How is not recognizing a mate even possible?
Veterinarian Mitch Jacobson might be human, but he is well aware shifters exist. After all, his sister is mated to a bear. Called to assist with a patient emergency, he soon discovers shooting a tiger with a tranquilizer dart isn’t the wisest decision he’s ever made. Not when the predatory feline turns out to be a female with the most beautiful pair of emerald green eyes he’s ever seen.
There is nothing more Hannah Lawrence loves to do then write her mystery novels. The only reason she came to the Colorado resort was to finish her book in time to make her deadline. Her allergy problems and inability to scent properly have gotten her into trouble before, but she never expected to wake up in a strange male’s bed. And definitely not a handsome male who makes her inquisitive feline purr—something only a true mate should be able to do.
When Mitch discovers the local forest rangers want to rid the countryside of Hannah’s cat and that she is also the target of a stalker, he will do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
Mitch
“Are you telling me I drove all the way over here because you thought you saw a tiger in your backyard?” Seeing a wolf, even a bear, wouldn’t have surprised me, but a jungle cat was hard to imagine.
“That was your emergency?” I scrubbed a hand over my face after giving Alma Chapman a skeptical glance, then peered again through the double-paned glass of the patio door at the animal-free forest behind her property.
Until now, being confused was not a description I would’ve used to describe the elderly woman who had to be pushing eighty years old. She was a retired grade school teacher and one of my longtime customers. Or I should say, Trixie, her black-and-gray-striped cat, was one of my patients. The animal was currently perched on the back of a nearby sofa, licking her front paw, seemingly unaware of her owner’s concerns.
READ MORESince I was the only vet with a home in the Colorado mountain area near the town of Ashbury, dealing with pet emergencies came with the territory. Though I was pretty sure catching imaginary tigers went way beyond anything listed in my job description.
“Don’t give me that look, Mitchell Jacobson.” She waggled her bony index finger at me. “I know what you’re thinking, and I am not senile. I know what I saw.”
All my friends and family, except for my mother when she was angry, called me Mitch. Alma, from the first time I’d met her, insisted on using the formal name I’d been given at birth. Tacking on the last name was her way of telling me she meant business.
I searched for a compliment, hoping it would distract her. “Those are nice glasses. Are they new?” I’d grasped at the first thing I could think of, which turned out to be a mistake.
“I’m not blind either.” She harrumphed and pushed the thick wire-rimmed bifocals farther up her nose.
While I stood there trying to figure out the best way to remove myself from her home without upsetting her further, I caught a streak of black and orange out of my periphery. I looked outside just in time to see the not so imaginary animal disappear through a gap in the trees. I shook my head. “Well, I’ll be darned.”
Alma crossed her arms and jutted out her chin. “I told you I saw a tiger out there.”
A few seconds later, the cat reappeared. It was a beautiful creature, and I found myself more fascinated than afraid. The animal skidded to a stop near a patch of wildflowers, then pressed its nose against the white and purple blossoms. After a couple of sniffs, it jostled its head and sneezed before playfully bounding after a butterfly.
“Did you see that?” Alma took off her glasses and used the bottom of her shirt to clean the lenses, then slipped them back into place. “Is that normal behavior for a wild animal?”
“I have no idea.” I wasn’t an expert on predatory cats. The only tigers I’d ever been this close to were ones I’d seen at the zoo in California, and that had been back when I was a teenager. I certainly didn’t recall any of them sniffing flowers or chasing butterflies.
Some of the families that lived nearby had children and small pets. Letting the animal continue to roam the area put their lives in danger. I slipped my cell phone out of my back pants pocket, then ran my thumb through my contacts list.
Alma placed her hand on my arm. “What are you doing?”
“I’m going to call the park rangers. They’re better equipped to deal with this kind of situation.” Some of the nearby land was part of a national forest, and the rangers had a station located in the area.
“You can’t,” she gasped. “The resort’s property borders mine. What if, you know,”—she leaned closer to whisper, as if the room was filled with other people who might overhear her—“the tiger is one of their special guests?”
Special guests. It didn’t take me long to realize what Alma was referring to. The Seneca Falls Resort was owned by a family of shifters, wolves, to be exact. Quite a few of their guests had the ability to transform into animals, a fact the shifter community rarely shared with humans. I was under the impression I was one of the few non-shifting people in the area who even knew they existed. “Alma, I’m sure I have no…”
She stopped me with a narrow-eyed glare, one I was sure she’d used regularly on her past students. “You’ve been friends with Reese, Berkley, and Nick for a long time. Don’t pretend you don’t know they’re wolves.” She harrumphed at me again. “Or that Bryson, the sweet boy your sister Leah married, isn’t a bear.”
“How did you find out?” My friends and my sister’s mate took extra precautions to protect their animal sides, and they wouldn’t have shared the information with Alma, not unless she’d been in a life-threatening situation. Berkley and her brothers had even designed a secluded area on their property for shifters so they could let their animals run without being observed by any human guests.
Poachers used to be a big concern when they’d first inherited the resort, so they’d hired a security team to ensure everyone’s safety. The area also had special signs posted on the trees designating the boundaries.
A wily grin spread across her face. “You don’t get to be my age and live on this mountain as long as I have without finding out about other people’s secrets.”
“Okay, then.” I shoved my phone back into my pocket. “What do you suggest we do about the tiger?”
“Can’t you go out there and talk to it? Maybe give it directions back to the resort?” Alma asked.
I shot her a sidelong glare, half expecting her to produce a map of the area for me to use while giving the animal instructions. “Let’s assume you’re right about the tiger being a shifter.” I continued to watch the animal’s odd behavior. It had stopped chasing the butterfly and had risen up on its hind legs to get a drink from a concrete birdbath near the trees at the back of the yard.
“What if it doesn’t like what I have to say, or sees me as a threat because I’m human, then decides to eat me instead?” I’d been hoping she had a better solution, one that didn’t involve the possibility of bloodshed.
“Good point.” Alma tapped her chin and crinkled her nose. “Aren’t vets supposed to have guns that shoot darts to put animals to sleep?”
“If you mean a tranquilizer gun, then yes, I have one in my truck.” I’d rarely had a reason to use the weapon, but still kept it stashed underneath the back seat, mostly as a precaution in case I ran into an animal causing problems. I’d never used it on a shifter and wasn’t even sure if the darts were powerful enough to knock one out.
“Yes, one of those.” She smiled. “You could shoot the tiger with a dart, then, once it’s asleep, you can take it up to the lodge and ask them to look after it.”
It might not be a great idea, but it wasn’t a bad one either. The only part of the plan I intended to change, provided I didn’t get mauled first, was to call Reese and confirm he had a tiger for a guest before taking the animal to the lodge. News traveled fast on the mountain, and the last thing my friends needed was unwanted publicity.
I wasn’t totally convinced the animal was a shifter, especially since it was a long way from the resort’s safety zone. If it truly was a tiger, I’d be justified in shooting it. If I was wrong, then I’d be doing quite a bit of apologizing to its human side once it woke up. If that was the case, I’d have to rely on Reese and Berkley to help smooth things over.
“Stay here and keep an eye on the tiger while I run out to my truck.” I headed back through the living room, since I’d parked the vehicle on the gravel drive near the front of Alma’s house. With any luck, the animal would stay in the backyard long enough for me to retrieve the gun and get back inside.
COLLAPSE