“I wasn’t told Luiz had a cousin,” Rud said. “A female at that. Can she shift? With those bloodlines, she should produce shifters. Percy, were you trying to keep this woman for yourself?” Rud’s tone was threatening.
“Percy was trying to help me. We just met,” Sarika said quickly, jumping to the shifter’s defense. “I don’t know my way around the forest as of yet.” She thought it best to look as if she were protecting Percy. He would like that, and Rud would become even more suspicious.
“I am ruler of the jaguars,” Rud announced. “You should have made yourself known to me. Percy should have told me of you immediately and brought you to me.”
She thought it significant that he used the termrulerrather thanleader. There was a difference, and Rud didn’t seem to know what it was.
Sarika took a chance of looking around again, doing a quick sweep of her surroundings. To her consternation, Bacus had disappeared. He had shifted back into the shadows, no doubt intent on searching for her exact location. Now she really worried that she had made the one small mistake with her voice when she’d been alarmed on Jasmine’s behalf.
Sarika couldn’t worry too much about that at the moment. She had to continue to stall for time. She was careful when she spoke to put only the smallest of compulsions into her voice and to ensure her voice seemed to come from the direction of the trees opposite to where she was secreted, hoping to confuse Bacus along with the others.
“You’ll have to forgive me, Rud. I wasn’t raised in this forest and know nothing of our people and their customs. Percy ran into me as I was making my way off the river and was trying to explain when my cousin objected, um,strenuouslyto our conversation. He refused to allow Percy to speak to me.” She put the smallest note of annoyance in her voice, as if Luiz had really irritated her with his orders, removing her from Percy’s care.
Once again, Jasmine’s eyes had grown round, and she shook her head, attempting to warn Sarika, without speaking aloud, that the shifter males couldn’t be trusted. There was no way to acknowledge Jasmine’s warning, so she didn’t try.
Rud’s thunderous expression eased. “Show yourself to me now. I’m done with these games.” That was a clear order.
“You haven’t released Sandrine,” Sarika pointed out, keeping her tone mild but allowing suspicion to creep in. “She’s frightened. What ruler would frighten a child?” She allowed her voice to swing dangerously out of control with concerned emotion. “Are those bruises forming on her arm?” Deliberately, Sarika poured even more anxiety into her voice. “Percy, is he really the ruler of the shifters? He doesn’t act like any leader I’ve ever come across.”
Again, she turned to Percy rather than Jasmine, as if she already relied on him. She’d even softened her voice. There was no flirty note, but this wasn’t a flirty situation. More as if she were relying on the male shifter. It was difficult to play the part of the submissive female needing to be saved, but if that was what it took, she was an exceptional actress when it was needed. If Percy believed he could have her to himself, he might be more willing to come to the child’s aid or at least argue with Rud to give Sandrine back to her mother.
How long until the sun went down? It felt like every passing minute was a good hour long. It was necessary to keep stalling and, at the same time, drive a wedge between Percy and Rud. Her worst fear was Bacus. She’d lost sight of him, and it was necessary to figure out exactly where he was.
She found she was too tense to be balancing on a tree branch and trying to manipulate the situation to the females’ advantage. Her first goal was to separate the child from Rud. More and more, she was coming to believe he would actually harm the little girl if he didn’t get his way.
Jasmine and her daughter were putting out waves of distress and fear, nearly swamping her. Percy was confused, yet she felt the undercurrent of determination and that slightly tainted feeling that always was a warning to her. Rud was all belligerence and fight. An arrogant, angry alpha male intent on destroying anything or anyone he couldn’t control. With Rud, she felt his borderline insanity. But Bacus…His energy was low. Very low. He wasn’t giving anything of his emotionsaway, and that made him difficult to locate and, in her opinion, the most dangerous of all three shifters. And he was hunting her.
She was scared. She allowed herself to feel and acknowledge that emotion. These men apparently thought nothing of raping women to impregnate them. She had the feeling Jasmine knew all about that just from the tremors that were visibly going through her body. So, okay, she was more than scared. She was leaning toward terror. Just the fact that Rud, the leader of the shifters, would threaten to harm Sandrine, a little girl, for no reason other than he was being opposed, put him in the realm of a madman.
She could easily track Rud and Percy, but Bacus would be especially difficult to track. She didn’t want to move. That could entail disturbing foliage. The slightest hint of a leaf going against the wind would give her position away to a hunter. She had no doubt in her mind that Bacus, of the three males, was the true threat when it came to tracking. The more she allowed that thought to loop in her mind, the more fear she felt. Fear had an odor. He could, perhaps, track her just through scent. Jaguars had unbelievable abilities when it came to smell.
Rud was arrogant, demanding everyone respect him and treat him as the shifter in charge of his species. That made him weak—but dangerous. Percy was cunning and tried to get what he wanted through a combination of male demands and cajoling. In her estimation, he was also weak, but dangerous in a different way than Rud. But Bacus…He didn’t posture. He didn’t make demands. He remained quiet in the shadows, observing. He gave nothing of himself away. His energy was so low-key it would be very easy to overlook him. That made him a little terrifying, especially because he was hunting her. She had to stop obsessing over it.
Percy hadn’t answered her question immediately. In fact, he was silent for so long Rud roared with rage. “You tell her I’m the leader, Percy,” he demanded, very belligerent. He even took an aggressive stepin Percy’s direction. Sandrine cried out when his fist tightened around her bicep and he gave her a little shake, dragging her with him.
“Rud.” Jasmine held up a placating hand. “She’s very little.”
She sounded pleading. Trying to appease his anger. It was exactly what Rud wanted and needed to feed his tremendous ego.
Sarika couldn’t imagine Luiz making such a mistake as hurting a child in front of everyone and demanding another proclaim him the supreme ruler. Even if Percy endorsed Rud’s leadership, anyone hearing the exchange could be forgiven for thinking Rud had intimidated him into complying. Rud was no leader in any sense of the word. She despised him just for the way he was treating the child.
“He took over leadership,” Percy said, his voice quiet. Thoughtful. “He expects all shifters to follow his lead. And he believes that he has the right to any female shifter, old or young. Brodrick, the previous leader, taught that concept during his reign.”
“Women were meant for breeding,” Rud stated. He drew the child closer. “Jasmine doesn’t have a clue who the father of this little brat is. But we know he was a shifter. That means she is one. We know she can shift. Eventually, if she doesn’t cooperate and show us her jaguar, we’ll beat it out of her.”
Sandrine had burst into tears the moment Rud said her mother didn’t have a clue who her father was.
“Baby, we know exactly who your father is,” Jasmine whispered. “Don’t you doubt it for a minute. Jubal will come for you. Rud and Percy and Bacus are not going to want to fight him because your father is strong and brave and decent. He’ll come for you.” There was complete conviction in her voice.
“Jubal is at the market. Did you think we weren’t keeping track?” Rud sneered. “He can’t possibly make it back in time, even if word got to him that his precious brat was gone along with her slut of a mother.”
“Call me whatever you want, Rud.” Jasmine lifted her chin at him. His accusations appeared to steady her. “Just let Sandrine go.”
Rud swung the little girl into his arms and took another step awayfrom Jasmine. He narrowed his gaze at Jasmine, looking more sinister than ever. “I’m taking her, Jasmine. If you want to come, that’s your decision.”
“Oh my God, Percy, he is a pedophile. That child is a baby.” Sarika poured alarm into her voice, sent it winging through the forest, her voice a compulsive tool, powerful when needed.
The surrounding jungle seemed to hold its breath. No movement. No sound. And then it erupted into a wild cacophony of protest. Overhead, monkeys screamed and leapt up and down on boughs, shaking the trees. Birds took flight. Colorful frogs and lizards skittered up and down the trunks. Snakes raised their heads and hissed. Vines shivered and undulated in protest. Flowers climbing the trees closed their petals.
