Tempted by the Jaguar #4: Infiltration (Riverford Shifters)

by Cristina Rayne

  “I will, but after I go to my father’s house,” Kylie replied stubbornly just as Hunter opened his mouth to probably protest again. “There’s something I’d like to retrieve, something private that he needs.”

  The older man frowned. “I’m afraid I must insist—”

  “Insist all you want, but we’re going,” Hunter growled as he took one of Kylie’s hands and pulled her to her feet. “Things are fucked up enough in her life without you trying to manhandle her into a conversation that she obviously doesn’t want to have at the moment. After what she’s been through in the last couple of days, the least you can do is allow her a little peace of mind before she has to jump back into all the muck.”

  As Hunter tugged her past the Elder, Kylie saw Gaither’s nostrils flare and his eyes narrow. She closed her eyes and groaned mentally, wondering what exactly he was smelling on her—pheromones or Hunter, himself. So much for keeping just how far they had progressed in their relationship a secret.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Since it seems I’ll be going with you after all,” Kylie said as Hunter continued to tug her down the hall towards the elevators in a brisk walk, “we might need to stop in the room where you stashed my bags. I can grab a hoodie and somewhat disguise myself.”

  He glanced back at her with a disgruntled frown. “I suppose it won’t hurt.”

  “I know you’re mad, but Mr. Gaither interrupting and forcing the issue might be for the best considering what I was about to ask you to retrieve for me.”

  They were stopped at the door to the room where they had made love earlier. Hunter glance worriedly both ways, but there was still no sign of the Elder. He hurried her inside and locked the door behind them.

  “Keep your voice down,” he warned. “I don’t doubt that Gaither is literally sniffing around the room we just left wondering what we’re really up to besides the obvious, but he’ll be coming this way soon. I would rather he not hear any of our conversations.”

  Kylie nodded grimly. “You’re worried he might be the Polyshifter.”

  Hunter surprisingly shook his head. “Maxim brought up the very good point that Gaither’s too blatantly nosy to fit the profile, but that also means he has the best chance out of all our Elders to come in frequent contact with an actual spy from the lion clans. Although he can help us quite a bit, I would rather he not know too much about what we just discussed with Maxim until we can figure out whether or not there’s actually another Polyshifter in Riverford other than you.” He pointed to a pile of familiar duffle bags next to a small dresser. “Now, grab your hoodie and let’s get going. Maybe we can still beat Gaither out of here.”

  “Do we have time to stop at your apartment before we head over to see Jack?” she asked as she riffled through one of the bags.

  “Is what you wanted me to get for you that important?”

  She stood with the aforementioned black hoodie and slipped it on over her head. “Definitely. Now more so than ever. It’s a charm bracelet that belonged to my mother.”

  “A bracelet?” Hunter echoed confusedly.

  “It looks pretty innocuous, but the hollowed-out insides of the oval charms are coated with the blood of various shifters.”

  His eyes widened in sudden understanding. “Now I see why you hid it from me, but why bring it near me at all at the time?”

  “Because it was one of the things that saved me from the torture of jaguar heat,” Kylie replied dryly. “The heat was literally driving me crazy, so it was either call you and beg for you to come back and screw me—something neither of us were really ready for at that point—or take a chance with turning myself completely human again. I figured I could use the fact that no one knew very much about Returners as an excuse about the heat miraculously disappearing. Before Jennifer arrived, Paul sent over one of his toothbrushes and the bracelet with Molly. I managed to get rid of the heat and reawaken my jaguar soul with no one being the wiser.”

  Hunter’s expression suddenly hardened. “Jennifer met Molly?”

  Kylie grabbed onto his arm. “Wait! You don’t think…!”

  “I don’t think we can rule anything out at this point,” he said. “I’ll talk to Maxim about getting some of his people to watch the Grahams.”

  He reached over and lifted her hood over her head. “Come on,” he said, threading their hands together and tenderly kissing her lips briefly. “We’ll pick up your bracelet before heading over to meet Jack and his Elders.”

  ***

  The poor excuse for a building that loomed ahead was the last place Kylie would have expected anyone to be taken to unless they planned on putting a couple of bullets into the back of their head. Located in one of the older industrial areas on the north side of the city, the corroded sheet metal and steel building looked to have been a warehouse for farming equipment sometime during the dawn of time.

  “Are we meeting Elders or Mafiosi?” Kylie quipped with a nervous laugh. “This isn’t exactly the kind of place I imagined a clan of wolves would gather.”

  “Which was their intention, I’m sure,” Hunter replied with a grin as he shut off his headlights and drove around to the back of the large building.

  He parked behind a couple of large, broken-down tractors that were slowly being taken over by an assortment of tall weeds and saplings.

  “It doesn’t look like anyone’s even here,” Kylie said, eying the darkened warehouse warily.

  “I suspect someone’ll be out shortly to escort us in,” Hunter said.

  “Good, because it looks like the kind of place where stepping on a rusty nail and getting tetanus would be the least of your worries.”

  A loud knock abruptly sounded against her window, and Kylie nearly jumped clear out of her skin. A dark-haired man around thirty stood just outside her door, bending down to peer inside.

  Hunter reached over and gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze. “Don’t worry. That’s just Adam, a wolf shifter from the Bray pack.”

  “Last week if someone would’ve told me that I would be sneaking around a creepy, abandoned warehouse with a hot guy in order to have a secret meeting with a pack of what are essentially werewolves after being attacked by a werelion, I would’ve thought they were more than crazy,” Kylie grumbled. “It’s almost too absurd to be believed.”

  At least Adam looked somewhat contrite as he shook her hand after Hunter introduced them.

  “My cousin’s glad that you’ve come as well,” Adam said to her as he led them to a partially-opened door in the left corner of the warehouse. “He wanted to thank you in person.”

  “I’m glad I could come, too,” Kylie replied. “Considering how awful he looked when I last saw him, I wanted to see how he was doing, but—are you sure your Elders are okay with me being here?”

  From what she had heard of their phone conversation when Hunter had called Jack again after retrieving her mom’s bracelet to explain why he was suddenly bringing her along, the long pauses between exchanges of words likely signified their hesitation, if not Jack’s, then with his Elders.

  Adam snorted. “Are you kidding? They’ve been dying to meet the jaguar clan’s new Returner since word first spread about you. They’ll never admit it, of course, and I imagine they’ll have a few questions for you.”

  “Of course they will,” Hunter said wryly as he wrapped a comforting arm around Kylie’s waist, probably sensing her dismay.

  Inside, it was just as dark and creepy as she had imagined. Pieces of old farming equipment covered with enough cobwebs to house an entire city of spiders lined the walls and were also scattered haphazardly throughout the entire interior. She found herself sneezing almost uncontrollably as what seemed like a thousand years of dust and a multitude of smells assaulted her senses. Old motor oil, possibly rust, and pesticides were among the most potent, the strength of them more so than she would have thought given the air of abandonment. She wondered if they had been added on purpose as she couldn’t even smell a hint of wolf among that acrid
combination of stink.

  They followed Adam along a narrow path between the warehouse walls and the old equipment and stopped when they had reached nearly half its length. The wolf then squatted down and pulled on a handle of a trapdoor in the concrete floor. Even with her slightly enhanced night vision, Kylie could barely make out the outline of a few stone steps leading down into the darkness.

  Kylie pulled out her cell phone, and clutched it tightly. There was no way she was going down what was essentially a hole in the ground without at least the promise of light literally within the palm of her hand.

  She nearly hissed when Adam suddenly released a series of loud growls into the gloom instead of descending. An answering howl immediately followed from below and some of her tension eased.

  Must have been the secret word to get in, Kylie thought, pressing her lips together firmly in order to staunch an absurd need to giggle as Hunter gently ushered her towards the steps after Adam.

  She paused a few steps down in order to wait for Hunter. She couldn’t help but feel claustrophobic once he pulled the trapdoor closed behind him, plunging them into near absolute darkness. Kylie started to feel for the “on” button at the top of her phone, but then the stairway abruptly flooded with light, making her scrunch her eyes closed with a startled cry.

  “Sorry about that,” she heard Adam say sheepishly as Hunter cursed.

  Kylie cautiously opened her eyes and blinked them rapidly as they slowly adjusted. She was finally able to see that the stairs went down pretty deep.

  “Wow, does this lead to the Batcave or something?” she asked with a laugh.

  Adam turned around and grinned. “I wish it was that awesome. It looks more like a secret military bunker from World War II. Probably built around that time, come to think of it.”

  At the bottom, Adam led them down a long tunnel to a thick iron door at the end that was flanked by a couple of men.

  “Good. The old bastards were getting antsy,” the blond man on the left said. He then flashed Kylie a curious look before he focused his attention on Hunter. “It’s been a while, Hunter.”

  “Yeah. Sorry it had to be under these circumstances,” Hunter replied. He nodded towards Kylie. “This is Kylie Moore, our clan’s newest addition and my—partner.”

  Kylie was a bit startled at the introduction, but she schooled her expression into a friendly smile as she reached out to shake the hands of the two wolf guards. “It’s nice to meet you.”

  The iron door opened with a screech that put her in mind of a medieval dungeon. She shuddered, hoping the room beyond would be a bit more spacious. If not, it was going to be a long night.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Kylie breathed an audible sigh of relief as they stepped into what looked like a large community room filled with comfortable-looking couches and chairs. There was even a large flat-screen mounted on one of the natural rock walls, though it was currently off. However, the room, itself, was empty of people.

  Adam gestured towards one of the smaller couches. “Make yourselves comfortable, and I’ll go let the Elders and Jack know you’re here.”

  Once they were settled and Adam had disappeared into a door across the room, Kylie turned to Hunter and said with a frown, “This is kinda unnerving, you know. If I had known that we would be taken underground, I might not have been so insistent in tagging along. I’m really claustrophobic.”

  Hunter snaked his arm around her waist again and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Just imagine that we’re meeting in a back room at Maxim’s club if things start to feel a little tight.”

  “And to think that you made fun of me when I thought you were totally serious about meeting your Elders in a cave,” she scolded.

  He chuckled. “In my defense, I’ve never been down here. Most clans are pretty tight-lipped about their—safe houses, I suppose. That we were allowed down here at all shows how dire the situation really is.”

  Before Kylie could reply, the door Adam had exited the room through swung open, and a group of ten, solemn-faced men and women filed in. Both Kylie and Hunter stood up to greet them.

  Introductions were made all around and then everyone finally settled down onto the couches with the two jaguars as the focal point.

  “Adam will be here shortly with Jack and his father,” Glen, one of the oldest men in the bunch said. “Although Jack is far from recovered, he insisted on being present for at least a portion of our discussion.”

  Hunter nodded. “Whatever is most comfortable for him.”

  “Although many from our clan work for the Siberian, Maxim Clarke, we also sent out our own small reconnaissance team earlier in the day to the Panhandle. They are currently staking out the various roads surrounding the lions’ ranch as well as the ranch, itself. We can only hope something useful will present itself within the next few hours, but at the very least, if they try to move their captives offsite, we’ll be in a better position to follow.”

  “Any luck on getting that lioness to talk?” one of the women asked.

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Hunter warned. “We’ve found and removed one threat out of many. That’s the best we can hope from one of the bastards’ assassins.”

  “And the alleged Sniffers?” another asked.

  “Maxim’s people may have more on that shortly, but it’s beginning to look like the lions have managed to slip more of their people into the city than we thought.” He glanced over at the three Elders from the Parker Grove clan, and added, “You might want to spread the word to the other clans of your city to keep a sharper eye on all visiting shifters. I don’t know why, but it seems the lions are getting a hell of a lot bolder.”

  Glen nodded. “I’ve already contacted our clansmen that work security and surveillance in various places throughout the city to do the same.”

  “You should also keep an eye on the alligator clan,” Hunter said, causing Kylie to stiffen in surprise. She hadn’t thought that Hunter would bring up anything to do with what had happened to Molly. “At least one may be tied to all the brouhaha caused by that lioness in the last twenty-four hours, but we’re not sure if the gator in question is an outsider. Once we learn more, either Maxim or I’ll pass on the info.”

  Some of the Elders began quietly murmuring in troubled tones, but before anyone else could speak, the door at the back of the room opened, and Adam entered, followed by a heavily bandaged and pale Jack being pushed in a wheelchair by an older man whom Kylie presumed was his father. The poor wolf shifter was barely managing to sit upright, hollow-eyed and still looking seconds away from collapsing. Given what Hunter had told her about Jack’s mate also being one of those still being held captive, his appearance nor his insistence in being included despite the severity of his injuries wasn’t all that shocking.

  Kylie rose, wanting to greet him face-to-face. Her sudden movement instantly caught Jack’s eye, and he lifted his head to blearily peer back at her. Then without warning, Jack jerked forward so violently that he nearly fell out of the wheelchair had Adam not reached out with lightning-fast reflexes to catch him with a startled curse.

  “You!” Jack cried, his eyes wide and wild as he stared back at her as though she was a ghost.

  Instinctually, Kylie took a step back, bumping into Hunter’s front as he was suddenly standing behind her. She felt his arms wrap firmly, protectively, around her waist as she looked back at Jack in sudden fear.

  Shit! Did he see me shift into a lion after all?

  “How in the hell did you escape?” Jack demanded roughly, his voice cracking at the end. Then more desperately, “Did you see my mate, Maya? A red wolf? Is she okay?”

  “What are you—” Kylie began in bewilderment, but then Jack started wheezing harshly as though he had been hit with a sudden, brutal asthma attack.

  Hunter pulled her farther back, his body taunt with tension. “Maybe he’s flashing back to his captivity,” he said hesitantly. “I should probably take Kylie out into the passageway—”

  “I
’m not flashing back!” Jack yelled. He was now standing and struggling to break out of his father’s hold. He pointed a finger at her. “You were there! I saw them dragging you down the halls lots of times! One of the cougars!”

  No one said a word as they all looked from Jack to her with varying expressions from confusion to the worst, suspicion. Jack’s father looked stricken.

  “Jack,” Hunter said in a soft, soothing voice, “this is Kylie Moore. She’s the jaguar that was with me in the woods when you stumbled onto us. Just take a moment and sniff her. You’ll see.”

  Kylie looked over her shoulder and said, “Let me go to him so he can see me properly.”

  He nodded and released her only to take her hand. She didn’t think the distraught man would attack her, but she didn’t say anything and tugged Hunter along with her until she stood only a foot away from the wolf shifter.

  Jack stared at her for a long, uncomfortable moment before he slowly leaned towards her and visibly sniffed her as suggested. The wild look in his eyes was instantly replaced with utter confusion.

  “Jaguar,” he said finally after staring at her hard for what felt like a small eternity. “Even though it’s a little strange, you definitely smell like a jaguar.”

  “She’s a Returner,” Hunter said quickly. “Her scent’s always been a little different since her first shift.”

  He was probably thinking the same thing she was, that letting a wolf shifter get a good whiff of her wasn’t the best idea. Jack was likely picking up the faint, underlying scent of her Polyshifter heritage.

  Jack nodded slowly, and all his earlier energy seemed to drain out of him all at once. He sagged in his father’s arms with a grimace of pain, and the older man immediately lowered him back down into the wheelchair.

  “Sorry,” Jack said wearily. “My sight was fading, so I didn’t get a good look at you before I passed out in the forest. I’m sorry if I scared you. It’s just—your hair, your face—you look just like one of the cougars being held prisoner in that pit of hell, and I hoped…”