by Paula Knight
Diana couldn’t argue with that. She was still exhausted and, she didn’t think Charlie or the woman he was with would do anything to her while she slept. So, she nodded as she climbed back onto her cot. Charlie took her hand to help her up. Diana, once again, felt an unpleasant shiver run up her spine.
“When you wake up,” Charlie said, “we’ll begin your training.”
He helped Diana lay back on the small pillow at the top of her cot. As she lay down he remained looming over her and touched her cheek once more.
“Once your training’s finished,” Charlie said slowly, “we can be mated.”
Another horrible shiver ran down her entire body. She tried not to show her distress at his words. She must have masked her feelings well because Charlie smiled once again.
“I don’t know about you,” he whispered, leaning closer to her, “but, I’m looking forward to that.”
Diana tried her best not to recoil as Charlie leaned over and kissed her fiercely on the lips, forcing his tongue into her mouth. In spite of herself, Diana felt her body respond pleasantly to his touch. All the same she forced her hands and her mouth to remain still.
Responding to him, no matter how her body wanted her to, was not an option. Not with Cat still playing in the back of her mind.
He ended the kiss and smiled at her, not put off by her unresponsive manner. He gave her a cocky laugh as he backed away.
“Sweet dreams, Diana,” he said smirking. She forced herself to give him a small smile as he backed away towards the mouth of the cave.
Charlie’s almost mocking laughter still rang in her ears as she turned away from him and closed her eyes, willing herself to sleep.
Chapter Four
Just as Cat had expected, an army of Cougars met them as soon as they entered Navajo territory. The gray mountain lion leading the pack, Cat recognized as the head elder, Tse, who had assisted them in getting Diana to the Zuni reservation.
He stopped the car and Amanda looked at him reluctantly.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked for what seemed like the hundredth time since their journey had started.
“Yes,” Catahassa answered her through clenched teeth, telling himself not to lose his temper. To do so now would certainly mean death for all of them.
“Maybe I should shift,” Amanda said, “for protection, just in case.”
“No,” Cat told her definitely, “that would be the worst thing you could do. We need to show them we’re not a threat. Stay as you are but wait here. I’ll go out and talk to them alone first.”
Amanda stared at him then opened her mouth as though to make another argument.
“Amanda, please!” Cat said, “You have to trust me.”
Amanda rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. Finally, she nodded. Taking the smallest sign of acceptance he would get, Cat opened the driver side door and stepped out among the mountain lion army.
The creatures stalked closer to him, some were growling softly, all of their shoulders hunched, ready to attack. He held up his hands in a sign of surrender.
“I don’t mean any harm,” Catahassa called out to them, “I need to speak to Tse. It concerns the salt mother.”
The small, dark gray cougar to his right, which Cat recognized as Ashkii, growled out right and stalked towards him. It was clear he planned to attack. Cat backed away.
“Ashkii,” Cat heard Tse speak before he saw him, “if the Zuni has news of the Salt Mother we need to hear it. Stand down.”
The cougar who was Ashkii threw what looked suspiciously like a contemptuous look to his father. None the less, he backed away and joined the others in calmly surrounding Tse, who had now transformed into the human tribe elder.
“What do you have to say about the Salt Mother?” Tse asked. Though he had allowed Cat to stay unharmed, it was clear that he wanted Cat to deliver his message and leave the Navajo land as quickly as possible.
“I came to ask for your help, one more time,” Cat said slowly and as calmly as he could.
“And why do you need our help with your salt mother,” Tse asked. He knew if he was to gain their trust, he would have to tell them what the Zuni tribe had discovered. The Elders would consider it treason but, at that moment, Cat didn’t care. Finding Diana, making sure she was safe was all that mattered.
“There’s no question anymore,” Cat said, “Diana is the salt mother. Our elders gave her the test last night. She passed.”
“Your elders gave her your test,” Tse said dismissively, “that still tells us nothing.”
“If you don’t help me, you’ll never know for sure,” Cat said as calmly as he could though he could feel his frustration beginning to bubble up inside him, threatening to burst forth at any moment.
“And why is that?” Tse asked. Cat could tell that his interest was finally piqued.
“Because,” Cat said, “the rouge and the mole have taken the salt mother. We don’t know where she is.”
“So, you’ve lost her,” Tse said.
“She was taken,” Cat said, offended by the accusatory tone in his voice, “most likely the rouge was helped by someone Diana trusted.”
“You don’t know who?” Tse asked.
Cat hesitated before answering. Admitting that he did not know, for certain, who the traitor was, or his motives for taking Diana, would make him look weak.
Before Cat could come up with an answer, he heard Tse heave a sigh. Apparently, Cat’s reluctance was all he needed.
“Why do you need help from us?” Tse asked instead, “why can you not get help from your own people.”
Cat hesitated again. He knew he would have to try to explain without giving too much about the Zuni prophecy away to the Navajo.
“The Elders...don’t want to take the chance of going to the salt lake,” he said simply, hoping that would be enough.
“So, you are here on your own?” Tse asked.
“Yes,” Cat admitted.
“And your elders have not authorized your little mission?” Tse asked emphasizing the word ‘mission’ with the ghost of a smirk. As though Cat was a boy playing spy.
Cat felt his hands becoming fists again. He closed his eyes and told himself not to lash out, not to lose his temper.
“No,” Cat answered as evenly as he could, “our elders do not know about our mission.”
“Then we cannot support it,” Tse said. Cat felt his heart drop. He should have known that this was a possibility but, he truly did not want to enter the Great Salt Lake without any support at his back. He searched his mind for anything that might change Tse’s answer.
“Not even to find the rogue traitor, Manaba?” Cat asked desperately.
“Manaba?” It was not Tse’s voice who answered him but Ashkii’s. When Cat looked to Tse’s right, he saw that the boy had transformed and now looked to Cat with an anxious expression.
“Have you seen her?” Ashkii asked, “Do you know where she is.”
“The rouge is no longer part of our tribe,” Tse said ignoring his son’s frantic questioning, “we have no interest whatsoever in her or her whereabouts.”
“You must know that if she is not stopped, she will disrupt the prophecy,” Cat said, “all of us could lose everything.”
“That’s true Father,” Ashkii said turning to Tse, “we should find her before she does something I know she’ll regret.”
“Son,” Tse said fiercely to the boy, “you have to put that girl out of your head. She is not one of us anymore.”
Ashkii looked at his Father one more moment before putting his head down and stepping back.
“We cannot anger the Zuni on a boy’s whim,” Tse said, “now, I suggest you go back where you came from.”
Cat wanted to argue, he opened his mouth to do so, but he could see the cougars around Tse move up on their haunches ready to attack.
Cat knew that any further argument would be pointless, he would have to go alone.
So, sure not to turn hi
s back, he moved slowly back to the car. He saw the Navajo, likewise move slowly back towards their own reservation.
“That went well,” Amanda said sarcastically.
“We’ll have to go on our own,” Cat told her.
“What?!” She said turning to look at him, open mouthed, “Cat, that’s suicide and you know it. No. I’m not going.”
“Well, I am,” Cat said, “so unless you want to find another way back to the reservation, you’ll have to come with me.”
“Like hell,” Amanda said, “we are going back to the reservation now. I said I’d help you with the Navajo, we did that. It didn’t work. So, we’re going back.”
“I’m not going back without her,” Cat insisted.
“That’s the problem,” Amanda said, “I knew it from the moment you gave that girl the pendant. You’ve let yourself get too close. Everyone can see it even our enemies.”
He couldn’t deny that. As much as Cat tried to pretend that he only wanted what was best for his tribe. For his people, what he really wanted had nothing to do with that.
What he really wanted was for Diana to be safe. He wanted Diana back, with him, where he could protect her. Not because of the prophecy, not because she was the salt woman. Simply because she was her.
He heaved a sigh and said,
“So, what if I have? I’m supposed to protect her, remember? That’s what the prophecy says.”
“You can’t protect her if you’re dead,” Amanda countered.
He opened his mouth to contest that when, suddenly, there was a sharp rap at his windshield. Cat and Amanda both jumped. Cat looked out his driver side window to find Ashkii standing before them.
Hesitantly, he rolled down the window.
“What do you want?” Cat asked
“Are you sure she’s there?” Ashkii asked, “Are you positive that Manaba’s at the salt lake?”
When Cat looked at Ashkii’s anxious expression, he suddenly saw something very familiar there. It was clear that, despite her treachery, despite what his elders said, Ashkii felt the same desperate desire for Manaba’s protection as Cat did for Diana.
“Yes,” Cat answered, “I’m positive she and the Zuni traitor have taken Diana to the Salt Lake.”
“And you’re both going there to find them?” Ashkii asked indicating Amanda in the passenger seat. Cat saw Amanda out of the corner of his eye give Ashkii that horrible superior look she always got. She opened her mouth to give Ashkii a sharp and, no doubt, harsh reply when Cat put his hand firmly on her arm to stop her.
“Yes,” Cat said again, “we’re headed there now.”
“Then I’m going with you,” Ashkii said and, without waiting for an answer, Ashkii opened the passenger side door and climbed into the back of the small car.
“Wait a minute,” Amanda said to him in her sharp bullying tone, “what makes you think you can just…?”
“Amanda,” Cat said sharply, “we need all the help we can get.”
“So,” Amanda said turning her sharp glare to Cat, “you’re really going through with this?”
“It looks like we really are,” Cat said, “now, are you staying in, or are you going to get out?”
Amanda glared at him for nearly a full minute before heaving a long suffering sigh and settling back in her chair.
So, with his two unlikely companions, Catahassa set out for the Salt Lake, all the while, praying that Diana was still alive to be rescued.
Chapter Five
“We’ll have to go further into the cave to begin,” Charlie said to Diana. It was now past noon and she had woken up only two hours before. Her head was still dizzy and somewhat foggy.
Charlie had grabbed hold of her hand and was leading her further into the dark, tunnel-like cave. The woman he called Manaba, whom Diana had previously known as Sandra, followed behind them.
Manaba had long smooth hair, just as she had as Sandra, but, it was now black. Likewise, her facial features were very much the same as the talkative secretary Diana had known. The only difference was her skin’s slightly darker shade.
The heat in the cave was becoming oppressive. Diana felt the heat pressing down on her like the heat she had felt in the training room back at the Zuni reservation.
“It helps with the training,” Sandra, now Manaba called from behind them, “it has to be hot for you to stop thinking about anything. For you to lose control.”
“What else has to happen for me to lose control?” Diana asked this question of Charlie. She still was not keen on speaking to Manaba. She knew, whatever she said to the contrary that that woman wanted her dead.
“You’ll see,” Charlie said.
“Here’s good enough,” Manaba said finally, “we can set her down on this stone.”
“What do you mean set her down?” Diana asked defensively. She was not keen on being set down anywhere, especially not by a woman who was attempting to kill her.
“Don’t worry, Diana,” Charlie said putting a hand gently on her shoulders, “Just sit down here and close your eyes. Everything will be ok.”
Diana, realizing that there was no opening where they were in the cave, no way she could possibly escape this, sat down and closed her eyes.
“Now, Diana,” Charlie said, “just relax.”
She felt female hands press down on her shoulders, just as Cat’s grandfather’s had at the reservation. There was no great pain this time. All the same, Diana felt much stiffer now than she had then and a thousand times more guarded.
“Don’t worry, Diana,” she heard Charlie say as she felt him grab her hand, “just let go of control, let go of all your thoughts.”
Diana pressed her eyes as tightly as she could and willed herself to forget that she was in the company of two people who would gladly see her dead. She willed herself to forget that they had talked of killing her just that morning.
But, with Charlie’s hand in hers instead of Cat’s, that was not an easy thing to remember.
She heard Sandra...Manaba’s voice begin the chants and she tried as hard as she could to clear her mind.
All the same, after a few fruitless minutes, she heard Manaba stop.
“It’s not working, Charlie,” Manaba said, “it looks like we’ll have to help her along.”
“Ok,” she heard Charlie say next to her.
Diana could feel Charlie move up close to her. So close she could feel his tight muscles against her arms.
“Diana,” he said, his breath played on her cheek, “I’m going to do something now. No matter what I do, no matter what I feel, you have to trust me. Ok?”
Diana’s heart began to race in her chest. She knew she truly didn’t want whatever it was Charlie was offering. Still, she knew that if she had any hope of being trained, any hope of getting back to Cat, she would have to play along.
“Ok,” she said, “I trust you.”
“Good,” he said.
She kept her eyes closed as she felt his lips press against her neck. Diana gasped as Manaba continued chanting.
“Relax,” Charlie whispered to her. She felt his hand run up her leg and how could she relax. She knew, the prophecy had said she belonged to Cat.
But, it had also said she needed to be trained, perhaps that was the key. Perhaps if she could think of Cat…
She kept her eyes closed, and as Charlie’s hand moved slowly up her thigh and beneath her skirt, Diana remembered Cat’s moves from last night.
How, his strong body had been splayed over her.
As Charlie’s hand reached her center, just over her panties, she pictured Cat’s dark eyes looking down on her.
As Charlie’s other hand moved to her breast and squeezed gently, she remembered the warm glow of her talisman as Cat had pressed his lips to hers, whispered against her ear.
She felt another pair of lips reach her neck, the chanting was more distant now. These lips on her neck were female. She knew that. But, in her mind, they also belonged to Cat.
Another, sl
ender arm reached out to touch her other breast as Charlie’s hand stayed teasing her folds over her underwear, she imagined that all three arms, both lips, everything belonged to Cat.
When one finger slipped inside of her underwear and touched her very center, it was Cat making her cry out with pleasure. As a small, female hand dipped beneath her shirt, it was Cat squeezing her bare breast, running his fingers over her nipple and making her grow hard.
She remembered Cat’s words to her as she felt now two, three fingers slip inside of her along with a thumb that continued to circle her clit.
“You have no idea how much I want you,” she heard herself say.
She screamed out her pleasure and suddenly, there was nothing else. Nothing in the world except for Catahassa Yazzie. Suddenly, she was not even herself any longer.
As she came down from her exquisite ecstasy, she realized that she was not walking on two legs but four, she was nearer to the ground.
Her feet were not feet but paws. Her body was covered in white fur. She knew, immediately that she had become the white cougar. In the distance, she saw another of her kind, another cougar.
This one was tan, smaller than she was. His eyes looked into hers and were deep and dark and so familiar.
Cat.
Cat turned and padded his way into the darkness. Diana followed, her paws feeling more than a little strange against the dirt ground.
She followed Cat further into the cave. He turned right twice.
Unlike the vision she had seen at the reservation, which, she knew had been mostly in her mind, she could not help but feel as though this vision was real. As though Cat was leading her to a real place that she could truly find.
Eventually, as Cat lead her on, daylight began to peek inside the dark cave. When Cat’s cougar reached a large opening, he stopped, turned to Diana and sat back on his haunches.
Behind the opening, Diana could see the salt lake and, also, Cat’s car.
She knew now, instinctively, what that meant. Cat was looking for her. He would be waiting for her through this opening.
“She’s seeing him,” Diana heard the girl, Manaba’s voice from very far away.