“She can lead us back to the hut.” But that didn’t explain how he could see his sister. Hopefully, Kat wouldn’t realize this.
“But I can’t see the jaguar. How can you?”
Connor gave the woman points not only for her astuteness but also for not allowing him to get away with attempting to bamboozle her.
Maya glanced back at Connor as if to say, “How are you going to cover your tracks on that one?” He could almost see the smile in her expression.
“I know the way back. Traveled it many a time,” he smoothly said, giving his sister a superior look.
“Oh.” But Kathleen didn’t sound entirely convinced. “The jaguars, have you raised them from cubs?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She sighed. “Orphaned?”
“Yes.” Essentially yes. Their father had left their mother to raise Connor and his twin sister and never came back. And their mother had left them when they were teens with the same result.
Sometimes he thought it was because of their parents’ cat-shifter half. Sometimes he thought they just weren’t meant to be good parents. That was one reason he and his sister were thirty years old and hadn’t settled down. Well, also partly because of the problem with finding a shifter mate. Real jaguars had been known to mate with a leopard or a lion. But their offspring were sterile. So it had occurred to him that if they couldn’t locate a jaguar-shifter, maybe another would do, if such a shifter even existed. But they probably couldn’t have any offspring, and something in his primal big cat makeup balked at that.
Still, neither Connor nor his sister had had any luck in locating any kind of cat-shifters, and he wasn’t about to bite some poor unsuspecting woman so he could have a suitable mate. Not that he knew if a bite could cause someone to carry their genes anyway. They still didn’t know if Sir Lionel Anderson was the first on their dad’s side to carry the jaguar-shifter genetics or if someone earlier had carried the genes. Maybe he had been born with it and that was why he’d gone to the Amazon. Not in search of medicinal plants or gold, but in search of a shifter mate. Or like they did—to be one with their jaguar halves. They just didn’t know enough about it.
Then there was their mother’s side of the equation. Her great-great grandfather had been studying some of the ancient civilizations in South America and didn’t return for ten years, this time settling in Texas. He couldn’t stay away from the rain forest, either, and his Scottish wife began accompanying him, although everyone thought it odd. She was more of a homebody from what journal entries had said, so trekking through the Amazon seemed out of character for her. So had he been turned, then changed her?
If a wolf-shifter—although totally fantasy—could turn someone with a bite, why not cat-shifters?
Not that he was about to test that theory.
“Connor, thanks. I can probably walk now,” Kathleen said.
“The tree roots and vines are hard to see at this time of night. Best if you don’t twist your knee while trying to get to our place.” Besides, he enjoyed carrying her, enjoyed feeling her soft curves against his hard chest, smelling her sweet, wet fragrance, and feeling the heat of her body against his. Any physical exertion in the steamy jungle would make a body hot, Connor told himself. So why was holding this woman against his body making every sexual part of him tighten with need?
Which reminded him again that he hadn’t been with a woman in a damned long while.
But it was more than that. He couldn’t say what it was exactly. Maybe the feel of the energy surrounding them in the jungle, the primal, feral nature of it, the fact she was here in his territory, vulnerable and yet adventurous enough to be here, that made him keep thinking about the possibilities of turning a woman.
Not any woman though. Just this one.
Maybe it had to do with the fact that for a year he had thought about what had happened to her, worried that she hadn’t made it out of the jungle in time, and wondered if she had recovered physically and psychologically from the battle with Gonzales’s men if she had.
Kat didn’t say anything more, just leaned her head against his chest, and he thought she might have drifted off to sleep before he arrived back at the hut sitting high on its stilts. As exhausted as she was, he thought she probably had been wandering through the jungle for some time, unable to sleep because of all of the dangers surrounding her. He climbed the rickety stairs to the hut. When he walked across the mahogany floor, the boards creaked slightly with his weight, and she jerked awake.
“You can sit on one of the wooden chairs so that you don’t put any weight on that knee. Do you have a change of clothes in your pack?” he asked, moving toward the chair. He set her down on it, then helped her off with her pack, resting it on the floor nearby.
“Yes, I have several changes of clothes.”
“Good.” He wasn’t sure Maya would want to share her clothes with a virtual stranger if Kat had nothing else to wear.
He had left a kerosene lamp glowing in the one-room hut so that she wouldn’t be so spooked when he brought her back here. The lamp cast a soft, mellow light throughout. The roof was thatched over wooden walls, and screened windows provided some relief from bugs and snakes. Mesh netting covered the two beds to keep the mosquitoes away because there wasn’t any way to keep them out of the hut in the wet jungle environment.
He and Maya used a small propane camping stove to cook what they needed when they couldn’t eat as jaguars, although they normally hunted their meals and ate them as a cat would—no mess, no bother. Connor and Maya came down here from Texas to be one with their jaguar halves, normally not intending to play house as humans while on a jungle vacation. But if they were worried about hunters in the area, they remained in their human forms until the threat passed, therefore the necessity to have provisions for any situation that might arise.
A basin of water was nearby, and he motioned to it. “Fresh water that you can clean up with. We don’t have any real privacy here so I’ll leave while you change.” He glanced at Maya, who was still in her jaguar form, pacing across the hut’s floor and swishing her tail. He knew she wondered why Kat had called him by name while he was still in his jaguar form. “Did you want to stay with her?” he asked his sister.
She grunted, which he took as a “yes.”
Good. He nodded. “Be back in a little while.”
“I’ll hurry so you won’t have to be out there for very long.”
He smiled at the notion. Here Kat was worried about his safety, while he was worried about hers.
He just hoped the men who had been cutting a swath through the jungle weren’t looking to cause trouble for any of them.
***
Maya continued to pace across the hut as Kathleen turned her back and began unbuttoning her shirt. Maya wondered just what the connection was between Kathleen and her brother. She had seen the raw attraction between them, smelled it, felt the air between them fairly sizzle. For the first time in a year, he had shown real interest in a woman. Why this one? And how had Kathleen known her brother’s name? She and her brother made it a point not to get attached to humans. So where had he met Kathleen before?
Her mouth gaped as the notion came to her—the battle between the drug runners and the U.S. soldiers. When Connor had returned to the hut early that evening, Maya had been annoyed that dinner had grown cold before he had shown up. But when she smelled and saw the blood soaking his fur coat, she had been horrified and rushed to see to his injuries. Except he hadn’t been injured.
Maya stared at the woman as she peeled the wet shirt off and hung it over the back of the chair. Captain Kathleen McKnight. Connor had been beside himself with worry over the woman’s condition when she had been shot. He had tried to hide it from Maya, tried to pretend the woman had been an inconvenience, but Maya knew her brother better than that. He couldn’t eat dinner that night, hadn’t slept, had prowled the jungle in his jaguar form. She had followed him and discovered that he had returned to the drug dealer’s encamp
ment.
Except for the marks on the ground where a tent had been secured, blood splatters, and spent bullet casings, they found nothing and no one—no dead men, no one alive either. The jungle had reclaimed the territory as its own as if humans had never existed there. She had returned before Connor had seen her spying on him, but she had never seen him so… distracted, so bothered by human affairs.
They had even cut short their visit to the Amazon, something they never did. He hadn’t been himself, totally disconsolate, and they finally had flown home. For weeks, she had found him searching on the Internet for something, but he wouldn’t say what. When she caught him at it, he would shut the computer off, act irritated, and head back outside to the nursery to dig some more holes, whether they needed to plant a tree or shrub or not.
Had he been looking for Kat all that time? For word about her well-being?
Maya smiled in her jaguar way. She wasn’t about to let Kat get away from her brother this time. At least her brother could have someone in his life if Maya could make this work.
Kathleen seemed the perfect woman to be his mate. She climbed trees well, even as a human. She was good at keeping her fear in check. Although she had nearly died in the jungle only a year ago, she had returned to the Amazon. Maya believed that being a shifter like them would suit Kat.
Most of all, her brother was intrigued with Kat. More than intrigued. There was no mistaking that he had the hots for the woman. Kat didn’t wear any rings or have the telltale sign of a white line on her finger indicating she had worn one recently. So she couldn’t already be married.
Maya paced across the floor some more. So why couldn’t he have her? He wouldn’t take her in a million years. He wouldn’t take any woman like that in a million years.
Well, not only that, but they weren’t sure how it all worked. They had been born as shifters; could they change someone who wasn’t one? They suspected that their ancestors had been changed in such a way, but no one had shared the information, so they really didn’t know for sure. There was only one way to find out.
Maya turned and studied Kat. She had her back to Maya, dressing modestly even though for all Kat knew, Maya was only a jaguar. Kathleen had already pulled her pants off and was buttoning a long shirt. She leaned against a table for support, keeping her weight off her injured knee. She was in great shape. Probably due to being in the military. Well-toned legs, like she was used to running, and trim everywhere else, too.
Maya already liked her. Anyone who would tackle guerrillas in the Amazon to make the place safer for decent folk and who wasn’t afraid to return to the same area after nearly dying would make a great jaguar-shifter. And Kat would make a good sister, Maya thought. At least the woman seemed to like jaguars—even if she believed Connor and she were only semiwild pets when in their jaguar form.
Maya paced some more. It was now or never. She had to make her play before her brother came back. She would never have a chance like this again.
With her nails retracted, she ran up to Kat silently on her large cat paws. Then she extended her claws and raked them down the back of Kat’s left thigh. Kat cried out and nearly crumpled when she stepped with all her weight on her injured leg. Maya quickly licked the wound and mixed her shifter saliva with Kat’s blood, before Kat jerked around and bumped her backside against the table, her eyes wide and her mouth dropped in horror.
In a hurry, Maya flopped down on the floor, then rolled onto her back and played the docile, happy kitty. Despite wanting Kat to be one of them, Maya did feel remorse for what she’d done. She hadn’t wanted to injure the woman, but Maya hadn’t been able to think of another way to try to change her.
Kat stared at the jaguar, and then, as if realizing Maya was like a really big kitten that would scratch at its human companion in greeting and then lick her, she visibly relaxed.
“You need to be declawed,” she said, glancing back at the injury on her leg. She didn’t say it in an annoyed way, more matter-of-fact.
What a horrible idea, Maya thought. Her teeth and claws were essential for hunting prey and protecting herself and climbing and marking her scent on trees. But then without even consciously thinking about it, she swished her tail around and caught it between her hind legs with her front paws, and Kat laughed.
Kat’s sweet laughter lightened the ominous mood, and Maya was glad she had amused the woman. One day, hopefully really soon, Kat would play with her own tail.
Maya didn’t know how long it would take for Kat to shift. All they had to go by was werewolf lore—but none of that werewolf stuff was real. Maybe biting or scratching someone wouldn’t work at all.
Her gaze shifted to a puckering of skin on Kat’s left thigh, and she wondered if that’s where she had been shot a year ago. Connor had really been closemouthed about what he had found at the encampment, no matter how many times Maya asked him what had happened. He had tried hard not to allow her to see how torn up he had been over the woman. She had finally given up asking, but now she was determined to know what all had gone down.
The sound of someone running through the jungle toward the hut caught Maya’s attention, and she feared her brother had heard Kat crying out. Kat still hadn’t pulled her pants on. What if he saw the scratches on the back of Kat’s leg and knew what Maya had done? He would be furious with her. But if she had turned Kat and it was already a done deal, he would have a mate. And she knew that he would love Kat. But they had to have time to reach their own conclusions.
Then it would be Maya’s turn to find a mate.
Kat pulled an antibiotic cream out of her backpack and began to apply it to the bloody claw marks on her leg. Any wound could be dangerous in the jungle. Although, if the shape-shifter antibodies slipped into Kat’s blood and began to work, Kat would heal quickly—a day or so at the most.
Kat slipped the tube of Neosporin into her backpack and turned just as Connor rushed into the hut, his face anxious, his breathing hard. He stared at Kat, his gaze raking over her naked legs, then he quickly shifted his focus to her face.
“Are you all right? I heard you cry out. You’re not dressed,” he said, sounding surprised and worried at the same time.
“I’m… I’m fine. My… my knee. I just put all my weight on it by accident.” She gave Maya a look as though she was about to tell on her, then took a deep breath and instead said, “I’ll just wear this long cotton shirt to bed. It’s too hot otherwise.” She glanced at the two beds.
Maya quickly shoved the screen door open with her nose and slunk onto the screened-in porch to avoid sleeping in the other bed so her brother could stay with Kat. She had to keep them together, let them get to know each other. Let them bond.
“Sleep in mine. I’ll use the hammock,” he offered gallantly, but Maya would have none of it.
The woman was his now, and Maya had every intention of making sure they stayed together. Even if this first attempt at turning Kat didn’t work, Maya wasn’t letting go of the idea. Kat hadn’t even told on her! She knew then that if this worked, they were going to be sisters and the best of friends.
“Are you sure?” Kat asked Connor. “I could sleep on the covered porch.”
He looked back at her bare legs. “No, with your injured knee, it would be easier to sleep on one of the beds. We’ll talk in the morning.”
“Where’s your sister?” Kat asked, and Maya got the distinct impression Kat was questioning whether Connor had lied about having one. After all, she had to think it fairly unusual that he would have a sister roaming about in the jungle by herself at night.
“She’ll be here soon. She’s with the other cat.”
“Oh.”
Good save, Maya thought.
Kat sighed heavily. “Thanks, Connor, for helping me out. Again. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come for me when you did before. Well…” She gave a small bitter laugh. “I would have bled out. So… thanks. I’ve wanted to do that for a long time. Thank you, I mean. And thanks to your jag
uars, too. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t come along this time, either.”
“You’re welcome. We’ll get you back to civilization within the next couple of days,” he assured her, then cast a look in Maya’s direction as if he was uncomfortable with the way the conversation was going.
Maya couldn’t allow Connor to take Kat back to civilization. She had to ensure that Kat stayed with them. That he got to know her. That Kat had time to turn so that he couldn’t let her go.
Maya shifted into her human form and quickly climbed onto the hammock, surrounded by fine mesh netting, and pulled a light cover over her naked body. In the dark, she watched her brother speaking with Kat.
His interest in Kat was his fault, not Maya’s. But he hadn’t a clue how determined she could be when she set her mind to it. And matchmaking in a human-to-shifter way wasn’t all she wanted out of the deal.
She was going to have a jaguar-shifter sister.
Chapter 4
Connor pulled off his shirt and watched Kat getting into bed, her movement cautious as she tried not to hurt her knee further. Seeing her half naked didn’t make him feel gentlemanly in the least.
He sat on Maya’s bed and untied his boots. “Do you have some Wellingtons in your backpack?”
“Yes.” Kat pulled the cover over herself, and he eyed her through the mesh as if she were a princess in another land, her dark hair spilling across his pillow, the bed surrounded by a gauzy film.
He thought about how after she left them, he would still be breathing in her delectable scent on his pillow and his bedsheets. Neither of which would be conducive to sleep.
“Good. Because of the recent rainfall, we’ll be walking in mud up to our calves in some areas. Progress will really be slow at times,” he said.