Chapter 35
Jesse’s cat was not happy with the man that had arrived with his female partner to help train the others. He’d expected the older man that had done the training before. He glanced at Gage, who had come over at Kelsey’s insistence and the expression on his face was much the same as his own feelings. This Heath guy was smiling at Gage’s mate as well. In fact, he kept sending that come hither smile to all the women.
Jesse knew Yasmin, she was always involved when there were women in on the training. After a git of cussing, he went over to her.
“Hey Jesse, how have you been?”
No flirty smiles, she kept her distance from all the males, as most shifters knew to do. “Not too bad, Yasmin.” He glanced at her partner, “listen do you think you could tell your co-worker to tone down the million-dollar smile? He’s making a lot of mates a little hostile.”
She visibly sighed and looked over at Heath “Sorry about that, he’s like that with everyone and it’s a bit annoying.”
Jesse crossed his arms and nodded.
“Oh, your mate is here?” She looked around at the others nearby. “Which one? Wait, tell me it’s the lovely one sitting with that animal.” She smiled, “I can’t believe we have a real leopard among us. Will she be all right with the guns?”
“I’m going to test that out beforehand.” He wasn’t feeling positive about it either, but Evanna had assured him that as long as she or Thera weren’t being threatened, she would be fine.
“I’ll go talk to Heath and tell him to back off,” you, she pointed to Thera, “go talk to your animal and make her promise not to take any chunks out of us.”
He nodded and picked up one of the handguns. Turning it over, he checked the chamber and then grabbed a cartridge. Glancing at Calum, he wasn’t surprised that he gave Jesse a slight nod as if to say he was ready if this went wrong. Jesse shook his head as he walked toward Evanna, only Calum would take on a real leopard if they got out of hand.
Thera sat up when he got closer, he could see her scenting the air. She knew full well what he held in his hand.
“I’m more worried about her reaction than ours,” Evanna said getting to her knees beside her.
“Yeah, I’m the same.” He squatted down beside Thera and ran his hand over her coat. She gave him a steady look when he stopped. Holding up the hand that held the gun and clip, he let her take her time checking it out. Her ears weren’t upright completely. “It’s okay, girl, it’s not to be used on you or any of us.” With careful movements, he held just the weapon out to Evanna, “let her see that you’re okay with it.”
Evanna nodded, a look of focus on her face. “Okay. It’s not loaded right?” She smirked, “I don’t want to shoot anyone by mistake.”
As she took the gun, he showed her the clip. “No, it’s not.”
She didn’t get up from beside Thera as she turned the gun over in her hand and examined it. Thera watched her carefully, scenting constantly to check Evanna’s emotions. “It’s pretty amazing, eh girl?” Evanna switched the gun into her other hand and then held her other hand out for the cat to sniff it.
“How’s Leah doing with this?”
Evanna continued to pet the animal, “she’s not too close, so I think she’ll be okay. She knows this is important.”
Jesse nodded and held his hand out for the gun again. When he put the clip in Thera jolted noticeably. “It’s okay.” He assured her. With a quick glance around to see where everyone was, he stood up. “Try not to react.” He said quietly.
“I’m good.”
Pointing it toward the sky, he flipped the safety and squeezed the trigger.
Thera jumped and looked up at him as if to say ‘why did you do that?’ He smiled down at her, “see, girl, not for us. You ready to try it?” He asked Evanna.
Without hesitation, she nodded and stood up.
“I’m excited.” She told him.
“Just try not to flinch or send out the wrong vibes to her.”
“Okay.” She stood beside him and held out her hand.
“Safety is off, so don’t point it toward anyone, point it into the air and squeeze the trigger once.”
Evanna had a serious look on her face as she took it and pointed it in the air. “Now?”
“Whenever you’re ready.” He watched Thera as the shot rang out. She was not impressed but didn’t go into protect mode. “Now hand it back to me and let her smell your hand.”
“Okay.” She kept the gun pointed to the ground and held it out to him. As soon as he took it she lowered her hand near Thera’s face. She checked it out then snuffed out a breath, unimpressed with it completely. Getting up she walked toward the trees lay down in the shade of the closest ones and stared in their direction.
“I think she’ll be okay.”
Jesse nodded, “we’ll just have to find entertainment for her when it comes to the close-up defense training.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
Jesse took the clip out, checked the chamber, and then smirked at her. “Pretend to fight, but she may take it as a threat.”
“Oh.” Her eyes widened and she looked over at the cat, “we’ll send her to keep Daisie company when that happens.”
Jesse looked around at the others. There were a lot of people here. Aside from those here that were to have the training, Franki, Kelsey, Jake, and Gary wanted in on it. “Are you okay with this many around you?”
Evanna tucked her hands in her pockets and nodded. “I’ve met them all, so I think we’ll be fine.”
When he turned to walk back to the table, she put her hand on his arm and moved closer.
“Uh, Jesse?”
He looked down to see the worry in her eyes. “What is it?”
“The pretend fighting,” she glanced at the ground, then back to him, “um, I can’t stand the back of my neck touched.” The worry turned to an anxious look. “Minn will come out.” She whispered.
“It’s a trigger for you.”
She nodded, “I guess that’s what it’s called.”
He ran his hand down her arm softly. “I’ll let Yasmin know, she’s the one that will be working with you.”
She held his look for a moment and then blew out a breath. “Okay. I thought it was just guns and knives.”
“It’s okay.” He leaned down and kissed her mouth softly, hoping it reassured her. Straightening, he smiled at her, “just so the charming one knows you are off-limits,” he winked at her.
She smirked, “that guy? Not even Thera likes his smiles.”
Jesse grinned. “Good.” He checked to see if everyone was ready yet, seeing they weren’t he leaned down and spoke softly. “I don’t know if anyone ever told you, but our animals take it as a threat if the opposite gender is near our mates.”
She gave him a shocked look. “No,” She shook her head, “Aunt Tillie didn’t cover that part,” she shrugged, “that’s okay though, the only male I’m comfortable around is you, so no problems with that.”
Jesse’s cat was thrilled to hear her say that. “Good.” He kissed her again because it was better than the alternative of picking her up and taking her away from everyone, which is what he’d wanted to do since she had gotten here.
“Hey,” she rubbed her hand on his chest, “thanks for this,” she smiled up at him, “letting us do this because I know you’re not comfortable with it.”
“You can sense that?”
She shrugged, “I don’t know if that’s it but the cold looks you’ve been giving everyone here was almost as if you were shouting it out.”
He rested his head on her forehead for a second. “I’ll be honest, this whole mating thing, I have no idea what I’m doing either.”
“Is that the truth?” She leaned back and looked at him.
“One hundred percent.”
“Huh,” she licked her lips, “that makes me feel a lot better,” he cringed, “sorry, but we have no idea either.”
Jesse straightened and put his hand behind her back to move them back toward the others, “I guess we’ll muddle through this together then.”
Evanna leaned into him, “that works for us.”
Staying out of the way was hard, but he was determined not to interfere and let Evanna learn like the others were. It also allowed him to monitor her reactions and Thera’s as well. They had gone through the safety talk with the weapons, loading, and unloading so far. Each person had the opportunity to fire it once, just to feel the recoil in their hands. Heath was now discussing aiming and the factors that affected it. Evanna’s sole focus was on the instructor, which pleased him, but not his cat. After her confession to them, about her trigger, his cat was in protect mode. At least Heath was all business and no flitting looks now that he was discussing safety with them, it didn’t calm his cat much, but he accepted it.
Yasmin moved over so she was across from a target and began her instruction.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jesse saw Thera stand up and scent the air. He inhaled slowly and then realized he wouldn’t pick up what she was because of all the guns and bodies between them.
When she gave a low meow, Evanna turned and started in her direction with fast steps. When her shirt hit the ground, Jesse froze and looked at Calum. The shock was clear on his face too. Swearing under his breath he started to jog toward her.
He’d go over this in his mind for the rest of his life, but he’d never seen a shifter strip their clothes that fast. She was running, naked into the trees, and then midstride she was her Minn.
The shocked look on Blair and Calum’s faces was clear as he ran and tossed his shirt to the ground. “Something’s wrong.” He told them and hoped he had back up. As he paused to get rid of his jeans and boots, he saw the instructors pick up guns load them and start looking all around them.
“Women to house.” Blair barked loudly.
Jesse didn’t wait to see who listened and who didn’t, he shifted faster than he ever had and tore off into the bush after his mate. The sound of paws registered behind him, and he knew it would be Calum and Blair hot on his tail.
He was able to follow their scent without a problem and was stunned when he found the scent of another animal and not the wild variety. Slowing, he checked behind him to see Blair and Noah following. Calum was nowhere in sight, but he knew he’d be out here somewhere. When he turned back, he caught a glimpse of Thera’s tail heading deeper into the growth and took off after her.
As he cleared the trees, he came to a skidding halt to see Minn with her jaws clamped around the neck of a jackal.
“We need him alive.” Calum’s said from somewhere in the trees.
Blair and Noah moved up beside him.
Minn gave a low warning growl as Thera paced in front of her, keeping her body between them and what she perceived as Minn’s kill.
Jesse shifted so quickly he stumbled a few steps. “Minn, we need him alive. You have to let him shift back.”
She growled low at him.
“We have no jackal clans in the Alliance,” Calum said from the other side of Minn. Jesse still couldn’t see him but knew he was purposely staying out of her sight.
“Babe,” Jesse was a foot from her now, “we need him alive to question him.”
Her eyes connected with him, and he could see it wasn’t fully Minn in control.
“Evanna,” he said softly, “release him, we need him alive to get information that could help others.”
With a hesitant look, she dropped him to the ground and stepped back, but remained crouched and ready to spring if he did anything wrong.
Jesse looked at the animal lying there panting. “I suggest you change or she’s going to get really upset.”
He glanced to see Blair and Noah had escape routes covered that way. Calum came out from behind a tree, back in cat form, his ears flat. The growl he issued was going to be his only warning.
Thera added her opinion, which caused Minn to pace back and forth.
He looked back at the jackal and didn’t have to tell him again as he lay there shifting back to skin. Jesse turned around and looked at Noah, “go grab him something, a blanket or whatever, we don’t need Daisie seeing us drag a naked man back.” He leaned down and looked at his neck, there were no visible marks to be seen. They must have got here just as she’d caught him. “Are there any others on this property? Or nearby?”
Minn shoved past Thera and got right in his face, the low roar she issued let him know he had one chance to get it right.
He shook his head and crawled backward on his hands to put some space between them.
Jesse went over and put his hand on her back. “Go back and get dressed, we’ll be there shortly.” She looked up at him and he could see the hesitant look in her eyes. He nodded, “you did amazing, now let us look like we did something useful.” He smiled down at her. She nudged her shoulder against his bare leg and took off back in the direction they’d come. Jesse watched Thera give the man on the ground a quick once over and then bound after her. He didn’t take his eyes off the shaggy-looking male specimen in front of him. He heard bones snapping to change form and figured it was Calum.
“Holy hell your girl can shift.” Blair came up beside him. “I may have strained an eye when they popped out of my head, she was in mid-air when she did that.”
Jesse grinned, “I can see you trying to jump and shift in mid-air now.”
Blair snorted, “of course, I have to try it.”
That was an image Jess didn’t need, one of Blair naked jumping into the air trying to shift on the run.
“How did the leopard know and none of us sensed it?” Calum came up to stand with them.
“We were all pretty close to the guns,” Blair crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at the man, “no jackals in the Alliance?”
Calum shook his head.
“One of them that took Daisie was a jackal.”
“Interesting.” Calum looked at Jesse for a moment, “I guess we need to get Devin looking into where they hail from.”
A sound from behind them had all three tense and glance. It was Noah dragging back a blanket and a pair of jeans.
Calum went over and picked up the blanket and tossed it at the man. “Get up.” He picked up the jeans and looked at them, then threw them at Blair. “I guess you get to drag him back.”
Blair grinned, in an unpleasant way, “lucky me.”