“You make that possible solution to my problem sound like a crazy woman’s thinking, but I promise you I have several degrees that prove my intelligence. It’s quite reasonable to want to live a normal life and experience a normal death like everyone else. However, I no longer think that’s possible for me. I can’t rule out extremes.”
“Dr. Jennings, we are not death dealers or suicide assistants here.”
“I know. Don’t worry. The artifact—that’s how I think of it—well, it won’t let me commit suicide. I tried that already.”
“I see.” But she didn’t really. Eva glanced over her shoulder. “I’m at a loss here, guys.”
“Give her to Prince Axel of Rodu,” Levi suggested.
“Bad Panther?” Jax asked in surprise, turning to his brother. “Don’t we still hate him?”
Levi shrugged. “Yes. I think we still do.”
Sugar watched the two men grinning at each other before leering possessively at Eva. Her gaze returned to the woman. “Who is Bad Panther?”
“Ignore them,” Eva ordered before she turned to glare at her guys. “No, we can’t turn Dr. Jennings over to him. Axel’s a rogue. Guarding her isn’t the kind of work he needs to be doing.”
“Watching over Maxwell is not real work. Your bad kitty for hire is practically on vacation,” Jax offered.
Eva rolled her eyes. “He’s not on vacation. Axel is doing a job for Max’s pack. Stop being so judgmental. I told you both that I never slept with him.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” Levi asked, ignoring Jax’s smirk. “Though I do like to hear you admit it.”
Eva rolled her eyes as she turned back to face the client she couldn’t help. “Dr. Jennings…”
“You know all my secrets now. Call me Sugar.”
Eva snorted. “Okay, Sugar. Look, you don’t want Prince Axel of Rodu’s help. Axel works for puss… uh... he doesn’t accept money in exchange for his services. He says wealth is a trap and that he has too much already. When he helps a woman, Axel requires her to service him as his female for the duration of the time he's her champion. After he resolves the woman's situation, he turns his back and forgets she ever existed. Sometimes he doesn’t even wait until the contract period is up.”
Sugar sighed. “Since I’ve always found a barter system to be an excellent means of doing business, I wouldn’t mind working out some sort of compensation with this Bad Panther guy. Is he truly so ugly though that he has to coerce desperate women into sleeping with him?”
“Yes. Hideously ugly,” Levi declared loudly, grinning hard when Jax laughed at him for interrupting.
“Seriously, just ignore them,” Eva ordered again. “Axel’s not ugly. He’s nearly seven feet tall as a human and has a well-defined body. He’s light brown-skinned, black-haired, and has green eyes in a face a woman would probably never get tired of looking at across the table. The man is gorgeous. In cat form, he’s more massive than either of the idiots behind me who I tolerate despite their idiotic jealousy.”
Sugar tried to imagine what a giant panther would look like. “Good looking you say?”
“Very good looking,” Eva said.
“Hmm…” Sugar tapped her chin with her finger as she thought. “That doesn’t sound like the kind of man who needs to take sexual advantage of unwilling women.”
“Oh, he doesn’t. Axel just thinks differently than most. He professes to be from an advanced feline shifter species from another planet who are now residing here on Earth. He also professes to be descended feline royalty, but he refuses to explain much else. And he offers absolutely no proof whatsoever.”
“Not true. We have all the proof we need that Axel is a royal pain-in-the-ass,” Jax proclaimed.
“Jax…” Eva said in warning.
Jax grinned at Sugar. “Axel is far more than just a bad kitty.”
“You mean Bad Panther,” Levi corrected his brother, grinning at Jax’s nodding head.
Jax chuckled. “Axel could be the ringleader of the Bad Kitty Brigade. I’m sure his royal mother is very proud of him.”
Their juvenile taunts and chuckling about the male Eva was describing fascinated Sugar, though she thought the alien part was a bit much.
“I think a mercenary guardian descended from shifter royalty sounds quite intriguing,” she told her potential benefactress.
Eva stared hard at the craziest client to ever walk through her door. “While Jax and Levi like to make fun of the few personal tidbits Axel’s shared with us, the truth is that he’s ruthless and seems to have no kindness in his soul for any creature. Trust me, Axel is not one of your archeological mysteries that need solving. Axel is a dangerous and heartless predator that no one quite understands.”
“Do you think this Bad Panther person can stop me from being dissected?” Sugar asked.
“No. In all honesty, I don’t think anyone can save you for long. You’re outnumbered and not equipped to fight off the legions coming after you. I’m sorry, but it’s best you prepare for the inevitable,” Eva said flatly.
Sugar sighed deeply and blew out a frustrated breath at the statement. She heard a mirror sigh from Eva, but her hopes were dropping by the minute.
“Look…” Eva said as she leaned over her desk, “if Axel did agree to take you on, I know he would die before he’d let you be harmed. However, his reasons might be just his desire to best your attackers. Once he realizes the odds are not in his favor?” Eva stopped and shrugged. “My level of trust in Axel sticking things out for the long haul is very, very low.”
Sugar blew out a long, tortured breath. “You know, my daddy used to say that having something go your way was better than having nothing do so. The artifact has turned me into a dangerous woman, Eva. If I can get the thing in me to accept Bad Panther as my guardian, I will agree to pretty much any terms he makes in exchange for his protection. Please make my willingness to meet his terms known to him.”
When Eva caved, her decision was in her resigned gaze. Sugar shrugged, her weird sense of humor taking over. “I promise if your Bad Panther guy declines to help me, I’ll chalk it up to fate and none of you will ever see me again.”
“Okay,” Eva said in defeat. “I’ll send word to him. But don’t get your hopes up.”
Sugar noticed Eva’s guys had nothing to say after she’d decided to become the panther’s bartered concubine for awhile. Her head swiveled as the door opened behind them. The most attractive male she’d ever seen walked into the room. His mane of black hair highlighted a pair of intensely green eyes that glittered when he glared in her direction.
At his side was the biggest wolf Sugar had ever laid eyes on in a zoo or the wild. But why in the world was the wolf wearing a therapy dog vest? How ridiculous.
Sugar laughed and reached out a hand instinctively. “You poor thing. Shame on whoever is making you masquerade as a dog,” she said. The wolf trotted right up to her and let her pet his head.
Eva raised an eyebrow. “Axel, do you have my office bugged?”
Axel ignored the question and the gargoyles glaring at him. He looked instead at the woman seated in front of Eva’s desk. The woman was plain to the point of being ordinary and would be easily forgettable. He wouldn’t have been tempted to bed this one anyway, so he should have no trouble honoring his mother’s requests concerning her.
He walked over and stood by Max as he stared down at the woman’s curious face.
“Hi. I’m Dr. Sugar Jennings,” Sugar said, holding out her hand for him to shake.
“Come with me if you want to live,” Axel ordered.
Sugar burst out laughing at the dramatic statement delivered in an incredibly sexy voice. “Oh, you’re a Schwarzenegger fan. Me too. I loved that movie.”
Her eyes widened as Axel ignored her teasing and turned on his heel. He walked away from her without commenting or touching her in any way.
Sugar shook her head over Bad Panther’s bad manners as her offered hand fell limply to her lap. T
he wolf at her feet yipped once and darted after her obviously reluctant guardian. The wolf stopped in the doorway and yipped a second time while looking back at her.
Rude or not—what choice did she have except to do as the infamous Bad Panther commanded?
Sugar turned back to Eva as she stood. Another yip sounded from the door and made her chuckle. “Guess I need to hurry. Thanks for all of your help, Eva.”
From behind her, she heard Eva sighing in resignation while her guys grumbled about needing to check the room for hidden microphones.
5
Her new guardian led them through several backstreets until they reached a secluded park. The homeless were sleeping on park benches while several young mothers watched like hawks over their children on the playground.
Sugar didn’t comment about being nervous or complain about the place where he’d parked because the alleged rogue royal never slowed his forward motion. They soon left the people in the park behind and entered a more secluded area that disappeared into a grove of trees.
Sugar pushed away her worry by walking faster. Though naturally tall for a woman, before the artifact she would never have been able to keep pace with someone Bad Panther’s height, especially with those long, muscular legs of his. Eva had been right about him being nearly seven feet. Luckily, the artifact made keeping up with him no problem. She even had time to admire the way his muscular backside filled out his jeans so nicely.
They both stopped walking at the snap of tree limbs in the outcrop of trees they’d been traveling through. Head turned toward the sound, Sugar suddenly felt a sharp sting on her neck and swatted at it. “Ouch. Watch yourself. I think something that buzzes just got a chunk of me.”
“That wasn’t a bug bite, Dr. Jennings. That was me putting a tracker in you,” Axel said coldly.
“Tracker? What do you mean?” Sugar asked, rubbing the spot again.
“I put a nanotech tracer in your bloodstream. If anyone kidnaps you, I’ll be able to find your body. The new prototype comes with a few other perks as well, like the giving you the ability to see reality instead of technological illusion. Once you see my ion lift in a minute or two, I want you to get in it and keep quiet. The craft’s cloaked to those with normal vision, and once you’re inside, you’ll be cloaked as well.”
Up ahead, Sugar thought she saw a flying saucer suddenly materialize in her view. She blinked and looked at it in trepidation. Was the UFO a hallucination from some drug he’d just given her? Her new guardian might be a hardcore fan of science fiction, but owning his own flying saucer was taking things a bit far in her opinion.
Now she was having second thoughts about going anywhere with him. Was it worth what was left of her life to go anywhere with a man who was an obvious nutcase?
“I think we’re being watched,” Axel said in disgust as his gaze searched the trees.
Sugar bit her lip. Attackers? Well, that narrowed her options. Should she go with the nutcase or deal with more people trying to abduct her? For now, she’d have to trust the sexy cat shifter no matter what kind of vehicle he drove.
“Okay. I’ll be on guard,” she answered. “What do you want me to call you? Bad Panther?”
His snort was loud. “No. Axel’s fine.”
Sugar eyed the sexy man next to her. Wasn’t that the gospel truth? Prince Axel of Rodu was indeed fine.
She eyed him up and down several times admiring what she saw. She couldn’t wait to start paying her bill. Maybe taking a ride on that fine body of his was worth putting up with his crazy science fiction fetish and his mega-macho shit.
“Axel it is. You can call me Sugar.”
“No. I’ll call you Dr. Jennings,” he said. “This is a business arrangement. I’m also going to train you in self-defense. We’ll begin our training tomorrow—once we’re somewhere safe.”
“But Eva said you…” Sugar never got to debate the matter or offer him her body. Six ape-men bigger than Eva’s Gargoyles dropped from the trees to surround them. One of them had a massive gun in his hands.
Axel stepped in front of her and silently transformed into a panther the size of an elephant. He swiped at them with one set of razor-sharp claws. The sharp blades of them cut two ape-men in half while wounding another two who now crawled to get away from him.
Sugar watched as the one with the weapon still in his hands shot some kind of laser beam directly at Axel. It took his massive panther legs right out from under him. Seeing her new guardian down caused her panic to flare. Her chest vibrated and the pain between her breasts began in earnest.
“No, no. Not now. Not him. I am not going to let you kill him when he’s just trying to help us. The panther is not to be harmed. Do you hear me, Artifact? Leave my new panther guardian alone.”
Order acknowledged.
Sugar grabbed her head. “Shit. Now I’m hearing voices again. That’s all I need. Listen—if you can hear me, I’m tired of going blank each time there’s a fight too. I want to know what’s happening. I want to get a real handle on how you operate.”
Acknowledged. Host sentience will be maintained.
On the ground ahead of her, Sugar saw how Axel had earned being called Bad Panther. He rose on now shaky panther legs and took a few steps. His enormous presence alone seemed to scare the remaining two ape men into backing the hell up. Once again, her guardian stepped in front of her making sure that if they fired again, it wasn’t going to hit anyone but him.
“See?” Sugar said to the artifact, gritting her teeth against the pain in her chest. “Prince Axel of Rodu is our guardian—yours and mine.”
Axel of Rodu. Guardian accepted. Exception logged.
“Thank goodness,” Sugar said in relief. She felt like her head was going to explode. “You got a real name, Artifact?”
Protector mode needed. Switch imminent. Defense mode activated.
“Oh, God. Not defense mode,” Sugar whined, falling to her knees when her chest began to vibrate uncontrollably. “This is not going to be good. Only the ape-men. Do you hear me? Kill only the ape-men.”
Order acknowledged. Switch imminent. Defense mode necessary.
As the sizzling in her brain signaled the end of consciousness for her, Sugar could only hope she was saving Axel’s life instead of taking it. He was a beautiful bastard even if his attitude sucked.
She’d hate to end up killing the only male with balls big enough to take on the task of trying to save her.
6
Axel shook his massive panther head trying to clear it. Damn, that particle beam had hurt. It had done a real number on him. That’s what he got for being a hero. Pain and more pain.
Axel could barely walk now, much less fight. Though it hadn’t knocked him completely out, the blast had numbed every cell in his body. Luckily, they’d calibrated it for an average cat shifter and not an alien one. If the stupid archaeologist had walked just a tiny bit faster, he might have moved fast enough to have spared both of them this fight.
He felt a hand rubbing his hindquarter and rounded to kill the person who dared touch his panther ass.
“Stand down. Protector mode engaged.”
His mind screamed “What the fuck?” in English, but what came out of his panther maw was a loud, disbelieving roar. What in the world did she think she was doing?
“Feline language unknown. Observation recommended. Axel of Rodu accepted as guardian.”
Axel growled low as she rubbed his flank and then patted it. He blinked his still wary panther eyes at her. Was Dr. Jennings trying to calm him with her patting?
Axel watched in amazement as his mother’s latest assignment walked calmly around him without concern for what she faced. Dr. Jennings was clearly under the influence of a power not natively her own.
Though plain of face with her brown hair and brown eyes, the female was currently covered in a shimmering gold outfit that had molded itself to her curves which were a lot more substantial than he’d noticed in Eva’s office.
His huma
n side pressed to return to explore her curves. The urgency of the desire stunned his mind. That kind of longing never happened to him—never. Females were fun, but they were optional.
His next panther roar was also one of surprise when the armed ape-man shot the laser once more but this time at her. Axel saw it ricochet off her gold-encased body and return immediately to the shooter. The ape-man shooter slammed into the ground hard and his weapon rolled off to the side.
Stunning him even more, Dr. Jennings suddenly materialized a weapon in her right hand from seemingly nothing more than air. She calmly fired it at the other one who was trying to escape. The running ape-man dissolved in an explosion of black dust that dropped into a small pile on the ground. She repeated the action on the one who’d fired the laser dissolving him into a pile of black dust as well.
Turning back to face his direction, Dr. Jennings walked calmly toward him again. Instead of stopping, she seemed to be headed toward his ion lift. “Prepare flight craft. Departure estimate one minute four seconds,” she stated flatly. She walked to where the two dead ape-men he’d killed lay and the two wounded ones that continued to struggle to escape.
After obliterating all four with her black dust weapon, it suddenly disappeared from her hand as if it had never existed in the first place. Her glance took in the entire area once before her shimmering gold outfit retracted from around her and was sucked back into her chest.
When it was all over, Dr. Jennings once again looked like she had when he’d picked her up at Psych Central’s office. Now that his cat was no longer needed for the fight, Axel transformed back to his human form and walked toward her.
“Are you harmed?” he asked to start a conversation. He could see she wasn’t, but everything else he wanted to say would have been all cursing in astonishment.
Her eyes dropped from his for a few moments before lifting again. “Negative. Host unharmed.”
“Dr. Jennings is your host?” he asked.
“Affirmative. Symbiosis in progress. Protector chosen.”
Bad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 1) Page 4
