sprinkled with the Milky Way. It was getting darker, and they still had a long way to go, so most of the people were turning on their headlamps.
“Keep talking. Make a lot of noise,” the guide told them. “The cat will stay away. Just don’t run.”
They should stand still if approached by a jaguar. The tour guide opted for getting them back to the resort before the jungle became inky black like the cave had been in sections.
Maya wanted to tell them to be quiet so she could hear where the jaguar was and ensure it was one of her own family that had spooked everyone. But the tourists tromped through the jungle with so much noise that holding their tongues wouldn’t have mattered. She assumed the jaguar had to be a shifter. No all-jaguar cat would come this close to a bunch of noisy humans.
She tried to listen for sounds of a jaguar moving about in the brush that only her jaguar hearing would pick up.
She lifted her chin and smelled the breezeless air, noticing that the temperature was dropping with the coming of night. Nothing but the smell of wet earth, of leafy plants and fragrant flowers, of…
She turned her head just as a woman screamed several yards ahead of her.
People raced along the path far in front of her. She’d fallen behind again.
“Walk!” Francisco commanded them. “Don’t run. If you do, the jaguar will chase you.”
It was too late. Everyone was running to avoid the imminent attack of the jaguar. No one wanted to be the last one trailing behind, the weakest link ripe for the predator’s picking.
Except for Maya. She couldn’t run after them, not with the heavy pack on her back. She wouldn’t run, knowing that was the worst thing anyone could do. Cats loved to chase. And pounce. Then bite. And she was the last one left behind. Easy prey.
A hiss and a growl emanated from somewhere in the jungle, but she couldn’t see what was going on. She stood still, alone now, heart pounding, her blood rushing through her veins.
The guide would get the panicked people back to the resort, hopefully not losing anyone else in the process but her.
She wanted to ditch the backpack and shift. As a jaguar, she would feel a whole lot less threatened.
People were still making a full-scale ruckus as they fled north of where she was, screaming, wailing, and stomping the ground.
“This way!” the guide yelled as some of the panicked people ran in the wrong direction in the dense jungle. She could imagine them being lost forever.
She barely breathed, concentrating on the world close to her, the knocking sound of a frog on a leaf nearby, something scurrying around on the rainforest floor near her foot, something slithering on a branch near her head. She moved then, walking in the direction of the cottage.
She walked slowly. She would not run; she knew better.
Another hiss. A low, growling rumble off to her left. She wanted to stop. She wanted to go. She wanted to shift, feel her balance with the jungle, and be part of it, not stand out like a human did.
A figure moved out of the leaves as if it had been part of the vegetation. “Kat,” she breathed, feeling relief at once to see her sister jaguar, to smell her scent.
Kat grabbed at the backpack strap dangling in front of Maya’s waist with her jaguar teeth and gave a pull. Her urgency made Maya walk quickly with her toward the cottages.
“Where’s Connor?” Maya asked, as if Kat could tell her in her jaguar form.
Kat kept tugging, kept moving her in the direction of where the tourists had disappeared. Kat wouldn’t leave Connor behind unless he told her to go with Maya. So where was Connor? Facing off another jaguar shifter?
Maya’s heart was thudding hard, and she could hear Kat’s heart pounding just as quickly. Connor had to be keeping another jaguar away from them. She kept looking over her shoulder, but Kat wouldn’t let her stop. Her mission, it appeared, was to get Maya safely back to the cottages.
Fine. Maya picked up her pace, hurrying now to reach the resort. She’d make sure she got Kat safely to the cottage and insist she stay behind. Then she’d shift and return to help her brother.
They were getting closer to the resort. Connor still hadn’t joined them, but Maya was walking as fast as she could, watching that she didn’t trip over the liana crisscrossing the path back to the cottages.
Kat was running alongside her until they heard their guide say, “Wait. Don’t go to your cottages or the lodge yet. I’m still trying to get a head count. Two are missing.”
“Can you go around through the jungle and reach your cottage without anyone seeing you?” Maya asked Kat, her voice low.
Kat bumped her with her head and rubbed her leg. Maya took that as a yes. “Okay, go. I’ll let Francisco know that we’re all fine. That you and Connor already returned to your cottage.”
She waited for Kat to leave, but instead, Kat jumped into a tree to watch her.
Maya sighed. “Okay, so you stay and protect me.” She began walking toward the guide, though she still couldn’t see him through the jungle foliage. “Connor and my sister-in-law already returned to their cottage,” she hollered. “I’m coming!”
That’s all she got out before she felt a claw swipe at her arm. She cried out in shock. Her shirtsleeve shredded, and she felt slices of throbbing and stinging pain streak up her arm. Before she could react to the angry cat, the large furry form hit her body, taking her down, his teeth bared.
“Lion Mane,” she gasped, grabbing at the skin at his throat, knowing she couldn’t keep him from biting her with his powerful jaws.
Just as quickly, another jaguar slammed into him, knocking him off her, snarling and hissing.
The cats’ angry hisses were loud enough that the tourists must have thought Maya was being attacked and torn to shreds. She could hear running feet as the people scrambled to get to their cottages and safety.
She couldn’t catch her breath as she scooted away from the fighting males. Kat had jumped down from the tree and was standing protectively over Maya, who couldn’t get to her feet because of the weight of the backpack. Before she could get it off, Lion Mane ran away.
Connor poked his nose at her, sniffing her arm and licking at her. “I’m okay,” she said, reaching up with her uninjured arm to stroke his head. Lion Mane hadn’t hurt her badly, just scared the crap out of her. Kat purred next to her, her head bent to inspect the damage.
“All right, everyone’s accounted for,” the guide said, watching for her.
Her heart still thundering, Maya hurried as fast as she could to the guide. She had to let him know she was safe. “Are you sure everyone’s back?” she asked. “You said someone else was missing.”
“Another person whose wife said he’d fled to their cottage before I could count him.”
She could sympathize with the man—truly. “Is the wife okay?”
“She’s about as growly as the cat. Are you okay?” Francisco asked, looking Maya over. “I… I thought maybe it attacked you.” He was waving a stick in his hand, but it wouldn’t have done much if he’d wanted to get the big cat off her.
When he looked down at her sleeve to see that it was torn and blood trickled down her arm, he gasped.
Shaken but trying to appear as though the experience hadn’t rattled her, she clasped her hand over the wound. “Just a scratch.” By morning the claw marks would have faded to scratches.
“Let me take care of it,” Francisco said. “I’ve got a first-aid kit.”
“No, that’s okay. My brother’s got medical training. He’ll see to it.”
“If you’re sure…”
“I’ll be fine.” She hurried to her cottage to clean up, change, and meet Connor and Kat for dinner. They’d eat, and afterward they’d make plans to search for David and Wade, hoping to God that Lion Mane and his companion in crime hadn’t already killed them.
She unlocked her door and walked inside, then shut the door, locking it. She tugged off the backpack and dropped it on the floor, relieved to finally have the weight off her back.
Turning on the light, she could see the claw marks down her left arm. Not pretty. She rummaged through her suitcase, and when she realized she didn’t have any bandages, she hurried to the bathroom.
