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

never particularly liked
walking. Not to mention, she had had a particularly exhausting
day.
    “ It’s best if we don’t,”
Charlie said.
    They plodded on in silence
for a moment before Diana remembered something of importance Cat
had told her. It was something the elders had said as
well.
    “ If I’m not supposed to go
to the lake until I’ve been trained,” she began, “why will it be
safe for me there now?”
    Charlie let out a low
chuckle and said: “Don’t worry Diana, you will be
trained.”
    “ By who?”
    “ By me.”
    Diana stopped and looked
at him unsure. He looked back at her and gave her the same cocky
smirk she had seen him wear when they first met.
    “ You don’t want to be
trained by me?” he asked. The tenor of his voice made this sound
suggestive. Diana blushed in spite of herself.
    “ I didn’t mean that,” she
said quickly. She could feel a blush coming into her cheeks.
Charlie must have seen it too because his smile
broadened.
    “ I only meant,” she said
trying her best to stay on topic, “the elders made it sound like
training was real...involved. It sounds like a lot for one person
to have to take on.”
    “ Well,” Charlie said as
they reached a crest in the hillside, “I won’t have to take it on
alone.”
    “ What do you mean by
that?” Diana asked.
    “ You’ll see,” he said. An
uneasy feeling took up residence in Diana’s stomach. She felt the
burning of the cougar talisman against her skin. It became hotter
as they neared the lake. She wondered, now, if she should have
gotten in the car with Charlie if she should have come to the lake
at all. Now, looking back, she wondered if she should have waited
if she should have refused to leave the reservation.
    But, there was no use
thinking about that now. Not when she could see the small blue lake
in the distance and the white sand playing along its
banks.
    She was here. And, sooner
or later, whether for good or for ill, she would find out what
being ‘here’ meant.
    As they neared the lake’s
edge, Diana could make out a small black dot waiting for them in
the white dirt.
    Her mind immediately
jumped to the black cougar of her nightmares. The burning of the
talisman, likewise, urged her to stop, to turn around to run
back.
    She did stop, frozen on
the crest of the hill causing Charlie to turn around and look at
her curiously.
    “ What’s the matter?” he
asked.
    “ Who’s that waiting for
us?” Diana managed to force the words from her mouth. Even as her
talisman continued to burn against her chest.
    “ You should have taken
that thing off,” Charlie said with a chuckle indicating the
talisman.
    “ You still wear yours,”
Diana insisted stubbornly.
    “ Mine’s not connected to a
traitor,” Charlie said with another cocky smile. Diana gave him a
reproachful look and the smile disappeared from his
face.
    “ Look,” he said gently,
“you’ll be ok. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
    He seemed sincere and, as
Diana realized she had no other options at the moment, she nodded
and followed him towards the lake.
    Even as her feet plodded
after him, she kept her eyes firmly fixed on the black creature
growing larger near the sand of the lake. Though, it was still too
dark to make out, the talisman burning, now almost unbearably hot
against her chest, warned her that this was not a creature she
wanted to meet.
    No matter what Charlie
said to the contrary, she felt a sharp instinct rise up in her to
trust the talisman more than Charlie’s word.
    When they reached the
banks of the lake, Diana saw that instinct justified.
    She screamed and backed
away as, in the light of the rising sun, she saw the same black
panther who had attacked her all those nights ago. The same cougar
who had given her scars and haunted her dreams.
    She turned and began to
run as fast as she possibly could. Charlie ran after her and
grabbed her arm.
    “ Diana!” he said,
forcefully and painfully taking hold of her arm and