But now Kat and his sister were up to something he assumed was related to Maya’s idea of trying to secure a mate for herself with Kat’s help. And that could get both women into a lot of trouble.
Back stiff and not looking in the least bit intimidated, Kat lifted her chin. “We thought we might do a little social networking to see if we could locate another cat-shifter.”
He shook his head and motioned to the jungle. “I left dinner back there because I wanted to be close enough that if you had any trouble, I could be here quickly. I’ll go cut it up and bring it to the fire.”
“What did you get?” Maya asked, following him as Kat hurried to join them.
“Pirarucu,” he said, then added for Kat’s benefit in the event she had never heard of it, “one mother of a catfish.”
“Good, I’m starving,” Kat said. “I could eat the whole thing.”
“How big this time?” Maya asked, grinning. She knew as well as he did that Kat wouldn’t be able to eat even a tiny fraction of it.
But they would cook it and leave it for the natives who were following them. Maybe even the jaguar, if he cared to eat the remains, although Connor wasn’t feeling magnanimous about giving him a free meal.
“Wow,” Kat said when she saw the giant fish lying in the dappled shade of the trees. “That’s a catfish?”
“Leftover from prehistoric times,” Maya said. “I think that’s the biggest one you’ve ever hunted, Connor.”
Kat looked at the fish with such awe that Connor smiled. Then she looked up at him with such disbelief that his smile broadened.
“Wow,” she said. “How could you have managed such a huge fish? Why even in your jaguar form, it was bigger than you.”
“It wasn’t easy,” Connor admitted, not knowing why, when he normally wouldn’t have acknowledged to a woman—any woman—that he had struggled to handle any task. “But in the end, my teeth are much bigger.”
“And we’re persistent,” Maya said, “if we want to eat.”
“I fished when I had turned into a jaguar that one time, but I didn’t go after anything this huge. The fish I pulled out was… little. I don’t think I would have tried to hunt something half as big as this,” Kat said, still sounding astounded.
“No need to. You were hungry, caught what you needed, and that was that,” Maya said. “So, do we all carry him back to the campfire or carve him up here?”
“Let’s carry him to the campfire. We can skin him there,” Kat said. “I was hungry but if I could freeze the rest of him, this would have kept me in meat the rest of the year. What will we do with what we can’t eat?”
Connor took the most weight as they all three carried the catfish to the campfire, where they set about skinning him. “The natives who are following us will have a feast.” Then he looked up at Kat. “About the networking sites for meeting those of our kind… we have to be careful that no one ever learns what we are. I heard you mention Facebook and Twitter. Any open forum like that could mean real trouble for us.”
“Couldn’t we disguise it enough? I don’t mean to say that we would have a jaguar lover’s dating site or anything.”
He couldn’t help smiling at that. Maya chuckled.
For the first time, he felt real relief. Kat was accepting them as family, ready to help Maya find a mate. Although that could be a dangerous venture, he appreciated that she wanted to assist his sister. And of course, Maya was beaming with enthusiasm. But he was still against doing anything like that on the Internet.
Wondering about the jaguar following them and if he had some connection to Kat, Connor asked, “Do you have any correspondence from that Wade Patterson?”
“Several emails.” Kat let out her breath. “Why do you ask?”
“He comes here to the Amazon on trips. Contacted you because you were writing about jaguars and interested in locating me, a man who has a pet jaguar.”
“You don’t think he’s a shifter, do you? The jaguar following us?”
Connor stabbed at another chunk of fish. “An American had corresponded with a woman who was interested in jaguars, lured her into the Amazon, and intended to show her the jaguar cats and get her in touch with me? How? The jaguars don’t make regular appearances for anyone’s sake. And I don’t recall ever having smelled another male shifter in the area.”
Kat let out her breath. “I don’t think he’s a bad guy.”
“What if this Wade Patterson was planning on selling you off as a hostage? Taking advantage of you himself? What if he is a shifter and thought since you’re so fascinated with jaguars, he would turn you himself?”
But then why not meet her in Florida first? Get to know her better, then turn her there?
Unsettled, Connor fisted his hand around the knife as he continued to carve up the fish.
“What if this Wade Patterson is the one following us now? Angry that he had missed his opportunity, that another shifter was claiming you instead? And here I was one of the same jaguars that Wade had enticed you to come to the jungle to see.”
Now that would be ironic and would serve Wade right for luring her here in the first place with dishonorable intentions.
“I don’t know,” Kat said, looking thoughtful and frowning as she stared into the fire.
Connor would find out all about the man as soon as they had the chance to read over her emails. Then he would look into the man’s background in Florida. But he had one other thought that had bothered him, too. “What if he’s one of Gonzales’s lackeys?”
She chewed on her bottom lip, then shook her head. “I don’t think so. Wouldn’t he have already relayed where we were to Gonzales? I don’t think we’d be hiking free out here if he worked for the drug lord.”
Connor had to agree with that and nodded stiffly.
After cooking and eating as much as they could of the catfish, Connor called out to the natives he was sure were hidden from their sight, motioned to the fish in a gesture of giving, and then situated his backpack over his shoulders and grabbed Kat’s, too.
“I can carry my own weight,” she said, “now that I’ve had a nice rest.” She looked determined as she reached out her hand to seize the strap of her bag.
He shook his head, not about to allow her to carry the pack. “We have a long hike ahead of us. Besides, we’re on our first date. Remember? I wouldn’t think of letting you carry your own backpack while we’re on a date.”
“In an environment like this, everyone has to carry their own weight. And really, I am better,” she said as Maya looked at her, appearing concerned Kat might not make it, either.
“We can set up camp along the way if we need to,” Maya said. “Hell, I might not be able to make it to the city before it gets dark. And I haven’t been recovering from being so sick. Appreciate Connor’s gallantry. He doesn’t often offer it.”
“Oh?” Kat said, sounding like either she didn’t think Connor could ever have been anything but gallant, or maybe she was fishing for a story.
Connor smiled a little at Kat.
Maya immediately began sharing the tale with way too much enthusiasm. “We were swimming in a Texas lake when a snapping turtle grabbed my big toe. Scared the shit out of me and hurt like the devil. As soon as I started screaming, Connor shot out of that lake like water demons were after him, leaving me behind, I might add.”
Her brows elevated, Kat glanced back at Connor, who shrugged.
“I didn’t know what was getting her. I figured it was every man for himself, although we were only eight years old at the time. If I’d been a jaguar when it happened, I would have made mincemeat of him.” His voice commanding, he said to Maya, “Tell her the rest of the story.”