Jaguars' Reward [Impulse 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (18 page)

He led his feline shifters onto the merry-go-round. Zayd waited until the last of them was aboard and brought his clenched fists down hard on a large stone button in its center. The merry-go-round slowly started to go down like an elevator.

“What the fuck?” one of the closest wolves shouted. “They’re getting away. Do something!”

The wolves, temporarily stunned into immobility, moved forward to attack. Vadim extended his claws and waved to them, at the same time sending a pheromone to the two Impulse shifters concealed behind a stand of trees on the perimeter of the playground.

“Now!”

They lit a beacon and a spectacular ball of flame ignited around the edge of the playground. Vadim knew the wolves feared fire and heard their panicked screams as the merry-go-round finished its descent into the man-made passageways responsible for the rise in the ground. He sent a pheromone to Giron.

“Make sure they get away in their boats, but capture two of them. I need to know what they did to get past our mental barrier on the landside of Impulse.”

“I’m on it.”

Vadim then sent another pheromone, this time to Wilson.

“There’s just one way out for you,”
he said, referring to the escape route they’d left that led directly to the shore.
“This isn’t over. It’s still you and me. I’ll meet you on the beach. Same rules. We fight to the death. No one else interferes. Remember I could have let you all fry but chose not to. You decline the fight and I’ll make sure every shifter in the world knows you for the coward you are. Hasta la vista.”

“What is this place?” Talia asked, clutching Zayd’s hand as they dashed through the passages.

“That rise in the ground you noticed,” he replied. “Previous generations of Impulse shifters had the idea for subterranean passageways, just to give us the edge over our enemies. We’ve added to it over the years.”

“No wonder you didn’t seem afraid out there,” Talia said. “You might have told me. It seemed like impossible odds and I was scared out of my mind.”

“Aw, that’s so sweet.” Zayd gave her a smacking kiss.

“It was better you didn’t know,” Vadim said. “We weren’t sure how much control Wilson had over you.”

“None that I knew of,” she said without hesitation.

“Yeah, but that wasn’t entirely true, as it turned out.”

Talia said nothing and Zayd filled the ensuing silence.

“Unfortunately more rogues know we have this network now,” he pointed out.

“Couldn’t be helped,” Vadim said. “Anyway, it’s not the only surprise we have in store for shifters stupid enough to fight us on our own territory. I did try to point that out to Wilson, but he was too arrogant to listen, which I was kind of counting on.”

“We had a perishable pipe buried in a cement circle round the playground,” Zayd explained
.
“We made sure Giron had arranged to have it filled with liquid gas before we got there. Then it was just a case of—”

“Of getting onto the merry-go-round and sending out one of your mental signals to have it lit.”

“Pretty much,” Vadim agreed.

“You could have trapped all of Wilson’s people there, but you didn’t. Why?”

“We’re not murderers,” Vadim said. “The wolves won’t come back here in a hurry, which is all we care about.”

“But you’re still insisting on fighting Wilson.” Talia frowned. “Why?”

Vadim fixed Talia with a speaking look.

“Oh no, not because of me! I won’t allow it.” She shook her head. “What he said about me. It wasn’t true. I
do
remember my own grandmother, for goodness’ sake.”

“I wasn’t going to dignify his comments by asking you,” Vadim said, scowling. “He’s messing with your head, and threw me a curveball to try and knock me off-balance at the same time.”

“Part of me really wanted to go to him back there,” Talia said, sporting a scowl to rival Vadim’s. “And I hate him. I hate him even more for trying to manipulate me. Why is he so keen to have me?”

“That’s what we’d like to know,” Zayd said.

“It’s also why I need to fight him. He won’t give up on you.”

“Oh men!” She swirled in a circle and blew air through her lips. “Fighting’s all you ever think about. But I refuse for you to lose Impulse just because of me.”

“This isn’t for Impulse now. They lost that option when we literally smoked them out.” Vadim ground his jaw. “This is personal.”

“You’re not strong enough to fight him,” Talia insisted. “It was bad enough when you had a good reason to do it. Now it’s just plain lunacy.”

“He has to do it,” Zayd said softly, pushing open a trapdoor that led them directly into the bar at the Cat’s Whiskers.

“No he doesn’t, and I’m asking you not to, Vadim.” She laid a hand on his arm. “If you think anything of me at all, please don’t do it.”

“I can’t back down now, babe. I’ve issued the challenge.”

“Then get yourself killed. See if I care.” She took in her surroundings and stubbornly changed the subject. “Now I’m starting to see why this place is so important. It seems to be the hub of everything that happens in this town.”

“It is, pretty much,” Vadim agreed. “And we’re not ready to give it up yet.”

“Too right.” They turned to see Rafe and the other alphas standing in the doorway. “How did it go?”

Vadim explained. “I’ve asked Giron to keep a couple of them back. We really need to figure out how they got those shifters past our safeguards.”

“Good plan.”

“And Vadim’s still insisting on fighting Wilson,” Talia said, looking to Rafe for support.

Rafe shrugged. “I guess it’s something he has to do.”

“I’m sure it is,” she said sweetly. “If you’re pigheaded and have a death wish.”

“I’ll let the women out,” Vilas said, chuckling. “I guess it’s safe enough for them now.”

“No, leave them,” Rafe said. “At least until Vadim’s fought Wilson.”

“Talking of which,” Vadim said. “It’s time.”

“I’m coming with you,” Talia said.

“He’ll try and mess with your mind again,” Zayd warned her.

“There’ll be enough of us there to block him,” Rafe said. “But it’s your call, Vadim.”

“Let her come,” he said, running a finger gently down the curve of her face.

Talia didn’t know whether to kiss him or land him on his ass with one well-aimed kick. The touch of his fingers, the searing expression in his gaze as he fixed it on her face, decided her. There was no point in making matters worse for him. He was going to do this, whatever she said to try and convince him otherwise, and there was nothing more to be said.

She reached up and kissed his cheek. “Good luck, you idiot,” she said softly.

“With you there, I’ll have all the luck I need.”

“How do you feel?” she heard Zayd ask him as a whole posse of male shifters, Talia in their center, headed for the beach.

“Actually, fit and ready. I can do this.”

Zayd slapped his shoulder. “I know you can, buddy. I know you can.”

They reached the beach to find Wilson there with just three wolf shifters at his back. One boat remained anchored offshore. Giron had obviously made sure that all the others hightailed it out of there. A full moon had broken through the cloud cover, bathing the beach with its light. Wilson stepped forward when he saw Vadim approaching.

“That was a neat trick you played on us back there,” he said.

“So much for never underestimating your enemy,” Vadim replied. “You should have waited for me to come to Venice, then you’d have had a chance.”

Wilson curled his upper lip. “I might have lost Impulse, at least for now, but I can still win what’s really important.” He nodded at Talia. “Get ready to come home with me, darlin’.”

Rafe placed a hand on her shoulder. Zayd took her hand. Between the two of them, the compulsion she felt to respond positively to Wilson diminished.

“We’re wasting time,” Vadim said curtly.

The two men shed their clothes in seconds. Talia widened her eyes as whiskers appeared on Vadim’s face and dark fur grew over his entire body. With a cracking and popping of bones, both men morphed into wild animals. Wilson, a gray wolf, threw back his head and howled, revealing vicious-looking fangs that made Talia weak with fear for Vadim. Even so, she couldn’t help but admire Vadim as his jaguar self emerged.

“He really is magnificent,” she said, awed.

“Yeah, but probably better not to let on to him that you think so,” Zayd said, his light tone not entirely covering the anxiety he obviously felt. “He’ll be impossible if you do.”

“Oh, I shall have a few choice words for him when this is over, but they most certainly won’t be complimentary.”

“Welcome to the wacky world of shifters, darlin’.”

Lithe and graceful, Vadim’s black pelt shone in the moonlight, the lighter shade of his spots clearly visible as he stealthily stalked round Wilson, presumably looking for the right moment to strike.

“Wolves prefer to attack from behind,” Zayd told her. “Vadim has to literally protect his flanks for that reason. But he also knows that Wilson might go for the jugular at any time. Don’t worry,” he added, presumably in response to Talia’s stricken expression. “In the wild we jaguars are top of the food chain and not preyed upon, mainly because we’re so fast and strong.”

“But Vadim isn’t strong,” she said anxiously. “That’s what worries me.”

Wilson struck out with vicious claws, catching Vadim on his shoulder. Vadim let out a soft roar and looked to Talia as though he was smiling. There was no question that all the men surrounding her were.

“What’s so funny?” she asked indignantly. “Poor Vadim’s bleeding.”

“It’s only a scratch,” Zayd said, not appearing especially concerned. “And what’s funny is that Vadim just told Wilson that he fought like a girl.”

“I didn’t hear anyone say anything,” she replied, feeling left out and generally miffed.

Wilson moved in again, but not fast enough. All four of Vadim’s huge paws left the sand and he landed on the trunk of a palm tree, just out of Wilson’s frustrated reach. His foe howled with frustration, but Talia barely noticed.

“He’s so agile,” she said admiringly.

“One of the advantages of being a cat. He can jump, and he can climb. Wilson can jump, too, but he can’t climb trees.”

Wilson prowled the area below the tree, presumably supposing that Vadim would have to come down eventually. What he probably didn’t imagine was that Vadim would choose to land directly on the wolf’s back.

“That’s it!” Zayd punched the air, claws extended. Talia was getting used to the sight of them and barely turned a hair. “Jaguars have the strongest bite of all the big cats,” he explained.

But before Vadim could use that bite Wilson rolled in the sand, trapping Vadim beneath him.

“Shit!” said several of the cat shifters together.

* * * *

Fuck it, Vadim hadn’t expected that move. His belly was now exposed and, with half his limbs squashed beneath Wilson’s body, there was nothing Vadim could do to protect his most vulnerable places. The only upside of the situation was that Wilson couldn’t move in for the kill without releasing Vadim’s limbs. Vadim figured he’d have to give it a shot and was ready for him. The moment the weight eased from his left side, Vadim twisted his body over, ignoring the pain that shot through his injured shoulder as Wilson’s teeth closed round the scruff of his neck.

Wilson had left his quarters exposed, aware that Vadim couldn’t close his teeth on them from the angle he was in. In his haste, though, Wilson had forgotten one important factor. His thick tail was right in line with Vadim’s teeth. Vadim locked them around its base and tugged hard. Wilson howled and tried to move away. But by then Vadim was back on his feet, pulling the struggling wolf backward.

“I’ll let you live if you tell me why Talia’s so important to you,”
he pheromoned.

Wilson snarled.
“Didn’t you get the memo? All that tripe about part-shifters not being able to restore full-shifters’ powers is old news.”

“You’ll have to do better than that.”

Wilson was weakening. So he should be. Vadim had almost separated his tail from his body.
“Why would I be so desperate to have her, if it wasn’t true? She’s attractive, but not that attractive, and she’s fucking disobedient. I had a hell of a job playing with her head.”

“Where’s your proof for all this?”

“Fuck it, ease up on my tail and I’ll tell you.”

Vadim released the pressure, just fractionally.
“Talk fast,”
he pheromoned.

“An alpha bear up Tallahassee way accidently mated with a human with one-quarter shifter blood. He’s now invincible. Everyone’s been pheromoning about it and targeting quarter-shifters ever since. They’re few and far between and she’s the only one I’ve been able to find.”
Wilson managed to sneer at Vadim, even though he was losing the fight.
“Bet you wish you’d relaxed your iron control and mated with her now, don’t you?”