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

Diana
began.
    “ Cat’s bewitched it,”
Charlie said as they turned another sharp corner down a dirt road,
“when you wear it, you see things the way he wants you to see them.
You’ll have to take it off when we get to the Salt
Lake.”
    “ But...”
    “ You should rest now,”
Charlie said without looking at her, “It’ll take us a while to get
there.”
    Diana sank back in her
seat but did not, could not rest. Instead, she tried, desperately
to make sense of what she had been told.
    If Charlie was to be
believed, then nearly everything Cat had told her about the
prophecy, about them, had been a lie. She was the Salt Mother but,
was not meant to be mated to Cat. She was, instead, meant to be
mated to Charlie.
    And what would happen if
she was mated to the wrong man? What would happen if she entered
the Salt lake too quickly? What would happen when she entered the
Salt Lake period? No one had bothered to tell her that.
    She looked to Charlie and
knew that he would not be willing to answer any more questions.
Certainly not about Cat and mating.
    So, Diana leaned her head
against the cool window and tried her best not to think of Cat
running his lips across her neck, his hands moving up her leg, his
whisper against her ear.
    She closed her eyes as she
remembered him. Despite what Charlie had told her, she still
desired him. She felt a thrill rush through her body and move to a
pool of desire between her thighs when she imagined what Cat had
wanted to do to her. What he would have done, if his nobility had
not stopped him.
    She tried as best she
could to will these thoughts away as they drove further on. None
the less, when she closed her eyes, she could see nothing but Cat’s
face, staring down at her with those dark, piercing
eyes.
    Soon, that face
disappeared to be replaced by his cougar. The smooth, tan mountain
lion who, she thought, had saved her at her apartment. He padded
towards her but, before he could reach Diana, she saw the large
black cougar come from behind, leap over Cat and pin Diana to the
ground. The cougar tore at her necklace. The talisman burned
against her chest…
    “ Diana! Diana wake
up!”
    Diana’s eyes flew open and
she looked around for a moment expecting to see the large black
cougar bounding towards her. It took several deep breaths for Diana
to convince herself that it had been a dream. Nothing but a
dream.
    “ We’re here,” Charlie said
from the driver’s seat. She looked over at Charlie who was eyeing
her with a concerned expression.
    “ Is everything ok?” he
asked.
    “ Yes,” Diana said
hesitantly, “just had a...a nightmare.”
    Diana could still feel the
burning sensation of the talisman against her chest. She looked
down and was shocked to find that she had not imagined that. The
talisman she wore was indeed burning. It was not the calm, gentle
tingle she felt when Cat touched her it was the same harsh, warning
she had felt the night she saw the black cougar.
    Diana saw Charlie’s eyes
turn to the talisman as well.
    “ You should take that
off,” he said almost sharply, “it’s too dangerous to have a
connection to Cat while you’re here.”
    Something in Diana’s head
protested. Something in the back of her mind told her she would be
in more danger with the talisman off than on.
    “ I’ll keep it on,” Diana
said firmly. Charlie rolled his eyes and looked about to argue with
her, “Just until we get to the lake,” Diana amended
gently.
    Though she still wasn’t
quite sure what to believe about Cat, Charlie or anything else, she
did know that, while she was in Charlie’s custody, it was best not
to antagonize him.
    “ Suit yourself,” he said
with a shrug. He opened the door and got out of the truck. Diana
followed his example and they stepped out onto a dirt road without
a lake in site.
    “ The lake’s about half a
mile walk,” Charlie said in answer to Diana’s unspoken
question.
    “ And we can’t drive?”
Diana asked somewhat bitterly. She had