Panthera Spelaea Ch. 81: Conclusion

By the time we reached Edward's home, we were all wiped out. He showed us to a lovely guest room and told us to sleep as long as we needed to.

Sleep didn't come quickly, despite the fatigue from the long flight. Too much was going on in my head, and the girls were nervous too. We were a long way from the days of bringing takeout back to their Moscow apartment while I learned Russian and awaited my fate.

We were wealthy beyond our dreams, but that wealth came with risk.

I moved their arms away so I could slip out of bed, the girls rolling into the warm spot I'd left. Their arms reached for each other in their sleep, and I watched them settle back down as I pulled on some clothes. There was a deck outside our room, and I silently slid open the door to it and went outside. It was four in the morning, still pitch black out. The clear skies matched the cool night air as the winds from the Tasmanian Sea moved through the trees.

I found a lounger and sat down, looking up to the sky for guidance. Going to Tasmania on our honeymoon was a risk, as was accepting Edward's hospitality. He'd offered me up as bait, and my sister nearly died because of it. Was that his fault? Not really. The whole "Liger on the island" thing didn't work the way we thought it would. Abrahmov had extensive resources and plans, and he was a formidable man too.

I thought of the other Switchers and my level of trust in them. Melanie was a given; I trusted her with my life. Duncan and Olivia were next; they were honest people, hard-working, and friendly to us. They didn't want anything but friendship. I would have put Art Karpen next until the recent revelations from Alexandra. Edward was a loner, and finding out if I could trust him was part of the reason we were here.

Now Edward had Alexandra, and that changed everything.

Alexandra was the daughter and heir of my enemy. Mikhail set things in motion that killed Ekatarina and nearly killed Melanie, and Alexandra knew about it. Hell, she helped plan the attacks! Was she still working her father's plan, or had becoming Edward's mate with all its benefits changed everything?

It all made my head hurt. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing, calming my body and pushing back the urge to shift and run. There would be time for that, but not now. The sea air and the quiet let me fall into a light slumber.

I woke when I heard the bed move, my hearing picking up on the soft footfalls of bare feet on carpet as someone came to the door. Cracking open an eye, I could see the sun was still below the horizon. The door opened, and Svetlana's scent washed over me. "John? Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," I said as I sat up and swung my legs down. "I came out here when I couldn't sleep, and it must have worked."

My mate had some bedhead, but her naked body looked fantastic. I was the luckiest man in the world, never aging, and my mates staying forever young and in perfect health. She saw me staring and pulled the curtain in front of her. "Come inside. I need a shower, and you need to wash your pregnant wife's back."

I gave her a predatory look. "Is that all you need?"

"It's what I need first." She turned back into the room, her naked backside swaying sexily in front of me as I followed her. She turned into the bathroom as I checked on Anna, who was still sleeping in the middle of the bed. I pulled off my clothes and tossed them on a chair before opening the door.

I'd started responding to my beautiful wife's body earlier, but watching Svetlana reach up to wet her hair in the two-person glass shower had me ready in seconds. I opened the door and slipped behind her, taking the shampoo and working it into her hair and scalp. "Mmmm, that feels wonderful," she said as she relaxed under my touch.

She started washing her face and front as I rinsed her hair and put the conditioner in to set. She handed back the washcloth, telling me to get to work. I did, but cleaning her was just part of the thorough job I was doing. By the time I finished her feet, she was fully relaxed. I rinsed out the conditioner, then stepped back, expecting her to return the favor. Instead, she stepped out and wrapped herself in a towel. "What about MY back," I complained.

"You can handle it," she said as she wrapped her wet blonde hair in a towel.

She was singing a song in Russian and drying her hair at the double-sink vanity when I finished and stepped out. I brushed my teeth and shaved as she continued to tease me with looks and glimpses of her flesh. My erection hadn't gone down, and she was pretending not to notice the tent in my towel. When she bent over to look closely in the mirror, she had to know how her towel was riding up her ass. Her glance and a smirk confirmed it for me.

I moved fast, smacking her shapely ass hard enough to leave a handprint. She squealed and tried to stand up, but my other hand was already on her back. "Stay right there," I growled. "You forget I can smell your arousal." She relaxed and leaned forward again as I sank to my knees behind her. She squealed again when my tongue reached out to lick her slit, and she spread her legs apart to give me better access. It didn't take long before I had her legs shaking as a powerful orgasm went through her.

I stood up, and she turned around, reaching for the towel around my waist and pulling out the tuck. Her hand reached down to my hard cock, jacking it a few times. I pulled my towel off and placed it on the vanity behind her. Lifter her onto the counter, I lined up and pushed into her wet core. "JOHN, oh fuck! Yes! Give it to me!"

And I did. I grabbed onto Svetlana's waist, screwing her hard and fast through three loud orgasms before I finally buried myself deep inside her and released my seed. I stayed there as we came down from our orgasmic highs, then pulled out. The towel caught MOST of the mess. "Damn, I need another shower," Svetlana said with a laugh as I wiped it off her thighs.

The door opened right then, and Anna walked in. She kissed Svetlana, then me. "I need a shower. Can you do my back?" Svetlana and I cracked up before I joined her for my second round of the morning.

It was a good thing I'd gotten up early.

Alexandra knocked on our door as we dressed. "Breakfast by the pool in fifteen minutes," she said.

"We'll be there," I replied. I held up my hand until I heard Alexandra go down the stairs, then moved us out to the deck. "We should talk about how we are going to play this," I said. "I don't fully trust Edward, and I have my doubts about Alexandra."

"I'm in no hurry to get in the middle of a fight between Art Karpen and Alexandra Abrahmov," Anna said. "You know the wealth and reach Art has. The twenty-five million we have is a day's interest payment for him. The stake in the steel company? He'll burn it to the ground to teach us a lesson, and he won't even notice the money he lost. We'll be lucky if we only lose our money and not our lives. After all, we know a lot about some suspicious deaths in Croatia."

I looked over to Svetlana, who reached for my hand as she sat down on a chair. "I'm worried, but we need more than just our suspicions. We came here to sound Edward out. We should listen to what he and Alexandra have to say. If Art comes after us, we'll need his help."

Both of them made sense. "I got us as far from Art Karpen as we could get, but we have to be careful. Don't let on what we are thinking. I want to find out what their play is, and then I think I need to speak with Art before we decide how to proceed. It's going to be a dance for us."

"Do you think Art will come after us down here?"

I looked at Anna and thought about it. "I think Art will leave us alone as long as he thinks we are going to vote our shares with his. We serve his purposes right now."

"As long as," Svetlana echoed. "Come on, let's see what they say."

We joined them for breakfast, which was full of local produce and tasted great. We followed our host's lead and didn't discuss our business around the help. Edward had a small household staff, a housekeeper, a groundskeeper, and a chef. We were relaxing after the meal with our juices as the sun climbed above the trees. "What is the plan for today," I asked after the help went back inside.

"I figured you might want to stretch your legs," Edward said. "I've got a big backyard here, and it's safe for us."

Svetlana looked over at Alexandra. "Do you ride? It's one of my favorite things."

"Only at night," the Russian beauty responded. "If you don't mind, I'd like to stay here with you two. Being the mate to a cat shifter isn't something you can learn about on the Internet. I have a ton of questions for the two of you if you want to hang out by the pool with me."

"I love the sun," Anna said. "And it's not too hot. Do you mind, John?"

I looked at Svetlana, who gave me a quick nod. I knew they would be all right, and by splitting up, we might learn more. "No, it's fine. I could use a good stretch after the flight. I'm not as claustrophobic as Duncan, but my cat doesn't like it." Duncan was the Dire Wolf switcher who rarely traveled by air due to his beast and his dislike of being confined.

"Try to be back by lunchtime," Alexandra told her mate.

"Unless we hunt something down," Edward said before kissing her. "If we aren't back in time, don't wait for us."

I said goodbye to the girls, warning them not to be separated while I was gone. Edward and I walked down a trail into the dense forest, stopping where a steel box was attached to one of the trees. "Clothes here," he said as he began to strip.

I packed my stuff away and called my lion forward, shifting into my beast form. I stretched out, both of us enjoying the freedom of this form. Edward yawned, his namesake teeth looking dangerous as his mouth fully opened. He rubbed up against the tree, then turned to head deeper into the forest. I followed, keeping up as he increased the pace.

Cats aren't big on endurance, but we are quick. I followed the scimitar cat as he bounded down the trail. Edward was half my size, but I could cover more ground in a single bound. I scented some creatures, but nothing familiar, and Edward ignored the scents. We returned and got dressed after a few hours, both of us in a better mood. "Nothing worth hunting?"

"No deer around, and the kangaroos aren't in this area," Edward said. "Everything else is too small." We walked back to his house, finding the girls laughing and telling stories in his living room. We greeted our ladies and exchanged stories about our mornings before heading to the dining room.

"What is your plan," I finally asked as lunch ended. "You can't expect to take on Art Karpen head-on and win. He'll crush us all financially, then take our cats."

Edward reached for Alexandra's hand, smiling at her before he responded. "I know that. We have to find a way for all the Switchers to get along, and I can't be the peacemaker here. As soon as Art finds out that Alexandra is mine, he's going to freak out. I need an intermediary who can negotiate a solution we can all live with."

Of course. "Me?"

"I think you're the only one who can do it, and it affects all the Switchers. Melanie is too young and new to the group and has no relationship with Art. Duncan is too much of a loner, and I'm sleeping with the enemy. You're the only one who can mediate this in a way that keeps us all alive, out of the press, and with our fortunes intact."

I'd known Art for all of a week, and he'd been more than willing to sell me off or kill me if I failed his tests. "Do you think Art will listen to me?"

"You're neutral in that we've both tried to screw you over. With two Switchers in your family, you have influence, and Duncan and Olivia like you. He's going to listen to you."

He might listen, but what then?

Ch. 82

We spent a fortnight in Tasmania, enjoying our honeymoon and the isolation. Coming here had worked in terms of getting away from the press in Russia and America. Alexandra went back to Moscow after two days, and Edward wasn't handling his mate's absence well. "This sucks," he said as we all talked at at the swim-up pool bar after dinner. "My cat and I miss the hell out of her."

"It had to be this way, and you know it," I said. "Alexandra coming down here to try and get you on her side was to be expected, but the longer she stayed, the more attention she would get. And I'm not talking about just Art, but her Board of Directors and the press too. She has a lot to deal with now."

"I know." We stopped talking as Edward's chef came out with the food, a selection of appetizers on skewers that were easy to eat with wet pool fingers. He poured glasses of Eileen Hardy Chardonnay, which incorporated grapes from Tasmania and the mainland, for us. The pregnant girls had fruit juice. The seafood was fresh and tasty, using local recipes and spices, and the smoked salmon was perfection. "What did your Dad say?"

I was smart enough to know I was an expert in Paleobiology and not business, so I brought my father in on the situation a week ago. He agreed it was about more than just Alexandra's company, and it was vital for me to understand my share of the company in a larger context. "He said Art is too good to let things or people get out of his control. He is like a chess master, directing the pieces on the board to attack or defend. Some people understand they are under his control while the rest are but don't realize it. I looked over at my host. "Edward, did you ever question why Art never took a cut of Abrahmov's blood money?"

"It was my idea, and I split it with you because you were taking the risk."

"Art's people were taking huge risks, Edward. A team of his security men got captured and nearly killed. His security chief blew a helicopter out of the sky with two dead men on it, plus an innocent pilot. His people moved our money through his accounts to launder it. Art also attacked Mikhail's business interests, which couldn't have been cheap. After all that, he gives away a billion dollars worth of stock to us with no strings attached, PLUS we each got $25 million. How does that make sense if he wants to take over the company or make a lot of money?"

Edward had to think about it, then think about it some more as he ate another jumbo shrimp in a red pepper sauce. Finally, it came to him. "Deniability."

"Bingo. If too many questions get asked, the answers lead away from him. Instead, they look for why a couple of guys with no experience in the field and no money got a billion in stock from a dead man."

"And then the guys die mysteriously, leaving the trail cold," Svetlana said. "The investigation goes nowhere. News stories pop up talking about rampant corruption and bribery involving his company, and rumors of payoffs leading to Mikhail's ownership."

"Art swoops in and saves the company, using his reputation and contacts to save the company from the corruption investigations. Meanwhile, Art's trusted security men take out two or three Switchers, and they get transferred to trusted members of his family," Anna concluded. "It can't sit well that as the oldest, richest, and most powerful shifter, he isn't the undisputed leader of our kind."

"Dammit." Edward put his head into his hands. "What about Alexandra? Is she in danger?"

"Of death? Not now, I don't think. Art wants Mikhail's legacy destroyed, and she's all that's left," I told him. "I don't think he will make any moves right away because it would attract more attention to the company. Art takes a long view of things, including revenge. Mikhail's death and the other Art's actions have depressed the stock price, and Art is secretly buying up as many shares as he can get."

"If we don't sell, Alexandra can keep the company. He can't possibly get to fifty percent of the stock if we hold firm," Edward replied.

"What good is stock if it is worthless," Svetlana retorted. "Art has the money and influence to ruin your life. I'm sure his people by now have dozens of criminal activities that tie back to Mikhail. There is a tipoff to a friendly investigator here, some planted evidence there, and Alexandra gets perp-walked out of her Moscow home. Hell, the charges don't even have to be true! Look at what happened to John in Moscow if you don't believe me." There was no evidence against me, yet I narrowly avoided life in the Russian prison system. "The Russian government rules that the stock transfers to you and John were criminal proceeds, and they nationalize your stock as well as Alexandra's, leaving your families nothing. Art cuts a deal with some high-level officials and walks away as the majority owner of a company he bought at fire-sale prices."

Anna reached out and patted Edward's arm. "We're in way over our heads, Edward. Art is the master puppeteer, and you are the dummy dangling by his strings. If you do what he wants, you're a rich man. If you oppose him, he will crush you."

The magnitude of the stakes hit him at this point. "Is there a way out of this?"

It was a lot to take in; talking through the possible outcomes with my father had been eye-opening. Art had a reputation in the business world that was well-deserved. He played for keeps. "The cleanest thing would be for you and Alexandra to sell and hope that Art leaves you alone," I said.

Edward looked at the ground and shook her head. "That company means everything to her. She won't sell."

"It might be the only way to get Art to back off. Talk to her, and wish me luck," I replied. "We need to think about the long term. Twenty or thirty years from now, you and Alexandra will have to disappear. She can't be in the public eye and never age, so she'll have to sell the company anyway."

"I'll talk to her. When are you leaving," Edward asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon. I'll need one of your staff to take me to the airport."

That caught the girl's attention. Svetlana spoke first. "What about us?"

I looked at Edward. "I need something from you, Edward. I don't want to know where they are or who they are with, but I need my mates safe. Send them someplace remote and untraceable, whether you go with them or not. I wouldn't put it past Art to use them as leverage against me. I've already asked Dad to take the family on vacation for a week, somewhere remote and unreachable, and not to tell me about it. I can't risk Art using my family against me."

"I swear on my life that I will keep your ladies safe," Edward promised. "I have an idea or two. How do I get in touch with you when it is safe for them to return?"

"I'll come back and get a room at the Henry James Art Hotel in Hobart," I replied. "Check for me every weekend, but no earlier than three days from now. If I'm not back in a week, assume the worst."

The girls did NOT like this plan, but I was firm on this. They were carrying my children, and I wasn't going to risk my future for anything. My will would pass most of my estate to Svetlana, with Anna getting a lump sum plus generous child support.

It was a tearful goodbye when Edward and I departed. Edward stopped at one place on the way, and I hid the small capsule in the padding of my carry-on backpack. We shared a flight to Sydney before splitting up. He was flying to Moscow after a stopover in Dubai. I was flying to Tel Aviv after a stopover in Singapore.

The flights were long, and I was exhausted when I reached my hotel in the port city of Haifa, Israel. My father had arranged for me to meet with Art in the morning as they cruised offshore. The helicopter would leave in the morning.

Ch. 83

I arrived at the heliport early, dreading the meeting I was about to have. It could go wrong in so many ways, and the stakes were incredibly high. I'd gotten a text from Dad last night, confirming they were going off the grid for a week. My mates were in hiding, and Edward would take care of Alexandra. I'd warned Duncan to lay low for a while; his land was big enough to disappear without leaving.