Jungle Freakn' Bride (28 page)

Through gritted teeth, Acat replied. “Yes. The less she sees, the better for her.
I’ll return in a moment.
”
Ruth slung over a brawny shoulder, Acat clamber
ed
up a rope ladder while Carlie watched, her heart in her throat
, praying he didn’t drop her sister
.
She and Ruth weren’t exactly tiny girls.
S
he didn’t
breathe
until
he
reappeared – and the
ground
around her remained
blood
spatter free
.
His strength never failed to amaze
–
and arouse
–
her
.
Practically vaulting down from the height,
he landed in a crouch
before her.
Up he loomed, close enough to touch.

“What now?”
She peered up into his face.

“Now, the warriors your sister arrived with will meet the challengers and battle for
the right to keep her as bride
.”

“And then what?”

“If they win, they take her and leave.”

“As she is? Right
?
”

He shrugged. “
That is not up to us.
”

That
wa
s what he thought.
Carlie begged to differ.
If s
h
e could just warn Ruth
, then maybe she could prevent anything from happening
.

Why?
Her inner beast managed to voice
a
query. Why didn’t she want her sister transformed?
Why don’t I?
Honestly, if she could forget the pain of the transmission, and she already was, she couldn’t deny she enjoyed the strength and power of
the change
.
But she also feared it. Feared losing herself. Feared the cat taking over.
Did she dare curse Ruth with a lifetime sentence
, damn her perhaps
,
without knowing if the good outweighed the bad?

A good excuse
,
she thought, but not the whole one.

I don’t want to leave.
And yet, she couldn’t let Ruth stay
,
n
ot just because she couldn’t see Ruth adapting.
Carlie
had a more selfish reason, or not
,
depending on
a person’s
view of it.
She couldn’t let Acat and his tribe take both her parents
’
children away.

How would her mother and father react if neither of their girls came home?
Because, until Carlie got a handle on her other half, she didn’t dare
come in contact with her close family
.
If at least Ruth returned and told them Carlie was alive and happy, busy
working on a fabulous project
, everyone could go on with their lives.
However
, if Ruth got caught in the same mess
?
Carlie couldn’t stand the heartbreak she knew her parents would suffer
if both she and her sister never left the jungle again
.

I can’t let that happen.
Since
Carlie
couldn’t change what happened to her,
she needed to make sure Ruth left
before she found
herself tempted by the freedom
having an
animal
form
would
g
i
ve her.
She needed her baby sister gone before she
g
o
t seduced by the hard, exotic bodies all around.

A great plan, if it
worked,
but it required one key ingredient. A chance
to warn her sister. “I want to be there when my sister wakes.”

Acat’s lips pursed. “It is against tradition.
Only
unmated
brides are allowed to converse together during this period of challenge.
”

“Screw
that damned tradition
. Please, Acat.
I just don’t want to her wake up alone and scared.”
She placed her hands on his chest and begged with her eyes, and more shamefully, her pressed body.

For a moment, she didn’t think he’d relent.
“
If I let you, you promise to keep our secrets and to abide by the outcome of the battles
?
”

She crossed her fingers
mentally in her head
as she lied. “I promise to be good.”
Or as good as she was capable of
being
.

With a
ghost of a smile on his lips,
Acat brushed his mouth over hers. “I agree.”

Slapping her on the buttocks, a crack which earned him a glare as she rubbed the spot, he gestured for her to lead the way.

“You just want to look up my
loin
cloth,” she grumbled
as she clambered ahead of him up the footholds carved into the tree
.

He didn’t
deny
it.
“
We have skirts for females in the village so you can protect your modesty when you’re out and about.”

“And when I’m not out and about?” she asked
,
making sure to give her ass a little more wiggle than needed.

“Then you should be naked and ready to serve your mates when they return home with the bounty of their hunting.”

For a moment
,
she thought he was serious, but peering down, she caught the glint of mischief in his eyes. “You are so
subtly
evil.”
And hot.

He chuckled
as he
clamber
ed
onto the wooden platform behind her, his hands gripping her around the hips, pulling her into him.
“Subtle? I thought that was very frank
,
myself.
”

“And so not happening.
Nor do I cook. Unless you have a death wish, then by all means, let me get my hands on some food.”

“
I have more than enough relatives who will eagerly offer to cook for us. It will leave you plenty of time for
other
pursuits.”
He nipped the lobe of her ear before pulling away. Skirting around her, he unbarred the door to
the bridal hut
and gestured her
in
.
With a swing of her hips, she sashayed past him, making sure to run her fingers across his taut stomach as she did.

“Be seeing you, kitty.”

“Oh you shall,” he replied with a smile she didn’t exactly trust. Probably because he followed it up with
a dark promise. “If you think to betray us…”
He winked and shut the door.
But he’d gotten his warning across.

Betray him and
Carlie would pay. She shivered in delight.
Did the man not learn? Or was it because he had?
She’d probably find out soon.

Hearing her sister stir, Carlie scooted to her side and
leaned over her. “I see you’re awake finally.”

“Uh, yeah. Although, I think I’m having a heart attack.”

A playful slap on the arm went well with Carlie’s, “Wussy. I woke up to a face full of teeth and didn’t even squeak.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup.”
A grin spread across Carlie’s face at the recollection.
“Of course, I can’t vouch for the dryness of my panties.”

Ruth
snickered
as she shook her head. “Only you would joke at a time like this. Speaking of which, where are we?”

“The bridal hut.”
How well she remembered this place and the several days inside she spent agonizing over her fate with her friends. Speaking of whom, how did they fare? How could she have forgotten? Did
Leena and Sasha
also struggle through the ritual and emerge as something more?

“The what?”
Ruth’s face scrunched as she asked.

“It’s where they take the unmarried women while the men fight to win her hand in marriage.”

“How do you know this?”

Carlie rolled her eyes. “Duh. Because this is where I stayed for a few days while Acat and Chaob proved their
worthiness
.” She
couldn’t help inflecting the word with a pair of finger air quotes.

“Do I even want to know what that means?”

“Probably not. Suffice it to say you’re here because you’re a single woman who has stumbled upon a tribe of horny men who believe in love at first sight. You’ll stay here as they battle it out to see who is worthy to win you as a bride.”
She waited for her sister’s eyes to light up at what she’d surely see as a romantic gesture.

Instead
,
her sister sat up with a grumbled
,
“Great. Guess, I’ll be here a long time then
.
”

Carlie tossed her an odd look. “Why would you say that?”

“Um, hello, who is going to fight to win a chubby Amazon
-
sized nerd like me?”

Was it wrong to want to shake her sister?
When the stork handed
out
self
-
esteem
, had
Ruth
gotten none a
t all?
Perhaps the next little tidbit would help.
“Six challengers, but it would have been a lot more if you
hadn’t
just ha
d
sex with those two men you traveled with.”

Okay, Carlie could admit her gibe was a tad evil.
But funny, especially when her sister began to choke and Carlie had to pound her on the back
. “Who told you that?” Ruth sputtered.

C
rouched on haunches in front of
Ruth
,
Carlie
rolled
her
eyes. “It was kind of obvious. I’m surprised at you. You’re usually so vanilla about your fun.”
Or at least into one partner at a time, kind of like Carlie
–
once upon a time. Nowadays
,
all her fantasies seemed to involve a certain pair of men.

Color bloomed bright
o
n Ruth’s cheeks.
“I still am. It was a one
-
time thing.”

“If you say so.”

“I do say so. Besides, they only did it because they were horny and there was no one else around.”

“Oh Ruthie. I wish you wouldn’t put yourself down like that.”

Not meeting her gaze,
Ruth rolled her shoulders. “Like what
?
I’m not deaf or blind.
Face it, I’m not dainty. Or girly.”

Neither was Carlie, something Ruth never seemed to recognize.
Perhaps because Carlie never let her size bring her down.
“So you have curves, you also have the most beautiful smile, great hair, a nicer complexion than me, and you’re smart.”

Ruth
reached out to
pat
Carlie’s
hand. “I love you, Carlie, but I’m not sleeping with you.”

A snort escaped her.
“And that’s another thing I love. Your humor. Seriously
,
though, as usual, you underestimate yourself. Forget the asshats you dated in the past. Right now, we need to focus on the present. And presently there are two guys down there determined to fight so they can win you back.”

“There are?”

The surprise in her sister’s voice again made her want to shake her. Why did she find it so hard to believe?
“Very. According to my mates, they lost their minds when you were taken away back at the ruins. One of them even gave Acat a black eye. Which he totally deserved,” Carlie vehemently stated.

“Are you trying to tell me Kendrick and Joel fought for me?”

Carlie nodded.
While she suspected Ruth would protest aloud she didn’t like it, deep down, the romantic in her, the girl who’d always wanted a hero, would find the actions of Kendrick and Joel very sexy. Or so Carlie guessed if she knew her sister at all.
“Chaob said they only lost because of sheer numbers. So, you’ll have nothing to worry about. They’ll win the fights hands down. It’s the part after you won’t like.”
The part Carlie needed to make out to be wors
e
than it was because she needed Ruth to go back home.