“Discover the truth.” What else could he do?
They had been about a half mile away from the hut to ensure privacy while they talked, although a few hundred feet would have been good enough, as noisy as the jungle was and as thick as the vegetation was. Now he rushed back on the narrow muddy trail that led to their place to check on Kat.
“When did you scratch her?” he asked, thinking that if it had been days ago, she would have changed by now, but if it was more recent, maybe not.
Maya didn’t say anything, and he glanced over his shoulder at her. “Maya?”
“Before she got the fever.” Tears flooded her eyes.
“Hell, Maya.” He didn’t say anything more than that. He could tell his sister felt doubly responsible for Kat, and now he realized why Maya had felt so morbidly worried Kat might die. Not only might she have turned her, but she might have killed her in the process. He wanted to reassure Maya that everything would be all right. That life would go on as it had before, but it wouldn’t. And they both knew it.
“She cares about the jaguars. It’ll be all right,” his sister said, sounding as though she was trying to reassure herself as much as she was him.
“Observing one and being one are not the same, Maya.”
They grew quiet as they drew closer to the hut. He could see Kat peering out one of the windows, looking in the direction they were coming from. Had she heard their conversation?
With all the jungle noises drowning out their voices, she couldn’t have, unless she had been turned.
Maya was afraid Connor would scare Kat to death as he charged up the creaky steps to the hut. As soon as Kat had seen them approaching through a speck of clearing in the jungle, she had quickly moved away from the window.
Maya didn’t know if the scent of her brother on his bedsheets had cloaked Kat in the feline scent or not, but Maya was certain she had smelled the scent on Kat. No matter what, Maya had hoped to put enough doubt in Connor’s mind to keep Kat around long enough for Maya to figure out a foolproof way to turn her.
“Time to go to the falls,” Connor said abruptly to Kat as Maya entered the hut. He was headed for Kat like a Panthera onca ready to lunge at its prey. Jaguars were much more a stalk-and-ambush rather than a chase-and-take-down predator, and right now he was stalking Kat as she backed up against his bed.
She eyed him warily, wide-eyed and not entirely sure she liked his aggressive stance, Maya thought. She smiled. Kat was perfect. She wasn’t trying to escape him, but she wasn’t fighting him, either. Which was probably a good sign. Like she was accepting him as her mate. At least Maya could hope so.
“Can you walk?” he asked. But he didn’t give her a chance to answer. He drew so close that he was pressed against her, smelling her, trying to determine if Kat had feline genes now or not.
Kat’s breathing accelerated, and Maya tried to see if Kat was attempting to take in his scent, too, and analyze it. But she couldn’t tell, not as tall and broad-shouldered as Connor was and the way he was blocking Maya’s view.
“I’ll carry you,” he said without waiting for Kat to answer.
“I’m sure—” she began, but he swept her off her bare feet and whirled around, doing this his way, stifling her objection.
He looked like an alpha jaguar that had selected his mate and was letting her know just how much he was in charge. And Maya loved it. She wasn’t sure Kat did, but she hoped Kat would love him in time.
“How do you feel?” Connor asked Kat as he carefully carried her down the stairs.
“As much as I hate to admit it, weak.”
He let out his breath.
Did he think that if Kat was still too weak from her bout with the fever, she couldn’t be a jaguar-shifter?
Maya sighed. Maybe Kat hadn’t been turned. Maya would have to bite Kat the next time with a small nip to see if that worked.
Chapter 9
The idea of cleaning up was all Kat should have cared about as Connor carried her out of the hut. She had really looked forward to washing in the waterfall ever since Maya had brought it up again. But the conversation that Maya and Connor had had in the jungle kept running through Kat’s thoughts, and she couldn’t quit trying to figure out what they meant by “them.”
“She cares about the jaguars,” Maya had said, but she sounded concerned.
“Observing one and being one are not the same,” Connor had responded angrily.
His response didn’t make any sense at all. Being one, as in being a jaguar? On the one hand, that’s what he had to have meant if he was responding to Maya’s comment. On the other hand, he couldn’t be saying that, so he must have been talking about something entirely different, and Kat had missed some of the conversation. And then they were talking about mates. Mates? If they had been Australian, she could have understood. But they were Texans and a long way from Australia.
The weirdest part? Maya had said she had scratched Kat. When? And why? The jaguar had, sure. But Kat didn’t remember having any other scratches that a woman might have made. Unless her long nails had scratched Kat inadvertently, and that’s what she had been referring to.
“I’m postponing my visit to see Maya in Texas,” Kat said quietly to Connor as he carried her down the steps and made his way along a narrow path through the jungle, the vines and trees and shrubs encroaching on the human-made trail. Although she imagined the jaguars probably also ran along here.
Wearing a backpack, Maya led the way. Neither she nor Connor said a word.
But Kat figured if Connor was that unhappy that she was going to visit with them further, it was best not to bother. She was surprised, though, when he didn’t respond right away and tell her how good an idea that was. Was he having second thoughts about her not visiting? Maybe he thought Maya would be so upset with him that she would be hard to live with if he didn’t let Kat visit.
Kat had never had a brother or sister to grow up with, and she admired the way the two always worked together, teasing each other with a fondness Kat had never seen between siblings. She both admired and envied their relationship.
Connor sighed heavily and looked down at Kat, frowning, his voice deep and committed. “You already agreed to go with us. To stay with us. To visit a while.”
Kat stared at him in astonishment. He hadn’t wanted her there. All along it had been very clear that he hadn’t. Why the change of heart all of a sudden? Still, she felt something more was wrong, and, well, she didn’t know anything about this man and his sister. Really. And the way they had been acting, she decided it was time to forget the whole deal. Although she would have enjoyed seeing their home, nursery, and tropical greenhouse—and observing how the cats thrived there intrigued her.
“I’ll have to take a rain check. I need to apply for a job and figure out where I’m going to go from there. I can visit later,” Kat said evasively.
Maya was listening, barely taking a breath and with her back straightening, waiting to see what Connor would say.
He didn’t hesitate to respond. “You can stay with us while you sort it out. Free room and board.”
He didn’t make it a suggestion. He was telling her what she would do.
“I have a reservation at the resort. I’m sure you and Maya had other plans until I came along. That will give you a chance to do whatever it was that you wanted to do. That will give you time to enjoy the rest of your vacation plans.”
“No,” Connor said flatly.
Her back stiffened.
“Since you never showed up for your reservation, the management at the resort will have given your room to someone else.” He shifted his gaze from watching where he was walking to her again. His golden eyes had taken on a darker cast. From the shadows of the trees or something else? “We didn’t have other plans anyway, so you’ll be welcome company.”