“Jaguars are solitary animals. In any form,” Dallas added. “They don’t have packs or even friends or family, as far as I can tell—not the adults, anyway.”
Guillermo frowned. “That sounds very lonely and sad, actually.”
“It does,” Vero agreed. “I can’t imagine not having family—or pack. I wouldn’t want to live in such a way.”
“Guess it’s just their nature,” Dallas murmured. As such, he was hoping the mate bond would be severed without killing them both. Right now, he wasn’t feeling the pain of separation much. Then again, Tiago wasn’t far behind them. For whatever reason, he was following them. Dallas kept his thoughts firmly locked down so Tiago couldn’t reach him mentally. He didn’t even know if Tiago was trying.
And he didn’t know if the mate bond was going to grow or shrink or what. He wouldn’t, not as long as Tiago kept following them.
Dallas stopped walking and spun around. He addressed Tiago, who was less than fifty feet behind them, not even bothering to hide as he stalked them. “Stop it! You go back to whatever you were doing before you were doing me!”
Guillermo coughed and Vero sputtered.
Dallas ignored them. He stood in a stare-off with Tiago. Finally, he had to turn away. He lowered his mental walls long enough to shoot Tiago a thought. “Go back to your plotting on how to rid the rainforest of us invasive, lesser species.” He slammed the walls back up. Tiago probably hadn’t heard him anyway. Mates couldn’t share thoughts unless they were both in the same form. Tiago was still a jaguar, and Dallas was a man.
“You, ah…?” Guillermo looked at him expectantly.
“What are you, a prude?” Dallas asked him. “Fine if you are, unless you were going to ask about my sex life. Then that’s just a great big, none of your business.”
Guillermo blushed.
Vero snorted. “We heard you and him.” He tipped his chin toward Tiago. “We should shift. I’m over this two-footed trekking.”
“Sounds good to me.” Dallas let the shift come over him, as did his fellow travelers. They took off running, and it felt so good to stretch and work his body in such a way.
Dallas didn’t relax into it. He kept his guard up mentally for fear that Tiago would slip in, which was stupid, because what did he have to fear from that? He didn’t know, yet couldn’t help himself. His emotions were a mess. He wasn’t being logical at all.
When they arrived at the river again—Dallas thought it was the same one and it just wound all through the rainforest—Dallas was the first to leap off the cliff. Judging from Guillermo and Vero’s startled yelps, they hadn’t expected that.
Soon they joined him in the river, and as much as Dallas tried not to, he listened for another splash. When it didn’t come, he looked back. Tiago was nowhere in sight.
His heart ached. Dallas ignored it. Tiago didn’t want him, not really. Dallas wouldn’t let the breaking of their bond kill him. He’d be stronger than that.
* * * *
Tiago was impressed by his mate. Dallas was strong and stubborn and determined. He wasn’t scared of Tiago, and he wasn’t going to compromise his morals for Tiago, either. Tiago got that. Now.
Just like he understood that being apart was going to result in an actual physical pain. He wasn’t thrilled about that at all.
Nor was he happy with the easy way Dallas and the other two wolf shifters talked and traveled. Tiago had only had that kind of comfort when he’d been a child, being raised by his mother.
Once she’d pushed him out of her life—as all jaguars did their young—he’d been on his own. At least she’d waited until he was sixteen and had given him a human upbringing to equal his jaguar one.
That was more than she’d had, she told him. Her mother had brought her up as a jaguar only then had left her before she had reached adulthood in that form. As a two-species creature, they matured at neither a human nor jaguar rate. At sixteen, Tiago had been mature enough as both to survive. It’d been difficult, but he knew he’d had a better start than many of his kind.
My kind. There I go again. He didn’t know how to change the way he thought.
Tiago poked at Dallas’ mind and met the same nothingness he’d reached all day. For one moment, when Dallas had turned around and looked at him, Tiago had felt a surge of hope that somehow they could work things out. Then Dallas had shouted at him, and they hadn’t been kind words, either.
Even so, Tiago couldn’t back off. There was an invisible string tugging him along behind Dallas. He didn’t even want to fight it.
When Dallas shifted, Tiago’s jaguar purred with approval. Dallas was a beautiful gray wolf, with eyes that matched his coat perfectly. Tiago wanted to slink up to him and mount him, after knocking the two escorts away. Guillermo and Vero. Assholes. He’d heard Dallas address them by their names. Tiago thought he would just call them Ass One and Ass Two instead.
He was—and gods, he hated to admit it—jealous. They were able to talk to Dallas, to walk and run with him, whereas Tiago had been told to fuck off, basically.
Never mind that it was his own fault. He couldn’t do it.
Dallas never looked back at him after the dressing down.
That hurt. Tiago hated it. He plodded after Dallas, and watched with pride when his mate soared off the cliff down into the river. The water there was plenty deep, and Dallas would be just fine. For one second, it looked like Dallas was flying, that long, lean body stretched out to embrace the air.
Then he went down, and the other two wolves had conniption fits. Tiago scoffed at them as he backed away. He had an idea. Being obvious had done nothing but make Dallas mad. It was time for Tiago to let his animal nature take over. He would let his jaguar truly stalk his prey from here on out.
The pain of separation couldn’t be Tiago’s alone. Dallas would have to feel it as well. Tiago was going to put an end to their misery. He would find a way to make Dallas see what he meant about the rainforest being invaded by species that didn’t belong there.
You’re being an asshole again. Tiago ignored the internal voice chiding him. It wasn’t thinking about how the rainforest was being made smaller every day, how diverse it once was but wouldn’t be for much longer, given the way it was being plundered.
You still don’t have to be an asshole. Dallas said, educate the wolf shifters. Maybe you could even become friends with them. You don’t have to use a jaguar’s nature as an excuse to keep from being hurt.
Tiago snarled at that voice and told it to fuck off.
Ah, you’re still a scared little boy crying because his mother abandoned him. You don’t want to give anyone the chance to hurt you like that again. Yet you ran Dallas off, and now you’re chasing him. Think about that.
Tiago hadn’t cried when his mother had left him. His conscience or subconscious or whatever the hell was yammering at him was wrong about that. He wasn’t going to count the nights he’d awoken with wet cheeks. That wasn’t crying. He’d had no control over that.
Tiago followed the river for a way, staying out of sight. He wondered if Dallas truly thought he’d given up. There was no need for him to tail them so closely. Tiago knew where Ryder’s pack lived.
Every now and then, he tried to feel out Dallas. The mental link was always shut down tight.
After Tiago had caught his dinner and eaten it, he kept moving. He suspected the wolves would bed down for a few hours and sleep. He wouldn’t. A plan was forming, and he needed to get ahead of them to implement it.
* * * *
Knowledge of the plants that grew in the jungle helped Tiago greatly. He was able to hide his scent once he’d shifted. As he waited the next afternoon, the need for Dallas continued to grow stronger. Dallas had to be feeling it, too. Tiago couldn’t be in this alone. He’d better not be. After all, it was the wolf shifters that had the mating bond, not his—Tiago cut that thought off.
No more them and me. Their kind and my kind. That was one realization he’d reached during the long, lonely ni
ght as he’d made his way to where Ryder’s pack lived. Without a doubt, he was going to have to change his way of thinking. Ideas he’d taken for granted…emotions and fears he’d kept buried… All of those were going to have to be taken out and examined, checked for authenticity. If they were truly justified things, he would keep them.
But if they were weapons and tools to keep his heart and feelings safe from harm, Tiago would have to learn to work past them. The idea was daunting. He didn’t know if he could do it.
Yet he was certain he didn’t want to be without Dallas. Whether it was some supernatural bond that made it so or not, Tiago didn’t care. And he couldn’t shake the guilt he bore for having wronged the man.
It wasn’t until evening began to darken the land that Dallas and the other two men arrived. Tiago scented them before he heard them. Excitement raced through his veins, along with trepidation. He couldn’t screw up again.
His first glimpse of Dallas convinced Tiago that Dallas was hurting from their separation. He was still a beautiful wolf, but Dallas moved slowly, as if he were worn. There was none of the exuberance he’d displayed as he leaped off the cliff yesterday. Even his pretty gray eyes seemed dulled, and his paws barely left the ground as he walked.
Tiago watched from the branch he was perched on. He would’ve liked to have entered into the pack grounds, where the huts and buildings were, but cameras had been installed some time back and Tiago couldn’t find a way around them.
So he waited on a tree branch, hidden somewhat by leaves but not fully. He had covered himself in the scent of his surroundings, crushing leaves from plants and rubbing them all over his skin. If he shifted now, the odor should stay on him.
Tiago was his jaguar a moment later. He moved along the branch until he was hidden better. He couldn’t see through the leaves and limbs now, but that was fine. He could hear Dallas, smell him.
And Tiago was about to rely on their bond. He wanted Dallas to come back to this spot once he’d shaken Guillermo and Vero off. Tiago hadn’t been able to reach him mentally. He was still going to try.
Instead of begging, Tiago simply sent out the thought that Dallas should come back there when he was alone. He didn’t know if it would work. If not, then cameras be damned, Tiago was taking on the pack to get his man.
Dallas slowed down by the tree Tiago was in. He heaved a loud breath and shivered before shaking out his fur.
Yips back and forth seemed to settle some question then the three wolves moved on.
Tiago waited. He saw the other shifters return, the white wolf with his red fox-like mate. Perhaps he was a fox. Tiago didn’t know. One man in particular seemed ill, and was carried by Ryder. That would be Ryder’s mate then, Maarten. Watching them, Tiago thought he could detect the bond between them, just as he could the white wolf and his mate. What has happened to Maarten? Ryder seemed very dour, anger and fear pouring off him.
Tiago took no pleasure in the men’s suffering. He watched until they were ensconced in their dwellings. Then he waited some more.
He was tired and over-stimulated at the same time. He needed Dallas. He needed him and would do anything to get him back. When it seemed that his plan wasn’t going to work, Tiago knew he was going to have to take a huge risk.
At least it was dark, though the cameras might have infrared capabilities, so darkness wasn’t necessarily cover.
Tiago had been watching them over the past several hours. Some of the cameras were fixed, unmoving, but others pivoted to span a wider area. There had to be a weak spot, somewhere he could slip by.
He found it almost an hour later. One of the moving cameras went still, and the red light on it blinked out.
It was as good a chance as he’d get. Tiago jumped from the branch and, keeping his belly low to the ground, crept around the sight of the other cameras. He bypassed them and aligned himself where the non-functioning one was aimed.
Quick as a thought he ran, his nose unerringly finding Dallas’ scent. That there were other cameras only registered as lights flicked on around him. Motion sensors, and he’d set them off.
Gods, he was smarter than that. He knew there was more to the security there than a few damned cameras.
But his desperation to reach Dallas was greater than his common sense and self-preservation instincts, apparently.
A large, white wolf came right at him without warning.
Tiago felt the power of it. He’d known Marcus was strong, that he was truly an alpha through and through. It was still jarring to have a wave of that power slam into him.
Tiago wasn’t without his own abilities. He deflected what could have been a debilitating supernatural blow. He suspected Marcus was holding back, for which he was moderately grateful. Tiago didn’t care to know the full scope of the man’s strength.
“Stop!”
That was Ryder’s voice, tearing through the night.
Tiago saw the shifters running out onto porches. Shit, he’d been so careless! Another way he was acting out of character, but at least now he knew why.
Just as he knew this plan wasn’t going to work. He couldn’t get to Dallas before the wolves reached him.
Tiago pivoted and leaped, even as he heard barks and growls.
Let the wolves chase him. They’d never catch him. The rainforest was his home, and he knew it like they never would.
But how far could he go before the need to be with his mate pulled him back? And what would happen if he stopped running and turned to fight for the right to see Dallas?
It would come to blood, to fighting, Tiago suspected. There was only one of him, however, so he was going to have to come up with a plan to encourage the wolves to leave. He’d prefer a way other than a violent one.
The image of Dallas dead, his skull crushed by a powerful jaguar bite, caused Tiago to stumble. He growled in frustration with himself.
The wolves were fast, he’d give them that, but they couldn’t climb trees, and there was the possibility that they weren’t familiar with jaguars.
No more than he was familiar with the wolves. Then again, he had been watching the pack he’d discovered for a while now, and Dallas had shared some of their history with him.
Tiago dug his claws into the dirt and pushed off hard with every bound. He was fast, and he was the top predator, so running from the wolves went against his instincts, but he reassured himself he wasn’t fleeing in fear.
It was wise to retreat when refusing to do so wouldn’t get him what he wanted. All it might get him is dead.
Tiago would have too many battles on his paws if the wolves caught him.
That image of Dallas popped up again. Tiago yowled and ground his teeth hard enough to make his head ache. His instincts warred with the need to escape that he’d just had a decent grasp on.
He should turn, fight, tear the wolves into shreds. Show them now who the rainforest belonged to, that they weren’t the biggest bad asses in the land.
I’m outnumbered, he reminded himself, and it was that kind of thinking that had alienated Dallas from him.
But he was big, really big for a jaguar—not short as full-blooded ones were.
No, confronting them was foolish. Tiago lowered his head and ran faster. He’d had a lead on the wolves, but it sounded like they were closing the gap. Tiago leaped onto a tree trunk. He used his claws to anchor him then he powered his way straight up the trunk.
Gods above, he’d been treed like a kitten chased by dogs.
Tiago turned his head and spat at the damned beasts. One of them shifted, the powerful white wolf who, as a human, had many muscles and tumultuous pale blond curls. Marcus.
“Stop!” he shouted.
Tiago rolled his eyes and went back to climbing the tree. Like he was going to stop because some fool yelled at him to?
He ignored the second command and the heavy wave of power that seemed to chase up after him. Tiago was strong, too. And he was a native.
Though he did admit he’d have to reconsider
fighting the blond. Chances were that neither of them would survive a battle, and that would benefit no one. Certainly not Tiago, anyway.
Thirty feet up, a thick branch veered out to the right. Tiago climbed onto it and kept his body low as he worked his way down it. Here he was, climbing like a monkey, about to—Tiago bunched up his muscles then sprung, leaping across the distance from one tree to the next. He wasn’t overly fond of such maneuvers, but it beat the alternative.
“Goddamn it,” he heard the man beneath him bellow. “Everyone, back away.”
Tiago grinned, glancing down. His cockiness cost him as he misplaced his left front paw, hitting air instead of wood.
“Rowar!”
His jaguar version of fuck rang out as he scrambled to keep himself in the tree. Falling wouldn’t kill him. It’d just hurt like a mother when he hit the ground. Then there would be wolves all over him. He only wanted one wolf touching him.
Tiago ended up clinging to the thick branch from the underside of it, his back parallel to the ground. How undignified. Grr. He began to inch his way around, only to almost slip again when a sultry voice distracted him.
“Marcus, can you, um… Please, can we not do this? It seems barbaric,” Dallas explained. “We’re in Tiago’s territory. He must be freaking out over wolves and humans being here. In fact, I know he is.”
Tiago twisted his head and was able to look at Dallas. Upside down, certainly. Still, the man was gorgeous.
“I only want him to shift and talk to me,” Marcus said in a clear, strong voice. “Explain to me why he thought he could abduct one of my pack and try to keep him.” The man moved closer until he was standing almost directly under Tiago. “I have no intention of doing anything more than just meeting you, man to man, and getting an answer for that.”
Man to man. Yes, I’ve seen what men have done to my kind, and to my homelands. Tiago pulled himself upright on the limb. He bared his teeth at Marcus. Did the man think him a fool?
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