February 14th
Hester let out a snarl as she tried to leap out of bed. Her cheetah roared and her foot tangled in the sheets. She fell to the ground with a thump.
“Ooh, baby, take it easy,” cooed a soft, feminine voice.
Hester fought with the sheets – finally won – and jumped up, fangs out, cheetah furious and claws ready to scratch to death.
The small Latina woman in front of her merely smiled. “You’re probably a little confused right now.”
“No, I’m really fucking pissed right now! Where is that fucker, Antonio?”
The woman’s smile fell. “I’ll let him know you’re awake.”
She scurried out the room, and Hester threw herself at the door as the woman locked it. She banged her fists and screamed.
Fear tinged her nostrils, and she spun to find three humans staring at her. They were scared. But whether they were more scared of her or of the situation wasn’t clear.
“What’s happening?” snapped Hester. “Who are you?”
The glamorous young woman with teased red hair and – in spite of apparently being kidnapped – perfect make-up said, “I’m Sadie.” She nodded at the girl in tie-dye pajamas. “That’s Laurel, and this is Mary.” She pointed at the mousiest looking female in the room, trying to curl herself into a small a ball as possible. “Apparently we have the honor of being jaguar mates.” Sadie rolled her eyes.
“You’re kidding?”
“Afraid not. You were at the speed dating too, right?”
“Yep.” Currently topping the list of worst decisions she ever made, and that included when she tried the home perm.
“So were we. It was those four jaguars. They drugged us and brought us here… wherever here is.”
“This is insane.” Hester banged on the door a few more times and snarled.
“Whoa,” said Laurel. “You’re a shifter, too?”
“Cheetah,” hissed Hester, sending waves of irritation at her beast for allowing her to get kidnapped. The beast had the decency to hide behind her paws.
“What are they going to do to us?” whispered Mary, biting her already raw lip.
“Nothing,” stated Hester, firmly. “They’ve already broken countless laws; we’re not letting them do anything else. When that asshole, Antonio comes in here, you guys distract him while I bite his balls off.”
As if on cue, the door flew open and Antonio, even sexier than she remembered ambled into the room, chuckling softly. He was followed by the other three jaguars, looking more than a little sheepish as they eyed the three human females. “That’s not very nice, Hessie.”
“Neither is kidnapping and rape!”
Mary squawked in alarm. Tomas looked crestfallen.
Antonio growled, and her cheetah had the audacity to incline her neck in submission. Stop it stupid cat!
“We would never rape anyone.”
“Oh, but drugging and kidnapping is hunky dory with you degenerate perverts?!”
Antonio rubbed the back of his neck, and the easygoing smile returned. “You know, Hess, you’re making this sound a lot less romantic than it was.”
“Romantic?!” spluttered Hester. And even her cheetah had to scoff at that.
“Sure. It’s a tradition of our leap that unmated males have a week to seek out their mates, they carry them back to the homestead and then they are joined together after two weeks in a big celebration. It’s a tradition that goes back over a hundred years. We seek out our perfect mates and give them a better life.”
“Bullshit. You horny dickwads see a female you like, and then you decide that rather than give her a choice, you drag her back to your lair and force her to mate with you. It’s not romantic – it’s barbaric.”
Antonio looked uncomfortable for a moment, and Hester realized she might have hit a nerve. “What’s wrong, Annie? Not all woman desperate to fall into the arms of an asshole jaguar?”
“We brought you all some breakfast.” Diego placed a huge tray down on one of the beds. “If you don’t like this, just let us know, and we will get you something else. The bathroom’s through there, and we brought some of your clothes. Let us know if you need anything.”
“I need to go home!” screeched Hester.
Antonio’s lips quirked. “Something other than that.”
He nodded at the three younger males, and reluctantly they followed him out the room.
Hester screamed and yelled obscenities for a few more minutes, intermittently joined by Sadie. Laurel tried to meditate while Mary appeared to be crying.
Eventually, Sadie gave up and started rifling through her suitcase. “Wow, they packed all my good underwear.”
Hester huffed and slumped on the bed next to Mary. Unused to soothing people, Hester patted her leg, awkwardly. “It’s going to be okay. I won’t let him hurt you. Whichever one it is. Which one was it, by the way?”
“Tomas,” she sniffled.
The big one. Antonio was big, but Tomas was enormous. He looked like he might crush the tiny woman.
“He came by my apartment after the event and said he wanted to talk about books.”
“So you are a librarian?” Sometimes you can read a book by its cover.
“I was. I lost my job after cutbacks at the local library. My family all live in Colorado, and my only friend is on a month long cruise – no one’s going to notice I’m gone!”
“Same here,” said Sadie as she slipped out of her tiny nightie into a pair of jeans and a shirt. “I work for myself. I’m just visiting Los Lobos as a sales rep for a couple of months. The company I work for won’t know anything’s wrong until like a month has passed. I don’t know anyone, that’s why I was doing the speed dating thing.”
“And you?” Hester asked Laurel, who had started humming.
“Hmmm, I doubt anyone will notice. I once went off the grid when I backpacked across Canada. My parents are used to me being out of reach. Usually, because they are, too. I don’t think I’ll be missed.”
The three women looked a little glum, something Hester briskly tried to dispel.
“Well, I work for the SEA, and I have a nosy, interfering mother who tries to call me six times a day to tell me what I’m doing wrong with my life. They are going to notice I’m gone, and they will come looking. Don’t worry ladies; we will be fine. And I’m still up for the ball biting thing, too.”
*
“You moron!” howled Roberto, the leap’s prime. “A cheetah shifter? A cheetah shifter who works for the SEA? How could you be so fucking stupid?”
Antonio glared at him.
“Prime, please,” murmured Maria. “My son didn’t know she worked for the SEA and…”
“Maria,” snarled Roberto. “You have no say in this, go and make yourself useful elsewhere.”
Fury flashed in her eyes.
“Do not speak to my mother that way,” hissed Antonio as his jaguar roared.
“I will speak to her any way I choose,” sneered Roberto.
“Baby, it’s okay,” said Maria. “I will go.” She squeezed Antonio’s arm and left.
“Her cheetah coalition is probably already looking for her, and given that she works for them, the SEA probably already are, too. You’ve brought a shitstorm down on all of us!” grumbled Daniel, Roberto’s second in command.
“It’s taken care of,” said Antonio. He wasn’t exactly proud of himself for this, but once in Hester’s apartment, and not looking through her underwear drawer - which he thoroughly enjoyed, he had used her e-mail account to send out messages to work and to her mother to let them know she was going on an impromptu vacation. A little underhanded maybe, but he couldn’t have anyone interrupting his wooing. He was perhaps a little taken aback to find out she worked for the SEA, but his jaguar wanted her, and that was that.
“You should send her back, Prime,” said Valentina giving him a full display of pouty lips and heaving cleavage.
“Yes,” agreed her mother, Marta. “What if she gives birth to a cheetah? She doesn’t belong here.”
Antonio shrugged his shoulders. “So what if she does? Many of our leap mates are humans – and some of their offspring are human. What difference does a cheetah make? She is still a big cat.”
Valentina opened her mouth to object, and Prime held up a hand. He was not a fan of the spoiled young jaguar and did not take too kindly to being given orders by her. He tolerated her because of his sexual relationship with her mother, but Antonio knew he couldn’t give a damn about Valentina’s opinion or her impressive chest.
“What of the SEA?” asked the prime.
“If they come for her, I will tell the truth – that I abducted her, and that she was forced to stay here by me. She is my mate and my responsibility; I will take whatever consequences there will be – just as any other male would with his mate.”
Roberto narrowed his eyes. “I take it you are confident you can win her over.”
Antonio jutted his chin, and his jaguar preened. “Yes.”
“Then so be it.”
He roared as Valentina and Marta tried to squawk in protest. “Antonio has made his choice. He has two weeks.”
Roberto left with Marta chasing after him, trying to change his mind. Valentina stamped her foot and huffed at Antonio before following. Daniel let out a growl of disapproval before he left as well. Eventually, the other jaguars followed suit.
Tomas hovered around him, the huge jaguar looking uncharacteristically nervous. “That went well… considering.”
Antonio grunted, and his jaguar huffed. He supposed that was true. The prime could have demanded he take Hester back. Tradition was on Antonio’s side, but no one wanted a visit from the SEA. At the end of the day, it was a tradition of kidnapping – even if it did usually work out.
“Did you want something?” he asked of Tomas.
“I ah, I’m not sure about what to do next,” he admitted. “Mary didn’t look very happy to see me when she woke up.”
Yep, kidnapping had been the easy part. Now the younger males were uncertain about how to proceed. It was hardly the best way to start a relationship.
“We just have to show them that we’re the males for them.” By a week on Tuesday.
His jaguar was confident, but Antonio had one or two misgivings. He remembered the anger in Hester’s eyes. Talk about an uphill struggle.