by E A Price
“Ah, books?”
Mary wrinkled her nose. “Books?” He didn’t seem very convinced.
“Ah, yeah, about books.”
“What kind of books?”
“Any books, I like all books. I just thought maybe… we could talk about them… together…”
Mary chewed on her lip, thinking of all the lectures she had endured from Detective Hotsler and Elise about talking to strangers and allowing strange people into the apartment. But Tomas didn’t seem strange – he seemed… lovely.
“I don’t know.”
“Please, you ran out of the speed dating so fast I didn’t get a chance to catch you.”
“Why would you want to catch me?” she blurted.
Another pause. “I thought that we… that we had a connection.”
So did she… sort of. Logic told her to yell at him to get lost. She should, she knew she should, but she didn’t want to – she wanted him to come in, wanted to talk to him, wanted to be around him. Wanted the nice warm feeling she got from being near him. The last ten years had been so cold and lonely, and she had never met a man who incited such instant delight in her. Wasn’t she due this? Wasn’t she allowed a little happiness? No matter how brief or fleeting.
Still, she hedged. “It’s quite late.”
“It’s half nine,” he grumbled through the door.
Mary rubbed her forehead. She must be mad. Slowly, she set to work undoing all the locks and peeked around the door.
Oh boy. Sitting he was big, standing he was enormous. But, the uncertain look on his face relaxed her. If he had been smirking or smug, she would have slammed the door, but he wasn’t. He looked as hesitant as her, and she liked that. Confidence was not something she had, and confident men scared her.
Mary stepped back and opened the door a little wider.
“Do you want to come in?”
“Yes,” he answered immediately.
She nodded and flitted back as he walked towards her.
Okay, now what? This was entirely new territory for her.
Tomas was in front of her, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“Would you like some tea?” she offered.
He nodded, and Mary tried to ignore the grim look on his face. Please don’t let this be a monumental mistake.
She led him to the kitchen and made the tea in silence while he watched her. Shouldn’t he be talking about books or something?
“Would you like a cookie?”
He nodded, and she turned to get one, passing it back to him on a plate.
His expression was more pained now.
Mary took a sip of tea and licked her lips. Something did not taste right. Not right at all.
“Please forgive me,” he said as he lunged forward to catch her.
*
This was a bad idea.
His jaguar purred encouragingly as he surveyed the pretty little sleeping woman in front of him, but Tomas was just filled with dread.
Why would a delicate little bookish creature like her want him? He was just always big, goofy Tomas. Like his teacher always said, he wasn’t smart, couldn’t read well, but he was quiet, strong and a hard worker. Even if he was an idiot, at least he was a big idiot who did as he was told.
Getting Mary’s address had been easier than actually getting Mary to talk to him. Mostly because Diego charmed it out of the event organizer. As for getting in the building, he had spied a drunken woman trying to get in and not having much success. He offered to help her, she grinned, told him her name was Kate, and happily draped herself all over him. They sailed past the vampire doorman. That was lucky because the doorman definitely would have been a problem otherwise. Though trying to fend off Kate’s tentacle-like hands was no easy thing. He made sure she got to her apartment, but in spite of her offers, he definitely did not join her for a nightcap.
No, he had to get to Mary. Time was running out for getting her back to the jaguar leap. This was their last night in Los Lobos, and they needed to get home, and one thing was for certain, his jaguar was not going anywhere without his mate.
That was the only thing he was certain of – that Mary belonged to him. She was so unlike anyone he had ever met. Most women made him nervous, but she made him feel ten feet tall – not that he had far to go on that front, but she made him feel courageous and didn’t make him feel dumb or useless. Just being near her made his beast peaceful. Yes, he may be worried about her, but taking her back home, to Honey Blossom Mountain was the right decision.
But getting her to stay there was another matter. However, that wasn’t his only concern. His mate was scared of something. He could tell.
Now, after this she would be scared of him, too he thought glumly. His jaguar hissed at him to man up. She was his mate – she would come to care for them, the beast was certain.
Tomas carefully folded some clothes into a suitcase for her. He tried to close his eyes when handling her underwear, but that just resulted in a bang to the head and sharp cursing. So he looked, but not closely. Not that her underwear was particularly exciting – all white cotton. Though these items had touched her in her most intimate area and… and… Tomas quickly put them in the suitcase before that thought had a chance to bloom. Thank god there wasn’t anything more exciting in her underwear drawer – anything more might have killed him.
He found her toothbrush as well as a few toiletries she might need. She didn’t appear to favor makeup, and he liked that. He liked her natural face, liked her pink cheeks and pretty brown eyes. Mary stirred a little, and it encouraged him to hurry.
Tomas had wrapped her in a blanket and laid her down on her bed while he collected her clothes and belongings. He wasn’t proud of himself, but tradition is tradition. He thought the best way was to put the drug in her tea – a little herbal supplement from the leap healer to knock her out and give her sweet dreams.
Good, because he doubted when she woke up she would be quite so happy.
Seven
Instinctively, Mary screamed. She woke up in an unknown place, and she started screaming. This was it; he had finally come for her. All those horrible letters and notes, all those threats – he was finally acting on them.
“Mary, please.”
Her voice died when she saw Tomas. His big reassuring form hovered near her. The last thing she remembered was…
Oh no! It was him, and she had stupidly let him into her apartment. What a fool she was! After years of paranoid security and she let her stalker just waltz on into the apartment!
She started screaming again, and Tomas looked around wildly.
A small Latina woman hurried up, scowling at Tomas. “What did you do to her?” she hissed.
He held up his hands as his face took on a crestfallen look. The woman started making soothing noises and took Mary’s hands.
“It’s okay, niña, it’s okay. Everything will be okay.”
Mary wheezed as her voice finally gave out. “What are you going to do to me?” she rasped.
“Nothing,” said the woman soothingly. “You’re quite safe.”
“You kidnapped me!” wailed Mary eyeing Tomas in dismay.
He gazed back blankly, his eyes swirling with gold. This is what she got for allowing herself to believe she deserved to be happy! Kidnapped!
“But you are safe from harm,” said the woman.
Mary looked at the kind woman and Tomas and shook her head in confusion.
She pulled her hands away and rubbed her cheeks. “I don’t understand.”
“I kidnapped you to be my mate!” blurted Tomas. “You’re going to live here with me!”
“Tomas!” scolded the woman.
Mary gaped at him and then she gave in and fainted.
*
“There now, niña.”
“Where am I?” gasped Mary moments before it hit her again.
Oh lord – kidnapped, that’s where!
“Please don’t scream again, you’ll only hurt yourself.”
“Nobody will hurt you, I promise.”
Mary snorted and shuffled away from the woman.
“I’m Maria. I know this is confusing.” Mary hunched down a little more into her trusty cardigan. “But you’ve been brought to a jaguar leap by Tomas to be his bride.”
A squeak wrenched out of her throat. Lunatics - she was surrounded by lunatics!
“It’s tradition,” Maria said. “The males find a female and bring her back to be their mates. It’s complicated, but there is a lack of females in the leap, and it’s unfortunately necessary.”
Mary struggled to comprehend what she was being told, struggled to reconcile it to her stalker. Had her stalker been after her for ten years only to then kidnap her to become his mate? Why wait ten years? Why torture her with all those notes and horrifying ‘gifts’?
“I don’t understand.”
“I know it’s a lot to take in,” murmured Maria in a practiced way. Jeez, how many others had Tomas done this to?
“Why would he follow me all these years?” she whispered to herself.
Maria frowned. “What do you mean?”
“I, ah…”
She shook her head. She didn’t know this woman, and she had been kidnapped – she had no reason to trust her in the least.
Hesitantly, like approaching a startled deer, Maria placed a hand over hers. Mary was angry, confused and scared, but the woman was giving off a strong vibe, like a mother – nothing like Mary’s mother – but how Mary always thought a mother should be.
“What’s wrong? You can tell me.”
Mary couldn’t help herself; she just poured it all out.
Eight
This was not going well. Tomas tried not to make it obvious that he was staring at Mary but he could not help himself.
Mate rumbled his jaguar, eager to be with her.
She refused to look in his direction.
After she fainted, Maria told him to get out in no uncertain terms. The three other males had also found their mates and kidnapped them, but they didn’t seem half as panicky as him. No, they all seemed confident and pleased at the way things were going. Maybe their mates weren’t terrified out of their minds.
His little Mary was already skittish, and now maybe he had destroyed any chance he had of making her trust him.
Maria had talked to the women, explained the situation and Mary had… looked even more petrified when he finally got to see her again.
At that moment, the females were getting a tour of the leap compound. Mary had latched onto Hester, the cheetah shifter Antonio brought back, and was clutching her hand.
His jaguar grumbled. He wanted her to hold his hand, to let him be the one to take care of her. But she couldn’t even bear to look at him.
She would calm down, he was sure. No, he was hoping she would, he wasn’t sure of anything. Considering his limited experience with women, he didn’t know anything for sure. But he sensed there was something to her – some kind of reserve and fear inside her that wasn’t related to him at all, and it made him angry, but curious and mostly angry. It pained him to see her scared of anything.
He hadn’t considered the ins and outs of actually kidnapping a woman. Stupidly he had thought his chosen woman would be grateful to him. God, he had been naïve!
Now, he was faced with the uphill struggle of convincing her that mating him was a good thing. How could he do that when she couldn’t stand looking at him?
*
Tomas wasn’t her stalker. He couldn’t be.
He was too young for one thing. He was only twenty-five – that worried her a little – he was five years younger. When her stalker first started tormenting her, he was only fifteen and according to Maria, definitely still in school and not running around Los Lobos making her life hell.
She spilled her guts to Maria who was horrified and sympathetic and emphatic that Tomas was nothing like this monster. It was a relief, though maybe she was just in another whole heap of trouble.
Maria suggested she might want to tell Tomas the truth about her stalker. Mary wasn’t sure about that. He was her kidnapper after all. Wasn’t someone going to come charging in to arrest him any minute? Well, no, because no one knew she was missing.
Who really would miss her? She knew their names but never made friends with the neighbors. Her only real friend was away on honeymoon. She only checked in with Detective Hotsler once a month, and he was on vacation. Her parents cut off all contact, and she didn’t have a job. Nope – no one would notice she was gone. Maybe even her stalker wouldn’t notice given that he hadn’t contacted her in months.
According to the jaguar leap laws, she only had to stay for a couple of weeks while Tomas tried to – gulp – woo her. Then if she weren’t interested, they would just let her go. Though Maria didn’t seem too worried about this as she told her.
She flicked Tomas a sideways glance. He sure was handsome, even with the pouty look on his face.
There was something that did not make much sense to her. According to Maria, the jaguars all went down to Los Lobos when they were of age, and chose their bride to kidnap her and bring her home.
So, if he had been trawling around Los Lobos looking for women, why on earth did Tomas choose her?
*
Tomas heaved the suitcase into Mary’s room. All the kidnapped females were staying in the guest house together for their time there, and then they would either move in with their males or… they would go home. Not something he wanted to think about at that moment.
He had packed rather a lot of clothes, not knowing what she wanted. But what really made it heavy were all the books he put in. She said she loved books, so he put a load in.
“I thought you would like this room,” he blurted.
Mary hesitated on the threshold.
Tomas gestured awkwardly at the window. “It gets a lot of light for reading.”
Mary blinked at him, half hidden behind huge glasses and a curtain of hair.
“Why?” she whispered.
Tomas tilted his head to one side. “Ah, well, I guess because of the position of the house.”
Mary shook her head. “Why me? Why bring me here?” She peered up at him expectantly.
His jaguar howled. “You’re my mate.” It was obvious to him, though apparently not obvious to her.
“How do you know?”
“My jaguar knows.”
“Just like that?” she whispered in disbelief.
Tomas nodded. Knew it the moment he saw her, the moment he scented her, and the moment she spoke to him. She called to him on every level. He wanted her in a way he never had any other woman he had ever met. He hoped he conveyed all that with a nod because he knew if he tried to put it into words, he would bungle it.
Mary chewed on her lip.
He wanted to say something to make this easier, to show her how important she was to him, to prove to her he would be a good mate.
“I ah, I’ll leave you to get unpacked. Bathroom’s next door.”
His jaguar snorted at him. That was the best he could manage.
She didn’t say anything.
“I ah, I’ll see you later?”
That was mildly better, but she didn’t say anything.
He nodded and walked away, every footstep dragged.
Nine
After rooting through her suitcase, Mary found the book she was reading. She tried to concentrate, tried to take her mind off what was happening to her – the same way she always did, but she just couldn’t concentrate. Books had always been a way to escape, to make her forget about her dismal life, but they just weren’t working.
That man thought she was his mate. He wanted her to stay here and live with him! How was she supposed to react to that?
She should be angry, shouldn’t she? Furious, even. Should be trying to look for a way to get home. But, she was here, surrounde
d by jaguar shifters, and nobody knew she was there.
Nobody at all. Including her stalker.
Maybe she could relax a little. Not lock her door, not hide away so much. She didn’t have to fear leaving her home even to run out and get milk. Perhaps she might spend some time learning to live again. True it was only for two weeks, but, goodness it was like a vacation.
Mary started looking through her clothes – a boring collection of garments in varying shades of brown and black. She certainly had enough here for two weeks.
Strange, given the way she came to be there, but couldn’t she just stay for the two weeks and enjoy herself?
Her heart clenched. What if the stalker found her? He always seemed to. On the few vacations she had tried to take over the years, he always managed to insinuate himself into them somehow. Always managing to ruin them. Sending her an e-mail. Sending dead flowers to her hotel room. There was nothing he could not ruin.
But really, how could he find her? Her phone was at home. She was abducted in the middle of the night. There was no logical way he could.
Unless, he was lurking outside her apartment at night and followed Tomas all the way here - she might have to talk to Tomas about that. But honestly, if they were practiced kidnappers, wouldn’t they ensure they weren’t followed by anyone?
She put her book down and rubbed her stomach. There was a strange feeling down there. Not hunger. Not the usual tense fear she felt. Perhaps it was a small bubble of hope.
*
Tomas waited as long as he could before he had to see Mary again. It turned out to be two hours. The other males warned him to stay away, to let her be and give her time but his jaguar wanted to see her.
He barreled up the stairs in the guest house and banged on Mary’s door. For someone who didn’t like talking or being around people, he sure was keen to see her.
Mary opened the door a couple of inches and shyly gazed up at him through a thick fringe of hair. She tried to hide her prettiness but he could see it.
They watched each other for a few moments.
“Do you need anything?” he asked reluctant to break the silence but aware that just staring at her was a little creepy.
