“Nah, I’m fast. It’ll be okay.” Curls of his dark hair fell over his brow, but it couldn’t hide the spark of adventure burning in his gaze. Would he really be keeping me out of trouble…or hunting me?
“So will I. No one looked out for me before, and I’ve always been all right.” Secretly I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, but life had done a fabulous job teaching me that the only person I could count on was myself.
As if he heard my thoughts, he added, “I won’t let you down.”
I wanted to believe him. “What about the other…wolves? If I’m what you say I am, then I’m guessing the other wolves would assume I’m here to kill humans, right?” These were words I’d never dreamed I’d be saying out loud. “They wouldn’t be happy to find you helping me instead of…you know…killing me?”
“They don’t have to know.”
I looked up at him, taking in his chiseled features. He looked sincere. Hell, he just saved my life. But why?
“Why would you lie to them for me? You don’t even know me.”
He jammed a hand into the front pocket of his worn jeans. “I wouldn’t lie, but I could keep you from crossing their path. It’s obvious you’re not like the other jaguar shifters we’ve seen, but if they see a big black cat, they won’t ask questions.”
I didn’t have a lot of choices laid out in front of me. My skin crawled and my joints ached. The moment I started to fall asleep I’d… I couldn’t wrap my mind around actually being a jaguar. Not yet.
I shook my head. “I can take care of myself. Thanks.”
Adam heaved a sigh as he stared up at the stars. “You don’t get it, do you?” He glanced down at me, meeting my eyes. “The Pack isn’t going to care who you are or that you’re filling up on burgers so you won’t kill squirrels—or worse yet, humans. They will kill you, Lana.” He ran his hand back through his hair. “Look, I can’t let that happen, and I can’t explain why. You don’t have to trust me, but I’m not leaving you alone.”
My heart fluttered at the thought of not being alone, but my street instincts kicked into high gear. I yanked my pepper spray out of my pocket, gripping the canister. “I appreciate your help back there in the diner, but I’ve got it from here. And if you come any closer, I swear I’ll blind you and take you out at the knees.”
He rubbed his hand down his face with a groan. At least I wanted it to be a groan. It almost sounded like he growled at me. “You know what, do what makes you happy. I’m crazy. You’re just sleepwalking, whatever. But tomorrow morning we are going to talk.”
He turned around and started walking away. I tucked the pepper spray back into my pocket, annoyed with the emptiness that spread inside of me as I watched him fade into the night. Taking a deep breath, I spun on my heel. My vision wobbled and exhaustion brought me to my knees.
Oh, God, it was happening.
Chapter Two
I waited behind a stack of boulders and stared down at my hand. It had tingled the second my skin touched Lana’s in that cafe tonight. Opening and closing it, I grimaced. It still looked like my right hand, but this hand had just fucked up my entire world. It could only mean one thing.
On the other side of the rocks, Lana’s curvy body contorted from a woman into a jaguar. The one creature we kept away from the Pack at all costs.
I never should have touched her. There had to be some kind of mistake. This woman could
As the Alpha’s oldest son, keeping the others safe fell to me. I didn’t hesitate to hunt and kill jaguars who threatened our territory. Taking them out felt justified, like self-defense. But Lana wasn’t a threat. I didn’t see a murderer when I looked at her. Instead, I saw dark eyes that made me forget my responsibilities, a strong spirit, and an addictive smile.
The bushes rustled, and I heard the wet popping sound of joints mutating, but not a single moan or even a soft cry. It hurt like hell when I shifted. How did she get through it so silently?
Careful to stay downwind, I crept around and found a sleek black jaguar with dark eyes—Lana’s eyes— snarling at me, pacing back and forth and swishing her tail. I couldn’t tell if she recognized me, but since Lana didn’t seem to have any memories from the new-moon nights as a jaguar, the cat probably didn’t share her human memories either.
She challenged everything I thought I knew about jaguars. I’d never seen a female jaguar before. Only the males shifted, just like werewolves, unless they bit a female and converted her. But Lana mentioned she started blacking out after she turned eighteen. I started shifting when I hit puberty. Maybe she was a late bloomer.
It didn’t explain why she didn’t remember. When I shifted, the wolf took over, but I was still in there too. Human thought processes and speech weren’t there, but I could remember my human memories, and likewise I could remember full-moon nights with my wolf.
So what was happening with Lana? She couldn’t have been born a shifter. It was unheard of. But if not, then how?
The jaguar moved without making a sound. When she turned away from me, I lost sight of her, and she melted into the darkness. I fought the human instinct to run, and concentrated on the scents around me until I caught hers. My wolf senses gave me a view of my surroundings even when I couldn’t see with my eyes.
While the jaguar wandered off into the brush, I went back to collect Lana’s clothes. Her shirt was ripped, but it looked like she got the rest off without too much damage. I gathered them up under my arm and headed south, following her trail. At the end of the night, I could leave them close by so she’d have them. Hopefully I could find a boulder or something to keep the bugs and snakes out.
The night wind shifted, and I stopped mid-stride. Frowning, I knelt down and took a deep breath. The jaguar scent grew stronger when I got closer to the ground.
Sagebrush snapped to my right, my head jerking in its direction.
Lana hadn’t gone that way. Her scent definitely led toward the south. Every muscle in my body tensed—alert and ready—as I scanned the darkness.
We weren’t alone.
If another jaguar hunted out here, it had better night vision than me. A huge disadvantage. Add to the shitstorm that my gun was back in my Jeep, I was miles from the city, and tracking another jaguar during the new moon with only my hunting knife. I was screwed. I should’ve been calling the Pack for back up.
But I couldn’t. If one of the other Pack members stumbled onto Lana they’d kill her first and ask questions later. I clenched my jaw, pushing the image out of my mind.
A couple more quiet steps to the east, and my brow furrowed. Nothing. No sound and such a faint scent now that I couldn’t be sure it wasn’t Lana’s. Did she come this way while I grabbed her clothes?
In the distance, bushes rustled toward the south. I waited, staring into the darkness toward the east, but the night remained silent. It had to have been her scent. Our Pack always watched for jaguars, and the only one I’d found was Lana.
And now that I touched her, I knew exactly who she was.
My fucking mate.
I shook my head in the darkness. Insane to even consider caring about her, but fate ripped that choice right out of my hands the moment our skin touched. Scientists and members of my own Pack believed that wolves mated for life, but I did my best to prove them wrong, one girlfriend at a time. The elders in our Pack called me stubborn and hardheaded, but the truth was I couldn’t imagine spending my life with one woman.
My father, our Alpha, often recalled tales of finding my mother at a dance and how the moment he touched her hand, the wolf inside of him howled and his spirit ached for her, binding him to her. He claimed he just knew, like his soul recognized hers.
It sounded like some romantic fairy tale bullshit to me. I’d touched plenty of women in my life and nothing crazy like that had happened.
Until tonight.
