slippery fish.
After Hank’s parents arrived, they took turns passing Josh between them. It’d been a month since they’d last seen their grandson. Hank’s mom Kate got a little teary over the fact Josh looked more and more like his father the older he got.
Once Sage got the baby upstairs to bed in Grady’s room, the adults sat down to dinner. They talked about the services for Macy and Hank that would take place in two days. Much to Sage’s surprise, all of Grady’s family said they would be attending. Even Jase and his dad stated they would be around to help with the heavy lifting when the time came for Sage, Kate and Max to empty out Macy and Hank’s house.
That was something Sage still dreaded, but it had to be done and put on the market. There was no way she could keep both her house and the other one. And she couldn’t afford to pay the mortgage for Macy’s with only her income. And Max and Kate had their own place in Fairbanks.
Hank’s parents said their goodbyes once it grew late and promised Sage they’d talk to her the next day. After they left, everyone else headed back into the living room. She couldn’t help noticing how nervous Grady looked all of a sudden.
They all sat, spreading out on the couch, loveseat and armchairs. Sage and Grady ended up on the loveseat, which was across from the couch. At first, Sage wasn’t sure anyone was going to start the conversation since the others all seemed to be waiting for something.
Grady cleared his throat. “I guess I’d better be the one to get the ball rolling.” He cleared his throat again and took hold of Sage’s hand and looked her right in the eyes. “What I’m about to tell you, I’ve never told anyone like you before.”
She gave him a confused look over the “anyone like you” comment. Was he referring to her being a cop or was it something else entirely? “Okay.”
“I’ve been told it’s best if I just come right out and say it without easing into it too much. So here it goes.” His face grew serious, not showing any emotion. “Sage, I’m a cougar shifter. You set off the magic in my pendant and made the cougar’s ruby eyes glow, which means you’re my mate. When you took it from me and put it around your neck, you claimed me as yours and the mating bond formed, joining our souls.”
Chapter Seven
Grady watched Sage’s face carefully to see what her reaction would be to his confession of being a cougar shifter and what she was to him. At first, her expression remained blank, as if she really hadn’t heard what he’d said. Then it switched to one that was guarded, almost as if she thought he wasn’t all there in his head.
“You’re a cougar shifter?” Sage asked. She looked around the room before focusing back on him. “And your family already knows you think of yourself as being one?”
“We’re all shifters.”
“Except for me,” Katarina said. “I’m just a regular human like you, Sage.”
Sage shook her head. “I’m sorry, but do all of you think you’re doing Grady any favors by playing along with his delusions? And that’s what it has to be.”
Grady blew out a breath. “I really don’t want to shift to my cougar form in front of you just yet. I need you to accept it a bit more or it’ll freak you out. You can’t deny you felt something pass between us when you put my pendant on. That feeling of an invisible bond forming, tying us together was the mating bond. I felt it, and from the look on your face then, I know you had to have as well.”
“I can admit I did feel something. But how can you be sure it was our souls joining? For all you know it could have been us only caught up in the moment, if you know what I mean?”
“It wasn’t that. It was the magic inside the pendant. Every male cougar shifter is given one once he reaches adolescence, and when we meet our mates, she sets off this bit of magic, which makes the rubies glow. To have the mate bond forming, the female has to be the one to take the male’s pendant and put it around her neck.”
Sage skipped her gaze over Olivia and Katarina. “So your mom and Katarina wearing cougar head pendants means they claimed their males too.”
“Yes.”
“Look, Grady, I’m a cop. Do you have any idea of some of the weird stuff I see sometimes on a daily basis? I have to say this ranks right up there.”
“You’re going to have to shift,” Jase said. He put his arm around his wife. “It’s too bad Sage didn’t grow up with an uncle who is a werewolf like Katarina. It would make this so much easier.”
“Werewolf?” Sage asked, really thinking things couldn’t get any stranger than they already were.
“The hell with it. I’m shifting,” Grady said as he stood and stepped in front of her.
Sage watched, transfixed, as Grady’s body blurred and shimmered. Then in a matter of a few seconds, a large cougar took his place. She opened and closed her mouth a few times and looked around at the other people in the room. They didn’t at all seem surprised. Actually, Olivia appeared happy with it.
The cougar Grady had become took a step closer, which snapped Sage’s attention back to him. He purred loudly, then rubbed his furred cheek against her knee. She didn’t know what to do. She felt frozen in place, her mind desperately trying to make sense of it all.
“It’s okay, Sage,” Katarina said as she crossed over to her and took the spot where Grady had been sitting. “Touch him. It’s still Grady inside there. He’s able to think and react as he would in his other form. He just can’t communicate with you.”
Katarina took Sage’s hand and led it to the top of the cougar’s head and got her to stroke him. Maybe it was because the other people in the room weren’t freaking out or acting afraid, or because Sage was already an emotional wreck from her sister dying, but whatever it was, she wasn’t having an “Oh my god, run for your life” moment.
She pulled her hand out of Katarina’s grasp and petted Grady one more time before she said as she looked into the cougar’s eyes, “Okay, I believe you now.” She then looked at the others. “Do you mind if Grady and I talk alone?”
Olivia stood first and came over to Sage. She bent and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. “Welcome to the family.”
“Family?” Sage asked as the notion took her by surprise.
“Yes, family. You’re no longer alone, my daughter. Being Grady’s mate, you’re now a part of our family group and are one of us, as is Josh. We’ll take care of the both of you.”
Sage lost it. Tears welled in her eyes and there was nothing she could do to stop them. Through a sheen of them she watched the others leave the room. Everything she’d kept bottled up inside since losing her sister came out. Sobs racked her body as a strong pair of arms gathered her close. Grady had shifted back to his human form, but she hadn’t noticed until he sat her on his lap with her head on his shoulder.
She had no idea how long it took for her to cry herself out, but he sat with her through it all, gently rubbing her back, telling her how much he loved her and that everything would be all right. Once her sobs subsided into hiccups, Sage felt as if she’d been through the wringer.
“Are you okay?” Grady asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
“Are you okay with what I am and what you are to me?”
Sage wiped her eyes with her sleeve as she sat up and looked at him. “Surprisingly, yes. It was what your mom said about me now being part of your family. It’d only been Macy and I since I was eighteen and she was twenty. Losing her, it was as if I’d lost everything. I know I have Josh, but he’s so little and dependent upon me. Now I have you. I can lean on you and you’re always going to be there.”
“And I will be. You’re my mate, a part of my soul. I love you, and I’ll love Josh as if he were my own child.”
She cupped the back of Grady’s head and kissed him, long and deep. After she lifted her head, she said, “I love you too.” She gave him a small smile. “I guess you being a cougar shifter is the reason your head healed so fast, huh?”
“Yeah. We heal a lot faster than humans.”
