The Cougar's Bargain by Holley Trent Read Free Book Online

ultimate spies. None of the Cougars had recognized the two that had infiltrated the Coyotes because no one had even known such beings existed … except Lola.
    Lola grunted. “Work from the bottom up. That address is the nest of some of those shifters. In Mexico, my brethren used to call them
Los Impostores
, and
they
are the work of my brother. They are why there is an avenger now. I thought they were all gone, and not following up on that belief is a mistake I regret. They must be handled, though, or they’ll cause more trouble. They tend to disrupt the groups they discover and try to take whatever resources they can from them. Now, obviously, I cannot personally engage them. There has to be an additional degree of separation between them and me. You must figure out a way to lure them out, and from there, we’ll figure out a way to squelch them that won’t have me afoul of the rules of engagement. If I take one step out of line, it may be considered an act of challenge and other gods would come out of the woodwork to take what is mine.”
    Even Hannah knew that didn’t sound like a good situation for anyone involved and she’d only been a part of that world for the summer.
    “Why me?” Hannah asked. “That seems like a much bigger job than I’ve been doing.”
    “Don’t ask why. Say yes or no.”
    “Well, yes.” She’d do anything to get away and not feel like she was running. Anything to have a little time to think about what she needed to do to get Sean squared away. “But, what do you want me to do?”
    Lola took off her reading glasses and set them atop her pad. “Do what you must, but you must do it with Sean.”
    Hannah threw her head back and groaned. “And
there’s
the rub.”
    “Avengers don’t work alone.”
    “And no one else will do, huh?”
    “That depends on whether or not you want to be successful. Take who you’d like,
rubia
, but know this. How will you find a suitable mate for him if you don’t know who he is? Here is your chance to find out. Don’t make me wait. I’m being too generous by altering the magic that binds you as it is.”
    Dammit.
    The goddess had a point. Hannah did need to get to know him, at least superficially.
    She folded the address in half, then again before tucking the paper into her shirt pocket and sighing. “All right.”
    “You’ll be fine,” Miles said. “I have it on good authority that he doesn’t bite.”
    “Maybe
he
doesn’t, but I do.”

CHAPTER FOUR
    Sean had barely had time to shower and pull on a pair of jeans and a shirt before Mason grabbed him by the collar and led him across their rain-drenched connected yards and into the house he shared with Ellery and his son Nick. He’d gathered up some paperwork, grabbed Sean by the collar again, and was about to drag him on to the next place when Sean slapped his hand away. “Shit. Use words, man.”
    “Fine.” Mason pointed toward Mom’s house. “Go that way. We moved the glaring leadership meeting indoors because of the rain.”
    “You could just say that instead of pushing me around.”
    “I’m just—”
    “Making sure I get to where I’m supposed to be.” Sean scoffed and started across the yard. “Right. Because at age thirty, I’m still not trustworthy enough to figure out what’s what, right?”
    Mason growled behind him, but let him walk on his own.
    Sean was used to his brothers shadowing him when they thought he needed to be somewhere important. They’d been doing it since his return after Dad died, because apparently, once a guy ran, he was bound to do it again. It didn’t matter that he’d been pulling his weight and then some for five years. They thought he was going to snap and leave them all in the lurch.
    Maybe he would.
    He plopped into a chair in Mom’s kitchen as far from Hannah as he could possibly be, and tried to focus on the words coming out of Mason’s mouth. Sean’s brain wasn’t operating at peak efficiency. He heard everything his brother was