Terry Spear: Jaguar Fever

“David, if you’re going to be my partner in this, pay attention.” Wade Patterson glared at his twin brother as they sipped beers in the noisy Houston club—a shifters’ club where humans, who didn’t know any better, mingled with jaguar shifters.

South American jungle music rocked the building, and colorful lights roamed over the silk ferns and plastic banana plants. Vines cascaded from the ceiling and along walls painted with jungle scenes. Leopard-print vinyl covered all the seats. Tiny lights simulating stars dotted the black ceiling. On stages above the dance floor, a couple of scantily clad women in leopard-print thongs and feathers dangling over their nipples danced around vine-painted poles. A man wearing a leopard-print loincloth was dancing nearby on another pole.

“I am looking for the guys who could be involved in this, okay? Just because a stray cat catches my attention…” David shrugged. “Don’t tell me your eye doesn’t wander to take in every cute brunette in this place.”

Wade hated that David could see right through him. “For your information, I’m not just looking at the brunettes.”

Every blonde who looked even remotely similar to Maya Anderson made Wade take an extra look. He told himself that it was because the Andersons were the only shifters in the vicinity that he knew and they might end up there tonight. The rest of the sea of people dancing or drinking were unfamiliar to him. David gave him a skeptical look.

Wade took another swig of beer. “Drop it.”

David nodded, then smiled at a pretty redheaded human. She smiled back but joined a dark-haired guy at another table. The man glowered at David as if he were ready to expose claws and teeth.

“Humans,” David said, slightly amused.

“The last human male you dealt with over a woman shot you.” Wade reminded David often because he’d come so close to losing his brother that day. He didn’t ever want to deal with those kinds of emotions again. Shifters had fast-healing properties, but they could bleed out too fast, and then they were as dead as any human might be, suffering from the same trauma.

“Don’t remind me,” David said, finishing his beer.

Rebels in their youth, the two of them had done everything and anything they wanted to do after their mother died. Their dad had been so broken up that he’d forgotten he had two sons to raise.

Martin Sullivan, the director of a special elite force for jaguar shifters—the Golden Claw JAG, or Golden Claws for short—had been their salvation.

“I still don’t know why Martin called us in. We just finished that Peruvian extraction and we’re long overdue for a break.” David folded his arms across his chest, his gaze straying to a brunette this time.

“Sorry, David,” Wade said, and he meant it. Wade suspected it was his own fault that Martin was sending them on another mission so soon after their last one. Wade’s previous vacation had turned into a fight with a drug dealer, and as if that wasn’t bad enough, he’d lost the woman he had wanted to get to know better to Connor Anderson. Connor had turned her into a jaguar shifter, too, which still galled Wade. Especially since Connor had been traveling with a beautiful shifter named Maya Anderson. Wade assumed they were mates. But if Connor already had a mate, why did he have to get between Wade and Kathleen McKnight? Wade could do nothing about it, but losing Kathleen had definitely put his tail in a twist.

“Martin needs agents who are familiar with the territory. Since you and I have both been to Belize several times to run wild in the jungle as jaguars and were there just six months ago, he figures we’re right for the job.” Wade shrugged. “Besides, we’ve dealt with the trafficking of exotic animals before.”

David studied him. Wade hardly ever apologized to his younger twin brother.

“You want to let me in on the secret?” David asked.

Wade shook his head. He wasn’t about to mention that Martin was worried about him after his vacation in the Amazon had turned into a battle to keep the Andersons safe. “Watch for anything suspicious. Listen to the conversations around us. Martin said that this is usually the night they come to make arrangements to hunt the jaguars, but…” He frowned as his brother’s gaze drifted to a newcomer, knowing David was only halfheartedly listening to him. Not that he wouldn’t do his job, but he acted as though he really needed a break.

“Holy hell, now she’s a cat,” David purred.

Wade turned to see who he was drooling over this time.

Holy hell was right. She was a wild cat: Maya Anderson in the flesh. Wade looked beyond her, expecting Kathleen and Connor Anderson to be with her, but she was by herself. What was she doing here alone?

Meeting someone, obviously, Wade chastised himself.

David left his seat before Wade had a chance to tell him who the curvaceous blonde was. Trouble . That’s all she could be. She didn’t have a clue who Wade and his brother worked for, and she’d never seen Wade in human form. But she’d recognize his scent if she got close enough. They hadn’t met in the Amazon, but he’d been close enough to be of help to her in a bad moment there.

His brother smiled broadly at Maya and motioned to the table where Wade sat, leaning back with his arms folded across his chest. Wade was wondering why in the hell he’d agreed to be his brother’s partner on this operation. Besides wanting to keep David safe—which meant Wade needed to stop this now. Connor Anderson would kill David if he knew he was encroaching.

Wade recalled when he’d seen her swimming with Kathleen and Connor in the Amazon River. Diving with the pink dolphins, Maya had worn only a sexy black lace bra and panties. He wished he’d been swimming with her in human form and not having to watch their backs, hidden as a jaguar in a tree, unbeknownst to them.

Connor had been kissing Kat in the river nearby, holding her tight, possessively. Wade had had mixed emotions about that. He wasn’t sure why Kat had given Connor the time of day when he already had a wife. He couldn’t understand why Maya would go along with it, either. He’d felt bad for her when she stood wistfully watching Kat and Connor.

When Maya waded out of the river and onto the bank, Wade’s jaguar jaws had hung open. Hot damn, she’d been hot then—just like she was now.

He just couldn’t understand why Maya would share her man with another woman. Unless that’s how they liked it. He realized that he’d never seen Maya and Connor hugging each other, no molten looks of desire cast between them, or anything else that would lead him to believe they were mated. Almost like family… like brother and sister. Hell, maybe their relationship wasn’t what he’d thought it was after all. That had him thinking of different possibilities.

Maya’s blond hair was pulled up into a twist, showing off her naked neck and making her look sexy as hell as straggles of curls framed her face. She wore sparkly high heels and a blue T-shirt minidress that accentuated her long legs. The dress had a casual sexiness, unlike the revealing short-hemmed dresses and plunging necklines many of the other women at the club wore. Maya was just as arousing. Maybe more so because he damned well would like to see more of what he could only glimpse, given the way the dress clung to her curves. Her body was toned and tanned, and she moved like a cat—sleek, sure-footed, and dangerous.