He held up his hands. “Forget I said that.” He glanced around. “I can’t do anything here. I need to get him back to the States.”
Jaylin had expected that, and was ready for a fight. “Only if we can take him back to North Carolina, Trevor.”
“I won’t argue,” he said, surprising her with his easy agreement. She’d thought he’d want to take him to New Jersey, where his office was. “Anything familiar can only help him. I’ll need to make some calls, get some paperwork in place before we transport him, then talk to my team, but it shouldn’t take me an hour and we can leave.”
She nodded, understanding what he was saying. They were bringing an exotic animal back into the States, not a human being—red tape had to be dealt with. Luckily, shifters had their connections for emergencies such as this, though a shifter who’d lost his human side was a new one. Plenty of shifters refused to be human, wanting to instead stay in their animal form, but this was different. Scarier. Because Aidan couldn’t shift back.
She wrapped her arms around her waist and walked toward the glass. The cougar immediately lowered in warning. She took up her place on the floor and seconds later Rafael joined her. He reached over and took her hand.
“Everything will be fine, Miss Jaylin.”
She really wished she could believe that.
…
A little over an hour later, Trevor walked into the room. “Okay. We’re clear.”
Jaylin climbed to her feet with Rafael’s help. The more she sat on the floor, the stiffer she seemed to get, but she couldn’t make herself move from the spot.
“Jaylin, I need you to leave the room.”
She stiffened. They’d have to remove her physically if they thought she was going anywhere. “That’s so not happening.”
Trevor sighed. “We’re going to have to tranquilize it. It’s not going to be easy to watch.”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You mean him, don’t you? I’m not leaving him.”
Trevor cursed. “We’re not dealing with a shifter’s beast right now. We’re dealing with a cougar. A wild animal. There’s no telling what can happen. You’ll be safer in another room until we get it caged.”
She looked him square in the eyes and tilted her chin up.
“Let her stay,” Rafael said. “I’ll keep her out of the way.”
Trevor rubbed his hand over his eyes. “Fine. Stay over there.” He pointed to an area by the door, near the corner. When they’d moved to where they were instructed, Trevor said, “Alric, Bastion, come on in.”
The two men came in with scary-looking guns, and Jaylin swallowed. Maybe she should’ve left the room. The guns made everything real.
“We don’t know what it’s capable of. If cornered, it could attack. The less danger we put ourselves in the better, so we don’t want to ambush it. I think it’d be best if we opened the door and just let it come into the room on its own. Once you get a clear shot, take it.”
Jaylin pressed a fist to her mouth, breath held as one of the men walked up to the glass. The cougar snarled, its razor-sharp teeth bared. The man opened the door and quickly stepped back, gun raised.
Jaylin hated seeing the weapon aimed at Aidan, had to bite her tongue to keep from yelling for them to lower it, but she knew this had to be done. The cougar growled, then hissed. A standoff ensued.
Minutes went by. The cougar not moving, the men positioned and ready to fire.
“Damn it,” Trevor muttered. He sighed. “This isn’t going to work. It’s not going to come out of the room with all of us caging it in. Everyone back out.”
One by one the men backed out, including Rafael. As Jaylin moved to follow, the cougar stepped forward into the room, eyes locked on hers. Its snarls made her swallow. The room shrank. Suddenly there wasn’t enough space between her and the animal. The caterwaul that came from it right before it charged petrified Jaylin right on the spot. All she could do was stare in abject terror as the feline slammed the distance closed between them.
Trevor immediately shifted into his beast, a Bengal tiger, and intercepted the raging animal. The felines rolled on the floor an entangled mess of teeth, muscles, and claws. The cougar tore into Trevor’s back, causing him to yelp and scurry to the side.
“Stop! Aidan. Please. Stop!”
That brought the cougar’s attention right back to her. She held up her hands and stepped back. It