Page 33 of Claiming Her Cougar (Shifting Pines #2)

“That explains where the red hair comes from,” I say teasingly.

Mallory sticks her tongue out at me. If she can tease me back, then she’s doing all right. Some of the tension leaves my body. We can go back downstairs, and I can make it through the rest of the game without going ballistic. If Mallory is okay, I’m okay.

Logan and I go downstairs first, Daphne and Mallory trailing behind, talking. I assume Daphne asks what’s going on between us because I hear Mallory answer that we’re just friends.

My cougar stirs restlessly at that. He apparently has decided Mallory Carter is his mate and his to protect.

Down, cat. We need to be patient. He growls in protest, and there’s a rumble in my chest. Logan looks at me with raised eyebrows.

I shake my head. Now is not the time to share that Mallory Carter is my mate.

I can see our future so clearly, including more afternoons like this with my family.

Thank goodness her parents live in Florida.

We should only have to put up with them infrequently.

Date nights with Logan and Daphne. Nights at her home, making use of that bed.

In time, we could get married and start having kids.

I don’t care if they shift or not—I would love them because they come from me and Mallory.

I can see it all so clearly. If only Mallory would consider it and see it too.

Maybe since she doesn’t shift, she doesn’t feel the mating call the same way I do, but how can she not feel the connection we have as a man and a woman?

We’ve had it from the moment our eyes met across the club in Vegas.

Hell, considering all the connections we have and how many of our orbits overlap, it truly is fate.

We would’ve met eventually if we hadn’t met in Vegas.

I’m grateful now we met in Vegas first and could connect without all the baggage Mallory insists on carrying. Maybe I can’t convince her we’re fated mates in the shifter sense, but she’d have to be purposely blind to not see the hand fate has played in our being together now and how right it is.

The second half of the game passes amazingly well.

Mallory’s parents stop with the snarky comments and are polite guests.

I’m assuming something was said while we were upstairs.

Hopefully we’ll get the scoop later. Robert and Beth leave in a flurry of hugs, handshakes, and “we should do this again” proclamations.

Yeah. No.

As soon as her parents pull away from the curb, Mom and Aunt Holly hug Mallory and reassure her she’s smart and beautiful and her parents love her. I want in on it, but Daphne is the lucky one chosen to be included.

“Did you read them the riot act?” Logan asks his dad.

“Gently,” Uncle Mike says.

The group hug has broken up, and the ladies are fixing themselves mugs of tea.

“Your mother hasn’t changed since I first met her in law school when she was dating your father, Mallory,” Aunt Holly says.

“Believe it or not, she’s mellowed a bit,” Mallory says.

That’s her mom mellow? Wow!

“I know they love me in their way. But they don’t understand me. I’m nothing like my sister Valerie.”

“Wait, you’re a twin?” Daphne asks.

“No, why? Oh, the matching names!” Mallory shakes her head and laughs. “Mom just picked Mallory at random. I don’t think she ever said it out loud to realize it rhymes with Valerie.”

She lifts her teacup and blows on it to cool down the tea. The steam rises, framing her face in its curly tendrils.

“Funny story time,” she says. “My brother Ethan is eighteen months older than Valerie, so my parents had two kids under two. Mom didn’t bounce back as quickly after Valerie’s birth as she did after Ethan’s, but figured that was normal because two kids are four times as much work.

Plus, she was working and all that stuff. ”

Mom and Aunt Holly nod. They must remember what it was like when we were little.

“After four months, Dad convinced Mom to see the doctor because he’s worried about her. She’s exhausted, irritable, not losing the baby weight like she did with Ethan, and it’s bothering her. So, Mom goes to the doctor and surprise! She’s three months pregnant with me.”

The moms gasp, and the dads are doing their best to not hear anything. If they could put their fingers in their ears and go “la la la,” I think they would. Not that it would help. They have excellent shifter hearing.

“Mom is insisting that can’t be true because she and Dad haven’t done anything. She’s been too tired. To be honest, I think that was Dad’s biggest concern.” Mallory laughs. “Turns out they were both so exhausted they didn’t remember the one time they slept together after Valerie was born.”

The room is silent. No one knows what to say to that.

“She was three months pregnant and didn’t know?” Daphne asks. “Aren’t shifters supposed to be especially in tune to all that stuff?”

Everyone turns to look at Aunt Holly since she’s the only one here who would know.

“Don’t look at me! I spaced my kids out, so I was awake for all of it!”

Logan groans.

Mallory shrugs. “I’m not a shifter, and I’ve never been pregnant, but I guess they were so tired and overwhelmed they just didn’t notice?”

“So, your sister is less than a year older than you? Were you in the same grade?” Daphne asks.

“No, Valerie was a year ahead of me in school because of how our birthdays fell. However, since our names rhymed and we were so close in age, many people assumed we were twins, and I was the dumb one held back a year. I’ve always been smaller and not as fast or as strong as Valerie, so it was like I was the lesser twin and not the younger sister.

” Her lips twist in a wry smile. “You know how clueless people can be.”

Mom puts down her mug of tea with a clunk. “Okay, I’m just saying what everyone is thinking. What the ever-loving hell? Are your parents stupid?”

We all laugh. Mom is a tiny blonde and the sweetest woman I’ve ever known, but she’s from South Philly, and sometimes it shows.

“Not generally, but I guess parenthood sucked out their brain cells?” Mallory says. “It’s amazing I have any self-esteem at all with that origin story.”

I want to tell her she’s amazing, but this isn’t the place for it. I will tell her one day. She deserves to hear it, and I want to be the one to tell her. One day. Every day. Forever.