Terry Spear - [Shifter 02] (3 page)

He seemed to be asking both Maya and Wade.

“They’ve got a job to do in Belize,” Maya said, waving her hand at David and Wade. “And I’ve got a vacation coming up.”

Everett turned his attention to Wade. “Can we have a word with you? In
private
?”

Maya ground her teeth. She suspected the “word” had something to do with her and her family.

“Can it wait until we leave?” Wade glanced at the shifters just waiting for an opening to ask Maya to dance.

Right now, with four male jaguars sitting with Maya, none of the other three shifters dared approach. She might as well have been with Connor for all the freedom she had.

“In fact, we could leave now,” Wade said.

“No, I don’t want to leave this instant.” She’d never been around other shifters before, and she did want to dance. She wanted to discover if one of them might interest her more than Wade did. If she left now, would she ever have the nerve to come back?

“We need to talk
now
,” Everett said to Wade.
In
private
. He didn’t have to tack on the words; the message was clear.

David cleared his throat. “I’ll watch over her.”

Candy snorted. “She’s a
wild
thing. Why does anyone need to watch over her?”

Maya smiled and gave her a thumbs-up.

Maya’s cousins stared at Candy like she was nuts. Her cheeks reddened a bit.

Wade gave David a warning look as though he’d just better take care of Maya, and then he stepped outside with her cousins.

Time to dance, and when the guys returned, she wanted to make plans for her cousins to meet Connor and Kat at a later date. She wasn’t sure how her brother would react, but she was thrilled to have found more family.

As soon as Wade left with her cousins, the jaguar piranhas moved in.

Maya was going to demonstrate to David she’d be fine, show Candy she had the blond guy’s nickname down pat, and dance with another shifter to prove to herself she could do it—and nothing bad would come of it.

“I’m dancing with Lion Mane,” she said to David, then held her hand out to Lion Mane.

He hurried to take her to the dance floor, though the redhead gave him a manly shove, telling him “Way to go,” and no doubt wishing Maya had invited him to dance instead.

She cast a look over her shoulder at Candy and mouthed, “I told you so.”

Eyes narrowed, Candy gave a little shrug like she didn’t care.

David didn’t come after Maya, which she appreciated. Instead, he pulled Cherry, the other lady seated at their table, onto the dance floor. He moved her nearer to Lion Mane and Maya as if he was going to protect her that way. She really liked Wade’s brother. He was sweet and not half as controlling as Wade. Looks could be deceiving, though. If she’d been someone David was interested in dating? Might have been a whole different story.

When Lion Mane pulled her close, she let him, figuring it was only one dance and then she’d take a new dance partner.

He had some wild moves, twirling her and pressing her intimately against his very hard body, their blond hair colliding as he dipped her and swung her around.

“Beautiful,” he purred and tried to kiss her. When she turned her head away from his mouth, he said, “You gave me a nickname.”

The implication was that she wanted him to kiss her like she had kissed Wade—and probably go much further. “Yes, because the name suited you.”

His hands slid up her waist, his thumbs brushing underneath her breasts like she wished Wade had done, but she didn’t care for this guy’s intimacy. “Because you want me,” Lion Mane said.

No, she didn’t want him. She just wanted to dance with other shifters.

She tried to appease him somewhat. “I love your hair.”

He smiled. “Run your hands through it, beautiful cat.”

“Thank you, no. I’ll just enjoy looking at it.”

Lion Mane twisted his head a little and looked at her, his expression one of disbelief. He knew she wanted to touch his hair. Probably all the women loved to. “The man you danced with earlier does not want to see you with others of our kind.”

She didn’t respond to his comment. He was fishing about her relationship to Wade. As far as she was concerned, she and Wade didn’t have one yet.

“He is not the one for you. He’s too controlling. You need your freedom.” The music ended and Lion Mane kept her close. So much for his sentiments about her needing her freedom.

She tried to back off, but David was coming to her rescue. The redhead, Bill Bettinger, was headed their way, too.

Another man, one she hadn’t noticed before, reached her first. Even though he was human, he was well over six feet tall and towered over Lion Mane and the others. The intimidating blond-bearded human quickly took charge of the situation. Wearing camouflage, he seemed out of place despite the club’s jungle theme. His vivid blue eyes studied her the way a hunter would its prey. Not that he appeared to be a bad man, but he
did
look like a hunter minus the rifle. Hunters were bad news for big cats like her.

The male cats closing in on her looked like they’d love to shift and take care of the interfering human.

“You seem extremely popular here,” the human said, as he began to dance with her. “Come often?”

“First time.”

He raised a brow. He wasn’t holding her too close. He was gentlemanly, in fact, and she liked that.

She had a feeling, though, that he had some other purpose in dancing with her.

He cleared his throat. “I saw your picture on the website.”

“Website?” she said, trying to figure out the connection. “You must be mistaken.” Only her jaguar picture was on their garden nursery website, not any of her in human form. How would he have recognized her?

“You’re Maya Anderson, part owner of the Anderson Garden Nursery?”

“Yes,” she said, hesitating. “How do you know that? Which photo are you talking about?” They had dozens of pictures on their website showcasing the pottery barn, the greenhouse, and the sections that featured the variety of plants they offered.

“I was particularly interested in the greenhouse,” he said.

That still didn’t answer how he would know her by some photo. “Are you considering building one?”

He shook his head. Blue eyes narrowed, he studied her. “
Where’s
the jaguar?”

Astonished at the question, she stared at him openmouthed, took a misstep, and only managed not to trip because he hurried to steady her.

“What jaguar?” she asked, using her most annoyed voice, which wasn’t difficult.

The mention of the jaguar made her heart begin to pound. With Kat’s help, she’d revamped their nursery website to include a picture of her—in her jaguar coat surrounded by glossy-leafed tropical plants—inside the greenhouse. She’d also added some special links that talked about the plight of the jaguars. She’d posed for one picture as a ferocious cat, but Kat had also caught her snoozing on a bench, legs and tail just hanging off, eyes closed—one happy, sleepy cat—and snapped a picture of her.

Maya had objected to putting
that
picture on the site, but both Kat and Connor had insisted, though Connor hadn’t liked featuring jaguars on their webpage in the first place, worried it would draw undue attention.

The human didn’t say anything further about the jaguar on her site, just continued to dance with her as if he was giving her time to come up with a good alibi.

The man finally smiled at her, then said, “The picture of the jaguar on your website.”

“Oh,” she said as if it finally came to her. “The jaguar in the greenhouse. What about it?”

“Where did you get the cat?” He continued to dance with her slowly, not tightening his grip on her as if wanting to shake the truth out of her or ensure she didn’t run away, but just as gentlemanly as before.

She should have jerked away from him, but she couldn’t. She had to know where this was leading. “I don’t understand what you’re asking.”

“The
jaguar
,” he said. “Where… is… the… jaguar?”

“Photoshopped,” she blurted. What else could she say? They’d borrowed a cat from somewhere?

Telling the truth was so much easier. Not believable. But easier. Telling a lie? It just snowballed into something totally unmanageable.

His smile said he knew she’d lied. “I verified that the picture was authentic. Real greenhouse. Real cat in greenhouse. Not Photoshopped.” He waited a heartbeat for her response. When she didn’t offer him any explanation, he pulled a card from his pocket and handed it to her.

Henry
Lee
Thompson, Agent for the Preservation of Wildlife, Portland, Oregon.

A picture of a gray wolf’s head was featured in
one corner.

She frowned and looked up at Thompson. “Portland, Oregon? What are you doing way out here?”

“I’m a zoologist for the Oregon Zoo. One of our jaguars was stolen. I was asked to look into it.”

“Do you often have problems with people stealing predators from the zoo?” she asked, trying to sound flippant, like she couldn’t believe anyone would be that stupid.

“Only the wolves,” he said.

Her eyes widened. “Wolves?”

His jaw tightened. “Yeah, but I’m here because of a missing jaguar.”

She couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea that someone was stealing wolves and jaguars from a zoo. Finally, she focused again on the real issue at hand, the only one that should concern her—that he thought
she’d
stolen the big cat. “Oh, and you naturally assumed my Photoshopped cat was your jaguar.”

“The cat was real. The setting was real, Miss Anderson. The jaguar looks just like ours.”

Her lips parted, then she frowned again. “So you’re telling me all spotted cats look alike? If you knew anything about them, you’d know the rosettes are uniquely patterned. That’s how scientists can tell them apart.” She almost said
us
apart because she was so angry.

Most humans would think jaguars all looked alike. Even though she and Connor were twins, they had differences in their jaguar appearance other than the shape of their rosettes. Her cheeks and chest had more white than his did, for one thing.

“Search the garden nursery if you want. You’ll find plenty of plants. Maybe a kitty cat or two. They’re kind of wild, but they catch mice, and we’ve found them curled up in the catnip and basil before. We don’t have any big cats there.”

“Big cats?” he asked, sounding suspicious. “I was asking about only one.”

She felt her cheeks warm. Maybe Connor had been right, though she hated to admit it. Maybe trying to catch a jaguar shifter’s attention on social networking sites was going to cause more trouble than it was worth.

“So where’s the cat in the photo?” Thompson
asked again.

Thompson was like a wolf, she decided. Just like the picture on his business card. All people had an animal type. Some were snakes, some sharks, some butterflies; others cats, doe-eyed deer, or bull terriers. Thompson was a lone wolf, and right now he wasn’t letting go of his potential prey.

The truth, then. “It was me,” she said, cocking her head. “I confess. I was having a bad hair day so I shifted, and one of the other jaguar shifters in the family snapped the photo. We all sat around looking at it afterward over glasses of ice-cold milk—cats like milk, you know—and decided it would be great for the website since jaguars love the jungle. The jaguar gave the greenhouse a wilder appearance and would catch a viewer’s attention. We’d make more sales that way, don’t you see?”

He nodded agreeably, a lifted brow saying he didn’t believe a word she said.

She smiled. “I like you, Thompson. I
love
jaguars. I wish I could help you find your jaguar and return her to the zoo.”

“I believe you. So where did you get the cat for your website photo?”

“Make it brief,” Wade said, as he moved outside the club with Everett and Huntley. He knew Maya would dance with the other shifters, as much of a free spirit as she was. He didn’t like it, even though he knew he had no claim on her. He didn’t like that she was more vulnerable without her brother—or him—to watch over her.

He walked with her cousins into an alley between the buildings for privacy. “David can’t hold them all off for long.”

Everett folded his arms and scowled at Wade. “I thought you were going to talk her out of going to Belize, Patterson. Until the hunters are dead, our kind aren’t safe down there.”

“I can’t. She was right. Anytime we go south of the border, we’re at risk.”

Huntley growled, “Okay, so she said you’re going there. Are you planning to protect her?”

“I can’t stay with her. I have my orders. If I can take the hunters down, that’ll be the end of the problem.”

“So your orders were to go to Belize,” Everett said. “Not to stay here and dance with our cousin.”

Wade tried to keep his temper. He understood her cousins were concerned for her safety. “We had word that the buyer was meeting here with the hunters commissioned to locate and smuggle a cat out of Belize. We had no idea that Maya would be here, or that her brother and sister-in-law and she were going to be in Belize.”

“All right,” Huntley said. “We’ve got a job here, but if we can finish it and get there in time to help out, where would we meet you?”

“Our source there said the hunters are headed to the area between the Macal and Mopan rivers in one of the rainforest preserves in Central Belize. We’ll check on the resort where Maya and her family are staying once we get in. No flights are available until tomorrow.”

Everett glanced back at the club. “I take it you don’t know who the buyer is. We could at least take him down.”

“No. That’s why we’re here. To learn what we can about the deal going down before we target the men who are going after a big cat. We’ve been here for three hours already. Haven’t seen anyone who appeared to be making a deal with hunters.”

“One or more of the shifters here are sure to follow her back to her place,” Huntley said. “At least three damn male shifters in the club are interested in her. Hell, if she wasn’t my cousin, I would be, too.”

“What are your plans with her?” Everett asked, as if he was playing the role of her brother while Connor was away.

Wade would have told him to take a flying leap, which for jaguars was an easy task, but because he might work with these men on an assignment in the future, and because he was interested in dating Maya and these men were family, he said, “I want to get to know her better. I was able to help protect her, Connor, and his wife in the Amazon jungle in an ugly situation five months ago. I only have her best interests at heart.”

Everett studied him for a moment, then nodded. “Yeah, and you’re one of us.” He sounded as though he approved.

“Our mission is in Brazil tomorrow or we’d go with her to see to her safety,” Huntley said.

“I understand,” Wade said.

Something crashed inside the club, and shouts could be heard over the music. A brawl, Wade thought, just what they all needed now—not.

Maya and David could be in the middle of it.

Wade and her cousins hurried back to the club. As soon as they got inside, they saw several humans heading for the exit as one male cat slammed another into a table, knocking it over and shattering the glasses on the terra-cotta tile floor.

“Hell,” Wade said, hoping Maya was safe and trying to make it through the fighting cats to reach her and his brother.

***

Maya wasn’t sure what happened next. One minute she was finishing a dance with Thompson and skirting around the issue of the jaguar on her website. The next minute, Lion Mane, the man with the curly hair, and three other male cats got into a fight just as the music ended.

Thompson used his body as a shield to move her away from the conflict as David came rushing to her rescue.

As a jaguar, she could let the men know with a roar and a bite just how much their fighting over nothing irritated her, but as a human, the best way to handle it? Leave.

Her heart was thundering as she, David, and Thompson headed for the door. Her cat shifter and human bodyguards were protecting her from the fighting when she saw Wade and her cousins barreling through the brawlers to get to her.

She was glad to see they weren’t involved in the clash. She hoped they’d all make it out without injury or being arrested and avoid most of the skirmish.

Thompson had one hand on her arm as he shielded her from the blows and punches and crashing furniture as some of the cats used chairs to make their point with less damage to their knuckles. Glancing down at her, he said, “I haven’t seen a brawl like this in years.” He shook his head, but he was smiling.

Men.

David had hold of her other arm and was moving as fast as possible with her. She was wearing high heels, not running shoes, so she knew she was slowing them down.

David was using his free arm as a battering ram to shove fighters out of their way when he was struck in the head by a flying bottle.

“David,” she said, worried, concerned, and trying to stop to take a look at the cut on his forehead.

“I’m all right,” he growled, sounding like he would have made the bottle-tossing brute pay if he hadn’t been watching out for her. He wasn’t stopping as he hurried her to the exit.

Maya had wanted to meet shifters, but not like this. Why couldn’t she just make eye contact with someone who seemed nice, get together, dance, have a little conversation, and move on—or not. If the man really appealed.

The problem was…
Wade
really appealed.

She couldn’t see Wade or her cousins for all the fighting in front of them. Then suddenly, as if a wrecking ball had swung into them, the fighters scattered. Wade and her cousins were headed straight for her, looking like a force to be reckoned with. She wondered if that had something to do with the
Service
they were in.

His hard, black gaze only on her, Wade seemed concerned that she was all right. She barely paid any attention to her cousins clearing the way on either side of him like a bulldozer force of jaguars. Then Wade turned his attention to his brother, his eyes widening a little, then narrowing. His jaw tightened and he socked the next man he threw a punch at so hard that the man went flying into two others who were fighting.

Wade turned his scowl on Thompson as if to say: Relinquish the woman now, human.

Thompson gave an almost imperceptible smile. He handed Maya over to Wade but continued to help her cousins and the Patterson brothers kick chairs and debris and knock scrapping men out of the way as they escorted her out of the club.

“What the hell happened to you?” Wade asked his brother. He was ready to bash out the lights of the guy who’d hurt David.

“It’s just a scratch,” David said.

It was
not
just a scratch! Maya slipped on broken glass, nearly taking a spill. Wade swept her up in his arms, and she gave a little gasp of surprise.

He looked ferocious as he took a deep breath, inhaling her scent, and growled. “You danced with that blond guy.”

She couldn’t believe it. No one had ever acted jealous about her dancing with someone else before. “I wanted a closer look at his hair, to see if maybe his shampoo was what gave it so much pizzazz.”

Wade scowled down at her.

She sighed. “He wasn’t half as sexy as you…” She knew as soon as she said the words and his eyes widened that she’d made a mistake. “If you must know, I didn’t kiss him.” She heard the low, rumbly growl in Wade’s throat before he spoke again.

“He tried to
kiss
you?”

“I didn’t let him.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t interested.”

“You sure know how to add excitement to a club night.” He didn’t sound irritated this time, but she had the distinct feeling that if she said she wanted to return tomorrow, he’d say
no
way
in
hell
.

As he carried her out to an unfamiliar car, she squirmed to get loose. “I have my own car here.”

Wade set her on her feet.

Her cousins were acting as bodyguards, hovering over her, when Huntley said, “We really need to talk and tell you what we do. David needs looking after. Maybe we could go to your place, if you don’t object?”

“You’re afraid someone from the club might follow me home?” She could see they were from their concerned expressions. “Okay.”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll drive your car home for you,” Huntley said. “Someone needs to take care of David’s gash.”

She suspected they wanted her to ride with David and Wade so she would have protection. What did they think? That someone would run her off the road and try to kidnap her? But she didn’t mind having some protection, once she thought about it. Having the company would be nice, too. She’d believed having a couple of days away from her brother and Kat would be nice, but in reality, she’d been lonely. And she would love to get to know her cousins better.

Wade and his brother, too.

She nodded. Her cousins left to get their car and hers.

“Do either of you have anything to stop David’s bleeding?” she asked the Pattersons.

Wade looked down at her dress as if considering that
she
might be wearing something else she could use. She raised her brows, and he gave her the wickedest grin. Her minidress didn’t have an ounce of extra hem that she could rip off—like the damsels did in the movies.

Wade began to unbutton his shirt. She stared at his fingers moving from one button to the next, waiting to see him open his shirt.

As soon as he tugged his shirt off, she took her fill of his chest—bronzed, nipples puckered, muscles ribbed, and stroke-able, and she promptly forgot why he’d removed his shirt in the first place.

“Bandage for my head,” David said, his tone damned amused as Wade gave her a smug smile and David mirrored his brother’s expression.

“Uh, yeah.” Trying to ignore the way her skin felt flushed with embarrassment, not to mention interest, she took the soft and heated shirt that smelled of Wade, cat, man, and delicious. She wanted to get a closer feel and press it against her nose to take a deeper whiff of its unbidden scent as David got into the backseat of the car. But Wade was watching her. She quickly dismissed that notion.

That was the problem with their wild side as jaguar shifters. Their heightened senses amplified
intriguing
smells… and bad.

Once she joined David in the backseat, she pressed the shirt against his forehead. Wade closed the door for her, then climbed into the driver’s seat.

David glanced at his brother. “I should have known that before I could remove
my
shirt, you’d bare your chest to the lady.”

Wade chuckled.

She loved the teasing between the brothers.

“I haven’t been in a good catfight in years.” Wade glanced in the rearview mirror at Maya. “But the prize this time was definitely worth fighting for.”

She snorted and he chuckled, as if he knew what she was thinking.

“Not a prize,” she said.

“For some, no,” he answered. “They don’t know what they’d get with a woman like you.”

She frowned. “What do you mean by that?”

“Maya, if some of the city cats had seen you in action in the Amazon, they’d know you were one hellcat. I mean that in a good way. But some would be afraid to mince words with you. As to another matter, all of us are leaving on flights tomorrow. Your cousins are going to Brazil. David and I are going to Belize. Would you mind if someone stayed with you tonight and took you to the airport in the morning?”

“Me,” David said. “I volunteer to stay and watch over Maya.”

She let out her breath on a sigh. “
You’re
injured.”

“How about if we both stay with you, Maya?” Wade asked.

She didn’t think he was really asking. No way did he want to leave her alone with his brother. Little did he know that he had no worries there. If she wanted anyone to stay and watch her back, it would be Wade. But she had
no
intention of feeding into his ego.

She studied Wade. “Don’t like your hotel accommodations?”

“They’re fine. It’s you that I’m worried about,” Wade said.

And this time she heard something different in his voice. Real concern. After he had helped them in the Amazon, she’d assumed he was the kind of guy who would go out on a limb for those in need. But she really didn’t think she needed any jaguar shifter to protect her. She had canines and claws enough for the job if anyone hassled her.

“I… don’t think it’s really necessary,” she said, wanting to see how hard he was going to try to get her
to concede.

“You know what happened last time,” Wade said.

“We were in the jungle. And the men were after Kat.”

Wade glanced in the rearview mirror. “Yeah. And she had you and your brother to protect her. But that hadn’t been enough. You, on the other hand, are alone.”

She still didn’t think anyone was going to follow them home from the club.

“Maybe your cousins could stay also, if they want to. It’s a long drive back to Houston from your place,” Wade said.

She shook her head. How had she gone from planning a night alone before she left on her trip to having a houseful of male guests? She did rather like the idea. She could get to know her cousins a little better.
And having them there would make her feel less self-conscious about having two males staying with her who were not related and who she didn’t know
very well.

“Slumber party,” she said. “Okay. I can fix us something to eat after I bandage up David. What happened to you exactly? All I saw was the bottle hitting and you ducking too late.”

“The guy wielding it was that redheaded guy.”

She stiffened. She hadn’t liked Bill Bettinger from the beginning.

“He didn’t like that my brother was protecting my interests,” Wade added.

She harrumphed. “If only he knew the real situation. We’ve only just met. Now that I know that there are others of our kind nearby, I can make some more shifter friends.”