Roar For More (Online Shifter Dating Agency Romance) (5 page)

“What is it with you and the Amazon?” he said, giving her a light, teasing jostle despite the seriousness of their conversation.

“Never mind that. But think about it this way—if you and I were to go to the Amazon right now, there would be lots of toxic things that could kill us easily. Even the plants and the food, right?”

“Right.”

“But if we were to grow up there and be steadily exposed to the environment, we’d develop a certain level of resistance. That could be what you have, considering we’re at the source and quite possibly the place this thing is most toxic in. Might explain why no other shifters in town have taken ill yet either.”

“But it could still get us in the end…is that what you’re saying?”

She shook her head. “There’s just no way of being certain, Jesse. Sorry to be vague, but listen, this is what we’re here for, to find the source and therefore the cure for this thing. Let’s make sure it doesn’t matter either way.”

“Got it.”

With renewed determination their trek got going once again. Jesse felt more engaged with the outing now; even if his symptoms were not what Aubrey suspected, then there were still shifters getting sick and possibly going to die because of this ‘Cripple’ disease.

Soon the trail they were following took them under the cover of woodland and the country that Jesse loved best. He felt perfectly at home under the trees by day and night and was delighted to see that Aubrey was not wary but thrilled by the glades he prowled through as both a two-legged and four-legged being. Though they did not let their pace drop, Aubrey asked him many questions on the wildlife he had seen in those woods and what it was like in different seasons. Perhaps she felt safe with him by her side, though he was beginning to think that there was far more of the adventurous spirit within her that even the stories of treks with her father indicated.

Pleased to humor her interests, Jesse told her that no one could ever truly know all the secrets of a woodland, and that was why he loved it. A woodland was an ever changing maze where if you ever presumed to know something, it would soon prove you wrong. That was why the beasts that dwelled there had learned to be ever alert and versatile, belonging to a place where wildness exists in its purest form and savagery is a quality to treasure. Jesse felt lucky to be a shifter, which enabled him to enjoy the best of both worlds, while he also admitted that he did not understand the desire of some shifters to repress their non-human side for fear of offending people. He was comfortable in his own skin and didn’t want to be anyone or anything else.

Despite offering this vision of personal comfort, their trek would turn out to be the first day on which he had ever felt slightly out of place in those woods. This was a development that occurred when Aubrey suggested it was time they stop for a bite to eat. Jesse was hungry for sure, but he then realized that he was completely unprepared.

As amateurish as it sounded for someone so accustomed to treks up the mountains, the truth was that Jesse had never really had to prepare for outings—aside from his tourist visits—and so the thought hadn’t even occurred to him. Usually, if he became hungry out on the trail, then he would just transform into his tiger form and hunt down a meal. He should have thought about his condition beforehand, because he’d thought only yesterday that he really wasn’t in the mood for zapping his failing energy by shifting. Then again, there was also Aubrey to consider. Even if he decided to throw caution to the wind and shift, he was growing very fond of her, and he didn’t want to take two steps backward by offending her vegetarian sensibilities again. If barbecued ribs on a plate were off-putting to her, then a fresh kill would probably be unbearable.

“Are you not having anything?” Aubrey asked, surprised.

She had taken advantage of a standing stone to use as a seat while she took the first bite of her salad sandwich. He was glad to see she’d already abandoned her plan of avoiding carbs, and he wondered if it was because she’d listened to him yesterday when he’d told her she didn’t need to watch her weight.

“No, I’ve been a bit of an idiot, to be honest,” he replied. “But it’s all right, I’ll get something later.”

“You forgot your supplies?”

“That’s the thing, I usually shift and go find prey. I wouldn’t want to offend you by doing that. Also, the truth is that shifting takes a lot of energy, and if I have a form of this rare bug you’re chasing, then that would be a bit silly.”

“But you can’t go hungry,” she replied.

“It’s no big deal. Just means whatever meal I have later on will taste twice as good.”

Her cheeks turned pink. “No, that won’t do. Surely someone with a body like yours needs plenty of sustenance.”

“I can go without for a few hours, but thanks for the compliment,” he said, grinning. “Don’t worry about it.”

But Aubrey wasn’t giving in.

“Listen,” she went on. “I know this isn’t your kind of food, but this is a double sandwich I ended up buying because the portions in your town are so damn huge.”

“Good, you can save some for later.”

“Or…you could just have some and put my mind at rest?”

“I’m okay, thanks,” he said, although his stomach was rumbling slightly.

“You do know I’m practically your doctor now, right?” she said, raising her brows.

“And…?”

“Well, doctors have a way of getting people to do what they want.”

“Seriously, I’m fine,” he said, wanting to continue up the trail.

Aubrey didn’t budge. “What if I was to tell you that I won’t move off this spot until you have some of this sandwich?”

“Then you’d be more of an idiot than me, what with all the important research you have to complete.”

“My research, yes, but I’m also stubborn and you wouldn’t want to jeopardize that by failing to humor me would you? Look, Jesse,” she went on, changing her tone from bossy to being more persuasive. “I know you’re not the biggest fan of salad vegetables, but at least take a bite and see if it’s something you can eat. You don’t want me worrying about you for the rest of the day.”

“You’re worried about me, huh?” he said in a teasing tone, moving closer to her.

“Maybe. Plus, I’ve got another card up my sleeve.”

“And a revolver in your garter? Seriously, you’re going to need to point one at me to get me to eat that rabbit-food sandwich.”

“I’m paying you, remember. What kind of a guide are you if you fail to give me peace of mind?”

Jesse opened his mouth to protest again but as he looked at her, he found that not only did he not have any more arguments, he really did not want to turn those big brown Bambi eyes down. On top of that, they’d been arguing about this damned sandwich for what seemed like forever now.

“Okay, Aubrey,” he relented. “But I can’t promise I’m into this.”

Not in the same way I’m into you, anyway,
he thought, and it surprised him. He wasn’t supposed to be thinking of her in this way; not when he was still keen on meeting this woman from Roar4More. The old Jesse wouldn’t have minded playing the field and seeing two women at once, but he’d resolved to change his ways in order to settle down.

Sitting down beside her, he allowed her to hand him one of the sandwich halves, and then he took a bite. For some reason he felt the need to chew the food gently, as if he didn’t want to hurt it, but he managed to swallow his first bite without pulling any squeamish faces. After he had done so, however, he sensed that Aubrey’s eyes had been studying him, and he turned to see a big grin plastered over her sweet face.

“Aubrey Vierra, are you mocking me?” he asked.

“It’s just nice to see you putting your faith in my hands as well,” she replied. “How’s the sandwich? You don’t have to lie if you don’t like it.”

“To be honest, I was just thinking it’s not
that
bad for a non-meat food,” he replied, taking another bite. The truth was that he liked her smiling at him very much. After being so wary that she would not be cut out for hiking, it warmed his soul to think that not only had he been so wrong, but that she was also enjoying the day partly because of his company.

She arched her eyebrows, and he continued, throwing one hand up in mock defeat. “Okay, okay, I guess you’re right,” he said. “It’s good, and I needed the sustenance. Let’s finish eating and head off again. I’d estimate that we’ll be at your reservoir in about an hour. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“Me too.”

“For the record,” he continued, almost surprising himself with a serious tone. “I’m real glad you walked into Claire’s store yesterday. If I do have something wrong with me then it almost feels like fate that you arrived when you did.”

According to his inner tiger, it seemed more like fate that she’d arrived in town at all, judging by her almost intoxicating scent, but he kept this thought to himself.

“Jesse, you’re going to make me blush,” she teased.

“Ha! I doubt it, you scientists aren’t embarrassed easy, or so I’ve heard. Also for the record, I think it’s wonderful what you’ve chosen to do with your life. Choosing to help people, I mean—shifters in fact. For me, life’s mostly just been about having fun, and this sort of stuff really puts things in perspective.”

“Well that’s what life
should
be about,’ Aubrey replied. “If it weren’t for sickness, war and prejudice, then that’s what we’d all be doing. Having fun.”

Her words made him smile. Jesse was becoming more impressed with her by the minute, and he made a mental note not to judge folk who came from cities so quickly next time. He could tell Aubrey wasn’t like the rest, though, no matter how nice they were.

She was really something…

Chapter 5

Soon the green surroundings gave way to rockier ground where the larger trees could not grow. Aubrey and Jesse left the shade of the woodland to find the day had grown warmer than they remembered even though they were on higher ground and climbing all the time.

The reservoir was not far, though the track Jesse took her on zigzagged and caused Aubrey to feel that, for the first time, they weren’t making great distance. In front of her the other mountains loomed ever closer, and she now had to tilt her head back in order to look up at Mount Brown’s summit. If they’d been heading to the top an ascent would now have been imminent and she considered how far more imposing it all seemed now they were almost in its shadow.
No wonder he doesn’t bring tourists up here,
she thought. The thought of going up to the peak both terrified and excited her at the same time, but that would be an adventure for another day. For now their mission was for the reservoir, and Aubrey couldn’t help but worry that after having come all this way, there was a chance that no revelations might emerge.

If she thought coming this far would put distance between her and her work she would be wrong, however. Meeting Jesse had brought home the importance of her role. She had tried to downplay it to him in order to make him worry less, but she strongly suspected he had a mild form of the disease. However, she really had no idea how to judge its differing behavior in him, and she couldn’t be confident that he was not due to be struck down one day soon. Such thinking was unbearable, though she hid her anxiety. Enhanced by having seen a sweeter side of him all day compared to the annoying braggart she’d first taken him for, it was no longer irritating that she found him attractive.

And damn…he’s more than just ‘attractive’. He might actually be the sexiest man I’ve ever seen,
she thought.

They would need to use some of the climbing equipment for the last stage of the trek, though Jesse insisted it was only for the sake of professionalism—they could have easily made the climb freehand, but any clumsiness could have resulted in a broken ankle, and all good mountain climbers know that the risk is not worth taking.

All the same, Aubrey was beginning to wonder how much farther the water was. She was beginning to think they weren’t getting anywhere quickly now, but she was underestimating the ability of a jagged landscape to deceive, as all of a sudden the ground before them gave way and she found herself looking out on a body of beautiful, bright-blue water.

“Oh, wow! I’d expected to be able to see it from a distance,” Aubrey said, smiling while catching her breath.

“It does sneak up on you,” Jesse replied. “I can never quite remember which part of the climb is the last, but I hope it was worth it.”

“Oh, absolutely! It’s beautiful here. I imagined some boring manmade construction but this is terrific.”

Almost as terrific as your biceps,
she thought, glancing over at him and admiring his rippling muscular arms as he slid his jacket off and wiped his brow.

“One of the secret places of nature,” Jesse agreed. “There’s plenty of them out there, but you don’t know about them if you don’t go looking.”

For a few more moments they stood taking in the scenery, but Aubrey knew she could not hang around admiring Colorado for too long. She had work to do and had to make sure she searched the site thoroughly. Her suspicions had been that some kind of noxious chemical had been seeping into the water, but the site seemed so clean that she found no concerns when studying any of the grassed or rocky banks. There were no substances left behind by any engineers charged with maintaining the site; no litter or strange-looking vegetation. It wasn’t long before her thoughts naturally turned to the small building that sat on the grassy half of the bank, and she wondered if any secrets might be waiting within. Could something toxic have been kept in there and allowed to leak out into the water?

Unfortunately, the door was locked and of a firm structure, and it would have been silly to attempt to break through, even if they were in the mood…though Jesse did offer to try.

“Stupid of me not to think of it sooner,” Jesse said, annoyed with himself. “Pretty sure a copy of the keys are kept in the town hall’s water department; we could have just brought them with us.”

“Don’t be silly,” Aubrey replied, refusing to let him take any blame. “I didn’t even let you know the real reasons for coming here until we were halfway up the trail. If it’s anyone’s fault, it’s my own. Besides, I can take a water sample. That might give me what I need once I get it back to the lab. Look at this, though…”

She was pointing to the grass leading up to the office door. Though the ground was fairly firm at that time of year, scorched by the baking sun, it was still pretty obvious that they were not the only recent visitors to the reservoir.

“Someone seems to have been coming here frequently.”

“Well, sure, it must be someone’s job to keep an eye on the place,” Jesse replied.

“Let’s just hope they know what they’re doing. Something’s definitely going wrong, but it all just looks so clean and perfect here. I’m inclined to think we could do with looking in this building, though—might mean you have to put up with me again if I have to come back.”

Jesse chuckled at that.

“It will be a pleasure, Aubrey. Anyway, it’s possible we can get back in time to catch someone at the town hall. If not I’ll go there tomorrow and ask about access.”

“I’ve got you running favors for me now, huh?” she asked, quirking her lips up.

“Hey, you’re the one trying to save my people. Seems to me I should be doing a lot more,” he reflected. “Anyway, my hiking friend, it’s a beautiful day, but shall we head back?”

“Yeah…oh wait, bear with me while I take a water sample,” Aubrey replied.

The body of water was dug deep into the mountainside and the banks were steep. Any attempt to make contact with the water without actually jumping in demanded lying on the ground and taking a full arm’s reach. Aubrey wanted one sample from the main body of water itself and one from the water filtration unit, allowing her to assess any significant differences.

After having taken the first sample, she found the depth of the filtration unit to be somewhat kinder and so thought that by just bending her knees she could obtain the sample.

This was an awful mistake.

Regardless of how well Aubrey had quashed Jesse’s expectations that she might be too soft for the trek, the fact was that her legs were naturally achy after their long hike, and she underestimated by how much. The unbalancing came when she went to stand back up and her legs decided they needed extra strength to complete the act. Foolishly her instincts were to cling to the samples in her hands rather than dropping them to steady herself. They were precious, of course, but not more precious than her very life.

And yet here she was, tumbling headfirst into the water.

What the hell just happened?
Was the first thought to register other than the realization that she was head to toe in water. Getting soaked was the least of her problems, however. She’d fallen right in the filtration unit where the current was strongest, and before she could even think about swimming or resurfacing she felt it drag her under.

Only then did the direness of her situation sink in.

The current was powerful and instinctively she knew that even if she had been prepared for the attempt, her limbs were simply not strong enough to fight against it, no matter how much she flailed around.
Oh, shit.

In her panic, her mind seemed to work at a million miles per second. Her understanding of the filtration unit’s inner workings was sketchy, and a flurry of questions ran through her head. Was it going to spit her out somewhere and allow her to surface? It certainly didn’t feel that way; in fact, it felt like the current was holding her still, and attempting to move in any direction was impossible. Her head was in contact with something above, probably concrete, and she was able to remain upright by pushing up with the palms of her hands, but this was about all she could do with her arms.

God…I know what’s going to happen
, she thought,
I’m going to drown. Shit, shit, shit…

As her lungs began to hurt from lack of oxygen, the yearning for air became so unbearable that every fiber of her being was poised for agony.

And yet she couldn’t even scream, trapped underwater as she was.

Some people reported seeing angels coming to collect them during near-death experiences. Maybe some saw devils too but don’t care to admit so afterwards. What Aubrey saw, however, would most likely have made no sense to any religious sect whatsoever.

She could not see very far and would have been right in concluding that she remained under the manmade structure—if the ability to think remained intact—but what she could see ahead of her in the murky dark water was suddenly filled with a an image that would have terrified anyone who had not already readied themselves for death. Of all the wondrous beasts the animal kingdom boasted, it was one that needed no introduction to even the most ignorant. Even those who had never seen one in person didn’t need reminding of what a tiger looked like, or explaining what one was capable of. If wildness had a face, then it was surely a tiger’s.

Right now, that was the face that Aubrey saw coming for her mid-drowning.

There was no time to take this absurdity in. Aubrey’s grip on reality slipped away as water filled her lungs, and all she could really see now was a series of flashes of color before she woke up again, looking upon a great expanse of blue. If it was heaven she was staring up at, then it would have been just fine with her, but it was plain old Earth’s sky that she lay gazing at. The water that had gotten into her lungs had escaped and she was breathing again, though she couldn’t remember how.

What the hell happened to me?

When she was finally able to move and look around, she saw Jesse lying beside her. He was wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts, and he was lying back and breathing heavily as well.

“
Jesse
!” she cried, forcing herself to sit up. “That…that was you?”

He nodded, dragging in another deep breath.

“I…I don’t even know to thank you,” she said, tears filling her eyes as a rush of emotion swept through her. She barely knew the guy, and he’d risked his life to save her own.

“No worries,” he said, as if it hadn’t been a big deal at all.

“You’re a tiger? At least…I saw a tiger, I think.”

“Sure, that was me. No way I could have done that swim in human form.”

“But you never said. I assumed you were a wolf or a puma.”

“You didn’t ask.”

“I’ve never met a tiger. At least not in person. You really…you saved my life.”

“It’s fine. You feeling okay? You really had me scared, y’know. You just splashed right in all of a sudden.”

Aubrey tilted her head to the side and tipped more water out of her ears. “I…um…I’ll live. I’m just in shock, I think.”

“There was a load of water you spat out before you came round. I was so relieved when I finally saw you breathing again.”

His voice was gruff and yet still somehow soft, and Aubrey felt another surge of desire towards the man, despite how inappropriate it was at a time like this. She shifted uncomfortably, trying to ignore the growing heat between her legs, and the wetness that was most certainly
not
from the reservoir she’d just been dragged out of.

“What a fucking idiot I am,” she then said, recalling what she had done. She rarely swore, but this occasion really called for it. “I can’t believe I just fell in there like that.”

“We got you the right shoes and everything,” Jesse said, trying to lighten the mood with a silly joke. “But please…don’t do that again.”

“Don’t worry, I think it will be a while before I even trust myself boiling the kettle,” she said with a rueful smile. “I still can’t believe you’re a tiger! Wait…are you okay?”

Bewildered as she was by her own actions, Aubrey suddenly realized that Jesse didn’t look so good, and she recalled that he had been against the idea of shifting considering how unwell he had been feeling.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just catching my breath.”

“Did shifting hurt you?”

“I’ll be okay. I feel a bit like I’ve run a marathon, but I’ll make it back,” he said, making the effort to sit up. As he did so, Aubrey was unprepared for how close together they were; she could easily just thrust her head forward and kiss him.

And that was exactly what she did.

Of course it was just to thank him, to show him her gratitude for saving her. Wait, no…who was she kidding? She was pressed up against him, passionately pressing her lips against his, and the soaking shirt that clung so tightly to her breasts pressed up against his bare chest, thumping with the relief of being alive and ignited with the flame of sexual attraction allowed to burn.

This was more than a grateful kiss.

It was another thing entirely…