by Terry Spear
Furious with them for intruding, he remained hidden in the woods, standing perfectly still. What the hell were they doing here?
He couldn’t just walk up to them as a wolf. A wounded wolf. They’d shoot him for sure if they were armed. He couldn’t sneak around to the back and get into his cabin that way, because Leidolf’s cabin rental manager would have locked all the windows.
Then again, Vaughn’s bags were still in his vehicle parked nearby, courtesy of Leidolf.
If Vaughn could have sneaked inside somehow, he would have grabbed a towel and pretended to have taken a shower—although hiding the gunshot wound would still have been problematic. If he shifted and headed for the cabin naked as could be, he would be sporting a bloody bullet hole in his shoulder, bleeding all over the place, and have no way to explain how he got shot.
Screw ’em. He didn’t have time for this.
He had to stop the bleeding, and he assumed they weren’t leaving. If anyone asked, he’d just tell them some damn hunter shot him accidentally. Why was he running around naked in the woods as chilly as it was? He was conducting survival training. He was sure they wouldn’t believe him, but he didn’t owe them an explanation anyway. He just hoped none of them called the police to report the gunshot wound. He’d heal faster than normal, and because of that, he couldn’t see a human doctor.
The pain was just beginning to hit, and he growled softly with annoyance.
All three people glanced in his direction, as if they’d heard his low wolf’s growl. Which would have been impossible. Unless he hadn’t growled as low as he thought he had, as angry as he was. Or unless they were wolves. What if they were members of the pack the wolf he’d been chasing belonged to? Because of the way the breeze was blowing away from all of them, he couldn’t smell them anymore than they could smell him. What if one of these people had shot him? Terrific.
Not having much of a choice, he shifted and headed out of the woods in the raw, the chilly air bracing. With a narrow-eyed look that meant he would shift again and take them all on, he said, “What the hell are you doing trespassing on private property?”
Chapter 2
From the cabin’s living room window, Jillian saw the lethal-looking SEAL wolf totally in the raw, sporting a bloodied wound on his right shoulder. Vaughn Greystoke. In the flesh. Unless she was completely mistaken and he had a twin brother who had been the hot guy she saw in the Kitty Cat Club six months ago, this was the guy who had risked his neck for the dancer for no reason. Jillian couldn’t believe it was really him. She had always wondered if anyone at the club told him the dancer hadn’t needed his rescue.
The injury he was sporting looked suspiciously like a gunshot wound. He seemed ready to kick some ass despite that, or maybe because someone had wounded him.
Who would have been out in the woods shooting a wolf? The same man who had shot her brother? She wanted to tear into the man who would do such a…
Her jaw dropped. She had wounded a wolf. Had she hit this one? How many wolves would be running around this area, besides her brother? The one who had injured Douglas, of course. Vaughn Greystoke must have been the wolf chasing Miles. No wonder her brother had been terrified.
How could she have known the guy hunting her brother was the same lupus garou the jaguars wanted to solicit help from? After Leidolf had received the call from Vaughn, he’d told the team of jaguars and one wolf—her—that Vaughn would be a great addition to their group in helping to learn what was going on. Plus, Vaughn had a personal stake in it.
Jillian grabbed a kitchen towel, rushed to the cabin’s door, and jerked it open, realizing at the same time that the wolf would probably be pissed she was in his cabin. Not to mention that she had probably shot him.
But Leidolf’s men had brought the key to the cabin, and she had obtained fresh towels from the staff. She had left the towels in the bathroom for when the PI arrived. He hadn’t moved in yet, so it shouldn’t matter to him. The growly wolf turned his attention from the jaguar shifters standing on his deck to her, his brown eyes narrowing even more, if that was possible. A light amount of dark hair trailed down to his groin. Completely naked, his muscles well-sculpted as if he worked out a lot, he was even hotter than the photo she had of him when he was fully clothed, if she hadn’t wanted to kill him for going after her brother. She was used to more intellectual types who weren’t that built, she had to admit. He was total eye candy.
Quickly explaining the situation, Everett Anderson rushed off the porch to give Vaughn a hand, his wife helping, too, as Howard bolted from the deck to join them. “What the hell happened to you? We came to ask you to join us. You look like you have a serious problem of your own. We’ll get you to Leidolf’s doctor. Who did this to you?”
“A hunter, or the wolf I was chasing had an accomplice.” Vaughn’s growly, dark voice sent shivers up her spine. Interested shivers, not scared shivers. Though she could just imagine how alarmed her brother had to have been if this was the angry wolf who had been chasing him.
What was the chance someone else had been in the woods shooting at Vaughn? Miniscule. It was much more likely that Jillian had shot the wolf. She hadn’t heard anyone else firing shots in the woods.
“You’re jaguar shifters?” Vaughn’s expression indicated his surprise.
“Yes. We’re with the United Shifter Force, the USF. We’re a joint group that is soliciting help from wolves to work with us on cases like this, involving wolves and jaguars in conflict. I’m Everett Anderson, JAG agent; my wife, Demetria, Guardian agent; and Howard Sternum, Enforcer agent, all jaguar shifters. Though I guess technically we’re now USF agents. Your pack leaders, Devlyn and Bella Greystoke, know about us. We formed the group after finding the pack that an Arctic wolf shifter cub belonged to. Did they mention anything about us to you when we were trying to locate the boy’s parents?”
“Yes, they did. It was a real shock to all of us. By the way, I saw a jaguar running through the woods after I was shot and before I leaped into the river.” Vaughn arched a brow as if he thought maybe one of these was the one he had seen.
Jillian didn’t believe any of them would have had time to run around in the woods as a jaguar and then return here to join them. Though she hadn’t been with the three of them for some time.
“Not one of us. What did he look like?” Everett asked, sounding concerned.
Vaughn gave him a sideways glance. “Like a jaguar.”
The jaguars chuckled.
“Too bad you couldn’t have gotten a picture of him,” Everett said.
As a wolf? Vaughn just shook his head.
“Was it male? Or female?” Demetria asked.
“Big balls. I’d say male.” Vaughn continued to walk toward the deck, his gaze again shifting to Jillian as Everett slid his arm around Vaughn’s back to help stabilize him. Vaughn opened his mouth as if to say he didn’t need any help, but he stumbled a bit and was looking so pale that he must have thought better of it. A guy could act all macho as much as he wanted, but if he did a face-plant in the dirt, how would that look? Not tough at all.
“That’s Jillian—” Everett began to say, glancing her way as she moved off the deck to join them.
“Matthews.” She barely refrained from throwing the kitchen towel at Vaughn, as irritated as she was with him now that she assumed he’d been chasing her brother. Getting her annoyance under control, she pressed the towel against Vaughn’s wound and applied pressure, taking a deep breath of his scent. Animals took in other animals’ scents. It was a natural thing to do: smelling sex—he was definitely all male; emotions—hotly annoyed; interest in another wolf—yep, just like he was breathing in her scent and cataloging it. They also did it so they’d recognize one another in their wolf forms.
This was the wolf she’d shot who had ended up in the river. No doubt about it.
His eyes widened, nearly black now as he stared at her in disbelief. “You’re a wolf. Not a jaguar shifter. And we’ve…seen each other before.”
<
br /> Ohmigod, it was him. “Yeah. At the Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club in San Diego?” Darned if the way he intrigued her wasn’t causing her to react in a purely wolfish and very interested way. She couldn’t disguise the way her own scent would tell him how much so. She could be as angry with him as she wanted, but she couldn’t deny the physical attraction. Just like she’d been hot and bothered by him when she’d seen him at the club months earlier. This close up, he overwhelmed her senses. “And it appears I shot you.”
The jaguars’ jaws all dropped. She swore Vaughn almost smiled at her. Was he thinking of a way to pay her back? Or something else? Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?
She cast him the same kind of dark almost-smile. She hoped the jaguars didn’t think she was a loose cannon.
She didn’t feel an ounce of remorse. Well, maybe a little. She hadn’t wanted to shoot him, but her brother’s howl had told her he was terrified, desperate, and he’d needed her help in the worst way. She’d had to do something about the wolf because he wouldn’t stop chasing Miles.
The jaguars on the newly formed force had asked her to join them because she was already involved in the investigation of the jaguar shooting at Leidolf’s ranch, at his request as a favor to him. She knew the area. Neither she nor the jaguars had had any clue that Vaughn was chasing after her brother. Did he think Miles had tried to kill Douglas? She wouldn’t allow anyone to hurt her brother, no matter how much Vaughn might believe her brother was guilty of a crime. Leidolf hadn’t told them Vaughn had been in hot pursuit of a wolf while wearing his wolf coat.
“We believe you’re out here looking for the same man we are.” Demetria hurried to get a first aid kit from their Jeep.
Like hell Vaughn was, if he thought Miles had torn into Douglas.
A flash of lightning struck the ground in the woods about a mile away. A few seconds later, a loud clap of thunder shook the ground, and a deluge of rain poured down on them. With Howard and Everett helping him, Vaughn unsteadily climbed the steps to his deck, made it to the open door, and then inside.
“Hell, if you’re looking for the same man I was when she shot me”—Vaughn looked pointedly at Jillian—“I missed my opportunity to take him down. I’m fine. Or will be after a couple of hours. If the she-wolf hadn’t been creating issues, I would have had my man.” He gave Jillian a caustic look and settled on a leather barstool. “And I work alone.”
“How well is that working out for you?” Jillian was still holding the towel in place over his bloody wound, unable to quit breathing in his maddeningly tantalizing scent—a mixture of male, testosterone, fresh water, and the woods. She furrowed her brow at him. “Obviously, we’ve been after the wrong man.”
Vaughn stared her right down. “Like hell we have. You let him get away.”
Jillian shook her head. “No. I mean you. You were after the wrong man, so we were wrong in wanting you on the team. You’d be useless to us if you can’t do a better job of figuring out who the real criminal is.”
“What makes you think Miles is involved in this?” Demetria asked Vaughn, throwing a supersize black bath towel on his lap, then pulling a container of peroxide and bandages out of the first aid kit.
Vaughn jerked the towel up with his left hand and mopped the raindrops rolling off his hair and down his face and chest. “Miles? That’s his name?”
“Miles Matthews,” Jillian clarified, watching to see the SEAL’s reaction.
Vaughn’s brows lifted. “Is Miles a relative of yours?”
Jillian swore he looked like he believed she was in cahoots with her brother, and they had been involved together in the fiendishly horrible attack. “He’s my brother. Like Demetria asked, what makes you suspect he’s done anything wrong?”
“As a wolf, he was standing over the bloody area where Douglas had obviously been viciously attacked.” Vaughn’s harsh look bored into Jillian, as if waiting for her to prove he was wrong.
Shocked to the core that her brother had been there after the fact and Vaughn had caught him there, she quickly focused on the evidence Vaughn thought he had. For one thing, her brother’s scent hadn’t been in the cabin when she had discovered Douglas. “So you questioned him like any reasonable investigator would.” Jillian knew he couldn’t have if her brother had been a wolf. That would have been a one-sided conversation. “Standing next to where Douglas had fallen from his injuries doesn’t automatically say he’s guilty.”
“Miles was a wolf. Douglas’s blood was all over the floor. Then Miles took off. He didn’t leave me any choice but to try to take him down.”
“Kill him?” She glowered at Vaughn.
“Hell…take him down.”
“We don’t believe he’s involved.” Everett brought in more towels from Vaughn’s linen closet for everyone to use to dry off.
“Why not? Last word I had from Douglas was there was some miscommunication with his friend and then he’d heard from him. Next thing I know, I’m staring at a wolf and a puddle of Douglas’s blood. And since his own sister is trying to kill me, I’d say it was a good bet.” Vaughn’s gaze still bored into Jillian’s, an attempt at intimidation.
“Miles hadn’t been there before I arrived.” She wasn’t easily intimidated and scowled right back at Vaughn.
“If she was trying to kill you, you’d be dead.” Howard smiled. “She’s a former army officer, you know.”
“I doubt she was only trying to wound me,” Vaughn said, challenging her. “The fifth round nearly hit me in the head. The first three, I don’t know what that was all about. Lousy shots, I guess.”
“Howard’s right. If I’d wanted to kill you, I would have with the first round. I fired the other rounds as a warning, to scare you off.” Lousy shots, her foot. He was just trying to rile her because she’d wounded him. “No matter what, you were relentlessly going after my brother. I needed to wound you so I could stop you from hurting him. If I could have, I would have questioned you.” At gunpoint.
“Question me?” Vaughn gave a sarcastic laugh. “You’re a little confused as to who was in the wrong here, unless that’s your intention. Get the heat off your brother for a bit? Blame me instead?” Vaughn winced as Demetria poured peroxide on his wound.
“I’m sure she’ll forgive you if you agree to work for the team.” Demetria cleaned off the blood and finished bandaging his wound.
“She’ll forgive me?” Vaughn’s dark brows lifted again.
“For going after her brother.” Demetria smiled.
Jillian loved working with the jaguars. They trusted her instincts as much as their own. She hadn’t expected Demetria to say what she had though. She loved her for it.
“You’ve got to be bullshitting me.”
Jillian almost laughed at his growly words. She wondered if he always got his way. This had to be a rude awakening for the SEAL.
“Nope. Now, do you want to join the team?” Demetria asked, as if Jillian shooting him was of no consequence.
Jillian sure hoped he would work with them now, so she could keep an eye on him.
Studying Vaughn, Howard folded his arms. “I don’t think he’s a team player.”
Demetria and Everett looked at Howard and grinned.
“What? I play well with the rest of you.” Howard’s blue eyes were smiling, but he appeared as lethal as they come.
Jillian had heard he hadn’t been a team player either, until he began to work with Everett and Demetria.
“Come on, let’s go. This is a waste of our time.” Jillian motioned to the naked man still seated on the barstool, the black towel spread over his lap, his legs bare, his shoulder bandaged.
“For now, we’ll move you to Leidolf’s ranch. We’re staying at one of the guest houses,” Demetria said, as if Vaughn didn’t have any choice. “Leidolf’s physician, Dr. Camden Wilders, can take care of your injury. While we’re searching for the man who injured Douglas, you can recuperate. If the guy who attacked Douglas thinks you’re after him, a
nd you’re hurt and staying alone in a cabin out in the wilderness, you could be in real trouble.”
“All of you are staying at the guest house?” Vaughn was looking straight at Jillian.
What? Did he now think she was the one who had torn into his pack member? Or just that she was in collusion with her brother? If Vaughn was staying at the same place she was, did he believe he could learn for sure if she was or not?
“Yeah. Demetria and her mate have the master bedroom suite. Howard and I have our own rooms. You will too. We share the same bathroom. That means you have to put the toilet seat down after you’ve used it. If you join us.” Jillian would never have said that to any guy, and certainly hadn’t to Howard, but Vaughn just pushed her buttons.
Vaughn gave her another almost-smile, as if her words challenged him to see just what she would do if he didn’t put the toilet seat down.
He looked pale though, and for an instant, she felt guilty again about having shot him. Then she reminded herself he was trying to take down her brother when she knew Miles was perfectly innocent of injuring anyone.
“So what were members of the USF doing here if I’d just learned Douglas had been attacked?”
“A jaguar was shot at Leidolf’s ranch,” Everett said.
“Shifter?” Vaughn asked.
“Yes, but we don’t know who it is. One of Leidolf’s men heard shots fired when he was clearing brush. Trent thought it was a hunter illegally hunting on the pack’s forested land. Then he saw the jaguar, and the cat went down as another shot went off. By the time Trent reached the woods, the cat was gone, but he left drops of blood. The jaguar must have been stunned at first, or pretended it had been mortally wounded.
“Trent hurried back to the ranch house, cognizant that the shooter could still be out there and there was a slight chance the jaguar wasn’t a shifter, but a wounded cat. Trent’s cell battery had died, so by the time he could send word to Leidolf and get men out to search, both the cat and the shooter were gone,” Everett said. “Leidolf’s men continued to look for an injured man or jaguar, but neither the hunter nor the man left a scent trail.”
