She gave him her crossest look. “He told me about two of the men we met at the club, who are at the resort where David and Wade are staying now.”
Connor’s frown deepened. Now she’d gotten his attention.
“The men are in on this whole operation of trying to capture a jaguar.”
“Shifters are involved?” Connor said, coming away from the couch.
“Yeah. But Wade and his brother still don’t know who the buyer is.”
Connor paced, then turned to face her. “Do they know you?” Connor sounded both angry and worried now.
“Yeah. I danced with one of them.”
Connor let out his breath in exasperation.
She frowned at him. “The other also wanted to dance with me. I didn’t know they were wild jaguars.”
“Wild?” her brother asked.
“That’s what Wade said we’re called because we return to the wild on a regular basis. It means they know how to get around the jungle, understand the dangers, and can skirt them. It also means they can help the hunters locate jaguars more easily because they can smell their trails.” Then Maya had a brilliant notion. “Actually, shifters tracking the jaguars works well for all of us. Not for the jaguars, of course. But the shifters hunting them will know we’re shifters, too. As soon as they smell our scent, they’ll leave us alone.”
Connor frowned at her. “Except that you said the one was interested in you.”
Two, but she wasn’t mentioning that again.
Connor walked over to the patio door and stared out at the shadowed jungle, which sported every shade of green—from emerald to olive to sage.
“I think Maya’s right. Once they smell we’re shifters, they’ll leave us alone. No way would they want to try to hunt us and take us hostage,” Kat said. “I’ve been too sick since we arrived to do much exploring as jaguars, but I’m feeling so much better now.”
“David and Wade are searching for the men as we speak. So really there are five of us against the four men involved in trying to grab a jaguar,” Maya said.
“We’ll go. During the night, we can stick close to the cottages when hunters won’t be about, looking for jaguars. Or at any time of day, we can head deep enough into the jungle until we can detect no human scents, and then we’ll shift,” Connor said.
Connor packed a backpack with bottles of water and sunscreen and insect repellent. Once they were ready, they took off into the jungle as humans, following a path for about an hour, and then headed into the dense foliage away from any human smells.
Much later, they reached their destination—dense jungle untouched by mankind. The three of them took in the beauty of the green foliage, the colorful tropical birds, and a waterfall cascading over a velvety moss-covered rock wall surrounded by green vines and giant leaves.
Maya breathed in the orchid-scented air, stretched, and wanted to lie down and roll around on the jungle floor, gathering up the scents on her skin to relish being back in a rainforest atmosphere, to listen to the jungle sounds, and to feel one with nature, even in her human form.
Connor had been like a worried nursemaid, constantly asking if Kat was okay, but Maya was glad to see him smiling at Kat’s reaction to being at home in the jaguar environment. He’d made the right decision to take Kat to the resort before she was too far along with the pregnancy. They meant to take videos of the place while they were here to enjoy later when Kat had the urge to return to the jungle and they couldn’t go there. Except they couldn’t capture the scents so unique to the jungle.
They climbed into a tree and began to strip, placing their clothes in the single backpack.
Maya and Kat shifted, then jumped to the ground. Connor stored the bag, tying it firmly to a branch, and then shifted and joined them.
For three nights, they returned to this spot of paradise, soaking in the sights and jungle sounds, the waterfall, the river, and stretching their legs as jaguars.
They didn’t see any sign of Bettinger or Lion Mane while they stayed away from any areas where they sensed humans had been. They slept as humans half of the day in their treetop cottages. At least, Maya slept half of the day. She didn’t think Kat and Connor were doing much sleeping. She hadn’t seen Wade or David since she’d encountered Wade in the deck shower, but she’d felt as though the brothers were watching them sometimes from the trees, hidden, quiet, protective. Maybe it was only wishful thinking on her part. Wade had to be busy with his work, not idly watching her while she played.
Every night after they returned from their trek, Maya silently prayed Wade would show up again at her cottage, but she was giving up hope. She couldn’t quit worrying that he or David might have gotten into some kind of trouble with the hunters, though she reminded herself how vast the jungle was and how Wade and the hunters could be anywhere. And that both of the Pattersons were well trained for this kind of job.
For two nights in a row after supper when Kat and Connor were at it again in their cottage (Maya was certain the jungle did something to their libido), she went on a run as a jaguar by herself just a short distance from the cottages. The overwhelming need to see if Wade had been anywhere nearby was making her crazy. The longer she didn’t see him, the more anxious she was becoming. Besides, Connor had agreed that the hunters wouldn’t be out hunting at night. It would be dark soon.
She was only about two miles from the resort, not having meant to wander that far, when she heard a man shout, “The jaguar’s down! We got her! Whoa, watch out for those claws! She’s not out!”
Maya’s heart jumped.
She… female… the jaguar that had been seen around the cottages? Maya glanced behind her. It couldn’t be Kat. Unless the ones who grabbed the cat weren’t shifters and didn’t realize Kat was a shifter. But Kat and Connor couldn’t have come looking for her yet. And Connor would have been with Kat. It had to be the non-shifting female jaguar.
Maya was afraid to go to her brother for help. What if the men took off with the jaguar, and she and her brother were too late in returning to rescue her?
Her heart drumming, all Maya could think of doing was rescuing the jaguar herself. She’d get close, then wing it.
“Holy shit! Where’d he come from?”
A roar met her ears. She paused. It wasn’t her brother’s roar. Was it David or Wade trying to rescue the female cat?
She wasn’t in the Service or elite forces Golden Claw, but she damned well wasn’t going to let the men take the cat from her environment. She’d kill them first.
She moved silently through the jungle, her spots rippling across her muscles and making her golden skin appear to mix and meld with the dappled leaves of the rainforest. Lifting her nose, she paused to smell the air. There was no breeze, the air perfectly still.
Dogs began to bark some distance away.
“Shoot him!” one man said.
“I don’t have any more tranq darts!”
“Kill him, damn it!”
She ran full out, no longer using caution.
“Wait, got one!”
A dog yelped. The cat roared again.
A pop sounded. The cat screamed.
A chill raced along her spine. Then she got a whiff of wet smelly dog, and her hackles rose. She could easily kill a dog, though she preferred not to. They could smell her scent, and they’d probably give chase if they weren’t being confined. No matter what, she had to get to the cats.
After climbing onto a branch, she leaped from one tree to another, then jumped to the ground again and ran through the dense foliage until she was close to where the men were speaking and stopped dead in her tracks. Hidden by leaves and vines and two fallen trees, she quickly scanned the area.
Beyond her hiding spot, she saw two jaguars down.
Wade Patterson. She barely breathed. He was lying on his side in his jaguar form, breathing in and out, his heart rate slow.