Only In My Dreams

Delayed gratification has its place. This wouldn’t be it.

Halle Pumas, Book 5

Gabriel Anderson has accepted a unique position in the shifter world. He’s about to become a Hunter, one of the few trained and sanctioned to hunt down the rare rogue shifter dangerous to humans and shifters alike. There’s one catch: until his training is complete, he must hold off on marking his mate. No problem…after all, she probably couldn’t handle the sexual demands he dreams of making on her.

Her mate’s apparent desertion devastates Sarah. And his friendship with another woman threatens the bond they should be sharing and building. Maybe flirting with another man will make him sit up and take notice—and finally win Gabe’s heart. It works. Almost too well.

One touch of another man’s hand on Sarah’s tempting body brings every ounce of Gabe’s possessiveness roaring to the surface. He wastes no time making his erotic dreams of dominating her a reality—whether she’s ready for it or not.

If she’s not, the only place he’ll ever have her is in his dreams…

Warning: This title contains graphic language, explicit sex, deep blue eyes and spanking. The author is not responsible for any tall, dark and handsome men who slip into your dreams.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Samhain Publishing, Ltd.

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Only In My Dreams

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Copyright © 2009 by Dana Marie Bell

ISBN: 978-1-60504-826-0

Edited by Angela James

Cover by Natalie Winters

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

FirstSamhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2009

www.samhainpublishing.com

Only in My Dreams

Dana Marie Bell

To Mom and Dad, who probably shouldn’t ask me about the menthol thing.

To Dusty, who agrees to try some crazy things with me even when he’s skeptical. I’m sorry for that whole menthol thing, but I still think I suffered way more than you.

To the fans of the Pumas, I hope you’ve enjoyed the ride. And don’t worry, I’m not done with my shifters yet…

And to those who want to know, no, I will never tell the menthol story. Just mentioning it makes Dusty curl up in a ball and whimper.

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“Who the fuck are you?” Gabriel Anderson, sheriff of Halle Pennsylvania, and Marshal’s Second of the Halle Puma Pride, was one tired, cranky kitty. He stared at the stranger sitting in his living room and tried to remind himself that jail was a bad place for a cop to wind up in. The intruder had his feet up on Gabe’s coffee table, his cowboy boots twitching in time to the video game he was playing on Gabe’s Wii. Gabe kept his service revolver steady, the safety off, aimed at the intruder. To top it all off the man smelled like a shifter. “Because I like to know who the hell I’m arresting for breaking and entering.”

“Wondered when you’d get in.” The man’s face lit up, his hands waving the remote frantically. “Hah!

Gotcha, you son of a bitch.” The man paused the game and set the remote on the coffee table. “Name’s James Barnwell. And you’re Sheriff Gabriel Anderson, Second to the Marshall of the Halle Puma Pride.”

Gabe’s revolver dipped slightly. “Yeah. So you know who’s sticking your ass in jail.”

The man stood up, and
up.
His dark blonde head easily towered a good six inches over Gabe, and at six foot two Gabe didn’t consider himself to be a short man. “You really don’t want to do that.”

“Why not?”

The man smiled, the expression warm. His gray eyes twinkled merrily. “Because I don’t think the Senate would take kindly to having one of its own in jail.”

Gabe lowered the revolver but didn’t relax completely. “Senate?” Why would the Senate send someone to Halle?

The Shifters’ Senate was a loose conglomerate of all of the shifter species. It was traditionally headed by a Leo. The main purpose of the Senate was to see to it that humans did not learn of the existence of shifters, with the only exception being human mates. Over the years the Senate had also instituted certain laws that all shifters abided by, one of them being the sanctioning of new Packs and Prides. Every six years the different races would elect one of their own to a seat on the Senate. The current Puma Senator was an older man by the name of Harry Kirland who lived somewhere in the Midwest. Gabe had never met or spoken to the man. Max’s rule was too damn new, and the Senate had a habit of giving a new Alpha a settling-in period before more than congratulatory contact was made.

It was rare for a Senate representative to visit Halle. In all the years the Halle Pride had been here there’d only been two. One was for the Puma Senator’s representative to sanction the newly minted Pride. The other had been a Hunter stalking the rogue the previous Halle Marshal had eventually destroyed. Both times the man in question had been a Puma.

This man didn’t smell of Puma. He smelled of Bear. “Shouldn’t you be talking to my Alpha?”

“If I was here to speak to Mr. Cannon I’d be at his house, not yours.” The man’s smile turned to a grin.

“Besides, he doesn’t have a Wii.”

Gabe closed his eyes and prayed for patience. “Tell me you didn’t break into my Alpha’s house.”

“I didn’t break into your Alpha’s house,” the Bear parroted.

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Gabe shot the man a look and holstered his weapon. “How can the Halle Pride be of assistance to the Senate?” Thank God his gran had filled his head with proper etiquette, so he knew what to say even if his tone wasn’t properly respectful. He’d have no clue how to deal with a Senate representative otherwise.

Even if the one standing in his living room wasn’t exactly the kind of person he would have expected the Senate to send.

“By giving us their Second.”

Gabe blinked. He must be more tired than he thought. “Excuse me?”

“We need you to come with me.”

What?
No. No fucking way. He’d
just
come home after working in Philadelphia for years, gaining enough experience to take over the spot of sheriff in his beloved hometown. The town’s council had been thrilled to have one of their own in the position when Adrian Giordano’s father had retired. Gabe had discovered his mate only a week before, but trying to ensure that Sheri, Adrian’s mate, stayed safe had eaten into all of his spare time. They’d
just
finished cleaning up after the rogue Wolf who’d been stalking Sheri and making her life a living hell. Now that he actually had time to breathe he wanted to settle down and claim his mate. No way in hell was he leaving Halle even for a minute. Not unless he could take Sarah with him.

Just thinking about sweet, tempting Sarah was enough to stiffen his resolve. Images of the dark-haired beauty had been haunting him all week. Whatever the Senate wanted they’d have to find someone else to do it. “They can’t have me.”

The man shook his head. “I don’t think you understand, son.” He headed into the kitchen like he owned it. “You need more coffee, by the way.”

Gabe held back a growl. “I have a mate to claim.”

The man stopped and looked back at him. “I promise you, the task I need you for will take no more than six months. After that, you’ll return to Halle to live your life and claim your mate.” The smile was gone. The gray eyes were somber. “We lost a Hunter, Gabriel.”

“My condolences.” Gabe was sincere. In a lot of ways the Hunters were the elite cops of the shifters.

Their main purpose was to ensure that rogues were taken out before they could do damage to the human or shifter population. If the situation with Rudy Parker hadn’t been taken care of so quickly by the Poconos Pack Alpha, Gabe would have insisted that a Hunter be called in to deal with Parker and the Wolves who followed him. He probably should have from the start. If he had, Belle Campbell would never have gotten hurt and odds were Sheri wouldn’t have been kidnapped.

“Thank you. Daniel was a good friend of mine.” James headed towards the kitchen again. “But that means that this region is short a Hunter.”

Oh fuck.
Gabe’s shoulders twitched. A part of him was eager to hear more. This was like a small-town cop being picked out of the blue to become a US marshal. Another part of him wanted this man gone so he could take a shower, rest and fetch his woman home. He had plans for that sweet ass of hers, damn it.

“Why me? Why not one of Rick’s Wolves?” Or even another Puma, like Adrian, the current Marshal?

James smiled again. “Because they wouldn’t be
you
. You’re the one who’s meant to be this region’s
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new Hunter.”

“I’d have to leave Halle.” Gabe was surprised the words even left his mouth. He couldn’t seriously be considering this.

Could he?

“Halle would be your hometown, your base of operations. And really? Being a Hunter doesn’t affect your standing in your Pride, other than you haveto go when the call to hunt goes out. If that’s an issue with your Alpha, and I don’t think it will be, then you might have problems.”

“That still doesn’t answer the question.” He opened the fridge and pulled out a beer. “Why me?”

“Can I have a Coke?” Gabe handed James one. “Thanks. Do you remember when you tried to shoot out the tires on Parker’s car? When you figured out it was an RF jammer that was keeping Ms.

Montgomery’s call from reaching Dr. Giordano? And when you got the Pride together to make sure Parker and his rogues didn’t get away?”

Gabe blinked, shocked. How the hell did this man know all that? “Yeah. It happened only two days ago.” Two long, exhausting days ago. Gabe yawned, not caring how James took it. He was fucking
tired.

James took a long drink from the can. “Damn, that hits the spot. You started barking orders and the Wolves and the Pumas followed them.”

“So?” He belatedly twisted the cap off his beer and tossed it onto the counter.

The look James was giving him was full of amusement. “Do you think the Wolves would have listened to you if you’d merely been Marshal’s Second? A
Puma
Marshal’s Second?”

The bottle paused halfway to his lips. He’d sent one of the Wolves to check Max’s car and sure enough they’d found a radio frequency jammer. They were highly illegal, but not impossible to make, especially for a man who’d studied electrical engineering the way Rudy Parker had. Rudy had used it to keep Sheri from contacting Adrian, convincing her that he had Adrian and luring her out of the house. The Pack Alpha, Rick, had been shot trying to protect her. Gabe had tried to stop them, but it was too late. His shot missed the getaway car’s back tire and Sheri had been kidnapped.

The rogue Wolves were dead now, killed by Rick and his Pack Marshal, Ben Malone. Gabe had just finished disposing of the evidence. He was bone weary and not in any mood to deal with this shit. “I repeat. So?”

“Son, you were acting as a Hunter.”

Gabe snorted and took a swig of his beer. “I was not.”

“I think I know a fellow Hunter when I see one. Only a Hunter could make someone outside his species obey a direct order and
only
when hunting Rogues.”

Gabe pointed at James with the beer bottle. “That’s not true. An Alpha could make someone obey using their power.”

James shrugged. “An Alpha’s power is… different.” He toyed with the tab on top of the can. “How did
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you know to look for the RF jammer?”

“Logic. The cell phones of all of the men were on, but not a single call got through. There had to be a reason.”

“But an RF jammer? That’s pretty specific.”

Gabe shrugged. He was beginning to get irritated. “Look, I just
knew,
okay?”

James smiled at him like a proud papa. “Exactly.”

Gabe rubbed the glass bottle across his forehead. He was getting a headache. “This makes no sense.

Either you’re part of the hierarchy or you’re not. I’m Second. That means I’m part of the hierarchy.”

James chuckled. “Is that all? Of course you’re Halle’s Second! That won’t change.”

“How could it not? You said I’d be gone for six months and when I came back I’d be a Hunter.” And probably out of a job, damn it. He loved being sheriff.