“It’s not large. Only six to ten children at a time.” He gave a dismissive shrug. “Most of them need temporary shelter while their parents are in rehab.”
They ducked beneath the low-hanging branches of cypress. “They’re fortunate to be in the care of your mother.”
“They are,” he agreed without hesitation. “She’s a very special lady.”
“True. Of course, she spoiled you shamelessly.”
He widened his eyes with faux innocence. “Who could blame her?”
She chuckled, leaping along small islands to cross a wide channel. Once on relatively stable ground, she turned to watch Bayon as he moved with elegant beauty at her side, his gaze constantly searching for hidden enemies.
“I always assumed you would prefer a woman who was more a Nurturer than a warrior,” she abruptly admitted.
He turned his head to capture her gaze. “I adore all women, but I always knew my mate would have more spice than sugar.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah.”
She sniffed at his smug male expression. “And how did you know that?”
“Because I’d met you.”
She stumbled over a hidden branch, her heart slamming against her ribs at his simple, absolutely perfect explanation.
Damn but the cat knew how to make a woman melt.
“You—”
His brows lifted as she struggled for words. A once in a lifetime occurrence.
“What?” he prompted.
“Astonish me,” she said softly. She lifted her hand to touch his face, only to come to a sudden halt as she realized they’d reached a familiar gate that was now rusted and nearly hidden beneath a tangle of clinging ivy.
She frowned, studying the thick layer of moss and cow lilies that covered the ground. “There was a path here.”
Bayon kicked the gate, watching it tumble to the ground. “It looks abandoned.”
“I want to get closer.”
He placed a hand on her shoulder, his expression tight with concern. “Let me scout the area first.”
She leaned forward to nip his bottom lip. “You go left, I’ll go right.”
He released a rough sigh before pressing a frustrated kiss to her lips. “Stubborn.”
Yep. She was stubborn as hell. But she was beginning to realize that Bayon was the one man who possessed enough self-confidence to allow her to be powerful, while refusing to let her bully him.
The perfect combination.
With a short nod, he turned to melt into the shadows, his movements as silent as hers as they swiftly searched the dense foliage that surrounded the rapidly decaying cabin.
Finding no sign of recent activity, she returned to the front of the cabin, studying it with a growing sense of familiarity.
The tin roof was rusted, and the paint peeling from the wooden planks, but she had a vivid memory of the small wooden structure with its white shutters and shallow, wraparound porch.
“It’s clear,” Bayon murmured as he moved to stand at her side, his brows drawing together at her obvious preoccupation. “Keira?”
“I remember,” she said softly.
“Remember what?”
“Coming to this place.”
She shivered as she had the mental image of walking up the once-cleared pathway, her mind distracted by thoughts of the next week’s rotation of guards she’d been working on rather than her surroundings.
There hadn’t been any premonition of danger.
Not until too late.
Another shudder racked her body, threatening to steal her fragile courage until a warm arm wrapped around her shoulders, tugging her against a solid male chest.
“I’m here,” he promised in low tones. “And I’m not going anywhere.”
Absorbing the strength he offered, Keira sucked in a deep, steadying breath and allowed the memories to flow through her mind.
“I was early. I’d gotten Parish to cover my duties.” Her head tilted back to study the thick canopy of trees that nearly blocked out the sky. “The moonlight was just beginning to peek through the leaves as I walked up the steps.”
Still holding her tight, Bayon led her up the sagging steps, his gaze scanning the darkness for hidden dangers.
“Did you smell anything?” he asked.
“Yes.” She gave a sharp nod. “Humans. But that wasn’t unexpected. The cabin was used by the local gator hunters.” Her nose flared as she abruptly recalled the weird, sour scent that had surrounded the cabin. “And the same stench I’d caught on Sean the night before.”
They stepped past the door that had rotted off its hinges and into the cramped kitchen. Bayon frowned as he moved across the floor to study the interior of the cabin. There wasn’t much to see. On one wall was a row of rotting cabinets that hung at a drunken angle. Below the cabinets was a short countertop that was chipped and covered in layers of dust with a sink at the end. On the other side was a sofa and chair that had been invaded by a growing population of rodents. In the middle was a kitchen table, and at the far back a door opened to a bedroom that was barely big enough for a narrow cot.
Bayon turned back to stab her with a narrowed gaze. “Show me where he was waiting.”
Keira pointed toward a spot directly in front of the empty doorjamb. “Here.”
“That close to the door?” he pressed.
She paused, shuffling through her memories. She’d walked across the porch and yanked open the door. She’d been startled to discover Sean standing directly in her path.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
She frowned at her mate’s persistence. “I don’t understand.”
“He wasn’t expecting you until later.” Bayon waved a hand around the cramped interior of the cabin. “Why was he standing at the door? Did he hear you arriving?”
Oh. Keira paced the floor, struggling to clear away the murkiness that made it nearly impossible to recall exactly what had happened. The door had opened, and Sean had been standing there…
Wait. He hadn’t just been standing there, he’d been pressing against the door.
“He tried to keep me out,” she muttered.
“Because there was something he didn’t want you to see?”
She continued to pace, her heart suddenly lodged in her throat, and her palms damp with sweat as she pressed past the fog in her mind.
Yes. She’d shoved open the door and then forced her way past Sean, more annoyed than worried by his strange behavior. And then…
Then she’d been overwhelmed by the strange smell. It’d assaulted her nose until she’d nearly vomited.
That was when the back door had opened and two men and a woman had stepped from the bedroom.
One male had been a human. He was large, with a bald head and a tattoo of a raven in front of a full moon on his neck.
But the other two…
She hissed in pain, dropping to her knees as the memory slammed through her.
“No. Not something,” she forced past her gritted teeth. “Someone.”
Chapter 6
Bayon crouched down, wrapping his arms around his mate’s trembling body. “Keira, are you hurt?”
With an obvious effort, she lifted her head to reveal her too-pale face and golden eyes dark with some inner torment.
“Pantera,” she managed to rasp.
“What?”
“There was another human here with Sean,” she said, shivering as she struggled to share the memory that had clearly traumatized her. “And two Pantera.”
Bayon frowned. “They were being held hostage?”
She slowly shook her head. “No.”
“They weren’t…” He grimaced. “Dead?”
“They were alive,” she assured him. There was a pause before she managed to spit out the words. “And working for the humans.”
Bayon sucked in a startled breath, his cat roaring in protest. For over fifty years the Pantera had been battling an unseen enemy, but never once had they con
sidered the possibility that the rot might be coming from within the Wildlands.
“Shit.”
“It was the Pantera who overpowered me,” Keira said, her eyes as dull and bleak as when he’d first found her in the cage.
“Traitors,” he growled in disgust, inwardly promising to destroy the bastards who’d been willing to torture one of their own people for personal gain. “Did you recognize them?”
“Vincent and his mate, Savoy.”
It took a second for Bayon to place the names. Then he made a sound of surprise as he recalled that the two Pantera had worked with his mother.
“They’re both Nurturers, aren’t they?”
Her jaw tightened. “Yes.”
“This makes no sense,” he muttered. The two were gentle creatures who’d devoted their lives to caring for the Pantera young. “Why would they join with our enemies?”
With a sudden surge, Keira straightened and turned toward the door. “I intend to ask them.”
He grabbed her arm. “Wait, Keira.”
She glared at him in frustration. “I’ve waited twenty-five years.”
“I know, honey,” he soothed, his fingers brushing her pale cheek. “But if they see you then they’re going to bolt. We need to have Parish arrange enough Hunters to take them into custody without the chance of them escaping.” His expression hardened. “Or hurting someone else.”
She blew out an exasperated sigh. “You’re right.”
Her immediate ability to put her personal lust for vengeance aside for the benefit of protecting her people was only one of the reasons that this female had been such an effective leader.
“I’ll have to reveal that you’re alive,” Bayon warned, pulling his cell phone from his front pocket? “Are you ready?”
There was only a brief hesitation before she was giving a firm nod of her head. “It’s time.”
“Okay.”
He punched the number on his speed dial, but before Parish could answer Keira was gently taking the phone from his hand, a rueful smile curving her lips.
“Let me.”
He lifted a startled brow. “You know how to use it?”
She shrugged. “I’ve seen my idiot captors using them. How hard can it be?”
“I’m not going to fight you for the privilege,” he assured her. They both knew that Parish was going to kick his ass for not immediately informing him that his beloved sister was alive.
“Wait here.”
She left the cabin and was halfway down the path when Bayon heard Parish answer his phone. He grimaced as the male Pantera’s tone transformed from impatience to shocked disbelief to a joy so pure it made Bayon’s heart twist with regret that he’d forced the male to suffer even one second longer than necessary.
“Christ, he’s going to fucking kill me,” he muttered, watching as Keira ended the call and then gestured for him to join her.
“Let’s go,” she urged, her earlier anguish replaced by a fierce impatience to confront her kidnappers.
He was swiftly at her side. They jogged down the overgrown path and leaped over the fallen gate.
“He’s going to capture the traitors?”
“He’s already on the hunt. He’ll meet us at the Den,” she said.
Bayon was momentarily puzzled before he realized that Parish wouldn’t want anyone to know they’d discovered traitors among the Pantera, at least not until they could be certain there weren’t any others.
And there was the added benefit that the prisoners couldn’t shift while away from the Wildlands. They were far less dangerous in human form than in puma.
They headed directly for La Pierre, skirting the edges of the Wildlands. Bayon kept a careful watch on their surroundings, prepared to attack anything or anyone who lurked in the shadows.
For the moment, he had to assume everyone was an enemy.
Even a Pantera.
It was a realization that wounded the heart of his cat.
“At least a couple questions have been answered,” he muttered.
Keira ducked beneath a low-hanging branch before glancing in his direction. “What are you talking about?”
“I now know how the enemy entered the Wildlands undetected, and how they found Ashe so easily.”
“And why my mind was so reluctant to remember what happened,” she snarled. “I could accept the treachery of humans, but not Pantera.”
Bayon shook his head, hating the knowledge that they would have to eventually reveal the betrayal of Vincent and Savoy to the rest of their people. A damned shame. It was destined to destroy the trust they’d always had in one another. At least until the danger had passed.
Whether it could ever be rebuilt was something that was in the hands of fate.
“I’m not sure any of us will be able to accept that we could be betrayed by our own people,” Bayon muttered.
They slowed their pace as they reached the edge of the swamp and stepped onto the road that marked the edge of the town. Ahead of them the neon sign hung outside The Cougar’s Den, but even as they stepped toward the wooden building built on heavy stilts, a dark-haired man was sprinting across the road and wrapping Keira in a smothering hug.
“Keira,” Parish breathed, glaring at Bayon over her shoulder. “You, I will deal with later.”
***
Keira smiled, despite the fact that she was being clenched hard enough to crush the breath from her lungs.
She was surrounded in the heat and scent of family, her cat purring in bone-deep satisfaction.
“Are you real?” Parish asked, his voice thick with emotion.
She rested her head on the solid width of his chest. “I’m real.”
“I’ve dreamed of this moment a thousand times only to wake and find that you were still gone. Goddamn, I’ve been so alone.”
“Not so alone anymore.” She lifted her head with a smile. “I hear you’ve mated.”
His bleak features abruptly softened with blatant adoration. Keira would never have believed it of her brother if she hadn’t seen it for herself.
“My Julia. She completes me.”
“I get that,” Keira agreed, glancing toward Bayon, who had stepped away to give them privacy for their reunion. A low growl had her sharply turning back toward her brother. “Don’t start,” she warned, her eyes narrowed.
Parish gave a bark of laughter as she slipped back into her role as older sister, unwilling to take shit from her brother even if he did have several inches and a hundred pounds on her.
“Keira,” he growled. “I’ve missed you.”
“Brother,” she breathed before forcing herself out of his arms and glancing toward Bayon.
Later they would have a proper reunion. Now they had to concentrate on protecting their people.
Moving to her side, Bayon regarded Parish with a grim expression. “Do you have the traitors?”
Parish jerked his head toward the building. “Inside.”
“Are they still alive?” Keira demanded.
A humorless smile stretched Parish’s lips, the promise of death in his eyes. “For now.”
“Good.” Keira headed for the back steps of the building, her murderous fury heating the air. “I want some answers.”
“Keira.”
She ignored her brother, taking the steps two at a time.
“You’re wasting your breath,” Bayon murmured before he was jogging to catch up with her.
A portion of her tension eased as he lightly placed a hand at her lower back. Just having Bayon near returned the courage she’d feared had been stripped from her twenty-five years ago. A steel door opened and a male Pantera offered her a slow nod of respect before escorting them into a secret chamber hidden behind the shelves of the storage room.
None of the humans drinking in the front bar had any idea there were meeting rooms, a high-tech surveillance room, and two large guest rooms for Pantera separated from them by a sound-proofed wall.
They found Vincent and Savoy on th
eir knees, both stripped naked with iron shackles around their wrists and ankles.
The two Pantera were both older than Keira. Vincent was built on solid lines with brown hair and dark gold eyes while Savoy was a tiny female with reddish hair and eyes the color of spring grass.
Standing behind them, Talon held a gun toward the back of their heads, despite the prisoners’ mutual appearance of utter resignation.
No one was taking chances.
Talon, who had still been in training when Keira had been kidnapped, straightened his shoulders and snapped a salute.
“Welcome home, commander.”
“Just Keira now,” she insisted, glancing toward her brother who entered the room to hold his loaded gun at the prisoners. “I’m absolutely confident that Parish has done a brilliant job and I intend to concentrate on tracking down the son of bitches who kidnapped me.” Her attention turned toward the kneeling Pantera. “Starting with these two.”
“They’re all yours,” Talon murmured, taking a step back.
Vincent slowly lifted his head, his face gaunt and his eyes shadowed with guilt. “Please, forgive us.”
Parish made a sound of disgust, but Keira leaned forward, needing answers. “I want to know why.”
“We didn’t know—”
“Stop,” Keira snarled. “I don’t want excuses, I want answers.”
Vincent licked his lips, glancing toward his cowering mate. “Savoy was one of the first females to fail in becoming pregnant. It was…” He halted to swallow the lump in his throat. “Difficult.”
“I tried everything,” Savoy timidly offered, her once beautiful face lined with regret. “The old herbal remedies, human drugs, even artificial insemination when it became available, but nothing worked. At last I went to see a voodoo priestess in New Orleans.”
Keira narrowed her gaze. “And she told you to kidnap me?”
Savoy shook her head. “No. She promised she had a potion that could ensure my fertility, but only if we agreed to help her people.”
Bayon pulled a dagger from the sheath at his lower back, running a finger along the lethal edge.
“What people?” Bayon demanded.
Vincent curled his lips in disgust. “They were humans.”