Nathan returned and took his seat at the table. “Good. No one swiped my food. I’d hate to have to stab someone with a fork.”
“You wouldn’t either,” Maarten argued. “You would lecture them and force them to listen until you were done. Then you’d remove your fork.”
Nathan cocked his head. “I have to say, you do know me well.”
The conversation continued in a light manner until everyone had finished eating, and in Maarten’s case, drinking his milk.
Marcus sat back and rubbed his stomach. “That was good. Now I need to talk to Dallas. And Tiago.” He even managed to say that calmly. “I don’t care for the jaguar shifter.”
“He is Dallas’ mate. I’d say chances are good that he had every right to run off with Dallas.” Nathan looked at him as if daring Marcus to argue.
Marcus wasn’t a stupid man. “Which is why I’m not going to be a dick. Yesterday I was…rash. My nerves were shot.” He glanced down at his hands and felt his face grow warm. “I wasn’t in a good frame of mind.”
“You and me both.” Ryder sighed. “It’s been a rough couple of years for all of us.”
“It has,” Marcus acknowledged. His embarrassment faded. Ryder and Maarten were his friends. They weren’t going to give him shit for not being perfect. If anyone had told him he’d consider Maarten a friend over a year ago, Marcus would have thought they were nuts. But Maarten
was
becoming quite a good friend and Marcus was glad of that.
“He’s powerful,” Ryder noted, tapping into one of Marcus’ main concerns about Tiago.
Marcus wasn’t certain that Tiago was much weaker than him. “Yes, another thing I’m not thrilled about, but it’s not a pissing match to see who is the strongest among us.” Marcus smiled. “I’m secure in my alpha-ness.”
Ryder snorted. “Yeah, same here. It’s weird to think of a different breed of shifter, though. Cats and dogs. That’s what keeps popping up in my head.”
“I still can’t believe it. Well, I can,” Marcus corrected. “Obviously, we’ve seen two jaguar shifters. Maybe it’s the rainforest.” He frowned then, as he considered that. “I wonder if there are other shifters in different parts of the world? Like some sort of water dwelling shifter.”
“Oh!” Maarten snapped his fingers. “That would be where mermaids come from! And high in the Himalayas, the Yeti. Think of the possibilities.”
“What about Big Foot?” Ryder asked.
Nathan cackled. “Please. Everyone knows that one’s fake.”
Ryder threw a balled up napkin at him. “Asshat.”
Nathan flipped his braid over his shoulder. “You are just jealous of my fabulousness.”
Another few minutes of chatting passed then Marcus stood up. Nathan, Ryder and Maarten also stood.
“You know I want to talk to him, too,” Ryder said. “So whenever you’re ready.”
Marcus had no problem with that. He was, after all, in Ryder’s territory.
Ryder held the door open. “After you. Age before beauty.”
Marcus flipped him off. “Brains before dumbasses.”
It was only a short walk to the hut where Dallas and Tiago were staying. Marcus walked up the steps and knocked on their door.
“Who could it be now?” Dallas sang out.
Marcus glanced at Nathan. “Am I supposed to know that song? Or did he make it up?”
Nathan shrugged. “No idea.”
“It’s a song,” Maarten informed them. “Gods, you two need to learn your music history.”
Dallas opened the door. He was damp all over and wearing only a towel. The mate-bite Tiago had given him was lurid on his pale skin. “Come in. We’ve been expecting you. Hm… Except not this very second. Tiago’s showering. I made a mess—”
Nathan waved his hands. “Nope. Don’t want to know. This place smells like sex, sex and more sex.”
Dallas bobbed his head. “That would be right.” He looked very pleased about it.
Marcus didn’t blame him. “I just want you to know…I’ll be calmer today, even if Tiago tries to provoke me.”
Dallas looked at the bathroom door, then at Marcus. “Jaguars are different. They don’t have mates. They don’t have packs or…or whatever a herd of jaguars would be called. Their fathers aren’t fathers, just sperm donors, and the mothers only raise the children until they can survive on their own. They aren’t like us when it comes to pack and family, not at all. Tiago didn’t know what hit him with the mate bond. It’s been a shock to him.”
“And it wasn’t to you?” Ryder asked.
“Eh. I’m easy,” Dallas replied. “Or I was. You know what I mean. I don’t flip out over things because I’m not that deep.”
Marcus had to correct him there. “No, because you don’t let anyone too close. You’re not an airhead, Dallas.”
Dallas blushed from his face all the way down to where the towel was wrapped around his hips. “Um. I’m just going to put some clothes on real quick. And…and thanks, Marcus.” Dallas sprinted into the bedroom. “Make yourselves at home!”
The shower cut off. Marcus sat in a chair and Nathan propped himself on the arm of it. Ryder and Maarten settled onto the couch.
Maarten was paler than normal, and his breathing was a tad labored.
Ryder murmured quietly to him while they waited.
Marcus didn’t look when the bathroom door was opened. He gave Tiago his privacy.
A few minutes later, Dallas and Tiago came out holding hands.
Tiago gave him a cautious once-over.
Marcus tried a smile on him. He didn’t have to force it. Much. “It seems I was out of line yesterday.” Almost an apology.
Tiago tucked Dallas under his arm, hugging Dallas to his side. “I am not used to being around others. The power structure in a pack is bizarre to me.”
Marcus had had enough of the dancing around each other. He stood and offered his hand. “Marcus Criswell.” He didn’t add his title. It would have made him sound arrogant.
Tiago clasped his hand and shook it. “Tiago Henrique Silva de Souza.” They both let go. “Is there something specific you want with me now that we’ve agreed not to try to kill each other?”
Blunt. Marcus approved of that. “Ryder and I have a few questions about jaguar shifters, and yeah, I want to know what your intentions are. Dallas is a well-loved member of our pack. His future is a concern to me.” He held up a hand when Tiago looked to be getting angry. “I think there’s a difference in the way we see things, and that’s fine. I need you to try and understand that Dallas is like a little brother to me—or maybe a son. All of my pack members, they are family to me. So I want Dallas to be cared for, and to be happy. The mate bond can make you do things you wouldn’t normally. Things that might lead to unhappiness in some ways.”
Tiago sat in a chair and tugged Dallas onto his lap.
Marcus suspected Dallas was acting as a willing buffer to Tiago’s unease.
“You are worried about him. That I can respect,” Tiago finally said. “He has already told me that he needs his pack. I need my home, too. We will work out the difference so that we both are happy. I wouldn’t mind seeing New Mexico for a few months at a time.”
“And I like it here, just not all the time,” Dallas added. “We were talking it over this morning. If Ryder will let us hang out here half the year or so, we’d split it up into two or three months at a time.”
Ryder nodded. “Done, as long as everyone else agrees.”
“It seems that problem is solved then.” Marcus returned to his seat. “Do you know of other jaguar shifters?”
Tiago told him of two males that claimed part of the rainforest.
“Could one of them be Robert Butler? He’s been running drugs out of Brazil—and maybe French Guiana. He had some kind of alliance with the former Alpha Anax that ruled before Ryder took over, and he’s pissed about losing his dealers and drug runners. Sound like any of the jaguars around here?” Marcus waited while Tiago parsed out the why of that question.
When he saw the light of understanding in the man’s eyes, Marcus continued, “Yes, he’s a jaguar shifter. Since they don’t have mates, he didn’t know about the mental bond mates have. His mistake, because it saved Maarten and Ryder. Although, he did want to keep Maarten for himself.”
“Fucker is dead,” Ryder spat. “Almost killing Maarten, poisoning him…”
Tiago waited a beat then spoke. “I don’t know the answer to that. Jaguars don’t hang out together. We don’t associate at all, except for the ones who breed, I suppose. Even that is a fleeting association. Same as parenting. One of them could be him, except—no, one of them doesn’t leave the rainforest—the one at the west end of it. He stays in his jaguar form and rules his area. The other, I can’t help you with. What did this Butler look like?”
“Very attractive, actually.” Marcus described him. “Older than you, but aging well. Shifters tend to live longer, so there’s no telling his exact age.”
“Do they?” Tiago asked. “I didn’t know. It isn’t like there’s anyone around for me to ask. Jaguars, I mean.”
“There used to be jaguars in the States,” Marcus said. “If there are any left, I’ve never seen them. There’s never been any rumor of another breed of shifter.”
“We are very much loners,” Tiago explained. “It’s doubtful any would have ever interacted with wolf shifters. There would have been no need, unless, like me and Dallas, they were mates.”
“Well, I think you two are making history, because surely had it occurred before, someone somewhere would have known and passed the story down.” Marcus studied Tiago. With long black hair and chiseled features, the man resembled Butler. Marcus quirked a brow. “You don’t know who your father was?”
“He wasn’t a father. He was a sperm donor,” Tiago retorted. “Why are you all looking at me like that?”
“Because you look a hell of a lot like Robert Butler,” Ryder said.
Tiago’s anger made his pupils expand. “If you’re trying to say I was wherever with him”—he waved a hand at Maarten—“you’re crazy.”
“I am unstable at times, possibly,” Ryder admitted. “That has nothing to do with the fact that you and Butler could be brothers—or sperm donor and son. Butler’s hair is lighter—a brown not black—and he has it cut short. Then again, for all I know, there’s a resemblance for y’all?”
“My mother was a blonde with blue eyes, and we looked nothing alike. At all,” Tiago added. “I couldn’t say about any others. I told you, I haven’t been hanging around with jaguars. We don’t do that.”
“If this guy was related to you, do you think you’d know by scent?” Marcus asked.
Tiago closed his eyes and inhaled, his nostrils flaring. “I can remember to this day the smell of my mother, what it matched in mine, and how it differed. It’s been almost twenty years since I saw her. There’s a chance I would be able to tell if he and I were kindred. If that is the case, then you can rule out any other jaguar shifter in this rainforest. Neither scent is familiar to me at all. Even if it was, what difference would it make to me? Are you concerned that I would regret his death? Don’t be. He is nothing to me, just as he has been all this time.”
“He’d die regardless,” Marcus informed him. “We were hoping you’d have some idea of who Butler really is because there’s no trace of him under that name. Since you don’t associate with any jaguar shifters, you can’t answer the questions we had in mind.”
Ryder leaned forward. “Like where Butler would be hiding, and what did he give my mate. That root helped, but Maarten is still recovering.”
Tiago perked up. “Root? What did it look like?”
“I can do better than that and tell you the name of it.” Maarten did both, and Tiago gave them his first sincere smile.
“I know what those are and where to get them.” He stood, bringing Dallas to his feet at the same time. “We can go get some when you are ready. That reminds me of something I’d like to discuss with you, Ryder, about the pack and rainforest sustainability.”
Ryder was already heading for the door, but he stopped and glanced over his shoulder. “Leaving a smaller carbon footprint?”
“That too.” Tiago stretched, his hands touching the ceiling. “Perhaps you should stay here, Ryder. With Maarten.”
“Why is that?” Ryder bristled at the suggestion, back stiffening and anger tinting his tone.
Marcus knew how hard it was as an alpha to let someone else have any control, especially when that someone was neither friend nor pack member.
“That’s a good idea,” Maarten chimed in with. “Calm down, Ryder. Tiago probably just thought you would want to be with your mate. Marcus and Nathan can go with them, if that’s agreeable to everyone?”
It sounded good to Marcus. It would give him time to become better acquainted with Tiago. And there was the possibility that Ryder would agree because he wanted Marcus to keep an eye on Tiago.
“We can do that.” Marcus gave Ryder a pointed look, knowing Ryder would catch his meaning. Truthfully, he had to believe that Tiago was a decent person. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be Dallas’ mate.
“Wants you to make sure I’m not evil?” Tiago guessed, after Ryder and Maarten had left.
Marcus didn’t deny it. “He’s a good man. I think you must be, too, or else you and Dallas wouldn’t be what you are to each other.”
“I’m trying to be a better man,” Tiago muttered. “Dallas pointed out some things.” He didn’t elaborate.
“Dallas tends to do that,” Marcus conceded, smiling at Dallas. “You ready for a run?”
“Heck yeah.” Dallas whipped off his shirt.
They stripped there in the hut then bounded out in shifted form. Marcus made a mental note to make sure Olin had turned the camera back on from last night. He’d shut it down in an attempt to draw Tiago out. It’d worked, and Olin had almost certainly reactivated it, but Marcus would feel better once he had that confirmed.
Tiago was an impressive beast, nearly the size of Marcus. It made him a fearsome jaguar, more so since he was a feline. Marcus felt his wolf clamoring to chase the cat, and he scolded it to behave. Both he and the wolf knew better than to give in to such an impulse. Tiago clearly had sharp claws.
The ground was damp from an early morning rain, which made the jungle more humid than usual. As they ran, silence surrounded them. All the prey animals were hiding and holding their breath, hoping to avoid detection.
Leaves slapped at them, showering water on Marcus’ coat. Not enough to cool him down much. It was still a nice benefit of the rain.