by Bianca D’Arc
Jaguar Island 3
The Jaguar’s Secret Baby
by
Bianca D’Arc
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Copyright © 2019 Bianca D’Arc
Published by Hawk Publishing, LLC
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
DEDICATION
With much love for my readers, especially Mary Worley who gave me some information about super glue being used to seal wounds when our discussions on social media led into strange waters. I put a scene in this book (you’ll know which one I mean when you read it) because of that conversation. Just goes to show…I never quite know where ideas are going to come from!
And the inspiration for that entire conversation deserves a mention—my dear old Dad, who is on two different blood thinners and was bleeding a lot from a very small cut when I posted to social media, seeking information. I didn’t use super glue on him, but I did get a lot of good pointers from the hive mind, which was greatly appreciated. Thanks to you all.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Prologue
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
Excerpt from The Cyborg Next Door
About the Author
Other Books by Bianca D’Arc
PROLOGUE
“Who is the father?” Tracy’s father demanded.
He might be Alpha of the Big Wolf Pack, and therefore the owner of Big Wolf Airport, Big Wolf Barbeque, where she worked, and mayor of Big Wolf, Texas, but she was his daughter, and he couldn’t really compel her with his dominance. They were too much alike. She was a dominant female in her own right, and she’d long ago, grown accustomed to her father’s bark. He would never bite one of his own over something like this, so she knew she was safe, which gave her added strength to deny his command.
“I’m still not telling you, Dad. Now, if you want your first grandchild to be born without medical assistance, just keep doing what you’re doing. Otherwise, I came downstairs to call the midwife.” She made her way slowly toward the phone.
She should’ve had her cell phone by her bed, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly these last nine months. Doing stupid stuff had become the norm ever since she’d discovered she was pregnant. Pregnant and unmated. At her age. As the result of a one-night stand. Could she get any more pathetic?
Okay, it had been the best one-nighter of her life, but still… Pregnancy shouldn’t have been the result. He wasn’t even a wolf! It shouldn’t have been possible to be so damned fertile across species like this, but the little person clamoring to get out had other ideas.
“You mean it’s coming, now?” Her father’s face paled.
She would have laughed if a contraction hadn’t hit her just at that moment. She leaned against the kitchen island and grit her teeth as she growled low in her throat through the pain. That seemed to set her dad in motion. He grabbed the phone and dialed the number for the Pack’s healer. She heard the conversation in the background as the pain stole her breath and made her want to howl. The important thing was, her father was getting help. When the pain eased, he was at her side, loving concern on his face.
“They’re on their way,” he told her in a soothing tone. “Now, can you walk, or should I carry you back to your room? I assume that’s where you want this to happen, right?”
She nodded and leaned heavily on him as they went out of the kitchen together, but the staircase was beyond her. Her steps faltered, and her father picked her up, as he had when she was little, and mounted the stairs with her in his arms. He didn’t put her down until they had reached her bed. He deposited her gently on the bed she had prepared. It was covered in toweling with plastic underneath so she wouldn’t ruin the mattress.
Aida had helped her gather the necessary supplies and would—Goddess willing—see her through this birth. Aida was the midwife, mated to the Pack’s healer, Giuseppe. They were both on the way here, according to her dad, but she really only needed Aida. They’d been talking about this for almost nine months—ever since Tracy realized she was pregnant—and they’d been making plans the whole time.
Aida was the mother Tracy no longer had, and she probably couldn’t have handled this situation half as well without her guidance. Aida had been close to Tracy’s mother and had stepped in to help when Tracy’s mom had died in a terrible accident. Tracy still missed her vibrant, vivacious mother every day, but it was good to have someone like Aida around to help.
Tracy’s father didn’t leave her side, looking around to see what he could do to help prepare, but there wasn’t anything. She’d done it all last week and had only been waiting for the signal that the little one was ready to meet the world. It felt like it wouldn’t be long now.
“Tracy, sweetheart,” her father said, sitting at her side and pushing her hair back from her brow. “Who did this? Who’s the father?”
Stubborn Alpha wolf. Tracy smiled. “Why? So you can go hunt him down and shanghai him into mating with me? Dad, this isn’t 1850 anymore.” She named the year her father had been born and rolled her eyes.
“A man should be there for his children,” he insisted. “At the very least, he should help support the pup.”
“I don’t need his money.” She shook her head. “And I don’t need his interference.”
Dawning realization broke over her father’s face. “Sweet Mother of All. You haven’t even told him!”
Tracy grimaced. She’d debated a long time over whether it was better to let her father think poorly of her child’s father or reveal that she hadn’t tracked down the perpetrator and told him about the impending birth. She’d just let it ride, not really knowing what to do, and hoping a path would reveal itself. Well, it looked like the revelation had just taken place, and she wasn’t altogether sure it was a good thing. Now, it was solidly her fault that the baby’s father wasn’t here. Tracy felt a little guilty, but really…it was an impossible situation.
“Is he even a wolf?” her father asked, his tone aghast. He’d been eyeing every male in the Pack with suspicion for the past few months, but it hadn’t done him any good. The father wasn’t a Pack member. “Is he even a shifter?”
She could give him that much, she figured. “Yes, he’s a shifter, but no, he’s not one of ours. And that’s all I have to say on the matter.” She gasped as another pain hit and grabbed her father’s hand.
He didn’t say anything more until the contraction had passed.
“I’ll accept that,” he told her, his eyes narrowing, and his dominance a palpable thing in the room. “For now.”
Tracy gulped, but Aida bustled into the room and shooed Tracy’s father out. Giuseppe was waiting in the hallway, and Tracy saw him put a friendly arm around her father’s shoulders before guiding him away from the bedroom. Giuseppe would keep her father distracted while the women got down to business.
Goddess help them all.
CHAPTER ONE
Two years later…
Heinrich Schleichender—Hank, to his American friends—started his final descent into Big Wolf Airport in Texas. He hadn’t been able to come back this way for far too long. The fact that he’d been given a mission by his Alpha that would take him through this part of the world for the next few weeks, perhaps months, made his beast half’s fur ripple with satisfaction.
He’d been trying to get back to Texas for the past two or three years, but circumstances had been against him. With the rise of the Venifucus—an evil order of mages intent on destruction—Hank had been called on, time and time again, by his friend and Alpha, Mark Pepard, to spearhead investigations and negotiations all over the world.
That Hank was multi-lingual, one of the top pilots in the Clan, and a trusted associate of the leadership meant he was much in demand. When a delicate touch was called for to set up sensitive deals, Hank was the go-to guy. Clan business had kept him busy. So busy, in fact, that he hadn’t been able to get back to Texas at all…until now.
Hank had never been able to forget the woman he’d met here in Big Wolf, Texas—Tracy. The Alpha wolf’s daughter. They’d spent one passionate night together before duty to his Clan had called him away. Things had been in an uproar for a while in the Jaguar Clan led by billionaire Mark Pepard. Hank had spent most of the last few years flying special missions for Mark, on behalf of the Clan.
This mission, in fact, was another one of those special tasks set for Hank by the Alpha. He was to open negotiations with a small jaguar Clan based in Arizona, inviting them to take their place in the larger group that was centralizing operations on Jaguar Island. Of special interest were two of the stronger Alphas in the Arizona group—a pair of fraternal twins who had Special Forces backgrounds and were currently working freelance as mercenaries.
Mark wanted their skills, and he wanted all the jaguars to know they had a place on the island, if they wanted it. He’d been slowly reaching out to the family groups and Clans that remained after urbanization and drug wars had killed far too many of their people. Mark had bought the island and secured it. Now, he was bringing in more jaguars to make their homes there—safe from the dangers of the human world, while the Clan rebuilt its decimated numbers.
They could use more men with skills like Pax and Ari Rojas, along with the rest of their Clan members in Arizona. It was one of the larger groups, but it still wasn’t huge. They, too, had felt the impact of the drug wars that took out so many of their people.
As the drug cartels took over vast stretches of jungle, they pushed out the jaguars who had lived there. At some point, with nowhere left to retreat, the jaguars tried to fight back, but their solitary lifestyles and the need for territory of their own had left them all too vulnerable. No matter how strong a particular shifter or family group was, once a sufficiently large number of humans with automatic weapons arrived, they didn’t really stand a chance.
The story had repeated itself all over South America for decades. Some survivors regrouped in the United States. Some had been in the States all along. The Arizona group was a mix of native and immigrant populations, and it was Hank’s task to make it clear that all jaguars who served the Light were welcome on Jaguar Island.
Negotiations would be tricky, though. Cats were generally solitary and territorial. Any family group that had stuck together the way the Arizona Clan had usually had large stretches of territory for each family member, so nobody felt crowded. The Arizona Clan was of particular interest to Mark Pepard and the larger Jaguar Clan, though, because of those two soldier-of-fortune brothers. Their skills and connections could come in very useful, if they could be persuaded to work for the good of the Jaguar people as a whole.
Which was Hank’s mission. It might take multiple trips out to Arizona. Everyone knew cats were fickle, and it sometimes took a bit of time to convince them to do what you wanted them to do. Nobody knew that better than another jaguar. Hank had been chosen because he had Mark’s confidence, trust, and was known to be a careful, patient predator when he was on the stalk.
Pax and Ari Rojas might not realize it, but they were most definitely being stalked…for the good of their species.
“Clear for landing,” came the instruction from the Big Wolf Airport tower over Hank’s headset.
He was on approach, and it wouldn’t be long before he set down and taxied to his assigned parking space. Then, he’d arrange for refueling and stop for some lunch at the famous Big Wolf Barbeque restaurant near the airport. He couldn’t wait to get on the ground and see if maybe Tracy was around.
He would try to be casual, but the way his inner jaguar was sitting up in eagerness of the hunt was something he suddenly found hard to control. His inner beast had never forgotten the pretty wolf woman, strange as that seemed. His cat admired her and wanted to play with her wolf form. Run and stalk, roll in the tall grass. Hank shook his head. His cat had never found a playmate outside their own species before, but then again, his cat side was a lot more playful than most.
His Clan mates teased him about the way his cat form was always ready to play. It wasn’t the norm for solitary cats, but it fit Hank’s unusually positive personality. His family had gone through a lot of dark stuff in the past. Perhaps Hank’s sunny outlook was a result of that. He couldn’t be sure. He hadn’t been alive for the wrong turns taken by some of his ancestors, but he’d decided early on that he could either live his life feeling ashamed of the decisions they’d made or forge a new path for himself, firmly on the side of Light.
He’d chosen the latter, and after initial hesitation, Mark Pepard had accepted him into the Clan. Hank had proven himself, over and over again, until the last of Mark’s doubts had been erased. Hank had the approval and confidence of the highest ranks in the Clan. Anything others might still say about his ancestors might sting, but he knew who he was, and he wasn’t like them at all. Not one bit.
With a few more radio transmissions and a bit of maneuvering, Hank was on the ground at last. He parked the small plane where instructed and grabbed his duffel bag. He had come prepared to bribe Tracy’s little brother with the latest video game, if necessary. If not, he’d still give the kid the early release version everyone was clamoring for—that Hank had gotten before release through his contacts. Kevin was a good kid. He deserved a treat, even if it turned out he wouldn’t help Hank stalk his sister.
But Hank had an idea where she might be. The whole family worked either at the airport or the restaurant. Their father was the Alpha and owner of the two very successful businesses, as well as being the mayor of the town the Pack had built around itself. The Big Wolf Pack was employed in all the Pack businesses, particularly the Alpha’s family and inner circle, who tended to run things. Last time Hank had checked—only a week ago—Tracy had been the general manager of the restaurant. It was likely she’d be there, since it was around lunchtime on a weekday. The place would be busy, but maybe she’d take a few minutes to talk to him.
That goal firmly in mind, Hank headed out of the airport and over to the restaurant.
*
“Em, honey, come back here,” Tracy called after her adventurous daughter, who was running off, yet again, pushing through the forest of people’s legs, in the front lobby of the restaurant. It was one of her favorite games, and the Pack indulged her a little too much, in Tracy’s opinion.
Emma’s little blonde pigtails bounced as she made her way forward. She was an ado
rable baby. Fair skinned and with dark blonde hair that was a mix of her mother’s chestnut and her father’s golden blond. But, only Tracy knew that little secret. Nobody in the Pack knew who or what Emma’s father was, or what he looked like. Just Tracy.
Emma was out of sight, and Tracy sped up to catch her wayward two year old. She spotted Em, stopped against the legs of a man, clinging to the poor fellow like a burr. Thankfully, everyone present was Pack. At least, Tracy thought they were all shifters, if not all members of her Pack. Though…there was a tantalizing new scent at the edge of her perception.
With all the wolves waiting to be seated—a party of fourteen had just come in from the airport and wanted to sit together—it was hard to discern the new shifter scent, but as Tracy drew nearer to her daughter, the scent became sharper. It was familiar, somehow, and her inner wolf sat up from her lazy doze in Tracy’s mind and started to look around through Tracy’s eyes. Something was…
Sweet Mother of All.
The Pack members parted before her, clearing a path to her daughter, clinging to a man Tracy hadn’t seen in more than two years. Closer to three, actually.
Hank. The golden-haired sex god Tracy had never forgotten.
Her baby’s father.
The baby he didn’t know about.
Hank looked up, a happy smile on his face that he’d been giving her daughter when the crowd hushed. Their eyes met, and his smile got even bigger. He was pleased to see her, but would he be so pleased once he realized she was a mother and not free to play with him the way she had years ago?
She gritted her teeth against what had to be done. “Emma, honey, let the nice man go and come to Mama.” She bent down to catch the little scamp, who abandoned her new friend as soon as her mother caught up with her.
Emma tucked up close to her heart, Tracy looked up to meet Hank’s sky-blue gaze. He looked crestfallen for a split second before he pasted a congenial expression on his face.
