Claimed by Panthers: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Panther Shifters of the Amazon Book 3)

by Laura Wylde

  “Hi.” I smirked, not at all embarrassed. If they were going to be mad about it, then they would have let me know by now. Clearly, it wasn’t an issue. “All sorted now?”

  Jabari chuckled at the way I fronted it out, not humiliated at all. He nodded and smiled at me. I was so busy grinning at him like an idiot that I barely noticed Seth whizzing past me until he had flown out the window leaving the rest of us behind.

  “What the…?” I gasped in shock.

  “He’s embarrassed.” Tony rolled his eyes. “He is humiliated at being caught.”

  “But we weren’t doing anything wrong, were we?”

  “No,” Jabari confirmed. “You weren’t. He’s just a little freaked out, that’s all.”

  “You going to get him?” Tony asked. “Or should I?”

  “I will go.” I didn’t miss the pointed look that Jabari gave him. “You can’t be trusted. You stay here. Stay here. I will grab Seth and bring him back in a moment.”

  Jabari kept looking back at me as he headed towards the window, almost like he didn’t want to go. Because I was still all hot and bothered from my little roll around with Seth which unfortunately hadn’t ended in the way that I wanted it too, Jabari’s eyes burned all the way into my soul making me shudder with even more desire. I wanted to kiss him now as well.

  What the hell is wrong with me? My brain screamed. Why can’t I control myself?

  “Poor old Seth,” Tony commented, sounding more like the other panthers than Italian now, strangely. “He’s so shy, and getting caught with you like that will finish him off.”

  I’d almost forgotten that I wasn’t in the room alone. I jumped as his voice raced through my ear drums. I was really going to have to stop fantasizing about these men and remember what the hell was going on here. There were jaguars after me, I was actually in danger here.

  “Hmm yes. And you’re stuck with me.” I let out a little sound that was far too strangled to pass as the laugh that it was supposed to be. “Must be some punishment. What did you do?”

  Some of the confidence that I had always seen on him rolled off his shoulders. “I was the one who was supposed to watch you last night. But I abandoned my post which was when the jag got in. It really pissed Jabari off, actually. I’m used to seeing him mad, but this was something else.”

  “Why do you think he was so angry?”

  “Well, I’m always getting yelled at for getting… erm, distracted.” This needed no further explanation. Tony was clearly a ladies’ man. “But when I left you, he lost his mind.” Tony smirked. “You know, I think that he might like you more than he’s willing to let on.”

  Those words were like a lightning bolt. All the feelings that I’d had for these men intensified tenfold. If they had noticed an attraction, then it wasn’t a one-sided thing, which meant something could happen… the only question was, did I want it to? If I allowed this to become more of a feelings’ thing than just a sexual thing, then I would have to really think about leaving everything behind. I would have to help progress the panther race…

  Hold on, I was getting a bit ahead of myself, wasn’t I? It was only a kiss with Seth and a comment that Jabari might like me. I didn’t have to wife myself off or anything!

  “But Jabari isn’t the only one, you know.” I turned to see Tony wiggling his eyebrows playfully at me. “I might have a little thing for you myself. Not that you’ll have noticed. All wrapped up in Seth like that. Honestly, anyone would think that you don’t care about hurting my feelings.”

  “Are you being serious?” I exploded, throwing my hands in the air in confusion.

  “Well, I am being serious that I like you, but not about being hurt.” He stepped closer to me and pinched my hip which again made me tremor with excitement. “You couldn’t do that.”

  “No, because you’re a playboy, right?” I asked. “One who doesn’t fall too deep?”

  “Ah, now that is a judgement that may or may not be the truth. I can’t confirm or deny.”

  Somehow, he managed to get right up in my personal space without me even noticing it happening. I had to assume that was a part of his smooth man act that got him all the women. I didn’t even mind that though, it was quite exhilarating to be this near to someone so sexually confident and experienced who wanted me. Even if I shouldn’t be thinking about yet another man so soon after kissing Seth, honestly, my head was all over the place.

  He has just been with someone too, I reminded myself. He’s a player. That’s what he does and it’s why Jabari fell out with him. There’s no need to judge yourself by a different standard…

  But then Tony grabbed the back of my head, tugging lightly at my hair and he kissed me hard, full of passion. It was a completely different experience to kissing Seth. He was more demanding, more commanding and much more confident.

  I grabbed the sides of his tee shirt and yanked him hard towards me, crashing his muscular frame against me. Admittedly, I didn’t have as good a feel of him as I had Seth, but I didn’t need that to know his body was just as fit and incredible. All four of the panthers were.

  I moaned, the sound vibrating in his throat as his tongue massaged mine. His hot rough tongue reminded me of his panther side and that set me alight, causing flames to lick all over my skin. I bounced off the floor as light as anything and wrapped my legs around his waist.

  Holy shit. I could feel his bulge pressing against my core and it was ginormous. So fucking appealing that I wanted to scream. Now I wanted him to be the one buried deep inside me, brushing against my most sensitive areas, driving me insane.

  “Fuck.” Another voice coming from behind us caused Tony to drop me. Frustration screamed through me. It seemed I didn’t stand a chance in hell of getting what I wanted today. “You’re here, Tony. Thank God, I couldn’t find anyone…”

  “What happened, Ramon?” I had to admit that even through my annoyance I was as concerned as Tony. Ramon looked like shit. Something had clearly gotten to him. “Did you make it to Panthera?”

  “I did, but on the way back I got jumped.” He coughed loudly and slid to the ground, clutching on to his blood stained top. “Jags got me. A bunch of them.”

  Tony shot me a panicked look and we both raced to Ramon’s side. I didn’t know how bad this was really, I didn’t know enough about the shape shifters, but he looked like hell which told me enough. This jaguar threat was getting scarier by the moment.

  Jabari

  “Come on, Ramon,” I huffed as I tried to carry his heavy dead weight body through the door. “We’re back now. You can rest and recover. Then tell us what the hell happened to you out there.”

  It was pretty obvious that he’d been through the ringer which pissed me off. I shouldn’t have sent him out there alone. I was just so confident that the jaguars would be in the city that I didn’t even think. Which was stupid. I cursed myself like crazy.

  “I… I was attacked…” He gasped out, trying to tell me what happened. He’d been doing that all the way back. “They want… they want Tara…”

  I glanced backwards to see her eyes practically popping out of her head in shock. I shushed Ramon down not wanting to make this any worse before we had any information. If he was just going to pant out little bits here and there, then he would only make things worse.

  “Tony, you show Tara to her bedroom while we take care of Ramon.”

  I glanced behind once more just to see Tony grabbing Tara by the arm to drag her towards the stairs. Clearly, she didn’t want to go, and I couldn’t blame her. If I knew that a pack of fucking jags were coming for me then I wouldn’t be too happy as well, but Tony whispered something to her finally pulling her backwards, probably letting her know that it was for the best.

  “Right, Ramon.” As soon as Tara and Tony were out of sight, Ramon had laid back on the couch. “Tell me what happened, what’s going on? Try and do it step by step.”

  “Right, yes.” He blinked a couple of times as Seth laid a cold flannel over his head to c
ool him down, the pain was totally obvious as it blasted across his face. “So, I had just been to Panthera. I spoke to… to Jakar and Javier. They know what’s going on now. I…” He winced a couple of times. “I was on the way back when they jumped me. I don’t much… much remember it.”

  “It’s okay.” I gulped down a thick ball of emotion. “Don’t push yourself.”

  “This was a warning. I remember that much.” His fingers curled loosely around my arm. “They whispered that to me after they beat the shit out of me. A warning to get rid of Tara.”

  “Get rid? What the fuck do you mean get rid?” My blood ran ice cold. “Not…”

  My brain got swallowed up by a slew of terrible images. All I could think about was Tara being torn to shreds by a bunch of cats. Panthers or jaguars it didn’t matter, the idea tore me apart too. I couldn’t see Little Miss Purple being damaged. I liked her far too much for that.

  “Like make her leave Brazil. I presume.” Ramon’s horror-struck eyes caught mine. “You don’t think they mean we have to kill her, do you? I didn’t even consider that.”

  “I wouldn’t put anything past those fuckers. They’re ruthless.”

  “Fucking hell.” Ramon shook his head, sadly. “Well, it’s all linked to those pictures, of course. The evidence that she has of our existence. They are in the images too and the secret protecting our identity is more important than anything else. Tara is a threat because she knows.”

  I had promised Tara that we wouldn’t take away her evidence. I knew that was a stupid mistake which was now going to become even more problematic since lives were at risk. She was going to hate me if I made her give up her photographs after swearing I wouldn’t.

  “And what did you say to that?” I gulped, noisily. “How did it all end?”

  “I didn’t say anything. My mouth was filled with blood at the time. They just left me there.”

  “Sorry yes, of course you didn’t.” I clapped my hand to my forehead. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to be insensitive. I’m just trying to figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “Are you thinking of sending Tara away then?” The idea seemed to hurt Ramon as much as it did me. I definitely wasn’t alone in my feelings for this woman, but that didn’t make it up to us.

  “I guess I will have to speak to Tara and see what she wants to do,” I replied, sadly. “She might want to get back to her life in America, we don’t know, do we? If it was upto me, I wouldn’t be cowed by threats. The jaguars don’t fucking scare me. But I can’t make decisions for other people.”

  “Hmm, true. I suppose we don’t know that much about her,” Ramon agreed. “But what about her photos? She doesn’t seem too keen to give them all up.”

  “No, she isn’t. But if she needs to, to stay alive, then she’s going to have to, isn’t she?”

  “She isn’t going to like it, Jabari. You know she isn’t.”

  I darted my eyes towards Seth who didn’t seem to have any answers either. Yep, it looked like I was going to have to be the bad guy which was the last thing I wanted. I had only seen a glimpse of Tara’s fiery side so far and it wasn’t a place I wanted to be in again.

  “Anyway, let’s not worry about it.” I decided because I was about to get all tied up in knots myself. “Let’s get you cleaned up, Ramon, so you can heal properly. Then we can worry about what we do next. It isn’t exactly our choice anyway.”

  Seth and I got to work helping to clean up Ramon’s wounds. I could tell from his face as the color began to return to it ever so slightly, that he was already starting to recover. Thank fuck. We were going to need all of us in top form if we were going to face off this damn threat. The need to get rid of these fucking jags was getting increasingly intense by the moment. I hated them for threatening the life that we had all built up over the last few centuries.

  “Are you feeling better now?” Tara asked as she descended slowly down the stairs. “You look better, Ramon. Already. That’s incredible. A panther thing, right?”

  He nodded and smiled at her. I could already see his face softening at the sight of her. He liked her so much, it was shifting the dynamic of everything between us.

  “So, what’s going on then?” She sat close beside Ramon, eyeing him curiously. “There was something linked to me, right? The jaguars came after you because of me.”

  Ramon looked to me for guidance, and I nodded. This was his story to tell and now that I knew more about it, I was confident that Tara could handle it. It was only fair to let her know anyway because she was the one being risked. She was the one who had a knife hanging over her head.

  “The jaguars know that you are the one who has photos of them. How they found out, I don’t know. I suppose in a place like this, rumors spread like crazy. They could have overheard somehow. Or maybe they saw it when they crept into your room…”

  “No, that can’t be right.” Tara shook her head hard. “Or they would have taken it, wouldn’t they? If that’s what they are after and it was right there. They can’t have seen it, surely?”

  “Maybe, yes. Okay, so obviously that isn’t the way,” Ramon agreed. “But they know anyway. They want you to give the evidence to us, or at least delete it. Then leave Brazil.”

  I sucked in a deep breath as I watched Tara’s face drop. She didn’t look impressed at all. I couldn’t tell if she was about to grab her bag and jump on the next plane out of here. I wouldn’t be able to blame her, but it would suck. Not just for me but for all of us. I had a strong feeling that morale would drop like crazy if we didn’t have her to fight for anymore.

  We’d been just fine before, fighting only for Panthera, but since Tara came along everything changed. Now, she seemed to be the center of everything for all of us.

  “Fuck them!” She suddenly yelled. “I’m not running away because of them. It isn’t right. They can’t push me away. Yeah, I might have found out about them, but that doesn’t mean they should threaten me. I want to be here. I want to stay to be a part of this.”

  She broke off panting, her eyes drinking all of us in as she waited for a reaction. This was good news, great in fact, all that we wanted, but we were so struck by her passion that it took us a couple of moments to really realize what she was saying to us.

  “You’re staying?” I beamed with joy. “That’s fucking great news, Tara. We are so happy.”

  “I won’t be too much of an issue for you? I just realized that I might be putting you in a shitty position by staying here. If it’s going to make it worse for you, then I will go…”

  “No, of course not.” I rested my hands gently on her shoulders. “Not at all. The fight is happening anyway. It isn’t going to get better or worse if you’re here. Plus, we want you to stay. You are a pleasure to have around. It’s great with you here. If you want to stay, then you should.”

  “Good. And er, what should I do about the photos? Should I delete them?”

  “I don’t know what to say to that,” I admitted. “I guess we shall leave that up to you?”

  “So, you aren’t going to force me to hand them over then? Even if that’s what you want too?”

  “I’m not going to force you to do anything.” I could feel the eyes of the other guys upon me. Maybe they didn’t think that it was the right decision, but it was all I could do. Maybe it could have been seen as me backing down from being the bad guy, but it just felt like the right thing to do. “You do whatever you think is right, Tara. It’s completely upto you.”

  She nodded, her face breaking into a grin. Relief rolled over her in waves. It actually caused a little laugh to flow out of my mouth. I didn’t think that I could find mirth in this situation. Everything was all kinds of fucked up around us, and Tara had me grinning. Honestly, it was like she was the one who had powers, and I was completely under her spell.

  “Well, if you’re staying then you probably want some food?” Tara nodded, excitedly. “Okay, I can sort that out for you. I’ll just see what we have in the kitchen. If not, I’ll
head to the store.”

  I was already pretty sure that I didn’t have anything in. We weren’t really organized enough to have food in the house. We were definably more of a take-out group of people. We also spent a lot of time eating out at the bar which was how we’d managed to stumble across Tara in the first place.

  But I made a big show of heading into the kitchen anyway, just to look like we might.

  Everyone else took their seats and the conversation started in the other room. As I opened all the cupboards pointlessly, I could hear murmuring and laughter. Tara really did bring a new dynamic to the room; she was a ray of sunshine. She was awesome. Exactly what we needed. I couldn’t help myself; I started to imagine what it would be like if she never left Brazil. If she just stayed here forever. It was a lot to ask of anyone to basically put their other life behind them, to give everything over to the panther cause, but it would be incredible if she did…

  “Stop it, Tony!” I was snapped out of my day dream by Tara’s angry voice.

  “Fuck,” I muttered as I raced back into the living room to play peace keeper.

  “What, Tara?” Tony shrugged. “I don’t think it matters if everyone knows that we shared a little kiss. It isn’t an issue, is it? What are you worried about? No one will judge you.”

  Her face flamed red and her arms folded across herself. I noticed her looking at Seth who was also incredibly humiliated by the whole situation. That was what she was upset about. Seth’s feelings, not her own. Why couldn’t Tony be a little more sensitive and recognize that?

  “I think that this is something we should all calmly discuss…” I tried.

  “Discuss?” Tara snapped, throwing her arms in the air in frustration. “We don’t need to talk about it, do we? It was a kiss. We aren’t in high school where everything needs to be discussed.”

  She stomped away and headed back up the stairs, towards her room which left me deflated. Why the fuck did Tony have to be such an insensitive prick, it annoyed me. But then I hadn’t exactly been sensitive myself. Of course, she didn’t want to discuss it that was obvious.