[Project Nemesis] Jungle Fever (17 page)

            “No matter how
much, I would like to walk into a pack´s territory and just sit down and start
talking, you know that´s never going to happen.  We thrive on weakness, if we
walk in there as humans, they´ll rip us to shreds, they´ll only respond to the
strength of the cat, if we fight, but not to kill, and we become the dominant
pack, then not only will they have to listen to us, but they´ll probably help
us as well.  I can´t help think that this is the best way to handle the
situation, we go in, leave Yvonne behind, somewhere safe, then persuade the
other cats to listen.  If we use the pheromone, it´s just going to fuck
everyone up, even strong cats aren´t going to be able to behave rationally when
they sniff at her.  We´re begging for trouble if we use it,” Rafe said.

            “Yeah, I agree
with Rafe,” Remy answered.  “I don´t want her in any danger at all.  I don´t
relish the thought of leaving her in the fucking jungle whilst we´re fighting,
but rather that, than have her in the center of the fight.  There would be no
way in fuck we could manage that.  What if we were outnumbered two to one?  If
we were alone, then there would be six cats, we´d be fighting two each.  If
Yvonne was there, we´d be fighting one each and watching as the others attacked
her!  No fucking way...”

            Quirking her
eyebrows at their topic of conversation, Yvonne couldn´t help but feel warmed
at their concern for her.  She knew that they would worry about anybody in her
situation, but that didn´t matter, she was glad they were thinking of her safety.
 She knew what she was going to be putting herself through, had already
accepted it as a necessity for their escape.

            If they wanted to
change the plan, then she couldn´t really argue.  If she could help, she would.
 She didn´t have a problem with putting herself in danger.  Strangely enough,
she knew that they would protect her even if the odds were against them.

            Hearing footsteps
through the brush, she quickly dunked her head, and scrubbed at her face again.
 She murmured loudly enough for them to hear, “I´m almost done,” without
turning around.

            She jolted
slightly when she felt one of them place a hand on her shoulder.  She flickered
her eyes to the side, trying to see who it was in the corner of her eye, but
she couldn´t see well enough past the thickness of her hair to judge.

            Yvonne frowned slightly,
as they had yet to say something, which was unlike all of them, including
Armando.  Tilting her head, she tried to scream but was caught short when a
strange man covered her mouth with his hand.

            He hauled her up
from the water, his hands and arms like a cage of iron.  Yvonne struggled in
his arms, but he held her too strongly for her to even think it was possible to
escape from him.

            Splashing at the
water, she kicked her feet out, not only to steady herself as she felt herself
standing straighter, but to make as much noise as possible.  Even though she
knew that the guys probably wouldn´t suspect anything amiss, since she’d been making
noise for the past half an hour, she still had to try.

            When she was
steady, the man dragged her along.  Yvonne tried to bite at his fingers.  Having
missed the first time, she tried a second time, she heard his grunt of pain,
felt his hand lower slightly, but she only a managed a little yelp before his
hand returned to cover her mouth, this time much harder and more painful.

            Suddenly the
beginning of their conversation came back to her.  They’d heard someone in the
jungle with them.

            This guy had to
be another cat.  He was way too strong for her to fight.  What was with that?  She
was damned sick and tired of not being able to fight any of the men in this
frigging jungle.  Helplessness and vulnerability didn’t sit well with her.  She
was used to her fighting techniques being equal to any man, not falling flat on
her face at the first hurdle.  It really ticked her off.

            “Did you hear
that?” Rafe asked with a laugh. “What do you reckon it´s another snake?  I´ll
go and check on her, make sure that she´s OK.”

            Rafe walked
towards the water.  He couldn´t help but feel protective of Yvonne.  Although he
knew that she was a strong woman capable of looking after herself if she wanted
to survive in her chosen profession, his cat brain couldn´t comprehend not
coming to her aid for the slightest of problems.  That part of him recognized
that yes, she was a hunter, but it knew that she didn´t fight to kill.  Cats
fought to kill, anything else was incomprehensible to them, it couldn´t
understand her way of fighting and so he felt as though he had to protect her.

            He didn´t mind. 
A weird part of him enjoyed looking after and being needed, whether she wanted
it or not.  His mother would laugh if she could see him now.  He knew that she
would believe that Yvonne had caught him in the love trap.  But it wasn´t like
that, Yvonne appealed to his cat and his cock and many other ways.  At this
moment, he wanted to make sure that she was alright, because not only was she
hot, but because she was needed in their escape plans.

            Even if they
didn´t use the pheromone as bait, they would need her knowledge, no matter how
slight it was, for basic details.  Things that her mind might have picked up
on, but that she herself hadn´t noticed.  Those small subconscious memories
could help in an urgent situation.  Every little detail counted and could mean
the difference between life and death.  He´d served in Afghanistan last year,
there had been one new guy in his team, who´d survived a bombing.  Rafe would
never forget, what he´d told him.  The man had said that he´d seen a pregnant
woman walking around on a busy street, he hadn´t thought anything of it, but
he´d told Rafe, that he´d instinctively stayed away from her, and had kept a
close watch on her.  When a bomb had gone off, she´d been the terrorist bomber,
and his teammate had survived because his mind had subconsciously realized and
recognized that something about her pregnant belly hadn´t rung true--it hadn´t,
because it had been a bomb.

            Rafe knew not
only from this story, but from his own experience, how the smallest details
counted, and if Yvonne wanted to, and could help, then help she would.

            He looked around
the small brook, frowning when he realized that she wasn´t there.  They´d left
her alone this morning with some privacy, as they´d started to trust her,
believing that she really did want to help.  He started to react with fury,
pissed beyond belief that she´d run away from them again, but he studied the
scene again, something wasn´t right.

            He quickly
shifted to his black panther form, sniffed the bank and instantly scented
another male, a cat.  With a scream of fury, he tried to pick up Yvonne´s
scent, but couldn´t.  He looked around, scanning the area for any signs of a
struggle.  He couldn´t see any, but he noticed there was an indent at one side
of the bank, perhaps where she´d sat down.  The other cat´s scent was strong,
but Yvonne´s wasn´t, which implied that the cat had come to the bank from the
jungle, and had left with Yvonne through the water.

            With another
howl, he called to Armando and Remy, and started to run through the water
without waiting for them.  He hadn´t recognized the other cat´s scent, but it
was affecting his cat´s control, in a way that had never happened before.  Rafe
believed that it was the threat to Yvonne that was raising the his hackles,
which he supposed didn´t bode well for his other life´s love ´em and leave ´em
attitude.  His cat was acting with a worrying possessiveness that Rafe had
never felt before, and it didn´t look good for the bastard that had taken her.

            It wasn´t long
before the small brook broke into a bigger river, the stream of water picking
up pace.  The land on either side of him was declining, and he knew that he
would come to either a waterfall or rapids soon.

            Racing further
and further away from the small camp they´d settled in the night before, he
could hear the rush of water that indicated a waterfall.  His superior hearing
allowed him to hear more than just the fast flowing water, but it became more
difficult so he ran closer to the land, scanning either side of the jungle.  He
started to fear that he´d made a mistake.  Perhaps the cat had taken Yvonne on
foot through the jungle and not through the water, but he doubted it.

            Looking farther
ahead, he saw the land cut away suddenly, and knew that the waterfall was
closer than he´d first thought.

            Standing still,
he scanned the remaining land again.  He doubted he´d made a mistake, but he
turned around to make the run back to camp.  As he spun, he thought he saw
movement to his left, he whipped his head around quickly and saw Yvonne
struggling with a man.  She kicked and scratched his face, lifting her legs up
to unsteady him and then swinging them down hard to kick into him.

            Incredibly, her
struggles seemed to work.  The man slipped on a rock and fell into the water. 
He didn´t pull her in with him, or if he tried to, Yvonne managed to keep her
footing on the land.  He watched as she dove off the river bank and swam back
upriver towards the camp.

            Rafael couldn´t
help but admire her fire, then quickly shifted to human form and leapt after
her.  He grabbed her by the collar from behind, tugging her against him,
laughing as she shrieked and started to flail her arms out, “Yvonne, it´s me!”

            She stopped
hitting him, spun around, and launched herself into his arms. “Rafe!”

            She pressed her
lips against his, and although he wanted to respond, he heard movement from
behind him.  He pushed her away and tried to turn around but before he could,
he was tackled from behind.  His legs buckling, he tried to stay upright, but
fell hard into the water.

            Yvonne screamed
as she saw the man that had dragged her through the damned jungle jump on
Rafe´s back and watched in horror as Rafael fell into the water and hit his
head on a rock.  She thought at first that he was alright, but as she saw the
water fill with the red of his blood, she screamed again, “You bastard.”

            She kneeled down
in the water to look at him, when Yvonne saw that his eyes were closed, she
wanted to cry.  She started to lean over him, but she fell backwards, when with
a snarl he shifted into his cat form.  For the first time, she noticed that his
hair was as black as his cat´s pelt.

            Yvonne watched in
awe as he took the other man down, his chest dripped with blood as Rafe´s
lethal claws dug down deep.  They rolled in the water, scrapping and clawing at
one another.  Blood gruesomely seeped into the water.

            The sheer amount
of it frightened her.  She only hoped that the majority of it wasn´t coming
from Rafe.  She yelped when she noticed that the tiger quickly turned human,
but his hands and arms remained in cat form.  He lifted the black panther in
front of him and threw him onto the bank, then shifted back into a full tiger.

            Yvonne hadn’t
seen Rafe or Remy do a partial shift.  She remembered Armando had extended
claws, but this was so much more than that.

            If Rafe could
subdue the tiger, then he could not only be a possible ally, but a fantastic
asset to their group as well.

            She waded quickly
to the bank and had to physically stop herself from flinching at the blows the
two cats were trading.  She´d never seen a cat fight before, but they were
damned lethal. Each had cuts lining their bellies, the Siberian tiger´s blood
was dyed red, and the shine of blood was easy to see against the darkness of
his pelt.  They ripped and bit at each other with surprising ferocity, it was
as though they wanted to kill the other, but maybe that was just how it seemed.
 When she heard splashes in the water, she turned around and saw Remy in cougar
form, and Armando in black leopard form running quickly downstream.  She yelled
to them loudly, and watched in relief as they sped up, jumped onto the bank and
joined in the fight.

            Remy leapt onto
the tiger´s back, and tore the skin with his claws as the tiger bucked his back
to throw him off.  The tiger succeeded but Remy left deep gorges that bled
profusely down his back and onto the ground.  Armando head butted him from the
side and managed to knock the tiger over.  She was surprised at Armando´s
strength, as he was obviously a lot tougher than the the tiger, who although
weighed a lot more, mustn´t have had the capabilities that Armando had.  She
watched the three of them quickly corner the tiger at Armando´s lead, who
shifted and held up his hands in surrender.

            “Stop, I give
in!” he shouted as all three of the cats before him snarled and hissed at him.
With a growl, Armando and Rafe shifted back, Remy remained as a cougar, and he
would hiss sporadically at the tiger.

            Armando snarled,
“Why the fuck did you take our women, stranger?”

            She preened
unselfconsciously at his 'our' woman, it was an instinctive response and for
once she reveled in it.

            “She wasn´t
marked as yours, I thought she was fair game!” the man answered sulkily.