Val smiled up at him and kissed his cheek.

  Everyone chuckled.

  “Okay, so what happened with the rest of Eric’s men?” Val asked. She and Howard didn’t know how many more they’d taken down. She had taken Howard straight to the hospital while the others had disposed of the bodies.

  “There were four others, all jaguar shifters, and I smelled weed on one of them,” Everett said. “We worked well together, the wolves acting as bait and confusing the issue, and Demetria and me taking the jaguars out before they could fight us too much. Not that Jillian and Vaughn didn’t get in a whole lot of bites too.”

  Jillian and Vaughn smiled.

  Val knew the cats they fought had given them a real workout, as evidenced by all the bites and claw injuries they had. She was glad they had prevailed and hadn’t needed her and Howard’s assistance in taking the others down. She loved how they teamed up to work together.

  “When you were in the exam room with Howard, having him checked out, Jillian called your parents to tell them we’d taken down all the bad guys, Val. Vaughn called Emmie, I called Rowdy, and Demetria called Izzie with the good news. Everyone is grateful,” Everett said. “I called both Sylvan and Martin to let them know the good news. And the best news? Martin’s giving us two weeks to play in the surf down here. Of course, he said if we learn there are any loose ends running around down here—part of Eric’s drug network—we’re to take them out if they’re jaguars or turn them over to the police if they’re humans. That’s part of the reason he’s giving us the extra time off, all expenses paid. But two weeks, folks! Martin never gives us that long of a break. We have Howard to thank for that.”

  Val patted Howard’s leg. “I wasn’t sure if you could help me out there at the end.”

  “I was afraid to jump at Eric and miss the branch.”

  Everyone laughed. The notion a jaguar couldn’t jump from one branch to another was unthinkable, though Howard had had good reason. She’d wondered why he hadn’t made his move.

  “You know, the boss is going to want you to train agents on how to do that,” Everett said.

  “Do what?” Howard frowned.

  “Take down a cat in a tree when you are seeing two of them. That takes some special maneuvering.” Everett smiled at him.

  Val loved how the team members supported and teased each other in a way that made the fighting take a back seat to the whole mission.

  “I had a wild cat taking the brunt of it,” Howard said, draping his arm carefully over Val’s shoulders. “She was amazing.”

  “I was only keeping him occupied until you could take him down. Without you? I would never have won that battle.” Val still couldn’t shake loose the image of poor Howard standing on the ground looking dazed, or in the tree looking mean and growly, but not taking any action.

  “Which is why we do things as a team.” Demetria poured everyone fresh margaritas from a pitcher.

  “Two weeks of fun in the sun,” Jillian said.

  “Just remember, before we leave, we have to drop by a grocery store and pick up some wangla for our boss,” Everett said.

  Val raised her brows.

  “Yeah, I know. When I heard about it, I didn’t believe it, but he tells all his agents if they end up in Belize, they have to bring him back the brittle sesame seed candy,” Demetria said.

  Instead of one package, they each got him several, their mission done, and all of them had a great time in their jaguar paradise over the next two weeks. But now it was time to return home to Houston and set up new housekeeping for Val and Howard and plan a wedding.

  Epilogue

  Val and Howard ordered margaritas at the Clawed and Dangerous Kitty Cat Club in Houston, where they were waiting on the rest of their USF team to show up for happy hour, when they saw Emmie dancing with a guy. The boss hadn’t yet given them another assignment because of the tough situation in Belize, despite the vacation having helped them all to heal and be ready for their next mission. They’d taken five more of Eric’s human dealers into custody and turned them over to the police and had permanently taken out one more of Eric’s jaguar henchman who’d thought he might still recover the money and drugs the agents had confiscated. With that many agents on the mission, the perp didn’t last long.

  They were still chilling out upon their return to the States.

  “Whoa, I sure hope she’s being more careful about who she’s seeing these days,” Val said about Emmie.

  Emmie turned and saw them and waved, then leaned over and talked to the guy she was with. He glanced back at them and gave them a thumbs-up.

  “Hell, he’s a Guardian. Good deal for her if things work out between them,” Howard said.

  “Yeah, I’m glad she’s with one of the good guys this time.” Then Val spied Izzie at a table across the dance floor from theirs. “Ohmigod, what’s Izzie doing here? What if she shifts?” Then she frowned. “She’d better not be drinking while she’s pregnant.”

  “It appears she’s not with anyone. What happened to her Guardian family?” Howard asked, getting ready to leave the table to investigate the situation.

  “Wait! Look there! Look who’s coming out of the back where the restrooms are,” Val said, excited.

  “Well, I’ll be damned. What’s Rowdy doing here?” Howard sounded as surprised as she felt.

  “He sees us, and he’s bringing Izzie with him to join us.” She just couldn’t believe he was here. Or that Izzie appeared to be with him.

  Izzie was all smiles when she and Rowdy joined them at their table. “We didn’t know you were here,” Rowdy said.

  “We just arrived. We’re meeting up with Jillian and Vaughn and the rest of the team members that you haven’t met: Demetria and Everett. When did you get in?” Val wondered if he’d ever gone home to Montana.

  “Last night,” Rowdy said. “I gave notice at work and put my house up for sale. I started training with the USF this morning, and I’m celebrating at the club where so many of our agents hang out.” Rowdy proudly showed off his agent-in-training badge.

  Val and Howard smiled.

  Howard’s cell jingled, and he pulled it out and frowned. “Hey, Martin… Yeah, we’re all at the club… What do you mean you’ve got a job lined up for us already?” He glanced in the direction of the front door. “Yes, sir, they’re all headed for our table.”

  Val turned to see the other USF team members coming to join them.

  “Yeah, just a minute.” Howard held up the phone, indicating he had an important call. “Since the whole gang’s here, I’ll give them the news. What’s the new mission?”

  * * *

  Val was ready to take on a new mission with them. And everyone else was too. She couldn’t imagine working with the Enforcer branch on her own any longer. She squeezed Howard’s hand. She loved him. Her parents had retired from the Enforcer branch, thankfully, deciding from now on, the younger cubs could help out their kind. Though she knew they were volunteering to do anything they could to assist the jaguar police force.

  Howard would have liked another week alone with Val, just the two of them having fun, but he was ready to work the new case with her by his side. And when they had a break? He was making use of every second of it, loving his beautiful and clever mate. When they were in Belize, they’d found a place that had table tennis and she still hadn’t beaten him, but he loved that she kept trying. And she was the best of losers, tackling him in the bed at their cabin afterward to make love.

  “Ready to pack it up?” Howard asked the gathered team members.

  “After one more dance,” Val said.

  All the team members took to the floor—the couples dancing together, while Rowdy was dancing with Izzie. He appeared to be having fun, even though he still couldn’t go with the team on a mission. But as soon as he was fully trained? He would be part of the team too.

  “Love you,” Val said to Howard, dancing nice and slow and close.

  “Love you and all your roguish tendencies back.”

  Val smiled up at him. “You mean for giving you the slip at the hotel in San Antonio? Just a test to see if you could handle being my backup.”

  “I passed with flying colors.” He placed his hands on her back and pressed her closer.

  “I like how much you protect my front…too.”

  He chuckled and kissed her thoroughly. One dance led to two, and then three, when they finally had to leave and pack for the trip out of there. “More of this later.”

  “Yeah, but we’re not leaving without a quickie,” she said as they left the club.

  “And that’s why we were meant to be together. We think so much alike.”

  “It helps set the proper frame of mind for the next assignment.”

  He smiled. “You give me superpowers.”

  She laughed, and they waved at the others, who they’d be joining soon enough for another USF adventure.

  For more Terry Spear

  check out the SEAL Wolf series

  SEAL Wolf Surrender

  On sale May 2019

  Keep reading for a sneak peek at the next book in Terry Spear’s SEAL Wolf series

  Coming soon from Sourcebooks Casablanca

  Chapter 1

  Her parents’ garden nursery had been open for a brief time that morning when Natalie Silverton, who was loading flowers into the back of a customer’s pickup, realized it was time to leave for the airport. “Thanks, Mrs. Nesbitt,” she said, barely waiting for the woman’s response.

  She ran back to the shop where her mom was cashiering. “I’ve got to leave.” Having helped all she could before she departed, Natalie grabbed her purse from a locked drawer under the counter. Her dad had left to deliver trees to a customer’s home, and Natalie had been handling everything else except the register. She hated to leave her mother alone in the nursery.

  “Go, give our Angie a hug for us,” her mom said, giving Natalie a quick squeeze. “Have a good time, and don’t hurry back. Your schedule is clear for five days. See some sights while you’re there. Have some fun.”

  Her mom knew Natalie wouldn’t see any “sights” on her own. She suspected her mom was hoping she’d go out with some of the wolves of the Greystoke pack while she was away.

  “Love you, Mom.” As their master gardener, Natalie gave classes and tours of their nursery all the time. But she had to catch a flight from Amarillo, Texas, to Denver, Colorado, to celebrate the marriage of her best friend, who was like a sister to her. Half a decade earlier, Natalie’s parents had learned Angie lived in the Amarillo area and didn’t have a family of her own. They had promptly taken her in as part of their family.

  Natalie rushed back through the garden to reach the gate that led to her carriage house behind the Silverton Garden Center. She should have parked her car in front of the garden shop, but she had intended to leave a little bit ago.

  Her bags were already in the car, so she changed out of her jeans and Silverton Garden T-shirt, yanked on a dress and heels, and tore out of the house. She jumped into her car and drove off, tamping down the urge to speed. She would make it, but without a lot of time to spare. She would much rather arrive at the airport early and relax before she took the flight. Better yet, if she hadn’t given a gardening workshop last evening, she would have just driven to Denver. It was only about a six-and-a-half-hour drive.

  A half hour later, she parked and rushed into the airport, pulling her bags behind her. Inside, she paused, looking for the right airline counter to check her bag, then saw it and hurried toward it. Without warning, a little girl ran in front of Natalie to catch up with a woman who appeared to be her mother, forcing Natalie to stop suddenly. The abrupt stop caused a man to stumble over her bag and fall, sprawling out on the floor. She was so used to apologizing to customers that she let go of her bags and hurried to help him up. He looked to be in his early thirties, so it wasn’t as if he needed the help, but she immediately made the gesture. Getting closer to him, she smelled he was a wolf, and that took her aback. She didn’t know of any living in the area other than her parents and Angie.

  “I’m so sorry.” She offered her hand to him.

  Blond-haired and mustached, he narrowed his blue eyes at her and cursed. “Hell, woman. Don’t you ever look where you’re going?” He took a deep breath of her scent, his eyes widening a little when he realized she was a wolf too. He ignored her offer of help, rose to his feet—towering over her at six-foot-plus—and brushed off his jeans.

  He had the situation a little backward since he was the one who wasn’t watching where he was going and had run into her bag. Was he just passing through, visiting the area, or did he live in Amarillo?

  The wolf jerked his bag past her and headed for the same check-in counter she had to use. Great. She smelled liquor on him. Whiskey. She sure didn’t want to have to put up with a drunken wolf. Though he could be on a different flight with the same airline.

  For a moment, she thought about whether to get in line behind the surly wolf or wait until someone else came up to give her some distance. She decided not to wait and moved in behind him, keeping some space between them.

  He was already arguing with the agent at the counter, wanting to carry his bag on the plane, but the woman said he couldn’t. “It exceeds the maximum size for a carry-on. You’ll have to put it in the cargo hold.”

  It was the same size and style as Natalie’s bag, and she knew she’d have to check hers. She would have shipped Angie and Aaron’s wedding gift to them if she’d had the time. Then she wouldn’t have had to check a bag.

  “They let me carry it on the last flight I took it on. I had no problem at all.”

  “That may be, if you flew on one of the bigger planes. This one just doesn’t have room.” The agent wasn’t backing down from the growly wolf. Good for her.

  “Hell, lady.” He slammed his bag on the scale. “Someone should have said so beforehand.”

  “I’m sorry, sir. It’s just that the bag won’t fit under the seats or in the overhead bin.” She gave him the claim tag for his bag.

  He jerked the claim tag from the agent’s hand and stalked off. Natalie felt embarrassed for being a wolf, considering this man was one too. His rude behavior would have given the wolf kind a bad name, if humans had known wolf shifters existed.

  Natalie checked her bag and hurried to security, where she ended up behind the wolf again. How lucky could she be?

  “I always have precheck stamped on my ticket. That ticket agent didn’t like that I was annoyed about not being able to carry my bag on the plane. I want to report her.”

  “Sorry, sir,” the man said, “but it’s really random.”

  “I still have to go through all of this crap?” the growly wolf said.

  “That’s the rule, sir. Please remove your shoes and step through the screener.”

  The wolf grabbed a bin, jerked his sneakers off, then slammed them into the bin and shoved it onto the conveyer belt. Natalie wondered if he was always this disagreeable or if the liquor was the reason. She felt sorry for anyone who had to cross paths with him today.

  She removed her heels and put them and her purse in a bin. After she put her carry-on on the conveyer belt, the security officer motioned her through. She grabbed her stuff and hurried to put on her shoes. Then she began looking for her gate. Of course, it had to be on the other side of the terminal.

  At least she had a straight flight and no transfers. She saw the wolf ahead of her. There were a lot of gates in this direction, so he could be headed to any of them. She was counting on that, but then he took a detour to a bar. She shook her head. He’d already had too much to drink. He didn’t need to make any more of an ass of himself than he already had.

  When she reached her gate, the attendants were already calling for boarding. She was in group two, and with relief, she boarded the plane. If by chance the wolf was on her flight, maybe he’d miss it. She smiled. That would serve him right.

  Natalie took her seat, and it wasn’t long before she saw the wolf coming down the aisle. As soon as he reached his row, across the aisle from hers where she had an individual seat, he began to complain about being seated next to a mom and her toddler. Passengers were backed up behind him as he balked about sitting in his assigned seat.

  The hostess hurried to see what the difficulty was, and the wolf said, “The kid’s diaper needs to be changed. It probably hasn’t been changed since yesterday. I can’t sit and smell that piss the whole flight.”

  “She was changed right before the flight!” the irate mom said, her voice elevated.

  Refusing to sit down, the wolf stood in the aisle, glowering at the hostess. “I demand a new seat. Anywhere. The kid smells like pee.”

  “The flight is full. Please have a seat,” the hostess said, her cheeks coloring though she was trying to pacify him in a cool, collected manner.

  Natalie was about to offer her seat to him, just so they could get on their way. He was already delaying them, and if they didn’t leave now, they would miss their place in line on the runway. Not that she wanted to sit by the mom and her toddler if the girl had a soiled diaper, because like him, Natalie had an enhanced sense of smell. But as annoying as he was, she didn’t want to accommodate him. That would only encourage such bad behavior.

  “I won’t sit next to the damn woman and her filthy kid.”

  Natalie saw one of the crew members coming, and from the set of his jaw, she didn’t think he’d allow any guff from the wolf. At least she hoped he wouldn’t. “You’re going to have to leave the plane,” the man told the wolf.

  The next thing she knew, Mr. Drunk Wolf was being escorted off the plane. He was cursing up a storm, but at least he wasn’t fighting. Their kind could be trouble if they ended up in jail, especially if they couldn’t control the urge to shift during the full moon.