Jaguar Fever

insisted, though Connor hadn’t liked featuring jaguars on their webpage in the first place, worried it would draw undue attention.

The human didn’t say anything further about the jaguar on her site, just continued to dance with her as if he was giving her time to come up with a good alibi.

The man finally smiled at her, then said, “The picture of the jaguar on your website.”

“Oh,” she said as if it finally came to her. “The jaguar in the greenhouse. What about it?”

“Where did you get the cat?” He continued to dance with her slowly, not tightening his grip on her as if wanting to shake the truth out of her or ensure she didn’t run away, but just as gentlemanly as before.

She should have jerked away from him, but she couldn’t. She had to know where this was leading. “I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

“The jaguar,” he said. “Where… is… the… jaguar?”

“Photoshopped,” she blurted. What else could she say? They’d borrowed a cat from somewhere?

Telling the truth was so much easier. Not believable. But easier. Telling a lie? It just snowballed into something totally unmanageable.

His smile said he knew she’d lied. “I verified that the picture was authentic. Real greenhouse. Real cat in greenhouse. Not Photoshopped.” He waited a heartbeat for her response. When she didn’t offer him any explanation, he pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to her.

Henry Lee Thompson, Agent for the Preservation of Wildlife, Portland, Oregon.

A picture of a gray wolf’s head was featured in

one corner.

She frowned and looked up at Thompson. “Portland, Oregon? What are you doing way out here?”

“I’m a zoologist for the Oregon Zoo. One of our jaguars was stolen. I was asked to look into it.”

“Do you often have problems with people stealing predators from the zoo?” she asked, trying to sound flippant, like she couldn’t believe anyone would be that stupid.

“Only the wolves,” he said.

Her eyes widened. “Wolves?”

His jaw tightened. “Yeah, but I’m here because of a missing jaguar.”

She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that someone was stealing wolves and jaguars from a zoo. Finally, she focused again on the real issue at hand, the only one that should concern her—that he thought she’d stolen the big cat. “Oh, and you naturally assumed my Photoshopped cat was your jaguar.”

“The cat was real. The setting was real, Miss Anderson. The jaguar looks just like ours.”

Her lips parted, then she frowned again. “So you’re telling me all spotted cats look alike? If you knew anything about them, you’d know the rosettes are uniquely patterned. That’s how scientists can tell them apart.” She almost said us apart because she was so angry.

Most humans would think jaguars all looked alike. Even though she and Connor were twins, they had differences in their jaguar appearance other than the shape of their rosettes. Her cheeks and chest had more white than his did, for one thing.

“Search the garden nursery if you want. You’ll find plenty of plants. Maybe a kitty cat or two. They’re kind of wild, but they catch mice, and we’ve found them curled up in the catnip and basil before. We don’t have any big cats there.”

“Big cats?” he asked, sounding suspicious. “I was asking about only one.”

She felt her cheeks warm. Maybe Connor had been right, though she hated to admit it. Maybe trying to catch a jaguar shifter’s attention on social networking sites was going to cause more trouble than it was worth.

“So where’s the cat in the photo?” Thompson

asked again.

Thompson was like a wolf, she decided. Just like the picture on his business card. All people had an animal type. Some were snakes, some sharks, some butterflies; others cats, doe-eyed deer, or bull terriers. Thompson was a lone wolf, and right now he wasn’t letting go of his potential prey.

The truth, then. “It was me,” she said, cocking her head. “I confess. I was having a bad hair day so I shifted, and one of the other jaguar shifters in the family snapped the photo. We all sat around looking at it afterward over glasses of ice-cold milk—cats like milk, you know—and decided it would be great for the website since jaguars love the jungle. The jaguar gave the greenhouse a wilder appearance and would catch a viewer’s attention. We’d make more sales that way, don’t you see?”

He nodded agreeably, a lifted brow saying he didn’t believe a word she said.

She smiled. “I like you, Thompson. I love jaguars. I wish I could help you find your jaguar and return her to the zoo.”

“I believe you. So where did you get the cat for your website photo?”

Chapter 3

“Make it brief,” Wade said, as he moved outside the club with Everett and Huntley. He knew Maya would dance with the other shifters, as much of a free spirit as she was. He didn’t like it, even though he knew he had no claim on her. He didn’t like that she was more vulnerable without her brother—or him—to watch over her.

He walked with her cousins into an alley between the buildings for privacy. “David can’t hold them all off for long.”

Everett folded his arms and scowled at Wade. “I thought you were going to talk her out of going to Belize, Patterson. Until the hunters are dead, our kind aren’t safe down there.”

“I can’t. She was right. Anytime we go south of the border, we’re at risk.”

Huntley growled, “Okay, so she said you’re going there. Are you planning to protect her?”

“I can’t stay with her. I have my orders. If I can take the hunters down, that’ll be the end of the problem.”

“So your orders were to go to Belize,” Everett said. “Not to stay here and dance with our cousin.”

Wade tried to keep his temper. He understood her cousins were concerned for her safety. “We had word that the buyer was meeting here with the hunters commissioned to locate and smuggle a cat out of Belize. We had no idea that Maya would be here, or that her brother and sister-in-law and she were going to be in Belize.”

“All right,” Huntley said. “We’ve got a job here, but if we can finish it and get there in time to help out, where would we meet you?”

“Our source there said the hunters are headed to the area between the Macal and Mopan rivers in one of the rainforest preserves in Central Belize. We’ll check on the resort where Maya and her family are staying once we get in. No flights are available until tomorrow.”

Everett glanced back at the club. “I take it you don’t know who the buyer is. We could at least take him down.”

“No. That’s why we’re here. To learn what we can about the deal going down before we target the men who are going after a big cat. We’ve been here for three hours already. Haven’t seen anyone who appeared to be making a deal with hunters.”

“One or more of the shifters here are sure to follow her back to her place,” Huntley said. “At least three damn male shifters in the club are interested in her. Hell, if she wasn’t my cousin, I would be, too.”

“What are your plans with her?” Everett asked, as if he was playing the role of her brother while Connor was away.

Wade would have told him to take a flying leap, which for jaguars was an easy task, but because he might work with these men on an assignment in the future, and because he was interested in dating Maya and these men were family, he said, “I want to get to know her better. I was able to help protect her, Connor, and his wife in