Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 118860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 594(@200wpm)___ 475(@250wpm)___ 396(@300wpm)
Sarika Silva has come to Peru’s rainforest to learn about her family’s history and her own capabilities as a jaguar shapeshifter. What she finds is a dangerous world out of her nightmares, where jungle shifters and ravenous vampires vie for dominance and a gorgeous, lethal predator is waiting to claim her for his own.
Tomas Smolnycki and his brothers have hunted vampires for centuries. As some of the oldest Carpathians, they are accustomed to seeing the world in unfeeling gray. So Tomas is ill prepared for the emotions that rise like a tidal wave when he hears Sarika’s voice. As his world bursts into color, he knows he has finally found his lifemate—a woman he’s compelled to protect whether she likes it or not.
Despite an attraction to Tomas that defies logic, Sarika has no interest in being bound to anyone. But as an ancient enemy gathers power in the darkness, Carpathians and their lifemates from around the world must come together to fight back. And Tomas and Sarika’s bond could be the one thing that will save them from total destruction
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Chapter
1
Just past sunset, a cool breeze slipped through the canopy as Sarika Silva stood on a boulder and peered up at the umbrella of branches far above her head. There was little light on the forest floor, and few plants thriving, yet there were hundreds of years of debris. Ferns and some smaller bushes managed to grow in the dark, dimly lit atmosphere.
She could hear the scurry of lizards and mice, of voles and beetles as they hurried back and forth preparing for the night and the host of predators emerging. She drew in a deep breath, taking in the amazing scents surrounding her. Scores of tree frogs of various species called back and forth to one another.
She held herself very still, trying not to attract attention. She had an unfortunate trait she hadn’t yet found a way to rid herself of. All manner of wildlife found her fascinating. She reciprocated the feeling, which was fine at home when dogs and cats sought her out. Or the occasional bunny. But in the various rainforests she’d visited, the animals had been diverse and often quite dangerous.
It wasn’t in her best interest to draw attention to herself. She’d had monkeys, sloths, capybaras and even gorillas seek her out. There had been ocelots, orangutans and countless other animals that showed up in camp or found her on the trails. Once a Bengal tiger. Herd animals followed her.
The rainforest was moody. Eerie. Mysterious. Beauty and danger went hand in hand in the rainforest. Sarika had spent time working in several around the world. This was her first visit to Peru, and to her shock, she felt as if she’d come home. The emotion was overwhelming, so much so that when she’d first stepped off the boat onto solid ground and made her way to the designated meeting place arranged with her guide, she had felt tears welling up. Her heart accelerated, and every single nerve ending came alive.
Alive. That was the true feeling. She felt intensely alive. It was such a weird, unexpected reaction when she’d spent several years studying the various rainforests. Her interest had begun when she was a little girl. She would read everything she could get her hands on, reading far above her grade level on conservation and especially jaguars and the way they were slowly going extinct. She wanted to find a way to save them, and it became the driving purpose of her education. Never once had she regretted her decision to save the jaguars.
Her hero was T. Smolnycki Sr., the leading expert in the field she was most interested in. She’d read everything he’d written, every paper he had produced. He was a conservationist, a biologist and a mammalogist. No matter how long she’d searched, she’d never managed to find a photo of him—or his son. His son went by T. Smolnycki Jr. When his father retired, he took over his work and became her new hero.
The father and son had worked tirelessly to establish conservation for the rainforests, but more importantly to her, they were passionate about the preservation of large cats, including jaguars. That passion came through in the various articles they had written and the worldwide organization they had founded. She found it interesting that Smolnycki Jr.’s papers sounded so similar to his father’s writing. They had the same turns of phrase, the same eloquence. The research was always impeccable and had held up through the years, as had their conservation ideas.
When she was eight years old, she wrote to Smolnycki Jr. To her shock, he had answered her. They established a correspondence of sorts over the years. He had always encouraged her in her dream of saving the jaguars. He seemed to take her ideas seriously, never chiding her for suggesting various plans to him. At times he would point out very gently why a particular idea wouldn’t work; other times he seemed excited about an idea she’d come up with.
T. Smolnycki Jr. often disappeared for months at a time. He would emerge from the wilderness to write another paper or pertinent article or spearhead the drive for the jaguar corridor spanning countries across the globe. His father had been her idol, and while she respected and admired him, she felt Smolnycki Jr. was more of a friend and mentor.
Sarika had gone into the same field as the two men. As she furthered her education, she became a veterinarian for exotic animals, specializing in cats. Along the way, she rounded out her education by becoming a biologist and conservationist. In the years she was getting her education, she made numerous trips to rainforests around the world, volunteering, studying and working, but she’d always avoided Peru.
Peru was home. Peru was where she’d been born into the world of jaguar shape-shifters. She should have been raised there, but instead, when her mother died in childbirth, her father had kept his son but sent her to be raised by his older brother, who lived in the United States.