by Terry Spear
“True. You know, Val’s been watching you. And she’s been watching the entrance. Do you think she’s onto us?”
“I doubt it. What would the odds be that Martin would send two of his USF agents to protect an Enforcer in a simple take-down operation without her being informed?”
“Not likely. Do you want to dance?” Jillian grabbed Howard’s hand before he could object.
“Hell, do you want this to get back to Vaughn? As a SEAL wolf, he’d kill me.”
Jillian laughed. “He knows we’re undercover, and this is just for fun.” She dragged him to the dance floor. “You never dated Val?”
“No. I never dated anyone in the Enforcer branch. How do you know she’s been watching me?” he asked as they danced to the loud music, the lights flashing. “Wait. It was when you went to the ladies’ room. That’s why you took so long to return. You were observing her.”
“And others. And you.”
“Me? I wasn’t about to blow our cover. What if she had a meltdown because we’re here to protect her?”
“You did good. You only looked her way five times and only when she was busy ordering a drink, telling a patron to bug off, and looking around at other people at the time. If you had caught her eye, though, then what?”
“I would have waved. She knows me. I know her. It would be foolish to pretend I didn’t recognize her.”
They continued to dance as the beat quickened, which Howard was glad for. He really didn’t want Vaughn to get any ideas about him and Jillian.
“You ought to ask her to dance. You’re no longer an Enforcer. Then she’ll know we’re not together in a boyfriend/girlfriend way. It might help our mission if it looks like we’re just here to have fun.”
“She’s on a job.”
“Right. But you aren’t supposed to know that. You’d be her cover too, though she wouldn’t realize it.”
“All right. You just don’t want it to get back to your mate that I only danced with you.”
Jillian laughed.
He led her back to the table, but the next dance was a slow dance, and he wasn’t going to ask Val then. Not that he didn’t want to, but he hated being here under false pretenses. What if they got a little too hot and heavy on the dance floor, like he’d hope to, and then she learned he was only there on an assignment?
He sat down across from Jillian.
She smiled. “Coward.”
“Next dance.” But it was a slow one too. “Next fast dance,” he clarified.
Then again, Val might wonder who Jillian was. A date? Even though that would work for a cover, he didn’t want Val to think that. So much for really getting into this assignment. And here he was, always a professional when it came to his missions.
The next dance was fast-paced, so he rose from his chair and saw some guy trying to take a seat at Val’s table. Howard headed over, though he told himself he wasn’t in rescue mode. Not when he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate it. So why was he making a beeline straight through the dancers, his gaze hard on the man at her table, and why was he walking so damn fast?
Maybe she wanted to be with the guy, but he suspected not from the way her brows furrowed, and she was motioning for him to get lost. She’d probably do the same with Howard.
The guy suddenly noticed Howard advancing. The guy had had too much to drink, smelled of whiskey, and was unsteady on his feet, finally planting a hand on the back of the chair next to Val as if to keep from falling down.
“Hey, Val,” Howard said in greeting. “Is this guy hassling you?
The human glanced at her, then turned his attention to Howard.
Howard had dealt with enough ugly drunks to know the guy was trouble.
“What’s it to you?” He tried to shove Howard, but Howard didn’t budge and gave him his most growly look. Though he would have preferred to do so as a jaguar. That would have gotten the guy’s attention. “Get. Lost. Now.”
The drunk glowered at him. Howard made a move for him, his posture threatening, and the drunk quickly backed off, heading for another table.
Val folded her arms and focused on Howard, raising a brow as if to ask what his problem was.
He wasn’t surprised. He knew she could have handled the drunk, but it still bothered him enough that he wanted to step in and protect her.
“Did you ditch your date already?” Val asked.
He didn’t offer his hand in greeting or an explanation, instead asking, “Do you wanna dance?”
Val toyed with her glass. “I’ve heard you’re a high guardian. Or noble watchman.”
“You’ve totally lost me.”
“Your name. Howard. Suits an Enforcer more than a Guardian.” She frowned. “Why USF?”
He’d never looked up the meaning of his name.
He shrugged. “I guess I just got in with the right people, and I’m still up for terminating the bad guys when I need to.” He wondered how she would know what his name meant, unless she’d been interested in him, even just a little bit. Maybe not so much now that he was no longer an Enforcer though.
She gave him a half smile, then motioned to Jillian. “Your date must be getting lonely.” Then she eyed him with speculation. “Unless you’re here on a mission.” She glanced back at Jillian, considering her for some time. “I’ve never seen her before. Wolf? Jaguar? Human?”
“Wolf, mated.” He still hadn’t blown his cover, but he wanted her to know they were looking after her, whether she liked it or not.
Val raised both eyebrows this time.
“Her mate is a SEAL wolf. Jillian and I are on a job.”
Val leaned her head back and smiled. “Okay. And you’re undercover so you want to dance with me in case her mate gets upset with you for not dancing with anyone else.” Then she frowned again. “You don’t suspect me of anything, right?” she joked.
He shook his head. The only thing she was guilty of was being stubborn when it came to having a partner on a mission. At least, that’s what his former boss, Sylvan, said about her when he briefed them on their mission.
To his surprise, she rose from her seat and moved toward the dance floor. “What’s your case? Jaguar murdered wolf? Wolf murdered jaguar?”
So she didn’t realize he was here because of her. He could understand what she thought they were looking for, because those were the kind of cases they normally handled. Still, he really didn’t want to have to lie about this. Her attention switched from him to someone to their left. He turned to look, and sure enough, it was Benny, her target. Shaggy blond hair and blue eyes, wearing jeans and a muscle shirt, showing off a lot of bicep. Howard knew he’d been in construction, and he looked like he did some heavy lifting on the job.
“Problem?” Howard asked. She had to know he suspected the guy was her case.
“Have to take a rain check on the dance.” She frowned, and Howard turned.
Benny was dancing with a blond woman who looked similar to his murdered wife.
The music changed to a slow dance.
“Can I help you with anything?” Howard asked Val.
“Still an Enforcer at heart?” She pulled Howard into her arms and began dancing with him. She didn’t rub her body against him in a way that said she wanted more, but just to add a bit of realism, he thought.
He smiled, glanced over at Benny, and realized why Val was dancing with him. The perp and the blond were close by. “You’d better believe it.”
“And Jillian?”
“Absolutely. And the truth is you are our mission.”
Val patted him on the chest. “Good to know you’re ready to come clean.”
“You already knew?”
“I saw your truck parked near the club three days ago. It made me suspicious that you were here every night that I was, yet…weren’t here. Once I called your plate number in to ensur
e you still owned it, I did consider the idea that you could be here on vacation. Or a case. But I wanted to learn the truth.”
Howard figured out where this was going. She didn’t seem to be upset about it, so that was good.
“I contacted my boss. I told him who you were and that you were USF. And he said he didn’t know anything about the USF agents’ cases. Except he would, if he and your boss were in collusion. I called your boss. He gave me the same song and dance. Only it was way too similar. When my boss has something to hide, he says, ‘Let me make it perfectly clear and in no uncertain terms…’ When your boss does, he says—”
“‘The truth of the matter is—’”
“Right. So they were in agreement. But I still didn’t know what you were doing down here. Were you on some secret mission that had nothing to do with mine, and they didn’t want to break your cover? Maybe, but then I thought it would be too much of a coincidence, particularly with the way our bosses responded to my inquiries. I didn’t think they’d be so underhanded to have other agents take down my perp.”
“We’re not here to take over your case. We’re strictly here to provide backup. Your boss was worried about this guy and about you.”
She looked relieved, sighed, and pulled Howard closer. Benny was dancing farther away from them, and Howard fit her even more snugly against his body. He was taking protecting her to heart, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“You must already know the situation. Benny murdered his wife in cold blood for the insurance money and to stop her from divorcing him. He’d turned her six months earlier, so the consensus is that she wasn’t dealing well with the changes. Maybe he felt he couldn’t handle her like he thought he could. And living with her was getting out of control. For whatever reason, he murdered her, and he’s going down.”
Howard couldn’t believe it. “Who all knew she was human to begin with?” No one had told them that bit of information.
“It wasn’t something we knew until after he’d murdered her. You can’t tell when someone’s newly turned, unless they have the urge to shift and don’t have any control over it. He must have kept her locked up so no one would know about her. Everyone who was a jaguar who knew him thought he had mated a jaguar. But when I began interviewing her friends and family, learned they were all human and she hadn’t been adopted, we put two and two together. It all fit. She had frequented this club, then dropped out of her family’s and friends’ lives as soon as she met Benny and they were married. Everyone worried about her, thinking he was keeping her hostage, controlling her. But he couldn’t let her out of his sight for fear she’d shift into a jaguar. At their home, claw marks were all over the place—doors, mainly. The arm of one of the chairs was crushed—a jaguar’s bite could crush a tortoise’s shell—so it looked like she had been one angry cat. Who could blame her, really.”
“But it was her saliva on the crushed arm of the chair, not his?”
“Correct. You sure don’t know much about the case, do you?”
“We’re here strictly to be your protection.”
“Why are you undercover?”
“According to your boss, you refuse to work with—”
“He’s on the move.”
For more Terry Spear check out
the Heart of the Shifter series
You Had Me at Jaguar
On sale February 2019!
Acknowledgments
Thanks so much to the lovely ladies, Dottie Jones and Donna Fournier, who help so much to keep me straight, no matter how little time they have to do it. You ladies are the best. And thanks to Deb Werksman, who believes in and continues to support my wolf and jaguar world after all these years, when no one else gave me a chance. Through her and visionary Dominique Raccah, our publisher and CEO, I’ve been able to share my world with my readers. Thank you! And thanks to my cover artists who create the most beautiful covers to give a face to my jaguars and wolves. And, of course, my readers, who cheer me on every step of the way!
About the Author
Bestselling and award-winning author Terry Spear has written over sixty paranormal romance novels and four medieval Highland historical romances. Her first werewolf romance, Heart of the Wolf, was named a 2008 Publishers Weekly’s Best Book of the Year, and her subsequent titles have garnered high praise and hit the USA Today bestseller list. A retired officer of the U.S. Army Reserves, Terry lives in Spring, Texas, where she is working on her next wolf, jaguar, cougar, and bear shifter romances, continuing with her Highland medieval romances, and having fun with her young adult novels. When she’s not writing, she’s photographing everything that catches her eye, making teddy bears, and playing with her Havanese puppies and grandbaby. For more information, visit terryspear.com or follow her on Twitter @TerrySpear. She is also on Facebook at facebook.com/terry.spear and on Wordpress at Terry Spear’s Shifters: terryspear.wordpress.com.
Follow Terry for new releases and book deals at bookbub.com/authors/terry-spear.
Also by Terry Spear
Heart of the Wolf
Heart of the Wolf
To Tempt the Wolf
Legend of the White Wolf
Seduced by the Wolf
Silver Town Wolf
Destiny of the Wolf
Wolf Fever
Dreaming of the Wolf
Silence of the Wolf
A Silver Wolf Christmas
Alpha Wolf Need Not Apply
Between a Wolf and a Hard Place
All’s Fair in Love and Wolf
Highland Wolf
Heart of the Highland Wolf
A Howl for a Highlander
A Highland Werewolf Wedding
Hero of a Highland Wolf
A Highland Wolf Christmas
SEAL Wolf
A SEAL in Wolf’s Clothing
A SEAL Wolf Christmas
SEAL Wolf Hunting
SEAL Wolf In Too Deep
SEAL Wolf Undercover
Heart of the Jaguar
Savage Hunger
Jaguar Fever
Jaguar Hunt
Jaguar Pride
A Very Jaguar Christmas
Billionaire Wolf
Billionaire in Wolf’s Clothing
A Billionaire Wolf for Christmas
White Wolf
Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas
Flight of the White Wolf
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