Maya’s responding call sounded like the sweetest music to his ears. But the report of a rifle firing near her location forced his adrenaline to run hot through his veins. He and George leaped into action and headed for the distant sound of a rifle firing again and a man yelling, “Woo-hoo! Almost got you!”
The sound of an ATV’s engine was headed away from Wade and George as the hunter tried to run down the jaguar he’d spotted.
Before Wade could go after the hunter, a growl from his left flank warned him that another cat was nearby. The deepness of the growl meant it was male.
Wade swung around to face the jaguar, just as he got a whiff of his scent and Bettinger attacked. Jaws clashing, claws slashing, snarling like wild cats, they came to blows with Wade fighting as he never had before.
While Wade battled the jaguar, George took off after the hunter armed with the rifle in the vehicle.
Lightning illuminated the forest in an eerie, ghostly way as the water poured from the dark heavens.
The two cats broke off, snarling and hissing. Another shot was fired. Damn it.
Wade was waiting for the cat to make a fatal move, but Bettinger seemed to be of the same mind. Wade had thought Bettinger would be eager to chase after Maya and kill her. But maybe Bettinger would take even greater pleasure in killing Wade first and then going after the she-cat.
Wade sprang with his powerful legs and landed on the jaguar’s right side as Bettinger scrambled to get away. He bit into Bettinger’s flank.
Bettinger swung his paw at Wade and missed, then stood partially on his hind legs, claws extended, and scratched at Wade.
Wade swung away, leaping out of the path of Bettinger’s claws, and circled him, tail swishing.
A crash in the distance caused both cats to look in the direction of the noise. The ATV was no longer moving, but the engine was still rumbling.
Wade pivoted to face Bettinger before his focus returned to the fight. Wade jumped at Bettinger’s back, tearing at his spine with his massive canine teeth and powerful jaws. The jaguar’s preferred target was the skull for larger animals—the quickest way to bring down their prey. This would have to suffice.
Bettinger attempted to shake Wade off, trying to get out from under the attacking cat, but Wade was relentless, sinking his claws deep into the other cat’s flesh like oversized fishhooks. He had to end this now. To get to Maya.
Bettinger collapsed on his belly, and Wade struck the fatal blow: one growl, a bite into the back of the neck, and a hiss as a final adieu. He waited as Bettinger shifted from his cat form into his human one.
They’d have to return for his body later. Wade took off, following the sounds of another ATV still in pursuit of a cat, and heard more gunfire. He roared for Maya.
No responding roar from Maya. His heart stuttered as he raced in the direction of the moving vehicle. Then she roared back.
Thank God she was still all right. He ran through the trees, sure she’d stick to them to be shielded from the hunter in the vehicle.
The rain was still pouring down. Streaks of sharp, white light striking the ground in the distance alternated with voluminous sheets that blanketed the whole sky for a second or two like a light switch turned on and then off.
Resounding booms shook the earth.
He saw movement, heard a low growl, and stopped, glancing to his left. A female jaguar was sitting in a tree. Not Maya. He hoped the cat would stay there until this was all over. He again ran off to where he’d heard gunfire and saw an ATV smashed into a tree, the engine rumbling, but no sign of the hunter. Wade was surprised the hunter hadn’t suffered serious injuries, considering how bad the wreck looked. At least Wade was glad the hunter was now on foot. They didn’t want to kill the human hunters, though. Well, they would have liked to just because they were trying to kill the cats. But they couldn’t without causing problems for the jaguars.
Wade heard a low growl and saw George standing some distance from Maya. She was growling at George, not knowing he was on their side. Wade nudged George in greeting to show Maya he was friend, not foe, and then ran to join her. They quickly nuzzled each other, rubbing their bodies together, sharing their scent—two big, wet cats.
Maya was panting and purring, and he wanted desperately to get her to safety.
The second ATV had stopped somewhere nearby, tires spinning angrily, engine revving loudly, but the vehicle wasn’t moving from it’s current location. Wade and George exchanged looks. Then Wade growled and the two took off to disable the machine and the driver. Another hunter was on foot out there somewhere after he’d crashed his ATV into the tree, and was still a possible danger to them. Unless he was running as fast as he could back to the safety of the ranch.
Half hidden in the trees, Wade and David saw the hunter’s vehicle was stuck in mud. The hunter was behind the vehicle, attempting to pile dead sticks underneath the tires to get traction. His rifle wasn’t on him.
George moved in from the north and Wade from the south as if they were a couple of wolves on a hunt instead of cats. The hunter must have seen George out of the corner of his eye because he ran for the ATV. Too late. Never run from a cat.
George and Wade were on him in a heartbeat. The hunter was screaming and crying out, terrified.
Maya watched as Wade took care of the hunter. She heard heavy breathing nearby and the sound of boots squishing through the mud as the other hunter sneaked closer to his prey. The hunter who had crashed his vehicle while he was chasing her. His forehead was bloodied, the rain mixing with the blood still pouring out of a head wound.
Wade and George were concentrating on the man Wade had pinned down when the other hunter raised his rifle, not seeing Maya. She was certain he thought to rescue the other hunter and kill a couple of jaguars while he was at it.
She leaped, thinking only of saving the other jaguars and not knowing if she’d be shot.
She slammed into the hunter, and his gun went off, the explosion so close that it was deafening to her sensitive ears. A startled cry escaped his throat; a hiss and a growl came from hers. A burning sensation at the tip of her ear made her growl, and her ears were stilling ringing as she pinned him down in the mud.
Wade swiped at the hunter he’d pinned to disable him. The hunter cried out, then was silent. Not dead. Just knocked out. Stunning their prey into inaction was just as useful as killing it with a fatal blow.
A bolt of lightning struck a nearby tree, snapping it in half, and then a second lightning strike hit another tree only a foot away.
Crack! The first pine keeled over with a snap, the top landing with a thud as it broke from its base and fell to the ground. Crack! The second pine toppled, flames erupting at the break in the massive trunk, heat filling the water-laden air, and the vibration from the two strikes making the ground and air tremble. Maya leaped out of the second tree’s path, but the hunter was not so lucky.
The man was pinned under the massive trunk, his breathing labored, his face pained. Broken ribs?
She hoped.
Maya padded over to check him out. His flushed face turned ghostly pale. She should have growled at him, put the fear of the wild jaguar into him. Instead she pawed at him, claws retracted, making sure he was going to live. His eyes were so wide that his Adam’s apple was moving up and down. He couldn’t have been any more frightened. Then she licked his face and smiled so that he got to see all her big, sharp teeth. She smelled the odor of human urine.
Thunder continued to rumble throughout the area, though the rain was quieting from the torrential downpour to a steady patter.
Across a grassy plain she saw lights on in a ranch house. She was thinking about the steaks Bettinger and Gunther had cooked on the grill last night, and then she heard chaos.
***
Wade hurried to join Maya, licking her face and urging her away from the injured hunter.
Shouts outside then inside the ranch house made Wade believe the cavalry had arrived.
They had to leave. They couldn’t be found out here in their jaguar forms.
They headed for the lake with George. Wade hated having to leave the other female jaguar behind, but someone would soon recapture her and then they could reunite her with the zoo.
When they reached the lake, Maya growled. Facedown in the water, the clothed man still floated.
Wade checked the man for vital signs, but he was dead. Maya was still growling at the man as Wade led her to the portion of the fence that ran across the lake. She quickly began swimming out, ready to leave this place. Wade and George followed her.
Once they had surfaced on the other side and made their way to shore, they heard the shouting of men combing the area, looking for them. Everett, Huntley, and even Martin had come to join the search, as well as others that Wade didn’t recognize.
He shifted and said to Maya and George, “The car is up the road. It’s George’s. Go with him, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
She looked at the other cat. He bowed his head.
She was really going to be pissed at George when she learned of his part in bringing her here.
“Go. I’ll be right there.”
She nodded, and she and George raced off to the vehicle.
Wade cupped his hands and shouted, “Martin! We’re by the lake, all accounted for and heading for the car.”
Men began running in his direction like a stampede of wild horses. Everett saw him first and hurried to take off his raincoat, then frowned. “Not sure I can toss it over that high fence.”
He tried three times, but with the rain and wind, it was useless.
“I’ll shift and return to the car in a moment,” Wade said. “The female jaguar is sitting in a tree about three hundred yards north of the lake. Be careful. And Bettinger is about a hundred yards west of here. The two hunters aren’t feeling very well. One’s pinned beneath a tree with a head wound from crashing his ATV. The other might have a rip-roaring headache. And a dead man’s floating in the lake. Not sure who that is.”
Martin ran up to join them. “That’s the buyer. Gunther Jaemison. He’s got Jim Bettinger’s smell all over him. It appears that Bettinger drowned him. Why don’t you go back to the vehicle and get dressed before the police and reporters arrive? We’ll talk more later.”
“Call Connor and tell him Maya’s safe, will you?”
“Will do.”
Wade shifted and ran toward the car. But headlights were moving in his direction, and he hesitated before he ran across the dirt road, intending to conceal himself in the trees and brush. Then he recognized the rumble of the engine. George’s car. The driver honked twice. It was George.
The car stopped and Maya got out. She was wearing only a shirt—his shirt—and was getting soaked as she motioned to Wade. “Hurry up, Wade.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Wade raced to join her, rubbed up against her, then jumped into the backseat of the car. She climbed in with him and closed the door.
Wade shifted and said, “Drive, George. Head back to your hotel so we can grab our car.”
Wade dressed in his boxers and jeans and shoes and socks. He ran his hand over his shirt where it was plastered to Maya’s breasts, looking damned inviting, and leaned over to kiss her mouth, his hands sliding over her breasts. He groaned with need.
“I want to date only you,” she said against his mouth, breathless, the words rushed.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he murmured against her ear.
She looked up at him, her arms around his neck as he continued to massage her breasts with his hands, loving the wet, sexy feel of her. “I missed you, too.” She gave him a thorough tongue kissing, then said, “Everett asked me to dance with him the next time we go to the club. And Huntley, too.”
“Family is the exception. The only exception,” Wade conceded, though he would agree to anything as long as she was safe with him.
She took a deep breath as if she was ready to discuss what had just happened. “Is… Bettinger really dead?”
“Yeah, he is.”
She curled up in Wade’s arms like a needy cat. “He killed Gunther, the buyer,” she said. “The other jaguar’s all right, isn’t she?”
“Safe in a tree. The others might have a time getting her down, but they’ll take good care of her.”
“Good.”
Wade stroked her wet hair and held her close. He still couldn’t believe she was here, safe and in his arms.
“What the hell…?” George said, slamming on the brakes, the car sliding to a halt on the wet road.
Chapter 28
Wade and Maya turned to see what George was viewing, although the rain was hitting the windshield so hard that it was difficult to see what was going on. A dripping-wet naked woman was walking toward the car, dark hair hanging over her shoulders, her eyes amber and staring straight at the car. When George didn’t move, Wade kissed Maya and released her. “Be right back,” he promised.
He quickly got out of the car and hurried toward the woman, smelling her cat scent. She was a shifter. The jaguar he’d seen in the tree on Gunther’s property?
Hell, she hadn’t been the zoo cat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, making sure she was uninjured as he placed his arm around her shoulders to comfort her, afraid she might be in shock because of all that had happened to her.
“Yes, thank you. I… didn’t want to wait for the men to find me and make it harder for them to explain me if the humans learned I was the female jaguar.”
“I understand.” He opened the front passenger door for her and had her sit there. “Give her your shirt, George,” he said when George just gaped at her. Wade shook his head, reminding himself that not all shifters were hero material.
“Yeah, of course. Sure.” George fumbled to remove his shirt, his cheeks turning crimson.
Wade got a call from Martin as he climbed back into the car and Maya slid into his arms again, settling against him like she was his, and he was hers. His heart stuttered with the notion. She finally had decided she wouldn’t look elsewhere for a shifter mate.
He lifted the phone to his ear as he rubbed Maya’s arm, holding her close and sharing his body heat.
“We can’t locate the jaguar,” Martin said. “Where did you say you saw her last?”
Wade smiled and put the phone on speaker as he looked at the woman sitting in the front seat of George’s car and wearing his T-shirt. “She just joined us. She’s a shifter.”
“My name is Caryn Breming. From Houston. I was running as a jaguar in the woods near here when a human hunter saw me and shot me with a tranquilizer dart. He sold me to Gunther. I’ve been in that cat run ever since then. I couldn’t let them know the truth, not when Gunther was always around. I didn’t know that the rest of you were shifters, too. Thanks for rescuing me,” she said.
“Got all that?” Wade asked Martin.
“Hell, yeah.”
“What about Candy?” Wade asked his boss.
“Police collected her and several hunters at the ranch house. The two hunters that tried to kill the jaguars have been arrested. One of them appears to have several broken ribs due to the tree falling on him and a concussion and a pretty bad gash in his head from the ATV crashing into the tree. Pays to wear a helmet. The other one is more open to speculation. My guess? One of the jaguars hit him pretty hard.”
“Served him right,” Wade said.
Caryn gave Wade a thumbs-up.
“Gunther’s body was fished out of the lake. We’ve already taken care of Bettinger’s body to avoid anyone seeing him. Good job,” Martin said.
“Even if you had to come here yourself?” Wade asked.
“On one of the biggest problem cases w
e’ve had in years? My being here means I can take all the credit.”
Wade smiled. One thing they always said about the director of the Special Forces unit was that he gave credit to the men and women who deserved it.
“I’ve informed the police detective that Maya had been kidnapped by Gunther. We’ll have to come up with a viable cover story for that, and she’ll need to talk to him. David also said you needed some time off. It’s granted.”
“Thanks, boss.” Wade rubbed his hand over Maya’s arm as she snuggled against him. He knew just what he’d do with that time off. “I’ve got to make a call to Thompson. Talk to you later,” he told Martin.
At a run as he headed for George’s car, David waved to them. He was about to open the front passenger door when he saw the woman sitting in the front seat. He quickly pulled open the door to the back. “Sorry, Wade,” he said to his brother as he climbed in. “Hate to have to ride back here with you… considering you probably wanted a little privacy.”
“No problem,” Wade said.
David eyed the new woman in the front seat. “I’m David Patterson.”
She gave him a small smile. “Caryn Breming.”
“George Tucker,” George said, as if he was so tongue-tied around the woman that he was having a time saying anything. But with another shifter sounding interested, he jumped right in. “How come I’ve never seen you around?”
“I never do the club scene,” Caryn said, “if you frequent those kinds of places.”
“Me either,” David said. “Not all the time. Hardly ever. Four times now, actually. But two of the times I was just on a job.”
She smiled and nodded at David.
Score one point for David, Wade thought, amused.
“Are you wild?” George asked. He knew that David was because he was in the Service.
“Not me. I’ve never been to the jungle. No interest.” Caryn glanced at George to see his take on it.