Claimed by the Catamount
by Libby Bishop
Series: Green Mountain Shifters
Blurb:
Cat shifter Cilla Walton would like nothing more than to
mate with Riley Cooper, the man she’s secretly been in love with for years. The
problem? The beast in her refuses to allow a mating because it doesn’t think
Riley is worthy of being her mate. And until the cat agrees, Cilla can never
fully give herself to him.
Riley Cooper, son of the Alpha of their Pride, wants to be
Cilla’s mate more than anything. But until her cat accepts his cat as a mate,
that’s not going to happen. The only thing he can do is try harder to prove his
worth…and hope he didn’t wait too long to start the mating game with the love
of his life.
Author Bio:
Libby Bishop is a paranormal romance/erotic romance
author.
She loves reading, writing, movies, Lindt dark chocolate,
autumn, the SyFy Channel (Haven and Bitten!), and spending time with friends
and family. She has one fat, fluffy cat who thinks she’s queen of the
house…and really, she is :)
She also writes dark fantasy/paranormal/horror under the
name October Weeks.
Media Links:
EXCERPT:
The smell of food bore down sharply on her senses, and she
moved swiftly through the trees and brush to follow it. She was almost silent
in her footsteps. Her nose and ears told her everything she needed to know.
She
stopped and sniffed the air. Then, she lowered herself behind brushes and trees
and leaves, the autumn colors hiding her tawny, black, and bits of white
perfectly. She waited…
There
it was. Dinner. From the west, unaware and getting
closer.
The
whitetail came into view seconds later, dipping its head to a mountain stream.
It was rare that a doe was alone this time of year, but here she was. At the
perfect angle.
She
lowered herself more, preparing, using her expert hunting skills and knowledge
to make the kill. She was very patient.
Then,
with a burst of speed and precision, she attacked. The deer realized her fate
far too late and only ran but a few yards. Teeth sank into the neck, and within
moments, dinner was served.
****
It
was the time of year. She just had to hunt more often to work off the extra
rush of hormones and need to feed. She was always careful, staying close to or
on her vast property. But today was different. She was on a friend’s property,
a trusted friend who was out of town for the day. After retrieving her clothes
from the porch of the friend’s home, she jogged to her truck and grabbed a pen
and paper from the glove box. She wrote a thank you note and IOU for the
hunting. Then, she got back to her truck and took off over the mountain to her
house…on the dirt back roads.
She
couldn’t help but go a bit too fast today, knowing who would be traversing them
as well.
The
flashing red lights in her rearview as she turned a corner made her grin. She
hoped he was in a playful mood this evening—knowing he was on duty had been the
reason she’d picked this route home. Her grin widened as a six-foot-two redhead
stepped out of his own truck to walk to hers.
She
rolled her window down.
The
fair-skinned man grinned back as he rested his arms on the door. “Cilla Walton,
you know better than to drive that fast on this road.”
Her
blue eyes met his brown ones. “Aw, come on, Riley.” She tried to look as
sincere as possible. “I was only doing fifty/fifty-five.”
He
chuckled. “On a forty mile an hour road.”
She
laughed softly, loving the scent rolling off of him. She knew he was smelling
her as well. “Riley Cooper, are you going to give me a ticket?”
He
leaned in the window about an inch, inhaling. His grin turned wicked,
suggesting all sorts of tempting things. She tried not to visibly shiver.
She
won.
“Not
tonight, I’m afraid. I’m heading for my parents’ house for dinner with them and
my brothers. As you know, my mom’s birthday is tomorrow.”
“Yes.
I have something for her,” she replied. “I’m also taking her shopping over in
Burlington in the morning, with Ginger and my sister Cat.”
“Dad
talked to you.”
She
nodded. “We’ll be back before dinner, around four-thirty.”
He
leaned against her door and reached a hand in to move stray strands of her
tawny-colored hair behind her ear. “You’ve been out hunting…and you got the
kill.”
She
smiled softly. “Of course I did.”
“Over
at Ram and Mara’s?”
She
nodded.
“Yeah,
Ram mentioned you asked permission to hunt on his and Mara’s land. Why?”
She
shrugged. “I just wanted a different place to hunt—the deer near my house are
getting suspicious.” She winked.
He
chuckled.
Shiver,
shiver, shiver… She managed to hide the shiver, but not the scent it
caused. Damn autumn air.
“I’ll
see you tomorrow, then?”
“Yes,
you will. And by the way,” she said as he stepped away from the door while she
put it back in gear, “you smell edible.”
He
grinned. “So do you, babe. And I plan on remedying that soon.”
