“What do we do, Barry?” Wyatt asked softly. “What do we do when we can no longer trust our most trustworthy?”
Tears trickled down Barry's face, unrestrained. “I want to go home.”
Carmen touched his leg. “This is our home.”
He didn't look down, just slowly shook his head. “Not mine. I fit in this world as long as I had a purpose. That purpose was fulfilled a year ago. From the beginning, all I wanted was to free the world of skinwalkers and return home. And yet I remained here. I thought, 'Then there must be more, and that's why I'm still here.'” He glanced down at Cristían. “I thought you were the threat. It seemed clear. The chips were the perfect solution. I gave you every chance, the benefit of the doubt, but you forced my hand when you told me what you intended for Frieda. Even that simple act went so horribly wrong. My controller broke when Frieda knocked me out. I've been trying ever since to fix it. It's been stuck in this escalating feedback loop I can't stop or control.”
He rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “I just want to go home. Even if there's nothing left, I would rather live there…alone…knowing that I'd finally gotten back part of the life that was once mine.”
Barry glanced from one to the other. “Don't you understand? Don't any of you understand?”
A ripple of energy surged under Cristían's hand. Lupe sat on the arm of the chair, her long hair tumbled over her shoulders. Cristían drew the afghan from the back of the chair around to cover her.
Lupe curled her fingers around the edges of the afghan and tucked it closed. “I understand. You want to go into the wild.”
“Yes.” Surprise lit his eyes. “Yes, that's exactly what I want.” Eyes swimming with tears, he stumbled out the back door.
“We still don't have that weapon,” Jeremy whispered.
Trina grunted. “It's under me. He stored it beneath the cushions when we got here. I've been lying on it ever since. He's been too focused on fixing that controller to care.” She snorted. “All this time we thought he was freaked out over his cell phone not working.”
“That's my girl.” Wyatt leaned over her bulk and kissed her.
“Someone should follow him.” Even as Jeremy said the words, he was moving in that direction. Cristían and Joaquin followed.
Barry stood on the back patio, gazing at the blackened landscape beyond. His clothes were scattered across the wooden deck. He lifted his nose to the air, then snorted. “Ah, I see. I can't blame you. I wouldn't trust me either. After all, I no longer trusted you.” He shifted into his black jaguar and leaped off the deck.
He zipped across the yard in long, sleek strides. Muscles rippled beneath his glossy coat. Sunlight heightened the darker rosettes camouflaged within his fur. He ran, tail out, legs stretching…straight for the armed mountain lions surrounding the perimeter.
“No!” Cristían ran after him, tearing clothes off as he went, in the hope he could shift and catch up.
Footsteps beat up behind him—Joaquin and Jeremy trying to do the same. By now Wyatt would know and be in the chase. Barry snarled, then roared as he neared the line of men. Steven stood, rifle braced against his shoulder. His guard popped up from other locations and ashen earth crunched beneath their boots.
“Stop!” Steven ordered. “Stop now, or I'll shoot!”
Barry lunged for him, claws and fangs bared.
Steven fell back, rifle aimed at the cat mere feet from killing him. “Stop! Stop!” A blast propelled Barry backward a good ten feet.
Steven scrambled to his feet and lifted the rifle again. Barry shifted into human form. Blood poured from his chest. Cristían gouged a wound open in his arm and knelt by his side.
“No.” Barry grunted and tried to push him away. “Let me go. Don't save me. I want to go home. Please, let me go home.”
Joaquin curled his fingers over Cristían's shoulder and squeezed.
“He came right at me.” Steven lowered the weapon and put the safety on. “I had no choice.”
“We know.” Jeremy patted his back.
Wyatt knelt at Barry's other side and lifted his hand. “Good-bye, my friend.”
Cristían watched Barry's blood seep into the ground. He'd never felt more helpless.
Then, with his last few breaths, Barry made one final sacrifice for his clan—he shifted into jaguar form, so there would be no police investigation to worry about.
His soul had finally found freedom. Cristían wished it could have been sooner.
* * * *
Cristían sat on the back deck watching the stars. Lupe huddled between him and Jeremy against the night chill. After the long day they'd had, Cristían appreciated the cool air. Jaguars and mountain lions had worked together to dig deep graves for Barry and Frieda. A joint team of medical personnel had harvested Frieda's organs for further study on how the virus may have affected her. Cristían didn't know how her clan intended to cover up her death, and he didn't ask. The jaguars had their own methods of dealing with such things.
Cremation would have been the best method. They could have found some way to smuggle Barry's ashes over the border and back to their ancestral land. However, no facility existed that would cremate a jaguar without a hell of a lot of questions. They'd have seventy million organizations up the clan's ass in the blink of an eye for having an endangered species in their possession.
The constant watch for wildfires made it impossible to cremate Barry on a funeral pyre, even on their own property. With the graves on private land and a good ten feet deep, there was little chance the bodies would be discovered. The property would always remain in clan hands, and under normal circumstances, the jaguars were very long-lived.
They topped off the day with grilled chicken, steak, and vegetables both clans had worked to prepare, bonding them as a unit in life and death. The babies had been the center of attention—their favorite place—and were down for the night. With Sophie fluttering over her all day, Trina hadn't had to lift a finger. Wyatt and Joaquin sat with Steven and his people making further plans. Carmen and Trina were doing something similar with the women.
It was just him, Lupe, and Jeremy, sitting in the night, watching the wild.
“We're going to reinstall the tracking chips in everyone's arms.” Jeremy swallowed the last of his beer and set the bottle aside. “Steven's crew wants them too.”
“Probably should have gone with the arm in the first place.” Cristían traced circles over Lupe's knee. “Live and learn.” They'd thought the chance of losing their heads was less remote than losing a limb. “I wonder when Barry figured out how to alter the chips?”
“I should have been suspicious when he and I were planning them,” Jeremy said. “He acquired everything we needed.”
“There was no way to anticipate something like this. We didn't know what was in his mind.” They'd been too wrapped up in their own minds.
“I knew how he felt”—Lupe brushed her hands over her arms—“trapped in one world, desperately wanting another and not knowing how to have it. If I'd noticed sooner, maybe I could have helped him. I don't know.” She shrugged.
Jeremy wrapped a hug around her. “Sweetheart, you can't see what others are determined to hide. Some of us spend years hiding from ourselves as much as we hide from someone else.”
Cristían rubbed some warmth into her thigh. “Hiding became second nature to us. Hide from the threat. Hide from the world and civilizations growing around us. Barry was dedicated to the task, goal oriented, focused… We all were. Then it was done. The threat was gone. Looking back, I realize each of us was affected in different ways. The job was over, the focus lost. The twins helped Joaquin and Carmen adjust after six months of hell being apart. Wyatt found Trina, and now their babies. I threw myself into resurrecting Rose and was fortunate to find you two in my life. Barry continued to look for threats.”
“I constantly wonder just how many shape-shifters there are out there doing the same thing.” Jeremy drew circles on Lupe's bicep.
She burrow
ed deeper against him. “Maybe the clans can work together to find them.”
“If anyone can find them, Jeremy can.” Cristían bent forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Maybe it's best to just leave them alone.” He watched a shooting star skid across the sky.
Jeremy pointed out the smoke trail for Lupe. “We call those planet skippers. They look close, but they're not. It's just an illusion.”
“I have so much to learn. I'm glad I have such great teachers.”
Cristían glanced back at the sadness in her voice. “Something wrong?”
Lupe's sigh made him want to cry. “I had a long talk with Carmen and Trina. I'm not having babies. They said shifter women can't shift when they're pregnant. It's not possible. I shifted today.”
“Oh, sweetheart.” They cuddled her between them.
“I was so certain.” She sniffled. “I saw the gold stars come down on us. They went deep inside me.”
“We saw them too.” Jeremy combed her hair from her tear tracks.
“You did?”
“We did.” Cristían kissed her behind the ear. “As far as we're concerned…if our queen wishes for babies, we will have our babies.”
Jeremy nuzzled from the other side. “Because there is one thing we have definitely learned from you… Wishing does make it so.”
Light beamed in Lupe's eyes. “It does!”
“How 'bout we go inside and get all warmed up?” He flicked her earlobe under his tongue. “Work on getting those babies we all want so much.”
Lupe's sultry laughter went straight to his groin. “Ooo, I like that idea. Will anyone be needing blowjobs?”
Jeremy tickled a finger down her diminutive cleavage. “Maybe…you?”
“I like that even more.” The purr in her voice did things to Cristían the universe couldn't hope to reproduce. But then…he'd known that all along.
Loose Id(R) Titles by Caitlyn Willows
Buddy System
Have Mercy
Maneater
Wake Me Up
The INTO THE HEART Series
Into the Lair
Into the Night
Into the Wild
Caitlyn Willows
No one is more surprised than erotic romance author Caitlyn Willows at the direction life has taken her. Blessed (or cursed) with a vivid imagination, Caitlyn weaves deep emotions and sizzling sensuality into her action-filled stories. Believing life is to be lived and felt, not merely watched, Caitlyn delivers real-to-life characters in unforgettable tales of love, adventure, and always steamy passion. She lives in the beautiful desert of Southern California with her husband (a genealogist) and the animals she loves.
Into the Heart 3: Into the Wild Page 20
