He realized just how much he enjoyed seeing her like this and was glad his brother, Everett, hadn’t been here with him instead. He could imagine the two of them fumbling through this. Besides, pretending to be courting Melissa as a jaguar would appeal to Huntley, if locating the jaguar-shifter parents wasn’t the reason they had to do it.
They’d driven about an hour when he realized it was finally quiet in the backseat. He glanced back and saw Melissa stretched out, her eyes closed as she slept, and the cubs sleeping on her stomach, the towels half covering them. He smiled a little at her. Yeah, this wasn’t anything like he’d expected. Then he sobered. The worst wasn’t over yet.
Two hours later, they finally reached the airstrip and then had to wait. Rainforest surrounded them except for the road to the airstrip and the runway for the planes. As soon as Huntley parked the vehicle, the cubs stirred.
Melissa groaned and sat up. “We’ve got to get the litter box for them.”
“I’ll open the trunk and let them use it in there. They might get a little wet, but better than us trying to do this in the backseat of the car.”
“I almost wish they were babies wearing diapers about now,” Melissa said, stroking the cubs.
“Each form has its advantages and disadvantages.” Huntley opened the trunk and the lid of one of the litter boxes, then returned to take Goldie, the more awake of the two cubs, from Melissa. “Don’t let her sister do anything before I come back for her.”
Huntley and Melissa knew the cubs’ names now, but not which was which, and calling them by their real names hadn’t helped them identify them either. Both answered to either name. So they stuck to the nicknames.
Melissa snorted. “Maybe we should switch roles, and you stop a cub from having to go to the bathroom. Just tell yours to hurry up.”
He chuckled with Goldie in hand and took her to the trunk. She quickly used the litter box, and he returned her to Melissa and traded off.
After that, Huntley joined Melissa in the backseat and they took the opportunity to feed the cubs, holding them, talking to them, laughing, and playing with them one last time. He loved this incredibly unusual time he’d spent with Melissa and the cubs, and tried not to worry about what would happen if anyone caught them with the cubs before they were airborne.
Over the sound of thunder and the rain, they finally heard the rumble of the plane.
“Yes! Thank God,” Melissa said.
Their salvation. Until they got themselves into the next mess.
The plane landed, taxied, and finally pulled to a stop fifty yards away. Huntley and Melissa waited, burying Jaime and Jenny in the towels and their rain jackets. The cubs settled down to sleep between them as if this was their new den.
Neither Melissa nor Huntley wanted to approach the plane. What if it wasn’t the right one?
Melissa’s cell rang and she fumbled to get it. “Yes?” Melissa put it on speakerphone.
“I’m Katrina Sorenson. My brother, Matt Sorenson, and I are here with the Guardian branch. We see your vehicle. Are the cubs all right?”
“Yes, we just fed them. We have litter boxes for them too,” Melissa said.
Huntley suspected the Sorensons had everything ready for the little ones and wouldn’t need anything Melissa and he had brought with them. But the towels would go with them, kind of as security blankets, the smells of Huntley and Melissa on them to reassure the cubs on the flight back to the States. Melissa had thought to bring out some of their mother’s and father’s clothes to let the cubs smell the scents on them, but she’d been afraid that they might start crying for their parents. Huntley had agreed.
Now he thought she looked sad, her teeth clenched a little like she was fighting tears. Like she was giving away her daughters and all their belongings to perfect strangers. She might say her sister was next in line to have children, but he thought Melissa was ready for them.
Katrina said, “You stay there in the car where it’s dry. We’re coming to you.”
They watched as three men and a woman got out of the plane. They stalked through the rain, the two men, blonds, the couple both dark haired. The two men must have been the ones sent to watch Huntley and Melissa’s backs.
Katrina reached into the driver’s side of the car and popped the trunk lid. Huntley was about to help the men haul the stuff to the plane, but Katrina said, “They’ve got it. We’ll give the cubs the best of care, and you can bring their parents home to them.”
“Yes,” Melissa said.
“Jason and Luke Whittaker are here to watch your backs. They wanted to be the ones to take down Jackson once they learned that their fellow Avenger agent and his mate were taken hostage, but Martin has the lead on this because he’s worked the case all along. All the branches are working together, though,” Katrina said, looking from them to the cubs, who were poking their heads out from under the towels and jackets, curious who the new voice belonged to.
“You’ve both done a remarkable job with them.” She gave Melissa and Huntley a bright smile. “I don’t think we’ve ever had a case quite like this. Your boss has been keeping all the branches alerted with updates. When you learned who the cubs belonged to, cheers went up all over the Guardian branch headquarters.”
“I bet that happened at all the branches,” Melissa said.
“Yeah. There will be even more when we get these babies home—and their mother and father too,” Katrina said.
As soon as Katrina’s brother joined them, they were ready to take the cubs.
One of the other men closed the trunk lid, then the two Whittaker brothers stood on either side of the car, waiting for instructions.
After hugging Jaime and Jenny one more time, Huntley and Melissa handed them over.
“Let us know how they’re doing, Katrina,” Melissa said as she pulled on her rain jacket and Huntley grabbed his and did the same thing.
They both got out of the car, making way for the two Avenger agents to climb into the backseat.
The woman glanced at Huntley as if she understood how Melissa was feeling, but Melissa and Huntley had other priorities and the cubs were now under the Guardians’ care and going home safely.
“As soon as you’re off the mission, I’m sure they’ll love to see you,” Katrina said. Then she and her brother said good-bye and headed to the plane with the cubs.
Huntley should have returned to their cabana immediately because they needed to grab their gear, let the Whittaker brothers dump whatever they didn’t need, and then hike into the park. But he couldn’t. He was certain Melissa also wanted to see the plane take off for home before they returned to the cabana.
Jason and Luke Whittaker were blue-eyed blonds, sitting quietly in the back. He sensed their tension, wariness, and anger. He could understand how they felt. He felt the same when any of their kind was harmed in any way. Having a father and a new mother with infants involved made it all more difficult.
As soon as the plane disappeared, he heard Melissa sniffle. Huntley turned and saw the tears cascading down her cheeks. “Ah, honey,” he said and tried to take her into his arms to give her a hug, but the console made that difficult. “They’ll be just fine. They’ll be so much safer back home.”
“I know,” she said, her words choked with tears. “But…I’ll miss them.”
“Yeah, me too, but don’t you ever say I said so to anyone in the branch.”
In the backseat, the Whittaker brothers chuckled. They were so quiet that Huntley had nearly forgotten they were there.
Melissa smiled a little at Huntley, then frowned. “Let’s get their parents back and get rid of some poachers.”
“I’m all for it.”
They talked about the rain and what they would do if one scenario happened or another. Both the brothers were eager to kill a bunch of poachers, but Huntley reminded them, “We have to ensure that we don?
??t kill Jackson and his men. We need to be taken to their compound. If we have trouble, you can’t kill anyone else either. Call the park rangers and they’ll take care of it. Knock the bad guys out, handcuff them, and that’s it.”
“That’s not in our mission statement,” Jason said.
Yeah, Huntley knew all about the Avengers’ mission statement. Kill ’em dead. No second chances for scum like this.
Truth be told, Huntley suspected that’s how this mission would end for the poachers anyway. He wasn’t taking any chances with Melissa’s or the Carringtons’ lives just to protect the men who had endangered all their kind.
Chapter 14
Melissa and Huntley decided they would take two tents into the rainforest, along with some of their gear. The Whittaker brothers would leave the rest of their possessions at Huntley and Melissa’s cabana. And if all went as planned, the Whittakers would pack up Melissa and Huntley’s stuff in the rainforest, return it to the cabana, and wait to learn where they were being taken once they were captured as jaguars. Then they would help provide them transportation out of there.
The guys really didn’t talk much, and Melissa was glad to have them at their backs, but their presence bothered her somewhat because she enjoyed her private time with Huntley more and more.
She didn’t think that would have concerned her so much before, when she and Huntley were each seeing someone else. Everything was different now between them. She hoped that wouldn’t cause problems on the next phase of their mission.
Packed and ready to go, Melissa and Huntley led the way, remaining in human form while hiking to the park. When they reached the ranger’s station, the park ranger immediately contacted his supervisor to tell him that the JAG agents had returned with a couple more agents to back them up.
Then the ranger offered to send assistance.
“One of us will call you if we catch any more poachers,” Melissa said before anyone else spoke. She was glad that the Whittaker brothers stayed in the background and let them take the lead. Either the boss had insisted, or they realized that Melissa and Huntley had gone down this road before and knew what they were doing.
When the ranger looked like that wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear, because this was their jurisdiction, she said, “We might not come across anyone for a few days, if ever. Could all be a waste of time. Plus, the more of us there are, the more likely they will see us before we see them. If they’re spooked, none of us would catch them in the act.”
The ranger nodded then, agreeing, and she hated that she spoke the truth. That they might never catch up to Jackson or his men.
It was dusk when they reached the beach where she and Huntley would roam as jaguars. The rain had stopped earlier in the afternoon, and they’d grabbed a quick bite to eat then. Huntley and Melissa made up their tent. Inside, they hugged and kissed each other one last time before they ditched their clothes. Melissa could smell Huntley’s apprehension. She didn’t think it was because he was concerned about being captured, but about her being hurt. She worried just as much for both of them.
She rested her forehead against his, their bodies pressed tight. “Let’s do this,” she said softly.
“Don’t take any unnecessary risks,” he said, looking down into her eyes with such concern that she sighed and hugged him again.
“Ditto, Huntley.”
And then they released each other and shifted into their jaguar forms. They waited a moment, listening to make sure that no humans were approaching their location. Satisfied no one was, she and Huntley left the tent. She leaped into a nearby tree and Huntley joined her. They watched while the Whittaker brothers packed their stuff and hid all their gear in another tree while Melissa and Huntley waited, ever watchful and wary, listening for sounds of other humans while the monkeys howled, the insects buzzed, and the birds chattered.
Now the Avenger agents knew what Melissa and Huntley looked like in their spotted coats. She figured the two of them would be easy to recognize anyway. There were not that many black jaguars. And even if Huntley had been a golden color, they would stand out for the courtship reason alone.
She and Huntley leaped down from the tree and loped the short distance to the beach. As soon as they left the rainforest, they began to explore the beach, looking and listening and smelling for any signs of Jackson and his men. Wearing green camo gear, Jason and Luke stayed hidden in the vegetation bordering the beach and watched them at all times.
She felt apprehensive, unable to shake the fear of being tranquilized and hauled off to God knew where. Even though she wanted to do this, and would do anything that would help them to free the Carringtons as soon as possible so they could return to their babies, she felt fearful that nothing would go as planned.
Huntley brushed up against her and she looked to see what he wanted to tell her. He grinned a little. She smiled back. He was courting her as a male jaguar would. But she didn’t think he was just pretending.
She liked that he would. She hadn’t had anyone court her in jaguar form since she was younger. Oliver wouldn’t shift no matter how much she had coaxed him to give it a try. Both sides of her being were equally important to her. And she realized just how much so when Huntley showed her this side of himself with her.
Her mind back on business, she roamed the beach with Huntley for hours until she was so tired that she wanted to lie down and go to sleep on the warm sand. Which would look unnatural for a jaguar. A jaguar would return to the rainforest and sleep hidden among the trees.
Huntley looked as worn out. He nosed her cheek, then turned his head toward the rainforest, indicating he wanted to return to where their stuff was hidden. She was totally agreeable. It was about a quarter of a mile up the beach and time to get some sleep. They loped along the sand, leaving big-cat pug marks in the wetter stuff. He tackled her all of a sudden, shocking her and tickling her. She played with him, mouthing and biting him in a way that wouldn’t hurt. Just playful and fun-loving. Their skin was so loose and stretchy in their jaguar form, unlike a human’s, that they didn’t hurt each other.
After he pinned her down, she kicked at him with her back feet, trying to push him off, not because she wasn’t having fun, but because that’s how the game was played. Next time, she’d get the best of him—when he was unprepared. He was heavier than her, and no matter how much she tried to get him off her, she couldn’t. He gave her a wickedly evil and toothy grin. Then he licked her nose and jumped off her. She got to her feet. Then they shook off the sand and raced up the beach. Besides having a bit of jaguar fun, they were letting any poachers watching know for sure the two big cats were courting.
After they had gone a little of the distance, they dove into the rainforest to hide from sight, if anyone was observing them.
They saw the Whittaker brothers then, both nodding to them as if to acknowledge they knew Melissa and Huntley were headed back to sleep for a while. They continued to run through the rainforest to reach the tree where they’d wait until the Whittaker brothers arrived. They finally found it and Melissa jumped up there. And found a boa constrictor coiled up on the branch. Before Huntley joined her, she jumped right back down. She could kill the snake, but she didn’t want to.
She found another tree and leaped onto a branch. Huntley waited for her to jump down again, as if she was looking for the most comfortable spot and often checked out branches as a trial run. She roared at him to get his butt up there. He showed off his teeth, grunted, and joined her.
Luke got their gear from the other tree and began dumping their tents and field packs down to Jason. Melissa appreciated that the brothers quickly got to work erecting her and Huntley’s tent. She had to do it herself before.
Jason tossed Melissa and Huntley’s backpacks inside, and then he and his brother set up their tent nearby.
The brothers didn’t say anything to them or to each other, and she suspected they were just as
disappointed that Jackson hadn’t taken the bait and arrived to capture Melissa and Huntley to sell them.
Melissa and Huntley leaped down from the tree and shifted inside the tent, and Huntley zipped it up. Naked, they laid their sleeping bags together, then sat on them and each ate an energy bar. Then they cuddled.
“It’s going to work,” she said, more to assure herself than Huntley.
“You know it will,” he said and kissed her forehead.
“They sure are quiet.”
“The brothers?”
“Yeah.”
“I think it’s part of their training.”
She snorted. “Glad I’m not with that branch then. I mean, I don’t talk nonstop or anything, but that would drive me nuts, not to be able to talk…ever.”
Huntley chuckled. “I couldn’t see myself in that branch either. We’ll sleep for most of the day, eat, and then try again when dusk falls.”
She never thought in a million years that she’d be hoping she’d be shot with a tranquilizer dart, captured, and hauled off to be sold to some buyer.
Huntley couldn’t quit thinking about the end of the mission, not wanting to waste time worrying about how this would all end. He needed to resolve some things with Melissa before they had to deal with them again. “I want you to stay with me when we return home,” Huntley said, kissing the top of her head and running his hand over her arm in a light caress.
“It won’t work,” she said.
He didn’t feel that she was reluctant and pulling back from him, so he wondered what was up. He wanted to get to know her better and, if he was going to be blunt about it, lay a claim to her so other cats would know she wasn’t available. “I want to give it a shot.”