Chapter 25
Drifting in and out of a lightless room, Maya felt warmth seeping through her blood, felt him hold her close. Dancing, so light on her feet that she was floating, their bodies as one. Moving, kissing, she licked her lips. He was touching her breasts, her waist, her buttocks, embracing, holding her tight, murmuring in her ear like a soft, warm summer breeze. No words, just a whispered brush of breath. Wade, she tried to whisper back, but she couldn’t form the word. Only in her mind, his name drifting like a wisp of cloud just out of reach.
Wade. She wouldn’t try to say his name then as she felt his warmth surround her, his love, his comforting embrace.
Maya stretched lazily as a cat—wondering when she’d shifted forms—and bumped into a clinking metal mesh. At the same time she smelled the odor of cat urine mixed with bleach and water, felt the hard concrete floor beneath her and the warm breeze flowing over her. Immediately she opened her eyes. The cat pee smell was strong, burning her eyes. Where the hell was she?
She tried to get to her feet, but all she could do was lift her head and stare at her cage. Drugged. She’d been drugged like Wade had been in the jungle. Only she wasn’t in the jungle. He wasn’t with her. She was in a big-cat run somewhere surrounded by a grassy meadow, trees dotting the landscape, and a heavy pine forest surrounding the area close by.
She stared at the steel, twelve-foot-tall mesh that surrounded the run, the rough concrete slab beneath her, the wooden box behind her that looked like a den to curl up in, and a slight overhang to provide shade. A security light pierced the darkness. She noticed another run next door and saw a female jaguar sleeping. The one from the zoo?
Then she remembered the truck accident, Thompson being injured, her attacking or trying to attack Lion Mane, and him shooting her with a tranquilizer dart. She’d nearly bitten him, then collapsed, a cat ready to rip him apart and then too sleepy to bother.
A man cleared his throat, and she swung her head around, totally thrown off by the fact that he’d been watching her and she hadn’t known it. The drug running through her system had to be making her so clueless—so… unjaguar-like. She should have sensed him right away, though she did notice that the breeze was carrying his scent away from her.
She looked him over closely now—the lean tall form of him. About thirty-five, she guessed, his gray-blue eyes sharp, his dark brown hair mussed by the breeze. He was placing his weight more on one leg as though he was favoring the other. Then she saw the cane tucked behind him. Twice already, he’d moved, and each time he winced as though his leg was bothering him. But what really caught her eye was his face—half of it was scarred horribly, like cat claw marks running from his forehead down his throat. He was lucky to be alive after an encounter that left him scarred like that.
Had it been one of the big cats he’d bought to have hunted?
Served him right, if so.
His gaze remained on her, his mouth curving up slightly. “Jim said you’re a wild cat, straight from Belize. Now I don’t have to rely solely on that poor excuse for a jaguar.” He motioned toward the other cat.
Jim Bettinger? He couldn’t have sold her to this man so that he could have her hunted down. If the hunter killed her, she would shift into a human and he knew it. What was Bettinger thinking?
“He said you’re real special. That you killed his brother and one of our smuggler friends. So we’re going to ensure that you have a chance to really show what a tiger you are. Pardon the mixed cat reference.”
She wanted to tell him that whatever cat had clawed him so grotesquely deserved to be rewarded. But she imagined the animal had died long ago.
Maybe his injury was the reason he arranged for the hunting of big cats—to get back at the one that had disfigured him so badly.
“He promised me a big male, too. And I’ve decided to throw in the other female. Three hunters at one time. It’ll be the hunting sensation of the year.”
Maya glanced at the other cat. Had Bettinger managed to capture the female jaguar his brother lost in Belize? Bettinger had said Maya was a wild cat. So did that mean the other wasn’t? Was she the zoo cat Thompson was searching for?
Maya’s advantage over a jaguar that didn’t shift was that she knew something of the way hunters thought. She was both a hunter and a human. If she were strictly a cat, she’d try to avoid the hunters. That’s what they couldn’t anticipate: Her unpredictability. The hunted hunting them.
“The price is going way up on you, missy,” the man said proudly.
She heard someone coming, and he turned and smiled at the person just out of Maya’s view.
As soon as she saw him, Maya growled low.
Jim Bettinger, aka Lion Mane, smiled broadly at her as he ran his fingers over the steel mesh caging her in. “Hello, beautiful cat. So we meet again.”
The tip of her tail twitched, and her eyes narrowed as she focused fully on him. She so wanted to take care of him just as she had his brother.
“Better not get in her way,” the buyer said. “She looks like she’d love to rip you apart and eat you slowly.”
“Hmm,” Jim said, running his hand along a corner pole. “She’s welcome to bite me any time, Gunther. But just know this, beautiful cat. I bite back.” He turned to Gunther. “Make sure she’s locked up tight in there.”
“You think she’s going to walk out on her own?”
“Trust me,” Jim said, looking back at Maya. “She’s capable of anything. And if she can’t do it on her own, she might very well have help. So you need to ensure she’s not going anywhere.”
Jim glanced up at a point on the cage above her head. “We’ll be watching you.”
She looked to see what he was talking about, presuming the place had security cameras. It did. She didn’t give a damn who was watching, though. If she could buy her freedom any way possible, she was doing it, even if that meant she had to shift in front of the camera.
“I think you’ve done a good job,” Gunther told the shifter. “I can tell just from the way she was watching you and now me that she’s intelligent. She’s going to be just perfect for the hunt.”
“Yeah, she is,” Jim agreed.
“Want some dinner? This calls for a celebration. I’ll have some nice bloody steaks sizzling on the grill in no time.” Gunther limped off.
He would be an easy kill, Maya thought, though they needed to send him to jail for all of his illegal killings, since he was human.
Jim still watched her through the cage and made a kissing motion at her.
She shouldn’t have done it, but she wanted to scare the cockiness out of the son of a bitch. She leaped to her feet, thankful she could manage to shake off the grogginess this much, bounded across the run, and slammed against the cage door with her paws, growling and snarling, forcing Jim to jump back and let out a cry of distress.
Gunther laughed. “Told you she’s smart. You’d better not be anywhere near the hunting grounds. If she could, I’d bet my lands she’d target you even if someone else was firing a gun at her.”
Jim was watching her warily, and Gunther had stopped to observe her with a sly smile on his face, amused that the she-cat had frightened the superior hunter.
“Your ass is mine,” Jim said, his eyes full of hostility.
“Only if you pay for the chance to hunt her,” Gunther warned, the smile sliding off his face.
Jim nodded. “Let’s get those steaks.” Then he turned and headed in the direction Gunther was going.
She watched them disappear past the cement-block wall that blocked her view. She wondered if anyone was monitoring the cameras. If she could knock out a light overhead, they couldn’t see her. But she’d have to shift first before she could use something on the light.