Sunshine Mated (Ouachita Mountain Shifters Book 8)

“Ohhhhhhhughhhh. Mmmmmmnnnhhh. Unghhh. Oh, oh! Right there, yes. Yesssssss. God, yes!”

Mason rubbed harder at the body beneath him, working out a high pitched squeak.

“Ohmuhguhhhhhh. How are you so good at this? It has never felt this good in my life. Mmmmm, yes. God, yes.”

And Mrs. Markel had lived a long life, so that was saying something.

Mason poured more massage oil on his hands and adjusted his grip on her shoulders. She let out a yelp of pleasure and he jerked his head up to see if anyone heard through the glass walls of the massage room. But of course they did. Mrs. Markel was a sweet and rascally older lady, but damn if she wasn’t the loudest regular client he had at Lake Haven lodge.

The wall’s lower half was frosted to preserve Mrs. Markel’s privacy, but the top half was clear and he could see his co-worker, Bethany trying to cover a giggle at his expense. Mason glared at her through the glass and she put her hands up in surrender. He couldn’t blame her though. Mrs. Markel had no shame, and it was funny as hell.

The desk phone rang and Bethany answered it, one hand rubbing her beach-ball belly. She was due with her second young any day now, and Mason was glad to see her smiling. She did that a lot. It was a sign things were okay. And he was always looking for those kinds of signs from her.

It was habit.

Bethany was one of the few humans who belonged to the Ouachita clan of big cats. She’d mated Renner, the first of their clan to break the no-mating pact. Now the entire clan was mated. All but Mason.

He’d been all for the change at first. Decided it was necessary after seeing how much stronger it made their clan. And at a time when they’d desperately needed to be strong. They’d been in for a battle, and Mason knew it, thanks to the handy-helper in his head, Destiny, an Elder from the Dirt Track Dogs who fed him information she thought the clan should know.

Renner, then Eagan, then their leader, Magic… all of them had mated under their own terms. Essentially changed the way big cats mate. At least Ouachita big cats. They’d decided on fully committed relationships. But the real kicker, the key ingredient, Mason figured, was that they’d mated humans, so there was no generational baggage for their females to overcome. The result: their cats were able to fully bond with their chosen mate, and their females were happy and healthy.

A miracle, so many of them called it.

Mason called bullshit, even if he was happy for them. He just didn’t believe in miracles.

It wasn’t until the last few matings when cats had paired with other cats and a bond still formed, that he’d been able to relax about their clan changing the no-mating pact. After all, it had been the selling factor when he’d considered taking the job at Lake Haven all those years ago.

“You wanna mate?” It was the first question the Ouachita clan leader had asked.

“No,” Mason had said easily, to the man they called Magic. He remembered thinking it was a strange name for a male so rigid.

“Ever?”

“Huh?”

“You ever gonna wanna mate?” The male flipped his dark hair out of his face and Mason saw the shadows in his eyes. Pain. Regret. The kind that settled in the gut and never quite went away. Mason knew it well.

“Never.” The answer left his lips like a curse. But back then, he’d been sure. He never wanted a repeat of what he had with Deana. Never wanted someone that close to him again.

Magic had nodded, seeming satisfied. “Then you can stay. You’re one of us now. Welcome to the Ouachitas where everything hurts but it’s better than the guilt of mating. Welcome to the Haven.”

A haven because the females were safe there. And the males made sure of it. Mason had found a place to heal on his own terms, just like Renee had said. He’d focused on his work in the spa, and on watching over his clanmates from a distance. And later, when he was ready, he’d connected with some of them. Shared a few beers. Shared a few stories. Laughed a little. Maybe even a lot. He’d made a life there for himself. Or so he’d thought. But recently, it felt like all that time he hadn’t really been living. Just existing at a less crippled level than when he first arrived.

And now he had other troubles to worry about.

Their clan had grown from the small group it was when he’d first joined. They were now eighteen strong, with one young and four more on the way. And they weren’t just big cats anymore. They had humans and bears and witches, or Sorcera as they liked to be called. Together, they had battled enemies who wanted to threaten the peaceful existence they’d built deep in the mountains. They were strong, made that way by the bonds of love Mason himself had helped grow. But now… now there was a threat that couldn’t be fought by sheer strength, and he didn’t know if Ouachita would come out on top again.

One of their own was in danger. Adira, a Sorcera of light, was losing her good magic, and if they didn’t find an Anchor for her by the autumnal equinox, she would transition to become the darkest of magic users, a dark Magei.

Mason tried his best to drown out Mrs. Markel’s moans and focus on his problem. His job as a masseuse for the lodge’s spa had always had a calming effect on his animal. The rhythmic strokes and pulls had a way of focusing his mind.

The equinox was in two weeks. He had two weeks to find a solution for the Sorcera’s problem. It kept him awake at night, thinking over ways to outsmart the darkness that was coming for her. Her coven sisters, Nastia and Mirena had both found a way to anchor. Nastia by
dying and using a magic spell to return as something akin to a vampire, and Mirena by finding her actual Anchor in her bear shifter mate, Theo.

But for Adira, there seemed to be nothing for her to hold to.

He wasn’t giving up though. Mason frowned, working his hands down Mrs. Markel’s spine. No, he wouldn’t give up on that female because she was special.

Mine, his cat growled, and Mason flipped the bastard an internal middle finger. He couldn’t be making a claim like that. Not when he’d already marked a female long ago.

“It’s such a shame you’re single, Mason,” Mrs. Markel said, drowsily. “A nice young man like you should have a lady to treat. You need a real nice one, you know? Sweet, but a little sassy. Just enough to keep you on your toes.”

Mason smirked at her suggestion. “Now, Mrs. Markel. Tell me, why would I need a lady in my life when I have you?
Hmm?”

She chuckled, waving him off with one bejeweled finger. “Ah, you big flirt, you. I bet your problem is you have too many ladies. Can’t settle on one. Am I right?”

That used to be the case. But it wasn’t that he couldn’t settle. It was that he didn’t want to. A long term relationship wasn’t good for him. And even though his cat liked to throw the word mine around whenever he thought of Adira, he wouldn’t be able to bond with her like she deserved. Or anybody.

And he’d had years of practicing keeping his distance.

After the pain he endured with his failed mating and all that went along with it, he’d decided he never wanted to be with just one woman ever again. So he’d had a strict one-and-done policy when it came to females. They warmed his bed at the lodge just long enough to satisfy them both and then they were off. The policy hadn’t failed him. Even after his clanmates started settling down.

Until his animal had grown restless with the one night stands. The damn lion wanted more. Started wanting what his brothers and sisters had. What he’d wanted way back when he was a young and his mom promised him things could be different for his generation.

And then she’d arrived. Adira, the Sorcera.

He’d thought her and her coven a threat when they took down the entire clan of shifted animals in an effort to prove their worth to the group. She’d gone one-on-one with his cougar, even as he tackled her to the ground, she’d used her magic to force his animal back into his body. And the way her light magic lit up the midnight sky like it was daylight earned her the nickname Sunshine. But for Mason, that name meant something else entirely.

At first sight, his lion had recognized something in her. She didn’t just light up the sky that night, taking his breath away and making him angry and excited at the same time. She lit him up inside. Peeled back shadows he’d carried with him forever, exposing hurts he’d sworn not to cover. Memories of the past he’d failed at keeping fresh. All that, without speaking a word to him. The light inside her speaking to his darkness without either of them giving permission.

 His Sorcera had what it took to roll back the darkness that still cradled his heart. And he didn’t know if he wanted her to or not. But he knew he needed to decide fast before her light was gone. Before she was gone.

“You wound me, Mrs. Markel. You think I have commitment issues?”

“I suspect you do, son.”

“Judgy,” he tsked, letting humor edge his voice. “Maybe there is someone. You don’t know.”

She turned her weathered face to him, one expertly drawn in eyebrow raised in interest. “Now, that would be interesting. If she exists.”

Mason barked out a laugh. “You don’t believe in her?”

Mrs. Markel settled back on the table with a sigh. “Oh, it doesn’t matter if I believe in her. It only matters if you do. So… do you?”

Believe in Adira.

He’d seen her go up against the ruthless Alley Cat gang from Memphis to help Ouachita. He’d watched as she worked up a spell to break Nastia’s ties to the mystics that sourced their magic. Watched her bring her sister back from death. And most recently watched her help Mirena ask the mystics to send her a child for her and Theo to raise.

Believe in her? Yeah, he believed she would help everyone but herself. When it came to finding her own Anchor, saving herself, something was jamming her up. And he couldn’t help feeling like it was him. Like he was the roadblock.

The thought made him lock his jaw in frustration.

And like a switch turned, his mind
was invaded with another presence. Destiny the Elder. He was finally starting to get used to her popping in and out of his mind like a weird second conscience. She was a bobcat shifter mated to a wolf from the Dirt Track Dogs pack. After training with Elders from another wolfpack, she’d become DTD’s
adviser. And somehow, she’d been the same for Ouachita, even though werecats didn’t traditionally have foreseers to advise them. Cats didn’t need them because they tended to be loners.

But Destiny never played by the
rules.

With her help, Mason had been
matchmaking with his clan, in hopes of making them stronger. And he’d succeeded. They were iron now. Unbreakable. Destiny had brought them the witches. Given them a solution that meant no shifters would mess with them ever again.

But there is still unfinished business, she murmured in his mind.

Mason recalled the disaster of a family meeting Mirena had called last week. Sorcera transitioned from light to dark magic in their twenty-fifth year unless they could find their Anchor, the person or object they attached to with such devotion it had the power to hold them to their light. Nastia had used dark magic before she found Thames, so she’d needed to outsmart the darkness to anchor. But Mirena had decided she’d found another way.

A baby.

Some old-ass tomes that belonged to their line of witches told of a way to use a baby born of love as an anchor to the light, and Mirena wanted Mason to give Adira a baby for this reason. She’d caught on to the way Mason watched her sister, or the way Adira behaved around him… something. But she had no idea what she was asking of him. And it wasn’t her place to ask anyway.

A baby.

As if having young could be a band-aid for your problems. He’d done that once already. And paid dearly for it. His heart had opened wide for his son, and now it was closed to the possibility of ever having another.

Mason, Destiny said carefully. Don’t believe that’s true. Don’t count anything out.

It was odd to hear her this muted. She was usually so in his face, he could hardly stand it. She’d been trying lately to respect his boundaries, and he appreciated it. But this wasn’t her way. Destiny always told it to him straight.

He heard her sigh in his mind. Fine. You want it straight? She’s yours. Adira. Everyone can see it. Your clan, your cougar. Even her. But you resist.

Yeah, this was more like it. Calling shit, shit. But her words choked him up bad.

You are running out of time. You’ll lose your heart again if you don’t find a way to open it up. Now is your time, Mason. Everyone you love is safe. Everyone except her. Everyone except you. Do something about it.

With that, she disappeared from his mind like vapor, leaving him with only his own thoughts and Mrs. Markel’s moaning.

Mason swallowed down the lump clogging his throat. What Destiny didn’t know was he was so close to just saying fuck it, and giving that Sorcera everything. All his ugly past, all his sordid future. Because that’s what a future with him would be. He wasn’t due a happily ever after like all the others. And if Adira attached herself to him, her future would be just as dismal.

He couldn’t bear to see her sunshine dull. She was too vital. Too brilliant. She wasn’t just a sparkle on a dark horizon. She was the whole damn sun.

As if he’d conjured her with his thoughts, he spotted her through the wall of the massage room. Half of her anyway. From the waist up, her long sleeved, buttoned to the collar shirt. Her wavy blond hair, looped at her temples in some old-fashioned hairdo she liked. He liked it too. Her brow was furrowed as she talked to Beth, twisting her hands again and again. She seemed… upset.

Mason’s therapeutic touch slowed on Mrs. Markel’s shoulders. “Think our time’s up,” he murmured, bringing her robe up around her. “You just relax until you’re ready to go now, alright?”

“Mm hm. Sure thing, Mason,” she said drowsily. He’d no doubt find her snoring in here when he returned.

He washed his hands in the sink, drying them quickly. But when he turned to look back at Adira, she was already gone. Beth stared toward the front of the spa at the heavy frosted glass door, frowning.

Something’s wrong, his cougar warned.

But he wanted to no-shit that fucker. Of course something was wrong. Everything was wrong.

The question was, how to fix it.