Tempted by the Jaguar #3: Ramification (Riverford Shifters) (4 page)

“That pretty much sums it up,” Hunter said into the phone as he stood
inside one of the clinic’s empty offices.

The silence on the other end of the line from Donald Gaither as he had
quickly related several key facts of his discussion with Jack had almost been
tangible. That the man always with a thousand questions hadn’t asked a single
one throughout his entire report was more than a little unnerving.

“Jack’s spoken with both his family and his Elders. I imagine they’ll
be here to move him to one of their own facilities within the hour.”

“I’m on the way as we speak,” Gaither said. “Martinez, Davis, and both Alvas are waiting for my call. We should all arrive to receive them in
twenty minutes or so. Is Kylie with you? Now I know you said this morning that
she was stable, but I would prefer you keep her away from the Elders of another
clan for the moment. We don’t need another incident in this already delicate situation.”

Hunter’s heart sank. He had hoped that Gaither wouldn’t bring Kylie up
at all.

“No,” he replied, careful to keep his tone as business-like as before. “Her
father called after I spoke with you, and she went to have breakfast with him
instead of joining me on my morning run.”

“Wait—you aren’t
with
her?” Gaither nearly shouted. “One of the
lions’ assassins is doing God-only-knows what in the city, and you left her
alone with only a
human
to protect her!”

“Spare me the lecture, Gaither!” Hunter snapped. “I’m not psychic, damn
it!”

“Call her,” the Elder commanded in what Hunter had come to think of as
his “CEO voice.” Too bad that Hunter wasn’t one of his employees. “Tell her
you’re on your way to pick her up, and for God’s sake, don’t let her out of
your sight. She may be the lions’ next target for abduction for all we know.
Take her to your apartment for the time being. Once we finish meeting with the
Parker Grove wolf clan Elders, we’ll join you to discuss strategies for her
safety.”

“No way in hell you’re having that meeting with the wolves without me!”
Hunter growled. “This is my brother’s life we’re talking about!”

“I doubt very much we will be discussing or deciding anything more than
a time and place for further discussions,” Gaither said dryly. “Clan members
need to be warned about this new danger, intelligence gathered about the ranch
the wolf spoke of. We must tread carefully, Hunter, no matter how painful it is
for you to do so. For now, you can help the clan best by protecting our most
vulnerable member.”

An image of lioness-Kylie roaring at the other lioness flashed in his
mind, and Hunter had to lock his jaw to keep from laughing. Vulnerable his ass.
That was an alpha female if he ever saw one. Maybe if he had been thinking with
his brain instead of his cock, he would have been able to see beyond the façade
she had painted and called her bluff.

“Hunter…” Gaither’s voice suddenly growled in impatience.

He only just managed not to hiss back.

Fine. If Gaither wanted to go all politician on him and dance around
the issue, then Maxim and he would just have to take matters into their own
hands. Ryder and Anna simply didn’t have time for all the usual bullshit.

He had gotten Jack’s number before he had left the poor bastard to rest,
and while he did agree with Gaither that intelligence was the next step, Maxim
could have his security team and various contacts across the state on the case
before any of the wolf clan Elders stepped foot in the clinic.

“You know how to find me,” was all Hunter said as he ended the call
before the Elder could say another word.

He quickly put in a call to Maxim. Hopefully his friend had made some
progress in finding Kylie. No matter how painful, the question of her loyalty
was something that absolutely had to be resolved as soon as possible. Now that
the mystery of his brother and Anna’s disappearance had been somewhat answered,
there was too much at stake at this point to leave such a huge loose end
untied. If she was a threat, she had to be dealt with, and if not… A wave of
heat that had nothing to do with anger abruptly washed through him, and he
nearly dropped the phone.

Christ, he was so fucked.

“Maxim, where are you?” he demanded a little more roughly than he had
intended the second the call connected. “We need to talk
now
. That wolf
was a treasure trove of information like you wouldn’t believe.”

“I’m in my office at the club. Good timing. I was just about to call
you. Some major shit is going down right now in regards to Kylie, and we need
to decide what to do ASAP.”

Fuck
. Was she really—

“Tell it to me straight, Maxim,” Hunter bit out. “Is she one of those
bastards?”

For a few seconds, only silence reached his ear, and he felt something
tighten in his chest.

“While the jury’s still out, some of the things I’ve found out in the
last hour are pointing to no,” Maxim finally replied cautiously, “but it’s not
something I want to discuss over the phone.”

“Right. I’ll be there in less than twenty.”

Now to find a ride to his apartment so he could pick up his truck. He
hoped to God Kylie’s pheromones had faded enough overnight. The last thing he
needed was her potent “come fuck me” scent mucking with his brain again.

***

“You look like you’re in pain,” Maxim commented the moment Hunter stepped
into his office at the club.

Hunter’s scowl deepened. “Let’s just say that I would have been better
off walking here.”

His friend’s nostrils flared as he neared. “I see what you mean. I’ll
send a couple of my men to blast the inside of your truck with ozone. Until
then, I’ll loan you one of mine.”

Hunter collapsed into a chair. “Thanks. I have a feeling I’ll be needed
it a lot today.” He then fixed Maxim with a serious gaze. “Maxim, that wolf saw
Ryder and Anna.”

Maxim had been leaning back in his chair in his usual casual sprawl, but
at Hunter’s words, he sprang forward so quickly, a wild look in his eyes, that
for a split-second he thought Maxim was about to lunge over the desk at him.

“When? Where?” his friend demanded. The desperately hopeful look in
those pale blue eyes was heartbreaking.

“It’s not good. The lions have them, as we thought.”

Then slowly, excruciatingly, Hunter recounted everything Jack had told
him. The more he talked, the more Maxim’s expression hardened until the tiger’s
anger was all he could smell. He had been anxious to get rid of the smell of
Kylie’s heat from his nose, but not like this. The sharp smell of Maxim’s anger
was so strong, the look in his eyes so feral, that Hunter feared his friend was
about to lose control of his tiger.

Then Maxim abruptly slammed both fists onto the top of his desk, making
Hunter involuntarily hiss in reaction, and he realized just how much on edge
he, himself, had become as he had talked.

“I’m going to shred every inch of flesh from those bastards’ bodies
before ripping open their bellies with my fangs,” Maxim snarled, his voice so
deep and full of rage that he sounded like a stranger.

In the twenty plus years he had known the tiger shifter before him,
Hunter had never seen him even close to this pissed off.

“We will,” Hunter assured him just as fiercely. “Jack has promised the
help of his clan, and I believe him.”

From the pinched expression on his face, Hunter could tell Maxim was
putting tremendous effort into reigning in his fury. Maxim had always been the mellower
of the two, which was saying a lot given Hunter’s general aloofness, and he was
grateful for it. Now, more than ever, they would need his friend’s
levelheadedness.

Maxim closed his eyes and drew in a final, calming breath before he
said, “The wolf clans are the best allies one can have, so at least there is a
sliver of good news in all that horror.”

“A few of my Elders will be meeting with the Parker Grove wolf clan Elders
and Jack’s pack shortly. I wanted to stay for it, gather as much information
before dropping such a huge bomb on you, but then Gaither brought up Kylie.”

Maxim nodded and sat back in his chair, though the rigidness in his
body remained. “Given that you actually fought a shifted lion inside Riverford,
I’m not surprised she was his main priority. Historically, clans have always
acted a little crazy whenever a Returner popped up.”

“But is she
really
a Returner?” Hunter asked, his uncertainty
bleeding into his tone. “When she confessed to me that she knew she was a
Polyshifter, she also called herself a Returner. After lying to all of us about
her ignorance, how can we ever trust anything she says or has said?”
For all
I know, getting me to fall for her was all part of some nefarious plan.

“Which brings us to the ‘serious shit going down’ I warned you about
earlier. While my people were talking to the staff at Riverford Regional, a
certain suspected Sniffer was also seen talking to a couple of nurses. Like us,
the man was asking about Kylie’s father, how they might be able to reach him.
Luckily those nurses knew no more about Dr. Moore other than that he was one of
the hospital’s rotating doctors rather than on permanent staff. I think my
people spooked him because he ran off soon after, but the fact that a Sniffer
was asking about someone close to Kylie could mean several things.”

“A misdirection,” Hunter couldn’t help saying. “Planting doubt to any
suspicions.”

Maxim nodded. “Lord knows how those bastards plan to come at us. That
they’ve been quietly and successfully kidnapping shifters in our area is likely
just the tip of the iceberg. Maybe their plan was to use Kylie as a
distraction, something that would undoubtedly draw our eyes momentarily away
from what we should have been doing.”

Hunter narrowed his eyes. “But you don’t think that’s it. You said as
much when I flat-out asked.”

Maxim smiled thinly. “I don’t, but only because I found out that Dr. Moore
has been good friends with a cougar-shifter RN named Karen Wilson and her son
for years and that she called in sick to the hospital this morning. If not for
that fact, I imagine my suspicion would have run deeper than even yours.”

Hunter frowned. “I don’t know any Wilsons personally.”

“Sasha’s husband has been friends with Karen’s son, Mitch, since they
were brats barely able to shift. Although I don’t know the particulars, I do
know that Karen’s husband was killed by a couple of lions on a business trip to
New York when Mitch was only three, so there’s no way in hell that family is
associated with the lions. If they’re the ones either hiding or trying to get
Kylie and her dad out of Riverford, then I have a hard time believing that
Kylie is one of the lions’ pet Polyshifters simply for the fact that Karen,
more than anyone else, would have been suspicious of a human girl suddenly
shifting for the first time in adulthood.

“However, despite all of that, we’re really just flying in the dark
right now. You need to get over to the Wilson house right now, and if Kylie is
indeed there, start convincing her and her dad that they need to leave with
you.”

“I think I’m the last person she would want to see right now,” Hunter
protested, “especially with the way I blew her off earlier when she tried to
explain herself.”

Maxim shook his head. “Right now, you’re probably the only shifter she
would even agree to talk to, much less let anywhere near her.”

Hunter ran a hand through his hair in agitation. “I’ll try, but don’t
be surprised if she attacks me instead. I don’t want to hurt her, but she may
not give me a choice.”

“Hmm—good point.” Maxim grabbed his cell phone from his desktop and
began scrolling through his contacts. “Maybe a surprise visit isn’t the best
way to go about this. Sasha sent me Mitch’s number earlier just in case. Maybe
if we alert them to the danger, tell them we know Kylie’s an innocent in all
this and that we believe the lions are coming for her, they may agree to accept
our help. For this, I think it’s best that we deal with Mitch rather than his
mother.”

“Send him a text first,” Hunter said. “Tell him you need to talk to him
about something important but to make sure he’s not overheard by anyone,
especially his mother. That way, if Kylie and her father really are with them,
they won’t be spooked into running again.”

“I can do one better,” Maxim said. “The Wilsons live clear across town
in The Highlands residential area. It should take you a good thirty minutes to
get there. After he responds to the text,
if
he responds, then you leave
here, and I’ll wait about twenty minutes to make that follow-up call. That way
if they do choose to run, you’ll be close enough to maybe head them off, though
I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that. If she’s there and she agrees to
talk, then send me a text. I’ll gather some of my security and meet you there.
We can all decide what to do from there.”

“Maxim—once you talk with Mitch, I really do think you should let me
deal with the rest alone. You should be concentrating on gathering intel on
that ranch. We both know that you and your people have the best chance of
unearthing something useful.”

“And that’s exactly what I’m doing. As a Polyshifter, Kylie may very
well have information vital to our cause, but if it turns out Kylie hid her
true heritage out of fear rather than subterfuge, then she may be the very key
we need to successfully infiltrate that ranch of horrors.”

“That’s a lot of ifs,” Hunter said.

“After months of a whole lot of nothing, suddenly within a few hours
today, you’ve talked to a guy who has seen Anna and Ryder alive as well as
learned of someone who is uniquely able to help us save them should she choose
to do so,” Maxim said. “Right now I’m willing to take a few things on faith
that it’ll all work out favorably in the end for all of us.”