Jaguar's Kiss

Chapter Two

Santiago Flores was giving serious thought to murdering Kelly Mather.

Not that it was Kelly’s fault. He was a genuinely nice guy who would flirt with a rock if it stood still long enough. No, the reason Santiago wanted Kelly dead and safely stowed beneath six feet of dirt was perched on the chair beside him in a frilly white dress, laughing and leaning in to touch his arm and batting her goddamn eyelashes.

Lila Fallon. The bane of Santiago’s existence. His personal curse.

Not that it was her fault either, if he was honest. Lila had never done anything to encourage him, beyond her usual friendly flirtation and she hadn’t done even that in years.

No, it was all on him. No one to blame but himself.

Five years ago, when he’d first come up to Montana from California, he’d only planned on staying a week, two at most. His career was just starting to take off and he’d landed a job designing a vacation escape in the mountains for one of his Beverly Hills clients. He’d come to survey the site and tailor the house design to the surroundings.

He’d dropped by the pride lands to see what all the fuss about Lone Pine was and to catch up with Mateo, a leopard from Los Angeles who’d moved up to join a few years earlier.

Then he’d clapped eyes on Lila Fallon.

She’d been playing football. In a skirt. More worried about her manicure than scoring a touchdown, but no one in the casual pick-up game had minded her skewed priorities. They’d laughed and teased with the easy byplay of a group that had known each other their entire lives. Santiago had felt a pang in his chest when he realized what it was he was seeing. Family. It had been a while since he’d had anything resembling one. Raised by a single mother who was just as happy on her own as he was, he’d never had that.

Santiago had watched the game, hypnotized by the way Lila’s long golden legs would eat up the yards whenever they (carefully, so as not to chip a nail) handed her the ball. She was wearing strappy sandals and actually had a pom-pom attached to her pony tail, but even looking like a renegade cheerleader let loose in the middle of the plays, it was impossible not to admire her grace and athleticism.

She wasn’t the only girl on the field—her friend Patch was quarterbacking the opposing team—but she might as well have been for all Santiago could see.

Then two of their number had been called away by a senior member of the pride and Lila had spotted Santiago and Mateo watching the game. She’d danced over—it could hardly be called walking, the way she did it.

“Who’s your friend, Mateo?” she’d asked, eyeing Santiago with open interest.

“Santiago Flores. Old friend from LA. I’m trying to convince him he’s a fool not to join Lone Pine.”

“Is that so? And what do you think, Mr. Flores? Do you like what you see?” she’d purred, tilting her chin down the better to look up at him beneath her lashes, her gaze filled with a warm invitation that made his blood heat, even though he told himself she was too young for him to take her up on it.

“It is beautiful,” he replied, glancing to the mountains in the distance then back to her, so she could take that however she liked.

“We’re more than just beautiful.” She tipped her head toward the game. “Come play with us. Let us show you what the pride’s all about.”

“And what’s that?”

She smiled, eyes twinkling. “Fun.”

Santiago blinked. He didn’t have fun. It wasn’t his style. That wasn’t to say he didn’t enjoy himself, but he wasn’t playful the way the lions on the field were. He looked out for himself. Always. And when you did that, there wasn’t always a lot of time for goofing off.

“Come on, Santiago Flores,” she’d wheedled. “You know you want to.”

It was no use resisting. She’d beg and flirt and cajole until the two of them agreed to fill in, but the truth was he wanted to play. She made him want that playfulness.

Santiago had found himself on Patch’s team—a tomboy in a Seahawks jersey with a mop of thick dark hair shoved underneath a baseball cap. She was a dictator on the field with an arm like Joe Montana. It would have been a runaway, except for the fact that none of the players on his team seemed willing to tackle Lila so all the opposition had to do was hand her the ball.

Patch had called the defense into a huddle, glowering fiercely up at all the big strong cats. “Santiago, defend Lila. If she scores, I’m telling the Alpha you’re a pussy who should be barred from pride lands forever.”

The others had laughed and the guy next to Santiago clapped him on the shoulder. “She’ll do it too. And the Alpha listens to Patch.”

Santiago grinned. “She won’t get anywhere near the end zone.”

The huddle broke up and Santiago took his position opposite Lila. His muscles were warm, his body relaxed, and his mind at ease among his fellow shifters in a way he’d never felt in any other community. No wonder Mateo loved it here.

Lila bounced on the opposite side of the line of scrimmage, her ponytail swinging as she trash talked. “You’re going down, Flores. I’m like a cheetah. You’re hopelessly outmatched, boyo.”

Santiago had never bothered with trash talk in sports. He just looked at Lila and smiled—and damned if her cheeks didn’t turn pink.

The ball was snapped and the quarterback passed it off to Lila. Her long, graceful legs stretched out in a dead run and Santiago gave pursuit. Damn, she was fast. Hell, maybe she was a cheetah. Lone Pine was known for taking cats of all types. He’d never met a cheetah shifter before, but he’d believe it of Lila—all long lines and grace.

But fast as she was, Santiago was faster. He caught her with an arm around her waist, swinging her up and around and off her feet. She squealed, clinging to the football as he took them both to the ground, cradling her against his chest so his body took the brunt of the impact.

She lay against him, both breathing hard, her body so warm and soft and smelling like apples. Suddenly things weren’t so playful. He should let her go. Open his arms and help her to her feet. The play was over, the rest of the players running toward them to set a new line of scrimmage. He needed to let her go…

But Lila wasn’t moving either. She was perfectly still in his arms, like fresh-caught prey waiting to see what the predator would do with it. He spread his hand over her abdomen, one thumb against her ribcage, just beneath her breast, and heard a throaty gasp.

“I guess you aren’t such a pussy after all.”

Santiago jerked his hands off Lila as Patch came to stand over them. She extended both hands to tug Lila to her feet and Santiago rolled away to rise, fighting his body’s reaction. Lila didn’t look at him, but her face was flushed—he hoped from more than the run.

They returned to the game and Lila scored on the next play—Santiago preoccupied with thinking about baseball statistics and Margaret Thatcher. The game broke up after that, shifters scattering to their evening tasks, Lila and Patch wandering off arm in arm, but not before Patch grinned at him with a “Not bad, Flores” and Lila tossed him another look under her lashes with “Not bad at all.”

Mateo clapped him on the shoulder and jerked his head toward what looked like low-rise apartments. “Come on. Let’s get cleaned up before you meet the Alpha.”

Santiago had made it about five steps down the path before he had to ask. “Who is she?”

“Lila?” Mateo asked, somehow managing to seem surprised and not surprised at all at the same time. “She’s the Alpha’s only daughter.”

“Lioness.” Santiago cringed. Lions were the worst when it came to their rigid attachment to only dating their own kind.

“Yeah, that’s strike one,” Mateo agreed. “The Alpha’s barely legal daughter is strike two. And engaged to the Alpha’s successor is a big old strike three. Don’t get your hopes up, amigo.”

“Who’s getting their hopes up? It’s just the first time I’ve played football with a girl in a skirt.”

He hadn’t seen Lila again for the rest of his visit.

She was just eighteen then. Too young for him and wildly off limits even if her age hadn’t been an issue. It would have been idiotic to stay for her. So he told himself he stayed because Montana was gorgeous, the work was good, and he wanted that family connection being part of a pride could give him—which, as a jaguar, he could only get at Lone Pine.

He told himself that staying had absolutely nothing to do with Lila Fallon. But he could only lie to himself for so long.

He’d built a life he loved here. Sure, he wasn’t architect-to-the-stars like he’d originally dreamed, but this was even better, designing luxury vacation homes that flowed out of nature and melted seamlessly into their surroundings. He was in demand, and he’d even saved enough to build his own dream home in a secluded area a few miles off the pride lands.

He and Mateo were closer than ever, and Patch, of all people, had become one of his best friends. He’d bonded more with the other outliers than he had with the core lions, but that was to be expected.

It was a good life.

But he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Lila. He knew her marriage to Roman had been pre-ordained. The future Alpha seemed like a nice enough guy, though Santiago didn’t know him well. Santiago might have been jealous, but Lila and Roman had never acted like a couple. Neither of them seemed particularly interested in the future that fate had laid out for them. Santiago kept waiting for Lila to wake up and smell the options, for her to see that she could take hold of her life and turn it into whatever she wanted it to be, but she never did.

Their paths hadn’t crossed often. For the first four years she’d been commuting to the nearby university for classes and spending her free time with the other young shifters. Santiago hadn’t been invited to any more football games and she had never again tried to lure him in with a promise of fun. When they did interact, it was civil and distant. Polite. Lila was always polite.

He didn’t know why he’d given her a hard time before the meeting today. He shouldn’t have taken his bad mood out on her, but sometimes he just wanted to shake her until she realized she didn’t have to be the perfect puppet.

He’d been on edge ever since he’d gotten the notice for the pride meeting. He didn’t particularly care for being summoned in—no matter how much he liked and respected the Alpha—and he really didn’t care for the rumors he’d been hearing from the new arrivals. Things were far too unstable in the south.

He had taken to hanging around the pride lands more—not because he felt unsafe on his own, but because he wanted to keep an eye on Lila. Even if she was the most protected woman in the pride, he still felt like she wasn’t safe unless he was keeping her safe.

The possessiveness was irrational, but Santiago hadn’t lived as long as he did on his own without trusting his instincts and his instincts told him there was more to Lila Fallon than even she knew. More than a flirt and an obedient daughter. More than manicures and pretty shoes.

And whatever that more was, his instincts wouldn’t stop screaming that it was his. And he protected what was his.

He closed his eyes, blocking out the sight of her flirting with Kelly and the handful of other young lions who had flocked to her. This obsession wasn’t healthy. If he couldn’t get it under control, he was going to need to leave the pride, but every cell in his body rebelled at the idea of leaving her.

He was so fucking screwed up.

Someone bumped into him and he opened his eyes, reaching out automatically to steady her when he realized it was Patch. She mumbled an apology then looked up and smiled. “Oh. Hey, Santiago.”

“Patch.”

“It’s a zoo in here today, isn’t it?” she said with a wrinkle of her nose. Patch was a mountain lion. Even though she’d been raised on pride lands, she’d moved off as soon as she turned eighteen and had been an outlier like him ever since. The lions might get off on the togetherness, but the rest of them preferred their solitude. “Have you seen Lila?”

He jerked his chin toward where the princess was holding court. “Over there. Flirting with everything that breathes.”

“That sounds like Lila.” Patch swayed forward, shoved by the crowd. “Do you know what this is about?”

“I have a couple ideas.” Lions in Texas, threatening to come out to the humans. Shifters disappearing in Colorado and Utah. Some sort of mysterious human organization running tests on them.

“I guess the Alpha will tell us soon enough,” Patch said when Santiago didn’t volunteer his theories. “I’d better find Lila before it’s time to start.”

She dove back into the crowd, threading and shoving her way toward Lila and her entourage. Santiago tried not to watch, tried not to obsess over Lila, and had about as much success as he’d had for the last five years. None.

Thankfully, the Alpha called the meeting to order, providing a welcome distraction.

The announcements were, unfortunately, in line with what he’d been expecting. After a quick welcome of the new members and thanks to everyone for attending, the Alpha launched into an explanation of the troubles in the south—the Three Rocks lions’ plans to go public, their warnings about an organization abducting shifters for scientific experiments, and rumors about the disappearances in Colorado and Utah.

Other Alphas may not have told their prides about the rumors, may have made the necessary decisions and kept their people in the dark, but that was never how Gregory Fallon had operated. He wanted his people informed—but if they wanted Lone Pine protection, they still had to do as he said. And right now he was saying that the outliers needed to come in. Indefinitely.

Santiago bristled, and he wasn’t the only one, at the idea of having his freedom curtailed. He knew why the Alpha was asking, even understood that it was the best move for everyone involved until they knew more about the threats coming from the south, but that didn’t mean the jaguar beneath his skin liked the idea of sharing territory with all these other cats.

Even if Lila was one of them.

The Alpha held up a hand to quiet the rumblings of discontent rippling through the hall. No one wanted the outliers crowding onto pride lands, least of all the core lions who lived there. Sure, the pride had hundreds of acres of terrain and the facilities to house two hundred—Santiago should know, he’d designed the latest additions—but tempers were bound to flare if that many predators were forced to all live together.

“I know this will be a sacrifice, but until we know more, I feel it is necessary for the safety of our pride,” the Alpha went on. “And now for some good news. While we’re together seemed like the perfect time to begin planning an event I know many among us have been anticipating for years. I am delighted to be able to announce something that is a cause for great personal celebration, and hopefully gives our entire pride equal joy, the wedding date between my daughter Lila and my heir Roman has, at long last, been set. This New Year’s we will have more than another year to celebrate.”

There was cheering—Santiago knew there was cheering, but the sound was distorted, as if it were coming to him through a tunnel. He felt detached from his body, watching from a distance of miles as Lila stood and made her way to the stage, sliding her small, perfectly manicured hand into Roman’s large mitt.

At the touch, he snapped back into himself. His senses returned with a roar, and with them a fierce, wild, irrational rage. His jaguar was clawing against the inside of his skin, twisting and pushing to burst through. The anger blacked his vision and he pushed blindly toward the exit.

Three months. She was marrying Roman in less than three months.

He had to get out of here. Had to shift. Had to run.

He’d never involuntarily shifted before, but this had to be what it felt like. The jaguar was coming to the surface whether he wanted him to or not, a silent roar echoing in his head.

Santiago burst into the evening air seconds before the change ripped through him and his feral cat took command in a rush of rage and claws. The most animal part of him wanted to return and fight, but he forced himself to dart forward, away, the ground racing up to meet his paws, miles melting away as he ran.