“I want you back down here.”
There was a loud crackling sound in Anna’s ear then silence. “We’ll head to our litters,” Anna began, but stopped when the silence continued. “John?” she asked. “John?” she checked again, this time with more determination in her voice. Then looking up at Rafe, she shrugged. “He hung up.”
“It wasn’t a good connection,” Rafe offered.
She hung up the phone and stared at it for a moment. She and Rafe would have issues to handle once they returned to their litters. Anna prayed announcing their mating would appease John, but something told her he would still be difficult.
“Would you rather announce our mating before returning to Guarida?” Rafe asked, and took her chin in his hand then tilted her head to stare into her eyes.
“We haven’t been mated long enough for you to read my mind,” she said, making a face at him as she worked to relax her frenzied brain.
“I can smell how worried you are, little cat.” He tightened his grip on her as he lowered his mouth to hers and kissed her. “Believe it or not, I’m well-liked by the litters in Guarida. They won’t shun me,” he whispered against her lips, and kissed her again.
When the payphone next to Anna began ringing, she jumped then hated how she wasn’t able to hide the incredibly sour scent of her embarrassment. Rafe smiled against her lips before straightening. He wouldn’t give her any space but kept her pressed against his strong, virile body when he picked up the receiver and answered it.
“Who knows you contacted us?” Raul bellowed into the phone, the sharpness in his tone and the way he sounded as if he were yelling making it appear he was suddenly pissed.
“No one, why?” Rafe ran his large hand up and down Anna’s spine as his features hardened.
“The laws and traditions have been taken from the gathering den.”
Anna didn’t have a clue where they could be in the human community that was closest to Guarida. They couldn’t be too close to anyone who might hear them. There were times when it had been difficult to hear her littermate yet she just heard Raul well enough the receiver might as well have been up to her ear instead of Rafe’s.
“Taken? When? How?” Rafe demanded. “How in the hell could they be moved from the gathering den?”
“Because we weren’t there,” Raul roared. “We couldn’t have been gone from Guarida more than minutes when they were taken. John and Margie Ramos just found us and gave us the latest howling.”
The explosion of static that followed sounded as bad as Rafe’s littermate’s growling. Anna’s insides twisted when she realized someone from Colony had finally succeeded in stealing the laws and traditions. As annoying as she found the ancient howlings to be, none of this made sense. Everything written on those pages were for all jaguars, not for one group to steal from another as if they couldn’t have read what Ran was posting on the website.
“Who were the two males you mentioned earlier who howled about a message from me?” Rafe’s tone was cold and anger mixed with a violent edge as he white knuckled the receiver.
“Nope. We chased them out of Guarida,” Raul said, his tone a bit quieter, but not much. “This is all my fucking fault.” He was yelling again. “I left several males at the gathering den but should have howled harsher to them about the possibility of the documents being stolen. I should have smelled how foul it was when we left to call you. Someone must have known we left Guarida.”
Rafe was shaking his head before he spoke. “We haven’t seen or smelled a jaguar since we’ve been in Ouray. I’m sure more than a few jaguars know we aren’t in Colony or in that damn cave any longer. But, Raul, we took our time in the mountains before getting here.” Rafe didn’t elaborate but began petting Anna’s hair as he spoke. “If whoever took the laws and traditions believed they were aligning their running with our contacting you, they were guessing on the timing at best.”
“You have to go back to Colony,” Raul ordered. “Natasha will reword the laws and traditions and howl them to fit her agenda,” he growled. “We have to stop her. We’re heading out now. Maybe we can pick up on a scent if we leave soon enough.”
“Good hunting,” Rafe said somberly. “Natasha won’t get her paws on them. Don’t worry.”
Anna wondered if it were a trait of all males to make promises when they had no way of knowing how to hold up their end of the bargain. Rafe let out a spew of expletives as he slammed the receiver on to its cradle.
“We’re going to sniff out who took them.” Rafe began processing a plan as he spoke. “It’s going to mean returning to Colony. Those ancient writings can’t be in Natasha’s paws.”
“I agree.” Anna stared at him, her scent proof of her determination to protect their laws and traditions. Rafe knew he’d never felt so much for a female as he did right now as he stared down at his little cat. In spite of howling openly to him about how the laws and traditions weren’t howlings she completely agreed with, his brand-new mate saw as clearly as he did how dangerous they would become in the wrong paws.
“The jaguars in the cave seem to be under the impression the laws and traditions are going to be brought there. Someone had to howl about that for so many to believe it.” She began chewing her lower lip and stared across the street as if she were on the verge of figuring it out. “I bet there are many who howl that David shed light on the details about the laws and traditions,” she whispered, looking lost in thought as she stared into the darkness.
“There are always howlings,” he said, and brushed her hair behind her shoulder. “We can’t rely on those, Anna.”
Anna shivered and walked away from him, hugging herself as she started toward the street. Rafe fell into line next to her, putting his arm around her and pulling her against him as they headed toward the edge of the quiet, dark town. He struggled for the right words to howl. Eventually they would talk about David. He wouldn’t offer any information if she didn’t ask for it. Regardless of the despicable acts the jaguar performed against their kind, he had been her littermate.
“We have to retrieve them before Natasha gets her lousy paws on them,” Anna grumbled. “No one will ever know everything our ancestors howled if that bitch gets a hold of them. You know she’ll twist that line around about the VicMorans and Kalusians being the lines that started jaguars and the lines that will end jaguars.”
That line had bugged him since the first time he’d read it. His entire litter was more than a bit spooked by it. “Ran has a fair amount of the laws and traditions already on the website he’s creating. Natasha won’t be able to lie about our laws,” he assured her.
They walked silently alongside the street toward the building they’d changed behind before. Rafe sensed Anna’s brain churning. She scowled at the ground ahead of her and smelled distracted. He wanted to know what his female was thinking.
They crossed the next intersection and Rafe smelled the jaguars before he saw them. Grabbing Anna, he yanked her off the sidewalk and into the darkness of surrounding trees just as two males and a female traipsed out of a motel. He didn’t have to tell Anna to be quiet. Her eyes were wide and she looked up at him, her lips pressed into a thin line before returning her attention to the jaguars. Rafe picked up on the smell of alcohol, which he guessed was why none of them appeared to have sniffed out Anna and him.
“Do you seriously believe this place has no vacancies?” a female whined, smelling upset, although the thick, almost nauseatingly sweet smell of some type of liqueur made it difficult to detect her exact mood. She wore very tight blue jeans, and the button-down shirt she had on was untucked on one side and unbuttoned far enough to show off the bottom of her bra and a hell of a lot of cleavage.
“It doesn’t matter.” The male who spoke looked away from Rafe and Anna and at the other male in the group. “Do we find shelter for the night or run until we reach the cave?”
“We aren’t going to the cave.” The other male sniffed the air, looking around him and slowing as he took in the
ir surroundings. “We’re going to intercept the VornBach litter,” he announced, glancing at the sky.
If he’d picked up on Rafe and Anna’s scent, the strong smell of alcohol must have made it impossible for him to hold on to their smell because he quit looking around him and draped his arm around the female. Then pulled her against him and she buried her face in his neck.
“Why are they taking the laws and traditions to Colony?” The male who walked alongside the couple lowered his voice when he asked. The three of them were close enough to Rafe and Anna at this point it was very easy to hear them. “How are we going to get a dime for them, or credit for finding them once it’s announced they’re missing, if Natasha gets her slimy paws on them before we do?”
Rafe glanced down at Anna. She stared up at him and he saw questions in her eyes as she searched his face. Rafe was sure he had the same questions. The VornBach litter had been the male and female in the den that was a cage where they’d been taken after arriving in Colony. Had those two escaped as well? Rafe seriously doubted Natasha put them in a cage because they wanted to steal the laws and traditions, unless their reasons for stealing them differed from what Natasha wanted. Damn. How many jaguars were trying to steal the laws and traditions for their own gain?
“Hush!” The male with the female clinging to him snapped, snarling and showing off rather sharp teeth.
The female looked up, slightly bewildered as she stared from one male to the other. When the male looked down at her, he seemed to notice her attached to him for the first time since draping his arm around her shoulder. He peeled her off of him and pushed her at the other male. The male took her greedily and the female cuddled into him as if she’d wanted to be there all along.
“We’ll meet them outside Colony.”
“That’s a death sentence,” the male who now had the female wailed. He sounded as despicable as he smelled, whiny and spineless, with no real teeth to fight with.
The male in charge looked disgusted. “We’re running from here south until we reach the other side of Colony. Natasha will have her jaguars keeping watch, but we know where they are.”
“We do?” the female asked.
The male curled his lip at her. “Yes, we do.”
“Then why did we come here?”
The male appeared to be explaining, but the three jaguars had reached the far side of the parking lot and were walking away from Rafe and Anna, in the direction they’d been headed.
“That was weird.” Anna smelled worried when she stepped out of their hiding place alongside him.
Rafe kept his eye on the shadows disappearing ahead of them. The three jaguars were moving fast and would be at the edge of the mountain soon. Trailing them would be damn tricky, especially in their fur with their senses heightened. Maybe the alcohol hindered their ability to smell Anna and Rafe, but their leader appeared more sober than the other two.
“Very,” he growled, keeping Anna close to his side as they resumed their walk to the edge of town.
“We have to follow them.”
“I know.” He looked down into Anna’s worried face. “Do you smell a trap?”
She nodded. “Where the hell did they come from? There weren’t any jaguars in this town. We would have sniffed them out by now.”
“It does smell mighty convenient that information we desperately need is suddenly offered to us.” He frowned, barely able to see the three jaguars. They’d already disappeared into the thick grove of trees at the base of the mountain. “We’re going to follow them,” he decided.
“I know.” She looked up at him and grinned.
* * * * *
Growing up, Rafe and his littermates had spent many nights and days running through the mountains outside Colony’s territory. Many years had passed and landmarks had changed, but these were the same Rocky Mountains. Today he didn’t race across the mountain, confident beyond doubt he was safe. As a cub, he and his litter believed they owned the mountains. They were such innocent times, but out of those frolicking days a few good things had come to pass. One being, even after all this time, Rafe knew this mountain like the back of his paw.
It was their one strong advantage, and Rafe put it to good use. He guessed how the three jaguars would run in their fur to reach their destination. There were only a couple of ways to reach south of here without running into extreme rock climbing, which would slow them up considerably. They would most likely take the main road, running alongside it. Just before dawn, few humans would be out, and those who were wouldn’t notice three jaguars running alongside the highway in the dark.
Rafe and Anna took a farther southern route, running in their fur. It was one he and his littermates had often taken for their nightly runs as teenagers. The mountainside was as secluded as he remembered it being. But it was narrower, overgrown and in spots blocked by boulders he knew hadn’t been there before.
There was only one way to cross the ridge of mountains the VornBachs would have to come over to reach their destination. Anna ran diligently alongside him, her lithe body moving gracefully over the small rocks and dense patches of underbrush they encountered. She leapt when he did, curved to the right or to the left, her scent ripe and her expression alert as she watched their surroundings as carefully as he did.
Rafe knew the moment he’d pick up on the scent of another jaguar, Anna did too. She would lift her head, not breaking her pace but becoming more alert. Several times they ran into the lingering aroma of a male or female jaguar. It was impossible to tell if they were detecting the two males and females they overheard in Ouray, and not once did Rafe smell alcohol mixed in with the scent.
More than once, thoughts plagued him over the strong possibility they were running into a trap. He’d considered spending the night up in the mountain, as they originally planned. It would take the VornBach litter several days or so to run to Colony in their fur. He doubted they would resume their human form and drive part of the way, but the possibility existed. Either way, it would take time before they reached Colorado.
Rafe and Anna would be smart to sniff out the area prior to the VornBachs arriving. As much as he would love to keep running, head south and cut them off before they arrived in Colorado, there were different routes the jaguars might take. He wouldn’t risk taking off on a wild-goose chase.
When they came across a fast-moving creek, which was almost wide and deep enough to be a river, Rafe’s stomach growled. Anna slowed, moving closer to the water. Rafe moved in next to her, keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings. They hadn’t eaten and had run a good portion of the night. It would be dawn in a few hours. Although humans were scarce in these parts of the mountains, there was always the chance a few hikers or die-hard campers might wander around in the daylight. They would be smart to hunt then sleep and resume their tracking come nightfall.
Anna focused on capturing fish and Rafe sniffed out the land nearby, keeping a watchful eye on his mate as he did, and had pulled several fallen logs together with his teeth, manufacturing a fort of sorts where they could sleep unnoticed and fairly protected. Anna’s slim body was soaked and she shivered when he returned to her side. Her scent was ripe with happiness, though, when she held up a rainbow trout for him in her mouth.
They ate and Rafe took his time cleaning his adorable mate until her coat shown and was almost dry. He was hard as a rock and so ready to make love to Anna until neither of them could move. Anna curled up next to him, her purring softening until he was asleep. Rafe curled his larger body around her, keeping her warm, and kept a watchful eye on the darkness. Eventually, he fell asleep too.
Chapter Thirteen
A twig snapped not too far from her, and Anna almost leapt to her feet, growling. She managed not to give her location away as she stared at two jaguars moving slowly across the meadow and directly toward her.
Where was Rafe?
She managed not to make any noise as she stood and stretched then blinked against the brightness of the sun. What time was it?
How long had she slept?
There were vague memories of waking up, making love to Rafe and sleeping again. They’d hunted together, learned their surroundings better and had spotted the three jaguars they’d overheard in Ouray. There had been other jaguars with them and they’d been beneath Rafe and Anna in a meadow. The two of them had lain at the edge of a cliff and watched the jaguars who appeared to be sniffing the area and growling a lot at each other.
Eventually, Rafe and Anna had returned to their makeshift den, eaten their kill and apparently she’d fallen asleep. She sniffed the air. The two jaguars had a strong scent to them as if they’d been running for quite awhile.
They were a male and a female she didn’t know, and the male had a harness with a bag attached to the side wrapped around his chest. The bag bounced in rhythm with his gait as the two of them maintained a slow trot across the meadow. Anna stared at the bulge in the bag. Was it their laws and traditions?
A rage grew in her, something more powerful than she’d ever known before. Jaguars were despised by other species, viewed as unpredictable and too ruthless to associate with others and play nicely. Colony had been devised to keep jaguars away from the other species. Now, within their own kind, jaguars were tearing themselves apart, just as others on this planet predicted them capable of doing.
These two were stealing the one thing that could possibly save their kind. And they trotted, not appearing concerned if anyone were around them or not, getting closer to Colony. Her claws dug into the ground where she had slept. She didn’t know where Rafe was and guessed there were other jaguars nearby as well. At the moment, there were two of them and one of her. Instinct kicked in. Attack and kill the stronger, and then she would be one-on-one with the weaker.
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