Catamount Ridge by Aubree Lane Page B

resigned Ice was to being the last of his kind, with their survival on the line, he had little choice in the matter. Instinct forced him to try.
    From the start, Ice’s clan was lost. Inbreeding had degraded their genetic fitness past the tipping point. Survival drove Derek, Cindy and Marigold to do the unimaginable, and the trio paid dearly for their warped decisions.
    Ice understood the need for diversity. He never mated with Cindy. Any offspring they produced would have been less able to cope than themselves, but finding a wild mate was difficult. Other mountain lions sensed his deficiencies and rejected his overtures. The impossible happened when an older female visited one of his scrape sites and began to yowl. Neither was the others’ first choice, but since they couldn’t afford to be picky, Ice mounted her when she moved beneath him.
    After giving birth, Derek killed the protective female to gain control of her cubs. Then he took it a step further and devised a plan to get rid of Ice. In lion form, Derek let Cindy wreak enough havoc upon his body to send him to the hospital. The duo pegged Ice as the deranged cat, then sat back and waited for Jessie to do him in.
    Their plan almost worked. If Ice hadn’t readily agreed to the vasectomy, he would be pushing up daisies instead of canoodling with his captor. Derek and Cindy weren’t the smartest apples on the tree. Once Ice told his side of the story, the guilty party and their plan had been easily unraveled.
    Ice pulled Jessie in a little closer. “When I’m able, perhaps I should scout around for a female to adopt them.”
    Jessie leveled him a frosty glare. The typical male response was to let the woman do it. Her dad hadn’t shirked his responsibility after her mother left. Jessie barely tolerated her mom, but she would be a daddy’s girl for the rest of her life.
    “Suck it up, Buttercup,” she scolded. “They’ll only tie you down for about eighteen months. I think you’ll survive just fine. They have half your DNA. The cubs might not be able to shift, but somewhere inside, they have a touch of humanity. Let them form a familial connection with you. There are no guarantees, but they might come back around to see you someday.”
    His blue eyes turned soft. “It doesn’t sound like it’s only my cubs you’re talking about. As I was drifting in and out of consciousness, I heard something about your kids moving to town permanently.”
    He was right. Jessie thought she was doing the right thing by leaving her boys with their dad, but she was wrong. She was grateful they weren’t around during the worst of it, but now that life had settled down, she wanted them back. It didn’t matter that she didn’t have a home of her own. Grandpa Cade loved his grandkids. For him, the noise and broken lamps didn’t hold a candle to storytime before going to bed, or the look of excitement when he taught them something new. Gracie even offered to care for them while Jessie was at work. The retired teacher wasn’t used to her world being so quiet. Knowing her boys, they would give the stern taskmaster a run for her money and that thought alone made Jessie extremely happy.
    Loveable cousin Sally volunteered to help fill in the gaps.
    Where her relationship with Ice would go was anyone’s guess. Mountain lions were solitary by nature. It stood to reason that trait would stay strong within the shifter population. Finding a new clan wouldn’t be easy, but at some point, she wouldn’t be enough for the wild cat.
    With his mesmerizing magnetic gaze, it was difficult to gauge how much he cared for her. The Guardianship had a theory on the subject and didn’t think she had cause to worry. They believed that once you were aware of the power, it was easier to see through the cloud.
    Jessie hoped that was true, but in the long run it didn’t matter.
    Ice was a shifter and mountain lions didn’t mate for life. They needed their solitude and a large area to roam. The ridge