Howard smiled. “Those make for some special times when we can do that. So you wear the pants in the family.”

  She laughed. “That was cute.”

  “I was like you, figuring they wouldn’t leave until we did.”

  “Can you blame them?”

  “No, not at all.”

  Val got a text and responded before saying, “Mom must be feeling a lot better. She wants to know what happened with regard to taking care of these bastards.”

  “Good. I’m glad to hear it. What about your dad?”

  “He’s starting to recover. Which means he’s grouchy.”

  Howard smiled. He knew the feeling.

  She reached over and patted his thigh. “Good to know you’re just like him.”

  “Not just like him. I have no problem letting my partner take charge of a situation we’re in. Whoever’s got the best plan of action works for me.”

  “Hmm, I recall telling you that you had to stay on the other side of the resort so you didn’t tip Benny off.”

  “Right. But that wasn’t the best plan of action.”

  She smiled. “Uh-huh.” Val texted someone and then told Howard she was letting Jillian know they would be there in another hour. And she told her mom Howard had taken down three of the men already.

  Jillian called right after that, and Val put her phone on speaker.

  “We have a problem. Izzie Summerfield, Benny’s girlfriend, came to our cabin, and she’s hysterical,” Jillian said.

  They heard a woman sobbing in the background.

  “She says she thinks Benny gave her some kind of mind-altering drug because she was seeing things.”

  “He gave her that purple heroin?” Howard growled.

  “Worse. Well, I mean, that could kill her, sure. But he turned into a jaguar in front of her.”

  “Tell me he didn’t bite her.” Howard was afraid that’s what had happened, if Benny’s past history was any indication. Couldn’t the ass get a jaguar girlfriend? Then again, if he did have a jaguar girlfriend and he got her involved in his drug dealings, she’d be in the same trouble as him.

  “He bit Izzie about half an hour ago. Then he shifted again, told her he was going to get groceries, and if she needed anything, just go see the neighbors. Afterward, he got in his car and drove off!” Jillian sounded just as exasperated as when Vaughn had tried to take her brother down. “She came over in a panic because she was having hallucinations and was feeling ‘weirded out.’ Those were her words.”

  “Don’t tell us he did it on purpose so we’d be stuck dealing with her,” Val said.

  “I’m sure of it,” Jillian said. “It ties some of us up with having to take care of her.”

  “Then he’s not returning to the resort,” Val said, which was just what Howard believed.

  “I suspect that’s the case. I’ve never handled a situation like this before. I wasn’t sure how to deal with it. Rowdy’s talking to her in the living room. He’s good with people. He’s calmed her down. At the same time, this gives him an inkling of how it feels to be newly turned. Though at least he knows about us, unlike the woman.”

  “Hell, so she’s a jaguar shifter now. A Guardian family will have to take her in to teach her the ropes, and hopefully she’ll adjust just fine,” Howard said.

  “Jillian, I’ll call it in. Just help Rowdy keep the woman calm in the meantime. Hopefully, we’ll get a Guardian agent out here right away. Maybe even the brother and sister who were taking care of my parents. We found money and drugs at Eric’s house, and we need to transfer that to them as well. They can fly it all out on a private plane.”

  “Okay, praying that will be the case. Let us know what you learn.”

  “Will do.” Val called the brother-and-sister team after that and reached Matt. “Hey, it’s Val, and if you and Katrina are still in the area and can handle another mission, we have a new problem.”

  “Oh? Martin said we needed to take some stuff off your hands. Is it something else?”

  “The guy we’re after just turned his new girlfriend. He murdered his wife after he’d turned her. Now the new one is with the rest of our team, under our protection. We’re still trying to destroy this drug ring, which includes the guy who did this. We’re at the Tropical Rain Forest Resort, cabin three. It’s about two hours from where you were. Can you handle it, or do I need to call my boss to have him ask your branch for another Guardian team?”

  “We’ll do it. Your parents are doing fine, and we’re free to pick up the newly turned jaguar and take her with us. We’ll go with her and your parents on the return flight to Houston. In the meantime, our boss will assign her a family to take her in.”

  “Thanks so much, Matt. We’re still on our way back to the resort. It’ll take us another hour to get there.”

  “Who’s watching the woman for now?”

  “Jillian, but she’s a wolf shifter, and we have a human homicide detective there. Long story, but he knows about our kind. He’s trying to reassure Izzie that everything will be all right. We’ll see you in a couple of hours then.”

  “Uh, yeah. I’ll let Katrina know we’ve got another assignment. We’ll need to know who the woman’s family is and will have to deal with that too.”

  “That’s true.”

  Something Howard hadn’t thought of. All he’d focused on was getting Izzie away from here and safely home without anyone else knowing what she was. He was relieved the Guardian agents would take care of her. They were trained more for that kind of work than the JAG, USF, or Enforcers were. He could hear it now though. The last time they’d had an issue like this come up, Martin had made them take training to deal with it. After this, Howard could see them having to learn how to cope better with newly turned shifters. He guessed it wouldn’t hurt. He just hoped, since they were stuck taking care of this here, Martin wouldn’t assign them the task of teaching others how to deal with it. That’s usually what he did. Those with firsthand knowledge in the field became the instructors for the other agents.

  Val called Jillian and told her the news. She was relieved Howard and Val would be there soon to help out until the Guardian agents arrived. She sounded harried, and Howard wished they were already there. Because of the rain and road conditions, he had to watch his speed, though his foot was pressing down a little more on the gas pedal than it should have been. Especially when he was carrying all this dope and money in the car.

  After that, Val updated her boss, who was glad the Guardians would take care of Izzie but insistent that Val and Howard take Benny down before he bit anyone else. As if that hadn’t been their intention in the first place.

  When Val finished the call, she turned to Howard. “Okay, so we’re going to have a full house, if Matt and his sister have to stay the night with us. And of course, so will the newly turned woman.”

  “I hate to say this, but because we’re all jaguars and better equipped to handle her, all of us need to stay at your cabin. We can take turns watching her through the night until Matt and Katrina can take her with them in the morning. I feel for them though. They could have a challenge, just taking her anywhere.”

  “Maybe they can sedate her. Their vacation sure has been ruined.”

  “I’m sure they’ll get plenty of comp time to make up for it.”

  Val smiled at Howard. “That takes care of the coin toss then.”

  Howard chuckled. She couldn’t seriously have thought it would come to that.

  He considered what Benny had done to the poor woman. If he wasn’t already on Howard’s terminal list, that would have done it. What if she was really close to her family, and now this happened? She probably couldn’t see them for years, until she could get her shifting under control. It would be a nightmare for her for a long time. Here the woman thought she had been drugged.

  So what was the next step? Tell her that almost all of them were shifters and not to worry? He imagined that would go over big.

  “If he wasn’t a dead man before, he would be now,” Val said, thinking along the same lines as Howard. “From his action today, I’d say he was planning all along to do the same thing as before. Maybe he’d keep doing it until he found a woman who could handle being turned.”

  “He won’t have that long to live. At least I hope he won’t. At least in Emmie’s case, she was already one of us.”

  “Right. Since Benny took off, assuming he’s not going to return after saddling us with another crisis, Eric probably won’t be showing up here looking for his brother either,” Val said.

  “Unless he wants to learn what happened to him. If Eric was close to him, he might. I hope he does. He’ll have a whole bunch of shifters to deal with. We’ll see if the Guardians have ever dealt with a case like this. It’s not something I’ve ever had to take care of.” Howard had thought they could take turns sleeping while someone watched Izzie.

  Surprising both him and Val, Jillian called again. They were nearly to the resort, and he figured her call only meant they had more trouble. He just hoped Benny and his cohorts hadn’t showed up.

  Val put the call on speaker. “Yeah, Jillian? What’s wrong now?”

  “She tore off her clothes and shifted. I told Rowdy to run. To get out of the cabin. He ran for the door and opened it, and she nearly bit him! I interceded and she bit me instead, but she ran off.”

  “Ah, hell. Okay, at least she didn’t turn Rowdy,” Howard said. “We’re nearly there. What about you? Are you going to be okay?” Howard worried Jillian might have been injured badly.

  “I’m okay. She didn’t bite hard. She…she’s gone. I’m so sorry. When Rowdy opened the door to leave, she ran after him. He thought she was going to attack him, but then he realized she was trying to leave, and he attempted to shut the door so she wouldn’t escape. That’s when she tried to bite him. Then she ran off into the rain forest. Rowdy’s cleaning my bite. She bit me in the arm, and I might need some stitches until the shifter genetics help me to heal.”

  “The Guardians are physician assistants. They can sew you up. Just stay there with Rowdy. We’ll search for her as soon as we arrive,” Howard said. “Benny is so dead.”

  “I agree. Rowdy’s upset Izzie bit me. He wants to be a wolf, but no one has offered to turn him. He doesn’t want to be a jaguar, so he was glad she hadn’t bitten him,” Jillian said.

  “Well, hell, he’s going to be what he’s going to be. And that’s being a jaguar or a wolf, depending on the trouble he gets himself into. If one of the branch chiefs agree, we’ll take him into one of the jaguar branches—hopefully with the USF where we have both wolves and jaguars working together—and train him to be one of our agents. But it’ll be a while before he can work in the field.”

  “All right. I’ll tell him. He’s pacing around here, furious with Benny for turning Izzie.”

  “He should be. Just don’t let him run off after her. I wouldn’t put it past him to think he has to chase her down and try to talk her into returning to the cabin. He doesn’t know his way around, and he might run into Benny or any of the other jaguars.”

  “I agree.”

  “Okay, we’re pulling up now.” Howard parked, and he and Val hurried to leave the car so they could look for the woman. He just hoped Izzie didn’t get herself into any further trouble in the meantime.

  Chapter 11

  Val called her boss to let him know the new development and to get a feeling for whether they could employ Rowdy right away.

  “What the hell do you mean you want to employ a human civilian just because he knows about wolf shifters?” Sylvan paused, then said, “Wait, he knows about us too? I want this under control now. If the woman and the homicide detective have to be eliminated, so be it. Sometimes it has to be done, or we end up having a domino effect. Hell.”

  “Yes, sir.” Val knew if a newly turned shifter couldn’t get themselves under control, they would have to be eliminated. But she wanted to get Izzie in hand and at least give her the opportunity to prove she could control her shifter half. Val also wanted to give Rowdy the chance to work with the jaguar policing force officially before he was turned or eliminated for knowing about them.

  “What the hell was the human homicide detective doing there when the woman shifted?” Sylvan asked.

  Val explained that she’d had to stop him from alerting Benny he was after him, reminding Sylvan he already knew about wolf shifters, but also now about them.

  “So it’s his own damn fault he was there investigating the situation when it wasn’t in his jurisdiction.”

  “Can we give him a job?”

  “What? Hell no.”

  “In the office? Until someone turns him and he gets his shifting under control?”

  “He investigates murders. He doesn’t commit them.”

  “Right, well, maybe Martin can hire him. Rowdy has extensive training. He would be a great asset,” she said as she and Howard walked into the cabin to see Rowdy pacing across the living room floor.

  “Maybe he could, but not at my branch. And try not to call me about anybody else getting turned on your assignment, will you?”

  “I don’t plan to. But if it happens, you’ll be the first to know.” Val ended the call.

  “That went over well, I imagine,” Howard said.

  “Yeah. One too many humans turned for his liking, with another wanting to be turned.”

  Rowdy was so aggravated he’d nearly been bitten by a newly turned jaguar that Val didn’t want to tell him her boss wasn’t about to let him work for her branch.

  “If I’d had a tranquilizer gun, I could have knocked Izzie out before any of this happened.” Jillian ran her hands through her hair, looking distraught that everything had gone so wrong and she hadn’t been able to stop any of it, but it wasn’t her fault.

  Val had already disappeared down the hall.

  “No problem. We’ll find her and bring her back.” Though Howard didn’t know how they’d be able to convince Izzie to return with them. He might have to resort to knocking her out with a swipe of his paw. But if he hit her too hard, he could kill her.

  Val had stripped out of her clothes in his bedroom and loped out of there wearing her jaguar coat.

  Howard eyed a scowling Rowdy. “You wanted to be one of us.”

  “Yeah. As a wolf. I didn’t even know you guys existed.” Rowdy was glowering at him, looking totally pissed off, as if it was Howard’s fault for what had nearly happened.

  “Hey, you play with shifters, you have to take the consequences. Besides, you’ll have your enhanced senses if you are turned. In the meantime, while we’re gone, don’t get bitten or cause Jillian any trouble, or I’ll return and kill you myself.”

  “I’m one of the good guys, remember?” Rowdy’s brows were raised.

  “If you’re turned or shift and you bite or otherwise injure Jillian, you’ll be considered a rogue and you’ll be on my terminal list. Just a warning. You’d deal with me next. You don’t want to have to, believe me.”

  “Hell, give me a little credit, won’t you? I haven’t been bitten. But if I had, as I understand it, I still have control over the beast. Right?” Rowdy looked a little worried that he’d need to be locked up for his own good and everybody else’s.

  “The shifter doesn’t take control, but we never know when a perfectly good human who is turned will react in a negative way.” Howard began stripping out of his clothes and said to Jillian, “Shoot him if Izzie returns, bites him, and he shifts and even growls at you.”

  Jillian smiled at Howard, and he suspected she’d reassure Rowdy after Howard left that she had no intention of doing anything of the sort. She was sweeter than he was.

  When Howard gave her a growly look that said he was serious, she nodded as if in agreement. Then he finished stripping off his clothes and shifted.

  Val headed outside, and Howard raced after her. At least it had stopped raining.

  They both immediately smelled the woman’s scent and began searching for her. He hoped she hadn’t run into any trouble while she was racing through the rain forest. She wouldn’t know the ins and outs of being a jaguar yet. She could instinctively leap into trees, love to swim, be able to leap long distances, and roar like they did. But other abilities—fishing as a jaguar, hunting, fighting—would take some practice, skill, and training. She most likely wouldn’t realize what scents belonged to what. Some, she would know. Like the fragrance of orchids or the smell of the rain, the woodsy scent. But animals? Distinguishing between shifters’ scents? Even recognizing a jaguar’s pattern to distinguish him from another jaguar? Those were things she would have to learn.

  As a new shifter, she was being bombarded by sounds. He imagined it would be like turning the volume up on a hearing aid, and all the sounds would be confusing.

  Her sense of sight would experience overload. Every little thing that moved—water drops dripping off a leaf, a leaf stirring, a mosquito buzzing overhead—would capture her attention. It could be frustrating and overwhelming.

  Shifters born with the ability and growing up with their enhanced senses would learn about them gradually, taking baby steps at a time.

  He hoped she didn’t go for a swim and encounter a crocodile. Just as Rowdy kept thinking with his human brain, he suspected Izzie would for some time too, until she got used to being in her jaguar form. If she saw a crocodile, instead of tackling it, she’d probably swim for her life, attempting to get away from it. She probably wouldn’t even know that crocs were on the jaguars’ menu.

  They’d been searching for Izzie for about an hour when the sun began to set. Hell. Not that they couldn’t still see, smell, or hear her, but he could imagine how she’d feel when the dark descended. Any place a person wasn’t familiar with could be even scarier at night.

  Where the hell did she think she was going? As far away from them as she could go, most likely.