“He was nice to me,” Henry said. “Don’t hurt him. While we were waiting, he got me this cool dinosaur hat, pizza, rode with me on the carousel three times, even got me popcorn and food to feed to the giraffes.”

  “You stay with the kids. I’m calling Everett and Demetria Anderson to help out,” Jason said, without discussing it further with her and tore off.

  She knew Everett and Demetria were jaguars with the United Shifter Force that dealt with problem shifters, but, yeah, that’s what Erin figured. Working with Jason meant she’d have to go by his rules. Not happening.

  Chapter 6

  Jason knew from the irked expression Erin wore that she was really pissed off at him for going after the kidnapper and leaving her with the kids. Maybe she didn’t like kids. What did he know?

  Now he wondered what the deal was with Henry and Samantha. Had they been adopted? Or were they foster kids like he’d been?

  Either he or Erin had to “protect” the kids, rather in truth, protect the wolf shifter from being arrested by the police, yet still ensure the kids didn’t call the police and felt like they were being protected by someone who knew what she was doing. Jason assumed Erin would know how to reassure the kids better—especially Samantha because they were both big she-cats—than he would. This was a case of needing help from the jaguar police force and he called a friend of his, Everett Anderson, who worked for the jaguar-run United Shifter Force to help them out.

  “Hey, Everett, this is Jason Biggerstaff. I have a real problem. I’m chasing down a wolf shifter who is at the Houston Zoo, carrying a set of keys to the zoo enclosures, and I’m afraid he’s going to try and release a jaguar, thinking he’s a shifter, maybe? There are no wolves at the zoo. He has already been involved in the kidnapping of Henry Potter, who turned out to be one of our kind. So is his first cousin, Samantha. My new partner”—she really wasn’t Jason’s partner, and she probably would want to strangle him after he left her with the kids—“and I are here. You might know Erin Chambers—”

  “FBI agent. Yes. She’s been in the news.”

  “Right. She’s joined her father’s agency and she’s staying with the kids so that they don’t call the authorities on this one. Samantha was just trying to reach her cousin to rescue him, but she and Henry are jaguars; Samantha’s boyfriend isn’t a shifter.”

  Vehicle doors were slamming, and Jason heard Everett’s SUV tear off. He figured Everett was on his way.

  “My mate is coming with me. Demetria and I will take the shifter into custody, so that the kids will know that the situation has been taken care of. We’ll have to see what to do about the cousins, if none of the parents are shifters.”

  “They aren’t.”

  “The kids need their own kind to befriend them and help them deal with the issue of being shifters like us, if they don’t have help with it already.”

  “Agreed.” Jason followed the kidnapper as he looped his way around to the snow leopard exhibit, not the jaguar enclosure where he thought the man would go and he stopped. What was going on? Had he seen Jason following him? “He’s at the snow leopard’s exhibit. I’m going to stop him now.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Yeah.” Jason pocketed his phone, though he still had it open so Everett and Demetria could listen in on what was going on and hurried to intercept the man at the zoo employee’s door to the enclosure. As soon as the kidnapper found the correct key, Jason reached him and grabbed his arm to stop him from opening the door. “You’re one of us. A wolf shifter though, right? What the hell is wrong with you? Kidnapping a kid? Trying to get into an exhibit to what? Release a predator? Are you crazy?”

  “I’m an Arctic wolf shifter. A lupus garou. William is a shifter also. We’ve got to get him out of there.”

  “A snow leopard?”

  “Yeah, he’s a friend, okay?”

  “Who are you?”

  “Brian Jenkins. I didn’t know who to contact to help me here. I was at the zoo, smelled that the boy was a jaguar shifter, and his father is a zookeeper. If his dad had been a jaguar shifter, I would have told him what was going on. But he’s human. Henry was too scared to get the keys from his dad’s house, so he said his cousin Samantha would. She’s older and is a jaguar shifter too, he told me. I wanted to leave Henry behind, but he begged me to take him with me to see the snow leopard. And he said it was the only way for us to get Samantha to bring us the keys.”

  “You’re telling me the kid planned this?”

  “Yeah, so we could free the snow leopard.”

  “I take it you’re not from here.” Jason assumed Brian would know about the jaguar shifters in the area, maybe the jaguar policing force, and could have asked for help. This was not the way to go about it.

  “We’re from Alaska.”

  “Alaska?”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry. I had to get William out of there.”

  “We’re at the zoo,” Everett said. “Are you still at the snow leopard exhibit?”

  “Yes.” Then Jason explained to Brian who was coming. “They’re with a jaguar/wolf policing force. We have to get you out of here before the police arrest you for kidnapping a kid.”

  “The boy went willingly with me. He’s a jaguar shifter. I promised him I’d show him a snow leopard shifter. But they have William locked up in quarantine inside. I’ve been following any leads I could to try and get him out of there. His two triplet brothers are coming in today to help me, but I couldn’t wait. Not when I thought I had a surefire way to release him.”

  “This isn’t the way to do it.”

  “I didn’t know what else to do. I was afraid his brothers would do something even more drastic.”

  Jason shook his head. “This is about as drastic as they come.”

  “Let me unlock the door and give him his clothes at least. He can shift, dress, and come out with us,” Brian said.

  “I see you,” Everett said, he and his mate, Demetria, headed their way.

  “Good. Now what do we do?” If Jason had had training in matters like this, he would know what the protocol was, but he didn’t.

  Erin had waited long enough, getting a quick text from Jason telling her they had the situation in hand. Just take care of the kids and we’ll deal with this.

  Everything was under control? This was a virtual disaster.

  Jason texted: Feed the kids. Keep them happy.

  She couldn’t believe it!

  She texted her dad with an update: Dad, Jason is working on the situation with a wolf shifter who took the boy hostage. Jaguar shifters are coming to Jason’s aid. And Henry and his cousin Samantha are shifters too.

  Her dad texted back: What are you doing?

  She texted: Babysitting.

  Her dad didn’t respond, and she figured he probably assumed she wasn’t happy with the arrangement.

  “Okay, who all else wants pizza? I know Henry had some already, but if you’d like something else, we can go get it,” Erin said to the kids.

  “Aren’t we going to report the kidnapping?” Dale asked.

  “Jason has reinforcements that just arrived and they’re taking care of it. He told me to take you all to get something to eat or see at the zoo, whatever you’d like, until we resolve this.”

  “What about Henry’s family?” Samantha asked, holding her cousin’s hand.

  “We’re notifying them.” In due time.

  “I gotta pee,” Henry said.

  Erin didn’t want him to go alone into the bathroom after what had happened to him already. Dale seemed to feel the same way. “Me too. Let’s go.”

  Perfect. Now Erin could talk to Samantha alone.

  “Were you and Henry adopted? Foster kids?” Erin quickly asked.

  Samantha shook her head. “I was bitten. A couple of years ago, I went to a party that everyone was going to at one of the kid’s homes when their parents were gone on a weekend trip. I was looking for a bathroom and the downstairs one was occupied. So I went upstairs and opened a door, thinking maybe it was another bathroom, but it was a bedroom. I don’t know even what happened exactly. I mean, in a flash there was a leopard leaping at me.”

  “A jaguar.”

  “Yeah. I didn’t know what the difference was at the time. I just thought it was a leopard. It bit me and then I stumbled out of the room, and it slammed the door shut. I’d had too much to drink and from the shock from getting bitten, I don’t know. I just remembered waking up on the floor in the hallway, the bite on my arm was gone, and I figured someone had put something in the punch and I had just”—she shrugged—“had been hallucinating and passed out.”

  “Then later you shifted?”

  “Yeah. I was home the first time, and my mom was ragging on me about going to the party without permission—I don’t know how she always learns about these things—and I had to race to my room and lock the door. I just felt like I was burning up, feverish, but then I somehow knew I had to take off my clothes. Maybe because of the heat I was feeling. The next thing I knew, I was a jaguar, and I was afraid I was having flashbacks about seeing a leopard, well, jaguar. I just couldn’t believe it.”

  “When did this happen?” Erin asked.

  “When I was fifteen. So I’ve had this condition for two years. I can control it now. I couldn’t always in the very beginning. I had to skip a lot of school.” She looked askance at Erin. “What’s your story?”

  “I was born a shifter. And we have lots of people who will love to meet you.”

  “That…that man…he was like us, but not? The one who took Henry hostage?”

  “Yeah. I think he’s a wolf shifter and got some idea a shifter is locked up in an enclosure. Others are here to try and help him.”

  “We can’t call the police, can we?”

  “No. We can’t put this on TikTok or Instagram or any of the other social media sites. The police, FBI could get involved and we’d be in trouble.”

  “I want to help the man who’s locked up. If one of us were—”

  “The others will do it.” At least Erin hoped they would. Though she also wished she was there with them, trying to figure out how to do this. Then again, Samantha needed her too and she was glad they had this talk. “And your cousin?”

  Samantha chewed on her bottom lip. “That was all my fault. I was babysitting him, and he kept doing things I told him not to because he wanted my attention. I was on my phone. Anyway, I told him if he didn’t tell anyone, I’d show him something really cool.”

  “You shifted.”

  “Yeah, I came out of the bedroom as a jaguar and he tripped on a toy, trying to get away from me. He fell and hit his head and was bleeding. I licked him, not thinking it would do anything to him. I just wanted him to know I wasn’t going to hurt him. Within the hour, he was yanking off his clothes and I realized the mistake I’d made. He shifted into a jaguar. The only good thing that came of it was that his head healed much faster. Of course, he thinks it’s the coolest thing ever, but I’m worried he’ll tell someone what we are, bragging, or even bite someone like the guy did to me.”

  Henry and Dale came out of the restroom and Dale said, “Hey, does the offer of pizza still stand?”

  “Yeah, come on,” Erin said, and she rubbed Samantha’s back, telling her that she had a new friend who would be there for her anytime she needed her to. She was also thinking that if she and her mother didn’t get along at all, and Samantha wanted to join a jaguar family, she’d do what she could to find one for her. As to Henry? They needed to take care of that situation too.

  Jason couldn’t believe he was in the middle of a jaguar forces action to help rescue a shifter, and he was hoping that Erin was doing fine with the kids.

  “Okay, go ahead, unlock the door,” Everett said. “We’ll watch out for anyone else who might approach the enclosure.”

  Then Brian went inside, and Jason was hoping the hell he was right about the snow leopard being a shifter or he could be in harm’s way. The next thing they knew, Brian and a black-haired man pulling on a jacket, hurried out of the zookeeper’s entry to the exhibit and they locked the door. They hurried away from the door. They needed to get the keys back to Samantha’s uncle, and they needed to get Brian away from here too. And deal with the issue of the boy being taken.

  Jason called Erin right away. “We’ve got Brian and the man he was trying to rescue. William Wright is a snow leopard.”

  “Really? Wow. You’ll have to tell me how that all came about. We’re at the café having pizza.”

  “I’ll tell everyone. We’ll meet you there and we’ll get Henry home.”

  “What about Dale and Samantha?”

  “Dale can drive Samantha to Henry’s home, and we’ll give her all kinds of resources that she can have so we can connect her and Henry with our kind.”

  “Okay. We’ve talked, but we need more time together to talk about all this.”

  “All right. That sounds like a good idea. I hope you’re not too irritated with me over taking care of this and leaving you behind to take care of the kids.”

  “We had a good talk. But next time—”

  He smiled. “Hopefully we won’t have another time like this. Okay, we’re nearly there. By the way, did you see the weather report?”

  “No, what’s up?”

  “Bitterly cold weather coming. Snow. Ice. Freezing.”

  “Here?”

  “Yeah, so I hope you brought some warm clothes with you. It’s bound to turn into an Ice Age.”

  Then they reached the café and headed inside. Erin smiled at Jason as if she were seeing her rescuer come to save her. He smiled back; glad she wasn’t angry with him leaving her with the kids. She also waved at Demetria and Everett.

  “Hey.” Demetria gave Samantha and Henry a broad smile. “We’re so glad we could assist you.”

  “He’s the kidnapper,” Dale said, his mouth gaping.

  “He isn’t. I mean, he just desperately needed our help, and we are so grateful to you, Samantha and Henry, for coming to our aid.” Everett showed his badge and so did Demetria.

  “Agent Daniels was undercover,” Demetria said.

  Henry’s eyes were huge. “I told you he was really nice to me. Did I help you with it too?”

  “You sure did.” Brian smiled. “Thanks for helping me.”

  Dale shook his head. “This was an undercover operation? With a kid?”

  “Yeah, sorry, Dale. That’s why we couldn’t call the police. They would have botched everything,” Samantha said, as if she’d been in on this the whole time.

  “Okay.” Dale scratched his head. “I don’t understand what Henry was needed for though.”

  “That part of the assignment is strictly confidential,” Everett said.

  “Did you get enough to eat?” Erin asked the kids.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Samantha said.

  “Can you do one more thing for us?” Demetria asked Samantha. She handed her the set of keys to the zoo.

  “Yeah, sure. I will,” Samantha said.

  “How are you going to get in without being seen this time?” Dale asked.

  “I’m going to say my mom and I had a fight, and I went over to make my uncle some chicken soup if he’s feeling better. And I’ll leave the keys where I found them,” Samantha said. “My aunt will still be at the hospital working.”

  “And your mom? Are you going to tell her where you are?” Erin asked. “She thinks you’ve run away.”

  “I’m going to tell Pete. But I need to see if I can live somewhere else.” Samantha sounded like her mind was made up.

  “We can make that happen,” Demetria said.

  Jason was glad for that if it was really something Samantha wanted to do.

  “What about Henry?” Samantha asked.

  “We’ll have to discuss this with you and him later,” Demetria said.

  Then Samantha called Pete to tell him she was on the way to her uncle’s place and was fine. She was just with her friend Dale and Henry was fine too and on his way home. Jason called Henry’s family and told them the boy was with agents and would be home soon. That he was perfectly all right.

  After that, they headed for the parking lot for their cars, but Dale had to look over Jason’s sporty Jaguar first and he let Dale, Samantha, and Henry sit in it, which they loved.

  “Okay, well, we’ll follow you out of here,” Jason said to Dale.

  “You’ll ride with us,” Demetria said to Henry “We’ll be taking you to your home, and Jason and Erin will follow us there because they found you with their investigative expertise.” Demetria smiled. “And, Samantha, you need to come too so you can slip the keys back to where they belong.”

  “The two of you have to come with us also,” Everett said to Brian and William.

  Samantha hugged Erin and then Demetria. “Thank you.” Then she got into the car with Dale and the others loaded up in their vehicles and headed out.

  “I hope this doesn’t come back to bite us,” Erin said to Jason.

  “Yeah, I know. Demetria and Everett are going to talk to Henry about what went down. Henry’s parents aren’t jaguars though.”

  “We’ll have to do something about Henry too. Since he’s young, I don’t think he’ll want to leave his family, unlike Samantha does. There wasn’t any indication he’s unhappy with his homelife,” Erin said.

  “Henry’s parents might need to be turned,” Jason said.

  “And the person who turned Samantha?” Erin asked.

  Jason shook his head. “We might never know the truth about that.”

  Erin explained to Jason all that Samantha had told her then.

  “Hopefully Samantha can sneak the keys back into her uncle’s house without letting on about it when we all end up at the Potters’ home,” Jason said.

  “I just hope we can all keep our stories straight. Especially the kids,” Erin said.

  Amen to that.

  Chapter 7

  On the way to Henry’s home, Demetria called Jason and Erin on Bluetooth to discuss the situation with Henry and his parents.