Savage Hunger (8 page)

Had she caused Kat to be so sick? Maya had been beside herself with worry. And so had her brother. Connor had only left to catch fish for them or take down a tapir, or one time a caiman, and then she had prepared their meals. Otherwise, he had stayed by Kat’s side, trying to cool her down and keep her hydrated. He had barely let Maya take care of her.

Maya studied Kat’s bullet wounds, tracing the scarred tissue. She wondered if the jaguar healing genetics would heal the tissue, making it like new again, when she was able to turn Kat. Did the injuries ever trouble Kat? Maya hoped she could cure her of anything that might cause her difficulty. When Kat was better, Maya intended to ask her subtly about her injuries and what had happened when Connor had taken care of her.

Connor had tired of questioning Kat about her family, so Maya took up where he had left off. Maya’s questions were more important, though. “Where’s your family? Do you have a husband? Boyfriend? Fiancé?”

Kat shook her head no, moaned as if moving her head like that made it hurt, and then closed her eyes. Was that a no? No what? No husband, boyfriend, fiancé, or family?

Maya had been in such a panic to try and turn Kat quickly before Connor caught her that she hadn’t thought of the repercussions. Kat would have to dump a husband, boyfriend, or fiancé if she had any of those.

Maya drew nearer to the bed shrouded in mesh netting, poked her hand inside, and then held Kat’s hot hand. She stroked Kat’s hand with her thumb. “I always wanted a sister,” Maya said quietly.

Kat’s eyes opened, and despite their bleariness, Maya swore that Kat seemed to focus more on her eyes this time.

“Kat,” Maya quickly said, still in the same hushed voice, “do you have family?”

Kat shook her head, almost imperceptibly. Maya’s heartbeat and breathing increased rapidly. She wanted to shout for joy. Kat was an orphan, and she would be Connor’s mate.

And Maya’s family, too. She couldn’t wait for Connor and Kat to have cubs. To cuddle a couple of rambunctious, curious cubs in her arms. Maybe as many as four. She would help Kat raise them—just like a good aunt would. Not that Kat would birth a litter of jaguar cubs. She would probably birth them as a human, like their mother did them. Then they would shift when they were little whenever their mother did.

Her mother had later explained to Maya—as kind of a birds-and-the-bees lecture—that the shifter chose which form she would take to have her offspring. And the cubs would change with the mother’s shifting until they were older and understood the risk of shifting whenever humans were around.

Yes! This was just too good to be true. Then Kat could help Maya find a mate since Connor hadn’t been looking all that hard.

“Kat, you don’t have a brother, do you?”

Kat closed her eyes.

No brother.
No
family
. Of course, no brother.

“No boyfriend, right?”

But Kat appeared to be sleeping now. Maya looked around, listening for any sound that her brother was nearby, and heard nothing but jungle noises—the birds and bugs and monkeys. She got up from her chair and walked over to each of the windows, looking for any sign of Connor.
None
. She and Kat were perfectly alone.

She returned to the bed, and for the first time since she had scratched Kat, Maya pulled aside the bedcover and moved Kat’s leg to see if it was still scratched or if the scratches had faded away like a shifter’s would.

They were angry and red and looked infected. Maya sucked in a breath, held back tears, and wanted to sob out loud. She had only wanted a sister, a mate for Connor. Because of the jungle conditions, she might have infected Kat, giving her a slow and painful death instead.

***

Lightning flashed in the heavens above and thunder rumbled all around them as the afternoon rain steadily tapped on the thatched roof of the hut and the broad leaves of the surrounding trees. The rainwater funneled ever downward toward the jungle floor beneath the hut, which was situated high above the ground on stilts. Connor sat beside a sleeping Kat, running a wet cloth over her bare arm while his other hand held hers in reassurance. Though he wasn’t sure if he was trying to reassure her… or himself.

The next day, she was still hot, still tossing and turning, still half out of her head.

How horrible Maya had to have felt when he’d been sick. At the time, he hadn’t comprehended why she’d alternately been so upset and angry with him. But now seeing Kat so ill, he felt the same fear surging through his blood. Though their shifter genes helped to heal them, some wounds could be fatal for him and Maya, and some illnesses difficult to overcome. But Kat was only human.

He breathed in the dampness mixed with the faint fragrance of gardenias from the wet cloth, a mixture Maya had made from wildflowers and hand sanitizer, as he slid the cool, moist cloth over Kat’s shoulders and collarbone and throat.

Kat opened her eyes and stared past him as she had done several times already. Once again, his heart tripped just to see her eyes open. He sat forward on the chair, praying she was finally coming out of the fog.

He leaned in and whispered, “Kat,” in a husky, dark voice, not wanting to wake Maya, who was sleeping on the porch.

More than anything, he wanted to hear Kat respond, to say something intelligible again. He watched for any change in her expression, any sign that she recognized him. Her hand reached up unsteadily as if to touch his face, and he leaned forward even more, not sure what she intended to do. Whatever it was, he wanted to make it easier for her.

She ran her hand over his hair with a featherlight caress. His body tightened with an uncontrollable need that he instantly resented. He wasn’t about to give in to his feral craving to taste her, possess her, have her for his own—if the only reason was to satisfy the part of his nature that was a born conqueror.

She licked her lips, moistening them, her glassy eyes fixed on his mouth.

“Kat?”

She tried to say something, and he grew even closer, bringing his ear nearer to her mouth so he could hear her words. Her lips, soft from his washing, and her cheek and then her silky skin touched his ear. He quickly lifted his head and stared at her. Her gaze met his briefly before it settled on his mouth again.

“Kat, can you understand me?”

She slipped her hand down to his cheek and tried to lift her head but was unable.

“What are you trying to do?” he asked.

She murmured something that he couldn’t make out. He leaned down to hear her, and again he felt the soft press of her lips against his ear. She couldn’t have meant to kiss him. He had just gotten too close to her. Or she was just delirious. Her hand gripped his hair but not hard, not considering how weak she was. She couldn’t want him to kiss her. He wished he could give Kat a kiss and take away her sickness.

He ground his teeth. He was already too attached to her, had been ever since he’d first found her in the jungle that fateful day.

She closed her eyes, either too tired to keep them open or in resignation.

He touched her forehead with the fingertips of his free hand, thought her fever was breaking, and closed his own eyes, silently giving thanks.

And then he did what he knew he shouldn’t. He brushed her lips with the barest of kisses. Her fingers tightened on his in response, as if signifying that he’d done what she’d needed him to do most of all. But then she let go and was again lost to him.

In some dark part of his predator’s soul, he felt torn. The tentative bond they’d shared was swept away as the rain fell in a steady torrent. All he could do was watch her and hope she would wake again soon and rejoin their world. But to what? He would have to return her to the one that he and Maya truly weren’t part of.

Then he’d lose her—for good.

Chapter 6

Kat was still pale and alternating between chills and sweating for another day. The incessant drums were beating night and day, never letting up. Maya imagined that the hunter-gatherers, led by their shaman in the jungle, were offering healing powers to make Kat well. At least that’s what Maya envisioned, hoping some of the shaman’s magic would suffuse the rain forest and aid with Kat’s recovery.

Connor was driving her nuts as he either paced or hovered over Kat. This morning, he had seemed different somehow, as if something had passed between him and Kat the day before, but he wouldn’t tell her what had happened.

He had barely spoken to Maya, and she was glad that he had never moved Kat around so he could see the backs of her legs. Whenever he took off into the jungle to hunt for their meals, Maya applied more ointment to the angry-looking scratch marks on the back of Kat’s leg.

Maya hadn’t had a chance yet to check on the scratches today. She had been busy building a fire in their cookstove, then washing Kat’s shirt and bra and panties in the rain, and finally drying them over the stove. She had to smile at Kat’s choice of undergarments—leopard print. Jaguar was better, of course, but leopard was similar and acceptable.

She scooped the dry clothes up and was getting ready to take them to Connor’s bed to help Kat into them when she heard Kat whisper, “Maya?”

Startled, Maya dropped the shirt, bra, and panties on a chair and rushed over to Kat. “What’s wrong, Kat?”

“I’m ready to rejoin the living.” Kat was clutching the bedcover to her naked body, her skin glistening with perspiration, her green eyes clear for the first time since she’d gotten sick.

With joy and relief, Maya smiled at the woman whose face appeared tired and gaunt, her eyes huge, her hair damp and stringy. “I have a spare toothbrush and mint-flavored toothpaste that you can use to brush your teeth. And as soon as you’re well enough, we’ll take you to the falls, and you can wash.”

Kat’s eyes widened a little, and then she gave a small smile. “I’d like that. But I do have my own toothbrush and paste.”

“The falls,” Connor said darkly, stalking into the hut carrying a string of fish. He eyed Kat warily, then appeared to relax marginally. “Are you feeling better?”

“I think my knee is all healed up.”

Maya caught her brother’s concerned look. The knee hadn’t been the problem. The high fevers and the wound on the back of her leg had been the major concerns, although Connor had never managed to see the scratches, thank God. Or if he had, he’d never let on.

“She’s doing much better, Connor. If she can manage to make it to the falls in a day or so, I’ll take her.”

“She’s too weak,” he said, expressing what Maya knew would be the case.

“Then you can carry her.” Maya smiled brightly.

She knew that Kat would feel better if she could just have a clean shower. Maybe she could even swim in the river with the pink dolphins one day. Maya was dying to show Kat everything wondrous about the jungle.

He grunted, then handed the fish to Maya. “Here, make yourself useful.”

That was his not-so-subtle cue for Maya to butt out.

She smiled again and tossed him Kat’s shirt, bra, and panties. “Sure, if you’ll make
yourself
useful.”

Then movement in the jungle alerted them of possible trouble—
men
. Monkeys howled and were noisy; the birds squawked and sang and chirped, too. But the monkeys and birds lived among the trees, one with nature and its environment. Men slashed and hacked and destroyed wherever they went.

Worried, Maya looked to Connor.

“Stay,” he warned. Then he pulled a high-powered rifle out from under his bed and crossed the fallen tree that they used as a natural bridge to their lookout post.

Kat tried to get dressed, but she was weak from not having taken much more than sips of whatever soup Maya had managed to prepare for her.

“Here, I’ll help you,” Maya said in a hushed voice, joining Kat and helping her fasten her bra.

“Who are they?”

“Maybe natives, who usually are no problem. They’ll be hunting, that’s all. But maybe not.” Actually, probably not. Maya noticed that the drums had ceased to beat. And the hunter-gatherers were usually like the jaguars, moving about just as quietly and elusively. “Sometimes the cartels use the locals to transport drugs through the Amazon jungle.”

To get her mind off the men and wanting desperately to learn if Kat was experiencing any shifting urges or changes in her hearing, smelling, or sight at night, Maya asked, “Do you feel all right? Feel any…
differently
?”

“I just feel incredibly tired and weak. I’m sure it’s because I haven’t eaten enough.”

“Yes, you’ll also need to get some exercise when you’re feeling stronger. But you don’t feel any…
differently
otherwise?” Maya had to be careful she didn’t overtly say anything she shouldn’t, but she was dying to know if she had turned Kat.

Kat shook her head. “My knee feels nearly back to normal. The bruise is fading but doesn’t hurt, and the stiffness in the joint is gone.”

Maya sighed and buttoned Kat’s shirt. She was glad Kat’s knee wasn’t hurting, but that wasn’t the issue. “I like your leopard panties and bra.”