Beauty & The Jaguar Read online

  Beauty & The Jaguar

  E A Price

  Copyright ©2018 by Elizabeth Ann Price

  All rights reserved. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons or jaguar shifters, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. No one should attempt to recreate any of the events that happen in this story… apart from the parts where they go hiking – that’s just good for you.

  Table of Contents

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  One

  Sadie tried not to scowl as Mandy listed all the wonderful things Karen had done for her. All the wonderful ways Karen was better than her she thought in irritation.

  “And Karen knows so much about animals. Dad took us to the zoo, and she was telling us all about the animals…”

  “That’s nice, baby,” murmured Sadie.

  “Did you know the platypus is the only mammal that lays eggs?”

  Out of pettiness, she considered saying yes, but no, she didn’t want to start going down the road of lying about her knowledge and intellect – it would only backfire on her later if challenged to prove it.

  “I didn’t,” she admitted.

  “Isn’t Karen clever?”

  “Yeah, she’s terrific,” said Sadie with forced joviality.

  “She’s helping me redecorate my room. Dad says I can do whatever I want to it and that I can have a big screen TV.”

  Sadie sighed internally and peered around at her drab, little apartment and the drab moving boxes she hadn’t managed to unpack yet. She didn’t really blame Mandy for preferring her dad’s house to the apartment. Only someone with a twisted sense of humor would prefer her shabby apartment.

  “Dad was asking about you,” added Mandy, just a tad reproachfully.

  Sadie bit her tongue. She didn’t want to volley a tart reply at her daughter. Mandy didn’t need the nitty-gritty details of her parents’ divorce. Mandy was still hurt by the fact that Sadie was divorcing her dad; she couldn’t understand Sadie’s reasons for wanting to leave. As much as Mandy loved Karen – her dad’s new perfect girlfriend – she was still hoping that her mom and dad would get back together. Sadie would rather strap a rocket to her butt and become the first cosmetics saleswoman in space.

  “That’s nice,” murmured Sadie, “tell him I said…” Stop trying to control me, dickhead? Drop dead, asshole? “Send him my regards,” she finally settled on. He could figure out what those regards were in his own time.

  “I should go,” said Mandy, “we’re going out for dinner. We’re having my favorite – pizza at Alfredo’s. So much nicer than those frozen pizza pockets you buy.”

  Yep, there was no money in the budget for Alfredo’s – not if they wanted to pay for rent and electricity.

  “That sounds lovely,” said Sadie softly. “Okay, baby, have a nice time. I’ll see you soon.”

  “What’s that? No, it’s just Mom, and we’re finished now.” Mandy was talking to someone in the house – sounded like Karen. Sadie tried not to grind her teeth. “Gotta go, bye Mom.”

  “I love…” Mandy hung up. “You,” finished Sadie sadly.

  Sadie replaced the phone into its cradle and sighed, staring at the wall. Who thought pea green was a good color for a living room wall?

  Oh, the weekend was so long and dull when Mandy was away. She didn’t like Mandy staying with her father, but Mandy loved him, and he loved her too. She couldn’t be petty and keep them apart. Well, she could, but she wouldn’t.

  She sighed and grabbed the phone again, deciding to call her cousin. Gina was a receptionist for a lawyer. The lawyer, Brian, was kind of an ambulance chaser but he did have a law degree – from the fifth best online college out there - and was representing her in her divorce. Given that Gina was also dating him, Sadie was getting reduced fees – she was grateful for them.

  “Hey, G-girl.”

  “S-woman,” trilled Gina.

  “I’m not interrupting anything am I?”

  Most people tended to do fun things on their Friday nights.

  “No, I’m just in bed.”

  “You are? It’s seven thirty.”

  Gina snickered. “We’ve been in bed for an hour. My man’s just taking a cat nap before round two.”

  “Ugh, lovely.”

  Gina laughed even more. “What’s up?”

  “I’m kind of bored. Mandy’s with her dad this weekend.”

  “Right, of course,” murmured Gina sympathetically. “You want me to come over?”

  “And miss out on round two?” said Sadie dryly.

  “He’ll keep. Brian’s happy to have sex at any time of the day.”

  “Remind me never to drop by your office without an appointment,” said Sadie, sending Gina into chirrups of laughter. “But seriously, I’m fine; I want to do some prep work for my sales this week. I was just calling to see if you had any news about the divorce.”

  At the moment there was very little progress, mostly because her husband was severely dragging his heels and arguing about everything. He knew her terms – she wanted out and just child support for Mandy, that was it. But he was arguing about everything – or really, Mandy, because that was the only thing she cared about. So, Sadie had stopped going to the meetings between the lawyers – mostly because she couldn’t stand watching her husband smirk at her the whole time.

  At that time, Mandy was living with Sadie, but her dad picked her up from school a couple of nights a week and took her out, and she was also spending every other weekend with him. Well, him and Karen.

  “Ummm…”

  “What’s wrong?” snapped Sadie, immediately on her guard.

  “I don’t want you to worry…”

  Too late she thought grimly.

  “But his lawyer suggested the possibility that he might want full custody of Mandy.”

  “What?! No, he can’t.”

  “It was just a throwaway suggestion on his part,” said Gina soothingly.

  “But…”

  “But, Brian can’t deny there may be a small, tiny, teeny-weeny possibility that he could get it if he pushed for it.”

  “But… but I’m her mother!” spluttered Sadie.

  “I know, sweetie. It’s just that he’s financially sound, and in a stable relationship with a teacher, he can afford to keep a pony for her…”

  Yeah, a freaking pony! That was a gift to Mandy after they moved out – not something that could be brought to their new apartment! As if Mandy needed another desperate reason to want to move back into her dad’s house. Bastard.

  “He lives in a great school district…”

  “And I’m renting a crappy apartment from a guy I’m certain is jerki
ng off under the counter whenever I talk to him,” said Sadie bitterly. “What can I do?”

  “Well, Brian says it may help if you were in a stable relationship – you know, having a double income, and two people to take care of Mandy.”

  “I can’t just find a new boyfriend at the drop of a hat,” sighed Sadie.

  “Have you tried looking?” suggested Gina gently.

  “Ugh. Not sure I want another guy.”

  Not after the last one. Controlling jerkwad.

  “You know you can move in with me,” offered Gina.

  That was sweet of her, but she lived on the other side of the city in a tiny one-bedroom apartment usually occupied by Brian. While Brian was a decent enough guy, he was husky and hairy and not a sight to behold in his underwear every morning – Sadie had seen it once and once was more than enough.

  “Thank you, but that would mean uprooting Mandy again and I can’t. It was hard enough to move once – she’s still pissed about that.”

  But at the time she had to move out of his house. He was called Al, short for Alastair, or Big Al to his friends, and he was a dick. She had to leave, but he made sure she couldn’t go far. Their temporary custody agreement made sure of that.

  “Just think about looking for a guy,” said Gina. “Really, you need someone to look after Mandy when you’re at work.”

  Sadie let out a sound of agreement. Currently, she had a neighbor watch her – which was not ideal, as the neighbor was eighty and tended to fall asleep a lot.

  “Plus, with another income, it means you won’t have to work longer hours.”

  “I know. I’ll… consider it.”

  “Wha… whahappnin,” mumbled a male voice on the other end of the phone. It appeared that Brian had awoken and given the way Gina started cooing at him, he was ready for round two.

  “Thank’s, G, I’ll speak to you soon.”

  She hung up before she heard anything she could never un-hear, and started unpacking her sample cases.

  She had a lot to sell this week, and with Mandy away for the rest of the weekend, she could get a jump start on it and could easily be half finished by Monday. But what about when Mandy was back? She needed more time, more money – there just wasn’t enough!

  Everything was possibly made harder for her because Al was trying to get in her way – trying to make her fail. She was sure he was. No one believed her, but there was a reason no one wanted to rent her a house in their old neighborhood – because Alastair was head of the businessman’s alliance. He told all his friends they couldn’t rent to her. He wanted both Sadie and Mandy at home with him. But no matter what he did, there was no way she was going to crawl back to Al.

  No way in hell.

  Two

  Lorenzo sucked on another beer as Diego painstaking decided on which ball to sink next. They were playing pool, and Diego was the most finickity male ever born. It took him ten minutes to decide which shot to take, though Lorenzo suspected that was mostly done to psych out whomever he was playing with.

  “Just take the damn shot,” grumbled Lorenzo.

  “Aha.”

  Diego licked a finger and held it up.

  Lorenzo ground his teeth. “We’re in a bar; there is no wind resistance.”

  Diego shrugged and gave him a self-satisfied look. “Just making sure.”

  Lorenzo huffed and puffed, getting irritated in spite of himself. Diego was lousy at pool. He’d fail spectacularly at his next shot, but because Lorenzo was so worked up, he’d then fluff his shot. It would go on and on until finally, Diego won with a few lucky shots, or Lorenzo gave in. It was how Diego always managed to beat him.

  Diego leaned over waving his butt to and fro and giving Lorenzo a huge eyeful. Lorenzo growled and looked away.

  “There we go,” declared Diego.

  Lorenzo snapped his attention back to the table. Diego was giving him a smug grin.

  “How did you…”

  Lorenzo narrowed his eyes. Diego just pushed the ball into the hole – he was sure of it.

  “Nice shot,’ he said through gritted teeth.

  “Thanks.”

  A couple of females he didn’t know approached them.

  “Hey, may we join you?” asked one of them, sending a flirty look in Diego’s direction.

  Diego grinned at her, waggling his eyebrows suggestively. Lorenzo sighed inwardly.

  The other female looked over at Lorenzo, but on seeing him up close, the smile on her face froze. Lorenzo’s beast growled as she started whispering frantically to her friend. The friend slowly and reluctantly drew her attention away from Diego, and sure enough, her expression froze as well.

  Diego noticed their reaction and his smile dimmed. “Some other time, ladies,” he purred politely. Though he really meant, not a chance in hell.

  The first female looked like she was going to object, but her friend started tugging her away, perhaps considering she was getting a lucky escape.

  Diego humphed after they were gone and started lining up another shot. He’d probably be ready in about twenty minutes.

  “Don’t let me stop you if you want to have some fun with them,” muttered Lorenzo.

  “Nah, not my type anyway,” said Diego dismissively.

  Lorenzo grunted. Diego was his oldest friend, and yeah he guessed he would call them best friends – though not out loud because they weren’t thirteen years old and Diego would probably laugh at him. Diego was protective of him – just as much as his parents and brothers, and he was bothered more than Lorenzo whenever anyone stared at his scars. Lorenzo was used to it, and he could ignore it, but his family and friends were upset on his behalf.

  They were regulars at the bar – Claws was a shifter friendly hangout, and lots of his own jaguar leap and the local lion shifter pride frequented it. Mostly it was filled with locals who didn’t look twice at Lorenzo and his face full of scars, but there were the occasional tourists or shifter lovers who specifically came to the bar to hook up with one of his shifter brothers, and they generally stared at him and whispered behind his back. It was just the way it was.

  Lorenzo held his breath as Diego finally started trying to take a shot, only to stop at the very last second and stand up to take a swig of his beer.

  “For the love of…”

  “Looking forward to this mating thing?” asked Diego jovially.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  His inner jaguar huffed. He was and he wasn’t. Their jaguar leap had a tradition. Every year when the males came of age, they would travel down to Los Lobos, find their mates and then bring them back to their home on Honey Blossom Mountain to live happily ever after. It was supposed to be romantic and harked back to a time when shifters hid their true natures. His leap had always struggled to conceive girls, and so that their leap wouldn’t die out it was essential they find females. Hence the kidnapping tradition.

  Things were slightly different now. Shifters were known to humans. But they continued with the tradition. Mostly because shifters clung to traditions so fiercely.

  So now it was Diego and Lorenzo’s turns to go and find their mates. They would have a few days in Los Lobos, and then they were expected to bring their females home. It was not something Lorenzo was especially looking forward to – most women didn’t really look past his scars. Not that he was exactly Mr. Sunshine underneath. But, he was getting to an age where he would like to have a mate.

  He just wasn’t sure he was going to find her in the space of a few days. He had no problem talking to women – he could flirt when he needed to, with effort he could charm women into ignoring his looks, but he wasn’t just looking for a random female – he was looking for a woman to be the mother of his cubs. It would take a strong woman to see past his looks and somewhat gruff nature. He wouldn’t begin to know where to find her.

  Three

  “Hey, baby!”

  Sadie bounced out the door and swooped Mandy into a hug. Oh, she had only been away since Friday evening, and sti
ll, she had missed her. She hugged her daughter giving her an extra long squeeze, and exuberantly smelling her hair to remind herself of her sweet, sweet baby.

  Al said he would have her home by eight and Sadie had been staring out of the window, impatiently chewing on her nails since half seven. When it turned eight, she started panicking. When another minute passed, she was considering a search party. Finally though, at three minutes past eight, Al’s flashy car pulled up, and Sadie ran downstairs to meet her.

  “Mom!” giggled Mandy, half-pleased and half-embarrassed as Sadie cuddled her as if her life depended on it.

  “I missed you so much,” murmured Sadie, happy to have her home.

  Al cleared his throat, and Sadie ignored him completely.

  Finally, Mandy managed to pull herself free from Sadie’s tentacle grip.

  “Umm, Dad wants to talk to you.”

  Mandy fidgeted with her backpack strap, gave her a nervous look and then flitted past her into the building.

  Sadie inhaled and folded her arms before turning to look at Al. He was leaning against the hood of his flashy car – the one he spent an hour buffing every Sunday afternoon. He was casually dressed in slacks and a yellow shirt. Al was a big guy, but what had been all muscle in high school was now turning slightly to fat. He was hardly a pretty boy – his nose had been broken one too many times, and his eyes were too small. But, he had always been rich and had always been inundated with a monumental amount of confidence, and so yeah, he had always been attractive to certain types of women. Desperate, soppy, submissive women she thought bitterly – just the type she had been once.

  Al grinned at her in his usual smug, mocking way. “You look good, honey,” he drawled.

  Sadie cringed inwardly at his leer. “Don’t call me honey.”

  His lips twitched in amusement. “You should say thank you when someone gives you a compliment, honey.”

  He leaned on the word honey, lengthening each syllable in an infinitely smarmy way.

  “Mandy said you wanted to talk to me.”

  Al pushed away from the car and moved toward her. “I’ve booked a vacation in Disneyworld for Mandy and her best friend. We leave tomorrow morning.”