by CatNip (lit)
Leo listened to Craig explaining to Lynx some of the gossip and news since she’d gone missing. He studied his old friend and his newly-mated lover as they talked. More than just words, Craig and Lynx communicated at a deeper level his senses told him. Leo knew exactly where this kind of intimacy could go.
Leo just wasn’t exactly sure where he wanted it to all go. Memories of the erotic week prior to Kelly’s death inevitably resurrected. In just a few short hours, fate had tangled his life to Craig and Kelly’s irrevocably. The memories gave Leo some pause.
Now that he had found Lynx, Leo knew he could never let her go. Did Craig feel the same way about Lynx? The biggest question Leo knew he had to ask himself was whether that love was big enough for the three of them. Last time it had been Craig who had opened the door for him and Kelly. Could he do the same this time? Would he be able to unselfishly share Lynx’s love?
Lynx’s laughter startled him.
“So, Captain Slater actually threatened to team you up with Jorgenson? Wow, he sure knows how to threaten you, doesn’t he?”
“Yeah, he sure does,” Craig admitted. Craig’s grin was rueful. “Jorgenson, as you both know, can be about as much fun as a prostate exam.”
Leo chuckled knowingly. He and Craig had worked with Jorgenson in the early years, and the man was completely humorless. Jorgenson did everything exactly by the book. If anyone so much as sneezed in the wrong direction, he took it as a personal affront. Needless to say, Jorgenson had never been that popular, really, even though he was as skillful a soldier and agent as any of the rest of them. Still, the man’s social skills were nearly nil.
“Evidently, Slater’s serious about us keeping a closer eye on you, Lynx,” Craig said, his gaze wandering to Leo’s. “If anything should happen to you, I don’t think he’d hesitate to put me with Jorgenson’s team, but only after he skinned me alive first. Lynx, evidently even as much of a hard-ass as Slater can be, he considers you a valued member of the COBRA team. Plus, he knows Daniel would never be the same if something should happen to you.” Craig smiled.
Leo could certainly understand the sentiment. He doubted he could do without Lynx now that he’d found her. He also admired her brother Daniel a great deal. Daniel was an invaluable member of COBRA. Even the Captain respected Daniel’s brawn and prowess with weaponry. Leo had seen Lynx’s brother in action before. He was a fiercely ferocious fighter when necessary. But provoke his protective instincts, and watch out. COBRA was indeed lucky to have him.
As Leo listened quietly, his stomach clenched with the tug of protectiveness. Part of him wanted to roar, to hide Lynx from the world. Yet, seeing the look on her face at the talk of her COBRA teammates, her second family, he knew the team was important to her. Maybe COBRA was as important to her as it had been to him.
In the fevered search for others of his kind, for his destined mate, Leo never imagined his search would lead him back full circle to COBRA.
Hell, Leo had intended to return after the Miami sting.
Then, his vacation had coincided with the unexpected event of his own shift. Then, when Roberto and Felice discovered him and saved his life, he’d gone in search of his mate and other members of his pride.
Now, Leo could see his search had meant so much more. He had come full circle, and he just knew. This was fated. It was meant to be. But then, destiny had been one tricky bitch, hadn’t she?
Craig and Lynx looked up as he stood abruptly. His mind was churning. Still, Leo kept his expression neutral. “Hey, I know you two have a lot of catching up to do. I think I’ll go take a run, then make sure things are locked down at the ranch.”
Leo headed back to his room. He quickly changed into his loose-fitting running clothes and some more appropriate shoes. He didn’t want to arouse Craig and Lynx’s curiosity just yet. He didn’t ordinarily need clothes for his runs. Clothes were more of an encumbrance.
However, Lynx was still largely in the dark over her true bloodline or what it would eventually mean for her. He didn’t want to overwhelm her by saying too much too soon. But, Lynx’s innate telepathic gifts were strong, he could already tell. However, controlling her gift, he knew, would be a different matter.
Telepathy was only one of the ways Lynx exhibited a shifter’s bloodline. Leo had observed her scenting the air a few times already. Only time would tell how Lynx would develop, or what other gifts she might have. He could barely wait for Lynx to experience her first shift, for her to join him.
Leo stepped out onto the far edge of the ranch’s lushly vegetated grounds, moving silently into the copse of trees that bordered the yards. He quickly entered the near-darkness beyond. The forest was densely populated by huge oaks and scrub palms, and in places, shafts of the dying sunlight faded through. Farther out, the swampy ground encroached. This was where gators, snakes, and numerous varieties of wildlife visited, such as turtles in every size and birds of every description.
The average hiker could certainly find the forest interesting, but Leo knew just how dangerous it could really be. Leo paused by the stump of a long dead tree and casually shed his clothes, right down to his comfortable running shoes. Carefully, he placed the pile of clothes on top of the old familiar tree stump and began to run.
Chapter 8
The change was a blur, almost instantaneous. In mid-form a man, then, abruptly, fluidly, a massive golden, amber-and-black maned lion streaked across the forest’s floor. Leo’s powerful form ate the ground in strides that seemed to erase the distance. Birds fluttered and skittered out of the tree tops and surrounding brush, sending out warning calls to others of their kind. Many times before, the warning had come too late.
Leo was not hunting tonight. No, the lions of the ranch’s pride were careful hunters. They reserved true hunts for more remote locations away from home, sometimes even traveling across state or out of country to satisfactorily hunt. It was taking too much of a chance to do anything more than a cursory invasion of the forest and swampy areas surrounding his ranch. The land was protected by the government for environmental reasons, and there was no use attracting undue suspicion. That was the last thing Leo or the other pride members needed.
Leo’s intimidating presence agitated the already wary wildlife as he streaked through the forest. Animals skittered away in fright as he passed by. But this night they needn’t have worried. Tonight, the king of beasts was distracted. Leo finally slowed to an easy lope, silent as ever on the irregularly carpeted floor of the forest.
Leo lifted his large amber nose to the air, scenting. The smell of the forest could be exquisitely earthy to him in his man form. In lion form, the scents were even more tantalizing and beautiful. Hyper-aware in the growing darkness of the woods, Leo caught a new scent on the breeze-smoke. It taunted his nostrils as it lazily drifted by.
But smoke meant one thing, and that was fire. And fire could mean danger. Leo realized he had to find out where the smoke originated. He needed to determine the threat to the surrounding area, and quickly. The Florida summer had been an unusually dry one. Fires had been known to decimate entire forests, along with everything in them. Time was of the essence. Leo wasn’t wasting it.
“Roberto, Felice, I need your help. I smell smoke in the woods.” Leo’s urgent telepathic message to Roberto and Felice was almost immediately answered by Roberto, “We’ll be right there.”
Less than five minutes later, Leo was met by Roberto with his lioness mate, Felice, flanking his side.
“We should split up, it would be quicker,” Leo noted silently. Roberto and Felice took off towards the north, while Leo veered in the westerly direction. Somewhere, in the dark interior of the forest, the fire had an origin. The scent of smoke was still faint. However, even a small campfire left unattended by a careless camper could be catastrophic if left unchecked.
Leo silently transmitted to Roberto, “Roberto, we have a lesser situation here, but possibly a problematic one. I’m going to need you to keep an eye on things for me until I’ve lo
cated ole man Mort. We’ve got some idiots camping here illegally who’ve obviously not heard of the no-burn statute in effect. Roberto, could you and Felice head on over here to keep an eye on things? I’ll return to the ranch and make the call.”
Mort Green, their favorite environmental warden, was just going to love this.
He bit back a growl. Mort wouldn’t be any happier to hear about this little outfit here.
“But I wonder, though, how much these guys are going to love dear old Mort? The old codger gets a mite cantankerous when people act carelessly in his neck of the woods.” He could just imagine Mort’s reaction.
“Coming, Leo,” Roberto replied.
Leo’s amber eyes never left the campsite as he waited out of sight for Roberto and Felice to circle back around to him. The campers seemed to be blithely breaking state laws. They needed to be reprimanded before real harm occurred. But, the sight of a large lion, or heaven forbid several, would only create panic. It could also invite an unwanted investigation if rumors of lions loose in the forest got out.
Leo watched and waited for Roberto and Felice to return. He needed to go get his clothes and shift back before Mort showed up. Mort would read the campers the environmental riot act. Hell, the poor campers would be lucky if they didn’t spend the night in the can, knowing Mort like he did.
Roberto and Felice emerged silently beside him.
“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Leo didn’t elaborate. He turned and silently disappeared back into the woods behind them. Leo shifted back to his human form easily.
Felice went to recover her clothing as Roberto faded back into the brush. Now, they would wait for Mort and keep a wary eye on the campfire and the yokels drinking and laughing around it.
Apart from the crackling of the fire and the bawdy jokes the young men laughed and hooted over, the forest had become unusually still for the time of evening it was. No hoot owls hooted. The birds had become silent. The eerie, machine-like drone of distant gators was absent. Even the crickets had stopped chirping. It was as if the forest held its breath.
Felice returned. Leo motioned to her in warning. Felice nodded, her eyes still glowing cat-like in the darkness.
It was then the scent hit Leo. A minute later, a lone figure came out on the other side of the small glen where the campers had set up. A familiar feral odor curled and wafted around Leo’s nose. He recognized it, but from where?
It hit Leo as suddenly as the stench had. The smoke had masked a danger far more malevolent than fire. Fires could be put out. Rogues, on the other hand, usually needed burying.
There in the small clearing stood the youngest son of COBRA’s old enemy Magellan Cervantes. Leo recognized Adonis’s odd face from one of the few photos he’d seen of Cervantes’s mysterious younger son. Strangely enough, there had been few substantial reports on Adonis. Adonis usually escaped the publicity that seemed to dog the rest of the Cervantes family. The publicity hounds had loved to focus on the wealthy drug lord or his oldest playboy son, Donatello. Adonis must have been very careful managing to nearly avoid the press altogether. There had only been two small news-clippings in the entire file COBRA kept on the Cervantes. Leo remembered them vividly now.
He would never have known Cervantes had another son if not for those two pictures. He’d seen those towards the tail-end of COBRA’s investigation and infiltration of the notoriously powerful crime family. COBRA had eventually taken the Cervantes patriarch down for good. But all the years and past investigations had yielded little information on Adonis.
Now, Adonis, the man, the shifter, was standing within striking distance of Leo.
Adonis had a unique look Leo was unlikely to forget. Hell, who could forget it? Adonis’s face was distinctively angular in its bone structure. His hair was just as uncommon with its shades of cinnamon tinged by rust. No wonder Adonis avoided publicity. The press would’ve eaten him up and spit out mostly large bones and fiery colored hair.
Leo could understand now why the Cervantes cartel had been so difficult to disband entirely. Even the Rangers or their COBRA team of elite ops would be hard pressed to eliminate a cartel seeded with secret weapons like Adonis. Oh, yes, Adonis had powers. Leo might not have recognized Adonis for the shifter he was before, but now he did instinctively.
He needed some serious time to consider their alternatives. “Reconnoiter back at the house to determine the best course of action here, and we need to do it quickly.” Leo mentally sent the order to Roberto as he and Felice faded back, silent as ghosts into the woods.
As far as Leo knew, his pride might outnumber Adonis and the group gathered around the fire. But according to the unique scent that had wafted Leo’s way, Leo knew Adonis’s bloodline was far older than most. It was as ancient a line as that of Lynx’s parents. The few like Adonis were usually feared, even among the most powerful of shifters.
His lion recognized the scent. It was as instinctive as the way he reacted. Leo’s muzzle curled into an instant snarl, exposing deadly teeth. Lions and tigers usually maintained a wary respect of one another, even when friends. Leo and Adonis were anything but friends. Leo’s muscles tensed in anticipation for an attack he knew would not be wise, yet. Hell, the rumors he’d heard were true. Some saber-tooth tigers were still alive and well.
When Adonis changed form, he would become the savage beast. His kind was among the fiercest of the big cats. So, the great and bony beast was in his forest, his territory. Leo fought to restrain the roar that vibrated in his throat.
He knew there would likely be more of them soon. Saber-tooth tigers were notoriously known as pack hunters. Their survival was integral to being part of a pack. No pride, just a pack. Leo tossed his head.
Leo scanned the forest as they headed back. He needed to know. Why was one of the few surviving saber-tooths and the last surviving Cervantes encroaching so close to his territory? What should he do about it? He needed time to digest the ramifications and come up with a workable plan.
He didn’t know Adonis’s real motive for even being here. But he had his suspicions. Leo found it difficult to believe Adonis’s reasons for being there were innocent. So, the son of the drug lord that COBRA had destroyed only a few years earlier had just waltzed into his woods accidentally? Right. Even if saber-tooths didn’t already smell funny, something sure did.
~RogueCat ~
Meanwhile, amid the shadows that danced around the dying campfire by the outskirts of the small encampment deep in the woods, two feral eyes gleamed menacingly. Nostrils flared, searching the night as new scents assaulted the keen senses of the rogue shifter.
The smoke drifted slowly away. A stench pervaded in its place. Adonis let a low growl escape. Adonis easily recognized Roberto’s scent as one from the site of the botched abduction. There was no missing the other dominant male’s unique odor either.
Adonis licked his lips. The third fragrance, the slightly pungent scent of a female nearing heat was quite arousing. Oh, yes, he was on the right track. Nothing would stop him now, not even the alleged king of the beasts.
Chapter 9
Back at the ranch, Leo reconnoitered with Roberto and Felice. They followed him to the large barn located at the northern end of the orchard behind the sprawling ranch house. Once there, he explained to Roberto and Felice who Adonis was and how COBRA had crippled the Cervantes’ cartel.
“That sounds troubling,” Roberto agreed. “Got any idea why Adonis is here now?”
Leo could only think of two possibilities. “Revenge could be an obvious motive. However, given that Adonis is Imatu like us, he could be searching for others.”
“Like us,” Roberto finished for him. Roberto looked over at Felice, concern reflected in his eyes.
“Yes,” Leo admitted. “It could be that, too. Of the two clippings I remember seeing on Adonis, one was a society page with a picture of Adonis Cervantes with his pregnant wife. Her name was Drea. The other clipping was an obituary for Drea and their unborn son. They were both in
advertently killed in the sting operation COBRA executed. Nobody realized Drea was even in the building until after it blew. Drea was shot by an over-eager young agent as she tried to escape from the fire.”
“Wow,” Roberto breathed out, “that’s not good. If Adonis is looking for revenge, he’s got several tremendous motives. Being a Cervantes, an Imatu, and a saber-tooth means he’s a triple threat.” Roberto’s face grew suddenly ashen. “What if he’s here for the women, Leo?”
Leo had already thought of that. It wasn’t out of the question. Lynx had almost been abducted already.
“Well, Roberto, we know what almost happened to Lynx before we got there. We’re just going to have to protect them. I’ll just have to fill Craig and Lynx in. Craig will, of course, let Captain Slater know. We’re going to have to include the team in this. I’m sure COBRA will take an avid interest at the mention of Adonis Cervantes. We will have to count on their discretion. But I know from past experience, if you can trust anyone, it will be those guys. And truthfully, we’re probably gonna need them.”
Roberto nodded. “I guess that’s all we can do right now.”
“By the way, Roberto, I didn’t reach Mort, but I heard back from Sheila,” Leo mentioned.
Roberto asked, “So, where’s Mort and how’s Sheila?”
“Luckily, this time ‘Ol Smoky’ is out of town, according to Sheila. That housekeeper of his is one funny dame. Did you know, Roberto, that Sheila’s pet name for Mort is ‘Smoky Bear’ or ‘Ol Smoky’ depending on the day?” Leo chuckled.
“Anyway, Sheila returned my message and let me know Mort had taken off on a short trip. She said Mort wouldn’t be back until Sunday, a week from tomorrow. At least that takes care of one problem. Knowing what we know now, there’s no way in hell we want to get good ol’ Mort involved in this little fiasco. Mort would never be a match for the likes of Adonis. We can’t be sure yet how many more pack members Adonis has with him.”
He’d just have to be prepared. For anything. Leo began to plan. “Roberto, I want you to inform Demar we need to increase security around the ranch’s perimeters. Everyone at the ranch needs to be on high alert. We can’t take any chances now. The situation just got serious. The threat posed by Adonis is too real.”