[Project Nemesis] Jungle Fever (18 page)

            He was young,
younger than all three of her men, but with the bearing of a soldier.  His body
was muscled and obviously strong, but in their human form she could see why
Armando had been able to overpower him.  Although Armando looked sleek, his
muscles like those of a swimmer, his advantage over any foe was obviously speed
and the force he could put behind any attack.  That combined with Remy and
Rafe´s help, meant that they would win any fight over any adversary.

            Seeing them
fight, she could understand how strong a pack they were, and how well they
fought together.  She could easily understand why the project wanted cats like
these back.  They were the perfect soldier and killing machine.  Even she,
without any formal military training, could see that.

            When Rafe had
fallen down and hit his head on the rock, she now realized that he had been
faking his injury to surprise the tiger, but she knew that he must have a
slight concussion--the force of his head hitting that rock must have caused at
least that.  If it had slowed him down, she hadn´t seen it though.  He´d fought
with surprising strength and a wicked ferocity.  She didn´t doubt that he would
have overpowered the tiger eventually, his fury had made him fiercer and
stronger.  The tiger hadn´t had that on his side.

            “You must have
scented us on her and in the area,” Rafe scowled at the tiger.  “So why the
fuck did you take her?”

            “Yes, I scented
you, but I smell a lot of fucking cats everywhere, how was I to know that she
was yours?”  He was Russian, she could hear the slight sibilance and the
faintest accent lying beneath his words.

            “Well she is
ours, so leave her the fuck alone. How long have you been able to do that?” he
asked the tiger, then told Armando, “He can partially shift.  Be human with
tiger paws.”

            Both men looked
at him.  Armando looked intrigued.  He obviously wanted him for their pack.

            “Since I first
shifted.  I´ve just escaped those bastards, apparently I was the test tube
experiment of their next virus batch.  Don´t want to infect their American
soldiers with the wrong virus, now do they?” he spat furiously.

            “Do you want to
escape the island?” Armando asked.

            “Do bears shit in
the woods?” he replied crudely.

            “You can help us
then, we´re planning to escape, sooner rather than later, with that lady´s
help. Don´t fuck with her, or you fuck with us, and this time we won´t stop,
even if your abilities will be a great help to our cause.  You will not touch
her,” Armando thundered threateningly.

            He held his hands
up in surrender.  “Okay, Okay, I got that already. The name´s Nikolai
Aleksandr.”

            He got to his
feet and stood up warily as Remy growled savagely at him.  He focused on Remy
for a second, which gave Yvonne the time she needed, she´d been edging closer
to him all throughout the men´s discussion, and with his attention focused on
the still-shifted cougar, she whipped out her hand and slapped him once then
punched him with the heel of her palm, slamming upwards against his nose.

            With a howl of
pain, he yelped, “You broke my nose, fuck!”

            She gave him the
evil eye.  He laughed for a second, then rubbed his slapped cheek and set his
nose back to the correct position with a grunt.  She couldn´t help but be
pissed that they were willing to class his attempt at dragging her through the river
to whatever fate laid ahead of her, as a fucking misunderstanding.  She spun
around and gifted them all with the evil eye, and walked back over to the river
bank to wash her hands.  Nikolai´s face had already been covered in blood from
the fight before she´d smacked him.  She washed the blood of his hands away
with satisfaction.

            “We´re trying to
gather a bunch of cats together so that we can overhaul a ship and get off this
fucking place. Yvonne told us that the only way in and out of the island is the
port.  She said that there are a lot of boats in the water, but the one she
came in on is the one we´re after.  We should be able to take one over--if we
have enough men.  That´s the plan so far,” Rafe told the Russian.

            “If you follow
me, I know where there are a pack of lion shifters who want to escape as much
as I and you do.  We escaped together last week.  They´ve clumped together, but
I went on my own way. I know where they are though,” he told them all
earnestly.

            Armando raised
his brows for a second, then shrugged, “Lead the way.”

Chapter Nine

            The small group
had followed Nikolai for the past hour.

            Remy, not
trusting their new ally, remained in cougar form.

            Yvonne remained
beside Armando and Rafe took the rear of them all.

            She was pissed
off at them, and couldn´t help herself, so even though Armando kept trying to
draw her nearer to him, she ignored his overtures, but stayed close since she
knew they would protect her from any threat.

            Armando leaned
behind and hissed to Rafe, “The pheromone´s gone, I can´t smell it anymore, can
you?”

            At Rafe´s nod,
Armando grinned in satisfaction.  “Good!  She should be safe from any randy
fucking cat, must have been when they traveled through the water, the drenching
washed it all way.”

            Yvonne was just
relieved not to have that burden on her shoulders anymore.  She was tired of
these cavemen thinking they could haul her off and have their way with her,
just because she was the only available woman in the area.  It stung her pride,
and worse, she hated the helpless feeling it evoked to be utterly defenseless
against such superior strength.

            That the
pheromone had finally been erased from her body was good.  It was probably the
reason why the Russian had come after her, so how could she not be glad that it
had gone?  She didn´t want to experience anymore kidnappings.  Twice was enough
for any person!

            She supposed the
idea of using her as bait had been scraped from the list, as not only was
Armando glad, he sounded relieved too.  They were probably going to try and
persuade other cats to join them and help them escape.  She couldn´t foresee
there being any problems, who wouldn´t want to escape this bloody jungle?  Surely
they would jump at the chance to go home?

            Although she was
pissed at them for just forgiving Nikolai--he hadn´t suffered enough in her
opinion, bastard--just dragging her through the bloody water like she was a
dead dolphin or something.  No, he definitely hadn´t suffered enough!

            Her mind kept
wandering back to the fight, how magnificent they´d all been, and truth be
told, still were.  As cats though, there was something elemental about them.  She
was no longer repulsed or sickened by the thought of them.  They intrigued her
and probably always would.

            She was a
fighter, a hunter and tracker by trade, although she chose never to do any undo
and unnecessary harm, she knew that at times, it was very necessary.  Either
she harm her attacker or they would hurt her.  Simple as that, obviously.

            She’d thought
herself immune to the shows of testosterone, and didn´t need to be protected by
a man--in the normal world that is.  Here, she was in a parallel universe where
she needed the strength of men to protect her because she physically couldn´t
it herself.  She didn´t have the strength or speed to beat the cats, or the
weapons to defend herself.

            So here she was,
in this unique situation, where she could no longer rely on herself, something
that she´d done from an extremely early age, now, she needed men.  Not just any
men though, these three men.

            In the real
world, she wouldn´t have needed those men to come to her aid, the tiger would
have been on his ass within seconds, his balls up his butt and his dick in a
knot; she wouldn´t have to think about the fight--she´d been in it and seen to
the outcome.  Here, she´d watched a fight over her, and she was equal parts
pleased at their care, and equal parts aroused at watching them fight. She felt
a little mortified that she was attracted to their display, albeit
unintentionally, of testosterone, but that cave woman was rearing her ugly
head, and truth be told, she couldn´t wait to jump them.

            She could
practically feel the hard thrust of their cocks in her soft welcoming pussy,
wanted to feel it in her mouth and ass.  She wanted to suck them dry and be
pleasured in the process.  Anger and irritation aside, damn, she sure was
randy!

            As she thought
about the men themselves, she knew that she was fond of them, that her feelings
for them could very easily turn to love, and if she wasn´t so hell bent on
denying it, she could probably admit to being more than halfway there anyway.

            Time in the
jungle didn’t move at the same rate.  She’d been struck by a fever in her blood
that only they could quench.  It was unstoppable, and she was dreading leaving
them.

            Yvonne had never
relied on anyone—it was a weakness she’d never been capable of affording. 
She’d never
needed
anyone and never had anyone who’d actually wanted her
to need them.

            That she wanted,
needed, and relied upon Armando, Rafael, and Remy, wasn’t lost on her.

            Her feelings scared
her more than anything, and it was the reason why she couldn´t admit the truth
to them.  How could she?  She´d gone past thinking of social approval--that had
been a smoke in the mirror diversion, she didn´t give a shit what anybody
thought.

            If she wanted to
fuck three men, then she would.  Nothing would stop her.  She didn´t have to
worry about parental approval, didn´t care if people thought of her a slut,
with these three men she wanted to be theirs with a desperation that bordered
on obsession.

            She fully
admitted it.

            But she couldn´t
admit, not even to herself, her feelings for Remy, Armando and Rafael. They
were intense and varied, she felt one thing for one and another thing for
another, whatever the emotion they inspired in her though, it all rounded up to
the same for each.  She wouldn´t say the words, couldn´t think them; she
doubted any feelings were reciprocated.  It was highly unlikely that they
thought anything serious about her, nothing more than--she´s a good fuck, she´s
an easy lay, or we can use her information to get off the island.

            Nothing more in
depth than that, she thought.  The possibility that their feelings didn’t echo
her own hurt to believe, but she was a realist.  Their romp through the jungle,
this precious, strenuous time wouldn´t change that as well as everything else
about her damned personality!

            With a sigh, she
turned her thoughts to the Russian, the prick.  If she’d had one handy, she
could easily run him over with a Mack truck.  What he was didn´t repulse her,
it was what he´d done and what he´d been considering doing.  He´d knowingly dragged
her away against her will.  If she hadn´t have been able to escape and he´d
taken her wherever he was staying, obviously he would have wanted sex.  She
would have refused, so it was more than likely that he would have taken what
she wasn’t willing to give, and there would have been no one there to stop him.

            Why couldn´t he
take advantage of her if no one knew about it?  There was no reason for him not
to have what he wanted, so that automatically racketed up her dislike for him.  She
also wasn´t pleased that his actions had caused her to reconsider her feelings
for her three guys.  Although she wasn´t saying or even thinking what she was
beginning to feel for them, she knew what it was.  If he hadn´t have come along
and upset the rhythms of the group, she would have continued denying her
feelings for them.  He´d forced them out into the open for her, which made them
harder to lock down--bastard.

            As soon as they
reached the other pack, that would take them one step nearer to escaping the
island.  She was pleased for the men, though she didn’t relish the day they
would separate, or the fight that lay ahead of them.

            They would go
back to their own lives, and she, back to her lonely life and probably a jail
cell with her luck.  No matter what happened, she knew that there would be no
future for them beyond the island.  Even though it hurt her soul, she knew it
to be the truth, and she had to accept it.  The future held nothing for the
four of them,
c´est la vie.

            When they’d
reached their destination, they almost stumbled over the other pack, well it
felt like that to her anyway, but she thought the feeling was reciprocated by
everyone.  They were all shocked when they happened upon the four other men.  All
eight of the men shifted to cat form, bowing up and growling at each other,
showing superiority.  One by one, they started to shift back into their human
forms.