No. Not until he’d captured and destroyed Durchenko. Once he was done away with, Javier could...
He stopped halfway down the long hallway and stared at the family photos that almost covered the walls. His gut clenched, and a deep, throbbing pain he knew all too well pierced his heart.
What the hell would he do once Durchenko was dead? He’d never thought past winning the battle over the leopard.
His chance of family was gone. Without Juan and Isabela, he would grow old alone-“How are you doing?”
Javier focused on the figure at the end of the hallway. One of the elders. “Better, sir.” He moved slowly, a little unsteady on the crutches. “I smell coffee. May I bother you for a cup?” Or a whole carafe?
“This way.” The elder disappeared through a doorway, and Javier followed into a spacious kitchen and dining room with a long table that seated a dozen. “Have a seat.”
Javier gladly sank into one of the chairs and lifted his throbbing leg onto the seat next to him, leaning the crutches against the table.
The other elder came into the kitchen, glanced at him, then went to the counter and refilled the coffee cup he carried. The first one set a steaming mug in front of Javier, then sat across from him.
The second joined them, sitting next to his brother.
Javier made eye contact with both, letting them know he was not intimidated, but looked away as he lifted his mug to his lips. He didn’t want them to think he was there for a confrontation. The sigh slipped out of him unbidden. He hadn’t had good coffee in ages, and this was good coffee.
One of the elders cleared his throat, drawing Javier’s attention.
“How long have you been on your own?” the one in a polo shirt asked. The other wore more casual clothes, jeans and a flannel shirt open over a T-shirt.
“Two years, sir,” he answered honestly. He had no reason to lie to these men. They’d taken him in, or allowed their only daughter to—if he was to believe what he’d seen in the photos.
“I see you found your bag,” the other said, giving a slight nod toward his clothing.
“Yes. Thank you.” He chose not to address the issue of privacy. After all, he’d essentially invaded the privacy of their home. No harm, no foul.
“It was Kelan and Reidar who fetched your vehicle when the police chief let Heidi know it’d been located.”
“I’ll be sure to thank them, then.” The talk was polite, but the tension from the elders was palpable.
“I also thank you for taking me in during my time of need. I am in your debt.”
The one in the polo shirt gave a slight nod of acceptance, but the other stared hard at him, unbending, and asked, “When do you believe you will be ready to be on your way?”
Javier took another sip of coffee. “I do not know, sir. This break is worse than any I’ve ever experienced, and it is not healing as fast. I’d hoped to be on the road by now, but, as you can see...” He motioned toward the crutches. “May I ask your names?”
“Burke,” the stern-faced one said.
“Fridrik.”
“Is Heidi around?”
Both men seemed to glare until Fridrik answered, “She needed to go to the clinic. She canceled all her appointments, twice, because of you.”
They didn’t pull any punches, did they? “I am in her debt. I would have died if not for her.”
“If not for the fact you were shot here,” Burke said, “any number of things could have befallen you.
Scientific experimentation among the more disturbing. How did you come to be in your jaguar form in our woods?”
Javier shook his head. He still couldn’t remember anything of the moments before the shooting.
“I’m not sure. I was driving across the state, had left Spokane that morning, heading to Seattle. The next thing I knew I woke up in Heidi’s kennel with my leg in a cast and a fierce headache pounding my brain. I assume I needed to run. Sometimes I pull off the highway to stretch my legs.”
“You travel a lot then,” Fridrik said.
“I do.”
“And what do you do for a living?” Burke inquired.
Revenge wasn’t very lucrative, so he gave the answer he’d been giving for the past two years when questioned by customs officers at whatever border he needed to cross to follow Durchenko. “I’m in finance.” Rather, he had a personal finance manager who made sure the insurance from his brother and wife, along with his military pension, never ran out. Made him a hefty sum, actually, even considering the current market. Not that money mattered beyond getting him from one point to another on the map.
The elders looked at each other. “Your car is nice, but not new,” Burke stated.
Javier swallowed hard, the coffee suddenly not sitting well in his stomach. He swallowed again, trying to dislodge the lump that had grown there, that always appeared when he thought of Isabela. “It was my...wife’s.”
“Your wife or your mate?” Fridrik asked.
Javier flinched and clenched his jaw.
“She is dead then?” This from Burke.
He gave a quick, jerky nod.
“Two years,” Fridrik guessed.
Again, Javier nodded.
“She was of shifter blood?” Burke asked.
“No. Until meeting Heidi, I had never known female shifters existed.” He sat up and pushed his empty coffee cup aside. “I was shocked when I realized what she was. In the twelve generations I’ve been able to trace our family line, there has never been a female born to anyone.”
“She is rare,” Burke said, “which is why your presence here is...suspect. I’m sure you understand.”
“I do,” he admitted gravely. “I mean her no harm. Like I said, I owe her my life.”
“You mate in pairs, then, as we do?” Fridrik asked, changing the subject back to Javier’s family heritage.
“It is the only way I know of to produce children for us.”
“Us, also. Though females are rare, they are born to our mates at times. But Heidi cannot shift as we do. She carries the gene and has some telepathic abilities we share as blood family, but that is all.”
“We didn’t know there were shifters outside of our race,” Burke added.
Javier pressed his lips together for a moment. “There are others, also.”
“Races other than yours and ours?”
“Yes. I know of at least one other.”
“What is it?” Burke’s face showed interest, almost excitement now rather than distrust.
“A snow leopard.”
The older man’s expression changed to one of almost sympathy. “You have had unpleasant dealings with it?”
“I heard your son, last night, ask if I was a rogue. I believe it is a term you use to identify a shifter who is...” He sought a word strong enough to capture the meaning.
“Dangerous,” Fridrik supplied.
Javier nodded. “The snow leopard is a rogue.”
Burke got up, poured Javier another cup of coffee and brought a basket of muffins to the table from the counter. “Help yourself.”
Javier accepted the coffee but ignored the muffins.
“Is this snow leopard the reason you travel alone now?” Fridrik asked after Javier had taken a long drink and set his mug on the table.
The caffeine was beginning to work its magic, and the heaviness seemed to ascend from his eyelids.
“Yes,” was all he was willing to say.
The elders looked on him not with sympathy but understanding. He acknowledged their silence with a slight nod. “You have a large family. I did not know that there were such units of shifters. Until two years ago, I thought Juan and I were the only two in the world. My mother died giving birth to Juan and myself, and our fathers were police officers. Both were killed in the line of duty when we were teenagers. I found journals from my grandfathers that charted our family history, and I might have some cousins somewhere, but I was never able to locate them. They are dead for all I know.”