It was slow going as she maneuvered the ATV back the way they’d come, but they made it easy enough. And although it was a bit unnerving to have a wild predator within reach, Heidi reminded herself that Beth’s tranquilizers were potent enough to keep the cat out for quite a while, plenty of time to get the big guy back to the clinic and safely ensconced inside a cage.
* * *
Leavenworth Veterinary Clinic was housed in a small, converted log home. Heidi backed the trailer into the garage, which also served as a kennel. A chain link cage, with a couple of doggy doors to the fenced backyard, took up the back wall.
Paco, the ten-year-old cockatoo being boarded by an elderly couple on vacation, squawked at her when she jumped out of the Land Rover.
“Later, Pac.” She bypassed his mesh cage near the door to the clinic and grabbed the hand truck from the storage area in front of the kennel. With a lot of grunting on both women’s parts, they got the jaguar transferred to the hand truck and into the operating room.
“We can’t get him onto the table by ourselves,” Beth said.
“I’m worried about that wound.” Heidi headed to the sink to scrub up. “Look at the blood on the bandage. I’m going to have to do it right here.”
“Are we putting him in the kennel after we’re done?”
“Only place big enough for him.”
Beth shook her head, a wrinkle appearing between her brows. “He’s going to be mad, and a pissed off jaguar is the most dangerous of the big cats. They’ve got horrible tempers. You think the kennel is strong enough to hold him?”
Heidi hadn’t known that about jaguars. She was going to have to do some reading up on them.
“Doctor Falke?” Mrs. Blake said, knocking on the doorframe. “Oh... Oh, my. What is that?”
“A very large feline patient.” Heidi adjusted the seat of her rolling stool as low as it would go.
“It’s beautiful.”
“Yes, he is,” Beth said with appreciation, running her hand over the cat’s humongous head.
“Mrs. Blake, would you please put the list of Washington zoos and private large animal sanctuaries on my desk? We’re going to have to find out where he’s from.”
“Of course. May I?” The receptionist motioned toward the jaguar.
“Sure. Better do it now while he’s still out.”
Mrs. Blake took a few tentative steps and reached out her hand, touching his ear, his nose, the thick fur at the nape of its neck. “He’s much softer than Falke.”
Heidi smiled. He was much softer than any of her brothers in catamount form as Falke. The family
“pet” had become the unofficial town mascot, a four-legged celebrity. She’d grown up with six shape-shifting brothers in all and, though she’d envied them that ability over the years, always believed they were stunning in their cougar form.
Sorry, brothers, she thought now, you guys don’t hold a candle to this big boy.
The cat took a deep breath, and Mrs. Blake jumped back. Heidi was right there with a syringe to keep him knocked out so she could perform the minor surgery.
“I best go see to that list,” the receptionist said with a nervous chuckle before departing.
“I’m going to draw his blood and run it through the computer.” Big cat genetics was where Beth’s heart lay. She was an asset at the clinic, an expert most rural vets couldn’t afford, not to mention the best assistant Heidi could ever hope for. Though she’d put her career on hold for a while—or maybe indefinitely for all Heidi knew—Beth still kept up her research, gathering data wherever she could.
And this jaguar offered an opportunity she couldn’t refuse. “Then I’ll go sterilize the kennel and get it ready. Unless you need me in here.”
“Naw, it’s pretty routine, but thanks.” Heidi rewashed her hands, pulled on latex gloves and leaned over her patient.
After she cleaned out the wounds, both entrance and exit, and stitched everything up, she x-rayed the leg. Her suspicion had been right. The path of the bullet had caused a fracture in the cat’s femur, not bad enough to require pins or a rod, but severe enough to require a cast for it to mend properly.
“Bet you aren’t going to like this,” she murmured to the unconscious jaguar as she prepared the materials she’d need.
Beth rejoined her shortly after Heidi finished wrapping the plaster cast.
“Poor baby.” Her sister-in-law petted the jaguar’s head. “It’s a good thing the shooter was Ritchie and not some hunter from outside the area.”
“Agreed. The kennel ready?”
“Yes. We’ll have to use a padlock though. When he comes to, he’ll probably try to do anything he can to escape.”
“Unless he’s someone’s pet. He might be happy to get a good meal.”
Beth rolled her eyes. “People keeping wild cats as pets...”
Heidi laughed as they joined forces to push the rolling cart into the garage. Before Beth found out that Falke, the cougar, wasn’t really the family pet, she’d made her feelings clear regarding humans who thought they could domesticate wild animals.
Paco squawked at them then made a rude wolf whistle when they bent over to maneuver the jaguar off the cart.
“I swear that bird has the worst manners,” Beth said.
“Hey, he’s male. Stands to reason he’d appreciate a pair of fine asses.” Heidi chuckled. “Would you get the biggest water dish we’ve got and fill it up? This fella’s going to be thirsty when he comes out of sedation.”
Beth left the room, and Heidi sat back on her heels to pet the jaguar’s head again. “It’s not the Ritz, big guy, but it’ll have to do until we can find where you belong.”
A short time later, the sound of Beth’s footsteps announced her return, but they stopped short of Heidi and her furry patient.
“We’ve got a problem.”
Chapter Two
The sun beat down on his head as Isabela rushed around the front of the car to come to his aid. She thought he was still as weak as a newborn kitten, and he let her believe so. Her black hair glistened in the sunlight, her eyes so dark he’d been lost in them since he awoke in the hospital bed, bruised and bandaged, unsure of what had happened to him.
“Let me help you, Javier,” she said, her voice as soothing as her touch. “You try too hard to push too much. You must let your body mend.”
She’d been saying that to him for the past four days. When he told her he was checking himself out of the military hospital despite recommendations to the contrary, she’d protested and tried vehemently to change his mind. When that hadn’t worked, she’d demanded he let her drive him home and at least help get him settled.
Her unorthodox insistence might’ve surprised a few at the hospital, but he’d known she would. He’d counted on it. From the moment he opened his eyes and saw hers, there’d been a mutual, undeniable attraction. He’d known she was his, and in turn, his brother’s. Although Juan had yet to meet her. It might require time and patience, but they would claim her as their own.
Javier allowed Isabela to believe his bones were still broken, that the pain was unbearable. It would be for a normal human, but the Montero brothers were not normal. There had been pain, a lot of it the first two days after the chopper crash. Excruciating pain as his bones knitted together, repairing themselves. Today, not so bad. In another week or so, he’d be as good as new, reason enough why he’d needed to get out of the hospital—before the doctors realized he was healing too fast and called for tests.
Tests he could not allow. Only his self-appointed caregiver—and soon-to-be mate—would become privy to his family’s secret...in time.
For now, he would isolate himself in his home and wait out the medical leave the army demanded, then get a release in the prescribed six weeks so he could return to active duty.
The door to the house opened as they stepped onto the front stoop.
“So, you’re the angel who put my brother back together?” Juan asked with a smile that had made o
ther women swoon.
Isabela glanced from Juan to Javier and back. “I am seeing double.”
“Isabela, my love.” Javier wrapped his arm around her in a much more intimate hold, showing her he didn’t need her physical support to stand. “This is my brother, Juan. He’s prepared supper for us.”
She turned her head to stare at him, then raised an eyebrow at the same time her lips curled into a sensual, seductive smile. “You planned this.”
“We have much planned for you. Do not disappoint us.”
Her nostrils flared, and her pupils dilated. “I think you should be the ones who must not disappoint me.”
* * *
Javier slowly came awake with the memory of Isabela’s impudent grin playing in his mind’s eye, an ache in his heart and a rage boiling deep in his gut.
His limbs were too heavy to move. His heart thudded in his ears and echoed a piercing pain in his thigh. His throat was dry, his nose filled with the pungent scent of bleach and antiseptic.
“He’s waking up,” a female voice, soft and unfamiliar, whispered.
“If he’s like Kelan, it’ll take a few minutes for him to gain his senses,” a different woman’s voice answered. “And if he’s like Kelan, he’s gonna be pissed.”
Who was Kelan?
Something rattled. Metal-on-metal.
“He’s not going anywhere.”
Where am I? In a hospital? That would account for the scent of astringent and the pain in his leg.
Had he been in a car wreck?
The last thing he remembered, he’d been speeding up Highway 2, heading for Seattle. He struggled to recall more, but a pounding headache hindered his effort, and he gave up with a painful shake of his head.
He tried to move his sore leg, and a growl ripped from him.
“Hey there. You’re okay,” the first woman said.
“You’re okay,” mimicked what sounded like a parrot, the harsh voice stabbing his throbbing skull.
Without moving another muscle, he opened his eyes and stared at a blurry vision of two women on the other side of a fence. A door, he realized as his vision cleared, seeing the latch and the padlock that secured it. He let his gaze move from them to his environment. He was surrounded on three sides by chain link that reached the ceiling. He saw a garage door, two man-sized doors and a wire mesh cage holding a white, head-bobbing cockatoo.
It looked as if he were in a dog pound, but that didn’t make any sense. He sucked in a lungful of air
-A scent hit him, and he tensed, causing more pain in his leg and head.
A shifter was nearby.
Not Durchenko, though. This was a scent he hadn’t experienced before. Lighter, sweeter than the stinking snow leopard he’d been tracking for over two years. Another deep breath and he picked up more, a lingering fragrance of at least two others...fainter...not present, but definitely shifter in origin.
Where there were shifters, there was danger. He snarled.
“Knock it off,” the tawny-haired woman said. “I know what you are, so you can stop with the wild kingdom act.”
She knew what he was?
He didn’t move as he fought to regain his strength, to assess the damages to his body and any potential threat to him now.
Where in hell was he and how had he gotten here in his cat?
“Come on, talk to me. Tell me your name.” She poked her fingers through the links to grasp the fence. “I know you can.”
Joder! He’d been captured. But by whom? Did the women really know what he was?
And where was the origin of that damn scent? A shifter was near. The sweet scent was far too strong to be residual. He scanned his surroundings again, finding only the two women peering curiously back at him from the other side of a goddamn fence.
He hated cages. A growl of frustration rumbled from his chest.
The petite talker frowned at him. “I know you’re in pain and angry. That’s obvious, but I can help you whether you believe it or not. So are you gonna tell me your name?”
The other woman stood close to the first, silent and observant. She stared at him as if he were a lab experiment. Much taller than the tawny-haired beauty, she was bigger built, her dark hair pulled back into a severe chignon, wire-rimmed glasses perched on her prim nose. The petite, vocal one, however, was stunning. Her hair flowed in a thick mane around her shoulders. In her big, hazel eyes he saw much more than emotionless, scientific curiosity. Excitement mixed with a dollop of feminine pique.
Neither woman appeared to be a threat to him, but then again, he was trapped in a cage. Another growl rumbled like thunder in his throat.
“Come on,” the beauty pleaded, squatting to his level, albeit safely on the other side of the fence.
“We mean you no harm. I want to help you.”
When her scent hit him again, he shuddered and his gut tightened.
A female shifter? Unheard of. He took another breath to be sure.
In the twelve generations he could trace his family history, never had a female been born. He’d heard tales of their existence but believed them nothing more than legend, the wishful dreams of lone males unable to ensure the continuance of their bloodlines.
Yet, here one was...
“Don’t be afraid,” she said. “Do you remember what happened?”
He chose not to respond and continued to stare at her face and those delicate fingers still clutching his cage. He wasn’t sure whether she was being brave or ignorant of the risk she took with that small gesture.
“You were shot by a hunter,” she revealed, “but he called me when he realized he’d mistaken you for a bear. The bullet passed through your right hind leg. I had to clean and bandage the wounds, but you’ve also got a fractured femur. X-rays show it’s a fracture, not a complete break. That’s the good news. Bad news is you’ll have to stay off that leg for a while, but aside from a couple of scars, you’ll be good as new in a week or two.”
“Good as new,” the cockatoo said, its head bobbing. “Good as new, squawk!”
Javier hissed at her, baring his teeth.
“We should call Kelan,” the taller woman said, her expression showing the first signs of worry.
“Axel should know about this too.”
“No,” the beauty said. “No, please, Beth.” She stood and took the other woman’s hand in hers.
“Please don’t tell them yet. You know Axel will freak. He’ll probably demand we drop him out in the woods somewhere...far from here.”
“But—”
“Please. He’s wounded and in no condition to protect himself.” She licked her lips and glanced at him. “I’ve never met another of our kind. Don’t let my brothers mess this up.”
Our kind? Brothers?
There were more of them?
His heart began to race along with his thoughts. Though he’d heard tales of others, mostly bedtime stories he’d learned as a child, Javier had found evidence of only one outside of the Monteros. How many were there in the world? He’d traveled to dozens of countries and four continents tracking Durchenko, but he’d never come face-to-face with another shifter.
Until now...
“He’s probably a rogue,” Beth whispered.
“Maybe, but shouldn’t we try to find out before we condemn him? Let me have a couple of days.
I’m begging you. Just a few days before we let Axel know.”
Beth licked her lips, showing her indecisiveness. “He could be dangerous.”
“Which is why he’s in the cage...for now.” The beauty dropped Beth’s hand and turned back toward him, gripping the chain links of the door. “You’re not dangerous, are you?”
“Oh sure, he’ll just admit he’s as harmless as a kitten, and you’ll believe it.”
The beauty ignored her companion’s sarcasm and continued to look him in the eye. “I’ll keep you safe. Keep your secret. We’ve done it for generations.”
Her pretty eyes pleaded her case, and Javier contemplated sp
eaking to her. But he wasn’t ready to take that chance. Never had he revealed his cat to anyone outside of blood kin, save Isabela. This woman seemed sincere, and to meet and speak to one of his kind who wanted to protect not kill...
But her brothers were dangerous, at least to him. She’d admitted as much in her attempts to keep the other woman from exposing his presence. The beauty might be sympathetic toward his plight, but the males in the area were another matter. They would kill him. They could scent him as surely as he scented this one.
He would keep quiet and plan his escape. These women could not hover over him forever...and the pretty one wished to keep him a secret. With a little luck, his escape should prove to be simple.
He pulled back his lips and snarled.
“Fine.” She sighed. “You’re not helping, you know. But have it your way.”
“Your way. Your way. Your way,” the bird screeched, making Javier cringe.
The pretty one turned away and picked something up off a table near one of the doors. She opened a small latch at the base of the gate and shoved in a chunk of raw meat.
“There’s your dinner. I wouldn’t try shifting with the cast on. It’d hurt like hell and probably do more damage.”
With that, she and Beth shut the door firmly behind them.
“Like hell,” the bird repeated. “Like hell.”
Shut. Up. Javier had no idea if he could communicate with birds as he did humans while in his cat, but he tried.
“Like hell. Like hell.”
Apparently not.
He dragged himself the few inches to the water bowl just inside the gate and lapped up the cool, soothing liquid.
Three days and he’d make his escape. Sooner if he could manage it, cast or no cast. Shifting would still hurt, but at least his bones would be knitted enough to support his weight. He hoped.
Provided the tawny-haired shifter woman convinced Beth to not tell her brothers about him. If they knew there was an injured shifter in their midst, they’d kill him.
Survival of the fittest.
He glanced at his leg. The bird was right. He was in hell.
Chapter Three
Falke’s Renegade pn-3 Page 2
