by Zoe Chant
Jaguar’s Joy
Veteran Shifters, #5
By Zoe Chant
Copyright Zoe Chant 2018
All Rights Reserved
Author’s note: This book stands alone. However, it’s part of a series about Marine veteran shifters in Glacier National Park. If you’d like to start from the beginning, the first book is Snow Leopard’s Lady.
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Jaguar's Joy (Veteran Shifters, #5)
A note from Zoe Chant
More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant
Zoe on Audio
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Misty
Sheriff Misty Dale was pretty tired of getting yelled at by people who needed her help.
“Ma’am,” she said patiently, “I’m just informing you what’s going to happen if your son gets caught doing anything else illegal.”
“You get off my land,” Diane Bigelow shrieked. “You’re harassing us! You arrest my Zeke every other day—”
“No one’s been arrested, ma’am,” Misty repeated for the twentieth time. “Your son and his friend were just detained. We’re dropping him and Ryder off home as a courtesy, because I thought a warning would serve them better than a juvenile record.”
She bit her lip, too late. Sarcasm was never the best route to take with Diane—sure enough, the woman was off on yet another furious rant.
Zeke, meanwhile, smirked at her from where he was slouching against the porch railing. Misty wanted to shake him.
You little idiot, I’m doing you a favor. Your dad’s in jail, you want to end up the same way?
Zeke and Ryder were both the sons of newly-convicted felons—Zeke’s dad, Ryan, had led the local wolf shifter pack, and Ryder’s dad had been a member. The wolves had been into some seriously illegal things, and Misty had caught them in a violent attack on another shifter residence a few months ago.
The case had been airtight, and none of those wolves were seeing the outside of a prison anytime soon. But if Misty wasn’t careful, their kids were going to grow up to be just as much trouble.
The problem was, she didn’t know how to keep it from happening.
Misty had always been pretty good at putting bad guys away. Keeping the troubled kids from becoming bad guys? That was outside of her skill set.
“Have a good day, ma’am,” she said grimly, as Diane’s tirade started picking up some more colorful language.
She turned back to her deputy, Gene, who was too polite and venerable to smirk like Zeke, but who was giving off a pretty amused air. “Let’s get going.”
“You got it, boss,” he said, and they got into their Jeep and pulled away.
Diane was still yelling as they left. And, looking in the rear-view mirror, Misty could’ve sworn she saw Zeke give the retreating car the finger.
She blew out her breath in a sigh. “Gene, you got any advice on how to handle this situation before it stops being funny?”
Gene shook his head, tapping wrinkled fingers on the window. “Those kids are wolves to the bone, boss. You think you can tough-love them out of their blood? It ain’t happening.”
Misty shot him a sharp look. “You know my views on that kind of thinking, Gene.”
He shrugged. “That I do. But that don’t change how things are around here. How they’ve always been.”
Misty ground her teeth. There was no use reciting her lecture on pack dynamics to Gene. Again. He’d heard it, and he wasn’t about to change his mind.
She couldn’t stay silent, though. “There’s got to be a better way.”
Gene just shook his head.
But Misty knew she was right. There had to be a better way. For generations, like shifters had stuck with like. The wolves, the bears, the rodents, the sparrows, and now even the snow leopards, up in Glacier Park. They all closed ranks with their own kind, and God forbid one group angered another.
There could be all-out wars up here in the Montana mountain forests. Misty was determined that she’d see the end of that in her lifetime.
...How she’d accomplish that, though, she didn’t know.
But she was going to figure it out.
***
Ty
“You wanted to see me, sir?”
Ty’s boss Sam turned away from his computer. “That’s right, Ty. Come on in.”
He shut the door behind him and took a seat in front of Sam’s desk. As soon as he sat down, his bones sent out a plea: Let’s stay here a while.
And behind that was the plaintive voice of his jaguar: No, let’s go out. Let’s go run. Away from all the buildings and the computers.
“I imagine you know why I called you in here,” Sam was saying, looking at him over the tops of his glasses, brow furrowed.
Ty sighed. “Yes, sir.”
“How many times have I suggested you take a vacation so far this year?”
“Lost count,” Ty admitted.
“Yes. Me, too. And have you taken any of those vacations?”
“We’re understaffed,” Ty said quietly.
“We are always understaffed. You know what’s worse than understaffed?” Sam gave him a hard look. “Burnt-out social workers. I would far rather have an empty position than have one filled by someone who’s worked themselves to death.”
“I’m fine,” Ty said immediately. Sam, after all, wasn’t a shifter—didn’t even know shifters existed, as far as Ty could tell. He wouldn’t know the lengths to which Ty could push himself, the stress he could take.
But Sam was shaking his head slowly. “You’re sleeping less. You’re starting to get short-tempered—never with the kids, but with your coworkers. You’ve got the beginnings of burnout coming through, Ty, and it’s my job to catch that before it gets critical.”
“I would never neglect this job.” Ty knew his voice had gotten dangerously quiet. Inside his chest, his jaguar growled.
...And that, more than anything, gave him pause.
Sam had caught that something was up, and he gave Ty a long, considering stare. Ty breathed once, twice, and made his jaguar settle down.
“I’ve offered you a promotion to an administrative position,” Sam continued after a minute. “You won’t take it. I am running out of options, here, Ty, and you’re not helping me.”
His jaguar stirred again.
Not our enemy, Ty snapped.
If his jaguar was on such a hair-trigger that it was ready to snarl at a man Ty both liked and respected—a man who, even if Ty disagreed with him, was doing his level best to help...
“So I’m turning a request into an order.” Sam handed him a form. “You’re going on vacation. Two weeks minimum. And you either come back looking like it was a miracle cure, or we’re going to start talking long-term solutions.”
Ty really, really didn’t like the sound of that.
Sam leaned forward. “I’d hate to lose you, Ty,” he said, more gently. “You’re one of the best. You’ve got a touch with kids, and you work the longest hours I’ve ever seen someone sustain for so long. But no one can keep that up forever. And if I’m going to lose you either way, I’d rather it be on our terms, and not on the job’s terms. Got it?”
Ty nodded. “Yes, sir.”
***
“Wow,” said Iris. “Your boss ordered you to take a two-week vacation. Gee, your life is so difficult. I don’t know what I’d do in your place.”
Ty shot his sister a half-hearted glare from where he was slumped on the sofa. “He’s talking like I might lose my job, Iris. It’s a little more serious than a vacation.”
Iris’ gaze softened. “I know, hon. Sorry. I just—maybe this is a goo
d thing?”
Ty’s jaguar growled again. Quit it, Ty admonished. “Giving up my life’s work is a good thing?”
“No, Ty. It’s just—you’ve given your life to that job. You never married, you barely date, you just go out into these terrible situations and help people as best you can. No one can do that forever, and no one should let it consume their whole world.”
It was eerily similar to what Sam had been saying. “It’s not my whole world,” Ty objected. “My beloved sister takes up a little part of it. Why do you think I never got married and had my own kids? I had all of yours to help raise.”
Ty’s six nieces and nephews were his pride and joy, and anyone who suggested his job was more important than keeping them healthy and happy would have an angry jaguar to deal with.
Not literally, he added belatedly.
His jaguar was antsier than it had been in a while. Loathe as he was to admit that either his boss or his sister was right, he had been working long hours lately. Taking a break somewhere where he could run free for a while was probably a smart idea.
“My kids are all grown up now,” Iris said pointedly. “You got Rayanne settled into her dorm room yourself just a couple months ago. The nest is empty!” She waved her arms around the house, which was silent and neat, when it had used to be packed to overflowing with kids. “It’s time for the grown-ups to remember what it’s like to have a life.”
“How’re you and Steve handling that?” Ty asked.
“He’s taking me to Hawaii the first two weeks of December,” Iris said smugly.
Ty let his head fall back to the sofa with a thump. He’d always kind of wanted to be the looming, intimidating brother to the man in his sister’s life, but fortunately for them all, Steve was a hardworking, mild-mannered saint who loved Iris like she’d hung the stars in the sky.
So Ty had instead fueled his brotherly instincts into helping out with the kids, because six kids took a lot of time, money, energy, and love.
And now they’d all flown the coop. To mix his shifter metaphors.
Leaving him with nothing to do but work.
And taking away his weekly teach-the-baby-jaguars runs. Time he’d spent in the office instead of taking the hours-long drive out of the LA area into the wilderness where they could shift without being caught.
Maybe Sam and Iris did have a point.
“All right, fine,” he said. “You’ve convinced me.”
“Glad to hear it. What did I convince you of?”
“You’re going to sun yourselves on the beach...”
Iris pointed a spoon at him. “If you’re about to invite yourself along to our romantic getaway, Tyrone Neal, I swear to God—”
“I’ll go up north to the mountains,” he laughed, holding up his hands. “Come on. I wouldn’t do that.”
She relaxed a little. “No, you wouldn’t. You were always much more likely to babysit so Steve and I could get some time to ourselves.”
“Glad you remember. Man, who’s going to appreciate me now that my uncle duties are relegated to liking the kids’ Facebook posts?”
“Get out of the Stone Age, old man, they’re all on Twitter now,” Iris said. “Or, probably, they’re all on some app that I’ve never heard of, and they only tell me about their Twitters.”
“So no one appreciates me at all.”
“Guess not.” She grinned.
“Fine. I’ll go up north where my real friends all moved, see if they have a kind word.”
“These are your Marine buddies?” Iris perked up. “You should absolutely go visit them, Ty! I remember when you came back from that wedding you went to last year, it was like you were ten years younger, and all you could talk about was how good it was to see them again.”
Ty didn’t remember it exactly like that. Sure, the wedding had been great. He’d forgotten how solid the connection was between him and the guys. They’d all shifted and gone to run in the enormous craggy forests that surrounded Glacier National Park: him, Cal, Ken, Nate, Carlos, and even their old Major, now-Colonel Hanes. It had been a literal breath of fresh air.
But all he remembered from afterward was falling back into the job like he’d never left. Carlos had even called him up a couple of months ago, asking for advice, and had mentioned Ty coming up to visit—and Ty hadn’t even been able to consider it.
The job had loomed too large, putting out its own gravitational pull. Trying to escape it would’ve been like trying to fly away from the surface of Jupiter.
Except now Jupiter had shot him off into orbit all by itself, and here he was, stalled out in zero-gravity, not sure what to do with his fool self.
“It’s so beautiful up there,” Iris went on. “I’ve seen pictures. Not that you took any when you were there.”
“Too busy looking at things with my real eyes,” Ty said absently. “Okay.” He was decided. “Up north it is.”
“Good.” Iris came over and wrapped him up in a hug. “I think it’ll be wonderful.”
Ty hugged her back. “We’ll see.”
But he had a weird feeling growing inside him. It took him a second to identify it as excitement. When was the last time he’d felt that? He couldn’t remember.
And then, suddenly, he could. It was when he’d received Cal’s wedding invitation.
Well. Maybe this was the right move for a couple of reasons.
***
Misty
It had been a long, hard day. And as the shadows stretched out towards evening, it was shaping up to be even harder.
One final member of Ryan’s wolf pack was still on the loose. Misty knew Eli Haversham had been part of the group that attacked Pauline, Carlos, and their kids at Pauline’s home, but he’d run away before she arrived to arrest everyone. And he’d been in his shifted form the entire time, so Pauline’s witness statement wasn’t going to help in court.
She’d spent the last couple of months collecting evidence on Eli, casually chatting with his neighbors, figuring out his patterns. And today, she was going to catch him with stolen goods, pin him to the electronics store robbery two weeks ago, and finally put him in jail.
Eli had stashed his stuff in an old shed off the road, out of town, and far away from his own run-down house. Misty and Gene had parked far enough away that even shifter hearing wouldn’t catch their Jeep’s engine noise, and were slowly making their way forward on foot.
Misty had to hope Eli was in human form, because as a wolf, he’d likely catch their scents before they were visible. But there was no reason for him to be shifted while handling stolen iPhones, was there?
Hopefully not.
She motioned to Gene with her hand, and quietly, they slipped off the road into the forest. They were both experienced at moving silently through the woods, even in human form.
Unfortunately for them, though, neither of them had shifter forms that would help much with combat: Gene was a raccoon, and Misty—to her occasional frustration—was a deer.
So they were going to need their guns for this, that was all. Hopefully Eli would come quietly. Two people with guns should be enough to stop even a large wolf, but Misty didn’t want to chance it.
They crept up close, behind the shed. Misty caught a flash of movement out of the corner of her eye: there was Eli. He was moving a box from the shed to his truck. As he turned his back, Misty motioned to Gene, and came forward in a couple of quick strides, her gun out.
“Eli Haversham, this is the sheriff! Put your hands above your head!”
Eli froze for the barest of seconds—
And then, in a blur of movement, he was shifting, hurling himself forward.
Misty had been right. This day was only going to get worse.
***
Ty
Ty had forgotten what the scenery around Glacier National Park was truly like.
Thick, dense forests led up to rocky mountain peaks, the stark beauty stretching out in all directions. Fall had hit hard up here, unlike back in LA, where it
was still in the eighties. There was a crisp bite to the air, and the leaves had turned yellow, orange, and brilliant red. And just a bit higher in elevation, Ty could see where snowfall had already begun.
His jaguar was yearning to stop the car, get out, and run. Ty had to remind them both sternly that they were meeting up with Carlos, Nate, Ken, Cal, and Colonel Hanes—and all of their mates—and there wasn’t time to gallivant around the countryside.
But he was looking forward to doing some exploration. Soon.
He was reviewing the mental map he’d memorized of the area—some Marine skills really did come in handy, even twenty years later—trying to figure out if the turnoff was still coming or if he’d driven past it without realizing, when he heard the gunshot.
Another Marine instinct kicked in immediately. Ty pulled the car off onto the shoulder, killed the engine, ducked down under the windows’ sight lines, and listened carefully.
Another shot. Just behind him, and away from the road.
For just a moment, Ty hesitated. Was it smart to get involved in some local conflict on his vacation? He had no backup, no knowledge of the terrain, and no idea what he was getting into.
But he wasn’t about to let someone get shot and just drive on by.
He slipped out of the car, closing the door silently behind him, and made his way quickly and carefully through the forest by the side of the road.
Another gunshot. Close this time, and loud. Ty made a tactical decision: he shifted.
His jaguar form was much better able to move invisibly through a forested environment, and also had the advantage of coming with built-in weapons, which was one thing Ty hadn’t thought to pack for his relaxing vacation.
It wasn’t long before his enhanced shifted vision caught sight of the fight.
An older man lay on the ground, motionless, wearing a law enforcement uniform. Not dead—Ty could hear him breathing—but in a bad way. Standing just in front of him, feet planted, was a woman with a sheriff’s badge, pointing a gun at a big gray wolf who was bleeding freely from a wound in its flank, but who didn’t look like it was ready to surrender.
Sure enough, as Ty approached, the woman shouted, “Eli, surrender and come quietly! I don’t want to shoot you again.”
