Cougar Romance: The Traitor: Secret Shades of the Alpha Blood Series (Paranormal BBW Menage Romance) by Paula Knight

Chapter One
    D iana allowed herself to be dragged to the truck waiting
outside, her head still spinning with what Charlie had told
her.
    It couldn’t be. It was
simply not possible. Cat could not have been the mole, it made no
sense. As they reached the truck, she stopped in her tracks.
Charlie tried to pull her forward, but she dug her heels in and
refused to move.
    “ How do you know Cat is
the mole?” She asked.
    “ Diana, we don’t have
time,” Charlie said exasperatedly trying to pull her forward. She
wrenched her hand from his grasp, crossed her arms and stared
fixedly at him, awaiting his response.
    “ Look,” he said, “I found
an email. I wasn’t looking for it but…”
    “ Who was this email sent
to?” Diana asked still extremely suspicious.
    “ Amanda,” Charlie
admitted, “there’s a plot. They cooked it up with the Navajo and I
don’t know how many other Zuni’s.”
    “ What plot?” Diana
asked.
    “ Please, Diana,” Charlie
said, “we have to get you to the salt lake. That’s the only place
you’ll be safe. And the longer we wait, the more exposed you
are.”
    Diana stared at him for a
long while. She knew she desperately wanted to trust Cat
implicitly. But, even the elders had admitted that there must be a
mole assisting the black panther in the Zuni tribe. Nothing else
made any sense.
    And, she desperately
wanted to go to the Salt Lake. She was tired of being kept in the
dark. Tired of being protected. She knew, if nothing else, Charlie
would be willing to tell her what he knew about the prophecy. And,
besides that, hadn’t Charlie saved her life more than
once?
    So, with only slight
reluctance, she gave Charlie her hand and he lifted her into the
truck.
    “ The lake is a ways
north,” he said as he started the car, “it’ll be a while before we
get there.”
    They drove in silence for
a long while as Diana fought off the urge to go back to sleep.
Though her body was aching and she felt more exhausted than she
ever had in her life, her mind was still buzzing with a series of
problems.
    How could Cat have known
about the attack on her apartment and saved her? Perhaps he had
worked the plan out with the black cougar beforehand and saved her
only to gain her trust. But, then, why had he taken such pains to
get her to the reservation. And, most importantly, why had she seen
Cat in her vision? The elders had said she had seen her mate. That
was Cat. Why would he have betrayed her if they were meant to be
together?
    Unable to settle this
particular question herself, she looked to Charlie.
    “ I saw him,” Diana told
him cryptically.
    “ Saw who?” Charlie asked
absently, taking a right turn down a small dirt road heading
north.
    “ In the vision. I saw Cat.
The elders said that it meant he was supposed to be my mate. But,
if he betrayed me…”
    “ The elders were wrong,”
Charlie said immediately.
    “ What do you
mean…?”
    “ They were wrong about who
you were meant to be mated to,” Charlie said. She felt something
like a deep stone fall to her chest. That couldn’t be true. Cat and
Diana had a bond, she had felt the talisman glow, she knew when he
kissed her...
    “ The truth is,” Charlie
continued, “there were two possible men the salt woman could be
mated to. It was becoming more and more clear that the second man
would be the choice. That is why Cat decided to take matters into
his own hands. He wanted to be the mate at any cost.”
    “ And how do you know
that?” Diana asked.
    “ I know,” he said slowly,
“because I’m the other mate.”
    Diana’s heart stopped
fully when she turned and looked at Charlie. Everything inside of
her fought against this new idea. It was not that she did not like
Charlie. He was, indeed, handsome and charming but...she felt
nothing towards him in that way. No true connection like she had
with Cat. And, besides, it was Cat who had given her the talisman.
Sure that meant something...
    “ But the talisman…”