Cougar Bait Read online

  Yet when she looked at the patient on the table again, she saw that it was a woman and, sure enough, she was up in stirrups. Not just any woman though—it was Sadie.

  “Hurry!” she begged Samantha. “Hurry, Sammie—the baby’s coming! I can feel it. Please!”

  “It’s all right, Sadie,” she hastened to reassure her sister. “I haven’t done this in a while but I can still manage. Here we go now—push!”

  To her relief, the baby came out, squalling and pink-faced, with no problems. It had a shock of dark hair just like Sadie’s, and it waved its tiny fists appealingly, as if protesting this state of affairs. Samantha started to hand it off to one of the nurses but found herself giving it to Mathis instead, who was standing beside her with a wide, proud grin on his bearded face.

  “Here you go,” she told him. “You’re a father.”

  Samantha breathed a sigh of relief. Well—glad that’s all over! But just as she was starting to relax, one of the gowned and gloved nurses shouted at her.

  “Dr. Becker! Hurry—here comes the next one!”

  The next one?

  Samantha could scarcely believe it, but she found herself delivering yet another baby. She handed this one off to Mathis too, who grinned as he cradled his newborns, one in each massive arm.

  And then another baby came. And then another.

  Samantha couldn’t believe it—how could her sister keep on giving birth like this? How many babies did she have up there anyway? Mathis had transferred the first two babies into two cribs—one pink and one blue—and as each baby came along, another crib appeared for it, magically. Soon he had a whole row of them behind him—a row of cribs, each with a yelling, red-faced infant inside it. They were making such a racket that Samantha could barely hear herself think.

  Then the next baby came, but this one was different. It wasn’t yelling for one thing. It was quiet and alert, its leaf-green eyes staring thoughtfully into Samantha’s own as she gently toweled it off. It was a little girl, and she had blond hair—not dark like the rest of the babies.

  Hmm, Samantha thought, staring at the tiny baby in her arms. This one is actually kind of cute.

  She turned to hand the infant off to Mathis, as she had all the others, but when she tried to give it to him, he shook his head.

  “Huh-uh, sister-in-law,” he said in that deep, rough voice of his. “This little girl is yours.”

  * * *

  Samantha woke up with a start, her heart pounding and her hands clenched into fists.

  What the hell was that all about? The weird dream was still strangely vivid, playing out in her mind’s eye even as she took a deep breath and realized where she was.

  “We’re now landing in Las Vegas,” announced the captain’s voice over the intercom. “Local time is seven forty-five in the evening, and it’s about eighty-two degrees and dry. Perfect weather for those of you who are going straight to the casinos and don’t plan to see the light of day until you fly back home again.”

  The passengers around Samantha laughed dutifully. The “fasten seat belts” light blinked off, and everyone scrambled up and started digging through the overhead luggage compartments, eager to get their bags and get out of the plane.

  Samantha blinked and forced herself to do the same, standing on tiptoes to reach the compartment, since she was a diminutive five foot three. But even as she grabbed her bag and filed from the plane with the rest of the passengers, she couldn’t get the weird dream out of her head, or forget her new brother-in-law’s voice saying, “This little girl is yours.”

  Chapter 3

  “Mr. Keller, how many times do I have to ask you to be still?”

  The exasperated ICU nurse glared at Keller, one hand on her hip. Her name was either Joan or Janice—he couldn’t remember which. She had a narrow, hatchet face and lank grayish-brown hair the color of cobwebs scraped into a thin ponytail at the back of her head. Her hospital scrubs weren’t doing her any favors either—they hung on her skinny frame. At least she was too skinny for Keller’s taste; he liked a woman with some meat on her bones.

  But it was the extremely large needle she held in one hand that occupied his mind, more than her figure.

  “I’m sorry, Joan, but I tend to move out of the way when someone attempts to jab me with a harpoon,” Keller growled, eyeing the needle. He generally didn’t mind pain—he’d certainly been through enough of it in the past twenty-four hours, between his fight with Mathis Blackwell and Samantha’s struggle to save his life. But he did object to being hurt for no reason.

  Also, he didn’t like shots.

  “It’s Janice. And don’t be a baby!” the nurse scoffed. She’d come on shift about an hour before, and ever since she’d walked into the ICU, she seemed to have decided to make Keller her personal object of torment.

  “Janice, then. Can’t this medicine be put into my IV line instead? That’s what my afternoon nurse was doing.”

  “This medicine has to be given IM—intramuscular.” The nurse sounded impatient. “And it’s only a little shot.”

  “It doesn’t look ‘little’ to me,” Keller said through gritted teeth.

  “I’m surprised you’re not ashamed of yourself—a big guy like you complaining over a shot.” She flipped up the flimsy hospital gown he was wearing and swabbed the top part of his right buttock, where it met his hip, before jabbing the huge needle into the side of his ass.

  “Ouch!” Keller jerked, and the nurse glared at him.

  “I said hold still!” she barked.

  Keller knew she was just doing her job, but honestly, she reminded him more of his fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hooper, who had disliked him, than of an angel of mercy.

  “I can’t help it,” he said, shifting in the too-small hospital bed again. “I can’t lie still when I need to be up and out of here.”

  “Listen mister, you’re not going anywhere,” Nurse Janice told him. “So just stop moving around—you don’t want to pull your IV loose, and I don’t want to have to ask your doctor to order restraints. But I will if I have to.” She looked like she wanted to whack him with a rolled-up newspaper or magazine, as though he was a naughty dog which had pissed on the rug.

  Only I’m a Cat, Keller thought, swallowing down a frustrated growl that rose in his throat. A Cat who needs to get out of this ridiculous hospital.

  “I’m not trying to pull anything loose,” he said, struggling to keep his voice civil. “I’m just wondering when I might possibly be released? I’m feeling much better, so if we could just call the doctor . . .”

  The nurse gave him an incredulous look.

  “I’m not bothering your doctor at this time in the evening with a lot of nonsense about releasing you! You’re staying right here on bed rest for at least a couple of weeks—until some of those injuries heal.”

  “A couple of weeks?” Keller looked at her in disbelief. That was a lifetime—it was too much time to remain helpless, especially when Samantha had taken herself to one of the most dangerous spots in the world for unmated Shifter females.

  Of course, her Shifter Gene wasn’t active yet, but that didn’t mean it would stay that way. What would happen to her if she got to Vegas and started going through Rejuvenation? She wouldn’t have an Alpha to protect her or help her through the process. And if she started putting out the maddening Juvie scent, she’d draw every damn Hyena in a ten-mile radius looking to turn a profit. He couldn’t just lie here in bed while she was in that kind of danger!

  Why do you care? whispered a little voice in his head. So what if she’s in danger? She’s not your female—she’s not even interested in you, as she so bluntly pointed out. What does it matter to you if she’s in danger?

  He thought of Samantha, her short, curvy figure, long, honey-blond hair, and bright, curious blue eyes. She was full figured—Keller liked that. Stick-thin women had nothing to hold on to. Samantha had killer curves and enough self-confidence to carry them off. The way she knew who she was and what she wanted