Jory Strong: Healer's Choice

At his father’s left, his hair and skin still wet from a morning swim, Aryck frowned, noting the absence of the four adventurous Jaguar cubs who so often found trouble—and a fifth, Caius, a Tiger born to a Jaguar female. When this was done, someone would have to find and chastise them for straying so far from camp they didn’t hear Koren’s summons.

The bloody clothes of Daivat’s victims lay piled on the ground in front of the alpha. Aryck had brought them back not to serve as evidence, but so they could be thrown into the fire at the center of the challenge circle to ensure nothing remained of the dead man and woman.

Murmurs arose from those gathered as the scent of human death and Daivat’s involvement reached them. Tension built—in anticipation, in dread—stirred to life by what the clothing represented. Threat.

Sound flowed into silence when Daivat arrived, shifting easily from his jaguar form to his human one. Several of the lower-ranked females edged closer, jostling for the attention of a male in his prime, some of them seeking only transitory pleasure while others were ripe and fertile and intent on gaining a permanent mate.

Daivat ignored them, sending a challenging look to Aryck instead.

Aryck met the gaze with a cold one, uncaring about the females who openly courted another male after having presented him with swollen vulvas earlier in the day when he was in jaguar form.

Daivat’s fingers flexed in subtle challenge. Rage flared to life in his eyes as a female Jaguar emerged from the woods and rubbed the length of her furred body against Aryck’s before changing to human form, her bare breast pressed to Aryck’s arm.

Aryck resisted the urge to step away from her but couldn’t remain quiet. “This isn’t the time or the place for your overtures, Melina.”

She purred and pressed a pebbled nipple to his upper arm. “Later then, when this matter is settled.”

The deepening of her scent indicated she was aroused by the prospect of violence, by the thought of two dominant males fighting in her presence as though they fought over the right to mount her.

Several male human-formed Jaguars standing nearby hardened in reaction to her heat-scent and sultry voice. Aryck’s cock stirred, making him glad he’d pulled on loose shorts rather than coming to the clearing naked in preparation for changing form. He wanted to give Melina no encouragement.

Across from them Daivat’s expression darkened with hatred and jealousy when Melina’s hand settled on Aryck’s belly. Aryck captured her wrist and squeezed in warning. “Not now,” he growled. “Not later.”

He turned his head to give Melina a deadly stare, Jaguar to Jaguar, one that ordered her away from him. One she couldn’t refuse.

Her eyes flashed, resenting him even as he knew his ability to resist her only increased her hunger for the feel of his cock thrusting inside her.

He regretted taking her in the past. He’d only coupled with her for a season, and not exclusively, but that didn’t matter to her.

She’d now reached the age when the Jaguar soul wanted to breed. But unlike the other unmated males in the pack, he had no desire to answer her yowling calls or to end up with her as a permanent mate.

True jaguars took no life-mates; they bred and separated, with the duty of raising the cubs to adulthood falling entirely on the mother. Among Jaguar Weres it was different, nature’s way of keeping them from indiscriminate breeding.

When a child was conceived, a bond formed between the parents. It was nearly impossible to break.

If he was foolish enough to cover her and sire her young, then he’d never be free of her.

He understood the compulsions driving Melina. And because he did, he tried to avoid her in jaguar form despite his father’s attempts to throw them together.

Deep inside him the beast soul longed to pair, to find a female and claim her thoroughly, completely, in every way a male could take the mate who belonged to him. The man’s soul wasn’t far behind in wanting a woman to call his own. But even though beast and man, instinct and rational mind, agreed the one they wanted for a lifetime wasn’t among the pack, when he wore fur, scent became a prime motivator, as did the powerful, natural urge to procreate.

He wasn’t so vain as to think Melina’s interest in him was only because of his prowess when it came to lovemaking. One day this pack would be his with his father’s blessing, or he would leave it to claim a different territory, taking many of its members with him when he did so.

It was their way. It spread their rule over the lands few humans dared venture into and prevented battles of dominance between fathers and sons, as most often, bloodlines ran true and those who ruled were born to it.

That Daivat, too, might one day lead a pack of his own made him a worthy mate in the eyes of many of the females. His father was Nahuatl, the pack’s shaman. And a bloodline filled with telepathic alphas was strong on his mother’s side.

Like Aryck’s mother, Daivat’s had gone to the ancestors. And though her bones were never recovered and placed with those in the ancestral cave, Nahuatl knew of her passing through their mate-bond and because he was shaman.

Koren straightened to his full height, signaling the beginning of the proceedings. With his foot he nudged the clothing on the ground, releasing more of its scent. “I call Daivat before me to answer charges of law breaking.”

Daivat crossed the circle boldly, skirting the fire blazing hot in its center as if he had no fear of what its being lit meant. He stopped beyond the shredded clothing, nostrils flaring and eyes holding defiance as he spat on the bloodied trousers in challenge and insult.

The muscles along Aryck’s back and arms rippled as the Jaguar rose inside him, instinctively preparing to defend the alpha or enforce his will.

“You were in territory forbidden to all but those sent by my order,” Koren said. “You killed two humans and thought to conceal it. What defense do you offer?”

“I am only just now returning to camp. I heard the summons and came immediately. As soon as I saw the clothing I knew it was too late to approach you about what I’d done and why I’d done it. My reason for entering Coyote territory was simple. I intended to capture one of the humans and learn what they hope to find and how long they intend to stay.

“I encountered the human female first and accepted what she offered. She was seemingly alone, a whore well used by the men in the encampment. Her companion came upon us afterward and took exception to her fucking an animal when his witch-amulet flared in my presence. He killed her and I returned the favor.”

Daivat glanced at Aryck, his lips pulling back in a snarl. “Or did your enforcer tell a different story?”

“The enforcer told no story at all, nor did he find the amulet you mention. He merely gathered the facts. By your own words, you have admitted to defying the law I set down when the humans arrived, and to taking lives without sanction.”

Daivat met Koren’s eyes in unmistakable challenge. “And I would repeat my actions on behalf of the pack. We cower, hoping the humans will leave on their own and not enter Jaguar territory, when we should be hunting and killing the interlopers one by one if that’s what it takes to get rid of them.”

Discord rippled through the pack, uneasiness. Many of those gathered felt as Daivat did about the humans.

Aryck agreed with the sentiment. A subtle attack might work where open warfare would bring the military and could all too easily lead to the suspension of laws specifically forbidding hunting Weres in their furred form. But he also saw the wisdom in his father’s caution, in gathering information over hasty action.