By the time they got back to Koyama', it was late. Kennedy and Cole begged off of joining the family for dinner and Cole led her into the barn. Dandy nickered softly in greeting.
Cole rubbed his face. “I should have kept him away from you, Dandy, but I’m going to make up for it. This is Kennedy. She’s the most important thing in the world to me. She knows how to ride and more importantly, how to treat a good horse.”
As if understanding what Cole was saying, the big grey gelding turned his attention to her. Kennedy opened the stall door and went inside. Dandy poked at her with his nose and Kennedy stroked his sleek neck.
“We’re going to be best friends, you and I.” Kennedy ran her experienced hands all over the grey’s body, noting the places he seemed to enjoy being stroked or scratched. “With this hind end, I’ll bet you have all kinds of power and grace. We’re going to have fun.” She turned back to Cole. “I know he’s been a ranch horse, but with the way he’s put together, I’ll bet he’d make a dynamite event horse.”
Cole shook his head. “You take pleasure in the funniest things.”
“Yes, including my choice of mate.” Cole chuckled. “So, how much down time is involved in this transition thing?” she asked.
“A couple of days to a week at the most. I’d prefer to do it sooner, rather than later, but then we both know I’m a selfish bastard.”
She smiled. “You are a lot of things, but selfish and bastard are not among them.”
They wrapped their arms around each other and headed back to the guesthouse.
“I understand you have the coolest tiny house out on the parcel that’s yours.”
He nodded. “I thought that if you wanted, we could put up a bigger, better barn out there, build a dressage arena, and set up a cross country course for you. If Dandy doesn’t work out for eventing, we can buy you a new event horse and you can use Dandy for ranch work.”
“We can, but don’t sell Dandy short. If I’d come to look at him as a prospect, I’d have been interested.” They walked into the guesthouse. “Why don’t you go take a shower while I put some food together and meet you in bed.”
“An excellent suggestion.”
Toweling his hair, he walked out of the bath. He had a raging hard-on. Basically, he’d had it since the moment he’d known she was safe. All he’d wanted to do since then was to drive it into her silken sheath from behind and claim her once and for all, but he was willing to give her time as she’d seemed inclined to be turned. If she wanted to wait until after Clay was cleared, he’d show her how very patient he could be.
“Babe, I hope you made finger foods that can wait because the appetite I have right now isn’t for food.”
“I was so hoping you’d think that,” she said, in an almost purr of her own.
Cole knew no matter how old he lived to be or how many lifetimes they had together, he would never forget the site that greeted him. Kennedy was up on the bed on all fours. She was naked and the scent of her arousal was strong enough that he could smell her from across the room.
“Let me be clear. If I mount you from behind, I’m claiming you. There’s no way I’d have enough control not to.”
“Again, I was so hoping that would be the case.” She smirked at him.
“I love you, Kennedy. I always have. I always will.”
“Then come and show me.”
A deep rumbling that was part growl and part purr resonated from his chest. As he approached her, he could see her skin was flushed, her nipples were stiff, and the opening to her pussy glistened with desire. There was something decadent and wanton in the way her body called to his. Crawling onto the bed behind her, his cock had locked in on its target. Cole wrapped his hands around her hips to hold her steady and shoved his entire length deep inside her.
Had it not been for his grip on her, she would have fallen forward from the strength of his thrust. “Cole,” she cried out as a powerful orgasm swept over.
His cock seemed to swell, and his barbs flared. When he pushed in, it was as if her pussy was stroking his cock with the grain, but when he pulled back against the grain, the barbs stiffened and grated against her sensitive flesh. She bucked a little with the new sensation.
“Easy, baby. It’ll get easier,” he crooned, wrapping one arm around her body while he fisted her mane with the other.
When only the head of his cock was still inside her, he fucked back in, spearing her as he held her in place. He dragged himself out, then plunged in again. Each time, his hips slammed into her beautiful backside, she arched her back and called his name. There was less fight with each stroke of the barbs against her inner walls.
Cole held her steady as he pounded into her, sending her into a frenzy of need. He tightened his grip on both her body and her hair, lifting the latter to expose the place he would sink his fangs. He leaned his body down on hers, nuzzling as he nipped her shoulders and the nape of her neck. Increasing the volume of his purr, he nipped her neck again. Feeling his fangs elongate, he sank them into her delicate flesh. Claiming bites were savage and his was no different.
He’d expected her to fight, to scream, to call him names, but Kennedy responded to his brutal bite as if it was the most delicate kiss. The bite became vicious, but instead of resistance, he got complete capitulation. She reveled in his embrace with a furious ecstasy that was intoxicating. Her response to his primitive possession was as fierce and feral as his own.
A second orgasm seized her, causing her pussy to clamp down hard on his cock. Kennedy yowled as the barbs did their job, digging furrows in her tender flesh each time he drew back. Cole held her tight against his body as he pounded into her over and over again. His cock slammed into her repeatedly and she writhed beneath him.
He hammered her sheath with his barbed staff. She softened and mewled her submission to his dominance. The harder he fucked her, the more she surrendered herself to him. He knew it wasn’t just physical, the tether was being established and he allowed his emotions to flow through it to wrap her in a sensual spell.
They were trapped in a fierce maelstrom of passion. Cole forced her down, pressing her into the mattress. He continued to fuck her with a ruthless need that seemed to fuel that of his bonded spirit as well.
Kennedy grasped the bottom rung of the iron headboard and moaned incoherently. Cole continued to stab at her cunt with his barbed cock. He knew somewhere in the dim recesses of his mind that still functioned with a degree of civility that he was ravaging her pussy. She would be sore and exhausted in the morning, but he would ensure her comfort and care. He thrust into her at a frenzied pace, the spikes scoring her pussy in ever-deepening furrows that made her scream as she fell over the edge into a rapturous chasm.
There had always been a raw and primal element to their fucking, but this had surpassed anything he could have envisioned. He fucked her with a rough, furious, possessive passion and need that was part mountain lion and part man. The two were one and it seemed his mate meant to embrace both.
Cole dragged himself back before driving into her and pulling back, the barbs on his cock taking hold, locking her body to his as his fangs embedded even more deeply in the nape of her neck. Holding himself hard against her, he began to pump his soothing warmth into her wrecked flesh. Kennedy’s sheath trembled up and down his length as she shuddered beneath him, her body milking the last drops from his cock.
Cole held himself in place until the throbbing of his staff began to slow and the spikes receded. He withdrew gently from her and ran his hands all over her body as he increased the soothing purr, which had taken on a decidedly satisfied male tone. He could feel the tether snap into place fully, making Kennedy moan and sigh. Cole’s touch was soft and gentle as he attempted to quiet her body and soul so that the wildfire that had blazed through them both would settle into smoldering embers that could be fanned back into flames again and again to keep them warm for the rest of their lives.
Kennedy rolled so that he was spooned against her.
“Are you all right?” he murmured, nuzzling her neck.
“That was amazing,” she said with a sigh as she leaned back against him. “I love you.”
She was fast asleep before he could respond, and he spent the night with her cradled against him. Cole’s plan to have her take it easy during her transition was set aside by Kennedy as indulgent. Instead of arguing with her, he simply tried to ensure that she was well taken care of as she met with Trey, Serena, and Cole to begin preparing for the first round of preliminary hearings.
At the end of the week, Kennedy thought they were ahead of schedule and seemed to have transitioned with no trouble. She and Cole went for a ride where it seemed Dandy realized he’d been given an extraordinary second chance and he and Kennedy acted as if she’d been riding him for years. The nervous and fractious gelding had become a calm and steady mount, and nothing seemed to faze him.
They’d ridden up to check on one of Clay’s herds and Kennedy had become enraptured with them. As they were riding back, Cole pointed out Himeen Mesa.
“Why would Cyrus have gone up there?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Cyrus didn’t just ride to ride. He would have had to have a reason. He wouldn’t have been meeting with Toby and Lorna. He could have done that at the house.”
“True enough. Do you think whoever killed him lured him up there?”
“I think it’s as good a theory as any. Why was your mother up there?”
“She loved to be up there, to look out over Koyama' and think. The one thing that always puzzled me was that she was getting ready to leave for a big rodeo event. I never understood why she chose that morning to ride up to the top of the mesa.”
“Could she have been meeting someone else?”
Cole laughed, sobered, then reined his horse to a stop and turned toward the mesa. “I’m a God-damned fool. I was going to tell you there wasn’t anyone else, but there was.”
“Who?”
“Doc.”
“Why would she meet Doc?”
“Because he was in love with her. He told me the other day. They’d been madly in love and her father had forbidden the match. Koyama' passes down the maternal line. If my mother had no children, the line would end with her.”
“Oh shit, Evie told me that. Told me that she-cats can’t turn a human and couldn’t get pregnant by anything other than a mountain-lion shifter.”
They both looked toward the mesa.
“But why now?”
“Because Clay is in trouble, and he’d never let one of you take the rap for what he’s done.”
“But again, why now?”
They whirled their horses and galloped back to the ranch house, hoping to find Doc and get him to answer their questions. When they arrived, one of the ranch hands told them Doc had an errand in town and said not to expect him.
“You go get what you need in the guesthouse. I’ll let the family know what we think and where we’re going.”
Kennedy ran toward the guesthouse, hoping she was wrong about why Doc had moved against Cyrus and what had forced his hand. Joined by Cade and Trey, they drove directly to Doc’s house only to find Shep waiting for them.
“I was just getting ready to call you,” said Shep. “Doc called me and asked me to come by his house, pick this up, and give it to you. He said you’d know what to do with it.”
Kennedy took the small envelope with trembling hands and opened it. A thumb drive slid out. She opened her laptop case, fired up her computer, and slid the drive into the USB port. A video of Doc started up. In it, he explained that the evidence in his safety deposit box would exonerate Clay and prove once and for all that Cyrus had killed Hannah so he could inherit Koyama' and take Lorna to mate.
“That didn’t work out the way the old bastard thought it would,” whispered Cole.
The gun he’d used to kill Cyrus had been a gift from Hannah, a family heirloom, and was also in the safe deposit box.
“As to why now,” Doc explained. “I’m dying. I’m in the last stages of renal failure. I never wanted dialysis, so I chose to let the disease run its course. The end is near, and I doubt I’ll live to see the sunrise. My will has been signed and witnessed. It, too, is in the safety deposit box.
I didn’t plan to kill Cyrus, but when I saw him headed for Himeen, the thought of him being where he murdered her was more than I could stand, so I followed him up and shot him. He was a mean, lecherous old bastard, and he needed to pay for what he did.
I’ve tidied up the morgue and gave the sheriff a bad time about cost. You do what you think is best, Kennedy, and don’t let Cole get too dominating with you. You’re good for him. He’s tougher than you, but you’re smarter than him. I’m glad you found your way back to each other.
You don’t need to worry about me. I’m going to be with Hannah. Maybe in the next life we’ll get it as right as her sons.
The video closed and all five of them stood staring at the blank screen.
“Where’s he gone?” asked Shep. “He can’t just kill somebody and not be held accountable.”
“He’s dying or dead,” said Trey, gently. “Let him be.”