The Jaguar’s Arranged Mate

“Yes. I’ll go and find him. If we’re late, start the meeting without us.”

“Why would you be late?”

She kissed his cheek. “Just do what you’re told for once,” she teased. She turned to leave.

“You should know that one of the items I intend to bring up is my resignation as alpha.”

“You’re stepping down? Why?” Was his timeline that short?

“I have about six months or so, if the Brutal Claws don’t kill me before the cancer does. I can’t keep trying to be leader when these past few weeks prove that I’m no longer fit to be. You are ready. You and Beric, together will be our alphas.”

Tears burned her eyes as they hugged again. Leaving him was bittersweet. At first, her feet dragged but then she picked up speed until she was running. Had Beric found the traitor yet?

For some reason, a pit formed in her stomach. She questioned every were-jaguar she passed to see if they knew where Beric was, but no one had seen him for the past half hour. Gradually, she left the crowded part of the compound for the more remote areas, and that’s where she saw them.

Beric and Charles.

Fighting each other.

To the death.

Why? Because Charles had knocked her up? Or because Charles was the traitor? Either way, she knew whom she was siding with.

Miera shifted for the first time since before she had given birth. It felt wonderful to be on all fours again. She stalked toward the two animals and joined the attack. Her initial attempts to separate them proved futile, but she did manage to prevent them from delivering fatal blows. Neither could die. Not that she necessarily wanted Charles to live. He had proven to be clingy immediately after, but when they had spent time apart, she thought he would move on and forget her. When he had approached her and she realized the opposite was the case, she never wanted to see him again.

Only the possibility that he was the traitor had her fighting Beric to keep Charles alive. They needed to know all that he knew.

Beric kept glancing at her whenever she halted him from attacking Charles, and she knew he had to be questioning her motives. Obviously, he knew about her and Charles. She couldn’t change the past, but she would ensure Charles had no part in their future. Beric, as his alpha, could send Charles away. Of course, it would be fairer to do so after the war with the Brutal Claws ended… unless Charles was also the traitor.

Finally, she seized an opportunity to jump onto Charles’s back after he lunged at Beric. She shoved his head into the dirt, fangs at the ready.

Beric lifted onto his hind paws, and she realized he planned on suffocating the were-jaguar.

She shifted her mouth to human. “Is he the traitor?”

In answer, Beric savagely bit Charles’s ear.

Miera swatted his nose, not enough to hurt him, but enough to hopefully, finally get through to him. “If he is, we need him alive.”

Understanding finally shone in Beric’s eyes, and he shifted completely to his human form. He kneeled down and grabbed Charles’s furry throat. “Change to human. Tell us everything, and we just might let you live.”

Miera stepped off of Charles’s back. She wasn’t certain they could force him to tell them anything, or even force him to switch form.

Charles, in jaguar form, remained hunched down from when she had jumped onto his back. He was pawing at the ground, not looking at either of them.

“He’s the traitor all right,” Beric spat. He looked angry enough to kill. If she hadn’t gotten here when she had, Charles might already be dead.

“You betrayed us?” Miera demanded.

Charles glanced away.

“Everyone but you and our baby,” Beric said.

Her heart warmed at hearing “our baby,” but then the meaning behind his words sank in. “What do you mean? Charles, what plan had you worked out with the Brutal Claws?”

He stared at her.

Why wouldn’t he answer? Because Beric was here? She wasn’t going to send her husband away to talk to the father of her child.

While she hated the idea of this, the realization that his seeing her naked body might get him to cooperate had Miera shifting the rest of her body to human form. She wanted to cover herself, hating the lust shining in Charles’s eyes. “Your plan?” she repeated impatiently.

Charles shifted and stood straight. There was some space between them, but not enough for Miera’s liking. She couldn’t hide behind Beric, though, not when she was hopefully getting somewhere with him.

“Well?” she asked.

“I wanted you and me and our baby to be safe,” Charles said quietly.

“The baby is not yours,” she said.

“The baby has my blood!”

“Blood doesn’t make you a father.” Miera shook her head. “You can’t—”

“You can’t take him away from me.”

“He isn’t yours.” Beric stepped forward, his hands tight fists. “If you want the chance to see him—”

Miera winced. She didn’t want Charles anywhere near her son. What if he tried to run off with the baby?

“You’ll tell us what you know of the Brutal Claws,” Beric finished.

Okay, maybe under those circumstances, she could deal with a supervised visit.

“Please tell us, Charles,” she added.

Charles glowered at Beric but then smiled almost lovingly at her. “Andreas the Bloodthirsty has taken a special interest in how this all plays out.”

“This meaning…”

“Taking down two packs. He wants to make sure his people can handle more than one pack at a time. He wants power, but he also wants people to fear him.”

“Why only send a few warriors at a time?” Beric asked. “If he sent a huge force, we would’ve been done long before now.”

Charles didn’t respond.

Miera suppressed a sigh. “Why hasn’t he sent a huge force?” she asked.

The were-jaguar grinned, seemingly pleased that she was willing to play his game. “He’s toying with you. Wants to see if you’ll break. If you’ll try to flee. If you’ll rise up and stand against him. If it is possible for two packs to unite against a single enemy.”

“Basically, he’s using us as a social experiment,” she said slowly. A bitter taste filled her mouth.

“Basically,” Charles agreed. “If you’ll just come with me, we can be—”

“If you were going to say happy…” She waited to see his reaction, and he nodded. Her stomach churned. “I would never be happy living with the person who would condemn his people to death just so he could save his own hide.”