“No,” Diana told him sharply, “don’t tell me what’s best for me. If I’m the Salt Mother, I need to know what that means. You can’t expect me to get through this if you insist on treating me like a child.”
Cat looked at her, frustration lining his face. He opened his mouth as though to give her a sharp reply but before he could, the older man in front of them let out a sharp laugh.
“The girl has a point,” the older man said, “if she is the Salt Mother as you claim that she is, she deserves your respect.”
The older man’s tone didn’t convey respect. It was as though he was mocking both Cat and Diana at the same time.
Diana stared the man down and opened her mouth to give him a snarky answer. Cat touched her hand to stop her. She looked towards him and intended to give him another lecture but he turned to the older man and spoke before she could.
“Clearly,” he said, “we’re not the only one who thinks she is the woman of the prophecy. Someone was following us. Even if it wasn’t your people.”
“That is one thing we can agree on,” the man said, “we happen to know who it was who chased you. We know who attacked your Salt Mother.”
He looked at Diana and gave her a sneer that made her ball her hands into fists so tightly that her fingernails cut into her palms.
“Who was it?” Cat asked.
“She is a member of the tribe. But I promise you she stood apart from us this time,” the man said. “She found out about your...Salt Mother…” here the man looked at Diana with another sneer, “long before we did.”
“How could she have known about me before even I knew?” Diana asked.
“I think your handlers can answer that better than I can,” the man said looking straight at Cat, “our rogue member had to have a connection in the Zuni tribe to know about the girl and her connection to the prophecy.”
“What are you suggesting?” Cat asked with a hint of confrontation in his voice. She heard Charlie move forward towards them from behind. When she looked around, she felt the other cougars in the group tense. A few even hunched low to the ground as though preparing to attack.
“I’m saying,” the man said, “that the Zuni nation is not as united as you think.”
“An inside source,” Cat said quietly. More to himself than to anyone else.
“What do you mean an inside source?” Diana asked.
“He means it’s not us you should be worried about,” the boy behind Diana said with an ironic smile.
As she turned to look at the young man Diana felt a warm hand on her arm guiding her attention from the boy behind her to the man in front of her. As her attention turned, she felt Cat’s hand move from her arm to intertwine with her hand. Warm comfort spread through her body. She suddenly felt at peace.
She looked at Cat briefly before she turned to the older man in front of her. He looked down at Diana and Cat’s entwined hands and the sneer changed, for almost the first time since Diana had stepped out of the car. He looked pensive, almost surprised, as his gaze caught Cat’s hand mixed with Diana’s.
The moment passed however, and his sneer returned in full force.
“Are you ready to hear our offer of assistance now?” he asked.
Cat looked at Diana for one moment. He gave her a significant look for the first time, as though he was asking her advice. As though he was asking her permission to hear this man’s offer.
From where Diana stood, surrounded by at least a dozen shape shifting Navajo’s, she thought that hearing what they had to say could not hurt.
So imperceptibly, she nodded to Cat. He in turn, gave her a half smile and turned back to the Navajo man in front of them.
“Ok,” Cat said, “what is your offer?”
“You know, I’m sure that the Navajo nation wants what you want,” the man said, “to get the Salt Mother to the great Salt Lake.”
“If you say so,” Cat said amiably as he could.
The man cringed for one moment before brushing this slight off and continuing.
“We will provide you protection in order to get her there,” the man said.
“That’s not where we’re going,” Charlie said sullenly staring down the man as though he was eager to do battle with him on the spot.
“She needs to be trained first,” Cat said evenly to the man, as though trying to apologize to the Navajo man for Charlie.
“You mean trained in the Zuni way,” the boy said from behind them.
“I mean trained to do what she needs to do,” Cat said. He did not look at the boy, but kept his eyes on the man.
“You’re taking her to the reservation,” the man said.
“Yes,” Cat answered.
The man paused. Then he looked over Cat and Diana to the boy behind them. Diana watched his eyes and looked back to the boy. The man and boy seemed to carry on a silent conversation that the rest of them were not privy to.
Eventually, the boy gave the man a small nod. The man, in turn, looked to Cat.
“We can escort you to the reservation,” the man said.
“What do you want in exchange?” Charlie called. Diana now almost rolled her eyes at Charlie’s confrontational tone. Mouthing off, at the moment, was not a smart option.
“Nothing,” the man said with a raised eyebrow to Charlie, “all we ask is that you let us know when she will make the journey to the Great Salt Lake.”
“And why would we tell you that?” Charlie said.
“Because, if you go down this road without protection,” the Navajo man said, “you will not make it the next two miles before the rouge finds you.”
She could hear Charlie taking two more steps towards them. Cat looked back at him as though trying to warn him.
Through all this, Diana thought about taking control of her own destiny for once and she realized that it was about time she did.
“We accept,” Diana said before either Cat or Charlie could say anything more.
Cat looked at her with wide eyes.
“Diana…” Cat began.
“Cat,” she said firmly, “how else are we going to get to the reservation? You said yourself this is the only other road.”
Cat hesitated and bit his lip.
Eventually, he looked back at her, “Don’t you think we should…”
“...I’m making an executive decision,” she said, “and since this entire thing is about me, I feel like I can do that.”
Diana turned her attention back to the Navajo man.
“Can you take us now?” she asked him.
The man seemed to look at her with a newfound respect.
“Consider us your security detail,” he said gesturing to the cougars who surrounded him.
“All right then,” she said, “we’ll follow you to the reservation.”
“Diana…” Cat began again, “we don’t even know if…”
“We should get back in the car, Cat,” she said as gently and firmly as she could, “I think you said we needed to make it to the reservation before sundown.”
Cat looked, for a moment, as though he wanted to argue. But in the end, he simply shook his head said, “Whatever you say.”
She turned back and looked at the Navajo man who gave her half a nod before moving to the truck that had, just several minutes before, tried to run them off the road.
The older man looked over Diana and Cat and said something in a language Diana couldn’t make out to the boy standing near Charlie.
The boy nodded and ran to follow the man into the truck. The rest of the animal army remained where they were.
Cat meanwhile, caught Diana’s hand once again as they headed back to his Car. When they reached Charlie, he rushed to follow them.
“You realize this is insane, right?” Charlie said urgently to Cat, “You know we can’t trust Navajo! We’ve never been able to trust them!”
“It’s Diana’s decision,” Cat told him, “and she’s got a point. We need to get to the reservation as quickly as we ca
n.”
All though Cat said it was her choice, his tone made it seem as though he was not fully on board with this either. Still Diana was pleased that he at least seemed to trust her enough to let her decision stand.
The three of them reached the car and Cat opened the door for her.
“I’m not getting in,” Charlie said with his arms crossed, “if they’re going to run alongside you, so will I. That way, if they try anything, I’ll be there to rip their throats out.”
As Charlie was out numbered, even if he were in cougar form, Diana could not see how he could make good on this particular threat.
None the less Cat rolled his eyes in an appeasing manner and said, “Suit yourself.”
With that, he ushered Diana into the passenger seat of the small car and started the engine.
“What did Charlie mean when he said they’re going to run alongside us?” Diana asked.
“You’ll see,” Cat said.
As soon as the car began to drive, Diana stared out her window at an amazing sight. The dozen or so cougars who had surrounded them at their unexpected stop were now running at an amazingly fast rate alongside the tiny car.
She tried to see Charlie in the mass of multi colored fur, but their pace was so amazingly fast that all the cougars began to blur together.
The sight entranced her for several moments before she realized that there were more questions she needed to ask. Especially now that she and Cat were once again alone.
“Who was that man we talked to?” she asked first. Of all the questions swirling around in her mind, this was by far the easiest. It was also, by far, the least personal.
“His name is Tse. He’s a Navajo tribe elder,” Cat said. “That brash boy is named Ashkii. He’s his son.”
Diana looked curiously at Cat when she heard that name. Ashkii. It sounded familiar but, for the life of her, Diana could not decide where she had heard it before.
“His son wasn’t a big fan of you,” Diana said.
“He doesn’t like any Pueblo,” Cat said, “especially Zuni’s.”
“Why is that?” Diana asked. She was interested, truly, she was. But she also couldn’t deny that she was trying to put off asking Cat other questions. Questions about the kiss he had given her, about why he held her hand, why he asked her advice, even silently. Questions that made her blush just to think about them.
“The Navajo and the Zuni have been fighting for years over the land,” Cat answered. “The Navajo think that, just because their ancestral lands surround our pueblo, they have the right to take our land and our culture as well.”
“So they have the same prophecy?” Diana asked. “The one about the Salt Mother?”
“No,” Cat said so sharply that it made Diana flinch, “they have a bastardized version of a prophecy they stole from us.”
“Ok,” Diana said slowly, “but they know about the salt woman...I mean...me?” she added uncertainly. Speaking about herself as some creation spirit still sounded much too strange, no matter how hard she tried to accept it.
“They know about the salt woman,” he said, “they take her return more literally than we do.”
“That’s why they thought I would have white hair?” Diana asked.
“And that you would be an old woman,” Cat said. “Our prophecy is different.”
“And what does your prophecy say about me?” she asked. Charlie had hinted at something in the prophecy before they were stopped. Something that Cat hadn’t told her.
“Just what I told you,” Cat said, though when she looked closely, Diana could see a blush creep across his already tan cheeks. She knew that he wasn’t telling her the whole truth.
She knew from the way he kept looking determinedly away from her. The way his eyes kept darting ever so slightly out the side window distractedly, that he wouldn’t answer any more questions about the prophecy.
The way he blushed and refused to meet her eyes also, in a strange way, seemed to intertwine with the way he had held her hand, the way he had kissed her, and the way he seemed desperate to ensure her protection.
She had a strange thought. A thought that had begun before they were stopped on the road by the Navajo.
She thought that, perhaps her strange connection to Cat, the connection he seemed to have to her, just might have something to do with the prophecy as well. Although she couldn’t tell exactly how they were connected just yet.
Instead, she stared out the window at the galloping panthers outside. She and Cat drove in silence for a few minutes.
Eventually, a black cougar who she was sure was Charlie passed by her window.
“Charlie didn’t seem to get along well with the Navajo either,” he said.
“He and Ashkii have never gotten along,” Cat said. “Ashkii blames Charlie for stealing his girlfriend.”
“But isn’t Ashkii younger than Charlie?” Diana asked. After all, the Navajo boy could not have been more than 19 or 20. Charlie was in his thirties.
“Yes,” Cat said, “so was his girlfriend.”
A small, teasing smile spread across Cat’s face as he looked at Diana.
“Ah,” Diana said in understanding, “so Charlie has a thing for younger women?”
“Not too young,” Cat amended. It was as though he was defending his friend from some unseemly charge that Diana had not made, “But in general, yes. His girlfriends tend to be younger than he is.”
“So, did he?” Diana asked.
“Did he what?” Cat asked.
“Did Charlie steal his girlfriend?”
“Oh, no,” Cat said, “not really. It was more like the girl flung herself at Charlie. She was a meta shifter.”
“What’s that?” Diana asked. Charlie and Cat had used the word ‘shifter’ before. And she knew, from context, that that was what people who could turn into cougars were referred to. But a meta-shifter sounded even stranger.
“It means someone who can take multiple forms,” Cat said. “This girl could not only change into a cougar and back, she could also change the color of her hair and skin.”
“That’s impressive,” Diana said slyly. She knew this was a massive understatement. The truth was, meta shifting sounded like something out of a science fiction novel.
“It takes either a massive amount of talent or years of training,” Cat said, “usually both.”
“What did this girl have?” Diana asked.
“Talent,” Cat said. “She could have refined it even further if she’d kept up with her training. But she was too busy chasing...other things…”
“Things like Charlie?” Diana asked.
“Yes,” Cat said turning to her with a wry smile. Diana returned the wry smile and Cat smiled fully at her.
“So, why wasn’t she there...you know...staring us down with the rest of them?” Diana asked, “Or...was she?” Diana realized that anyone of those cougars could have been the girl in question. She had no idea what any of them looked like outside their mountain lion persona.
“I didn’t see her,” Cat said, “and trust me, you would know if you did.”
“Is she...distinctive?” Diana asked.
“She’s big,” Cat said, “in fact…” he hesitated and looked at Diana cautiously. She knew he was holding something back. She knew he was afraid of revealing something that she wouldn’t be able to handle.
Diana rolled her eyes at the thought.
“Cat,” she said exasperatedly, “I’m going to find out anyway, you might as well just tell me.”
“Ok,” he said softly, “I think...she was the one who attacked you last night. I think she’s the rogue member that the Navajos were talking about.”
Diana looked at Cat who was staring at her as though nervous that she would explode in a horrifying ball of emotion at this news. She had no intention of doing any such thing. Indeed, Diana was now much more curious than she was frightened.
“But,” she said, “how would she have known where I was? How would she…”
<
br /> “That’s the thing,” Cat said. “She can change her appearance so many different ways that she’s able to reach in almost anywhere.”
“But the Navajo guy, Tse,” Diana said, “he said that there had to be a...mole...or something in the Zuni nation for her to find out…”
“That seems the most likely explanation,” he said. “See, even if she could get in anywhere, she wouldn’t have known where to go. Where to lie in wait, so to speak, if she hadn’t heard our version of the prophecy.”
“The one you won’t tell me about?” Diana asked stubbornly.
“The one you already know about,” Cat insisted, equally stubborn.
Diana gave him an exasperated sigh and stared out the window at the large canyons. The sun had begun to set behind the largest of these as a passing sign told them that they had now moved onto reservation land.
Chapter Two
They drove a short distance until they reached a large building that, to Diana’s surprise, looked nearly identical to most government buildings in downtown Albuquerque.
Cat pulled into a space and parked his car. The beat up truck, likewise, parked next to him.
Diana looked out her window and, one by one, the cougars who had run beside their car stood on their hind legs and transformed before her eyes into men and women. All with equally tan skin and varying shades of dark hair.
Tse and Ashkii stepped outside of the truck and looked toward Cat’s car, waiting for him to get out.
“This will be interesting,” Cat said with a sigh. None the less, he indicated that Diana should get out as well. When she did, she saw the door to the building open and two men stepped out. One very old, with wrinkled skin and long grey hair pulled back into a braid and the other younger with fewer wrinkles and only two gray steaks woven through his dark hair.
It took Diana a moment to notice that two other creatures walked by the side of these men. One very large, tan colored cougar and one deep brown, almost red in color, stood on either side of the two older men. They walked towards Cat eyeing the newly transformed Navajo with a malevolent gleam. These creatures, though they moved with the men, stalked low as though waiting for the opportunity to strike.
BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE: The Unforgettable Billionaires: The Complete Collection Boxed Set 1-12 (Young Adult Rich Alpha Male Billionaire Romance) (Alpha Bad Boy Billionaire Romance) Page 54