“I usually only patrol that portion of my territory once a day. I’ll up it to at least three times that for the next month or so.”
“You know,” Maxim said hesitantly, “it might be better if someone other than you patrols the other two times, or better yet, get your neighboring jaguars to follow the same routine. It would look less suspicious.”
“That might be a little tricky. Most in my clan are still convinced that I’m grasping at straws, seeing shadows, out of grief. Some of them might humor me for a day or two and then it would be back to business as usual. No one’s really going to bust their ass without hard proof.”
“True, but a couple of days is better than nothing. Although—maybe just adding the occasional companion on your runs might work just as well. You do, after all, have the perfect excuse for it now.”
“You’re talking about Kylie, aren’t you?” Hunter questioned flatly.
“She won’t be in heat forever,” Maxim said pointedly. “By then everyone in the city will know that she’s a Returner. No one will look sideways at you helping her adjust to her newly awakened jaguar nature, especially when it was Donald Gaither, himself, who asked you to help her integrate into the clan.”
“I did offer to take her on a run through the forest,” he admitted, “but…”
“For now, just think about it. Spread the word about the extra patrols and see how much mileage you can get out of that. After all, a lot can happen in a week and a half. That piece of cloth could become another dead end before you two can speak without wanting to rip each other’s clothes off.”
“Thank you very much for that mental image,” Hunter groused. “You do realize that I still have a shit-ton of Kylie’s scent coating my nose? Hell, I can still taste her! I’m starting to wonder if it’ll ever go away.”
“Maybe I should have one of my men bring in a bucket of the vinegar solution they’re using for cleanup to dunk your head in,” Maxim offered with a laugh.
Hunter merely glared and resisted the urge to flip him the bird. It would just make the teasing worse.
“All joking aside, it really might help,” Maxim insisted.
“I’ll pass,” Hunter replied dryly. “At this point, it’s not worth the headache I’d be sure to get. I’ll just go stay at my old place, and hopefully my head and nose will be clear in the morning. I should probably get an early start on those extra patrols.”
Suddenly all the humor left Maxim’s eyes. “Speaking of patrols, I never did get to finish telling you about the probable Sniffers a couple of my young clan brothers saw walking into Riverford Regional around lunchtime today. Both were cougars, early twenties, and utter strangers. I sent over one of my wolves from my security detail to get a whiff of them as usual, and she confirmed that neither scent belonged to any of Riverford’s cougars. Lana managed to get a fairly good picture of them as they left the hospital, and I had Sasha show it to some of her cougar friends. Nobody recognized them. Her friends are trying to find out whether or not anyone from the cougar clan is currently hosting visitors.”
Hunter stiffened. “Do you think they were scoping out the hospitals, looking for the bastard that attacked Kylie maybe?”
“Either that or they were sent there to speak with the hospital brass, both of which a potential disaster in the making. Right now I have a few wolves and young tigers tailing them. We should know within a few days whether or not our suspicions are confirmed.”
“Maybe then the Elders will take our warnings more seriously. I can also ask the bobcat twins to keep an eye out for them. Do you have a copy of that picture I can give to—”
Hunter’s cell phone abruptly rang, causing him to break off mid-sentence as he fished it out of his pocket. His heart sank when he saw Jennifer’s name on the screen.
“Hunter, I need you to come back to Kylie’s apartment,” Jennifer said before he could even completely lift the phone to his ear. “Something—well, interesting has happened.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The smell of a female jaguar hit Kylie’s nostrils just as a thirty-something brunette woman appeared in her bedroom’s doorway. She paused in the threshold as if suddenly startled before entering the room completely, shutting the door behind her.
“Hi, I’m Jennifer,” she introduced herself again with a friendly smile.
Kylie made a big show of weakly sitting up in bed. “Kylie Moore. Sorry we had to meet like this.”
“I’m only sorry that Hunter didn’t think to come to me sooner before things got so out of hand. Although…” She paused and stared hard at Kylie for a long, uncomfortable moment before she moved to settle herself down on the corner of the bed. “You don’t look nearly as bad as I thought you would. From the stress in Hunter’s voice, I expected to find you writhing on the floor in sexual agony.”
Kylie grimaced. “If you would have come just ten minutes ago, you would have seen me incoherent and ready to bash my head against the wall in the hopes of knocking myself out, the burning and throbbing was so bad. Then my friend showed up, and while she was trying to get me to go to the hospital, the heat just—stopped.”
Jennifer’s eyes widened. “Are you telling me that you’re no longer in heat?”
“I guess,” Kylie replied, letting a hint of uncertainty creep into her voice. “Other than feeling a little warm and lightheaded, that terrible arousal is pretty much gone.”
“What were you doing right before the heat disappeared?”
“Just curling up on the bed and telling my friend that I wasn’t going to go to the ER. No, wait. I took a couple ibuprofens just to appease her. Could that have done it?”
She frowned thoughtfully. “No, I don’t think so, though I’ve never heard of a jaguar’s heat stopping after only a few hours.”
“Hunter did tell you I was a Returner, right?” Kylie asked. “Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe my body is still in flux. My sense of smell is still pretty unstable even though it’s already been a couple of days since I first shifted.”
“Maybe your friend had the right of it and I should take you to see one of our doctors,” Jennifer fretted. “Hunter told me that your pheromone output was off the charts, and I obviously can’t tell if you’re still putting them out or have actually stopped completely.”
“You can’t?” Pheromones were definitely something that had never come up in conversation with either her parents or Karen. “I thought it was just me that couldn’t smell them or that the heat was driving me so crazy that I couldn’t focus on anything else.”
“No female can, except maybe a female wolf shifter, though the verdict is still out on that one. A few of them have claimed that they smell something, but what they describe is different than what a male says he smells.”
“I may not be in heat anymore, but can you still teach me how to control my pheromones before it hits again?” She shuddered. “I don’t want what happened at the club to ever happen again. Imagine if it had happened in the middle of one of my lectures. I would have never been able to show my face at the university again!”
Jennifer flashed Kylie a sympathetic look. “Of course, but first, I think I should call Hunter and let him know what’s going on. I’ll need his nose to judge whether or not your heat has truly stopped, or if something else is going on.”
Images of Hunter pushing her up against the elevator doors while devouring her mouth and the rough feel of him shredding her blouse flooded into her mind, and Kylie could feel her cheeks heat up. “Is that really a good idea? The effect I had on him—on everybody—was pretty extreme. I really don’t want to put him in such an uncomfortable position again. Wouldn’t it be better for him to stay away until at least morning?”
“Normally I would say yes, but you said so yourself. You’re a Returner. For all we know, your irregular heat cycle could be a symptom of something much, much worse. I’ve heard that Returners can sometimes have severe physiological complications after their first shift. I really do think you need to se
e a doctor, but I also can’t take you out of this apartment without knowing whether or not you’re still churning out your mating pheromones.”
Kylie resisted the urge to look at her pillow where her mother’s bracelet and Paul’s toothbrush were still hidden. With two people hovering over her with worry over some imagined problem with her body, there was no way they would allow her out of their sight to properly secure them.
“Even if I’ve stopped sending out the pheromones, the apartment’s probably saturated with them,” Kylie reasoned. “Won’t that be just as bad?”
“Damn. You’re right.” Jennifer paused and bit her lower lip, considering. “There’s nothing to do but to have you step into the hall when he gets here. If you’re no longer sending out mating signals, then we can all move somewhere else to talk. Either way, it’ll be a week at least before a male will be able to enter this apartment without falling under your spell.”
Her smile took the sting out of those last words.
“If you really think it’s best, call him,” Kylie said reluctantly.
More than her fear of them discovering the bracelet, she was not at all ready to see Hunter again after the way they had gone at each other like the animals they partially were. Add to that Jennifer, whom she had only met a few minutes ago, and their meeting would probably be doubly awkward.
She comforted herself with the knowledge that at least Hunter wouldn’t be coming into the apartment today. Now Kylie just had to make sure Jennifer left the bedroom before Hunter arrived in order to take care of the bracelet and toothbrush.
“I should probably change,” Kylie said, drawing the comforter from her lap and revealing that she was only dressed in a long t-shirt to the older woman.
Jennifer immediately stood up from the bed. “Of course. I’ll just go make my call from the living room.”
The second the bedroom door closed, Kylie lifted her pillow off the concealed items and wasted no time in using it to scoot them back into the small paper bag. She then pulled out a set of undergarments, socks, and jeans from the gym bag her father had sent and quickly pulled them on, deciding to just keep wearing the t-shirt.
After stuffing the paper bag into the gym bag, Kylie picked it up and headed out the door. There was no way she would leave it behind if Hunter decided she needed to leave the apartment.
“Your coloring is starting to look better,” Jennifer said as Kylie sat down next to her on the sofa.
“That’s a relief,” Kylie replied. She began to comb her fingers through her still damp, medium-length hair, trying to get the tangles out as best she could without a brush.
“Don’t let your guard down just yet,” Jennifer warned. “For all we know, you could suddenly go into heat again.”
Kylie groaned. “That would totally suck. I have midterms at the end of the week.”
She smiled sympathetically. “Then let me see if I can teach you how to control the pheromones while we wait for Hunter to arrive.”
CHAPTER SIX
Kylie froze at the single, hard knock on the front door, her heart suddenly in her throat.
Jennifer reached over and gave Kylie’s arm a reassuring squeeze. “Let me speak with him first. I’ll call out for you to join us in the hallway when I’m sure he’s ready for you.”
She swallowed nervously and gave the teacher a curt nod. Kylie told herself she wouldn’t watch her leave, unsure she could handle seeing Hunter just yet, but as Jennifer opened the door, she found herself unable to tear her eyes away.
For no longer than a couple of seconds, Kylie’s eyes met Hunter’s heavy gaze over Jennifer’s shoulder before the older woman pushed him back away from the door with a hand to the chest and quickly closed the door behind her. It was only then that Kylie noticed that her chest was burning and realized that she had stopped breathing.
He had met her gaze without an ounce of trepidation—at least outwardly. Did that mean he was already affected by the lingering pheromones that had no doubt blasted him once Jennifer had opened the door, or…
She tore her eyes away from the door and scowled down at the gym bag next to her feet. Do I even want there to be an “or”?
Between nearly going insane from her out-of-control heat and dealing with her worried visitors, Kylie hadn’t had time to really think about what had happened between Hunter and her. No good would come of denying that she had really enjoyed their brief, frenzied encounter, so she didn’t bother wasting energy trying. No surprise there as the guy was sexy as all hell. He was definitely someone she wouldn’t mind getting to know better, but…
Why did I have to meet him now when everything is so messed up? she lamented with a huge sigh.
Kylie had never been in more danger than she was now that she had joined the shifter community. No matter how lonely she was, hadn’t she already decided that getting involved with Hunter was probably not the best idea, especially when she still had no clue exactly what the jaguar clan wanted or expected from her?
But…
She closed her eyes in something like despair. But nothing. I’ll never find out what happened to Mom and Dad if I let myself get distracted here. What I need now is a trustworthy friend within the jaguars, not a lover. I’ll just apologize for my behavior and let that be the end of it.
However, instead of removing some of the weight from her shoulders, her decision only seemed to tighten the knot of apprehension growing in the pit of her stomach. To distract herself, Kylie strained to hear what Hunter and Jennifer were talking about, but it seemed they were purposely speaking in voices that seemed no louder than a whisper to even her enhanced hearing.
It had probably been about ten minutes since Jennifer had stepped outside. Was the older woman only filling him in on her observations, or was he having trouble keeping a clear head? Maybe she should have insisted much harder on waiting to see Hunter until the morning.
Kylie picked up the gym bag and carefully made her way to the door on tiptoe. She was just about to press an ear up against the door when Jennifer suddenly called, “Kylie! You can come out now!”
Her heart instantly sped up, and she paused only long enough to take a deep, steadying breath before she dropped the bag next to the door and slowly opened it. Hunter was leaning against the far wall, his hazel eyes intent on her as she slowly stepped out into the hall, making sure to quickly close the door behind her before too much of the pheromone-laden air could escape.
Kylie could feel the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end and her body tense as he silently continued to stare at her. She saw his nostrils flare a couple of times as he scented the air, but other than that, he didn’t move, didn’t blink.
A faint ripple flowed through her muscles, making Kylie stiffen even more. Her jaguar was itching to come to the forefront, but she immediately clamped down on the urge to shift. She could tell that Hunter was testing her, trying to provoke her with such a blatant stare, and damned if she was going to fail.
They stared at each other for a long, seemingly eternal moment before Hunter’s lips quirked up slightly and he finally blinked. Kylie found that she could finally breathe freely, her shoulders relaxing as if released from a binding spell.
“Your heat truly has ended—at least for now,” Hunter said, though he still made no move to approach her. “There’s only a faint whiff of mating pheromones clinging to your body, but it’s nowhere near as potent as what you were releasing the last time I was near.”
Kylie sighed heavily and closed her eyes briefly in relief. “Thank God.”
“I have the number of an excellent doctor within our clan in my contacts,” Jennifer said. “Now that it’s safe for you to leave your apartment, we should get you checked out ASAP.”
Her eyes flew open in alarm. “Um—no thank you. The last thing I want right now is to find myself someone’s lab rat.”
“It wouldn’t be anything so drastic,” Jennifer insisted, “just a physical and some blood work.”
Kylie flashed her
a skeptical look even as her mind was beginning to go into full panic mode. There was no way in hell she could allow anyone to draw her blood. That was a disaster that had to be avoided at all costs.
“Somehow I don’t think it would stop at a blood sample given that I’m a Returner,” Kylie said dryly.
Looking exasperated, Jennifer turned to Hunter. “Tell her it wouldn’t be like that at all.”
Hunter snorted. “I assume you want her to see Needles. Sorry, but I have to side with Kylie on this one. When has just one blood sample ever been enough for that damned vampire?”
Kylie stiffened. “Vampire?”
Jennifer rolled her eyes. “He’s just spouting nonsense. Dr. Carter is just very thorough.”
“All the same, I think I’ll pass this time,” Kylie said stubbornly. “If my hormones start going haywire again, I’ll consider it.”
“But—”
“At any rate,” Hunter interrupted, peeling himself from the wall, “it’s probably best we take this conversation to somewhere more private. Follow me.”
Kylie expected him to lead them down the stairwell, but instead, he began to ascend. Did this apartment complex have a roof terrace? Given that her body was still saturated with residual mating pheromones, it was probably best that they went outdoors where the night air could begin cleansing her of them.
She had noticed Hunter sniffing the air more than once as she and Jennifer had argued. He was still very much being affected by her scent even though he was concealing it very well.
However, after only one flight, Hunter led them out of the stairwell and down the hall to the apartment at the end.
“Another empty apartment?” Kylie asked as he inserted one of the numerous keys from his keychain into the lock. Owning an apartment building was sure convenient.
“No. It’s mine,” Hunter replied, opening the door.
Tempted by the Jaguar #2: Revelation (Riverford Shifters) Page 3