Free Savage Hunger by Terry Spear Page A

safe as a shifter on her own.
    “Thank you. I’d like that.”
    Maya relaxed. Good. Everything was falling into place. Now if only Connor didn’t throw a fit…
    Looking tired, Kat reclined on the bed and watched Maya cook. “Where are the cats?”
    “During the day? Probably sleeping somewhere in the canopy. They’ll stay out of sight. When it gets dark and again at dawn, they’ll be on the prowl.”
    “Oh. Somehow I figured they were like big cat companions that went with you everywhere you went in the jungle. I guess I thought that because when Connor came to rescue me the first time, one of the jaguars was with him.”
    “One was?” Maya asked incredulously. She hadn’t been with Connor when he’d exposed himself to danger that time. Although she had been angry with him for doing so without letting her know, she had been glad he saved Kat’s life.
    “Yes.”
    “You… saw him?”
    “No. I was tied up. But I heard one of Gonzales’s men shout something about a jaguar. I thought I was hearing things.”
    “Oh, so you didn’t see the jaguar.”
    “No. Later, I heard rumors that Connor was seen with a jaguar, vacationing in these parts. And he told me himself when he came to my rescue that he was vacationing here.”
    “Ah.” So Connor had arrived as a jaguar, then shifted before Kat had seen him. Now some of it made sense.
    “So what do you do when you return to Texas? Leave the cats here?”
    “Um, no, they stay with us always. It’s safer for them.” Maya hoped Kat wouldn’t ask how they crossed the border with the jaguars. They wouldn’t have been allowed to. Maybe she could say they had a special permit, but she hoped she wouldn’t have to explain and lie any further to Kat.
    “Wow. So do you have special pens for them back home?”
    “No,” Connor said, stalking back into the hut. “Maya, if the men had been trouble, they would have heard you talking.” He sniffed at the fish, his narrowed gaze flitting to hers. “You burned them.”
    She knew he wasn’t angry with her, just teasing her in his superior way.
    Still resting on Connor’s bed, Kat quickly spoke in Maya’s defense, as if she was afraid he was truly angered. “It was my fault. She was helping me dress.”
    He glanced at Kat’s bare legs and raised a brow.
    “We didn’t get that far,” Kat said, making a disgruntled face.
    But he looked concerned. He had to realize that Kat was still too weak to dress herself.
    “Not that you have never burned our food,” Maya said, a hint of challenge in her words. She loved how Kat had come to her rescue.
    He glanced at Kat who wore a barely constrained smile, her eyes sparkling with humor.
    “Why did you come here, Kat? To the Amazon?” he asked, leaning against the door frame, arms folded across his chest and looking imperious.
    Her eyes widened a bit, making her appear surprised at the change in conversation, but Maya wondered if something he’d overheard spoken between Kat and herself had gotten his attention. Like the fact she might still be in the military.
    “I wanted to find you, to thank you for saving my life. The doctor said if you hadn’t stemmed the bleeding when you did, I wouldn’t have had enough in me to make it.”
    He opened his mouth to speak, but she raised her hand to stop him, and one of his eyebrows lifted. No one ever stopped her brother from having his say, and Maya was more than amused to see the effect Kat had on him.
    “I tried to locate you in the States. But I didn’t know where you were from, and tons of Connor Andersons are listed. I posted on Facebook, Twitter, on my blog, trying to locate the man who saved my life. And was rewarded.”
    This time both of Connor’s brows shot up. “Who would have known we come here? We don’t do Facebook or any of those other networking sites. We do have a Web presence because of our garden shop, but that’s it.”
    She sighed. “A man said he visits here and knew of you. He said he could lead me to