Tempting the Jaguar (11 page)

hurt her so she used that knowledge

to her advantage as she tried to

keep Rainer’s body beneath her, to

protect him.

But he was having none of that.

Rolling them, he quickly pinned her

beneath him and snapped and

snarled at the vamp with the

discarded knife.

The room around them went

eerily quiet as the vamp held up his

hands. “Don’t hurt the princess,

please.” A quiet, desperate plea.

Rainer’s head tilted slightly to the

side and if he’d been in human

form, she’d have said he looked

confused. Well, she felt the same.

What was up with this guy calling

her princess?

Hating that she couldn’t talk, she

shifted back to her human form and

tried to ignore the fact that she was

naked in a room full of men and

her shocked best friend who

Estrella was purposely ignoring.

She couldn’t deal with seeing

Sabrina’s fear right now even if she

could scent the sharp, almost acidic

aroma.

Rainer still didn’t move or make

an attempt to shift back to his

human form. He just stayed

hovering over her protectively,

ready to strike anyone who came

too close.

“Why are you calling me princess

and why are you acting all

concerned?”

The vampire who was clearly the

spokesperson, went down on one

knee and gave her a slight bow.

What the hell?
“I tracked this beast the other night following you. My

own people have been after you,

trying to bring you home, but when

we thought the wolves wished to

harm you—”

Anger slammed into her. “Hold

the freak up! First, these wolves

have done nothing but protect me.

Second, I’m not a princess
or
a

vampire. Hello? Did you not just

see me turn into a jaguar?”

“You truly don’t know your

heritage? I thought you were being

evasive because the wolves were

listening or coercing you. We

needed to know before we took

more drastic actions against them.”

He shot a glare at Conrad who was

a few feet away, carefully watching

him.

She blinked and shook her head

as she tried to wrap her mind

around what he was saying. Yeah,

she could feel a serious migraine

coming on. She was going to go

back to that heritage bit, but first,

“Why were you all ‘you’re coming

with me
bonita
’ all scary like if

you’re so freaking concerned about

me?”

He blinked at her, utter confusion

in his expression. “I told you I

didn’t wish to hurt you. We thought

the wolf was following you, but

couldn’t be sure. Then you attacked

me
that night. I only defended

myself, but made no killing blows.

And you are
muy bonita
. Pretty,

beautiful—it’s not an insult.”

Rainer growled but the vampire

and Estrella ignored him. He

definitely didn’t like the vamp

calling her pretty but that was the

least of her worries right now.

The vamp continued. “I thought

you would understand Spanish.

Your mother spoke five languages,

you grew up in Miami, and you are

Hispanic.”

Estrella’s entire body went cold

as she focused on one thing. This

guy had known her mother? Had he

been one of the men who killed

her?

Rainer, seeming to understand

the changes going on with her let

out a soft growl then shifted back to

his human form. His shift was

brutal and he let out a groan as his

bones shifted back into place. Still

crouching over her, he gave his

brother a sharp look. “Give her

your shirt,” he snapped.

Conrad quickly stripped and

tossed it to them. It was ripped

down the side, but the black T-shirt

would be better than her naked

state. Estrella still had her arms

crossed over her breasts as she

glanced around the room. Luckily

no one was watching her. The other

pairs of vamps and shifters were

definitely aware of what was going

on, but they were all in staring

contests with one another, ready to

attack at any second. The only

person staring at her in not exactly

horror, but definite confusion, was

Sabrina.

Her friend was in a slight state of

shock. Her dark eyes were wide and

her arms were wrapped around

knees that she’d pulled up to her

chest. As Rainer slipped the shirt

over Estrella’s head, she slid her

arms into the armholes but didn’t

take her eyes off her friend. “I’m so

sorry,” she murmured. “Did they

hurt you?” If they did, Estrella

would kill them.

Sabrina shook her head and

opened her mouth to speak, but no

sound came out. So she just shook

her head again.

Guilt punched through Estrella.

She needed to deal with these

lunatic vamps, then get her friend

out of here. “We’ll be leaving soon,

I promise,” she said before turning

back to the vamp. As she stood, she

was thankful the T-shirt fell almost

to her knees. Rainer stood half in

front of her, his entire
naked
body tense as he blocked her from the

lead vampire.

“Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you

right now.” Rainer’s voice was

almost pure animal in that moment.

Estrella swallowed hard. Holy

crap. He could totally do it, too. She

could feel the rage and energy

pulsing off him in terrifying waves.

It was almost like he was another

person. She’d known he was

deadly before, but what he was

exuding now was lethal. Everyone

in the room seemed aware of it too.

The vamp looked at Rainer and

took a slight step back as he held up

his hands in a passive gesture. “We

do not wish to harm the princess

and we never would have hurt her

friend. As you can see.” He

motioned with his hand toward

Sabrina but didn’t take his eyes off

Rainer. “We just wanted to get a

take on the situation and figure out

whether she was truly captive or

had the ability to leave of her own

free will. If she hadn’t met us, we

would have known she was captive

then we would have launched an

assault to free her from you. And

we only shot tranqs at you the other

night, wolf.”

Estrella narrowed her eyes at

him. “That’s some seriously

messed-up logic. But I don’t even

care about your bullshit. I want to

know how you knew my mother.

Did you have something to do with

her death?” Her claws ached to

unsheathe and she was barely

restraining her inner jaguar at that

thought.

Shock rippled off the vamp that

was so pure she had no doubt of

his sincerity when he said, “I loved

your mother like a sister. She mated

with a jaguar and left our coven to

be with him. I respected her

decision—even though I thought it

was stupid to abandon her people.”

Her immediate reaction was to

deny this vampire’s words as pure

insanity, but some vague memory

played in her mind. “Let’s say I

believe that my mother was a

vampire. What do you mean,
her

people
?” Estrella couldn’t

remember once going running with

her mother, only her father. In fact

she’d never once seen her mother

shift forms, but Estrella had been

five. It wasn’t something she’d

thought much about after their

deaths. She’d just assumed both her

parents had been jaguars because

she
was a jaguar.

“Amira Villanueva was the

daughter of my coven leader, Amir

Villanueva. She was slated to take

over should Amir ever die. She was

considered a princess to our coven

as are you—now that we know of

your existence.”

Estrella placed a hand on

Rainer’s forearm, needing his

support. Rainer immediately

wrapped an arm around her

shoulders and held her close. She

savored his strength.

The vampire watched the

interaction between the two of

them. Surprise flared in his eyes

briefly before his blank mask fell

back into place. What? Had he not

actually realized she and Rainer

were together?

She wasn’t sure she believed any

of this, but needed to ask more

questions. “So why come after me

now? And what the hell is your

name?”

He blinked in surprise. “My name

is Taran. We didn’t even know you

existed until recently. Didn’t know

a jaguar-vampire mating could

produce a child, but when I

killed...” His jaw clenched and he

took a deep breath. “I was recently

forced to kill a member of our

coven in self-defense and when he

died, I took his memories through

his blood. He’d been plotting to

take over the coven and I wanted to

see who his companions were, if

any.”

Estrella looked up at Rainer, her

eyes wide. “Can vampires really do

that?”

Rainer nodded, his expression

grim. “It’s rare, but yes. Some can.”

She looked back at the vampire.

“So what does that have to do with

how you found out about me?”

The vampire looked almost

apologetic. “The man I killed was

one of the vampires who killed

your parents. He wanted your

mother dead should he ever decide

to attempt to dethrone Amir. I’ve

already killed the others who were

there that night, too. I saw you in

his memories and I also saw his

intentions from that night. He’d

planned to kill you, but you were

too fast. Even as a child, you ran

too fast for him. Then you

disappeared into the human world

so he made the decision to let you

go. He’d decided you weren’t worth

the trouble since no one knew of

your existence. He hadn’t even

known about you until that night he

came after your parents.”

Estrella’s chest tightened as she

struggled to breathe. She so badly

wanted to deny his words, but she

couldn’t scent any lies from him.

Lies had a particular metallic stench

and this guy gave off nothing but

pure honesty. It would also make a

lot of sense as to why her mother

had disappeared. If vampires turned

to ash like the one she’d seen the

other night, then that’s why her

mother’s body had never been

found. She glanced over her

shoulder at Sabrina and was

thankful to see her friend didn’t

look quite as in shock as earlier.

And she couldn’t scent as much

fear off her either, just curiosity.

But Estrella still wanted to get her

out of here and she desperately

needed to digest all this information

alone.

She turned back to the vampire

and tightened her grip around

Rainer. “I don’t know if I even

believe you—”

Taran held out a cell phone to

her. Everyone in the room tensed as

Rainer let out a low growl. Conrad

took a step forward and grabbed

the phone then covered the distance

to Rainer. Then he stood half in

front of Estrella, taking the

opportunity to block her even

further from the vampires. She

would have smiled at his show of

protection if she had the energy.

Rainer looked at the phone, then

handed it to her. The vampire had

taken snapshots of framed pictures

—mostly of her mother and a man

who was older than her—that

spanned different decades. It could

be a hoax, but Estrella couldn’t

imagine why the vampires would

bother.

“You might not exhibit any of

our vampire qualities, but you must

carry the gene and are considered a

blood born despite your jaguar

body. We think you can

theoretically have a blood born if

you mated with a vamp—”

Rainer’s low growl filled the air

once again. “Estrella isn’t mating

with anyone except
me.
”

Taran nodded slowly as he

looked between them. “I see that. I

was just making a statement. I—

we,” he held out a hand, motioning

to the other vampires still locked in

staring contests with Rainer’s pack

mates, “would like to welcome you

back into our coven. You have a

home, a family. Your grandfather

desperately wants to meet you.

When your mother left, they said

many angry things to each other

and he wants another chance. He

would have been here, but he is at

the treaty signing and could not

leave.”

Estrella still had a billion

questions for this guy, but now

wasn’t the time. “My friends and I