Tempting the Jaguar Read Free

female jaguar shifter. She
    was a sleek orange feline with dark
    black spots. Jagged pain lanced
    down his left side. One of the
    vamps had sliced into him,
    breaking a rib and piercing him
    with a silver dagger. The rib was
    already healing and the silver hadn’t
    gotten into his blood stream so
    while he hurt, he was almost four
    hundred and fifty years old and
    more than capable of
    compartmentalizing his pain.
    For a brief moment he tensed,
    wondering if the female planned to
    attack him too. The thought of
    sparring with this woman, even in
    self-defense, made something
    painful well up inside him. Some
    primal part of him just couldn’t do
    it. But then she let out a soft whine
    and nudged him with her nose and
    he realized she was worried. Or at
    least concerned about him.
    He tried to move then realized he
    must have been injured worse than
    he originally thought. More pain
    ripped through his right shoulder
    like tiny daggers digging into him.
    Damn vampire had sliced through
    him with his claws. Rainer let his
    head fall back against the pavement.
    He’d heal soon enough and if those
    vamps didn’t come back and the
    woman didn’t try to attack him,
    he’d be fine.
    But she clearly had other ideas.
    After whining and nudging him
    again, she turned tail and
    disappeared around her Jeep. Less
    than a minute later she came back
    around in her human form wearing
    a form-fitting T-shirt and shorts. All
    shifters he knew carried around
    multiple changes of clothes so it
    made sense she had something extra
    to put on. It was a shame she’d had
    to destroy that skimpy black dress
    though. He’d had some wicked
    fantasies earlier tonight of slowly
    peeling it off her. Watching her
    carefully, he relaxed slightly when
    she opened the back door of her
    Jeep.
    “Come on, big fella. You’re
    coming home with me so you can
    heal. Do not make me regret this,”
    she murmured as she bent down
    and picked him up.
    Rainer was huge and if she’d
    been human she wouldn’t have
    been able to lift him. As it was, the
    petite woman strained and grunted
    as she slid her arms under his big
    wolf body and lifted him up.
    Though it would have hurt like hell,
    he could have jumped into the back
    on his own, but he was afraid any
    sudden movements would scare
    her.
    And he wasn’t above playing the
    sympathy card if it got her to take
    him back to her place. She was
    living in Huntsville, which was his
    Alpha’s territory and she hadn’t
    made her presence known to
    anyone that he knew of.
    Considering that his oldest brother
    Alaric was second-in-command to
    Knox, his Alpha, Rainer would
    have known if a jaguar shifter had
    been living in their territory. Then
    she’d acted as if she didn’t know
    what an Alpha was. Whatever was
    going on with this woman and
    whoever she was, he was damn
    sure going to find out.
    Because those vampires tonight
    had been hunting her .
    After gently sliding him onto a
    thick quilt, she shut the back door
    while she muttered to herself about
    how she was definitely going to
    regret letting a wolf into her home.
    If he’d been in human form he
    would have smiled. Inhaling
    deeply, he scented her on the quilt
    and the smell soothed him on a
    primal level. Most shifters carried
    quilts or blankets around in their
    vehicles in case they decided to stop
    somewhere and sleep out in the
    woods, on the beach, or wherever.
    He didn’t like leaving his truck
    but there was no identifying
    information inside and the license
    plate wasn’t linked to his pack. If
    someone stole it, well, he’d take
    care of that later. The gentle hum of
    her engine would have lulled him to
    sleep but after only a minute of
    driving the vehicle shut off again
    and she got out.
    Making a split second decision,
    he shifted back to his human form.
    His bones cracked, broke and
    realigned and skin quickly replaced
    fur. Rainer wanted to be able to talk
    to her and he wanted to know why
    they’d stopped when they were in
    the