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)
Chapter
3
“Wait.” Sarika held up one hand defensively. “I don’t understand.” Her cousin was going to carry her? Like a sack of potatoes through the jungle? She’d been told many things about her looks, including that she looked ethereal at times, but she’d never been called fragile. She wasn’t a delicate hothouse flower. “I find that offer rather insulting. I’ve traveled all over the world on my own and managed to get through every jungle I was in by walking on my own two feet.”
Luiz raised an eyebrow, but his expression remained exactly the same. “We can travel much faster if I carry you. I have only this night to give you. During the day, I will be sleeping. I thought you wanted to talk. To discuss the history of our family and learn as much as possible about the shifters in this area. Was I mistaken?”
His tone was mild. Pitched low. She had no idea why he raised her alarms—and irritated her at the same time. He hadn’t really said or done anything wrong. She was so out of sorts. Her breath caught in her lungs. Out of sorts. That wasn’t her personality. Arguing and getting irritated with males wasn’t in her personality. She found the men she traveled with on her trips down the Amazon and throughout the world’s rainforests a little amusing. She respected them and what they did, but they often tended to act superior—until they realized she could pull her weight on the treks. That realization usually changed their attitude toward her.
The moment she recognized that she was not in her usual state of mind, alarms shrieked at her. Her jaguar female could not go into heat in the rainforest. Not when she knew it was occupied by male shifters. That would be a disaster. A total, absolute disaster.
When jaguar females came into heat, they were extremely vocal in looking for a mate. She’d experienced the heat of her jaguar female on more than one occasion, and it had been very uncomfortable. She hoped she wasn’t coming into heat now. That scent would call every male shifter for miles. Jaguars could mate up to a hundred times a day in the wild. When she’d been in heat, she’d felt as if she could have accommodated a man at least that many times. Instead, she went into the woods alone and ran until she was so exhausted she couldn’t stand. The last thing she wanted was to go into heat here in the jungle with male shifters around. She gave a fleeting thought to leaving the rainforest until she knew for certain, one way or the other.
She sighed, trying to decide what to do. She’d counted on finding out about her history. It was important to her to learn where she came from and what had happened for her to be sent away. Having a living cousin had been exciting to her. A relative. Someone she hoped to have a relationship with.
“Are you concerned that I mean you harm?”
Startled, she raised her gaze to her cousin’s face. For the first time, there had been a change of tone. Still low and mild, but there was a hint of gentleness in his voice that hadn’t been there before. Perhaps that was what had been wrong all along. He seemed so indifferent to her, as if it meant nothing to him that she was his family. He didn’t seem to care one way or the other that she was related.
“Sarika?” he prompted.
She’d taken too long to answer him. “I didn’t come to be a burden on you, Luiz. I wanted to meet my only relative. My parents made it very clear to me before they died that they wanted to know I had someone in the world.” She tilted her chin at him. “I’m a grown woman. I’ve been well educated, and I’m certainly capable of making a living for myself. I wanted to meet you, but if you have no interest in an acquaintance, it is best to say so, and we can be done with this.”
Never once had his piercing gaze left hers. It was difficult to meet his strangely colored eyes when he had the direct focus of a predator.
“I have given you the impression I am unhappy to meet you?” Again, a note of gentleness crept in.
She didn’t see a change of expression on his face or in his eyes. He looked as dangerous as ever, yet there was something appealing about his tone. Maybe she was just so anxious to believe someone other than her parents wanted her. Until that moment, she hadn’t realized that knowing her father had kept her brother but sent her away had made her feel as though she was unwanted. She’d been isolated to a great extent growing up, mostly through necessity, but aside from her adoptive parents, she’d never been close to anyone.