One hour. Be ready. Two lieutenants out of commission. Couldn’t do more.
“We’ve got an hour. They’re coming in just after full dark hits. Echo said that two of their lieutenants are out of the picture,” Declan informed them after he unscrambled the message.
“Two is better than none, and damn-fine work, given the short time they’ve been there,” Steele said. “Whatcha wanna bet they’re tied up somewhere with their dicks hanging in the wind?” he added with a snicker.
“Not taking that bet. Chances are I’ll fucking lose,” Declan replied with a short laugh. Sasha and Echo were very good at convincing males to let them tie them up even though neither woman had any intention of fucking them. They were just that fucking convincing.
“Damn. Here I was hoping for an easy twenty bucks,” Steele said with a laugh of his own. As they neared the rest of the Black Water Pard, Steele fell silent.
Caine
Caine watched as Declan, his team, and the few leopards who’d escorted the last of the women and children to safety, approached. He nodded at Declan before he turned to his Pard. “Y’all know what’s at stake here. If da jaguars win, we’ll lose more dan just our homes, we’ll lose our lives and possibly da lives of all dose we love. When da Red Moon Clan gets here, dere Alpha is mine. If we break enough of dere stronger shifters, da weaker ones will submit. Watch your backs and da backs of dose fightin’ next to you,” he told them. He knew there was a chance he might lose some of his people, but he hoped to hell that didn’t happen. “Declan and his team have a plan laid out; I’ll let him tell it,” he said and motioned to the wolf next to him.
Declan stepped forward. “I’ve already organized sentries with Remy; they’ll alert us when the jaguars near the perimeter we’ve set up for the coming fight. As your Alpha said, watch your backs and those of your allies. Steele will be high up, taking down as many of the jaguars as he can, until he is needed to fight on the ground. He won’t be killing them, we’re tranq’ing them and giving them the chance to back the fuck off and return to their own territory. It’s been my experience, and that of my team, that more often than not, once you take out the Alpha and his lieutenants, the rest will back down. The flavor of the group doesn’t matter; be it shifters or humans, the weaker members follow the dominant ones because they have to, but given the chance to walk a different path they’ll take it. Any of the jaguars who refuse to submit, once we’ve taken down their Alpha and his lieutenants, their lives are forfeit. Anyone who can’t handle that needs to speak up now. You can take the boat and head into New Orleans to the secured warehouse where the others are and wait it out. No one will think you’re a coward. Taking a life is never an easy thing; my team and I know that firsthand.”
He waited to see if anyone wanted to leave, then nodded. He was pleased that not a single leopard wanted to run from the coming fight. They knew the risks, and they knew what would happen if the jaguars got their way, and they were unwilling to just let it happen.
“Alright. Remy has chosen team leaders; you each have your section of the bayou to defend. If you get into trouble, the discs you’ve all been given will alert the others, and someone will come to your aid. Let’s show these jaguars how wrong they are in their assumption that the Black Water Pard is weak because their leader is a damn good negotiator and is able to diffuse a volatile situation without fighting.”
As the leopards slipped into the darkness, each small group taking up a different position to watch for the jaguars, Declan nodded to his team. Steele scurried up into a tree where lines were attached to a number of them. From each line dangled a loop he would use to get from one tree to another as needed. Nikolai disappeared into the darkness, melding with it as if he’d never been there, and stalked around the perimeter to monitor the traps he’d laid out and take out any jaguar that passed by him. Since some of the jaguars were coming in animal form, some of the Pard had shifted, as well, and Holden chose to follow suit. In his bear form he was even more of a powerhouse than he was in his human form, and the jaguars weren’t used to fighting a shifter of his size and skill. They had no clue the fight they were in store for.
Caine stepped next to Declan once everyone was in place. “If da Alpha gets past me, take him out,” he growled. “Don’t wait for me to catch up to him, because if he gets past me, it’ll only be because I’m already fightin’ one of his lieutenants.”
“You got it. One way or another, their Alpha dies tonight,” Declan assured him.
With that promise from Declan, Caine moved off to join the small team of leopards he would be fighting with. He knew he could trust the wolf to keep his word.
Declan
Exactly one hour after receiving the encrypted text from Echo, the first trap that Nikolai laid was tripped. Several more quickly followed and then all hell broke loose. The jaguars realized the leopards were waiting for them and they attacked in a frenzy, hoping that the mad rush would give them an edge. Had Declan and his team not given the leopards some pointers, it might have worked, but the Pard was more than ready to take them on. Declan threw himself into the battle. He let his wolf out just enough to give himself an edge, but he stayed in human form, excluding the claws that extended from his fingers. All he had to do was think about how Lily had been targeted, and rage billowed inside him. He was ferocious in his attacks but, as he’d told the others, he didn’t kill anyone who submitted and backed down. If they didn’t, he took them out.
Caine
Caine worked his way through several of the jaguars; two were seriously injured by his claws before they surrendered, when he finally came face to face with Lucas Cormier, the Alpha of the Red Moon Clan. “Dis ends now,” he growled at the jaguar.
Lucas sneered at Caine. “You’re going to die tonight.” He was so sure of himself, so sure Caine wasn’t very good at fighting.
Caine laughed at that. “If you tink dat, you’recouillon,” he countered. “Da one dying tonight is you. Da rest of your Clan, dey can live if dey surrender, but not you.” He waited; he let the jaguar make the first move, and when Lucas charged at him, Caine sidestepped. He felt the other man’s claws as they raked across his side, and he bit back a hiss. His own claws slashed jagged gashes in the jaguar’s chest before they charged at each other again. As Lucas aimed for Caine’s stomach, intent on gutting him, Caine focused higher and lashed out with one hand. A claw caught the other man across the throat, severing his carotid artery and nearly severing his head from his neck. Caine watched as Lucas collapsed, a stunned look on his face.
Declan was close enough to see the Alpha go down and knew the second the jaguars were aware of it because of the way several of them stumbled and went to their knees. Their Alpha was gone; the fight was over. Or it should have been.
Caine stood there and watched the light fade from the jaguar’s eyes. The body, and those of any other of the Red Moon Clan who’d died, would disappear into the swamp, so there would be no evidence of what had happened there, and a truce would be called between the two groups. He bowed his head and closed his eyes to give a moment of silent respect for the lives that were lost. A snarl from behind him had him turning, but he instinctively knew they were too close for him to stop their attack without being seriously injured himself.
Declan saw the jaguar move mere seconds before he snarled at Caine. He got between the two and earned a nasty gash across his chest for his actions.’’’
Before Declan could retaliate, Holden was there. With one swipe of his massive paw, the jaguar was thrown aside. The jaguar slammed into a tree hard enough that the cracking of bones could be heard. The gashes on his chest from Holden’s claws went bone deep, and the jaguar bled out quickly.
“I owe you my life,” Caine said to Declan once it was over. He knew that Declan’s quick thinking had saved his life. He knew if Declan hadn’t gotten between them, there was a good chance the jaguar would have tried to take his head off.
Declan waved the comment away. “I didn’t do anything you wouldn’t have if the situation was reversed.”
“Dat doesn’t matter. I owe a debt and I always pay my debts,” Caine replied. He already knew what he was going to do to thank the wolf for his aid in the fight; he’d already made the decision. Now that Declan had also protected him, while risking his own life, he was even more sure of the decision he’d made. “We will talk once dis business is done.”
“Sure thing.”
Steele approached Declan to take care of his injuries when Declan tried to wave him off. “These need to be taken care of, Boss. Don’t make me call your woman and tell her you’re being stubborn.”
“He’s right, your injuries needed to be taken care of,” Caine told him before he turned his attention to the jaguar shifters who were kneeling in front of his Pard. Some had injuries that needed to be tended, and he would see that it was done, if they agreed to his terms. “I will give you one chance to do da right ting here,” he told them. “Go back to your territory with a promise to never come into Black Water Pard territory uninvited again, and we’ll see to da injured and escort you back to Baton Rouge. Refuse, and you die tonight. Tink of your families, how dey will feel knowing you’d rather join dis couillon,” he said, motioning to the body of Lucas Cormier, “den be smart and agree to stay in your own territory.”
