Chapter One

Angela Bernard stared at the small town below.

From where she stood on the cliff, Telluride, Colorado, looked like a child’s creation. Almost-straight roads, crisscrossing each other from one end to the other, and square houses, lined up neatly on both sides. Tiny cars moved along the roads.

What would it be like to walk among them, witness firsthand how they lived?

Several pebbles rolled down the incline besides her. She glanced up the cliff, sniffed the air then returned her attention to the rest of the view down the mountain. No one should be able to find her here. Arguing with her littermate put her in a foul mood. Some alone time, a hard run over the mountain, and possibly she would be able to sort out the nightmare threatening to explode and destroy her world. In spite of the beautiful scenery, her fight with Natasha still annoyed her.

“For once I wish you would see the big picture,” her sister had snarled. “The world is closing in around us. We attack or become extinct.”

“How will buying our meat already dead in a store, instead of killing it fresh, help us to grow?” Angela wouldn’t buy into the insanity. “We moved from the jungle to the mountains. Now you would suggest we move from the mountains into their cities?”

“Humans will help us survive. We don’t have to live among them, but we will live off them.”

Natasha used her condescending tone and it had made her sound even more annoying than usual.

“Humans accepted werewolves. They will accept us. And we’re better. Not to mention, we’ve got something to offer them.”

“Why would you want to trust your future to half a person?” Angela got tired of trying to reason with Natasha. “If they learn about us, they will panic. You know as well as I do they’ve tried burning out the werewolves, ostracizing them. Better or worse, nothing we offer them will make them trust us. They will try killing us as soon as they know we exist.”

“It depends on how they learn about us.” Remembering how cold Natasha’s tone had sounded still chilled Angela’s blood.

Angela shook her head, wishing she would quit thinking about how insane her littermate was becoming. Moving to a squatting position, she inched nearer the edge of the large boulder where she perched. Sometimes she hated her littermate. Natasha might be older by a few minutes, but somewhere along the line she lost her ability to smell out the reality of a situation.

Angela got so damn tired of Natasha smelling so angry. Moving to the Rockies from Central America was supposed to make their litters stronger. Possibly losing their parents when they were teenagers and relying on each other to grow up put a dent in Natasha’s rational thought patterns.

As if they would be able to associate with humans. They were panthera, apex predators—black jaguars. They were hunters; powerful, deadly creatures who craved the attack and thrived on the kill.

Humans wouldn’t understand them.

In another ten minutes or so the morning sun would be high enough to warm the rocks under her feet. It was an ideal spot for sunbathing.

Angela stared at the bustling little town below her. It was a human community. They were a species who relied on others, on jobs instead of the land to support themselves. They bought food instead of hunting it. And they relied on the best talker, instead of the best fighter, to lead their people. They were a species who were half of a whole. Humans.

Another pebble rolled furiously down the incline next to her. Several more followed. Angela looked up and spotted Raul VicMoran lifting himself onto a boulder several yards from her.

What was he doing on this side of the mountain?

She went to her hands and knees, pressing her palms against the cold, smooth rock underneath her. Her nipples puckered in the cold morning air and she exhaled, watching her breath form a cloud in front of her face. Colony, where all jaguar litters lived, was buried on the other side of the mountain. As many times as she came here, escaping her littermate’s tirades, no one had ever followed her. But today, when too many outraged emotions already charged her blood, she didn’t need to be tempted by one of the best-looking males in Colony. She was pissed off, disturbed by her littermate’s sudden craving to embrace humans, and raw inside from fighting with her. The simplest of confrontations right now and she would attack.

And if she tried attacking Raul, she would touch all that muscle. He would take her on willingly.

But fighting him might take her places she shouldn’t go right now. No—wouldn’t go right now. The last thing she needed was some male interfering with her life.

Although fucking him sure would release the charged emotions ripping her insides apart.

If the breeze changed directions just a bit, he would smell her. He would pick up on her anger, her confusion and other emotions. And it was those other emotions that he would focus on.

Lately, Raul wasn’t taking the words “go away” very well. Worse yet, lately she wasn’t minding his advances. Now wasn’t the time to cloud her mind with sexual cravings. Too much weird shit was going on.

She chewed her lower lip. The longer she watched him, the more her feelings for her sister dissipated. Angela had run to this part of the mountain to get their fight out of her head, but not to replace it with thoughts of Raul’s naked body pressed against hers, his hands on her, his mouth… Crap!

Her scent changed and she cringed. Convincing Raul she wasn’t interested would be impossible when he smelled lust on her. But damn it, Raul didn’t look like he used to. And they weren’t cubs anymore.

Raul put one leg forward, searching the mountainside. Roped muscle pressed against his jeans. His black hair lifted from the back of his neck with the breeze, and she focused on his firm jawline as he sniffed the air.

Angela thanked the breeze for moving in her favor. She stretched out on the boulder, shifting her attention to the town at the base of the mountain. Her sister didn’t know what she was talking about. Their life was perfect at Colony, buried in the Rocky Mountains, with humans not interfering or interacting in any way. It would be best to keep it that way.

Thinking about Natasha helped curb the sudden arousal that quickened inside her. Raul’s scent drifted toward her and she looked his direction then leapt to her hands and knees as she stared into dark green, probing eyes.

“Do you always lie so unprotected?”

“I’m very well-protected,” she purred, proud of her relaxed-sounding tone, and brushed long strands of black hair over her shoulder.

“Really.” Raul leapt from one boulder to another, creating tiny avalanches as pebbles chased each other farther down the mountain. “And who protects you, my little cat?”

“I protect myself,” she hissed, moving slowly to her feet. “And last I checked, I’m not your little cat.”

“I might decide to change that.”

Buy Black Seduction now.