Jaguar Hunt by Terry Spear

think about that, though she and David could return to the cabana at nightfall in their jaguar forms, since their lodging wasn’t too far away and it was surrounded by foliage. Thinking further, she realized that wouldn’t work. They needed to move to the bungalow when they returned, so they couldn’t wait until dark. They didn’t have time to go back to the cabana and change and then come all the way back here.
    â€œDo you believe the cable was tampered with, or that it just broke by accident?”
    â€œNo telling. A competitor running a zip-line operation could have been responsible. Or it could just be an overused or defective cable. Safety personnel aren’t monitoring a lot of these places that closely,” David said. No matter who was to blame, David was ready to take a jaguar-sized bite out of them.
    â€œYeah. That’s what I thought. Have you ever heard of actual cases of cables snapping like that when someone was on them at these adventure sites? One of the cables for the Slide for Life snapped during survival training when an instructor was demonstrating the technique to new Enforcer recruits six months before I had to take the course. He fell to his death from seventy-five feet, but I thought the resorts would be a little more careful, afraid of being sued.”
    â€œA few are. Considering the number of people using zip lines, the number of cable failures is small.”
    â€œSurvival rate?”
    â€œNone.”
    A shiver stole through her as she thought of dangling one-handed from the cable. “Good thing my reaction time is quicker and my hearing is better than a regular human’s. I heard the steel ripping and tightened my hold on the lower cable before the top one snapped in two.”
    â€œI’ll say. My heart is still drumming faster.”
    â€œI thought it was just because you were so glad to see me.”
    He laughed and shucked the rest of his clothes. “Hell, that, too.”
    She finished undressing, shifted, and bolted toward the ceiba tree where she’d spied the jaguar, keeping the remaining zip-line cable in sight so she’d know she was headed in the right direction.
    Even if investigators were checking the broken cable, which would have snapped back toward the platforms, she and David should be well out of their sight. She could maneuver much more easily through the jungle as a jaguar than as a human, but even so, it was taking her precious time to get there. She felt David move beside her, the heat of his body, a brush of his fur against hers.
    He seemed as shaken up as she had been over the whole incident and was sticking closer to her than she thought necessary. She had to admit she liked the way he’d been so concerned and even offered to take her to dinner. And he’d agreed to the theater, too.
    She smelled his delightful, spicy male jaguar scent. David didn’t need any of that human-produced Wild Earth Essence fragrance to get her attention.
    Going after the teen jaguar was her mission now, but she really needed this—the run on solid ground, muddy as it was, smelling the earth and vegetation around her—to feel connected with all of it. The run helped smooth her raw, jagged nerves.
    She truly was glad David was with her on this mission, the first time she really liked having a partner. The other two JAG agents she’d worked with would have told her to stay behind while they investigated the dangerous situation. Not because they would have worried about her, but because they thought she would get in their way.
    She’d thought David would react the same way after her life-threatening ordeal, and she really appreciated that he hadn’t. They finally reached the tree where she had seen the jaguar standing on the branch and smelled the same scent that she had picked up in their cabana, confirming it had been one of the teens. She wondered if the boy had intended to draw her and David into the jungle