The door swung open, and Maji stuck his head out. He gave her a quick wave, and she waved back. Tyler quickly slipped inside, shutting the door behind him. She shifted back to leopard form and hurried over to the door, pressing her head against it. In leopard form her hearing was enhanced; she could hear Tyler saying something to Maji. It sounded something like, “So the sister was here on the island a year ago, with an Englishman. I’m pretty sure I know who that is. What else have you been able to find out?”
She cursed silently to herself. Bastard. So all that time he’d been acting like he wanted to get to know her better, he’d really been trying to get to her sister. Was there some kind of reward for catching Rhonwen? Probably. Or maybe it was just Brownie points for him, Mr. Law and Order. Hurt stabbed at her deeply. Why had she been stupid enough to think that he wanted to help her?
“Nothing else, I am afraid. The woman came here to the shantytown and spent time with Tana and her friends off and on for many weeks, apparently. Her English friend did not come here, so I am told. I was not living here then, so I don’t know what she did while she was here.”
She felt fury blazing inside her, both at him and at herself and her naiveté.
She backed slowly away from the door, desperately trying to think what she should do next. Should she run off without her purse and try to scrounge up some clothes and money somewhere on her own?
The door swung open, and Tyler walked out. He flashed her a wink and a grin, then shifted back into wolf form, massive and gray, with golden eyes gleaming at her.
Then, grabbing both bags in his mouth, he turned and ran off again.
Cursing under her breath, she shifted and followed him. She was tempted to tackle him and grab her bag and run off, but he’d be a fearsome opponent, and he might also make such a ruckus he’d bring the police down on their heads.
And if she ran off without the purse, she was screwed. She’d have no clothing, no money, no passport, no burglary tools, none of the chemical concoctions she’d cooked up…
They finally stopped in a thick grove, and he tilted his head back and sniffed the air. Then he shifted back into human form, and she followed suit.
“We lost them,” he said.
“Looks that way.” She couldn’t let on how angry she was, at least not until she got her purse back.
“So we’re just going to hide out in the jungle?” she said, looking around.
“Not quite.” He grabbed both bags. “Follow my lead.”
“Let me have my purse.”
“Sorry, we still have some trust issues we need to resolve first.”
“You think?” she said bitterly. He didn’t bother to answer, just hurried ahead. With a groan, she trotted after him.
“Where are we going, then?”
“You’ll see.” She didn’t like the gleam in his eye, but she stumbled along after him, legs aching with exhaustion. What choice did she have? He was heading in the only safe direction. Behind them were the soldiers, the shanty town and the city, which was crawling with cops.
He led her a short distance through the woods, and when they broke through the trees, she stopped dead. She turned to glare at Tyler, and was even more annoyed to see that he was laughing.
“You have got to be kidding me,” she said.
Chapter Eleven
“Nope. Dead serious. This is our best shot at ditching the cops right now. Why, what’s the problem?” He flashed a grin at her.
They had emerged from the woods to find themselves on the road leading to the Temple of the Fertility Goddess.
There was an enormous wooden statue on each side of the road, with an arch stretching from statue to statue. The statue on the left was GuRa, the fertility goddess, who had an enormous pregnant belly and was suckling a baby at each breast. The statue on the right was a naked couple having very enthusiastic sex; the female had her legs wrapped around the man’s waist and the man’s head was thrown back in ecstasy.
A fat, full moon hung in the sky overhead, and the night breeze caressed them, wafting the scent of flowers and burning incense.
Curled up at the feet of each statue were several female jaguars, panting in the heat, their pink tongues lolling. Guardians of the cult, most likely. There were bowls of incense burning by the feet of the statues, as well as big bowls of water for the jaguars to drink from.
“This is ridiculous,” Gwenneth protested, folding her arms across her chest. “This place is only for couples! And they all have sex with each other!”
“Sex? With each other? That’s disgusting.” Tyler’s eyes had that amused glint in them again.
“I mean, we’re not a couple, for heaven’s sake. There’s no reason for us to be here! You’re…you’re luring me into this sex cult so you can take advantage of me!” she sputtered. He probably figured that he could seduce the information out of her, she thought indignantly. And why wouldn’t he think that? He’d actually gotten her to start talking about her sister a little while ago. Nobody else had gotten her to talk about her past before.
“Hey, very recently you weren’t exactly objecting,” he said. “In fact you were reciprocating pretty enthusiastically.”
She raised her hand to smack him, and he grabbed her and pulled her up against him, arm circling her waist. His naked flesh pressed against hers, and she choked back a whimper. Even now, as hurt and furious as she was, she wanted him.
“We need to act like a loving couple so the priestesses let us in,” he murmured into her ear. “The soldiers won’t bother us here. We can lay low tonight and decide what to do in the morning.”
She glanced around. They weren’t alone on the road. A lion couple, in their animal forms, strolled towards the gateway. Further down the road, a bear couple, in human form, was walking hand in hand, with knapsacks on their backs, and behind them a cheetah couple was strolling.
“Everybody walks here?” she said.
“Yeah, no technology at all here. Come on, honey, let’s go make a baby,” he said loudly as the lion couple approached.
“Oh gosh, why stop at one?” she said through gritted teeth and a big, false smile as she followed him through the archway. The female jaguars didn’t object. They walked for another five minutes or so and came upon a round wooden structure made of elaborately carved latticework.
There were couples everywhere, some stripped naked and making love in the shade of trees, some relaxing lazily on benches.
A tall, beautiful older woman walked up to them. Jaguar shifter. She had coppery skin and wrinkles feathering out from the corners of her eyes, and her ebony hair was shot through with grey. She was barefoot and wore a bright-red toga-style tunic trimmed with gold.
“Head priestess,” Tyler whispered to her.
“Greetings,” she said, folding her hands together in a prayer motion and making a half bow. “I am the Priestess Belij.”
Tyler returned the bow, perfectly, and Gwenneth followed suit, not as perfectly.
“I see that you two are fated mates. That is beautiful. You will be blessed with many healthy children.” She flashed a white-toothed smile at them.
Hah. Some priestess, Gwenneth thought. The woman had to be wrong. Didn’t she?
“Yep. Knew it the minute I laid eyes on her.” Tyler’s hand tightened on hers and he smiled at her.
Gwenneth pasted a big, bright smile on her face and bobbed her head enthusiastically in agreement. “Yep. He sure did,” she said. She paused for a long moment, then added, “And me too, of course.”
“We have many, many visitors blessing us with their presence now, but we are fortunate to have a few more huts free,” Belij said.
The grounds did indeed seem quite crowded, Gwenneth noted.
A young woman walked up to them, barefoot, wearing a blue toga-style dress that bared one breast. Gwenneth saw that there were several similarly dressed women wandering outside the hut and attending to the couples. Bringing them jugs of water and baskets of fruit.
“T
his is Helper Ani. Our helpers are understudies to the priestesses,” Belij explained. “She will take you to your cabin. Breakfast is served here in the main temple, starting when the sun sets. May your night be fruitful!”
Ani inclined her head politely to them and led them down winding jungle paths, past bushes bursting with fragrant orange blooms. They could hear the sounds of lovemaking drifting through the air as they passed small, round huts. The shrieks and moans teased Gwenneth’s senses and sent shivers of desires through her. She still wanted Tyler. No matter how angry she was with him, it seemed that she was going to crave his body, yearn for his touch. She couldn’t wait to get the hell off this island and as far away from him as possible.
They finally came to a round hut with a thatched roof. Ani opened the door for them, revealing a bed with a hand-hewn wooden frame, a wooden table with a big ceramic jug of water and two glasses next to it, and nothing else. She glanced at the knapsack and purse that Tyler carried.
“No technology,” she reminded them, wagging a finger. “No phone, no computer. To ensure that you conceive the child that you so yearn for, you must get back to nature.” Then she bowed her head and said something in Khalijinese, and whirled off gracefully, leaving them alone.
As soon as she left, Gwenneth flung herself down on the bed. “Getting back to nature. Fricking hell,” she groaned. “I hate nature. I’m not a cavecat, for the love of god. I’d sell my soul for a laptop right now.”
“Tell me about it.” Tyler sat on the edge of the bed next to her. “I’ve never gone so long without technology. Screw all this green stuff. I want concrete.”
Gwenneth sat up again. “What would you give to have a remote control in your hand right now?” she asked eagerly. “I’d give up one kidney. I mean, I’ve got a spare, right?”
“Maybe a lung,” Tyler mused. “I’ve got two of those. And an internet connection? Don’t even get me started.”
“I know, right? Oh my god, I’d give up everything I own just to watch a TV show right now. Even a really bad TV show. Say, a New Kids on the Block reunion special.”
“Ouch. And to think I trusted you with my darkest secret.” Tyler clapped his hand to his chest in mock hurt.
“You know what I really miss? I—” Gwenneth stopped herself. He was doing it to her again. No, she was doing it to herself. She was about to confide in him, giggle like a schoolgirl, open her heart to him. And then she’d slip up and say something that revealed too much, and he’d use it against her to find her sister.
She turned away, her smile fading.
“What?” Tyler raised an eyebrow.
“Sorry, I temporarily forgot myself. No consorting with the enemy,” she said coolly.
“So now I’m the enemy again? I thought we were starting to kind of like each other.”
She scooted farther away from him on the bed and turned her back to him.
“I’m tired,” she said. “I’m going to sleep now.”
There was a long, heavy silence, then Tyler sighed.
“All right,” he said. “Sweet dreams and all that.”
She didn’t answer, just curled up, naked, with her back to him, closed her eyes, and desperately willed sleep to come.
Chapter Twelve
The cawing of birds woke Gwenneth, and she sat up with start. The bed was empty; she looked around and realized that Tyler was sleeping in the doorway, in wolf form.
Then he shifted back. “Male jaguars, which must mean cops, coming from the direction of the temple. Let’s shift and run for it. If we can get to the river a mile north, we can wade into the water and they won’t be able to scent us. Take to the trees if you need to.”
“No, I’m staying with you.” She could outclimb the jaguars any day of the week, but she’d be damned if she was leaving him behind. He’d saved her life twice already; she’d stay by his side and go down fighting if it came to that.
He growled at that, shaking his head even as he shifted. They slipped out of the tent and began running, with him still dragging his backpack in his mouth; she ran at his side.
It wasn’t long before she scented them and heard them. A couple of dozen of them. Her heart sank.
She stopped and whirled around as a group of them burst through the trees behind them, snarling. A second group rushed at them from the right.
Her heart pounded in her chest and her fur stood on end as she sank down low, growling. They paced around, eyes glowing in the moonlight. Tyler moved protectively in front of her, his lips peeling back in a snarl.
She knew they were outnumbered, and it was hopeless. It would end here, out in the jungle, and nobody would ever know their fate.
Suddenly Tyler paused and began sniffing at the air. She looked at him, puzzled, and the jaguars looked at each other and began sniffing too. Then they heard the sounds of big cats racing towards them, and the scent of female jaguar wafted their way.
The female jaguars rushed in to the clearing and quickly shifted into their human forms. One of them was Belij, tall, angry and imperious.
“Who dares trespass in the sacred jungle?” Her voice rang out so loudly that birds rose from the trees and flew away, cawing in protest.
The male jaguars shifted back to their human forms as well, and so did Tyler and Gwenneth. Gwenneth’s heart was in her throat. The women were outnumbered. Now she’d be responsible not just for Tyler’s death, but for the priestesses’ as well. How had things gotten so out of control?
“They’re just females. And there’s six of them,” one of the male jaguars sneered. Gwenneth realized with shock that it was Khaliji’s Chief of Police. She recognized him from his pictures; a handsome man with the coppery skin and broad cheekbones of the island’s native population, and an ice cold gleam in his eyes.
“Leave now before it’s too late.” Belij stalked towards him, and he reared up, attempting to intimidate her with a glower. She walked right up to him, standing between him and Tyler and Gwenneth. Tyler’s fists were balled and his eyes were blazing with fury.
“These are escaped murderers!” the police chief snarled at her. “They have come to you under false pretenses; they only want to hide from their crimes. I am taking them into custody.”
His men didn’t look quite as confident. They were glancing fearfully at each other.
“Nonsense. They are fated mates, here to create new life.” Belij’s tone was scornful.
“They are not fated mates.” He scowled at them and made as if to take a step forward. Tyler let out a snarl, and Belij blocked his path.
“I am never wrong. Do you question the High Priestess of GuRa?”
He made a spluttering noise of frustration. “Fine. Whether they are fated mates or not, we’re taking them into custody.”
His men all took a step back as the other priestesses joined Belij and stepped forward to form a protective wall in front of Tyler and Gwenneth.
“Sir, we cannot. She will curse us so that we will never be able to father children again,” one of the men said pleadingly.
“It is true.” Belij nodded, raking them all with a look of haughty contempt. “Your testicles will shrivel to the size of raisins. You will never again have an erection. You will never again make love.”
The men let out cries of dismay and backed away even farther.
The police chief stood his ground for a moment, but as she stalked forward, he took a hasty step back.
“Leave now, or your entire family will become barren,” she intoned grimly. “Your sons and their sons… No woman will look at you or your men with desire ever again. Your line will die out and become a distant memory.”
At that, the men broke out into shouts of panic, shifted, and turned and ran full speed into the jungle.
The police chief was as white as a ghost. He spat curses, his eyes shuttling frantically from Belij to the other priestesses.
“My brother will rain curses on your head!” he cried out, his voice an octave higher than it had been a minute a
go.
“The Witch Doctor? Pah. He can’t even protect the kingdom from misfortune,” Belij said scornfully. “He has no power here, and from what I hear, he has no power anywhere these days. GuRa is all.”
“You’ll be sorry!” Angara shouted, stumbling back another step, and then he shifted and ran.
Tyler put his arm around Gwenneth’s shoulders, and she realized that she’d been trembling violently.
“Belij, we should leave at once,” Gwenneth said faintly. “We can’t bring you into this. Those men…”
Belij shook her head, making a contemptuous gesture. “They are no danger to us, and we do not concern ourselves with the laws of man,” she said. “I only serve GuRa, and she tells me that there is still trouble between you two. You are fated mates, but something keeps you apart, which is displeasing to GuRa. Let us return to the temple.”
After they had shifted and run back to the temple, they joined Belij in one of the rooms there. They settled into wicker chairs and helpers came and served them cool water from ceramic cups, and they gulped thirstily as Belij watched them with a frown.
When they set down their cups, Belij leaned back and shook her head, studying them with her piercing gaze. “You still have not been with your mate,” Belij said pointedly to Tyler. “What is wrong? I can sense your desire for her, burning through you. And yet you do not claim her.”
Gwenneth flinched. How the hell does the priestess know that? And is it true that Tyler burns for me?
“Uhh…my last relationship ended badly,” Tyler said. “And I, ah, I have trust issues. With her specifically. I feel like there’s a lot she isn’t telling me.”
Gwenneth shot him a murderous glare.
“I also have trust issues,” she said coldly. “Because of my upbringing. However, I am not guilty of the things he thinks I am guilty of.”
Belij, surprisingly, brightened up immediately.
“That is easy to solve!” she said. She clapped her hands and an assistant hurried into the room.
Spotting His Leopard (Shifters, Inc.) Page 8