Lisa Kessler - Moonlight

My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I felt my mood lift a little in spite of myself. Maybe Lana was calling to ask me to come back up.

I put it to my ear without glancing at the screen. “Yeah?”

“Adam?”

It wasn’t Lana. “Yeah, Aren, what’s up?”

“It’s late and you’re not back at the ranch yet. I wanted to be sure you hadn’t run into trouble tracking the jaguar.”

There was so much I wanted to tell my brother, but instead I said, “I haven’t found a trail yet, so no trouble. You can go home. I’ll be back by morning.”

“Don’t forget the Greene’s are bringing their broodmare over in the morning for her date with Bruce.”

Crap. I’d forgotten all about it. “Yeah, I remember,” I lied. “I’ll be sure I’m home before nine a.m.”

“You might need to sleep at some point, too, right?”

I rolled my eyes. When did my brother become my mother? “I will.”

Aren hesitated, and my shoulders tensed up. “You’re sure you’re all right?”

“I am.” I nodded even though I knew he couldn’t see me. “Still shaken up about Gabe, but I’ll be okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“You better. Bye, bro.”

Aren hung up, and I slid my phone back in my pocket. I jerked open the lobby door and headed for the parking lot, feeling even worse about myself, if that were possible. All the upheaval with Gabe and Lana had me way off-balance. I couldn’t allow myself to forget my responsibilities to the horses, my clients, or my Pack.

But Lana was in danger, and I couldn’t ignore her either. My instinct was to be sure she was safe, but I also knew I was putting her in danger by loving her. Fuck . How could I love her already? But there it was. Despite what my head said about barely knowing her, my heart recognized her in an instant.

Maybe I should ask her on a date.

Oh, that’s perfect. A killer is stalking her, and I’m hiding the truth from my family and my Pack. Sounds like a perfect time for dating.

In an effort to silence my inner argument, I forced myself to focus on something tangible: finding the jaguar that killed Gabe and threatened Lana. Jumping behind the wheel, I fired up Chaney’s engine. Lana said she’d been at the library when she first saw her stalker, so I’d start there. If I could catch the man’s scent, it’d be easier to track him if he came close again.

Once I got to the brick building, I pulled over and got out. Near the glass doors of the main entrance, Lana’s scent lingered and heat shot through my veins. She was definitely under my skin. Way under. I rolled my shoulders back a little, trying to loosen up as I paced around the entryway.

When I caught the scent of the male jaguar I stopped in my tracks. Instead of heat, bitter jealousy triggered my pulse to race. This bastard touched Lana. He was a jaguar like her. The same as her. Would she find him more attractive?

Holy shit. What was that? I was not a jealous and insecure guy. This sucked.

I knelt down. Closer to the ground I could get a stronger scent and log the sensation so I could track it later. It was the same scent I found around Gabe at the lake. I was sure of it.

Clenching my fists, I straightened up and followed the trail back toward the heart of downtown.

“I’m coming for you, bastard,” I growled as I slipped into the shadows.

I fought the urge to cry after Adam left. He’d been nothing but kind to me, and all I’d given in return was… Well, I was a pain in the ass. But it wasn’t like I’d ever asked for his help. In fact, I wasn’t sure why he cared at all. I guess he wasn’t either though.

I got up to grab a glass that sat beside the empty ice bucket and headed for the bathroom. Tap water wasn’t my favorite, but after Adam’s warning, I wasn’t about to venture out in search of bottled water. In my head, I felt like I was some sort of fresh baked pie, leaving my scent trailing out behind me everywhere I went.

Unsettling to say the least.

Gulping down the chlorinated water, I stared at myself in the mirror. I looked normal. No one would ever guess I was some sort of black jaguar when the moon went dark in the sky. Grabbing a washcloth from the rack, I soaked it in warm water and washed my face. It felt good. Normal. My life suddenly felt so out of control and impossible.

But it was real. I had seen the picture of a snarling jungle cat on Adam’s cell phone. Earlier today I had jumped over eight feet and landed without a sound on top of a boulder. They hadn’t taught me that in gymnastics class. I couldn’t just claim it was impossible anymore and have it be the truth.

Opening my laptop, I started searching for clues and jotting down notes. I didn’t have much to go on, especially since I’d already done as much searching on Nero as I could back when I first saw the doctor’s transfer request, but I needed to do something. Keep busy. First I started looking up animal attacks, then narrowing it down to attacks by large cats. After pages and pages of mountain lion attacks, I finally found something that stood out. A news article out of a small-town paper in Southern California interviewed a survivor of an attack.

An attack he swore came from a black jaguar.

A few more searches later, I had an email address for the man. His name was Chuck Seefut, and he lived in Temecula, a few miles north of San Diego County. Jaguars were rare in the wild, and non-existent in the U.S., and judging by all the stories I could find, no one believed it was really a jaguar. Doctors stated that his perception of the creature was distorted due to his brutal attack.

The Yucatan jungles were the home of the last remaining jaguars in the wild, and the chances of one traveling all the way Northwest to California were minuscule. It must have been a mountain lion that bit off chunks of his abdomen. Chuck had had the foresight to play dead when the attack began, which probably saved his life. The cat tired of him and disappeared into the night. Chuck dialed 911 on his cell phone before he lost consciousness. He was lucky to be alive.

I quickly sent him an email, requesting an interview about his attack. I mentioned I was a freelance writer and that I thought I could sell his story to some outdoor magazines and give him a percentage of the money. I hoped I’d hear from him in the morning.

Morning. I glanced over at the clock. It was almost four a.m. Closing my laptop, I set it aside and fell back onto the bed. Maybe everything would look brighter when the sun came up.

Dawn began to light up the sky when I finally gave up the search. I decided to go check on Lana before heading back to the barn. I’d never be able to sleep unless I was sure she was safe, and I only had a few hours before Bruce’s “date.” I quietly slid the card into the lock and opened the door to her room. The desk lamp was still on, and Lana lay sprawled out on the king-size bed sound asleep. In spite of myself, I smiled. I couldn’t help it. She looked so peaceful.

My mate.

Those were two words I never thought I’d be saying. In fact, as women came and went from my life, I always thought of myself as happy. The elders’ stories about mating for life were a bunch of legends to try and scare the younger wolves into settling down.

But the moment I stared into Lana’s eyes, I was lost. And the moment I touched her skin something inside of me recognized her.

It didn’t make any sense. Maybe my instincts were off. Human women who could be converted into wolves, those were our mates. This was a woman born a shifter. A jaguar shifter. I’d never even heard of any shifters born female, and certainly there was no record of a wolf mating to one. And yet here she was.