Tempted by the Jaguar #1: Transformation (Riverford Shifters)

by Cristina Rayne

  Earlier, she had purposely opened her window while she had been alone in her bedroom in case she had to make a run for it. Her window faced the courtyard of the apartment complex, but more importantly, the small building that housed the manager’s office was only about fifty yards away. If she could just make it out the window, at the very least, Hunter would not dare shift in such an open place where anyone looking out their window could see him. With a pursuer only on two feet, Kylie had a better chance of making it to that office, and maybe the humans inside, by their presence alone, would protect her.

  Why, why had she not escaped earlier while she’d had the chance? No amount of information Hunter might have provided her should have been worth the risk of having no escape at all!

  With speed driven by panic, Kylie made it through her bedroom door, intent on diving through the window, when what felt like a battering ram hit her squarely from behind, sending her crashing to the carpet with a cry of dismay. She opened her mouth to scream for help, but a large hand clamped over her mouth before she could utter a sound.

  Still unwilling to give up, Kylie tried to bite him, but Hunter just pressed his hand harder against her mouth and adjusted his body until his full weight stretched out flat across her back pinned her completely to the floor. She tried to buck him off, to thrash her arms and legs, but she wasn’t able to move her body more than a millimeter or two off the floor no matter how hard she strained up against him.

  “I’m sorry, but I really can’t let you leave,” Hunter said into her ear, his tone genuinely apologetic, damn him. “I know you’re scared and confused, but please just calm down. Let me help you, Kylie.”

  Kylie went limp beneath him, angry and feeling utterly defeated. After a tense, silent pause where neither one of them moved, Hunter cautiously removed his hand from her mouth, but he made no move to get off her. He was right not to trust her, she admitted grudgingly to herself, but that acknowledgment did nothing to lessen the bitterness welling up within her.

  Things had been going so well these past twelve years after the agony and sadness of that night. College was great, and she had a circle of friends that she really cared about, as well as Paul. She had finally started to feel a sense of safety after none of the things she had feared all her life had occurred. Now, because of one sick bastard, that sense of safety had been thoroughly shattered, and Kylie despaired of ever regaining it.

  “I don’t want anything to do with all this craziness,” Kylie finally said into the heavy silence.

  Hunter sighed, his breath warm against the back of her neck, making her involuntarily twitch.

  “You can’t go back to living as just a human,” he said gently. “Even now, the scent of your jaguar is getting much stronger. Other shifters will smell it and know you are one of us. It’s dangerous for you to be left as you are now, ignorant of everything a shifter life entails, for both you and the shifters of this city. I could see it in your eyes last night, in your scent, when you faced off against me while we were both in jaguar form. The cat was almost completely in control, and that is something you can never let happen again.”

  “You make it sound as if I’m possessed by some sort of cat spirit, a demon…”

  “Don’t worry. It’s nothing as sinister as that,” Hunter assured her. “You see, we shifters have dual souls. Our human souls are naturally stronger, so I guess you can say human is our default state. Only a bit of the animal is allowed to seep through into our consciousness, to rule our instincts, but last night when I looked into your eyes for the first time, I couldn’t see anything that was human. It’s a wonder that your human soul was able to come back to the forefront at all.”

  Kylie closed her eyes, remembering her close call with the teenager in the street. She suddenly felt as exhausted as she had last night.

  “Are you saying that I won’t be able to keep the jaguar from coming out and taking over my mind?”

  “I’m saying that without our help, my clan I mean, that very possibility will hover over you every day for the rest of your life.”

  Hunter rose from her back and climbed to his feet. Kylie slowly pulled herself up onto her knees and looked up at the hand he held out to her.

  Instead of accepting it, she raised her eyes to his face. “Can you promise me—can you promise me that if I go with you to see your elders, your clan won’t lock me up somewhere like some kind of prisoner?”

  “We haven’t had a Returner in our clan for over a hundred years,” Hunter said with a smile. “The last thing those old pussies would want is to alienate a new potential clan member.” His expression turned wry. “Especially a female one.”

  Kylie stiffened. “If they think they can make me marry one of you—”

  Hunter’s sharp laugh cut her off. “The elders may wish they could dictate all hookups within our clan, but trust me, if they ever tried, every single one of us would just give them the finger. No, what I meant was that the ratio of jaguar males to females in this city is three to one, so any addition of a lovely lady is always welcome.”

  Her shoulders relaxed slightly, and she slowly reached up to accept his hand up. Still backed into a corner, Kylie really wanted to trust him, but it would take more than a charming smile and a gorgeous face to break through years of always second guessing everyone’s motives. She glanced over at the open window, and she abruptly felt Hunter squeeze her hand tightly. A warning.

  With a weary sigh, Kylie turned her attention back to Hunter and deliberately pulled her hand from his grip. She was a little surprised that he let her without any real resistance.

  “What now?” she asked.

  He regarded her thoughtfully. “I need to explain a few more things and then I’ll take you to speak with the elders,” he said.

  A sudden, loud knock at the door had Kylie nearly jumping out of her skin and Hunter turning towards the door with what was unmistakably a low growl.

  “Are you expecting anyone?” Hunter demanded, his entire body visibly tense.

  A relief like no other instantly washed through her being, nearly making her knees give out. “Yeah, my—”

  “Morning sweetie! It’s me,” Paul’s soothing baritone called through her front door.

  Kylie automatically started to move towards the door. He had used the code word, the one signifying that it was safe to open the door. However, before she could take more than a couple of steps, Hunter grabbed her arm.

  “Don’t answer that,” he whispered warningly. “If it’s your boyfriend, you can just call him later after all of our business is settled.”

  Kylie shook her head even as she strained against the hand wrapped around her arm. “I don’t have a boyfriend. That’s my dad, Paul.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Kylie saw Hunter’s nostrils flare as he stared hard at the front door.

  “As I thought,” he murmured. “He’s human.”

  “He’s here to pick me up for lunch,” she lied. “My car is in the parking lot. He’ll think something’s up if I don’t answer the door.”

  Hunter flashed her a skeptical look even as his hand tightened around her arm. “He’ll just think you left with a friend.”

  Kylie shook her head. “I would never bail on my dad without calling him first. The only time I didn’t was when I was in a car accident. He’s somewhat of a worrywart, so he’ll just think the worst.” She clutched at Hunter’s arm and did her best to make her eyes pleading. “Let me answer the door, please! If I suddenly become unreachable, he’ll freak out and come looking for me. He might see something he’s not supposed to, and I don’t want him to get hurt because of me!”

  When he still looked unconvinced, Kylie added, “The best thing right now is for me to go to lunch with him and pretend that I wasn’t nearly tortured and murdered by some sick bastard last night, much less that I turned into a freaking jaguar! You can follow us, and afterwards, I’ll go with you wherever you want as long as you promise me that you’ll leave my dad out of all of this.�
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  “Kylie!” Paul called again, his voice tinged with anxiety. He pounded on the door three more times in rapid succession.

  She grabbed his free hand urgently. “Please…”

  Hunter looked over at the door once more, before he slowly nodded without a word and released her arm.

  Kylie closed her eyes briefly in relief. “Thank you,” she whispered sincerely.

  More pounding sounded, and she hurried over to the door before Paul decided to break it down. She sensed more than heard Hunter retreat into her bedroom.

  “Coming Dad!” she called cheerfully, and the pounding abruptly ceased.

  She never called Paul “dad.”

  “What did I tell you?” Paul scolded as soon as she opened the door.

  “I know, I know,” Kylie said apologetically as she stepped aside to let him in, “but this time I swear I was ready. I must’ve just dozed off for a minute at my desk waiting for you.”

  Paul’s pale blue eyes surreptitiously swept the whole room as he entered the apartment. Taking advantage of her back being turned to Hunter’s potential spying, Kylie gestured towards the bedroom with her eyes.

  His eyes narrowed. “You’ve got to stop pushing yourself so hard, sweetie. Studying is important, but making time for sleep is even more so.”

  Kylie looped her arm through his and laughed. “But I always make time for lunch. Let’s go. I’m starved.”

  As they headed for the door, Paul abruptly paused and said, “Don’t forget your keys.”

  Her eyes followed his hand as he pointed down to the floor at her keys and cell phone, both still exactly where she had dropped them after collapsing earlier.

  “Oh! They must’ve fallen out of my backpack when I came in last night.”

  Truthfully, she had forgotten all about them. The last thing she needed was for Hunter to go through all her contacts and old texts.

  After leaving the apartment, neither one of them said another word until they were inside his car and out of the parking lot.

  “A shifter was there,” Kylie said to his unspoken question, “a guy named Hunter Rivera from the local jaguar clan. He’s following us right now. That’s the only reason why he let us leave. I convinced him that we had a lunch date and that it would be better to go about my day normally.”

  “He’s the one who saw you?” Paul guessed.

  “Yeah. After I called you, I barely made it into my apartment before passing out. He literally sniffed me out and barged into my apartment just as I had finally become conscious again.”

  “I’m so sorry, Kylie,” Paul said, sounding stricken. His hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles had turned white. “There was fog this morning, and my plane was delayed for almost three hours.”

  Kylie reached over and squeezed his upper arm. “You’re here now. That’s all that matters to me,” she said, her voice rough with emotion.

  Paul swallowed thickly and flashed her a tiny smile. “I’ll drive us towards downtown. The lunch hour traffic should give you enough time to tell me everything. We’ll decide what to do from there.”

  For the next twenty minutes, Kylie recounted the whole terrible episode, the terrifying realization that her abductor likely planned on using the scissors to cut more than her clothes, even confessing about how close she had come to attacking the teenagers she had stumbled upon afterwards. By the time she finished, Kylie was shaking so badly that she wrapped her arms around herself in an effort to control the tremors. Listening to Paul’s words of comfort also helped soothe her wounded soul.

  “Mom and Dad never once told me that holding on to their humanity while in their shifted forms was so hard,” Kylie remarked softly.

  “For them, I don’t think it was,” Paul replied carefully. “Although he rarely did so, whenever Alan would shift in front of me, I never felt as though I was in the presence of an animal. I think it was because no matter what he did, I could always see the human in his actions.”

  She hugged herself more tightly. “I’m scared, Paul. Hunter says that he only wants to help me, but he also says that he came after me because I broke some major shifter law by shifting in front of that psycho.”

  Paul glanced at her sharply. “What exactly has he told you?”

  “He says that I have to go with him to talk to the elders of his clan, but it sounds more like I’m a criminal about to be put on trial!”

  Paul sighed. “I hesitate to say you were lucky after everything you went through last night, but you were extremely lucky that piece of scum took you into a jaguar’s territory. From what your father told me, the jaguar shifters of this city are good people, if a little bit solitary.”

  “What are you saying? That I should actually let Hunter take me to his clan’s elders?” Kylie asked incredulously. “What if they ask me to shift, and I can’t do it? Or worse, what if I screw up and they find out the truth about me? I have no idea how I shifted in the first place! It just—happened. Wouldn’t it be better for me to run? I know you don’t know where either my dad’s or mom’s clans are living, but now that I’ve shifted, shouldn’t I try to find them?”

  “Kylie—” Paul said, the hesitancy in his voice making her stomach clench in dread. “I didn’t tell you this because I didn’t want to needlessly worry you, but I’ve recently discovered that several Sniffers have managed to infiltrate the city.”

  Kylie sucked in a sharp breath. “How many?” she demanded.

  “I don’t know,” Paul replied grimly. “Karen said that word on the street was that there were at least four confirmed and a dozen more suspected. There’s no way that a shifter leaving the city with a human would go unnoticed, and I’d sooner cut off my left leg than let you try to leave alone. At this point, the best course would be to integrate with the jaguars, to let them act as your shield while we both try to gather more information. Up to this point, we’ve only had access to information coming from Riverford’s cougar shifter clan. Adding the jaguar clan as allies would be a major boon. Lord knows we haven’t gotten any closer to finding out what happened to your parents over the past few years.”

  “If the lions have actually managed to sneak their people into Riverford under such a careful watch, then don’t you think the jaguars will be doubly suspicious of a ‘human’ like me suddenly shifting for the first time in adulthood?” Kylie asked. “Hunter insinuated that this is something that doesn’t happen very often. They’ll start to dig deeper into my past. Even without the suspicion, you know how important bloodlines are to shifters. I’m not so sure we should risk that level of scrutiny.”

  “Better the jaguars than the lions,” Paul said firmly. “You did say that Hunter fellow told you all the various shifter clan elders in the alliance were informed about you and that Hunter was instructed to bring you in. I can’t imagine something as serious as a breech of secrecy would be discussed beyond that level of hierarchy. If you present yourself before the jaguar clan elders willingly, then we can use that to our advantage. They must believe that you’re a—forgive me—Deadend. Given the various social stigmas associated with that word, I don’t think they’ll see anything wrong with you asking them to keep that part of your history a secret. Let them spread a partial truth—that you are a shifter that revealed yourself to a human in order to save your life.”

  Paul reached over and grasped her hand, giving it tight squeeze. “This could be a good thing, sweetie.”

  Kylie flashed him a tiny smile. “I imagine Hunter expected lunch to end with a lengthy car chase. He’ll be thrilled.”

  “It’s too bad, though,” Paul said with a sigh of—regret? “I’ve always wondered if participating in a car chase was as much fun as the movies made it look.”

  Kylie couldn’t tell if her adoptive father was joking or not.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  After eating lunch at a little Italian restaurant downtown, Paul drove Kylie back to her apartment.

  “I’ll do my best to keep my cell on me at al
l times,” she said as she unbuckled her seatbelt. “If my phone starts tracking somewhere weird on the locator app or you don’t hear from me by midnight, then just assume the worst has happened and call the cops.”

  “No one at work knows that I’m back in town yet,” Paul said, “only that I left the conference because of a family emergency. I can stay at home for the next few days just watching that locater app if I need to.” He smiled wryly. “Heck, if I have to go out, it’s not as though anyone will look askance at me for staring at my phone screen overly long.”

  Kylie chuckled and reached for the door handle. She paused.

  “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” she asked, looking back at him a little anxiously.

  “Sure? Absolutely not,” Paul said seriously, “but given how you suddenly shifting after all this time has thrown pretty much everyone who knows for a loop, I do think this is the best course for now. I’ll talk to Karen again this evening and see if anything new has come up regarding the Sniffers along the cougar grapevine.”

  He reached over and squeezed her shoulder affectionately. “Just keep your chin up and your eyes sharp as always. This may indeed turn out to be a good thing for you.”

  “I hope so,” Kylie replied grimly.

  “Once things settle down, we’ll talk more about the other.”

  “Other?”

  Paul’s eyes flashed momentarily with anger. “The bastard that gave you that knot on your head.”

  Kylie flinched. After initially telling him about her attack and abduction in the vaguest of terms, she had been trying her damndest not to think about it at all. Although shifters healed three times as fast as regular humans, the large bump on her forehead was still very much visible. She only hoped it would disappear before she went back to class.

  Her mouth twisted. If the jaguars even allowed her go back to class.

  “Okay,” she agreed, not quite able to hide the reluctance in her voice.

  She hurried out of the car before her composure crumbled, waving her goodbye as Paul pulled away. Then nervously, she glanced around the lot. Although she had been watching all the cars tailing them down the freeways and streets through the side mirror, Kylie hadn’t figured out which vehicle was Hunter’s. She had also not seen any vehicles pull into the parking lot after them.