Beth nodded with wide-eyed innocence that might fool her husbands, but made Heidi roll her eyes.
“Sure. Just a jaguar shifter.”
Kelan turned back toward Heidi and narrowed his eyes, his hackles rising. Open the door.
Heidi braced herself, ready for another attack, and shook her head. “He’s my patient, and he’s injured. I’ve already cleared him with our dads. They said he could stay until he was healed and could make it on his own.”
“She’s correct. We have a guest in the house. Yes, he’s a shifter. And yes, I’ve given Heidi permission to care for him until he’s strong enough to leave.”
“You can’t be serious!”
Burke raised his eyebrows at Reidar’s outburst. “Do I sound as if I’m joking?”
Is he safe? Kelan asked, his tone more subdued and cautious now. Maybe it was because Beth had slipped up next to him and petted his head as if he were a house cat. Her personal kitten.
Burke glanced toward Heidi, then at Beth, looking indecisive. “If he’s not, I’ll tear his heart out myself. But your sister thinks he is, and he is her patient. We will defer to her until he proves otherwise.”
“Is he a rogue?” Reidar moved toward his mate.
They’d grown up hearing stories of rogue catamounts. They’d never had another shifter in their midst, not during the lives of Heidi’s generation, but there’d been one talked about, somewhere in the past far beyond even her fathers’ lives. One who’d been dangerous, out to kill every one of his kind he found.
Then there were stories of others who were alone, drifting, never fitting in either the human or animal worlds. They died young, usually. Alone. Heidi’s heart clenched when she thought of Javier being alone. But he drove an expensive sports car, so surely he fit somewhere within the human world.
Isabela, she remembered. Was she the reason he was going to Seattle? Was she of shifter blood?
“He is seriously injured.” Burke pulled Heidi away from her thoughts. “Fridrik and I haven’t had time to question him, yet. But we will. For now, let him be,” he said, adding a stern look at both Kelan and Reidar. Then her dad’s mood changed. “Will dinner be ready on time?”
Heidi sighed with relief and sagged against the door. “Yes, Daddy. Of course.” She gave Burke a kiss on the cheek and headed down the hall toward the kitchen.
Kelan said to Beth, You are in trouble, woman.
Her sister-in-law could handle the boys, and her brothers would never harm their mate, but Heidi was glad she wasn’t in Beth’s shoes. Keeping secrets from brothers was one thing. Keeping them from your mates was quite another.
More than half an hour passed before Beth came into the kitchen just as Heidi was putting the pork chops under the broiler. “What do you need me to do?”
Her sister-in-law’s face glowed, and Heidi didn’t need three tries to guess what had kept her occupied. “Hope they weren’t too hard on you.”
Beth waggled her eyebrows. “Just hard enough.” Then she burst out laughing before she leaned over the counter and stage whispered, “They’re such pussycats.”
“Pussycats?”
Beth batted her eyes. “‘You mean you’re upset I didn’t tell you about Heidi’s patient? But...what does that have to do with us?’” Heidi rolled her eyes. “And they fell for that?”
Beth just gave her a toothy grin and changed the subject. “Now tell me what you were about to tell me before the boys got home. What happened with him?”
Heidi shrugged and acted as innocent as Beth had. “Nothing. I wonder about him, but he’s not doing much talking.”
Beth stared at her a long time with a look that plainly said she didn’t believe her.
But Heidi wasn’t ready to talk about a kiss that might have been nothing but a man in the throes of a drug-induced dream. “Turn those chops, would you?”
Beth went to the oven, and Heidi smashed the hell out of the potatoes. She couldn’t read anything into that kiss. Nothing at all. No matter how it affected her.
* * *
Javier’s heart thudded with anticipation of his homecoming. He’d been on military maneuvers for a week and couldn’t drive fast enough through the city traffic to reach his destination. His mate, his Isabela, promised to be waiting for him. He’d tried calling as soon as he’d left the base, but there’d been no answer. He grinned as he pictured her naked on the bed, posed in her sign of submission to him.
He hadn’t wanted to go on this last mission, the first time in his entire military career he wanted to stay home with his family. Isabela’s baby bump grew daily, and they’d felt their tiny babies move for the first time the day before he’d shipped out. Triplets, the doctor said.
Thank God for Juan, or Javier would have begged his superiors to let him stay. Isabela was healthy, seemed ecstatically happy, but she was so small. Growing three children in her belly wasn’t going to be easy. He couldn’t stand the thought of her being left alone for even a moment. She called him a crazy, overbearing gatito, her kitten.
He chuckled as he pulled into the driveway of the small house that Isabel had quickly and easily turned into a home. Leaving everything but the keys in the car, he ran up the walkway, slipped the key into the lock...and froze when the scent of death hit him hard.
His stomach churned, and cold sweat popped out on his sides.
He turned the key in the lock, ready to shift if needed, and nudged the door open with the toe of his boot.
* * *
Javier jerked awake, panting, staring at an unfamiliar ceiling, lying in an unfamiliar bed, surrounded by scents that confused him.
As he cleared the nightmare from his mind, he found his bearings and realized he was in Heidi Falke’s bedroom, in her family home. A home of shifters.
The angle of the sun streaming through the picture window showed the hour to be late morning. The scent of fried meat drew his attention to the nightstand. Two plate-sized ham steaks and three biscuits.
A tall glass of orange juice and four of those pills she’d given him the night before. Across the room, the food he’d thrown in a fit of anguished fury after the kiss had been cleaned up and taken away.
He’d tried to get up, to clean up the mess he’d made when shame sank in, but he hadn’t had the strength to do more than sit up on the edge of the bed. The pills Heidi had given him made his muscles nearly as weak as his mind.
Now he threw back the covers and, using his hands, lifted his right leg and swung it to the side so he could sit up. Pain shot from his thigh down to his foot and up into his hip. He’d seen his x-rays—this break was much worse than any he’d previously sustained, and it was taking longer to heal. But he didn’t have time to lie around, no matter how comfortable the bed might be. He needed to get out of this shifter home, away from the shifter female that made his dick hard, and get on with finding and killing Durchenko.
He spotted his duffle bag on the chair next to the bed. They must have found his car, he surmised.
He reached over, grabbed the handle and dragged it onto the bed next to him. As soon as he opened the bag, he could smell the Falke men on his belongings. They’d gone through it. His clothes, which had been neatly folded, now filled the bag in disorder. He dug until he found his wallet. His cash, credit cards and driver’s license were still there. So was his passport.
The Falkes didn’t appear to be thieves, but neither did they seem to worry about revealing their invasion of his privacy. Of course if the tables were turned, he would’ve done the same, so he didn’t fault them for their curiosity.
He tossed his wallet back into the duffle and pulled out his shaving kit, a pair of shorts, underwear and a clean T-shirt.
The bathroom was through a door just across the room, and he’d made it there and back once during the night when he couldn’t hold in nature’s call any longer. Now, he reached for the crutches leaned against the wall on the other side of the nightstand and somehow found the energy to get up and into the bathroom.
<
br /> After a sponge bath, shampoo using the hand-held showerhead, a shave and changing into his own clothes, Javier felt almost back to normal, though his muscles seemed to be made of gelatin. He stumbled his way back to bed on the crutches and scarfed down the breakfast, but what he really needed was caffeine, not orange juice, to clear his head. He wondered where his nurse—doctor—Heidi was.
He hadn’t seen her since his explosive reaction to her unwanted question. He’d heard the scuffle that ensued outside the door of the room the evening before, and her vehement efforts to protect him.
He’d pushed himself up in bed, ready to defend himself any way he could if she hadn’t managed to keep her brothers out.
He’d also heard the dire warning in the father’s tone, and Javier had no doubt the older shifter meant what he’d said about ripping Javier’s heart out. Instead of the threats angering him, he respected the elder shifters for their fierce protection of their family, of their females especially. He could even understand the younger men’s reaction to his presence in what they obviously perceived as their territory.
Javier pushed up from the bed again, using the crutches, and headed in search of a cup of freshly brewed coffee. He hadn’t been told to stay within the confines of the bedroom, so unless he was, he needed to exercise his muscles and try to regain enough strength to get the hell out of there. Damn that his leg kept him from driving. If only he’d been shot in the shoulder instead.
Or the heart, a soft voice whispered in the back of his head.
No. Not until he’d captured and destroyed Durchenko. Once he was done away with, Javier could...
He stopped halfway down the long hallway and stared at the family photos that almost covered the walls. His gut clenched, and a deep, throbbing pain he knew all too well pierced his heart.
What the hell would he do once Durchenko was dead? He’d never thought past winning the battle over the leopard.
His chance of family was gone. Without Juan and Isabela, he would grow old alone-“How are you doing?”
Javier focused on the figure at the end of the hallway. One of the elders. “Better, sir.” He moved slowly, a little unsteady on the crutches. “I smell coffee. May I bother you for a cup?” Or a whole carafe?
“This way.” The elder disappeared through a doorway, and Javier followed into a spacious kitchen and dining room with a long table that seated a dozen. “Have a seat.”
Javier gladly sank into one of the chairs and lifted his throbbing leg onto the seat next to him, leaning the crutches against the table.
The other elder came into the kitchen, glanced at him, then went to the counter and refilled the coffee cup he carried. The first one set a steaming mug in front of Javier, then sat across from him.
The second joined them, sitting next to his brother.
Javier made eye contact with both, letting them know he was not intimidated, but looked away as he lifted his mug to his lips. He didn’t want them to think he was there for a confrontation. The sigh slipped out of him unbidden. He hadn’t had good coffee in ages, and this was good coffee.
One of the elders cleared his throat, drawing Javier’s attention.
“How long have you been on your own?” the one in a polo shirt asked. The other wore more casual clothes, jeans and a flannel shirt open over a T-shirt.
“Two years, sir,” he answered honestly. He had no reason to lie to these men. They’d taken him in, or allowed their only daughter to—if he was to believe what he’d seen in the photos.
“I see you found your bag,” the other said, giving a slight nod toward his clothing.
“Yes. Thank you.” He chose not to address the issue of privacy. After all, he’d essentially invaded the privacy of their home. No harm, no foul.
“It was Kelan and Reidar who fetched your vehicle when the police chief let Heidi know it’d been located.”
“I’ll be sure to thank them, then.” The talk was polite, but the tension from the elders was palpable.
“I also thank you for taking me in during my time of need. I am in your debt.”
The one in the polo shirt gave a slight nod of acceptance, but the other stared hard at him, unbending, and asked, “When do you believe you will be ready to be on your way?”
Javier took another sip of coffee. “I do not know, sir. This break is worse than any I’ve ever experienced, and it is not healing as fast. I’d hoped to be on the road by now, but, as you can see...” He motioned toward the crutches. “May I ask your names?”
“Burke,” the stern-faced one said.
“Fridrik.”
“Is Heidi around?”
Both men seemed to glare until Fridrik answered, “She needed to go to the clinic. She canceled all her appointments, twice, because of you.”
They didn’t pull any punches, did they? “I am in her debt. I would have died if not for her.”
“If not for the fact you were shot here,” Burke said, “any number of things could have befallen you.
Scientific experimentation among the more disturbing. How did you come to be in your jaguar form in our woods?”
Javier shook his head. He still couldn’t remember anything of the moments before the shooting.
“I’m not sure. I was driving across the state, had left Spokane that morning, heading to Seattle. The next thing I knew I woke up in Heidi’s kennel with my leg in a cast and a fierce headache pounding my brain. I assume I needed to run. Sometimes I pull off the highway to stretch my legs.”
“You travel a lot then,” Fridrik said.
“I do.”
“And what do you do for a living?” Burke inquired.
Revenge wasn’t very lucrative, so he gave the answer he’d been giving for the past two years when questioned by customs officers at whatever border he needed to cross to follow Durchenko. “I’m in finance.” Rather, he had a personal finance manager who made sure the insurance from his brother and wife, along with his military pension, never ran out. Made him a hefty sum, actually, even considering the current market. Not that money mattered beyond getting him from one point to another on the map.
The elders looked at each other. “Your car is nice, but not new,” Burke stated.
Javier swallowed hard, the coffee suddenly not sitting well in his stomach. He swallowed again, trying to dislodge the lump that had grown there, that always appeared when he thought of Isabela. “It was my...wife’s.”
“Your wife or your mate?” Fridrik asked.
Javier flinched and clenched his jaw.
“She is dead then?” This from Burke.
He gave a quick, jerky nod.
“Two years,” Fridrik guessed.
Again, Javier nodded.
“She was of shifter blood?” Burke asked.
“No. Until meeting Heidi, I had never known female shifters existed.” He sat up and pushed his empty coffee cup aside. “I was shocked when I realized what she was. In the twelve generations I’ve been able to trace our family line, there has never been a female born to anyone.”
“She is rare,” Burke said, “which is why your presence here is...suspect. I’m sure you understand.”
“I do,” he admitted gravely. “I mean her no harm. Like I said, I owe her my life.”
“You mate in pairs, then, as we do?” Fridrik asked, changing the subject back to Javier’s family heritage.
“It is the only way I know of to produce children for us.”
“Us, also. Though females are rare, they are born to our mates at times. But Heidi cannot shift as we do. She carries the gene and has some telepathic abilities we share as blood family, but that is all.”
“We didn’t know there were shifters outside of our race,” Burke added.
Javier pressed his lips together for a moment. “There are others, also.”
“Races other than yours and ours?”
“Yes. I know of at least one other.”
“What is it?” Burke’s face showed interest, almost excitement now
rather than distrust.
“A snow leopard.”
The older man’s expression changed to one of almost sympathy. “You have had unpleasant dealings with it?”
“I heard your son, last night, ask if I was a rogue. I believe it is a term you use to identify a shifter who is...” He sought a word strong enough to capture the meaning.
“Dangerous,” Fridrik supplied.
Javier nodded. “The snow leopard is a rogue.”
Burke got up, poured Javier another cup of coffee and brought a basket of muffins to the table from the counter. “Help yourself.”
Javier accepted the coffee but ignored the muffins.
“Is this snow leopard the reason you travel alone now?” Fridrik asked after Javier had taken a long drink and set his mug on the table.
The caffeine was beginning to work its magic, and the heaviness seemed to ascend from his eyelids.
“Yes,” was all he was willing to say.
The elders looked on him not with sympathy but understanding. He acknowledged their silence with a slight nod. “You have a large family. I did not know that there were such units of shifters. Until two years ago, I thought Juan and I were the only two in the world. My mother died giving birth to Juan and myself, and our fathers were police officers. Both were killed in the line of duty when we were teenagers. I found journals from my grandfathers that charted our family history, and I might have some cousins somewhere, but I was never able to locate them. They are dead for all I know.”
“Our line was all but decimated in Europe,” Burke said. “Two male cousins fled and wound up here during the gold rush. Not until our mate, though, were there more than two children born at a time.
Our wife gave us seven healthy children, and now they have begun to have children of their own.”
“And where is she now?”
“She died a few years ago,” Fridrik said.
Javier closed his eyes against the pain. So fresh, yet so old.
“You have not been able to let her go, yet, have you, son?”
The agony of loss tore at his heart as he shook his head. “How...how do you do that?”
“You realize that you are not the one who is gone from this earth. You must go on living to keep her alive in your memory.”
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