The Jaguar’s Arranged Mate

“And what?” Beric said bitterly. He could feel the rising tension brewing among his men. They were grumbling and shifting their weight, and he saw out of the corner of his eyes that a few also had out their claws or were stroking their weapons. If the Brutal Claws wanted to talk, maybe he could talk their way out of this, but if one of the Brutal Claws, or one of his men, resumed the battle, they might all fall.

The Brutal Claw smirked. The one standing beside him nudged his shoulder, and a few of the others started to laugh.

“You don’t want us to join you, that much is clear.” Beric was having a hard time talking around his fangs, but he couldn’t bring himself to rein them in.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because you wouldn’t have attacked us at all. You wouldn’t have killed our scouts. You wouldn’t have shed one drop of blood.”

“Now, now, we never met a scout we liked, isn’t that right, men?”

The other Brutal Claws cheered.

“So you can’t blame us for killing them.” The scarred Brutal Claw smiled again. “A public service, really.”

Beric couldn’t help himself. He spat in the were-jaguar’s face.

The Brutal Claw didn’t flinch as the wad of saliva dripped down his cheek and fell onto his shirt. “Is that any way to treat our hospitality? Given that you’ve obviously heard of our reputation?”

“You don’t scare me.” Beric stood straighter. He was shorter than this Brutal Claw by two inches, but he was taller than the rest of the crew at least. “Tell us the real reason why you want us to desist. Is it because you’ll find slaughtering us that much easier?”

“Do you mean to suggest that we need to cheat in order to conquer?” The widest Brutal Claw, from muscles not fat, pushed his way over to Beric. “We could kill you all without breaking a sweat.”

“You do still outnumber us,” Beric pointed out evenly.

“And we always will.” The scarred one glowered at Beric. “When we mean to fight, we fight and we kill. When we offer terms—”

“I still don’t see how our desisting would benefit us.”

“Either you desist or you die. Is that plain enough?”

“Slaves,” Lionel the teen blurted out.

Beric was so shocked his fang retracted. He shifted slightly so he could see both the scarred Brutal Claw and Lionel. “What?”

“There’s been talk… they’ve been saying… rumors that they can’t feed them all, they’ve grown too big and—”

The scarred Brutal Claw snatched Lionel by the throat and lifted him into the air, the teen’s lean legs dangling helplessly. Just by flicking his wrist violently, Lionel’s head dropped. He tossed the limp body away from them.

Beric started forward, but the Brutal Claws tightened their circle around the Teal Warriors.

“We gave you the message. You had better deliver it. It will not be any sweat off our backs to kill you all. We don’t need you alive. We don’t.”

“What is your game plan?” Beric demanded. “Kill us, don’t kill us, kill the Blood Roses, don’t kill them, or the next pack and the next… what is your end game? To have one large pack of all the were-jaguars together? For what purpose?”

“To know that, you would have to be a Brutal Claw, and believe me, you don’t have what it takes to be one. You have to be driven and ambitious and willing to obey orders. Our alpha is strong. He is powerful. He will never lead us astray. Can you say the same about your alpha? Will he recognize that he cannot win if he tries to fight us? So much blood could be shed… or not a single drop more.”

Wordlessly, the Brutal Claws stepped back. One at a time, they slipped away, slinking into the shadows of the trees. Soon, only the muscular one and the scarred one remained, but then they, too, left.

For a long moment, Beric stared down at Lionel. He had so wished the teen had kept silent as the others had. Maybe then he would still be alive. If only I had sent him back like I had thought about…

With a grunt, he kneeled and picked up the teen’s body. Not a single drop of blood covered his body. A chill ran throughout his body. They can kill without bloodshed. Everything he said could be a lie or the truth.

The slow, long trek back to their compound was a silent, somber affair. Slaves. Is that why they want us? To plant fields for them, to grow them food?

Or do they mean for us to be their food? While the animal jaguars were only carnivores, most were-jaguars also ate plants and herbs. They are more vicious, more in tune with their animal side than their human side. I wouldn’t be surprised if they are cannibals.

All the more reason to not give in. All the more reason to fight for their lives.

All the more reason to marry Miera so they might have a fighting chance.