A Jaguars Touch (3 page)

Gideon paced the lab while the one called Diane watched over the analysis of the newest sample of his blood. They’d taken it first thing this morning, and now he waited for confirmation. He already knew what it was, could feel the fire of the feral cat virus attacking the jaguar inside him. But it wasn’t strong. It wasn’t uncontrollable as long as he kept his emotions under lock. What he didn’t know was why it was affecting his ability to completely heal where the arrows had pierced his skin. The wounds had closed up, but they still ached under the skin—an ache that should have already dissipated.

He’d lost control briefly during the meeting with Orsai’s nephew Zane in the woods. Gideon had fought to restrain his cat as the animal had risen quickly to the surface. Ariel and her attitude had more to do with that than anything else. The younger woman had a chip on her shoulder that had her mouth running before her brain engaged. It was going to cost her one day if she didn’t learn how to curb her temper.

He’d spent the last few nights listening to Dillon ranting about something in the room he was being kept in downstairs. If Gideon was given the opportunity, he was going to rip the younger man’s head off. Dillon thought he’d managed to hide the damage he’d done when he’d left. But Gideon knew, and he would make sure Dillon died for his betrayal.

“Hey, I heard you were down here,” Clara said as she entered the lab and walked toward Gideon.

She’d been so excited to see him, Ariel and Griffin. It made him feel a touch guilty for the things he needed to keep from her. But she wasn’t ready, and the pride she’d joined was in no shape to offer help with what he had planned. Plus, he’d grown pretty fucking weak by the time they’d gotten to him. Ariel had been close to leaving to follow the scent of the panther and his mate through the woods. It’d taken all Gideon had to keep her with him. The young woman was fiercely protective of those she cared for, and despite his best efforts, she cared for him.

“Everything okay?” Clara asked, and he realized he hadn’t spoken to her, yet.

“Yeah, just waiting for the newest round of tests to tell us the same thing,” he said gruffly. He went to run his hand through his hair as he often did and remembered he’d pulled it back in a ponytail today.

“It’s almost done,” Diane said then gave a weary sigh. “And yeah, it doesn’t look like anything’s changed.”

Gideon walked over and nudged Diane aside a bit. His fingers flew over the keyboard while both women watched.

“What are you…” Diane began, but Gideon heard Clara hush her.

He brought up the analysis code, read through it, rewrote a few things and began the test again with what he wanted.

“What did you do?” Diane asked.

“You’re running the wrong tests,” Gideon said, gaze glued to the monitor as the information started feeding through his program. “We’re not animals and can’t be tested as such. We’re not humans, either. So you have to adjust your formulas to account for both.” He glanced over at Diane. “A merging of the two. You’ll get better answers that way.”

“I’ve got a room down here you can stay in,” Diane said, looking so eager he almost smiled. “The Professor has a spare he doesn’t use. It’s not huge, but it’s bigger than what you chose downstairs where Lydia and Dillon are. There’s a bed and privacy.” Her eyes pleaded with him. “I could really use your help.”

It was the privacy that nailed it for him. He wasn’t a social creature by nature, and even though he had a traitor to deal with, it didn’t mean he had to stay uncomfortable. Still, guilt ate at him.

“You should move Lydia here, as well. You’re packing up, anyway, so there’s plenty of room. She’ll be more comfortable and better rested not having to listen to Dillon,” he told her.

Clara nodded. “He’s right. We should have thought of that. I should have thought of it.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Diane said. “Her body is deteriorating too fast. Moving her, while good in theory, might not be what’s best for her right now. We should have done it sooner, before she got this far, and I’m sorry for not thinking of it.”

“You were a little busy hunting down your mate,” Clara said. “This isn’t on you, Diane.”

“Still, we’ve done more based on our convenience then on hers,” Diane said.

Gideon knew all about decisions based on that. It was his convenience and dislike of all things Blane that had kept him turning a blind eye to Lydia and her changing personality. Thomas had commented on it a few times but usually just in passing. He’d seemed interested in Lydia’s growing anger, especially toward her own daughter. Gideon hadn’t cared, and part of him still didn’t. But Thomas had seemed to, and that meant Gideon would try to make sure the woman was comfortable at the end, which he was certain would be soon. He doubted if she lasted for the trip the pride was planning.

“Gideon?” Diane asked. “What do you say? Want to move done here instead?”

“Done,” he agreed.

Thomas would want him to teach this pride as much as he could before he moved on. It was Clara’s pride, which carried more weight with Gideon than the fact the Tah they’d all been waiting for was here. Probably because Gideon had never believed the existence of one man would suddenly make all the difference.

“Hey, look who I found.”

Clara’s mate entered with the newest little pride member in his arms. Clara immediately went to her man and cooed over the baby girl. In that moment, Gideon could see the future, one where Clara and her mate held young of their own. Gideon knew it was something Clara’s father Michael would have wanted for his daughter. He wished Michael was there to see the woman she’d grown into as well as the pride she’d joined.

Thoughts of the pride turned toward one particular member. The image of the sexy blonde warrior entered his mind. He’d smelled her long before he’d spotted her face. She’d been all short, messy curls and big blue eyes. His glance had skimmed her from head to toe, and his body had responded to the vision she was. He wanted her long legs wrapped around him, demanding pleasure. He wanted to feel the strength in her touch against his flesh. He wanted it with a desperation that could only be explained by the drug moving through his veins. The need to protect her from what he was had battled with the desire to take her, and he’d responded in anger, roaring for her to stay the hell away from him.

Her wide-eyed gaze had dimmed then sparked with anger, and it had only made him fucking hotter. Thankfully, Logan had sent her back to the cabin and away from Gideon. He’d needed the time to calm his beast and gain control. He’d known instantly that he had to stay away from her even though his beast roared in disagreement. Tah had agreed during their brief conversation, and Gideon had been able to avoid her since arriving. He knew he was on borrowed time, though. She didn’t come across as one who easily backed down, and damned if that didn’t make him want her more.

“Well, if it isn’t the devil himself.”

Tah’s mate, Abby, entered with a grin. Though her words were thrown at him, she headed straight to her little girl as if pulled by an imaginary string. The love she felt seemed to surround her, and the sweet scent of it filled the room. Her energy crackled in the air as she turned the full wattage of her smile toward him.

“I’d tell you to watch out, but I get the impression not much scares you,” Abby said.

“The devil,” he commented, rolling the word around in his mouth. “I’ve been called much worse I assure you.”

Clara snorted a laugh.

“Oh my God! What’s that?” Diane asked at his side.

Gideon turned once more to view the computer screen and felt Abby move to his other side.

“This is what I had it run,” Gideon said.

“But what does all this mean?” Diane asked.

“You’re running new tests?” Abby asked at the same time.

“Gideon rewrote some of the code,” Diane answered. “He said we were searching for the wrong things.”

Abby took him by surprise when she threw herself against him and hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re here,” she gushed. “Now, like Diane said, what the hell does it all mean?”

He stared at her warily until she backed up an inch, but if anything, it only made her grin wider.

“The tests you run repeatedly are on four main blood samples, but you waste time running them independently. I labeled them A, B, C and D for this particular test since I wanted to run them against each other simultaneously.” He pointed to a line of data. “This is where you see the feral virus show up in all four samples. This one is lighter as it is weakest in subject A. Subject B has the strongest dosage. And samples C and D are showing similar readings.”

He moved down and pointed at another spot. “Here is where you see the results pitted only against previous blood samples from the same subject. This shows that while the virus is weakest in A, it is newly introduced and will continue to grow.”

“That’s you,” Diane said, and Gideon nodded.

“I’m subject A. Subject B has the strongest, but the virus is decreasing. I’d say within a few weeks, he’ll return to normal.”

“Logan?” Clara asked.

“Zane,” Gideon answered.

“Now subjects C and D are both maintaining similar levels of the virus in their systems,” Gideon said.

“Wait! What?” Clara asked. “Which one is Logan?”

“Will this test even work on Logan?” Diane asked. “He’s fully human?”

Clara and Logan were closer now, peering over his shoulder at the screen.

“It will,” he said, giving them a strange look. Were they really that clueless? “Logan is D. C belongs to F. Dockery,” Gideon said as he skimmed through the rest of the information.

“That’s Finn,” Diane said. “Why is Logan maintaining a steady level of the virus? It should be flushing out of his system faster. There’s nothing for it to attach to in him.”

Gideon shook his head. “The dormant shifter DNA in his blood will keep it steady until he either merges with his beast or something else changes.”

“Dormant shifter DNA?” Logan said. “There are no shifters in my family.”

“Your DNA says otherwise,” Gideon stated.

“Wait a minute,” Diane argued. “The Professor and I looked. We saw nothing in his blood that made us think he was anything but human.”

“Hey, I’m right here,” Logan reminded them, passing Regan off to Abby. “What makes you think differently?” he asked Gideon.

“Like I stated earlier, they’ve been running the wrong tests. I’ll have to run a few more on just your blood to get some more definitive answers. But I can say with absolute certainty that somewhere in your family tree shifter DNA was introduced.”

“How is that possible?” Logan asked and Gideon noticed the way Clara automatically stepped into her mate, wrapping her arms around his waist while he put his around her shoulders. They were a unit. It was good to see.

“It’s not unusual,” Gideon told them, pushing past them to move across to the other side of the room. He didn’t like having others closed in around him. He needed his space the same way he needed fresh air. “Not all of us grow up knowing who or what we are.”

Abby laughed. “Yeah, we know all about that. Neither Tah nor Reno knew they were shifters at first.”

“You awoke the beast,” Gideon said. “I’ve heard. And Reno’s mate brought out the tiger in him. It happens that way sometimes. I’d guess Clara’s mating with Logan has aided in bringing his recessed DNA out more, but there could be other factors.”

“Such as?” Clara asked.

“Close proximity with a pride of several shifters,” Gideon said.

“But I’ve been with Tah and Reno a long time,” Logan argued. “And Zane, Murphy and Kenzie.”

“I’m sure that’s played a part,” Gideon said. “But once again you’re asking the wrong questions.”

“What should we be asking?” Diane spoke up first.

“If Logan’s beast will emerge or not,” Gideon said.

He saw Logan tense and the way Clara soothed her mate by rubbing her hand up and down his chest.

“Will it?” Clara asked.

Gideon shrugged. “I don’t know, but I’m sure I can work up a test that will give us a better idea. We could use it on Finn, too.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Abby asked. “What tests to run and how to write code?”

“Necessity is a great motivator. It probably helped that my parents were scientists,” Gideon stated with a shrug. “I learned some from them.”

“Some?” Diane asked.

“The rest I learned elsewhere,” he said. “I need some air.” With that he turned abruptly and moved quickly out of the room toward the stairs as memories fought to pull him under, pull him back. Memories of a time when he’d been captured, tortured and tested by another set of scientists—a set who had seen him as nothing more than an animal to experiment on. The same ones he feared Thomas might now be with.

Gideon made his way quickly out the front door and away from the house. He was twitchy, edgy and his animal pressed at him to make the shift and take off through the trees. Normally, he would give in and go for a long run to soothe the jaguar inside him. But thanks to the feral virus, he needed to be more cautious, especially with the woman there. The one who was fast approaching him. The one with the power to destroy him if he wasn’t careful.

“Keep away from me,” he snarled as he entered the trees and felt her behind him.

She must have seen him leave and had followed him, something he would have noticed if he’d been in the present and not the past.

“I’m getting real tired of assholes who think they can tell me what to do,” she snarled back at him.

He turned toward her and gritted his teeth as his animal rose against him, fighting to pounce and take. She was a wet dream walking. Her T-shirt was tight across her breasts and snuggly tucked into her jeans. Boots laced up to mid-calf, and she braced her feet apart as she faced him. One look at her and his dick was ready and willing to indulge a fantasy or ten.

“What do you want?” he demanded.

“I’m not your fucking mate,” she yelled at him.

“I don’t have a mate,” he said, agreeing with her.

She shook her head as if that weren’t the response she’d been expecting. Finally, she placed her fisted hands on her shapely hips and continued. “Good. I’m glad we agree on something. For the record, I don’t back down from anything. I won’t be told where I can go, and I sure as hell won’t let anyone dictate how I do my job. Are we clear on that?”