Savage Hunger (31 page)

The jaguar looked up at her, his whiskers twitching, his nose sampling the air and
her
.

She was naked. And he wasn’t just a big cat, she was certain. He was just like Connor had been when she first saw him as a jaguar and thought he was just a cat. This one had to be a man beneath the jaguar’s spotted coat, too. He was seeing her as a man sees a woman, or as she supposed a male shifter saw a female,
naked
.

She was grateful that the cat had taken care of Juan and probably the man on the ground. Especially since her shifter genes were so unreliable that she hadn’t been able to turn into a jaguar. But she wanted him to leave, to quit smelling her scent, to vanish before Connor returned and tore into him.

She heard Connor roar, and then Maya followed suit. They were okay. Kat gave a tentative sigh of relief.

The jaguar took another deep breath, then leaped from the tree, and Kat grabbed her bra. What would Connor do if he discovered the shifter had been with her in the tree? She wouldn’t have to tell Connor. He would immediately smell the big cat, see the dead bodies, and, if she didn’t hurry, find a naked Kat in the tree.

She was still trying to fasten her damnable bra without falling off the branch when Connor leaped onto one of the lower branches. She about had a heart attack, having not even realized he was in the vicinity. He did not look happy.

But since he was here and Maya had also roared, letting them know she was fine, Kat assumed the men were no longer a problem. Getting dressed and undressed on a tree branch was much more of a trial than she had thought possible, though.

Connor climbed branch after branch until he reached her, and then he shifted. “Hell, Kat. I leave you alone for a few minutes, and another damn male shifter comes after you.” He helped her fasten her bra. “Are you all right?” he asked, cooling his temper and kissing her bare shoulder.

Frowning at Connor, she yanked her shirt from where she had stuck it in the crook of the tree branch. “Of course I’m not all right. I can’t shift, damn it. Even when I think that I desperately need to get out of my clothes because I need to shift, I can’t do it. Then when I’m sleeping, I manage just fine.”

He kissed her cheek, then pulled her shirt over her head. “
That’s
why you’re naked.”

She cast him the most disgruntled look she could give him. “Of course that’s why I’m naked. What did you think?”

“That you’d shifted and killed a man, and
after
the male cat left, you’d shifted back.”

Hell, now Connor knew that she hadn’t shifted and had given the other male shifter an eyeful of one naked woman.

Attempting to change the subject, she asked, “Are they all gone?”

“Yeah.” He helped her into her panties and jeans. “Hell, Kat. He was up here when you were naked?”

They were not going around and around about this. “I thought I was going to shift, Connor. And he
did
kill the men who were trying to get to me.”

Connor grunted, then left her to finish dressing while he grabbed his bag and pulled his clothes out.

“Is Maya all right?” she asked.

“She took care of the guard at the car.”

Thank God they were both okay.

Kat began climbing down the tree with one boot on, heading for the other one on the ground next to the base of the tree trunk.

In her jaguar form, Maya was down below, pacing. She quickly greeted Kat, rubbing her whole body against Kat’s legs and nearly knocking her over. Then Maya jumped into the tree. Connor tossed Kat’s bag to the ground and then his own. He hurried to climb down to join Kat while Maya shifted and got dressed.

“What the hell did he look like?” Connor asked Kat.

Kat was staring at the two dead men, trying to figure out how the jaguar had killed them. He hadn’t left any bite marks. And no sign of blood was on either of the men.

“He took a swipe at them with his paw. With our powerful strength, we can break a prey’s neck or stun it,” Connor said, guessing at her puzzlement. He pulled Kat into his arms and embraced her tightly, kissing her forehead. “He’s the same one who was following us before.”

“How could he have followed us this time? We’ve traveled for miles by car.”

“Apparently he has been, too.”

Connor lifted his nose and sniffed. “He killed three of the six men who were after us.”

“Three?”

“Another one in the jungle nearby.”

That was the other thud she had heard earlier.

Hating to touch either of the men but thinking the one looked familiar, Kat shoved him over with the toe of her boot. She took in her breath a little too quickly. “One of Gonzales’s men.”

“Hell.”

Maya’s backpack flew past them and hit the ground with a thud, and then she climbed out of the tree, dressed and ready to go. “The other jaguar saved you,” Maya said. “Maybe he can join our little party later.”

She looked at Kat. At first, Kat thought Maya was just hopeful that she would agree and maybe put in a good word for the guy. But then she realized Maya had known Connor was helping her to dress and that Kat had been naked when the big cat came to rescue her. Did the whole blasted world have to know? That one of the bad guys had seen her was bad enough, but at least he was dead. But no. The jaguar who was just as much a man had to see her also.

Sure, she knew it was an inevitable part of shifting, but hell, she
hadn’t
been shifting!

She sighed. She might as well let Maya know what a problem this was for her so she could be aware of it, too, for future reference.

“I thought I was going to shift when one of Gonzales’s men began climbing into the tree. I planned to take care of him as a jaguar. But I don’t know what happened. The urge to shift just sort of…
evaporated
.”

Connor and Maya exchanged glances.

Oh yeah, Kat could see it now. She would be in the middle of the flight to Houston and have a horrible urge to change into the cat. In a panic, she would remove all her clothes and get ready to turn, and then? Nothing would happen. Except that she would be sitting in a cold airplane in the raw.

How was she ever going to manage?

Chapter 25

Six hours after they had left Santa Marta, Connor filled the car with gas at one of the service stations along the way. Kat knew he wanted to stop for the night. He had speculated long before this about staying in a small village to the east of the road to Bogotá. But when he asked the gas station owner about accommodations in the village, Connor was warned that tourists should not stay there. Too dangerous.

The hour was late; he and Kat and his sister needed to rest; and the village was the closest place with accommodations. Kat didn’t like that it could be hazardous. But they were all tired, and driving any farther on the winding roads could be just as unsafe.

When they arrived at the village, they found quiet terra-cotta cottages for rent. The people were extremely friendly, piling out of homes to look the visitors over and glad to have them stay with them. The kids talked to Connor and Maya, asking them where they were from, and Connor put on a Texas drawl that enchanted them.

Then the oddest thing happened. Several policemen appeared and hovered around the area, friendly, protective, as if wanting to ensure that tourists were not robbed or kidnapped while they stayed here. Kat wondered what the police would do if Gonzales’s men learned she was here. Would everyone look the other way?

Probably. But not because they wouldn’t want to help. Gonzales and his men were just too dangerous.

Then she wondered about the mystery jaguar. Was he still following them? She glanced around but didn’t see anyone sitting in a parked vehicle and watching them.

The man who had rented the cottages to them hesitated when referring to the ladies in the party. Was one married to Connor? At least, that’s what she assumed he was trying to determine.

“My sister,” Connor said, as if explaining why he was traveling with two women. “And my wife. We’re newlyweds.” He wrapped his arm around Kat’s shoulder and gave her an intimate squeeze.

When had that happened?

Maya smiled at her brother, pleased with his declaration. Kat scowled at him. He could at least have told her beforehand that he planned to pretend he was married to her so she wouldn’t have looked so shocked.

“Newlyweds?” Kat said as Connor led her into the cottage and shut the door.

Maya’s place was right next door, the only way he would allow her to sleep alone. But it would have appeared odd if Connor had slept with his sister and bride in the same cottage.

He began stripping out of his clothes, and Kat raised her brows, folding her arms across her chest at the same time.

He smiled, a predatory gleam in his eyes as he stalked toward her. He threw his shirt on a chair. “You don’t think I’m going to let you get away, do you, Kat?”

No
, he couldn’t be thinking of marrying her. “You have no intention of me getting away? You make it sound like I’m a prisoner.”

“Bondage. Hmm.”

She slapped his chest. “I’ve been tied up before. By the bad guys, all right? Under threat of death. The thought doesn’t appeal to me.”

His expression softened. “I’m sorry, Kat.” He placed his hands on her shoulders and stroked her through her shirt, his gaze pleading for understanding. “I’m not used to the idea that you served in the military, fighting these bastards in an official capacity. I want to keep you safe from them and from anyone else who might learn what you are now. But I do intend to marry you.”

She let out her breath in a heavy sigh but didn’t relax.

“Come to bed. We have several more hours to drive tomorrow before we reach the city and can get another room until we have to take the midnight flight out.”

She didn’t move.

“Come on, Kat.”

She had put off worrying about the flight for as long as she could. It was in the future, a long way off yet much too soon, to her way of thinking. The time was growing shorter with every passing hour. And she was afraid she’d ruin it for all of them. “What if I shift on the flight?” she asked, then bit her lip.

He pulled her into a bear hug. “You’ll be fine.”

She welcomed his warm embrace. Melted. Loved the way he made her feel secure when the situation was as bad as it could be.

“I’m sorry I didn’t help more earlier,” she said, wanting to at least get that off her chest.

He shook his head. “There’s only one right or wrong way. We live, it was the right way. We die, it was the wrong way.” He tilted her face up and looked into her eyes with heartfelt longing. “Kat, I’m sorry for being angry about the other jaguar. He saved you and that was a good thing. You couldn’t have done anything else.”

Kat hadn’t had the urge to shift again, hadn’t even shifted since she had sleepwalked. She was wondering if the shifter genes had vanished from her gene pool and she was back to normal again. That could be a good thing, couldn’t it? Or maybe it was only wishful thinking.

“Because I haven’t shifted in so many hours, I wonder if my blood has finally gotten rid of the alien jaguar-shifter blood.”

Connor frowned at her as if wondering if such a thing could happen. Or maybe he didn’t like that she referred to the shifter blood as being alien. But it
was
alien—as in she hadn’t been born with it running through her veins.

Then he began to pull her shirt over her head. “Let’s go to bed. We’ve had a long day of it, and the morning will come soon enough.”

When he didn’t say anything about her comment, she figured he didn’t know the truth of what was going on with her shifter genetics any more than she did. But would he be disappointed if she wasn’t a jaguar, if that was the case, or glad he no longer had to worry about taking care of a shifter who had no control over her abilities?

She could fly home without any difficulty. What a relief that would be.

Then a new thought occurred to her. She knew what they were. Could Connor and his sister let her live if she wasn’t one of them but knew about them?

Great.
She would be just as much a liability as before.

***

Connor didn’t think that the jaguar-shifter genes would just disappear, that Kat’s blood could destroy the invading genetics. But what if it did?

He’d changed his mind about her from when he had found her needing his help in the jungle again. Once Maya had turned Kat, Connor had wanted her for good, and he was ready to bite her himself to ensure she stayed with them.

She was so tense, and he wanted to help her get rid of the tension any way that he could. Rest should help. He pulled her to the large bed covered in a flowery comforter, the air conditioner on high.

Before long, he had her naked and in bed with his body spooning hers. She was so tired that she fell asleep before he did, but he couldn’t help worrying whether she had lost her jaguar ties to them.