by Tara Rose
The Alpha Legend 2
Protected by Two Jaguars
When jaguar shifter Valerie Bellecote witnesses her father and uncle murder a woman for taking a leopard for a mate, she runs away. She’s given shelter in Jargonian village, and is smitten with brothers Micah and Stephen Jargonian. But Valerie’s sense of safety is shattered when her father finds her and tries to kill her.
Doms and jaguar shifters Micah and Stephen Jargonian are looking for a special mate to share them, not only as their wife but as their submissive. They believe they have found her in Valerie, but first they have to save her life.
After Abby, the woman who gave Valerie shelter in her home, is killed by Valerie’s father, Micah and Stephen embark on a mission to trap him and block the magic he is using to evade capture by the jaguars. Can they stop him in time, or will they lose the only woman they have ever loved?
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 57,667 words
PROTECTED BY TWO JAGUARS
The Alpha Legend 2
Tara Rose
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
PROTECTED BY TWO JAGUARS
Copyright © 2013 by Tara Rose
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-021-2
First E-book Publication: November 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
To Pearls and TinkNCognito, who work tirelessly to bring us the Inner Goddess blog and forums, thank you so much for your constant support and encouragement.
And to Christina Ratliff, who runs the Nice Ladies, Naughty Books blog, and who has given me support, encouragement, and fabulous friendship. Thank you! ♥
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
About the Author
PROTECTED BY TWO JAGUARS
The Alpha Legend 2
TARA ROSE
Copyright © 2013
Chapter One
Valerie Bellecote always knew that one day her father, Reynard, would find her. It was only a matter of time. He’d been one of the most powerful and feared jaguars in their village, just west of Stone Lake in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. And when she’d run away three months ago, mere days before her twenty-first birthday, she honestly hadn’t expected to get far. But after witnessing him and his brother, her uncle Fendrel, murder a jaguar named Celestine because she’d taken a leopard from Arizona as her mate, Valerie had known she could no longer live there.
The murder was merely the catalyst that finally set events in motion. There had been dozens of reasons why she’d made the decision to run. It had been sheer dumb luck that she’d been found by jaguars on patrol outside of Farmington. She’d been in jaguar form when they’d caught her, but she’d shifted back to human form so she could tell them that she was running from a murderer in her village and she feared for her life.
They hadn’t asked any further questions. They’d sent her here, to Jargonian village in the northeast corner of Utah, to live. But now that he’d found her, what would happen? And how had he gotten past the jaguars who guarded this village? Had he shifted and wound his way down from the hills? But wouldn’t they have caught his scent, regardless?
That was him across the street. She was sure of it. Who else would be watching the house like this? Would her father lie about the murder to protect his reputation? And if he did, what proof would Valerie have of what he and her uncle had done? None. Even if she could prove it, this entire village would then know that she hadn’t told the whole truth of why she’d been running that day.
“You look deep in thought.”
Valerie startled at the sound of Abby Waterford’s voice. She glanced over her shoulder, struck as always by Abby’s kind face and warm smile. She was unmated, and had taken Valerie in to live with her simply because the jaguars who had found Valerie asked Abby to do so.
This entire village was like that. It was so far removed from what she’d known all her life that the first few days she’d been here, all she’d done was glance out the windows every hour or so,
convinced she’d see her father or her uncle walking up the street. She thought for sure that someone here had contacted her village and told them where she was. “I can’t sleep.” It wasn’t exactly a lie. She’d been asleep, until the dream had woken her yet again.
Abby sat next to her on the window seat and stroked her hair, just as she’d likely have done to her own daughter, had she ever had any cubs. But despite the comfort of Abby’s touch, and the gentle way her gaze now regarded Valerie with a mixture of pity and understanding, she wasn’t her mother. Her mother was dead, and had been since one day after Valerie’s seventh birthday. And to Valerie’s dying day, she would never believe that her father hadn’t killed his mate, despite what the village healer had declared was the cause of her mother’s death.
“Bad dreams again?”
Valerie nodded. “Yes. The same one.”
Abby pushed aside the lace curtains and peered out into the darkness, but of course she saw nothing. There was nothing to see except the tiny lights from porch lamps or perhaps a small table lamp in a few of the homes. It was two in the morning, after all. Valerie was the only one who’d ever seen her father in this village.
If Abby had glanced out the window that overlooked Pine Bluff Road moments ago, she might have seen the figure of a tall man with billowing robes, standing just to the left of the ancient blue spruce across the street. His eyes had glowed in the dark, illuminating the sneer on his face. Abby wouldn’t have recognized him, of course, but Valerie had.
“I’ve always loved this time of night,” said Abby. “It’s so peaceful and serene.”
Valerie had loved it, too, until that fateful day three months ago. Now, she hated it. Nighttime meant terrifying dreams and shadows that watched her from across the street.
“Why don’t you come back to bed and try to get some rest.”
Valerie rose and crossed the room, then crawled under the covers and allowed Abby to tuck the comforter around her, even though she wasn’t cold. As soon as Abby left she’d readjust it the way she wanted. It was a nightly ritual that made Abby feel as if she were giving Valerie stability and helping her make memories, and Valerie didn’t want to take that away from her. She’d given Valerie a home and had been so kind to her.
“We have a big day ahead of us in the morning. Are you excited about it?”
“Yes, I am.” That wasn’t a lie either, although Valerie was looking forward to the day more because Stephen and Micah Jargonian would be coming along than for any other reason.
About thirty people from their village were traveling two hours east to where the Ruiz family and other cougar shifters lived, in the foothills above Passion Peak, Colorado. Saffron Estampado was going to be formally mated and collared to Nevada Ruiz and Landon Sterling in a ceremony, and there would be a party afterwards. Nevada was a cougar shifter, and Landon was a human born to shifter parents, but had no powers of his own.
Last month, Saffron, Landon, and Nevada had hidden out in their village while the same jaguars who had found her in New Mexico were dispatched to Saffron’s village in Colorado to hunt down members of the League of Exitium, from whom Saffron had run away.
The League members perverted the sacred tenets of the shifter community and sought rare black leopards, cougars and jaguars. They believed that the melanistic cats gave them more power when sacrificed to the gods they worshipped. They lived in secrecy and were difficult to track down, but the jaguars who lived in this village were determined to find them all and eradicate the League. They’d been trying to do so for decades.
“Stephen and Micah are going as well, you know. We’ll be riding with them and their parents, but don’t you worry. I won’t let those two young men monopolize too much of your time.”
Valerie closed her eyes and smiled into the darkness. Stephen and Micah were Drake and Emme’s two youngest sons, and Valerie had had a major crush on both since she’d first laid eyes on them. They were both older than her—Stephen by eight years and Micah by nine—but neither man was mated. They lived a mysterious but intriguing lifestyle that Valerie would love to explore further, if only she could get past her shyness to do so.
Then again, Abby didn’t make it easy for her to do that. She didn’t approve of the BDSM lifestyle that the Jargonians and a great many residents of the village lived, so she had tried to keep Valerie from going to the Jargonian’s house as much as possible. Valerie was constantly caught between her unrelenting curiosity and lust for the brothers, and her sense of duty to Abby who had given her a home and now treated her like a cherished daughter.
“Are you asleep again?”
Abby’s whisper sounded so hopeful, Valerie didn’t have the heart to tell her the truth, so she kept silent. The woman leaned over and kissed her hair softly, and then she left the room. Valerie waited until she’d heard the door to Abby’s bedroom close, and then she adjusted her comforter and curled up on her side, the way she preferred to sleep.
She let her thoughts turn toward Stephen and Micah. Each time she went to the house, the two didn’t miss the opportunity to either draw her into the conversation they were having, or offer to answer her questions about their lifestyle if she brought it up. And she almost always found a way to bring it up.
They’d never made her feel as if she were an intruder in this village, or in their home. And although she was younger than either of them by almost a decade, they didn’t treat her like a schoolgirl, or as though she had no intelligence. They asked her questions about her village, and seemed to know exactly how far to go, watching carefully for signs she was uncomfortable talking about home or about why she’d run away that day.
There was no way they could know, of course, that the murderer was her father, and each time they backed off on the questions or changed the subject, the guilt she felt at not telling them the entire truth was all mixed up with their concern for her, and their instinct in knowing how far to go.
Were they like that as Doms, too? Did they know exactly how far to push a sub? Valerie squirmed as she imagined being tied to a spanking bench or a St. Andrew’s cross in their dungeon, and having both Stephen and Micah flog her. Would that ever happen? Would they even want to play with her, or were they only being nice because of what she’d been through?
A sound outside caught her attention, but she was afraid to get out of bed again and peek around the curtains. Had what she’d seen truly been a dream, or had her father found her and was watching the house, waiting for his chance? Should she tell someone that she’d seen him three separate times in the past two weeks? No. They’d say she’d imagined it. They’d tell her that there was no way a jaguar shifter could enter this village undetected.
But each time she’d seen him had been after the dream had woken her, and each time she’d seen him at night. When she’d walked away from the window and returned a few minutes later, she could no longer see him. If anyone had told her that same scenario, she’d have believed it was a dream or the result of an overactive imagination. So why then would anyone think otherwise hearing this story from her lips?
She’d been here three months. Why would he come now? And how would he have found her? And if he had, why hadn’t he simply marched up to Drake Jargonian’s house on Overlook Drive and demanded that his daughter be allowed to return home? The jaguars here had no quarrel with him. Her father may be a murderer, but he wasn’t mixed up in the League of Exitium.
She was of age now, but that didn’t mean the same thing in her world as it did in the human world. The Jargonians, who were the law and order in this village, might very well tell her that she was still her father’s property, no matter her age, since she was unmated. That was the law in her village, and Valerie had no reason to believe it wasn’t the same here.
But she knew she couldn’t return home. She simply couldn’t. And even if she told Drake and Emme about the things her father and uncle had done, they might not believe her. Valerie had heard rumors in this village that there were shape-shifters who did
n’t believe in mixing the species, but she’d never heard tales of jaguars murdering one of their own because they’d taken another cat as a mate. Her father, her uncle, and their “business associates,” as both referred to the men, had been doing that for so long that Valerie found it difficult to recall a time in her life when that hadn’t been her day-to-day reality.
But did the jaguars in this village have any real power or authority over the men in her village? The jaguars here had no issues with the species mixing, but their main focus was ridding the shape-shifter world of the League, not interfering in the day-to-day life in obscure villages around the country. She might be inviting trouble to the very people who had given her food and shelter, no questions asked.
Just because they’d taken her in didn’t mean they had any interest in stopping what went on in her village. They might not agree with it, but if they wanted to stop it, surely they would be fighting that cause as well. Valerie had one other idea, but she didn’t like it. She could run again, but where would she go?
She rolled over and tried to clear her head so that she could sleep, but scenes from her childhood played over in her mind. No matter what happened, she knew she couldn’t return home. If he had found her, she’d have to run again. She had no other choice.
* * * *
Micah Jargonian cast sideways glances at Valerie Bellecote, and each time he did so, he caught his brother, Stephen, doing the same thing. They’d managed to wrangle seats on either side of her for the two-hour drive to Passion Peak, in the third row of the SUV their father, Drake, was driving. Abby was in the middle seat, next to all their luggage, and was currently in a heated discussion with Micah and Stephen’s parents about something the League was doing.
