Wade grunted at her, sounding like he wanted her to stay. She couldn’t, in the event someone came along who was investigating what had happened to the men. She also couldn’t leave all this for Connor to handle. The quicker they took care of it, the better.
She heard water running over debris at the edge of the river some distance from her. A woof made her remember the dogs! She growled under her breath. She and Connor had to free them, too. They couldn’t leave the dogs tied up where another predator could kill them, yet she wasn’t sure how they’d manage that as the dogs would want to chase after the cats.
Dragging the body with her, she didn’t think she’d ever reach the first of the rivers. She waited, watching for any signs of movement—people boating or swimming or fishing. Not this late at night. Unless it was a jaguar fishing.
If she had a flashlight, she could shine it over the water and see the red glow in the crocodiles’ eyes. She heard something slither nearby and a splash.
Shit! She was bringing the crocs dinner, but she didn’t want to be on the menu.
Chapter 14
Connor could not believe the dangerous mess his sister was in. As stubborn as Maya was, he knew he couldn’t budge her from protecting Wade and the other cat. Which put her in even more danger.
Now he’d have to face another female cat who was just as stubborn and would be just as much of a problem when he wanted to take care of this on his own.
“You’re not going with me,” Connor said as soon as he’d dressed on Maya’s deck and found Kat waiting there for his and Maya’s return.
The fact that he was alone said volumes.
“What’s happened?” Kat said, her brows knit in a tight frown.
“Maya’s in trouble. Wade, too. The female jaguar roaming around in our territory has been tranquilized, along with Wade in his jaguar form. There are two dead hunters in the vicinity.” He rushed back to their cottage for a pair of drawstring pants for Wade, Kat hot on his heels.
“Of course I’m coming,” Kat said, sounding annoyed.
He scowled at her over his shoulder as he pulled a pair of pants out of his drawer for Wade. “You’re pregnant. It’s too dangerous.”
“Maya can’t manage by herself. You can’t manage this all alone, either. I’m going with you.” She tucked her dark hair behind her ears, folded her arms, and looked about as furious with him as she could.
“I love you,” Connor said frowning, “and I don’t want you to come with me.” She smiled so brightly that he groaned. “Kat, I really want you to stay.” From her stubborn expression, he knew Kat wasn’t changing her mind.
“We have to run the whole way back. The men were hunters. There are bound to be more of them. They’ve got dogs.”
“I’ll keep up.”
“All right. Shift. It’s the only way you’re going.”
She started to strip out of her clothes. As a jaguar, she could move even faster than he could. “Stay close to me.”
She nodded. Once her blurred form had shifted into a jaguar resting on all paws, he hurried out to the deck. He climbed down the ladder, while she leaped from the deck. Then they were off.
God, he hoped they’d get back before anything else could happen.
***
Wade couldn’t believe it when he saw Maya come to his rescue, saw the feral look in her eyes when she pounced on Bettinger. He nearly had a heart attack when he heard the hunter return and shout at her, trying to distract her before she killed the jaguar shifter.
With the utmost difficulty, Wade had lifted his head and growled, attempting to get the hunter’s attention before he shot Maya, giving her just enough time to attack the human. After that, he’d had virtually no strength except to somehow manage to get into the tree.
Wade knew when she left him alone in the tree that she intended to get rid of Bettinger’s body before anyone came looking for him. Wade hadn’t wanted her to go. If she was caught dragging Bettinger’s body off, she’d be hunted down. All of them would. Not that she wouldn’t be killed if she was found here with a couple of dead men.
Connor was taking too long. Where the hell was he?
And Maya hadn’t yet returned. He knew the river wasn’t far off, but dragging a 175-pound man had to be slowing her down.
The dogs began to bark again. Someone or something had to be in the vicinity where they were tied up or caged.
He wanted to roar for Maya, to warn her that someone could be coming, but he knew she could hear the dogs as well as he could. Roaring would draw unwanted attention. Wade didn’t want anyone investigating this location, not when he was half dead to the world, with the other man dead on the ground and the female jaguar sleeping like the dead.
Maya was so quiet, blending in so beautifully with the foliage, that at first he didn’t see her return. Her spots rippled like a river current as she stalked toward the site. She glanced up at him, and he felt welcome relief that she was fine.
She listened, ears twitching, eyes focused on the direction her brother had taken, tail slashing the air back and forth, back and forth.
He was certain she was trying to decide whether to move the second body or wait until her brother arrived. He wanted her to stay. Not having a crystal ball, he couldn’t know what the best option really was. But he wanted to keep her in his sights.
Then he heard voices in the distance where the dogs were, and his heart did a triple jump.
Maya didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the human by his gun belt and began dragging him toward the river. If she managed to get him away from the female jaguar and Wade, the hunters wouldn’t likely find them, not as dark as it was now.
Lion Mane was the problem. He could follow the dead men’s scents and know not only that Maya had moved them but also where she’d taken them.
The brush rustled nearby, and he cocked his head to peer harder. Hell, it was Kat in her jaguar form. Where was Connor?
***
Maya was thinking a mile a minute. The human was just as heavy as Bettinger had been, and although she was able to dump Bettinger in the river, she didn’t think she could do the same with this one.
“Bettinger!” a man yelled. “Mylar!”
Breathing suspended, she paused. The man shouting was still near the barking dogs.
She was struggling to drag the body toward the river when she saw a flash of golden fur and black rosettes in the plants nearby. Kat.
Glad it wasn’t Lion Mane in jaguar form, Maya took a relieved breath. She released her hold on the body, ran across the dead man’s chest, and greeted Kat. The two rubbed whiskers, then they worked together to drag the body to the river. A croc snapped near Maya, and she let go of the dead man and whipped around. It looked to be about thirteen feet in length but was no match for her powerful bite.
His long leathery needle-nose jaws snapped again at her while she hopped back and forth, keeping her distance until she could go for the head and avoid his razor-sharp teeth. With a well-aimed pounce, she grabbed his head with her mouth and crushed his skull, tossing him aside to help Kat finish hauling the human to the dark river where he would be piranha and croc bait.
The crocs in Belize normally didn’t attack humans, and like jaguars, they had a tendency to ambush prey at night, stalking them in the water. But when it came to fighting jaguars? No contest.
Kat rubbed against Maya’s side, and the two licked each other’s muzzles in camaraderie again. Then they turned and raced back to the site where the female jaguar and Wade were, and where Maya’s brother had undoubtedly arrived by now.
When they reached the site, Connor had already hefted a sleepy female jaguar into denser brush. She was beginning to stir.
They would wait and protect her until she was awake enough to take care of herself. Then Maya saw Connor below the tree where Wade was resting, watching all of them.
Connor looked stern—worried, too. He’d hastily dressed in khaki pants and a long-sleeved shirt and his thick, sturdy boots. All he’d brought for Wade was a pair of black drawstring pants.
When Connor’s gaze turned from hers to the half-asleep jaguar shifter, she swore her brother muttered a curse. He still didn’t like the man, but she hoped her brother would come around.
The problem was that jaguar males were totally territorial. Connor didn’t have male friends. It wasn’t part of his nature. She suspected Connor would not be happy about any male crossing the line into his perceived territory. Even if the male was on their side. She hoped that Connor could overcome it enough that when she took a mate, he’d get along with him.
She sighed.
Connor said to Wade, “I take it you’re Wade Patterson. Come on. Wake up and get dressed.”
Looking groggy, Wade stared at Connor before turning his attention on Maya. He gave her a sleepy grin. Then he grunted at Connor.
Not a great start to developing a super family relationship.
Kat stayed back away from the situation to keep from stirring things up between the two males.
Maya jumped onto the branch and licked Wade’s face, greeting him in a jaguar way. She shouldn’t have done so in front of Connor because she knew it aggravated him, but she did it to try and stir Wade into action.
Wade smiled, showing off those great teeth that could take down an adversary or dinner, and nudged her face with his nose in a mutually caring greeting back.
“Come on, shrug it off,” Connor ordered, sounding like he was ready to shift and knock the male cat from the tree. “Don’t make me come up there to get you.”
Maya was certain that Wade would have shifted already if he could. His lethargy was holding him back.
Finally, Wade shifted and she tried not to look at his nakedness again. Well, not really hard. He was glorious, all sleek muscles and sinewy strength, powerful even in human form.
Connor scowled at him. “You could have leaped down from the tree branch first.”
That proved how much difficulty Wade was having in processing what he needed to do. He shifted back into his cat form, looking virile. He glanced at Maya as if feeling a little guilty that he was being so thickheaded. She sympathized, hating that he was feeling so out of it.
He licked her face as if wanting to annoy Connor and let her know he was interested in her, and then he leaped to the ground, forcing Connor to step back. He did it on purpose! She knew it and smiled. Touché! Wade was showing his alpha-ness even in his drugged state.
She didn’t expect Connor to offer a slow, easy smile that said he was impressed with the big cat’s reaction. Maya took a settling breath and stayed where she was until Wade shifted, slumping on his bare butt on the ground. Connor tossed his extra pair of pants on Wade’s lap. “Get dressed. We’ve got to get back to the resort.”
Poor Wade. He looked like a sloppy drunk who was trying to get a foot into one of the pant legs, the wrong pant leg, and wasn’t making any progress. Connor watched him for what had to be the longest amount of time he could stand, glanced up at Maya, then shook his head as if to say, “The things I do for you.”
Connor reached down to tug the correct pant leg over each of Wade’s big feet.
She tried not to watch. Really she did. The whole scenario was almost comical.
Thankfully, Kat had left the show to watch over the female jaguar nearby.
Connor cinched the drawstring and offered Wade a hand up. Wade didn’t appear to have the strength to hold on to Connor’s hand firmly enough.
“Fireman’s carry,” Connor said, not asking a question but stating a fact.
The significance was not lost on her or on Wade, as she could tell from his brief nod. Connor could have just grabbed him and thrown him over his shoulders, but he was giving him the respect of telling him what he intended to do first.
“Maya?” Connor said, glancing up at her.
She jumped down from the branch and stood next to him on the ground and rubbed his leg in a way of showing gratitude.
“Kat?” Connor added.
Kat grunted as the female jaguar rose to her feet, shook off the effects of the drug a little, and sauntered groggily away.
Then Kat and Maya led the way back to the resort while Connor hoisted Wade over his shoulders.
“Thanks,” Wade said, his voice dark and slurred.
“I owe you one,” Connor said.
They owed him more than that as he’d helped them out more than once. It was about all Connor could manage, considering how much he disliked another male invading his territory.
“Didn’t… know… Maya… sister,” Wade managed to get out.
“Save your breath,” Connor said, annoyed.
Maya wanted to hear what Wade had to say and gave Connor a quelling look.
“Thought… Kat… shifter… too.”
Connor snorted.
“Did,” Wade said as gruffly as he was able. “Couldn’t… have… two,” Wade said, forcing the words out.
Maya looked back to see her brother’s expression.
Connor frowned at her. “Sleep,” Connor said to Wade, his word a command. “We’ll talk later when I know the drug’s not speaking for you.”
Maya continued to move through the jungle on silent cat paws, Kat running beside her, believing Wade had succumbed to sleep. Until he said, “Not… drug.”
She caught Connor’s elusive smile.
Wade. Alpha male all the way. He wouldn’t let Connor command him or have the last word either, no matter how worn out he was.
She loved her brother. He could be as hardheaded as the rest of them, but he still had a heart of gold. And Wade, well, tonight she definitely wanted to keep him close.
When she reached the tree where she’d hidden her clothes, she jumped onto the branch, climbed higher until she was on the branch where her clothes were stashed, and then shifted and began to dress. She said in a low voice, “Go, take him back to the resort.”
Connor shook his head.
Stubborn man, but protective. He wasn’t letting her out of his sight until he had her back at the cottage. Kat wasn’t leaving her, either.
“I’m staying with him at my cottage,” she warned Connor. She would take care of Wade. She wanted to ask him so many questions… when he was awake enough to respond. She had to know where his brother was. She was certain Wade was just as concerned about David and his whereabouts.
“No,” Connor said.
She had expected Connor to say no, but she wasn’t going along with it. “Okay, so he stays with you and Kat?”
Connor grunted. “Hurry up, Maya.”
“I’m hurrying!” She pulled her shirt over her head. “Or Kat and I can bunk together, and you can sleep with Wade.”
Chapter 15
“Get real, Maya,” Connor told Kat.
She stifled a laugh. She could just imagine the two large men sharing a bed, fighting over the covers, and shoving each other away if one encroached on the other’s side of the mattress. She laughed this time because the image proved just too precious.
Dressed and ready to return to the cottages, she climbed down from the tree and looked at Wade’s sleeping face.
“Okay, so what is the plan?” she asked, as if letting Connor rule the roost, although he wasn’t. Not this time.
He didn’t say as they continued to walk through the thick vegetation until they saw the first of the cottages, Kat’s and Connor’s. Kat leaped onto their deck, shifted, and slipped inside the cottage. She reappeared wearing only a long pale-blue T-shirt.
The first thing out of Kat’s mouth was, “Is he okay?”
That got a disgruntled grunt from Connor. Maya was sure that wasn’t the question he wanted from Kat. Not when he was feeling somewhat unsettled about her
interest in another jaguar.
Kat cast Connor an annoyed look and folded her arms. “You know, if you’re always going to be worried about me and other men, you’ve got a problem. Deal with it.” Then she stalked smartly inside their cottage and slammed the door with a resounding thunk.
“Hmm,” Maya said.
“Don’t say a word, Maya,” Connor warned as he made his way with Wade through the jungle to Maya’s deck.
“You know she has a point.”
He gave his sister a cutting look. She tilted her head to the side. “So you stay with Wade, and I stay with Kat, and we have an all-night girl party where we dish impossible alpha males. Or you can go to bed with Kat and make it up to her, and I’ll…”
“You’re not going to bed with Wade Patterson, damn it, Maya.”
She sighed. “I didn’t say I was.” Not that it was any of her brother’s business. “But I want to talk with him.” They climbed the steps to her deck. She unlocked the back door, and they walked inside. “We’ll be fine. He’s too sleepy to be any trouble.”
As if they hadn’t been there before.
Connor carried Wade up the stairs to her bed and dumped him on the mattress, rough enough to see if the guy really was sleeping or just playing possum.
Wade didn’t stir a muscle and appeared to be out for the count.
Connor turned his hard gaze on Maya. “You tell me the minute he wakes. All right?”
She nodded. She would, truly. But there was awake and there was awake. As long as Wade had a hint of sleep about him, she wasn’t calling Connor.
Besides, she knew how Connor would make it up to Kat. Maya wasn’t about to interrupt them. Despite what he thought he wanted, she was certain Connor wouldn’t appreciate it if she ran over to their cabin and stopped them in the middle of getting heavy and hot to tell him Wade was awake.
She could imagine Kat being angry with Connor all over again. And with Maya this time, too.
***
When Wade woke enough from his drowsy state to have some idea of his surroundings, he felt a woman’s arm draped over his naked waist as he lay in a soft, white bed, a ceiling fan spinning above. He was lying on his side, his back to her chest, when he took a deeper breath and breathed in her sweet scent.