His Darkest Salvation (Jaguar Warriors 3)

His thoughts turned to Tank, and he frowned. Seemed as if Jaden cared more about protecting “the hub” than she did about her own safety.

“I’m looking for Nico and the eagle shifter.” Julian cracked a smile though his features remained tight.

She didn’t bat an eye but held his gaze for several long moments.

“They’ve been expecting you, Julian.”

She lifted her hands and made several quick motions in the air as Julian watched in surprise. The wall behind her began to shimmer, to pulsate, and, seconds later, it disappeared altogether, allowing him to see “the hub.”

He nodded to the woman as she stepped aside to allow him entrance.

This indeed was an entirely different world. Totally Mission Impossible. A huge bank of monitors lined the wall in front of him, sending live feeds from all over the world. In front of each sat an operative, furiously tapping away at a console.

Some of the images were harsh. Interrogations taking place by brutal means, yet his eyes passed over them without thought. That was nothing compared to what had been dished out below.

The bitch with the dagger had seen to that.

The energy was frenetic, one tinged with violence, and he scented the air. He knew that the sorcerer Kragen was somewhere down here. Hopefully, out of his mind in pain.

He snarled. Served the bastard right. He only wished he’d been given a chance to work him over. Julian shook out his tight limbs. It was early yet. There was time.

He proceeded deeper into the hub, his long legs gliding over the cool tiles in silence. Everyone here was otherworld. There were vamps, magicks, shifters of all kinds. Each and every one of them was busy, focused.

He glanced up at the huge screen that dominated the entire area. A picture of Cormac stared down at him.

He felt his gut tighten and exhaled roughly, taking a few seconds to calm his mind. He glanced around one more time but didn’t recognize a soul. They were definitely government operatives. Everything about them screamed order. Purpose. Mission.

The exact opposite of the chaos that dwelled within his mind.

He’d never once visited his brother at PATU. Hell, up until several months before, he’d never known of its existence. He’d been total white collar, living in a world filled with boardrooms, private jets, beautiful women, and endless meetings.

Blue Heaven Industries, the company his father had built and one he’d taken to the next level, seemed like a lifetime ago. He was not the same man. A bittersweet smile cracked his cool facade. There was no going back.

An image of his mother floated in front of his eyes, and his chest tightened. God, he missed her quiet strength. Did she know he was alive? Did his father bemoan the fact that all three of his sons had been pulled deep into the legacy they’d been born to?

Ironic really. Both he and his father had long denied the jaguar heritage that pulsed through their veins. As a young man, he’d never matured into a warrior; the clan tattoos that marked his younger brothers as such never appeared on his flesh.

To him it had been a blessing, and he’d carried on, the perfect candidate to take over his father’s company.

But everything had changed when he’d answered his brother Jaxon’s call for help. Being back in the Belizean jungle had changed him in ways he’d not expected.

Living in hell for the last six months had completed the metamorphosis and made him what he was now. A freak-of-nature shifter with half a soul who’d fed on the darkness of the underworld to survive.

Not the type you’d want to bring home to Mama.

As his eyes traveled around the room, he thought of Jaden. Of how he’d rejected her three years earlier because of what she was. And wonder of wonders, he felt shame wash over him. It startled him, that sliver of emotion, and he stopped abruptly.

“Where the hell have you been?”

Declan’s voice intruded on his thoughts, and he forced the unfamiliar feelings away as he glanced at the sorcerer, surprised that Declan had been able to sneak up on him so easily.

He couldn’t afford a walk down memory lane. In his world, emotion was a weakness that would get you killed.

“I needed to clear my head.”

“You need to hit that fine piece of ass and get it the fuck over with.”

Julian glared at the sorcerer but remained quiet.