Aztec Treasure
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Maria Meztli’s POV

Arrowhead Pack Grounds

I was shocked when the van drove into Arrowhead territory, and everyone was outside waiting for us. The cheers started as we got out of the vehicle. Nervous about all the people, I clung to Lance’s arm as we walked towards his Alphas.

“Welcome back, Maria,” Alpha Chase said as he embraced me. My cat relaxed in his hold, submitting to our Alpha. I’m mated to Lance, and Rori and Chase were Lance’s Alphas, so they were MY Alphas! I felt something unlock in my mind as I was welcomed in by two powerful beings.

“Welcome to the Arrowhead Pack, Maria,” I heard in my head. Rori was licking my hand, and I knew it was her somehow.

“Thank you,” I said. My send resulted in a chorus of greetings, and my mind struggled to keep up as it matched the voices with the people surrounding me. They were all so loud!

My head still hurt from the concussion, and Lance picked up on the strain. “Give her a break for a moment, please.” The mental and audible messages died down immediately. “Imagine a volume control in your head and turn it down.”

“The Pack link can be a shock when it opens up,” Rori said. “I’m so happy I can talk to you now!”

The volume was much lower, and I took a few breaths and relaxed. “That’s better. Where is Maritza?”

Rori looked up at me, her tongue hanging out the side of her mouth. “In the pool, of course! That girl would live there if she could.”

“Maritza? Baby?”

A soft voice answered back. “Momma?”

“I’m home, baby. I’m coming to you.” Tears were streaming down my face as it all hit me at once. “I can hear Maritza in my head,” I said as I buried my face in Lance’s chest.

“That’s amazing,” Lance said as he kissed my head.

Rori was first to try. “Maritza, it’s Alpha Rori. You stay and play until we get there, all right?”

“Yay! Play!”

Chase just shook his head. “I have no idea how all this happened, but you are both Pack now. The link to Rori proves it.”

“I’m so happy,” I said. “I hated being left out.”

“Never again,” Lance said. “Now, let’s go replace our little girl and play.”

We walked up the hill to the Pack House, with most of the Pack following along. “This is a great reason for a party in the pool tonight,” Chase said. It didn’t take long for responsibilities to be assigned. It was a warm day, so the grills outside would get a workout. I heard Chase calling up Doc at Oxbow Lake, informing him of the latest events. He asked Doc to pass along the party invitation for tonight to the rest of the Pack.

I put my clothes into the locker before taking a quick shower before going into the pool area with the others. It was weird having a link; I could think about someone, then talk to them without opening my mouth or seeing them! I’d checked in with Maritza’s nannies while I showered and knew they were in the kiddie section of the pool. Maritza spotted me as I walked up. “MOMMY!” She splashed over to me and held her arms up.

I picked her up, kissing her cheek before holding her tight. “I missed you, baby,” I told her.

“Mommy owie?” She poked at the side of my head; the rock that almost knocked me silly left behind a large bruise from my cheek to temple, extending to the corner of my eye. The swelling was still there, and I looked like a boxer on the losing side of a fight.

I nodded at her. “I’m hurt, but it will get better.”

“Cats?” She looked up at me, begging to shift.

I set her down. “Cats.” I shifted first, and she followed right after that. “Be nice playing with the others,” I sent to her.

“Kay,” she replied as she bounded over to the shallow area where the others were playing. I loved that I now could speak to her and others while in my jaguar; no more trying to make myself understood with growls, expressions, and tail movements. I jumped a little when I felt a cold nose sniffing around my tail, then a tongue licking out. I looked back to see Lance’s wolf. “You scared me,” I told him.

“I get a million of those for what you put me through,” he replied as he moved up my side. He was rubbing his fur on mine, laying down his scent on me. Maritza was splashing around under the nanny’s watchful eye, so I led Lance over to the hot tub and slowly crawled in.

Lance shifted back, lowering himself into the hot water next to me. “I’m still cold from that river. I don’t know how you survived.”

“You said you loved me, and that’s what gave me the energy. I can’t believe you were able to hold on.”

“I’m glad that collar was titanium,” he replied. He moved around until I was sitting between his legs and began to rub my sore muscles down. I moaned in pleasure as his strong fingers worked through my fur. “It would work better if you shifted,” he said.

“Maritza needs her cat time,” I replied. “And I love how this feels.” We sat in the hot tub for about fifteen minutes while I practiced using the Pack Link to talk to the others. Lance taught me a few more tricks about using it before it was time to get out.

“Momma? Slide?” Maritza had gotten out of the water and had her murder mittens on the side of the hot tub as she looked at me.

“How can you resist that face?” Lance stood up and stepped out of the hot tub, with me following behind. “Let’s go on the big slide!”

“I’ll wait at the bottom if Lance helps you to the top,” I told them. Swimming was all right, but my head might not react well to the slide. Maritza followed Lance to the stairs while I walked into the pool through the zero-depth entry. Swimming felt better in the warm pool water, and I quickly paddled over to the area the slides exited.

“Here she comes!” Lance sat behind Maritza as she let out a baby roar, then launched herself on her belly on the adult slide. A few seconds later, she came flying out into the pool, landing with a big splash. I made sure she was all right before we swam towards the stairs, turning to watch Lance slide down. He hit the water fast, sending water everywhere.

“Papa big splash,” Maritza said.

“Papa is a big guy,” Lance answered.

He swam over to where I sat, stunned. I opened the link to Lance alone as Maritza climbed out of the pool. “She called you Papa?”

“Yes,” he said with a big smile as he climbed out. “Nobody told her. I told her that you and I were mates. She decided that if I was your mate, I was her Papa. You can’t argue with that logic.”

“You’re all right with that?”

“Are you kidding me? I’ve mated the most beautiful jaguar woman in the world, and we already have one daughter. I’m over the moon.”

The pair were already at the top of the slide as I processed this. It had taken me months to accept Maritza as my own, and Lance had done it immediately because I was his and he was mine. “This mating thing is different. No werejaguar male would raise a child that wasn’t his.”

“It is our way,” Lance answered. “When my wolf accepted that you were my mate, your family became mine. I claimed you and Maritza in front of the Alphas and the Pack. That is all that is required for our kind to make the adoption official. When we get married, we can do the human adoption process to make it legally binding.” I looked up to the top, where this time Lance was going down in his wolf. Maritza let out a baby roar as Lance howled with her, then she went down the slide. Maritza stretched out this time, skidding along the surface before splashing to a halt. Lance tried to look graceful, but he was so big it didn’t work. He face-planted on the water before coming to a halt in a huge splash. “That’s why I slide in human form.”

I was laughing inside as he dog-paddled to the steps. “I’m going to sit on the steps just in case. You messed up, and now you have to take your daughter up the stairs again and again until she falls asleep.”

“Seriously?”

“Can you say no to that face?” I had him, and he knew it. I stretched out on the edge of the pool, my tail idly dipping in the water as I relaxed.

“Maria?” I recognized the voice of Three Tequila, the Orlando chapter President of the Steel Ladies and old lady to the Brotherhood President. I turned my head as three ladies sat on the pool edge around me. Three Tequila, Howler, and Possum were all human, so there was no mind link. They had no problem with nudity or displaying all their tattoos by how comfortable they were here. Chase sat down next to Three T and told me he’d relay what I said. “I left your motorcycle in Spider’s garage, and we put your cut and your gear back in your room. Sweet ride, by the way.”

“Thank you for bringing it back,” I said.

“It’s not a problem. Mongo likes me behind him while he rides, but I don’t mind being on my own once in a while. My God, it’s so gorgeous up here, even if it is colder than a witches tit in November.”

I chuffed in laughter as I watched Maritza hit the water again. “I know, but Denver can be cold too. I like it here.”

“Your fur is so soft,” Howler said as she scratched my hip. “And that Maritza is a cutie!” I loved their scratches, so I stretched out and let the women explore.

“You’ll have to talk Lance into coming down to Orlando next winter. As a Steel Lady, you’re welcome in any of our Clubs,” Three T said. “It will light a fire under that hot-ass man of yours to finish prospecting before the trip. He won’t like driving the support van while you’re riding with us.”

“I think I’ll be able to get a chapter going by summer, so there’s a chance,” Chase answered for me.

“We have to head to the airport soon, but I wanted to tell you how proud we are of you. You have courage, kiddo.”

“Leaving so soon?”

“We’ll be back for the Memorial Day party and the post-Sturgis Steel Brotherhood rally,” Three Tequila said. “Those parties are epic. The lake, the beach, the riding…”

“I can’t wait. We should do the Superior Loop sometime,” I told them.

“What’s that?”

“An eight-day ride around Lake Superior, through Canada, Michigan, and Wisconsin. You could do it in three days, but there’s so much to see and do. I was reading about it on the Internet a few days ago.”

Chase continued after relaying. “I’ve heard about the tour, but we’ve always been so busy I haven’t done it. Rori won’t be able to go as she’ll be late in her pregnancy or have a newborn.”

“Rori’s always pregnant,” Howler said. “You’ve got nannies and support vehicles. You could even bring an RV.”

“You’ll even have a prospect to drive it,” Tequila said with a grin. “We don’t need you anyway. Maybe we’ll make it a Steel Ladies ride and leave you and Vic with your babies.”

“Maybe we can do the first half with you? Bear and I can do the bottom half on the way here, and then we can keep going once we get to the American border in Sault Ste Marie?” Since their chapter was in New Hampshire, they would be taking a long ride west to come to our party. “Hell, we could head up to Montreal and go around the north sides of Lake Ontario and Lake Huron too!”

“I’ll work with Spider Monkey to plan the trip. Chase and Rori can get the word out to the Club, and we’ll see how many people are interested.” I was excited just thinking about it. After all those months living as a shut-in, a week of motorcycle touring with my man sounded fantastic. If we had support vehicles and nannies, Maritza could go. The ride would break down into chunks with lots of sightseeing and exploring, so it would give her time to play. “Chase, will I be able to enter Canada?”

“I hope so.” I rubbed my cheek against theirs before they left, promising to keep in touch.

The party went on well into the night. I shifted back for dinner, much to Maritza’s disappointment. When she finished her food, she couldn’t keep her eyes open. Spider Monkey volunteered to put her to bed, as she was making an early night of it.

Lance and I got called over to a table away from the pool later that night. Colletta, Chase, Rori, Vic, and Possum were there from our Pack. Alpha Michael, Luna Margaret, and Doc Olson were there from Oxbow Lake. Lance took the only chair left, pulling me into his lap and wrapping his arms around me. “We’re trying to understand how this all happened,” Chase said.

“There are so many first with you two,” Colletta said. “First mating between werejaguar and werewolf, first mate link for a cat, first Pack link, and first child brought into a Pack link.”

“Our children don’t get the mind link until their first shift in their teens, and now I have a one-year-old jaguar baby asking me if she HAS to get out of the pool.” Rori just shook her head at this.

Doc Olson looked at Lance. “When did you know Maria was your mate?”

“After she took off in her cat form, but before she jumped in the river,” he said. “I heard her voice in my head, and my wolf said we had to claim our mate. Until that moment, I thought I was falling in love with her, but mating wasn’t possible.”

“So she used the mate link to talk to you before your wolf accepted her?” Lance looked at me as he nodded. “How?”

I thought about what happened. “It all happened so quickly. I ran hard for the river, and I needed Lance and the others to go farther downstream. I yelled at him in my head before I jumped. I was shocked that he heard me, more so when I got his answer in my head. You don’t know how much I wanted a link since I came here! It was the answer to my prayers!”

Chase leaned back as he thought about it. “It has to go back to their time together in her heat. Lance, is it possible you created a mate bond that weekend?”

“Not intentionally,” he said. “My wolf wasn’t thinking about her that way at the time.”

“Did you bite her neck,” Doc Olson asked.

“More than a few times,” Lance said as he blushed. “I had to hold her in place the first time I took her in wolf form and when I forced my knot into her. She would squirm as I held her neck down with my teeth. I didn’t feel anything at the time, though. In all honesty, that whole weekend was a blur with all the pheromones and sex.”

“I’d never had a heat before, and we don’t have mates, so I don’t know if there was anything different,” I said. “When the heat ended, I still wanted him and wanted to be close to him. My cat would calm down when he was with me.”

Chase had no answers. “Maybe the mating bite takes a long time to work when it’s with a werejaguar?”

Doc nodded. “It’s not something they’ve had before, so maybe his saliva had to change something in her first?”

Colletta brought up the obvious problem with that. “Then how do you explain Maritza gaining a Pack Link without a bite OR a blood tie?”

No one could answer that one. Finally, Lance just pointed out what was different. “Maria adopted Maritza, and my wolf accepted her as my own after I took Maria as my mate.”

“She answered me after you brought me into the Pack,” I said. “I don’t think we’ll ever know if a family or Pack link came first.”

“So much to learn,” Colletta said. “I’ll remind everyone that Maria and Maritza’s ability to use the mind link is not for distribution outside Arrowhead Pack and the Oxbow Lake leadership. Such an ability may give them a tactical advantage we don’t want to spoil.” That order went out after Lance reported his mate link to Doc and the Alphas. “Did the heat take? Are you pregnant?”

I didn’t want to answer, but I had to. I let out a yawn before I answered. “Doc said the test was negative, but it’s too early for a test to be accurate.”

“We could be so lucky. I can’t imagine what surprises that might bring,” Colletta said. “You better get your mate to bed, Lance. She’s had a long day.”

“Thank you,” I said as I got up. “I’m so happy to be a part of your Pack!”

Lance and I showered together in my room before I pulled him into bed with me. I was asleep as soon as his arms wrapped around me.

I woke up in the morning to replace a single red rose on the pillow in front of my face. I reached out and pulled it to my nose, taking in the smell. “Happy First Day Mated, Maria,” Lance said as he brought a tray over to the bed. Maritza climbed up and sat next to me as I pulled myself to a sitting position.

“Happy day, Mama,” my baby said.

I couldn’t see through my tears as I hugged them both.