Howard folded his arms. “If only I could be that lucky. With a she-cat,” he amended.
They all laughed, and then Everett said he’d drive them while Howard drove the other car back to Dallas.
“Demetria is thrilled about seeing you again, Owen, and meeting you, Candice. If there’s anything we can do to help you with signing the paperwork, I’ll be there for you,” Everett said.
“We really appreciate it.” Candice still wondered how similar they were to wolves as far as shifting behavior was concerned. “Owen said you were born as jaguar shifters. How about if you had been turned? Would a newly turned shifter have the same trouble as we’re experiencing?”
“Yes, we were born that way. Newly turned shifters do have trouble controlling the shift. We’re not affected by the phases of the moon though.”
“But that means you don’t have a week free of shifting. Right? Like for us, we don’t shift during the new moon. Which, if we desperately wanted to, we couldn’t,” Candice said.
“That’s correct. Like with wolves, it can take years for the jaguar shifters to gain more control over shifting. I take it you had no choice about coming down at this time to sign the papers to claim your inheritance?”
Candice snorted. “No.” She told him about the other PI and the woman he claimed was the real Clara Hart.
“What are you going to do?” Everett asked, sounding angry anyone would attempt to cheat her out of her inheritance.
“Prove she’s a fraud. Do you know of any jaguar shifters in Houston?” she asked.
“Yeah, they actually have a jaguar club there. The Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club. It was called Jungle Fever Cat Club to begin with, but the franchise did a marketing survey of its patrons and they liked a wilder name for it.”
“Do any wolves go there?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been back in a while. So possibly there’s a wolf pack there. We didn’t learn of one when we were trying to find Owen’s pack. You should have seen us trying to let on that we had a werewolf pup in our custody, and that we were wolves, not jaguars. None of the wolves would have believed us if we had told them over the phone we were jaguar shifters.”
Candice smiled. She couldn’t even visualize it. “The wolves don’t have a registry of wolf packs. I imagine it was hard to find any of them.”
“We got lucky. What can we do to help with proving this PI and the woman are frauds?”
“We have several people on it already, but if you want to help, we’d love all the aid you can offer.” Candice was afraid the PI and the woman would slip through the cracks otherwise. Maybe with a ton of shifters looking into this, they could nail the two of them. She gave him the PI’s name, Felix Underwood, but they only had the woman’s name as Clara Hart.
Howard gave them a call when they reached Dallas, and they took it over Bluetooth. “Hey, heading home. Have a job to do in the morning.”
“You sure you don’t want to have dinner with us?” Everett asked.
“No, truth is, I have a date.”
Everett smiled. “Okay, then have a nice date and we’ll be in touch.”
It was getting late when they got in, the house aglow with Christmas lights and the tree sitting in the window sparkling with lights too. A dark-haired woman—Everett’s mate, Demetria—gave them a warm welcome. She hugged Candice first, then Owen, and finally her own husband. Demetria couldn’t stop telling them how delighted she was to see them.
Candice loved the jaguars and how good they’d been to her and Owen already.
While Candice was visiting with Demetria, Owen walked out on the back porch with Everett and said, “I need you to be my cover story for a moment, like we’re considering options for this business tomorrow. I really need to order something for Candice for Christmas.”
Everett smiled. “Go right ahead.” He got them a couple of beers, and they sat overlooking the lighted swimming pool while Owen called Cameron.
“Hey, we’re in Dallas safe and sound. Everett’s taking us to Houston, and he’ll bring us back here when we’re done. We might not make it back in time for Christmas, but I want to order something really special for Candice to welcome her to my home and the pack. I’ll need your help with it while I’m away.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“I want to buy a gazebo for Candice. But it would take too long to build one for Christmas. I picked out a prefabricated design and have the location in mind. Or a couple of ideas. Maybe sitting half over the lake to have it reflected in the water? I already have the deck out there, and it would fit perfectly on that. Or a garden setting?”
“A gazebo? As in something permanent? Faith is making motions for me to ask the big question. Does this mean Candice wants to stay with us? Or is this just something you’re doing in the hopes you can convince her to stay?”
Owen laughed. Faith clearly wanted to know if he’d mated with her. “Yes, she’s staying with us. We haven’t discussed selling her house yet. But yes. Which is why I want to pick up something really special for her.”
“You mated her?” Cameron sounded surprised, but Owen didn’t think he should have been.
Owen smiled. “Yes. The other guys will just have to look elsewhere.”
“Hot damn. They figured they didn’t have a chance, so no problem there. Everyone will be thrilled.”
“I already told them.”
“And they didn’t tell us? Okay, so back to the question of where you want to put the gazebo. Does she garden?”
“I don’t know. But I know she loves the water. Still, about the garden, her yard was under a couple of feet of snow, so she might have one buried back at her place.”
“Maybe you should ask her.”
“Nah. I want it to be a surprise. I can have a different kind built in a garden for her for next spring, if she likes to garden. Maybe for her birthday.”
“When’s her birthday?”
“June 4, two days after mine.”
“That would be a great time for it then. Screened in, right?”
“Yeah, and we’ll need to run electricity to it for lights and outlets for plugging in phone chargers and laptops. Okay, then if you’re all right with it, I’m sending you the link for the picture of the premade gazebo they have at the local hardware store. If you can make all the arrangements, I’ll be forever grateful.”
“I’ll get right on it first thing tomorrow. Though I can see Faith and the kids wanting one too.”
Owen smiled. “Did you learn anything about the impostor?” He put the phone on speaker. “Everett is listening and said he’d help us with this.”
“Thanks, Everett. We appreciate all you have done for us. Rowdy is in Houston already. He drove most of the night, stopped for a few hours, and hit the road again. He wanted to make sure he stopped this scam. He doesn’t have much time left before he has to return to his job.”
“I can’t believe he’s willing to help us like this.” Owen explained to Everett about Rowdy and the SEAL wolves he worked with in Montana, then seeing the news report in South Dakota about the snowmobilers.
“Hell, that was the two of you?” Everett asked. “We just assumed it was another Arctic wolf pack up there. We should have known it was some of you.”
“Yeah, it was us. I guess the news went all around the world and back,” Owen said.
“I’ll say,” Cameron said. “Rowdy said being in Houston is the only way for him to pick up the fake Clara Hart’s trail to learn who she is. If he can discover what she’s driving, he can run her plates.”
“And?” Owen asked.
“He hasn’t seen her yet. He’s been following the PI around, but he’s had no luck seeing a woman who would fit the description. Like the rest of us, he assumes the woman will have her hair styled like the picture of Clara, or Candice, from a couple of years back.”
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“Does Rowdy think she’s lying low until she can go in and sign the paperwork and claim the inheritance?”
“Maybe. Or Rowdy said she might just be doing whatever she normally does, while the PI is busy with his job. In any event, Rowdy’s keeping close tabs on Felix Underwood in case a woman matching Candice’s former description visits the PI.”
“Has the PI seen Strom further?”
“No. I doubt Underwood needs to until he wants payment for his services. Even then, Strom might not actually see him and just have the money sent to him. What is your plan for tomorrow?”
“We’re going to Houston first thing in the morning to take some of Candice’s papers out of her safe-deposit box to prove who she is.”
“Okay. We’ll keep you informed if we learn anything further, and we’ll get started on the Christmas project tomorrow. Congratulations again.”
“Thanks, Cameron. I’m grateful for the way things turned out.”
“Hell, I bet. I’m glad about it too. So is Faith.”
They ended the call, and Everett and Owen made tentative plans for tomorrow, hoping both Owen and Candice could keep the shifting under control for the next couple of days. After the signing, they might have to stay with Everett and his wife for the holidays instead of going home right away.
Despite saying it wouldn’t make any difference to him or the others, Owen knew it would to Candice.
Chapter 15
That night while Candice was taking a shower in the upstairs bathroom, she was glad Demetria and Everett had a nice-sized, two-story brick home located way outside the suburbs of Dallas. The upstairs had three bedrooms and a game room where the jaguar couple had their computers set next to each other so they could play together. Candice thought it would be fun for her and Owen too, if he liked playing computer games. Or just to set up their computers side by side while they wrote. She was really loving the arrangement the jaguars had, and she couldn’t wait to sell her place and move. Then she worried. Could she fit some of her stuff in his home? She’d never even considered that. This had all been so sudden that they hadn’t really discussed her selling and moving, or anything.
Yet she really shouldn’t have cared. All that mattered was that she was with someone she loved and he loved her back. That she no longer had to be alone. She had a whole pack to love, the little ones too. She could even consider having kids of her own now, something she never thought she’d be able to do. She’d have all kinds of help raising them. She hadn’t known what would happen if she had unprotected sex with a human. Would she have had a wolf kid? Or not? She didn’t even know the answer to that.
She rinsed the soap out of her hair and turned off the shower. Grabbing a towel, she began drying herself off. Owen was still downstairs talking to Everett. Demetria had retired to their master bedroom.
There were so many things Candice didn’t know about the wolves, and now she could safely learn. The idea she could be with the wolves for Christmas had real appeal, making it more of a special holiday than it would have been for her alone, even if they didn’t make it home for Christmas Day because of the shifting issue. But having another woman to talk to, like Faith, who was just like her—fairly newly changed—was going to be wonderful. If Candice had children of her own, Faith would be a lifesaver. Candice couldn’t even imagine having to go through that all on her own with only a bunch of males surrounding her who were as clueless as those with Faith had to have been.
Candice tugged on her warm, purple polka-dot flannel pajamas. As she left the bathroom, she saw Owen looking out the game room window. She padded down the hallway to the large open area to join him. He turned and smiled at her. “What are you watching?” she asked.
Owen pulled her into his arms and kissed her, hugging her, warming her. “Two jaguars playing in the water and looking like they’re having a wild time of it.”
A small pine tree was decorated in Christmas lights and reflected off the water, adding to the cheeriness of the scene before them.
Owen held her in his arms as they watched the two jaguars swimming and playing and dunking each other, the smaller one leaving the pool and leaping back in, while the bigger male waited and tackled her. The lights were on in the pool, the water aqua, a mist rising from the warm water to mix with the cold air—just magical.
Candice laughed. “They are so cute.”
“Wait until we go swimming next summer in the lake.”
Her back was now to Owen’s front, and he was holding her close while they watched the jaguars play.
“I can’t believe they’re really jaguar shifters.”
“Just like they couldn’t believe we were wolves. They were dumbfounded when Corey shifted at the jaguar day care.”
“I can’t imagine how that would have been to witness firsthand.”
“They were so good to him.”
“Like we would be with one of theirs.”
He nuzzled her neck. “Want to go for a swim?”
“Brrr.”
“It could be fun. As a wolf.”
“I’ve been one way too many times today. I’ll pass. Do you ever worry you’ll turn and get stuck that way?”
“Early on, yes.”
She grabbed his hand and hauled him to the guest bedroom. “We can have just as much fun in here. And it would be lots warmer. But we need to hurry, just in case,” Candice warned. She hated worrying about getting the urge to shift when it was inconvenient at any time, but especially when she and Owen wanted to make love. Not that it had happened yet, but just the same, she worried about it.
“In that case…” Owen swept her up in his arms and she cried out, not expecting him to pull her off her feet. He cradled her as he quickened his pace to the guest bedroom.
She smiled up at him, loving him.
He entered the blue-and-white guest bedroom and shut the door with his knee. A little blue-and-white-decorated tree sparkled on top of the dresser. As soon as he deposited her on the bed, he began yanking off his clothes and tossing them on a chair, all but his boots. He dumped those on the floor while she watched him, smiling.
“My, oh, my.” She unbuttoned one of her pajama buttons. “Someone sure is ready for some action.”
“You bet.” Naked, beautiful, and all hers, he leaned over and tugged off her pajama bottoms. Then he unbuttoned her top and helped her out of it.
He joined her in bed and sealed her mouth with his, kissing her fiercely as she caressed his whiskery jaw. She gave him the same ardent response—nips on his mouth, her tongue tantalizing his, their kisses deepening. Leaving her breathless and wanting more.
She drank in every bit of him: the feel of his hot thigh pressed against hers, the sweet and spicy lime shampoo and body wash he’d showered with, the champagne on his lips he’d had to celebrate seeing Everett and Demetria again, the sound of his rapid heartbeat, and the delicious way he massaged her breast, making her nipple tingle with responsiveness.
He coaxed his fingers through her hair, then suckled a breast before sweeping his hand down her belly to the place between her thighs. She was needy and aching for his touch. She loved his hot mouth against her breast. Her hands swept down his sides, wanting to touch him as much as he was touching her, making her feel needed and desirable. His passion infused her, made her arch to his touches and grip his waist, trying to hold on to the sensations building deep inside her.
Their kisses were more insistent, hungrier, hotter, until she felt she was on fire. She let go and cried out with release. She was filled with joy that she had agreed to be his mate and eager to have him deep inside her so he could fulfill his needs too.
* * *
Owen loved watching Candice come, listening to her rapid heartbeat, and seeing her face flushed with ardor. “You’re beautiful,” he said breathlessly, his fingers touching her soft hair before he moved in between her legs,
unable to wait any longer. And she was his.
He pushed inside where she welcomed him with her tight, silky heat, and he began to thrust.
She wrapped her arms and legs around him, her heels high on the back of his thighs, which allowed him deeper access. He slowed his thrusts, wanting to extend the pleasure, wanting to bring her to climax again, kissing her throat, her neck, her jaw. But he was losing control and began to thrust hard, consumed by her heat and eagerness, pushing home until he couldn’t hold on any longer and released. She groaned out his name with her own climax and smiled up at him.
He continued to thrust until he was completely spent and settled on top of her, burying her in his heat and pinning her to the mattress. He kissed her mouth again and thanked her for being his mate. She kept him in place, her hands and legs still wrapped around him as if she didn’t want the connection between them broken just yet.
Then he lifted himself off her and settled next to her, pulling the sheets and comforter over them. He wrapped her in his arms and caressed her back with a light touch. “I think I just found heaven.”
She kissed his chest. “I think I did too.”
He’d wanted her from the first time he’d set eyes on her by the White River, but more as a lustful male wolf needs a mate. He’d never expected to feel this physical and emotional attraction to such an intense degree as he did with her. He was still reeling from the aftermath of what they’d shared. The connection they’d forged.
Then she groaned and he knew at once what the matter was.
“I will never make it at this rate.”
“You need to shift again?”
She let out her breath and nodded against his chest, still not letting go of him, as if he could help her fight it. Which he wished he could. He kissed her mouth. “Do you usually have to shift this often?”
“Sometimes, mostly when I have a book deadline. I think some of the urge to shift at this phase of the moon is caused from stress.”