Tempted by the Jaguar #1: Transformation (Riverford Shifters) (5 page)

After eating lunch at a little Italian restaurant downtown, Paul drove Kylie
back to her apartment.

“I’ll do my best to keep my cell on me at all times,” she said as she
unbuckled her seatbelt. “If my phone starts tracking somewhere weird on the
locator app or you don’t hear from me by midnight, then just assume the worst
has happened and call the cops.”

“No one at work knows that I’m back in town yet,” Paul said, “only that
I left the conference because of a family emergency. I can stay at home for the
next few days just watching that locater app if I need to.” He smiled wryly.
“Heck, if I have to go out, it’s not as though anyone will look askance at me
for staring at my phone screen overly long.”

Kylie chuckled and reached for the door handle. She paused.

“Are you sure we’re doing the right thing?” she asked, looking back at
him a little anxiously.

“Sure? Absolutely not,” Paul said seriously, “but given how you
suddenly shifting after all this time has thrown pretty much everyone who knows
for a loop, I do think this is the best course for now. I’ll talk to Karen
again this evening and see if anything new has come up regarding the Sniffers
along the cougar grapevine.”

He reached over and squeezed her shoulder affectionately. “Just keep
your chin up and your eyes sharp as always. This may indeed turn out to be a
good thing for you.”

“I hope so,” Kylie replied grimly.

“Once things settle down, we’ll talk more about the other.”

“Other?”

Paul’s eyes flashed momentarily with anger. “The bastard that gave you
that knot on your head.”

Kylie flinched. After initially telling him about her attack and
abduction in the vaguest of terms, she had been trying her damndest not to
think about it at all. Although shifters healed three times as fast as regular
humans, the large bump on her forehead was still very much visible. She only
hoped it would disappear before she went back to class.

Her mouth twisted. If the jaguars even allowed her go back to class.

“Okay,” she agreed, not quite able to hide the reluctance in her voice.

She hurried out of the car before her composure crumbled, waving her
goodbye as Paul pulled away. Then nervously, she glanced around the lot. Although
she had been watching all the cars tailing them down the freeways and streets
through the side mirror, Kylie hadn’t figured out which vehicle was Hunter’s.
She had also not seen any vehicles pull into the parking lot after them.

He probably just parked down the street
, Kylie reasoned as she
turned to head towards her apartment.

For all she knew, Hunter could already be waiting for her inside. She
frowned as it occurred to her that he might have left her apartment unlocked
when he had left to follow Paul and her.

Just as she reached her unit and was about to reach for the doorknob,
Kylie suddenly felt a shiver go down her spine. She whirled around, her heart
in her throat and her hands already instinctually rising up in defense before
she let them fall back to her sides with a scowl.

“Good. It would have been embarrassing if you hadn’t sensed you were
being stalked,” Hunter said with a smirk, standing only about a foot away from
her.

“Not half as embarrassing as you’re about to look writhing around on
the asphalt and clutching your balls if you don’t wipe that smirk off your face
right now
,” Kylie growled. “What if you had made me accidentally turn
into a jaguar again?”

“That’s exactly what I was testing,” he said.

She stared back at him incredulously. “Why would you do that while I’m outside?
You were the one who made such a stink about being seen in the first place!”

“Which is why I waited until you were beneath the porch roof to
approach you,” he replied. “Unless someone is directly behind us, anyone standing
underneath is hidden from view.”

Kylie turned back to the door. “Please don’t ever do that again,” she
said quietly as she dug her keys out of her pocket. “I’m probably going to have
nightmares about that psycho attacking me from behind for the rest of my life,
and I don’t need any more reminders.”

Hunter’s hand was suddenly on her wrist, pleasantly warm against the
iciness of her skin, making her pause before she could insert her key into the
lock. “I think it would be best if we go see the elders right now. They’ll have
more news regarding the asshole that kidnapped you. Maybe it’ll give you some
closure.”

She turned back to him. “Where exactly will you be taking me?” she
asked, letting suspicion creep into her voice.

“To the forest on the other side of the river along the outskirts of
the city,” he replied.

“So—what—one of the elders has a house out there, or do you jaguars
have some sort of secret lair?”

“A house, no. The elders stay in a pretty sweet cave deep within the
forest,” Hunter said seriously.

Kylie stared at him. He
had
to be pulling her leg.

“You must be joking.”

“‘Fraid not.” He looked her up and down. “In fact, it can get pretty
chilly, so you might want to go grab a coat.”

So he was the teasing type. Maybe. On any other day, she probably would
have humored him, but right now she was in no mood for his or anyone else’s
games. She would call his bluff—if bluff it was.

“Forget it,” she said stonily as she jammed the key into the lock. “You
must be high if you think I’m going to follow a guy I barely know into a cave
deep in the forest to meet a bunch of people I have no way of knowing even
exist.”

She managed to open the door before Hunter grabbed her arm. She had
expected him to panic, to plead, or even apologize. That’s why she was thrown a
bit off-balance when he doubled over laughing.

“I’m sorry, but the look on your face…” he managed to get out between
wheezes as Kylie glared daggers at him. “I take it you’re not the outdoorsy
type?”

“I like the outdoors just fine,” Kylie retorted, jerking her arm out of
his grip. “I just don’t want to end up as the latest missing persons report on
the six o’clock news tonight.”

“You’re right,” Hunter said, swallowing his remaining laughter. “That
was incredibly insensitive of me wasn’t it? My brother—well never mind. I’m
sorry that I upset you. I’m not really taking you to a cave, I promise.”

Kylie folded her arms across her chest. “Then where?”

“One of the elders is Donald Gaither.”

Kylie started. His was a well-known name in Riverford society, the CEO
of a major architectural firm. This was something Karen had never told them!

Hunter’s lips quirked up. “We’ll be going to his office downtown. The
rest of the elders should already be there waiting for us.”

She hadn’t exactly expected something like the Batcave, but she also
had not expected to be taken to a regular office building either. The thought
of going somewhere so public eased some of her tension. It was still the middle
of the day, so the building would no doubt be filled with workers—potential witnesses.
They couldn’t
all
be shifters, could they?

“Come on. My truck is parked across the street. We can talk more on the
way over.”

“Fine.” Kylie shut and relocked the door. “Why didn’t you just park in
the parking lot? I knew you were following us, so why all the subterfuge?”

Hunter raised an eyebrow. “You don’t smell it?”

Kylie laughed humorlessly. “What
don’t
I smell now? You’ll have
to be more specific.”

“It’s something sweaty and—oh, I suppose you can say aggressive. There
really is no comparison to something a human can smell, so it’s hard to
explain.”

As they began walking to the front of the apartment complex, Kylie
inhaled deeply. She instantly wrinkled her nose as the plethora of both
familiar and unfamiliar scents strengthened to the point of being nauseating.

“I can smell lots of things that could be described as sweaty,” she
replied.

He shrugged. “Then I suppose that’s one of the first things you’ll need
to learn—how to recognize the different types of shifters by smell alone. While
the scent of a jaguar can be rather pleasant, I can’t say the same for all the
others with the exception of maybe the other feline-types.”

Kylie tensed. “Are you saying that you smell other shifters around
here?”

“I really hope that you’re near the end of your lease,” Hunter said,
“because there’s no way you can get away with living in this apartment complex
for longer than another day or two.”

Now Kylie was really alarmed. Exactly what types of shifters had she
been sharing a roof with?

“I have no idea what types of animals people might be able to shift
into,” she lied. “Are there dangerous ones living around here?”

Hunter nodded approvingly. “For a jaguar, yes. This area is the territory of Riverford’s black bear clan, and let’s just say that bears and jaguars don’t exactly
get along. They aren’t nearly as bad as the alligator clan, but that’s a tale
better told later.”

“Alligators…” Kylie said faintly, feigning shock since she figured it
was a reaction Hunter might expect.

Hunter’s lip curled up in disgust. “A shifter clan with almost no
redeeming qualities save one.”

When he didn’t elaborate, Kylie prodded, “Which is…?”

His expression was suddenly guarded. “I’ll tell you some other time.”

Kylie fought to hide her frustration. It seemed she would have to work
harder to get him to part with any information that would truly be useful to
Paul and her, especially when he answered with the equivalent of the “I’ll tell
you when you’re older” bullshit that parents often fed to their young children
when asked uncomfortable questions. Still, it at least told her there was
something worth digging into in regards to the local alligator clan.

Once they were in his black F150 truck and well on their way down the
freeway, Kylie ventured a question, “So, just so I have this straight, are
jaguars expected to, I don’t know, ‘check in’ with your elders every once in a
while?”

“Do they keep us on leashes, you mean?” Hunter replied dryly.

Kylie merely raised an eyebrow and looked back at him expectantly.

“I think you have the wrong idea about what it means to be part of a
shifter clan. What you’re describing is more along the lines of being a member
of a cult when the clans are nothing more than an extended family of sorts, a
community. We don’t bow down to the elders as if they’re kings or crap like
that. They’re just overseers to the interests of the clan as a whole.”

“If that’s true, then why do I feel like I’ve just been picked up by a
cop and I’m on my way to the station to be interrogated?” she said pointedly.

He grinned sheepishly. “I suppose you’re right, but yours is a special
case. Bringing a Returner into the fold is a delicate affair all on its own,
but add to that a breach of secrecy—well, sorry but we just can’t risk leaving
you up to your own devices. Imagine for a moment that the humans ever found out
about us, the chaos it would likely cause.”

Kylie made a face. “I would imagine that we’d find ourselves either
hunted or strapped to a dissecting table in some underground government
facility. Well, you don’t have to worry about me blabbing about any of this to
anyone, not even to my father. I’d likely end up in a psyche ward—wait—what do
you mean ‘returner’? You’ve used that word once before.”

“You remember what I said about Deadends, that they were often sent to
live with humans? Well, normally their kids are all born as humans. However,
once in a blue moon, a human child with at least one shifter ancestor, no
matter how far back in their lineage, can be born as a shifter. Those are known
as Returners and are very prized within the clans as they bring new genes into
the community. Shifters only make up around one percent of the world
population, so you can see that any new addition would be cause to throw a
party.”

“So—I’m not a Deadend?”

He shook his head. “There’s really no way of knowing for sure until we
find out who your parents were. I’ve never heard of a Deadend suddenly
developing the ability to shift later in life, but I suppose there’s a first
time for everything. You being a Returner makes more sense. Either way, it
would be better for you to be introduced to the rest of the clan as a
Returner.”

“And after today, will I be able to go back to my life? I’m missing all
my lectures today, you know,” Kylie said. “Midterms are coming up at the end of
next week. I really can’t afford to miss another day. I’m just lucky today
wasn’t a lab day. Those are a real pain in the ass to make up.”

“Senior?” Hunter asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“Junior,” she corrected.

Kylie hesitated. Maybe if she offered more information about herself
first, then he would be more inclined to share more. She still needed to find
out how Hunter figured into the jaguar clan’s hierarchy.

“I’m a biology/premed major,” she added.

“Hmm…so that makes you what? Twenty, twenty-one?”

“Twenty. What about you? What does a jaguar shifter do besides barge
into apartments uninvited? Are you in college?”

Hunter laughed. “Not the best first impression, I’ll give you that. No,
I’m not a student. I manage a few apartment buildings and rental homes in my
territory if you can believe it.”

Kylie blinked in surprise. “That’s the last thing I would’ve guessed.”

He shrugged. “My family’s always been in real estate.”

“So—if I hadn’t shifted while in your ‘territory,’ then would someone
else have come after me?”

“You still think I’m some sort of underground cop don’t you?” Hunter
said in amusement.

Her eyes narrowed. “Laugh all you want, but how would you feel if you
woke up today and found out your reality had become the real nightmare?”