never know...”

  “Yeah, right. Are you sure they don’t have an age limit on the upper end to keep old ladies like me out? You should probably call and check.” I winked, my lashes sticky with too much mascara as I backed away from the sink to take a look at myself in the full-length mirror. I wasn’t used to looking at myself dressed up anymore. If I had any say in this, we’d all be in jeans. I’d pulled my designated girls’ night LBD from the back of the closet, and gave it a tug to keep it from crawling up my ass. It was a little tighter than the last time I wore it. Maybe that’s how we’d get in.

  “Stop it. You’re not old.” Kat rolled her eyes. “That’s what I’m bringing you here. To remind you. Otherwise, you’d be at bingo with Janet.” Janet was my next door neighbor who kept insisting she could fix me up with a nice guy from her church. Bingo was also at her church, so that out of the question.

  Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t have any problem with men. At all. I loved men. I had a problem with people trying to set me up with men. I still held firm to the belief that my mate was out there somewhere, and we’d find each other when it was meant to be. Even if our fur was gray when it happened.

  Kat lived three hours away, but she kept in touch with her best friends in the pride, Lindsay and Linnea. They both still lived locally but I didn’t see much of them this time of year. A lot of the pride stayed in the mountains in the winter. My idea of winter activity was watching football in my living room, not skiing. Tonight the girls met us at the Brazilian barbecue restaurant in Colorado Springs.

  “Did you hear about Leo?” Lindsay couldn’t wait to start gossiping as the first glass of wine was poured. “He claimed that little doe girl who works at The Roadhouse. She can’t be more than eighteen!”

  The girls gasped, and Linnea rolled her eyes. Leo was her ex, and she’d never get over him. He was way too young for me to even consider, no matter how gorgeous he was, but that’s not what bothered me. He’d claimed an eighteen-year-old? I was old enough to be her mother. I finished my first glass of wine immediately.

  “The pride is going to challenge him on it,” Linnea added. “There’s no way he can mate with a doe.” She practically spit the last word out.

  Kat’s eyes widened, loving the gossip. “Did he get her pregnant? You know the does are all about The Mate.” Many species of shifters called Woodland Park home so we were familiar with the local deer herd’s traditions. “Is it even possible? What would they have?”

  The table broke out in giggles, trying to come up with a name for the half-deer, half-lion. We settled on Dion or Leer. “Her friend, the one who works with her at The Roadhouse, shifted, too. She’s totally knocked up, and she’s huge already! Who knew Hurricane Lopez from Altered
Haze was a buck?” Lindsay fanned herself before taking another sip.

  The waiter refilled my wine glass, and not a moment too soon. I was doing the math, and I could be grandma.

  “Let’s not waste the night talking about deer and get to the real gossip.” Linnea’s bright pink lips spread into a devious smile. “Leo’s brother is back in town, and word has it he makes Leo look like roadkill.”

  We all gasped, and Linnea nodded, not backing down from this impossible claim. “I didn’t even know he had a brother,” Kat added. I could see the wheels turning in Linnea and Lindsay’s minds. They were already trying to figure out how to sink their claws into this guy.

  “I’d like to make him roar,” Lindsay added, raising an eyebrow. “Either one of them. Or both at once.”

  “Leo never talks about him.” Linnea seemed to have all the dirt. She took a long sip of wine. She made a sound something like a half purr, half growl. “I want to find out why.”

  The night grew fuzzy fast with wine and laughter, and I didn’t care if we ever left the restaurant. But the girls couldn’t wait to get to the club.

  “Hopefully there will be some hot lions here tonight. I see a lot of blondes. I’m taking that as a good sign.” Lindsay surveyed the line that stretched round the club. Half-naked girls in sky-high heels wrapped themselves around their well-dressed mates for warmth. “I’m so sick of the ones on Soldier Mountain.”

  “I told you not to go back there this year,” Linnea scolded. “I stayed in Manitou Springs this winter. It’s so much better.”

  “I didn’t know that,” I said. “You should’ve called me.”

  Linnea shrugged. “You never go out.” And even if we did, she would’ve wanted to drag me some place like this. The line crawled forward, and I tugged my skirt down again. Clusters of people walked away from the crowd, heads down, looking dejected.

  “Because it’s freezing!” I pointed to the cute little wine bar across the street. It had no line, and wine. Lots and lots of wine. “Can’t we go there instead?”

  “We need to dance off dinner.” Kat grabbed my hips and grinded against me. I squealed in buzzed surprise, but she let go of me quickly. “The line’s moving, girls. Ditch the jackets and show this guy what we’ve got.”

  The girls peeled their jackets off, adjusting their tops to show the most cleavage the law allowed. I pressed my puffy coat close to my chest. Kat approached the security guard with all of her model confidence and a bright smile. She batted her eyelashes, looking back and forth between him and our group. Lindsay and Linnea smiled and purred. While we waited for him to decide our fate, I thought about doing an undercover investigation about how these clubs actually worked for the paper. I mean, how could they decide who came in and who didn’t if it was a public club? This couldn’t be legal.

  The guard examined all of us carefully. I swear his gaze lingered on me a little too long. I don’t know how Kat dealt with this sort of judgment every day. He turned back to Kat and shook his head. Her mouth fell open in shock and she whispered something in his ear, but he shrugged and shook his head again.

  “What a fucking bastard!” Linnea hissed at the guard before we did the walk of shame. “Who the hell does he think he is?”

  “I’m so embarrassed,” Lindsay added as we claimed a round table at the wine bar I wanted to go to in the first place. They were happy to have us here. “I can’t believe all these people know we didn’t get in.”

  I couldn’t tell them I was thrilled. A bottle of zin and a cheese platter was on its way, and we were surrounded by the rest of the unwashed masses who couldn’t get into the club. I couldn’t ask for better company. Happy birthday to me.

  Chapter Two

  “DON’T GET MAD AT ME.” Kat bit her lip after we finished brunch. She must’ve been up way longer than I was. Sunday was my day to sleep in, especially now that football season was over. Brunch was egg white omelets with turkey bacon and freshly squeezed orange juice. None of these things occurred naturally in my apartment, so Kat would’ve had to smuggle the ingredients in while I slept.

  “Why? That was delicious.” I knew she wasn’t talking about the food, but I also knew my sister. She did the same thing every time, made me drag whatever she didn’t want to tell me out of her, piece by torturous piece.

  I was pretty sure she was going to tell me I was the reason we didn’t get into the club last night. She didn’t have to say it, I already knew. The look on that guard’s face said everything for her.

  “It’s your birthday gift.” Kat reached in her bag and slid an envelope across the kitchen table. “I don’t know if you’re going to like it, but I think if you give it a chance, you will.”

  I think she actually held her breath as I slid my finger under the lip of the envelope and pulled out the gift certificate to Reinvention Personal Training. It was an open-ended gift certificate for their platinum level services.

  “Oh.” Now I understood. “Kat, it’s too much.” This had to cost a fortune. I’d heard things about celebrity trainers and nutritionists at that place. And the likelihood of me getting her money’s worth out of this program was slim to none unless they had a celebrity sommelier on staff.

  “I’m afraid it’s not enough.” The pathetic look on Kat’s face from last night when the bouncer told us no was back, and my blood may have actually started to boil. “Ari, I’m worried about you. You never go out with your friends anymore, you slept past noon today, and you’re drinking a ton.” I opened my mouth to protest but she motioned to the mountain of empty wine bottles in the corner of the kitchen. Oh so what, recycling got picked up on Mondays. “And your cabinets are full of junk. You have ding dongs in there! Adults don’t eat that crap.”

  “I do.” Ding dongs are delicious. Kat’s argument was irrelevant.

  “They could survive a nuclear winter.” Kat sighed, gearing up for phase two of her campaign. “Ari, I’m worried about you. I watched mom dig herself into the same hole.” I couldn’t look her anymore. Our mother died five years ago, way too young. She’d suffered from depression but was too ashamed to get the help she needed. And now she was gone. “I won’t let you do the same thing.”

  “I’m not depressed,” I insisted. “I don’t like any of these things.” I picked up the certificate and looked at it again.

  “You can’t say that. You don’t know anything about Reinvention.” Kat was right, and I hated it. “I picked that place specifically because it’s not a regular gym. They work with shifters and they’ll cater a program so it’s something that you do like and can live with. I want to see you get excited about stuff again.”

  “I will be.” I forced a smile. “Six months until Broncos training camp opens.”

  “Something other than football.” Kat sighed. “Please, promise me you’ll at least give this a try.”

  “Can’t get your money back, can you?”

  She shook her head. “Nonrefundable and nontransferable.” She picked up the plates and brought them to the sink. “You better get your ass in there.”

  KAT LEFT FOR DENVER shortly after brunch. She had a photoshoot in the morning, and I knew she was anxious to see Nolan. Sundays without football were so boring, especially this time of year. Today it was too cold to go outside and do anything. I renewed my Netflix membership and curled up on the couch.

  The certificate still sat on the table. I picked it up and brought it back to the couch with me, staring it down like it might attack.

  I could lie to myself and say I had everything I wanted, but everyone saw right through it. The divide started for me when all my friends found their mate and I didn’t. We didn’t have anything in common anymore. It was no one’s fault and it wasn’t something that had happened overnight. It was more like a slow progression of events that got me to this place. None of them had seemed all that alarming. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I was depressed, but would I say that I had some definite areas of opportunity? Absolutely. I didn’t think this certificate w
as the answer to all my problems, but it was worth a try.

  But I was familiar with my own work. At forty, I had a track record. I had to figure out a way I wouldn’t go once and never go back. I had to hold myself accountable. For no other reason than I couldn’t waste Kat’s money like that. Before I had a chance to stop myself, I opened up the shared document we used at work to track our current projects and typed Ari does weekly segment on Fitness at Forty.

  Now everyone with a subscription to The Park View would expect results. Thank Gods no one actually read the paper.

  “THIS IS AN AMAZING idea, Ari!” Belinda, my editor-in-chief didn’t even let me finish making my coffee before she rushed over to me. “This is going to be great for the shifter community, a completely different perspective. I’ve been thinking this ever since I saw that you added it to the doc. What if—“

  And here’s the part where I lost control.

  “—we did it as a video segment, for the website? Those get the most interaction. And we’d really be able to see you in action and gauge your progress.”

  “That sounds like an absolute nightmare.” I reached for a piece of banana bread someone had brought into the break room, and Belinda slid the plate out of reach. “Hey! I haven’t had breakfast yet.” Come on. It had bananas in it.

  “Nope, the program starts immediately. You can have the Greek yogurt I brought for lunch.” Belinda was already taking it out of the fridge. “Mind, body, and spirit. I’m going to get the Go Pro and record you making the appointment.”

  “I know you’re my boss and everything, but I think I hate you.” Thank Gods we’d worked together since college and I could actually say that to her without getting fired. I picked up the yogurt and choked on the first bite. “This tastes like someone already threw it up!”

  “Doesn’t it? But it’s full of protein. Put some berries in it, it will cut that taste.” Belinda slid another container at me. “You hate me now, but wait until you’re super hot. Then you’ll be thanking me.”