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“That’s what I told him. I asked him if people normally steal dangerous animals from his zoo. I was surprised when he said only the wolves.”

Wade and her cousins raised their brows.

“Long story, Thompson told me. He hoped the same thing wasn’t going to happen to their big cats now.” Maya took a deep breath. “I saw something in Thompson’s expression. He looked really… sad. Like the animal really meant something to him. In that instant, I wanted to offer help in trying to locate the jaguar, which is crazy. I haven’t had any success until now in finding my own kind. I wouldn’t have a clue how to search for it.”

“We’ll get in touch with our sister, Tammy,” Huntley said. “She’s an Enforcer.”

Maya frowned. “Isn’t it a Guardian’s duty to protect the jaguars?”

“It would be, except that an Enforcer also goes after the people who commit crimes against jaguars. Once she locates the cat, if she’s able to, a Guardian will see that the animal is returned to the zoo,” Huntley said.

“Good. I hope she can find the jaguar—and soon,” Maya said.

Wade hoped so, too. Maya didn’t need the trouble.

“I don’t understand why the cats acted so badly at the club,” Maya said, annoyed.

Wade saw the smile Huntley gave her. “You’re wild, Maya.”

She frowned.

“That’s how the city cats refer to your kind.”

“My kind? Sounds derogatory.”

“Actually, most admire your kind. Most of us in the Service have adapted to being both so we can take care of situations in either our wilder environment or the other. There’s something to be said about the advantages of being both kinds of cat. Most city cats think the jungle cats are hot. Wild cats are rarer. Not as many shifters visit the jungle. They wouldn’t have a clue how to survive there. That makes you a mystery. Once you met other shifters at the club, you’d have a multitude of offers.”

“Of marriage?” Maya asked, wide-eyed.

Wade shook his head, thinking how very sheltered she must have been living with Connor and not mingling with city jaguars.

“Some men would be eager to touch the predator in you,” Wade added. “Some won’t be sure what to expect when they meet your kind.”

Wade could see that the untamed side of her nature was infinitely curious, and that she had been dying to see the club for herself.

“I see. Kind of.”

Wade took in her heavenly, sexy smell. He sighed, wishing they could take this to the bedroom.

Everett shook his head and paced like a caged cat. As wired as he was, he would be the next one out the back door to go on a hunt. They should be hoping none of the shifters at the club would come to Maya’s place, but the expression on Everett’s face said he was looking for a fight just to prove to anyone else that no one would be bothering Maya further.

“I’m off to check the grounds.” Wade went to the guest bathroom, removed his clothes, then willed himself to become a big cat predator, his muscles stretching, his skin turning into a fur coat, his teeth growing to savage lengths. He stalked into the living room as a jaguar.

His coat was a distinctive golden color like other jaguars, but he had more white on his belly and under his chin than David did. His brother’s fur was much more tan. All the cat shifters were considering Wade’s jaguar appearance. They liked to get a visual so if they saw him again, even if they couldn’t catch a whiff of him, they’d know he was friend, not foe.

David looked wishful that he could go.

They loved prowling in their jaguar halves, stretching their legs, moving unconfined.

Wade was just as eager to prove to anyone who had a death wish that Maya was to be left alone. With a low growl, saying he was on his way, he ran to the door where Everett quickly opened it for him.

* * *

Moving along the garden path, Wade stretched his jaguar muscles, searching the dark and looking for signs of anything moving.

Though he was trying to concentrate on smells and sounds and subtle movement, he couldn’t help thinking about Maya.

He’d been so busy working missions for the Service that he hadn’t seriously looked for any female jaguar in eons. Not until he’d thought Kat was one. Both he and David had been burned in past relationships. Most of the time, neither of the brothers discussed their jobs with the women they hooked up with. Most women didn’t like their secretiveness. In the few instances when they had explained the work they did, the women had rejected both David and Wade.

Wade took another deep breath of the hot, muggy air.

Scanning the gardens from the planters of herbs to the trees and from the shrubs to the flowering plants, he smelled basil and mint and other herbs. He observed the watering hole featuring fountains and ponds, saw koi swimming around in one of the ponds, and smelled the fish in the hot, humid breeze. Whirligigs spun around as the leaves of trees fluttered. His roaming gaze stopped when he spied the greenhouse, its glass walls framed in sage-green wrought iron. It was an intriguing focal point beyond the trees in the south half of the nursery.

He paused at the glass door and peered in, searching for any sign of movement among the plants. He spotted a tub filled with Amazon water lilies and a tall banana plant, which he recognized from the website photos. He could envision Maya there now. Smiling, he shook his head.

Seeing movement to his left, he jerked his head around and saw the striped tail of a house-sized cat as it scurried away, disappearing under the low-hanging branches of a pine tree.

Wade took another deep breath, smelled the cat, and continued his walk, hoping the only kind of critter he’d find here tonight was of the small variety. He really didn’t want to believe that anyone from the club would give her trouble here.

Chapter 6

Connor was certain that Kat would want to run as a jaguar as soon as he got her settled in their treetop cottage in the rainforest in Belize. But the trip and being five months pregnant with twins had worn her out. She smiled at him, then peeled out of her clothes, dropping them on a chair decorated in jungle-print pillows, and promptly slipped between the covers of the king-size bed.

Forget running in their spotted coats for now. He quickly yanked off his clothes, pulled out his cell phone and set it on the bedside table, and joined her. They snuggled, her eyes drifting closed, but he couldn’t help worrying about having left Maya by herself.

Connor sighed. Maya had wanted to give them a little time alone together, even though they had arranged for separate treetop cottages and he would have his private time with Kat anyway. But Maya was arriving tomorrow night, after the flight and bus trip earlier in the afternoon. It wouldn’t be long before she was safely here with them.

He couldn’t imagine that anything could have gone wrong with Maya being alone for only a day and a night. Yet, they hadn’t been apart much in all the time they were growing up, and he couldn’t help worrying about her.

He reached for his phone and opened it—not enough of a signal—and then sat it back down on the table. He glanced at his watch. Again.

Damn. Next time, Maya was coming with them.

* * *

Thompson had parked in the forest and stayed hidden among the trees surrounding the Anderson house and garden nursery. He waited for at least an hour before he finally made his way closer to the house.

He’d watched as Maya’s cousins followed the car she was riding in, so he knew she had a full house—the two visiting brothers and her two cousins, he’d learned from Candy while trying to discover who all the men were who seemed so protective of Maya.