“Did Alois talk to you about Carpathians?”
Was there a note of resignation in his voice? Or judgment of her uncle? Alois had been his uncle as well. She detested admitting she knew nothing of Carpathians because she was certain Luiz would disapprove.
She tilted her chin at him. “I’m aware of the Carpathian Mountains, but no, we never spoke specifically of their inhabitants.”
Luiz held up his hand and examined the surrounding forest in a long, slow perusal. Sarika hadn’t detected a change in the drone of insects or the fluttering of wings as birds settled in for the night. Several monkeys screamed but then fell abruptly silent, sending chills down her spine.
She’d always had an awareness when she was in a jungle. She was a shifter, regardless of living most of her life as a human. Her jaguar was always on alert in a rainforest, yet she didn’t feel the warning until Luiz alerted. Suddenly, she was very certain there were eyes on them. All along, she had thought the threat emanated from Luiz, but now she felt that same warning blaring through her body, her cells going on alert. Luiz hadn’t been the threat. There was something else out there watching them.
“We’ve stayed here too long. I’m going to take you to my home. Idon’t stay there, but you’ll be safe and able to rest. Tomorrow evening I will take you to meet Dominic and Solange.”
She looked carefully around. “Something is out there.” She was absolutely certain she’d felt the danger all along and attributed it to Luiz.
“A male jaguar. He’s been creeping closer for the last fifteen minutes. He was stalking you as I came up on you. I warned him off, but he didn’t leave.”
That had been the sawing roar she’d heard. Luiz telling the jaguar to back off. It hadn’t.
“Is he animal or shifter? Is it possible for you to tell the difference?” She didn’t think she could, but it was clear Luiz was at home in the rainforest. He’d lived his entire life there. He certainly could have developed a way to tell. Scent didn’t give it away, and she didn’t know any other way that might discern the difference unless she…Her hand crept up to cover the amulet she always wore against her skin.
“Yes, I can even identify him specifically. His name is Percy Rios. I’ve had my eyes on him for some time. He’s been prowling around very close to Dominic and Solange’s territory. Solange has relatives who visit her often. In fact, they’re expected very soon. Juliette Sangria, her cousin, is lifemate to Riordan De La Cruz. They’re on their way. Her cousin Jasmine is married to Jubal Sanders. Both women and Jasmine’s daughter, Sandrine, are jaguar.”
“And you think this Percy Rios is looking to acquire one of them for himself.” She made it a statement.
“He’s stalking you.”
That was his answer? That made no sense. “How would he know I’m a jaguar shifter?” She wasn’t challenging his judgment so much as really needing to know. She thought she’d come prepared, but she was fast learning she didn’t know the first thing about the environment or the species she’d been born into.
“You smell like a female shifter.”
She winced. She didn’t like the sound of that. “That’s just lovely.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
He didn’t so much as smile. She had the feeling emotions like humor or sarcasm were lost on him. There was no faint smile in his eyes. Nothing at all. No emotion. Just those flat, cold eyes that were so intense that although they felt like ice, the ice burned wherever his gaze touched.
“No disrespect intended, Sarika. Were you aware Sarika was your mother’s name?”
She had been, but her aunt and uncle had never really talked about her mother, other than to mention in passing that her birth father had named her after her mother.
Luiz’s attention appeared to be centered solely on her, but Sarika knew it wasn’t so. He no longer scanned their surroundings for evidence of the male jaguar. He knew exactly where the large predator was. Deliberately, she raised her face to the canopy and inhaled the scent of flowers, shrubs, trees and the forest floor. Along with those scents came the information on the multitude of wildlife around them.
The jaguar male had to be downwind, but she caught enough hints of him being close enough to raise the alarm. She couldn’t pinpoint his exact position.
“How do you know where he is?”
“I smell him as well.”
“He’s downwind,” she protested. “He has to be, or I would smell him.”
Luiz didn’t look impatient, but she felt his impatience. “I am not only a jaguar shifter, I am also Carpathian. We will discuss what Carpathians are once I have you safe in my home.”
Did that mean Carpathians could smell even better than shifters? Carpathians were born in the Carpathian Mountains, weren’t they? He wasn’t making any sense. She could believe that he was of another species entirely. Was that what he was implying? That Carpathians were another species? It wouldn’t be so difficult to believe, after all—no one would ever believe in shifters, yet she was one.
Luiz Silva De La Cruz was her only living relative. She wanted to have a decent relationship with him. It made no sense that she was irritated with him. What had he said or done to cause her to be so nervous in his presence?
“I have all my things in my backpack,” she announced, deciding to risk it. She hadn’t come all this way to be a coward.
“I will carry you. It will be much faster that way.”
Chapter
