The Jaguar Prince

by Karen Kelley

  You are welcome, my sister.

  Callie smiled, liking the idea that they were sisters. Then just as suddenly, she collapsed to the ground. What was happening? Had she been injured? She closed her eyes as she began to shift back to her human side.

  So much had happened.

  I’m not ready to say good-bye, Katun.

  You have other things to attend to that I cannot help you do.

  What other things?

  But Katun was already gone and fog was rolling in. Rogar hadn’t mentioned other things that Callie needed to do when she changed into her animal guide for the first time. Maybe there was a procedure that she was supposed to follow, or a ceremony.

  She blinked several times until her vision cleared. Callie knew she had shifted back to her human form. She looked around. There was a woman kneeling beside her. A very beautiful woman, with long dark hair. And she wore a gentle smile.

  “Hello, Callie.” Her voice was like soft music.

  There was something familiar about her, but Callie couldn’t put her finger on what it was. “Who are you?”

  “I am Recina.”

  “Do I know you?” She looked at the other woman, and noticed Recina wore her shirt. Nothing else, just her shirt, but it reached the top of her thighs.

  “You know me as Sheba.”

  She quickly sat up and glanced around. Sheba was gone. Her gaze went back to Recina. “You’re Symtarian?”

  Recina nodded. “Yes.”

  “Did someone send you to watch over me all these years?” It didn’t make sense. Sheba had been at the zoo almost as long as Callie. Too long for someone to live in a cage just to watch over her.

  “Once I found you, and it took many years, I knew I had to stay close although it meant I would lose some of my freedom. I also knew that Zerod would detect my Symtarian scent, but not so much my animal guide’s scent, especially when I was surrounded by other animals.”

  Callie could feel her heart begin to pound as tears pooled in her eyes. “But why would you do that?”

  “That’s what mothers do, Callie. They love their children more than anything else.” And just so Callie would truly understand. “I’m your mother.”

  Chapter 30

  “You’re my mother?” Callie said, but she knew Recina spoke the truth. Now Callie knew why she felt such a connection here; it was Sheba. She’d felt that bond between them.

  “I am,” Recina told her.

  Callie threw her arms around Recina and hugged her tight. “I’ve missed having you in my life. Please don’t ever leave me again. I’ve felt so lost and alone without you.”

  “I won’t, my child.” She held Callie just as tight. “I’ve wanted to hold you close so many times, but I was afraid to take the chance of shifting.”

  There was a groan behind them. She looked over her shoulder and saw the fog.

  “Rogar is shifting.” Then Callie realized there was going to be a lot of naked people in the zoo. Not good if a guard happened by. Poor old Ben would have a heart attack. “I’ll get his clothes.” She jumped up, but at the last minute, turned back. “Don’t leave.”

  “I won’t.”

  Callie hurried back to where she and Rogar had made love, and grabbed his shirt off the ground. “Great way to meet your mom, buck naked.” She shook her head as she slipped Rogar’s shirt on, which fit her more like a short dress.

  This is what I needed to finish, wasn’t it, Katun?

  Yes, my sister.

  Have you always known about Sheba?

  Only recently did I begin to suspect.

  You’re a jaguar. She smiled, liking that her guide was an animal she dearly loved.

  Yes.

  I’m glad.

  She hurried to finish buttoning her shirt, then grabbed up Rogar’s other clothes, and hurried back.

  Balam had shifted back to Rogar while she was gone. He was sitting up, but he still looked groggy. He glanced up when he heard her approach.

  “Tell Ben that if he shoots Balam again, the jaguar will eat him.”

  She smiled. His gaze swept over her.

  “You’re okay?” he asked.

  She nodded. “And you?”

  He shrugged. “Groggy.”

  “This is my mother.”

  “I know. We’ve been talking.”

  “And I met my animal guide.”

  “Katun?”

  She nodded, unable to speak her happiness because she was afraid she would sound like an idiot if it all bubbled out, and she was more likely to do that in her excitement.

  “You hadn’t met your guide?” Recina asked with astonishment.

  She shook her head. “It’s a long story.”

  Recina smiled. “We have all the time in the world.” She looked at Rogar, her smile still firmly in place. “And you two have mated?”

  “Yes,” Rogar told her.

  “Uh…” Callie looked between the two.

  Recina seemed to realize what she had just asked. “I’m sorry. My mother raised me with all the traditions of a Symtarian. I’m afraid I’ve always been of that culture. I knew someday I would see my home again.”

  But Recina had just said she would never leave her? Had it been only words?

  “We’d better get Zerod locked away where he can do no harm,” Rogar said.

  He was right. They would all have time for questions and answers later.

  But she was starting to feel very confused.

  “I never thought I would have the chance to wear clothes again,” Recina said after they were back at Callie’s house. They had just changed into some of Callie’s clothes.

  “Thank you for watching over me.” Callie couldn’t stop herself from giving her mother another hug. This was her mother! All these years and she’d been watching over Callie the whole time.

  Recina held her close for a moment, then with a sniff, stepped back. She cleared her throat as she glanced around. “This is where you have lived?”

  “It was all I could afford.” Callie saw the shabbiness even more now that her mother was here. She would’ve hoped for her approval, but she could understand her disappointment.

  Recina put her arm around Callie and pulled her close once again. “It’s not your fault. You survived, we both did, and that’s all that matters. Surviving has made you strong, I can see that. I guess I felt bad because I couldn’t give you everything that I would have liked to give you.”

  “You gave me more than I ever dreamed.”

  Rogar walked in the front door. “I have Zerod safely locked away on my craft. He won’t be able to get free. Once we’re back on New Symtaria, he’ll pay for his crimes.” Rogar looked between the two of them. “It’s time for me to return.”

  Callie’s heart skipped a beat.

  Go with him. It’s where you belong, Callie. It’s where I belong, too.

  “Callie?” Rogar asked.

  “I…” She looked at her mother.

  “I can’t tell you what to do.”

  “But I spent all that time going to college, and then there’s DeeDee, and…”

  “Follow your heart,” Recina said. “But know that I will stay if that is what you choose.”

  Callie wasn’t sure what she should do.

  “I love you, Callie,” Rogar told her. “I love you with all my heart. If you decide not to leave, I’ll give up everything to come back and be with you.”

  She saw by his expression that he was serious. He would give up the planet that he loved, his people, just to be with her. But could she ask him to do that?

  Or could she travel far, far away to New Symtaria?

  It wasn’t hard to figure out when she really thought about it.

  She ran to Rogar and threw her arms around his neck. “I love you, too, and yes, I’ll go back with you.”

  He swung her around, laughing before lowering his lips to hers in a searing kiss that left her breathless.

  You made the right choice, Katun said.

  I
know.

  And she did know. She’d always felt there was something missing in her life, but she’d never known what it was, until now.

  Facing the unknown would take a lot of courage, but it was better than living the life she’d been living. Actually, when she thought about it, she hadn’t really been living, only watching as life passed her by.

  Don’t miss INSTANT TEMPTATION, the third in

  Jill Shalvis’s Wilder brothers series, out now…

  “I didn’t invite you in, TJ.”

  He just smiled.

  He was built as solid as the mountains that had shaped his life, and frankly had the attitude to go with them—the one that said he could take on whoever and whatever and you could kiss his perfect ass while he did so. She’d seen him do it, back in his hell-raising, misspent youth.

  Not that she was going there, to the time when he could have given her a single look and she’d have melted into a puddle at his feet.

  Had melted into a puddle at his feet. Not going there.

  Unfortunately for her senses, he smelled like the wild Sierras; pine and fresh air, and something even better, something so innately male that her nose twitched for more, seeking out the heat and raw male energy that surrounded him. Since it made her want to lean into him, she shoved in another bite of ice cream instead.

  “I saw on Oprah once that women use ice cream as a substitute for sex,” he said.

  She choked again, and he resumed gliding his big, warm hand up and down her back. “You watch Oprah?”

  “No. Annie does, and once I overheard her yelling at the TV that women should have plenty of both sex and ice cream.”

  That sounded exactly like his Aunt Annie. “Well, I don’t need the substitute.”

  “No?” he murmured, looking amused at her again.

  “No!”

  He hadn’t taken his hands off her. He still had one rubbing up and down her back, the other low on her belly, holding her upright, which was ridiculous so she smacked it away. She did her best to ignore the fluttering he’d caused, and the odd need she had to grab him by the shirt, haul him close and have her merry way with him.

  That was what happened to a woman whose last orgasm had come from a battery operated device instead of a man, a fact she’d admit, oh, never. “I was expecting your brother.”

  “Stone’s working on Emma’s ‘honey do’ list at the new medical clinic, so he sent me instead. Said to give you these.” He pulled some maps from his back pocket, maps she needed for a field expedition for her research. When she took them out of his hands, he hooked his thumbs in the front pockets of his Levi’s. He wore a T-shirt layered with an opened button-down that said WILDER ADVENTURES on the pec. His jeans were faded nearly white in the stress spots, of which there were many, nicely encasing his long, powerful legs and lovingly cupping a rather impressive package that was emphasized by the way his fingers dangled on his thighs.

  Not that she was looking.

  Okay, she was looking, but she couldn’t help it. The man oozed sexuality. Apparently some men were issued a handbook at birth on how to make a woman stupid with lust. And he’d had a lot of practice over the years.

  She’d watched him do it.

  Each of the three Wilder brothers had barely survived their youth, thanks in part to no mom and a mean, son-of-a-bitch father. But by some miracle, the three of them had come out of it alive, and now channeled their energy into Wilder Adventures, where they guided clients on just about any outdoor adventure that could be imagined; heli-skiing, extreme mountain biking, kayaking, climbing, anything.

  Though TJ had matured and found success, he still gave off a don’t-mess-with-me vibe. Even now, at four in the afternoon, he looked big and bad and tousled enough that he might have just gotten out of bed and wouldn’t be averse to going back.

  It irritated her. It confused her. And it turned her on, a fact that drove her bat-shit crazy because she was no longer interested in TJ Wilder.

  Nope.

  It’d be suicide to still be interested. No one could sustain a crush for fifteen years.

  No one.

  Except, apparently, her. Because deep down, the unsettling truth was that if he so much as directed one of his sleepy, sexy looks her way, her clothes would fall right off.

  Again.

  Wasn’t that just her problem. The fact that once upon a time, a very long time ago, at the tail end of TJ’s out-of-control youth, the two of them had spent a single night together being just about as intimate as a man and a woman could get. Her first time, but definitely not his first. Neither of them had been exactly legal, and only she’d been sober.

  Which meant only she remembered.

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  “Merilee said I could bring a date to the wedding, then got in this dig about whether I was seeing anyone, or between losers. I’d really hate to show up alone.”

  He’d learned not to trust that gleam in her eyes, but couldn’t figure out where she was heading. “You only just broke up with NASCAR Guy.” Usually it took her two or three months before she fell for a new man. In the in-between time she hung out more with him, as she’d been doing recently.

  Her lips curved. “I love how you say ‘NASCAR Guy’ in that posh Brit accent. Yeah, we split two weeks ago. But I think I may have found a great guy to take to the wedding.”

  Damn. His heart sank. “You’ve already met someone new? And you’re going to take him as your date?”

  “If he’ll go.” The gleam was downright wicked now. “What do you think?”

  He figured a man would be crazy not to take any opportunity to spend time with her. But…“If you’ve only started dating, taking him to a wedding could seem like pressure. And what if you caught the bouquet?” If Nav was with her and she caught the damned thing, he’d tackle the minister before he could get away and tie the knot then and there.

  Not that Kat would let him. She’d say he’d gone out of his freaking mind.

  “Oh, I don’t think this guy would get the wrong idea.” There was a laugh in her voice.

  “No?”

  She sprang off the washer, stepped toward him, and gripped the front of his rugby jersey with both hands, the brush of her knuckles through the worn blue-and-white-striped cotton making his heart race and his groin tighten. “What do you say, Nav?”

  “Uh, to what?”

  “To being my date for the wedding.”

  Hot blood surged through his veins. She was asking him to travel across the country and escort her to her sister’s wedding?

  Had she finally opened her eyes, opened her heart, and really seen him? Seen that he, Naveen Bharani, was the perfect man for her? The one who knew her perhaps better than she knew herself. Who loved her as much for her vulnerabilities and flaws as for her competence and strength, her generosity and sense of fun, those sparkling eyes, and the way her sexy curves filled out her Saturday-morning sweats.

  “Me?” He lifted his hands and covered hers. “You want me to go?”

  She nodded vigorously. “You’re an up-and-coming photographer. Smart, creative.” Face close to his, she added, eyes twinkling, “Hot, too. Your taste in clothes sucks, but if you’d let me work on you, you’d look good. And you’re nice. Kind, generous, sweet.”

  Yes, he was all of those things, except sweet—another wimp word, like doll. But he was confused. She thought he was hot, which was definitely good. But something was missing. She wasn’t gushing about how amazing he was and how crazy she was about him, the way she always did when she fell for a man. Her beautiful eyes were sharp and focused, not dreamy. Not filled with passion or new love. So…what was she saying?

  He tightened his hands on hers. “Kat, I—”

  “Will you do it? My family might even approve of you.”

  Suspicion tightened his throat. He forced words out. “So I’d be your token good guy, to prove you don’t always date assholes.”

  “Ouch. But yes, that’s the id
ea. I know it’s a lot to ask, but please? Will you do it?”

  He lifted his hands from hers and dropped them to his sides, bitter disappointment tightening them into fists.

  Oblivious, she clenched his jersey tighter, eyes pleading with him. “It’s only one weekend, and I’ll pay your airfare and—”

  “Oh, no, you won’t.” He twisted away abruptly, and her hands lost their grip on his shirt. Damn, there was only so much battering a guy’s ego could take. “If I go, I’ll pay my own way.” The words grated out. He turned away and busied himself heaving laundry from his washer to a dryer, trying to calm down and think. What should he do?

  Practicalities first. If he agreed, would it affect the exhibit? No, all she was asking for was a day or two. He could escort her, make nice with her family, play the role she’d assigned him. He’d get brownie points with Kat.

  “Nav, I couldn’t let you pay for the ticket. Not when you’d be doing me such a huge favor. So, will you? You’re at least thinking about it?”

  Of course he’d already accumulated a thousand brownie points, and where had that got him? Talking about roles, she’d cast him as the good bud two years ago and didn’t show any signs of ever promoting him to leading man.

  He was caught in freaking limbo.

  The thing was, he was tired of being single. He wanted to share his life—to get married and start a family. Though he and his parents loved each other, his relationship with them had always been uneasy. As a kid, he’d wondered if he was adopted, he and his parents seemed such a mismatch.

  He knew “family” should mean something different: a sense of warmth, belonging, acceptance, support. That’s what he wanted to create with his wife and children.

  His mum was on his case about an arranged marriage, sending him a photo and bio at least once a month, hoping to hook him. But Nav wanted a love match. He’d had an active dating life for more than ten years but, no matter how great the women were, none had ever made him feel the way he did for Kat. Damn her.

  He bent to drag more clothes from the washer and, as he straightened, glanced at her. Had she been checking out his ass?