Her Jaguars

Chapter 5

Arturo’s POV-Two Days Before

I walk out of the farmhouse, looking out at the property. I don’t stay out here very often because I have so much business in the city, but when I do I can’t help but feel at home. I actually haven’t been out to my farm in awhile, but last night I got this urge to visit. Now that I am out here though, I am getting itchy all over, like I need to get out of my skin.

What is going on with you Caio? I ask my jaguar.

I’m not sure, Art. I have this feeling that we need to go visit Mama, he states, stalking around in my head.

Has something happened to her? Is she in danger? I start to panic, wondering if she was really safe at that lodge she owned. I tried talking her into selling the place when Bruno, my younger brother, decided to go off exploring after finishing school. However, she wouldn’t hear about it, saying it has been in her family for generations and that the only way it was leaving her family was if she died and we decided not to keep it.

Nothing has happened to her. I just get the feeling that if we don’t go to visit her, we will miss something important, Caio stated drolly, suddenly bored with my panicking over nothing.

So we want to head that way tonight? I ask him, still looking out at the cocoa bean crops.

Sounds good. We should be there two nights from now if we leave right after dinner.

I go back inside and get dressed for the day, deciding to inspect the crops and then going into town to talk to Andre and letting him know he was in charge for a little bit while I went to visit Mama.

************

Later that night, I head out to the forest. I wrap a bag with an elastic strap across my shoulders, that way I have a few days worth of clothes. I know my mama has kept clothes at her place for both Bruno and myself, but I’m not sure if they still fit me. I shift into my jaguar and let Caio take over so that he can have some freedom; it has been a while for him.

Two days of running, with short rests when we are tired, and I am on the outskirts of mama’s lodge property. As I close in on the main house, I hear a scream. On alert due to my heightened senses, I round the house to the front area to assess what is happening, but before I make any other moves I see a woman who seems to be struggling to get out of someone's hold stab the person behind her with a thick metal stick-looking object. I tilt my head in curiosity as I watch the woman run into the house while what seems to be a man curse as he peels out onto the road.

Deciding the woman is safe with my mother in the house, I change direction and head for the trees between the main house and the closest cabin and climb up one. I know my mama well enough that seeing the woman in distress she’ll try to get the truth out of the woman, and if she does that she’ll put her in the cabin closest to her so she can keep an eye on her. For some reason the woman fascinates me; she’s obviously here alone and she’s feisty enough to make sure she can get away from men who try to force themselves on her. But she’s also a tiny little thing. I’m not sure what to make of her, and Caio seems to be interested too. He perked up as soon as he heard her scream.

I’m brought out of my thoughts when I hear my mother’s voice talking to who I assume is the woman. I get up as quietly as I can to try and get a closer look while still staying in the tree I am in. I’m not too close to them to be noticed, but I am sure my mother has already felt my presence. Just as I am about to try to jump to another tree limb, the wind blows past them to me and I freeze when I smell cocoa beans, vanilla, and sandalwood. I stare intently just as I see the woman turn around and look in my direction.

She senses us. How is that possible? I think mostly to myself, but Caio hears me.

MATE! She is our mate! Caio growl grunts, pouncing around in my head.

Mate? I didn’t think I would have a mate since it’s been about 12 years since I was able to find her. It’s another reason why I decided to go ahead and be with my best friend and partner Andre. We grew up together and I figured if I didn’t have my mate, I could at least choose someone I could care about and grow old together with.

I catch my mother turning her head slightly and smirk in my direction. “I cater to shifters mostly and I have two occupants right now, so they are probably out there in their animal forms,” I hear her say to the woman.

I look back at the woman. She looks to be almost a foot shorter than my mother, making her tiny compared to me; but she’s curvy which I find very attractive in a woman. Her cocoa brown hair looks like it went all the way down to just above her cute, jean clad bubblebutt. Even though it’s close to complete darkness, my jaguar’s eyesight allows me to see more than what a human would see.

As I watch them disappear into the cabin before I start to climb down the tree I am in, shift from jaguar to human, and head into the main house to wait for my mama. As I wait, I head into the kitchen to grab some peanut butter chocolate chips cookies I know my mama always has around.

“What brings you here, filho?” my mama asks as she walks into the kitchen. I turn to her and smile, cookies still in my mouth.

“A son can’t come and visit his mama?” I retort, talking around my full mouth. Mama comes up and slaps the back of my head; I look at her with wide eyes, shocked.

“You know better than to speak to me with your mouth full,” she snips as she goes to put the kettle on the stove. “Don’t make me repeat my question filho.”

When I’m done eating the cookies already in my mouth, I look up at her sheepishly. “Who was the woman?” I misdirect, wanting to try to get information about my mate from her. She just glares at me. My mama always makes me feel like I’m five years old, even though I’m 35; I huff and grumble, “Caio and I felt all itchy and a need to come and visit you.” Mama arches her eyebrows, like she knows I have more to say. “I didn’t know why until we got here and you and that woman walked past us when we were in the tree outside… She’s my mate.”

Mama’s eyes widen, she gasps, and her mouth drops open. It apparently takes a few minutes for her to digest the information I gave her; once it set in she squealed, jumping up and down like a child, and then jumped on me to give me a hug. I grinned from ear to ear, embracing her while she basically danced across the floor with her arms wrapped around me. She might be smaller than me, but she definitely had the will to move me if she needed me to.

Once she calmed down, we sat back down at the island in the kitchen. “You being her mate makes more sense for why I smelled her scent more distinctly than normal; it wasn’t as distinct as it would be for a mate, but I could still vaguely smell her… I don’t know much about her since she just got here, but when she made the reservation, I was curious and looked her up. She’s an independent photographer, but a lot of her stuff is found in nature magazines, and her pictures are amazing. So I would imagine that she is here for pictures,” she paused in her explanation, thinking. After a minute, she continued, “Oh! Her name is Ember, and I remember her saying her shifter form is a margay; that is going to be interesting,” she mumbles the last part, chuckling a little bit.

I look at her in shock. My mate? A margay? Margays in the wild are tiny; their bodies look like mini leopards while their faces kind of look like tabby cats-only the lines are down the face instead of going from the eyes back away from the face. Her human body was already so tiny; it made me wonder if her margay would be the same size as a wild margay. Most shifters are usually close to the real thing, alphas slightly bigger than the wild animals so that other shifters can know the difference, but I have never seen a shifter who could be the same size as their counterparts.

I’ve seen interspecies pairings, but I have never seen one as drastic as this. Even as an alpha, I am pretty big in both my human and jaguar form. But Ember… I just couldn’t get over how tiny she was. What was the Moon Goddess thinking, mating me with her?

“You aren’t thinking about rejecting her, are you filho?” Mama asks, her voice slightly raised.

I look up at her, my eyes wide. “No, of course not!” I protest, “but I do wonder what the Goddess’s plans are with us. She’s so tiny Mama…”

She looked at me, smiled sweetly, and said, “All will be well, filho. It’s late, let's go to bed and you can meet her in the morning.” She grabbed my hand and walked me upstairs to my childhood bedroom.

I kissed her on her cheek, “Goodnight Mama.”

“Goodnight filho,” she replied, hugging me tightly.

I went into my room, fell on my bed and passed out.