“What do I mean?” David headed into the bathroom and shut the door. “What I mean is that the day was breaking, and you still hadn’t left Maya’s cottage. Does that mean she’s given up on spending time with other shifters?”
“How would I know?”
“Not a certainty, eh? Maybe you should have stayed longer.”
“What did
“Are you kidding? I went looking for that female jaguar that had been hanging around the treetop cottages. I found her and discovered she was all jaguar and not one iota of a shifter. You know how my luck has been of late. She batted me a couple of times in playful interest and was definitely in heat. She rolled over on her back, displaying her chin and her throat, showing submission and that she was totally receptive to breeding.”
Wade gave a gut-wrenching laugh.
“Yeah, laugh about it, will you? I’m trying to fight off a willing jaguaress, and you’ve got the real thing in a nice soft bed.” The shower came on and the shower curtain rings slid across the rod as David pulled the curtain closed.
“Sorry,” Wade said, still laughing.
“Yeah, sure you are.”
“I’m going to run to the main lodge and tell Martin what we’ve learned. I’ll pick us up something to eat,” Wade said.
When he reached the lodge, he called Martin. “It’s Wade. Any word about who the buyer is?” Wade asked, his voice dark and dangerous. He was ready to kill a couple of shifters and the buyer, too.
The market for rare animals was similar to the drug market—if people didn’t buy them, the market wouldn’t exist. Unfortunately, the exotic animals market was just as profitable as selling drugs. The difference? Smuggling the animals out of their countries was illegal. Selling them was not, with the right permits. And some sellers just didn’t care about the illegality as long as they were paid.
Some of the animals were near extinction. What a screwed-up world they lived in.
“No word here about the buyer. You’ll need to see if you can get the information out of the men down there. Once you discover the buyer’s name, we’ll take it from there. And Wade?”
“Yeah?” He knew what Martin Sullivan, the director of the special elite force, was going to say even before he said it.
“Try not to kill the smugglers this time before we learn who they work for. Okay?”
“Okay.” But his boss knew the score. If the men started shooting, all bets were off.
“Maya,” Connor said, opening the door to his cottage as she joined him and Kat.
She held up her hand to silence her brother. “I told you Wade and David are nearby, searching for the smugglers hunting a jaguar.”
“Closer than nearby,” Connor said, nearly growling as he stood next to the couch where Kat had taken a seat.
“You’re right. Wade came to see me last night. Both brothers came, but only Wade spoke to me.”
“I suspect more than talking was going on.”
She gave him her crossest look. “He told me about two of the men we met at the club, who are at the resort where David and Wade are staying now.”
Connor’s frown deepened. Now she’d gotten his attention.
“The men are in on this whole operation of trying to capture a jaguar.”
“Shifters are involved?” Connor said, coming away from the couch.
“Yeah. But Wade and his brother still don’t know who the buyer is.”
Connor paced, then turned to face her. “Do they know you?” Connor sounded both angry and worried now.
“Yeah. I danced with one of them.”
Connor let out his breath in exasperation.
She frowned at him. “The other also wanted to dance with me. I didn’t know they were wild jaguars.”
“Wild?” her brother asked.
“That’s what Wade said we’re called because we return to the wild on a regular basis. It means they know how to get around the jungle, understand the dangers, and can skirt them. It also means they can help the hunters locate jaguars more easily because they can smell their trails.” Then Maya had a brilliant notion. “Actually, shifters tracking the jaguars works well for all of us. Not for the jaguars, of course. But the shifters hunting them will know we’re shifters, too. As soon as they smell our scent, they’ll leave us alone.”
Connor frowned at her. “Except that you said the one was interested in you.”
Two, but she wasn’t mentioning that again.
Connor walked over to the patio door and stared out at the shadowed jungle, which sported every shade of green—from emerald to olive to sage.
“I think Maya’s right. Once they smell we’re shifters, they’ll leave us alone. No way would they want to try to hunt us and take us hostage,” Kat said. “I’ve been too sick since we arrived to do much exploring as jaguars, but I’m feeling so much better now.”
“David and Wade are searching for the men as we speak. So really there are five of us against the four men involved in trying to grab a jaguar,” Maya said.
“We’ll go. During the night, we can stick close to the cottages when hunters won’t be about, looking for jaguars. Or at any time of day, we can head deep enough into the jungle until we can detect no human scents, and then we’ll shift,” Connor said.
Connor packed a backpack with bottles of water and sunscreen and insect repellent. Once they were ready, they took off into the jungle as humans, following a path for about an hour, and then headed into the dense foliage away from any human smells.
Much later, they reached their destination—dense jungle untouched by mankind. The three of them took in the beauty of the green foliage, the colorful tropical birds, and a waterfall cascading over a velvety moss-covered rock wall surrounded by green vines and giant leaves.
Maya breathed in the orchid-scented air, stretched, and wanted to lie down and roll around on the jungle floor, gathering up the scents on her skin to relish being back in a rainforest atmosphere, to listen to the jungle sounds, and to feel one with nature, even in her human form.
Connor had been like a worried nursemaid, constantly asking if Kat was okay, but Maya was glad to see him smiling at Kat’s reaction to being at home in the jaguar environment. He’d made the right decision to take Kat to the resort before she was too far along with the pregnancy. They meant to take videos of the place while they were here to enjoy later when Kat had the urge to return to the jungle and they couldn’t go there. Except they couldn’t capture the scents so unique to the jungle.
They climbed into a tree and began to strip, placing their clothes in the single backpack.
Maya and Kat shifted, then jumped to the ground. Connor stored the bag, tying it firmly to a branch, and then shifted and joined them.
For three nights, they returned to this spot of paradise, soaking in the sights and jungle sounds, the waterfall, the river, and stretching their legs as jaguars.
They didn’t see any sign of Bettinger or Lion Mane while they stayed away from any areas where they sensed humans had been. They slept as humans half of the day in their treetop cottages. At least, Maya slept half of the day. She didn’t think Kat and Connor were doing much sleeping. She hadn’t seen Wade or David since she’d encountered Wade in the deck shower, but she’d felt as though the brothers were watching them sometimes from the trees, hidden, quiet, protective. Maybe it was only wishful thinking on her part. Wade had to be busy with his work, not idly watching her while she played.
Every night after they returned from their trek, Maya silently prayed Wade would show up again at her cottage, but she was giving up hope. She couldn’t quit worrying that he or David might have gotten into some kind of trouble with the hunters, though she reminded herself how vast the jungle was and how Wade and the hunters could be anywhere. And that both of the Pattersons were well trained for this kind of job.
