Renounced (12 page)

Knowing Dallas’ past as he did, Marcus wasn’t surprised by that. He could also see how Dallas could be manipulated sexually. If the jaguar shifter had done such a thing…

Nathan nudged his hip. “Could be that they are attracted to each other. What then?”

Marcus was trying to keep an open mind about the jaguar species of breeders. He ignored the inquisitive look Keegan shot his way as they all reached the back fence.

“I don’t know if I can shift,” Maarten said. “Not yet. I’m… Gods, everything still hurts.”

“I’ll get the car and bring it to the back gate. There is one, you know, right there.” Olin pointed. “Keegan can get the other vehicle, and Yolanda is waiting in the other car. I just need to get to the phones and call her so she can help with pickup.”

“Be safe,” Marcus said before Olin and Keegan left.

It was only a minute before Olin pulled around in the car, with Keegan following in the van.

Marcus gestured to the van. “You and Maarten get in there. It has more room. We’re going to have to dispose of our phones completely now and get new ones. It won’t do us any good to get back in these vehicles if we’re carrying around phones that are being tracked.”

“I hate programming a new phone,” Nathan groused. “We have to let Dana know. What if we just get a couple of temp phones and use them for all of us for now?”

“Should work.” Marcus and Nathan joined Olin and Keegan in the car as Olin asked Zoe to drive the van.

“I’ll sit in the back with Nathan,” Marcus offered. “You can sit with your mate.”

Olin gave him a suspicious look. “I’m not done being mad at you.”

Marcus shrugged. “You’re not the first—or worst—person I’ve pissed off.”

That seemed to irritate Olin even more, which—while juvenile of him—made Marcus happy. Sometimes he had to let go and just be a man instead of the leader of many packs. Snarking back and forth with Olin made him feel like one of the guys—a rare enough experience for Marcus.

In the back seat, Nathan leaned against him. “So what now?”

“Now we ditch the phones, grab a couple of new ones, then we get back to Ryder’s pack lands after we meet up with Guillermo and Vero, and rescue Dallas.” Marcus tapped Keegan’s seat. “We should check our phones before we leave them.”

Keegan got back out and opened the trunk. Marcus took his phone when Keegan brought it to him.

“Ryder’s got a missed call and a voice message from Guillermo,” Keegan told him.

Marcus nodded. “I have one from him, too.” Excitement and unease battled in his gut. It had to be about Dallas. Marcus pressed the voicemail arrow. His relief at hearing Dallas’ voice was powerful. He had a soft spot for the man.

“Marcus, it’s Dallas. Guillermo told me about Maarten. Gods, please let us know when you get him back. I know you will. Um. Sorry to bug you. I just didn’t want you to worry. I… Please don’t kill the jaguar shifter. Tiago, that’s his name. I’ll explain when I get back. Guillermo and Vero are going to take me to Ryder’s. Hopefully I’ll see you there.”

“Bug me,” Marcus murmured, shaking his head.

“Dallas doesn’t like to be trouble for anyone,” Nathan said. “I bet he’s been worried about stressing you out the whole time that he’s been missing.” Nathan scratched his chin. “Huh. He didn’t sound terrified or hurt, either. Makes me think you have the answer to the question about what kind of sex went on with him and the jag.”

“The mind can be an odd thing, protecting a person by masking events from the past.” Marcus knew that. He’d only just stopped having nightmares about his own time in captivity. They’d started up again after years of nothing, then had ceased in the past month or so. Marcus put it down to stress and the loss of so many of his guards a year ago when Dirk had attacked the compound.

“Talking to him face to face will tell more than a voice message does,” Marcus added. He sent a quick text to Guillermo’s phone, telling him that they had Maarten and that all the phones might very well be compromised. “Did Ryder tell Guillermo to ditch his phone?” Marcus asked Keegan.

“I’ll go check.” Keegan jogged off and returned less than a minute later. “He was waiting to see if you wanted to reply. He’ll call Guillermo now and tell him.”

Marcus handed his phone to Keegan. “I liked that phone.”

Keegan took it. “We’ll have to find better ones that can’t be hacked or tracked or…” He shrugged. “I’ll just take care of these. Olin, care to help?”

“Sure. I like stomping on thousands of dollars’ worth of technology.” Olin rolled his eyes and got out. “Actually, I do.”

Five minutes later, they were finally on the road. The phones were shattered and had been left behind in tiny pieces.

“I’ll stop somewhere that sells pre-paid phones,” Keegan said.

Olin glanced at him. “It’s a fiercely competitive market here. Shouldn’t be hard to find something decent.”

Marcus rested his head on the back of the seat and sighed when Nathan snuggled up against him. He wanted to go home, take Nathan to their big bed in their nice, chilly bedroom, and make love with him for hours. It seemed like the past year in particular had been very difficult, with little time to unwind. It was all part and parcel of being who and what he was, but Marcus could still yearn for a break now and then.

“Maybe things will calm down after this,”
Nathan thought to him.
“We could get together with Gabe and Mika, have a weekend get-away, if Aidan and Zane will keep an eye on things. Mm. We could do that then spend a few days in Gila, just running and being carefree. What do you say?”

“It sounds perfect.”
And Marcus doubted it would happen. He was less willing to step away from his packs now than he used to be. There were too many things that could happen, and his mind spun out worst-case scenarios at a disturbing rate when he really thought about taking a few days off.

“Even the president and other world leaders take vacations, sugar,” Nathan whispered.

Marcus knew that. He didn’t want to argue and wasn’t going to be persuaded, even if he wanted to be.

Nathan rested a hand on his stomach, rubbing lightly. He didn’t push or nag. He simply accepted Marcus and loved him. That was better than any vacation, any day.

Chapter Ten

Dallas was aware that Tiago was following them. The jaguar made no secret of it. Guillermo and Vero weren’t thrilled, but there was little they could do. Confronting Tiago wouldn’t get them anywhere, and Dallas had asked them not to.

“You and him?” Guillermo asked, his cheeks turning ruddy.

Dallas gave him an innocent look. “Me and him what?”

Vero snickered.

Guillermo glared at him then grumbled about ungrateful shifters.

Dallas was fairly sure Guillermo wasn’t really mad, but he didn’t know Guillermo well, so he could have been wrong.

Guillermo was a good guy, unlike his power-hungry, murderous brother Dirk. Dallas hated thinking about Dirk and the pain he’d caused—not only to Marcus and the pack, but to others as well. He’d been a sick fucker who had raped and killed and done whatever he wanted with no regards for others. How he could be related to Guillermo and Juanita was beyond Dallas’ comprehension.

“He is going to follow us the whole way back,” Guillermo said after a few hours. “I do not like that.”

“He already knows where the pack lives,” Dallas told him. “He’s been watching it for a while. If he wanted to kill everyone, don’t you think he’d have done so already?”

Guillermo glanced over his shoulder. “I don’t know what to think, other than I wish I had some catnip. It could be entertaining to watch a jaguar get stoned.”

Tiago roared, though it was more of a rough, almost hacking sound than not.

Dallas mused over whether or not catnip would have an effect on a jaguar. “Not sure that would work, even if he wasn’t a shifter.”

“I still can’t get over there being other types of shifters,” Vero said, joining the conversation. “My family has lived here for generations, and never have I heard of any other breed of shifters. It’s very strange.”

“Jaguars are solitary animals. In any form,” Dallas added. “They don’t have packs or even friends or family, as far as I can tell—not the adults, anyway.”

Guillermo frowned. “That sounds very lonely and sad, actually.”

“It does,” Vero agreed. “I can’t imagine not having family—or pack. I wouldn’t want to live in such a way.”

“Guess it’s just their nature,” Dallas murmured. As such, he was hoping the mate bond would be severed without killing them both. Right now, he wasn’t feeling the pain of separation much. Then again, Tiago wasn’t far behind them. For whatever reason, he was following them. Dallas kept his thoughts firmly locked down so Tiago couldn’t reach him mentally. He didn’t even know if Tiago was trying.

And he didn’t know if the mate bond was going to grow or shrink or what. He wouldn’t, not as long as Tiago kept following them.

Dallas stopped walking and spun around. He addressed Tiago, who was less than fifty feet behind them, not even bothering to hide as he stalked them. “Stop it! You go back to whatever you were doing before you were doing me!”

Guillermo coughed and Vero sputtered.

Dallas ignored them. He stood in a stare-off with Tiago. Finally, he had to turn away. He lowered his mental walls long enough to shoot Tiago a thought.
“Go back to your plotting on how to rid the rainforest of us invasive, lesser species.”
He slammed the walls back up. Tiago probably hadn’t heard him anyway. Mates couldn’t share thoughts unless they were both in the same form. Tiago was still a jaguar, and Dallas was a man.

“You, ah…?” Guillermo looked at him expectantly.

“What are you, a prude?” Dallas asked him. “Fine if you are, unless you were going to ask about my sex life. Then that’s just a great big, none of your business.”

Guillermo blushed.

Vero snorted. “We heard you and him.” He tipped his chin toward Tiago. “We should shift. I’m over this two-footed trekking.”

“Sounds good to me.” Dallas let the shift come over him, as did his fellow travelers. They took off running, and it felt so good to stretch and work his body in such a way.

Dallas didn’t relax into it. He kept his guard up mentally for fear that Tiago would slip in, which was stupid, because what did he have to fear from that? He didn’t know, yet couldn’t help himself. His emotions were a mess. He wasn’t being logical at all.

When they arrived at the river again—Dallas thought it was the same one and it just wound all through the rainforest—Dallas was the first to leap off the cliff. Judging from Guillermo and Vero’s startled yelps, they hadn’t expected that.

Soon they joined him in the river, and as much as Dallas tried not to, he listened for another splash. When it didn’t come, he looked back. Tiago was nowhere in sight.

His heart ached. Dallas ignored it. Tiago didn’t want him, not really. Dallas wouldn’t let the breaking of their bond kill him. He’d be stronger than that.

* * * *

Tiago was impressed by his mate. Dallas was strong and stubborn and determined. He wasn’t scared of Tiago, and he wasn’t going to compromise his morals for Tiago, either. Tiago got that.
Now.

Just like he understood that being apart was going to result in an actual physical pain. He wasn’t thrilled about that at all.

Nor was he happy with the easy way Dallas and the other two wolf shifters talked and traveled. Tiago had only had that kind of comfort when he’d been a child, being raised by his mother.

Once she’d pushed him out of her life—as all jaguars did their young—he’d been on his own. At least she’d waited until he was sixteen and had given him a human upbringing to equal his jaguar one.

That was more than she’d had, she told him. Her mother had brought her up as a jaguar only then had left her before she had reached adulthood in that form. As a two-species creature, they matured at neither a human nor jaguar rate. At sixteen, Tiago had been mature enough as both to survive. It’d been difficult, but he knew he’d had a better start than many of his kind.

My kind. There I go again.
He didn’t know how to change the way he thought.

Tiago poked at Dallas’ mind and met the same nothingness he’d reached all day. For one moment, when Dallas had turned around and looked at him, Tiago had felt a surge of hope that somehow they could work things out. Then Dallas had shouted at him, and they hadn’t been kind words, either.

Even so, Tiago couldn’t back off. There was an invisible string tugging him along behind Dallas. He didn’t even want to fight it.

When Dallas shifted, Tiago’s jaguar purred with approval. Dallas was a beautiful gray wolf, with eyes that matched his coat perfectly. Tiago wanted to slink up to him and mount him, after knocking the two escorts away.
Guillermo and Vero. Assholes.
He’d heard Dallas address them by their names. Tiago thought he would just call them Ass One and Ass Two instead.

He was—and gods, he hated to admit it—jealous. They were able to talk to Dallas, to walk and run with him, whereas Tiago had been told to fuck off, basically.

Never mind that it was his own fault. He couldn’t do it.

Dallas never looked back at him after the dressing down.

That hurt. Tiago hated it. He plodded after Dallas, and watched with pride when his mate soared off the cliff down into the river. The water there was plenty deep, and Dallas would be just fine. For one second, it looked like Dallas was flying, that long, lean body stretched out to embrace the air.

Then he went down, and the other two wolves had conniption fits. Tiago scoffed at them as he backed away. He had an idea. Being obvious had done nothing but make Dallas mad. It was time for Tiago to let his animal nature take over. He would let his jaguar truly stalk his prey from here on out.

The pain of separation couldn’t be Tiago’s alone. Dallas would have to feel it as well. Tiago was going to put an end to their misery. He would find a way to make Dallas see what he meant about the rainforest being invaded by species that didn’t belong there.