Jaguar Pride (11 page)

“I had a kitten when I was little, and I fed her from a bowl. So that's why I thought it would work for a jaguar cub. Even so, it would help if we had a regular cat or dog dish that didn't tip,” she said.

“Yeah. Not that we would find anything like that here.” He headed outside with the second litter box.

When he returned, she asked, “Did they use the boxes okay?”

“Yeah, they were good. Although I managed to get milk all over their faces—don't ask me how.”

She chuckled.

He cleaned the cubs up, then returned with two wet cats and a towel, and set them on the kitchen floor near the table. At least jaguar cubs loved the water. The whole cabana was tiled, so no problem with cleanups if they were needed.

The cubs were sniffing at the aroma of the ham and eggs.

Melissa smiled down at them. “You two are too little yet. Later, you can eat big-people food. I think.” She looked at Huntley for confirmation.

Huntley started to agree but then said, “Let me call Mom.”

Melissa smiled.

Huntley went to put on some jeans and a T-shirt, and did a search on the Internet to learn when jaguar cubs began to eat meat, but he wasn't certain if the same rules applied to jaguar shifter cubs. He returned to the living room with the phone in hand and called his mother.

“Okay, another question. The cubs look like they're dying to have some meat while Melissa's cooking ham and eggs. I did a quick Internet search, and one of the sites said the mother takes them to a kill site and they begin to eat meat as young as seven to nine weeks of age. But human babies can't even eat pureed food at that age, can they?”

“No. But when they're jaguars, they have all the needs of a full-time jaguar. So, yes, they can eat meat. They'll eat just what they need, so try them out on a little bit of it. Not anything too spicy,” his mother said.

“Okay. Thanks. We have ham and eggs this morning. Do you think smoked ham would be all right?”

“Soak it in water and that will take out some of the spicy flavor. If you have some raw hamburger, that would be even better. Just feed them a little bit.”

“Okay. Thanks, Mom.” He poked around in the fridge. “Got some. Got to go. I'll call if we have any more questions.”

“Good luck to the both of you. Any luck with finding the mother?”

“Not yet. Soon, we hope.” Then they said their good-byes, and he separated a little bit of the hamburger for each of the cubs. “A little bit of raw hamburger, Mom said.”

He sat down on the floor to feed them to get them out from under Melissa's feet. Immediately, both cubs scrambled onto his lap and tried to get to the meat. He parceled it out to each of them, both licking at his hands with their small sandpapery tongues. Then they began to nibble at the hamburger. He looked up to see Melissa watching him and she smiled.

The cubs finished the meat and began rubbing their heads against his shirt, then clawing at him.

“No claws,” he said, and Melissa chuckled.

“You're going to have to get visitation rights after their parents are returned to them,” she said.

He heard the lightness in her voice, then saw the worried frown etching across her face right afterward.

“We'll get their parents free, and the cubs will be with them before long,” he assured her.

“Martin said that he's working on a way to fly the cubs out of here using a private plane or helicopter.”

“Good. That would be best for all concerned.”

She served up the breakfast. “They also have all the branches working on trying to identify the parents.”

“With no real database, that won't be easy. They can't put a bulletin out asking if anyone knows of a couple with twin babies that went to Costa Rica recently. Then the police would get involved. It would be a mess.”

“I agree. They'll only be able to have everyone in the branches ask everyone they know, and try to put the word out just among our kind. Did you talk to Martin this morning while I was still snoozing?” she asked.

“No, I've been too busy with the cubs. They're a handful.” He set them aside and washed his hands, then joined her at the table. “I'm not really good at sitting still on a mission. I want to do something. Like go out and free the parents and kill the bastards who captured them.”

“Yeah, but there's not much we can do about it. We can't even just go out and have fun. Attempt snorkeling or horseback riding or boating. Not without worrying about the babies,” she said.

He laughed. “Do you realize that overnight we became an old married couple?”

She smiled and felt her cheeks burning. She figured they were having too much bed sport for that. She looked down as Sweetpea stretched her paws onto her lap, looking up at her and wanting to curl up on her lap. They were just so adorable. “No, not right now, baby. You get more milk. No other food. I'll play with you in a little bit.”

After Melissa and Huntley ate and cleaned up, they noticed the cubs were curled up with each other on the towel, watching them.

“I'm going outside to cut some vines.”

“All right.” She raised her brows.

“So we have something we can play with them.”

She smiled. “Like I said, total dad material.”

“We've got to be prepared if they wake up long enough to want to play. Besides, it's important to teach them to hunt and play like wild cats when they're little or they won't be able to handle it. Which is why the parents have them down here so young.”

“Right. I'm calling Martin to see if he's got any updates.” Like real mission stuff.

“All right. I want to listen in.” Huntley thought she'd be disappointed because Martin would have called first thing if he'd learned anything.

She put the call on speakerphone and asked, “Have any word on Jackson's whereabouts or the parents' or who they are? Or when you can have someone pick up the cubs?”

“No, on all accounts. We've got everybody on this that we can. Everyone who knows any shifter has spread the word that a couple has been taken into captivity. We've sent out the word that we've got a couple of agents taking care of the cubs for the time being.”

She glanced at Huntley.

Hell, yeah, if Martin hadn't said which two agents were babysitting, he'd bet a year's worth of salary that everyone was dying to know.

“But some of the jaguar-shifter couples are loners and don't associate with others, which might be the case with the parents. So far, everyone that anyone knows with cubs has called in to let us know they're all accounted for. One had triplets that they knew had gone to Belize and they were concerned they might have made trip changes, which had us worried that one of the cubs was missing, but the family was found safe at one of the resorts in Belize.”

“What…what if there
were
more cubs than just the two?” Melissa asked, appearing stricken.

Huntley said, “I doubt it. The tent was zipped up when I got there. The mother made sure that the cubs couldn't slip out. They were sleeping on my bedding when I arrived. So I really don't believe that there were any more of them. Besides, I only smelled the mother and the two cubs. The father hadn't even been anywhere near the tent.”

Melissa let out her breath. Huntley pulled her into his arms and rubbed her back.

“We're searching everywhere for their identity and their current location. We'll keep you posted on that. In other news, the EMTs were able to revive Jackson's sister before they took her to the hospital. She came out of surgery, and she's going to make it.”

“Thank God for that,” Melissa said.

“Yeah, but Phil Gorsman was released on bail.”

“Great. What's wrong with the damn judges?” Huntley asked.

“That's what I say. Apparently, when they were processing him, they made a mistake and released him on bail bond. Okay, if you've got everything under control there for the moment, I'll call back later when I have anything more.”

“Talk later.” Melissa ended the call and was about to speak to Huntley when her phone rang in her hand. She looked at the caller ID. “Oliver, great.” She swiped her finger across the screen and said, “Oliver, I'm sorry I didn't pick up my things and move them out of your place yet, but—”

“Where are you?”

“Back in Costa Rica. We had to track down the poachers and—”

“You and Huntley Anderson?” Oliver sounded suspicious, as if he thought she'd planned it this way. “You were supposed to be on vacation.”

“Yes, but then we had a lead.” She wondered if he'd decided to be with Chad and now wanted her out of his place sooner rather than later. “We had some problems right away.”

“
Figures
.” He couldn't guess the half of it!

“Yeah, well, the poachers captured a husband and wife who are jaguar shifters, except that they left two cubs behind in the rainforest.”

Oliver was silent for once.

“Are you still there?”

“Yeah.”

She thought he sounded a little shocked. “So we're trying to find a way to get the cubs safely back to the States. In the meantime, we've got to take care of them.”

“Hell, Melissa. This is why I didn't want you to be working in that job any longer. What if anyone finds you with the cubs?”

He sounded like he still cared about her safety. She appreciated his concern.

“We'll be in a lot of trouble. So it might be a while before I come get my things.” When he didn't answer her, she said, “All right?” She hoped he didn't just decide to dump them.

“Do you know who the parents are?”

“No. Our director has some of our people trying to determine their identities, and he's also asked the other branches to look into it.”

“I'll check my records.”

“For what?”

“Some shifters have signed up for life insurance policies with me. I'll check and see if any of them are out of the country—in particular, on vacation in Costa Rica. I doubt I'll find the right couple, but I'll look into it.”

Shocked to the core but glad for his help, Melissa said, “Thanks, Oliver.”

“Don't worry about your stuff. I'll…just move it to the guest room and you can pick it up when you return.”

“Thanks. I appreciate it.”

“Take care of yourself and I'll be in touch.” He sounded really concerned, which was more like the Oliver she really had liked.

“All right,” she said and ended the call.

Huntley must have gone outside to cut some vines while she was talking to Oliver because now he was playing with the cubs, sweeping a couple of vines about the room. The cubs were chasing after them, catching them with their claws and then being dragged a couple of feet as they bit at the vine. Half the time, they ended up tackling each other. They didn't have all their teeth yet, but their claws were wicked enough.

Huntley caught her eye. “Everything all right?” He sounded like he was trying to remain neutral, but he looked hopeful that she wasn't having trouble with Oliver.

She smiled. “Everything's fine. He's just going to move my stuff to the guest room where I can pick it up when I get back.” She sat down next to Huntley and swept one of the vines across the floor for the cubs, but they had tired out.

They climbed onto her lap to sleep. She stroked their fur. “They don't last long, do they?”

“No. They eat, stay up for about an hour, and then they conk out again.”

They heard voices below their cabin and then footfalls as two people climbed their wooden steps. Huntley and Melissa were both on their feet in an instant. “I'll hide them and the litter boxes. You speak to whoever is at the door,” Melissa said.

Huntley began stripping out of his clothes.

“What are you—”

“Making it look like I just got out of bed, or we were making love or something.”

She hurried into the bedroom and put both cubs under the bed. It was like a cave underneath the bedspread, and she hoped they'd stay put. Then she ran to get the litter boxes, clamped the lids on the tubs, and moved them to the bedroom closet.

A knock on the door sounded and her heart skipped a beat.

Huntley went to the door and saw two policemen in uniform. Not good. He waited a couple of heartbeats, then opened the door, dressed only in his boxers.

“Are you Huntley Anderson of Dallas, Texas?” the shorter of the two men asked, glancing at Huntley's attire.

“Yes, sir.”

“And Melissa Overton? Is she here?”

“She was taking a nap. Well, we both were.”

“We would like to speak to both of you.”

“Certainly. Melissa?” Huntley called out, not making a move to allow the men in. “The police want to talk to us.”

She shut the door to the bedroom, then strode into view, yawning, her hair tumbled. “Yes, officers?”

One little squeak from one of the cubs would be all Huntley and Melissa needed to cook their goose, Huntley thought as he tried to appear friendly and not like they were trying to hide anything in front of the police.

“May we come in?” the taller of the two policemen asked.

“Sure,” Huntley said, wanting to say no. But if he did, he figured they'd believe he was guilty of some crime and arrest him on the spot. Then they'd arrest Melissa and find the cubs, and Martin would have an even worse mess to clean up.

Huntley should have said he was going to put on some pants, but he figured he had only one option. Fleeing was out of the question. Shifting and killing the men wouldn't work. They undoubtedly had told higher-ups—or higher-ups had told them—they'd be here questioning Melissa and Huntley. Turning them? He'd never known anyone who had been turned before his half sister changed a human, so he wasn't certain it would always work. Or how they'd managed to do it.

That was the only thing he was leaning toward, and it was a bad notion all the way around. The men had to have family. How would they be able to hide what they were from them and their police force?

Huntley took Melissa's very cold hand and led her to the couch. They took a seat there while the men sat on the two chairs across from them.

“I'm Alvarez Mendez, and this is my partner Pantepi Cato. We're looking into poachers who have been trying to steal our cats from the park. You've been in the park recently,” the shorter of the two men said, frowning at them.

“Yes. And if this is about calling the park rangers concerning the cougar and the two cubs those guys tried to poach that you caught up with on the beach, yes, we called you. Melissa and I are both undercover,” Huntley said, winging it. Hell, what else was he to say?

Melissa was watching him, her lips parted slightly.

He shrugged at her. “We
were
undercover.” He said to the men, “We work for an agency called the JAG, and we bring down poachers whenever we can. We don't take them in. We just report them to your own forces so you can mete out their punishment when we find them. Not just here, but all over. We want these people to be examples of what happens when they try to steal from your parks.

“The poachers we were after are U.S. citizens, and we had men investigating them when they arrived in Costa Rica. One of them got away, returned to the United States, and came here again. He formed a new crew. They were trying to capture a jaguar this time. I tried to stop them, and they shot at me. The bullet nicked my forehead and knocked me out, and I was damned lucky it didn't kill me. Then Melissa tracked them to the beach, but they had already taken off in a boat.”

“Did they get a jaguar?” Alvarez asked.

Huntley shook his head. “Not that we could tell.”

“You didn't call it in to our rangers that time?” Alvarez asked, though it was more of a statement of fact because he must have known darn well that neither Huntley nor Melissa had.

Huntley shrugged. “There was no evidence to prove they'd done anything illegal. The first time we called your authorities, the poachers were caught red-handed with the weapons and the cougars in the burlap sacks.”

“What's to say you aren't part of this team and lying about all of this? That you were there, but heard us coming and got away?” Alvarez asked.

So Alvarez was one of the men who had arrived at the scene of the crime. “You can verify it with our boss. We have badges and everything, if you'll permit Melissa to get them to show to you.”

“Who's to say that your ‘boss' isn't the leader of a bunch of poachers, and he's got the same cover story in case we questioned you?”

“If we were the bad guys, we wouldn't stay at a resort here. We wouldn't have called the authorities to let them know we had found the poachers, or knocked them out so that you could get there and take them into custody. We wouldn't make reservations to enter the park.”

“Yet you're undercover,” Alvarez reminded him.

“Right, as in we were after the poachers, not knowing if we'd find them or not. Do you think a cougar, one that was drugged, could have taken all those men down at the beach? Even if she hadn't been drugged, she couldn't have knocked them out cold.” Only jaguars could do that. A cougar would have torn into them with her teeth. “And who called you to inform on them then? How would anyone but us know about making the calls? I used one of the men's phones while all of them were unconscious.”

“Why not your own phone?”

“We were supposed to be undercover.”

Alvarez looked at his partner as if checking his take on it.

“We used our martial arts training to knock the men out. Unfortunately Jackson, the ringleader, got away. He had fallen behind. According to his men, he had become ill. He must have reached the camp at some point, seen what had happened to his men, and taken off. If we had been working with the rest of the poachers, we would have taken off in the boat—with the cats.”

“So after you knocked them out, you called us and then left?” Alvarez asked.

“We watched over the she-cat and her cubs. Asleep, they were vulnerable. So we made sure only the police and park rangers discovered them. Then when the mother and her little ones were awake, they took off, and we did too.”

“But…we didn't see any sign of you.”

“We were—”

“Undercover,” Alvarez said.

“Right.”

“Okay, let's see that ID. But I'll go with you,” Alvarez said to Melissa.

Huntley prayed that the cubs stayed hidden and didn't fuss, and that Alvarez didn't start poking around in the bedroom. Melissa rose from the couch, her face pale, totally ill at ease. Where were the cubs? Hell, what if they were sitting on the floor by the bedroom door?

“You have to admit this is all hard to believe,” Pantepi said.

“I understand. That's why we have been conducting these undercover missions. We can't catch the bastards in the United States. By then, they've already sold the animals somewhere else. This is the closest we've ever gotten to them. Our job was to catch them in the act with all the evidence present and turn them over to you. Then you could handle the matter. You'd make them serve a sentence in jail here, the cats would still be living in their home, and all would be well.”

Huntley was getting ready to shift if he heard any indication that Alvarez had discovered the cubs in the bedroom.

But then he heard Melissa and Alvarez's footfalls on the tile floor in the hallway and glanced in that direction, barely breathing.

Alvarez had their badges and passports and her cell. He handed the badges to his partner. Huntley felt a modicum of relief that the officer hadn't seen or heard the cubs, but Huntley and Melissa weren't out of the jungle yet. Not until the police officers were satisfied and left.

“I'll call the director and we can put it on speakerphone, if you like. You can ask any questions you want of him. All right?” Melissa asked. “If he hears a man on my phone he doesn't know, he's going to think I ended up in the hands of the bad guys. Like you're unsure of our identities, he wouldn't trust yours.”

“All right. Call him.” Alvarez gave her phone back to her and passed off the passports to his partner.

Huntley prayed this would work.

“Martin, this is Melissa Overton.”

Using her full name would clue the director in right away that Huntley and Melissa were in trouble. He would know who she was from his caller ID. Martin was smart and waited to hear what she had to say.

“We're afraid we had to break our cover with a couple of Costa Rican police officers. We had to tell them about the cougar and her cubs that we rescued on the beach. I have this on speakerphone so they can ask you questions.”

She handed the phone back to Alvarez. “Hello, sir, this is Alvarez Mendez with the police here in Puerto Jimenez. We found a tranquilizer dart in a tree and assumed that whoever had fired it was poaching animals at Corcovado National Park. And we found a round of ammunition below that. We've gone over records for those visiting the park, and Huntley Anderson and Melissa Overton were listed as having made reservations during both the time when we caught the first poachers and the second time when shots were fired and we discovered the tranquilizer dart and round.”

“Yes, and the poachers would not be making reservations at the park,” Martin said. “My people obey the restrictions. If we need to get into the park, we call ahead of time and ensure we have the necessary approval.”

Alvarez studied Huntley, then Melissa. “Yes, it seems that was all in order. But why didn't you tell us why they were there in the first place?”

“They're special agents who are highly trained to track these men and take them down without killing them.”

“But one got away, and according to Mr. Anderson, he returned to poach again. And got away,” Alvarez said, sounding annoyed.

“That couldn't be helped,” Huntley said. “After they shot at me, I was out for the count.” He had to let the boss know that's what he'd told these men. “Melissa was on her own, and if she'd called the police, then what? They wouldn't have had any evidence against these men. Just her word that Jackson had been at the scene of the first crime. But no real evidence.”

“Right,” Martin said. “We take the crimes against the animals seriously. The two agents have worked countless missions fighting against these kinds of people. Both Melissa and Huntley are biologists who have worked extensively with big cats—in particular, jaguars—all their lives. They know them as you would know your own family members. All of us at this branch want the same thing—to protect wildlife in their native habitat. We're on the same side in this. Give me the name of your superior and I'll speak with him.”

Alvarez gave Martin the number. “I'll call him and he can talk to you,” Martin said.

Huntley knew Martin would do so immediately. He had to be as worried as they were that one of the cubs would let out a hair-raising snarl that meant she was hungry. They seemed to need to be fed every few hours, so he hoped that they would continue to sleep as long as the police officers were here. He had heard Melissa close the bedroom door, so at least the cubs couldn't get up and just wander down the hall.

“Would you like something to drink? Tea? Coffee?” Melissa asked as the police officers waited to hear from their boss.

They both shook their heads, thank heavens, and handed the passports and badges back to Huntley. Then they turned Melissa's phone over to her.

They waited what felt like forever, but only a few minutes passed before Alvarez's phone rang and he answered it. “
Sí. Sí.
” He looked at Huntley. “
Sí
.” He raised an objection in Spanish, then tried to explain why they'd come here, while glancing back at Huntley and Melissa. Then he said, “
Sí
.”

Huntley fought smiling. From his expression and reactions, the guy appeared to be in hot water with his boss. Huntley wondered what Martin had said to the police officers' supervisor.

Alvarez quickly rose to his feet. Pantepi joined him, looking concerned.

“
Sí.
” Then he pocketed his phone, wrote a number on a piece of paper, and handed it to Huntley. “If you need to enter the park, just call this number and arrangements will be made right away,” he said to Huntley and Melissa. “No reservations needed.”

A baby began to cry in the bedroom, and then the other started to wail. Everyone glanced in that direction as if they'd never heard a baby cry,
ever
. What was really bad was that Melissa had just taken the one officer into that same bedroom and there had been no sign of any babies.

Nobody made a move for an instant. Huntley and Melissa's hearts were beating triple time.

“Feeding time,” Melissa said, but then waited as if to see if the police officers were done with her.

Huntley could just imagine her bringing out the babies, wrapped in towels, no less, and then all of a sudden they would shift into jaguar cubs.

“Good day,” Alvarez said, looking really surprised, just as much as Huntley and Melissa were, that they had a couple of babies on a mission—
undercover
.

Huntley and Melissa weren't just surprised, they were horrified. The mother had to have shifted to cause the babies to shift again.

Alvarez made a beeline exit for the door. “Have a nice day.”

Pantepi said in Spanish, “What did he say?”

“We are in trouble. He wants us to report in right away. These people are not to be bothered again under any circumstances or we lose our jobs,” he said, also speaking in Spanish as they headed down the stairs.

Huntley hurried to lock the door as Melissa raced to the bedroom.

He stalked down the hall to help her, and when he reached the bedroom, Melissa was holding one of the two naked babies wrapped in a towel. “Here, take Goldie.” She handed him the baby, her hair in dark ringlets. And then Melissa picked Sweetpea up off the other towel, her hair darker and straighter, and swaddled her. Both were still crying.

“Their mother,” Melissa said, trying to fight tears.

“She might not be dead,” Huntley said, holding the baby away from his body, not sure how to handle it. A cub, no problem. The baby was totally dependent on him to keep her safe. “The mother could have just shifted.”

“Hold her close, so she doesn't feel like you're going to drop her,” Melissa said, frowning at him. He did what she did then, cradling the baby in his arms and then they left the bathroom to feed them, not sure if that's what they needed this time. “Why would the mother shift?” she asked.

“Maybe intending to do what we would do if we were in that predicament. Unlock the cage she must be confined to and escape.” At least that's what Huntley hoped had happened. “The husband might have already done so, but we wouldn't have a clue because only the mother's shifting corresponds with her baby's shifting.”