Beauty & The Jaguar

by E A Price

  “I don’t think so, Dad.”

  Lorenzo’s jaguar wished they could. He’d feel a lot happier to have Sadie and Mandy at home, surrounded by his family and leap. But, Sadie’s ex would probably try to have them arrested for kidnapping Mandy. It almost made him laugh – after all the kidnappings his leap mates had committed over the years, the idea that they could be punished for that was a little funny. Or maybe he’d see the funny side later when he wasn’t so anxious for Sadie to get back.

  Should have gone with her growled his beast. Yes, Lorenzo couldn’t argue with that. He should have insisted, shouldn’t have taken no for an answer.

  “I need to go get Sadie.”

  His dad held up a massive paw. “Hey now, son, she’s not been gone long. She said it would take her about an hour to get there and back, and it’s only been forty minutes – give her time.”

  Lorenzo humphed. Maybe he was just worrying over nothing, but...

  There was a knock at her door, and they both looked up in surprise. His jaguar growled before someone put a shoulder to the door and crashed through it.

  Lorenzo jumped to his feet, simmering with fury at the males who poured into Sadie’s apartment. His dad merely raised an eyebrow.

  There were four of them. He guessed all of them were in their forties, and they were large males, but years of overindulgence had taken its toll of what were probably fine physiques twenty years ago. They all sported matching pugnacious expressions.

  “You the boyfriend?” asked one of them, jutting his chin at Lorenzo.

  Lorenzo’s expression hardened as he glared at them.

  “The boyfriend?” repeated his dad in almost amusement.

  “You the one trying to steal Sadie? Trying to ruin her marriage?” the male asked.

  “Let’s take it easy, boys,” said his dad, reasonably calmly.

  Lorenzo curled his hands into fists as his jaguar rumbled. “Where is Sadie?”

  “With her husband – where she belongs,” sneered another.

  “You don’t mess with other another man’s wife!” said the third male – he looked like he had broken his nose one too many times and it never reset.

  These were probably all Al’s school friends – males he played football with. They probably thought that getting rid of Lorenzo would make Sadie waltz right on back into their buddy’s arms. Ha! She left Al long before she even met Lorenzo. Sadie couldn’t be dragged back there. Though, he was a little worried at just what was happening to Sadie at that moment.

  “Sadie is separated from her husband – my son would not be here if she weren’t,” said his dad carefully.

  The first male – the head idiot – snorted but his dad merely shrugged. His dad was still sitting casually on the sofa. His dad could be unbelievably patient at times – he said it was a skill that came in handy when his mom taught him how to read braille and also when trying to find the perfect chocolate soufflé recipe. Took him seven years for the soufflé, though only one year for the braille. Of course, he did have his limits when it came to his patience, and the males were about to crash into one of them.

  “Look at those scars – ugly bastard,” whispered the fourth male in a loud enough whisper to ensure Lorenzo heard him. “Can’t believe Sadie can bear to look at him.”

  Lorenzo and his jaguar ignored them – he’d heard it all before, and he could care less what a group of dicks like them thought. His dad, however, slowly rose to his feet, his huge size seeming to fill the room. Gone was the benign St. Nicholas-like male, and in his place stood a towering male with the promise of pain on his face.

  “Don’t talk to my son that way,” he said in a clear voice.

  “He needs to stay away from her,” said the first male a tad uncertainly.

  “You need to leave,” growled Lorenzo.

  “Not before we teach you what happens to a guy who try to steal another man’s wife.”

  The bravado in his voice wasn’t quite as sharp as when he first beat down Sadie’s door. No, now he sounded a mite concerned. He wasn’t the only one. As they looked between Lorenzo and his father, they appeared… worried.

  They were certainly large men – as tall as Lorenzo easily, but running to fat. The four burly men looked at them uncertainly. The pink apron his dad had donned - that wantonly suggested that anyone reading it should ‘kiss the cook’ - in no way diminished the mighty male wearing it.

  Lorenzo was toned and muscled and easily in much better shape than these four men – even on their best day, which was easily over twenty years ago. While his dad was larger than all of them, with hands like hams, and arms that looked like he bench pressed trucks in his spare time. He could, but he didn’t. His dad preferred to be in the kitchen than working out. But he never bothered with using a juice squeezer when squeezing fresh orange juice for his mate - he crushed oranges with his bare fists, plus occasionally he did it to melons to impress his grandsons.

  Plus, the men didn’t appear to realize that they were shifters. Which was perhaps unfortunate for them.

  “What’s going on out there?” called his mom.

  All eyes swiveled to the bedroom door.

  She had gone to Sadie’s room to take a nap but was now awake thanks to these males.

  “Unwanted guests,” growled his dad. “Stay where you are, sweetheart.”

  “Okay,” she called.

  His dad glared at the males. “You insult my son and wake my mate. It’s time you were leaving.”

  He nodded at Lorenzo, who bared his fangs and let out a growl as he lunged.

  Twenty-Six

  Sadie took a step back. “What have you done to Lorenzo?”

  Al affected a look of innocence that wouldn’t fool a particularly oblivious five-year-old. “Me, nothing.”

  Sadie narrowed her eyes. She bet he sent some of his dumb friends over to beat him up. That’s what they did when his friend, Duke’s wife was cheating on him with a twenty-two-year-old semi-pro tennis player. They put the guy in traction. His wife still left him though – she’d always loved tennis. Duke was now married to someone half his age and frequently told everyone he was glad his ‘bitch ex-wife’ left him. Why couldn’t Al want the same for himself?!

  She shook her head. She knew she didn’t have to worry too much – Lorenzo was a big, tough boy. His meathead friends didn’t know Lorenzo was a shifter, or that his huge shifter father was with him. If anything, she thought his friends would be the worse for an encounter with them. She just hoped his mom would be okay.

  “I’m taking Mandy and leaving,” she said decisively.

  Sadie started for the stairs, and Al dropped his drink, running over to block her.

  “No, you’re not going anywhere.”

  “Move out of the way,” she said coldly.

  “You belong here with me,” he hissed.

  “No, Al.”

  She tried to step around him, and he moved in front of her. “You can’t leave,” he growled, his face flushed with anger and desperation.

  “You can’t make me stay.”

  Al cupped her face. “You’re mine – you’ll always be mine!”

  Sadie pushed against his chest as he tried to kiss her. “No, Al, let go of me,” she snapped.

  They were struggling together. Al was trying to kiss her, trying to keep her close, and Sadie was desperately trying to get away from him. He was becoming less and less rational by the second.

  “What is going on here?” cried an irate voice.

  They whipped around to see Karen standing in the doorway.

  Sadie gaped at her while Karen scowled in return.

  “I just came to get my toothbrush, and I find you like this, trying to take advantage.”

  “You need to leave,” snarled Al.

  “I quite agree,” huffed Karen striding forward. Sadie nearly squawked in laughter as she realized Karen was talking about her. She actually thought Sadie was trying to take advantage of Al! What the fudge!

  “Ho
nestly, Sadie,” fumed Karen, “I know you want Al back, but forcing yourself on him!”

  Sadie let out a snort. “Yeah, sure!”

  She tried to get out of Al’s grip, but he wasn’t letting go. He was watching Karen in frank annoyance that completely seemed to fly over Karen’s head.

  “Al’s with me now, and you’re just going to have to get over it,” she said primly.

  “Uh, Karen, you’ve got this all wrong, and I think you should leave,” said Sadie more than a little kindly, because Al had the same look in his eye he got right before the jaw-breaking incident.

  “No, I think you should leave.”

  She strode forwards and tried to dislodge Sadie from Al. He pulled Sadie to his side and glowered at Karen.

  “Get out!” howled Al.

  She stared at him in astonishment. “You’re joking, right?”

  “Get out and leave my family alone.”

  Karen looked between Al who was swimming with fury and Sadie who was frankly desperate to get her daughter and get the hell away. She’d always known that Al was using Karen, but she hadn’t wanted to be there to see the fallout.

  “You’re joking?” said Karen doubtfully.

  Al grunted at her, and she shook her head with a determined look on her face. “No, you love me – you said you did. You said we were getting married…”

  Oh brother.

  Karen sneered at Sadie. “She’s just going to leave you again. She’ll just leave you for someone else again – like last time…”

  Unbelievable!

  “Baby, please don’t do this,” entreated Karen, grasping his free hand. “We’re so good together, and she is just a complete slut…”

  Thwack! Sadie flinched as Al smacked Karen. Karen staggered away, clutching her cheek, hurt and incredulity marring her features.

  “Don’t ever speak about my wife that way again,” he said in a dangerous, low voice.

  “Karen, please just leave,” said Sadie breathlessly.

  Karen was not safe from Al’s violent tendencies, and although she was a complete cow bag, Sadie didn’t want her to get seriously hurt.

  Karen stared fiercely at Sadie, and, yep, even after the crack to the face, she still considered that Sadie was to blame for this.

  “Al, don’t let her ruin our future!”

  She surged forward, and Al hit her again. Sadie gasped and managed to twist away from him.

  “Daddy?”

  Al snapped to look at Mandy who was halfway down the stairs, staring at her father in horror.

  “It’s okay, baby,” he murmured, “go back to your room.”

  “But, Daddy…”

  She looked down at Karen who was whimpering on the floor and then at Sadie who nodded at her, trying to encourage her to go back to her room. She really didn’t need to see any of this.

  “Go back to your room!” he shouted furiously.

  Mandy ran upstairs, and as Al turned back to look at Sadie, she brained him with one of his ugly ‘businessman of the year’ awards. He had two, and they were large phallic-shaped monstrosities. She was only sorry that in hitting him with it, she didn’t break it.

  Al gurgled and dropped to the ground. She hit him again for good measure.

  “Sadie!”

  Lorenzo burst through the front door, and she cried in happiness as she leaped into his arms.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  “Love you, too,” he growled.

  Twenty-Seven

  Two weeks later

  Lorenzo watched as Mandy played with his nephews. The girl had been quiet for the past couple of weeks, but apparently, his boisterous nephews were starting to pull her out of her funk. That and his mom who had been showering her with the overzealous affection of a grandparent.

  Al was arrested for assaulting Karen and was currently undergoing a psych evaluation. It seemed that his lawyer was pushing for an insanity plea. The divorce was now final, and Sadie had custody of Mandy. It was likely that depending on what happened with the court case, Al would get supervised visits with Mandy, but that was the best they could hope for. Lorenzo would prefer no meetings at all, but Mandy would want to see her dad. Though, she was still reeling from what happened at that moment. It would probably take her a little while longer before she wanted to see him again.

  Sadie snuggled against him. Wanting to get Mandy away, they had moved into the leap compound.

  “I’m glad she’s smiling again,” said Sadie.

  Lorenzo grunted in agreement. She was a sweet young girl, and he hoped she would be happy in the leap because frankly, his jaguar wasn’t prepared to let either her or Sadie go.

  Mine rumbled the beast as he looked between Sadie and Mandy. Yes, they were, they were his family now.

  “Will she still be smiling when she finds out she’s moving here?” he asked

  Sadie laughed. “I told her this morning.”

  Lorenzo looked at her in surprise. “You did?”

  “Yep, I told her we were planning on getting married.”

  “You did?!”

  Sadie gave him a smug smile. “Yeah, by the way, will you marry me?”

  Lorenzo was flustered. “Well, I, ah…”

  “I’m not hearing a yes,” she teased.

  “Yes! Yes of course!” he blurted.

  “Phew!” she chuckled.

  “I just… I was planning on asking you,” she grumbled.

  Sadie patted his chest. “Sure you were, champ.”

  “I was!” he cried, leaping to his feet, nearly knocking her over.

  He fumbled in his pocket and after a fight with his too tight jeans managed to produce a ring box. He dropped to his knee in front of her.

  “Will you marry me?” he demanded almost grumpily.

  “I already asked you,” she taunted, “and you said yes so…” Her mouth gaped as he opened the ring box. “Ignore what I was saying, that is beautiful!”

  She plucked the ring out of the box and beamed at it.

  “It was my grandma’s – my mom gave it to me,” he said apologetically. It wasn’t like he went out and bought it for her, and he somehow felt he had to be sorry for that.

  But when he told his mother he wanted to marry her, she insisted he give it to Sadie. His parents weren’t officially married, nor were any of his brothers, but he wanted to marry Sadie because he wanted to make sure that Mandy could be officially his. He hadn’t spent a lot of time with her yet, but he knew he loved her because he loved Sadie, and Mandy was the most important part of Sadie’s life, so now she was the most important part of his.

  “I love it,” murmured Sadie, pulling him in for a kiss.

  There were whoops and growls of joy all around them, and they pulled apart to find all of Lorenzo’s family smiling at them in glee. Mandy was smiling too, and Sadie beamed at him.

  For all his worries, kidnapping his mate had a happy ending, and he couldn’t be more thrilled. His jaguar roared in happiness.

  *

  Four months later

  Sadie looked up as Diego, and Lorenzo jostled through the door, each carrying more than their fair share of boxes.

  “Where do you want these?” asked Diego.

  “Anywhere will be fine,” said Sadie.

  She hadn’t decided where everything would go yet. She was opening her own store in the town near to the leap compound. Sadie had pitched the idea to her boss – rather than being a traveling cosmetics saleswoman, she would open a small store in a growing tourist town. Her boss loved the idea, as did the locals and the females in the leap. Previously they had to travel to Los Lobos to buy cosmetics, or purchase them online – they loved the idea of having somewhere to buy anything they wanted. Plus, the town was becoming more and more popular as a tourist destination, so the leap was purchasing more retail properties to encourage this. They owned holiday houses nearby, so it was in their interest to encourage more visitors.

  Tomas was opening his own restaurant, and Maria – alon
g with her new bear mate – was opening a small store to sell fresh produce and cakes, thanks to financial support from the leap.

  Sadie looked around and smiled. It was only small, but it was lovely, and Mandy couldn’t wait to work there on weekends and get free samples – in spite of Lorenzo’s disapproving warning that she wasn’t allowed to wear make-up until she was twenty-one. Mandy had chosen the pretty color schemes and had even painted a mural on the wall – a picture of a jaguar surrounded by flowers. She used Lorenzo’s jaguar as a life model. It was beautiful, even if Sadie – the proudest mother and wife in the world – said so herself.

  Diego placed the boxes on the floor, and so did Lorenzo.

  “There you go, darling,” said Diego with a smile.

  Lorenzo growled lowly, and Diego chuckled. He only called her darling because it annoyed Lorenzo. Diego had his own mate – his own pregnant mate – and he was completely devoted to her.

  “Place is looking good,” he said peering around.

  “It is,” agreed Sadie a tad smugly.

  “I gotta go – lunch with my mate. She gets cranky if she doesn’t eat every two hours.” His phone started ringing, and he snickered. “That’s her now, wondering where I am.” He answered as he walked toward the door, waving goodbye. “Hey, sweetheart, I’m on my way…”

  Lorenzo pulled Sadie into an embrace, and she sighed as his lips covered hers.

  The three of them – him, her and Mandy - had moved into a new house in the leap. Mandy had easily settled into the leap school. Sadie had been a little worried it would be hard for her – being the only human and girl in the school, but Mandy seemed fine. If anything, she seemed to enjoy the attention all the boys paid her – much to Lorenzo’s irritation. There were a couple of other human girls in the leap, but both were a little older and attended high school. Still, she quickly made friends with both, and the three of them enjoyed each other’s company. Yes, she missed her old friends, but Los Lobos wasn’t so far away – she often went down for sleepovers at the weekend, and her friends visited her as well – much to the delight of the male cubs in the leap. Also, her love of leap life was helped by the fact that she could keep her pony in the leap compound – a few of the other leap members had horses and took tourists on rides. It meant Mandy could ride her pony whenever she wanted. That was a big plus.