Rise of the Jaguar Read online

  Rise of the Jaguar

  Elizabeth Kelly

  EK Publishing Inc.

  Contents

  Rise of the Jaguar

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  The Shifters Series Book Nine Excerpt

  The Elizabeth Kelly Newsletter

  About the Author

  Also by Elizabeth Kelly

  Copyright © 2021 Elizabeth Kelly

  Published by:

  EK Publishing Inc.

  e-ISBN: 978-1-77446-089-4

  This book is the copyrighted property of the author and may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. Quotes used in reviews are the exception. No alteration of content is allowed.

  Your support and respect for the property of this author are appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.

  Edited by:

  L. Nunn Editing

  Cover art by

  EK Designs

  Rise of the Jaguar

  The Shifters Series, Book Eight

  What would you sacrifice for love?

  It’s an ordinary workday. A little filing. A little scheduling. A little… murder.

  Emerson runs, but the jaguar shifter gets trapped in a cabin with a man named Clay.

  Except Clay is no ordinary human.

  The teleporter is a ruthless mercenary who will stop at nothing to save his brother from Emerson’s deadly boss.

  Even if that means sacrificing Emerson.

  Understanding she’s not Clay’s priority, Emerson shouldn’t want him in her bed. But her jaguar has other ideas.

  After Clay’s long-planned rescue of his brother goes awry, he reluctantly lies low with Emerson at the cabin. Not only is she the personal assistant of his brother’s kidnapper, she’s also the smartest, sexiest woman Clay’s ever known.

  It doesn’t matter that he isn’t relationship material, not when she’s a shifter who can’t control her teeth and claws.

  Though this attraction, he can’t ignore.

  Especially when Emerson’s heat starts, and she needs his body for more than protection.

  Unfortunately, they can’t hide out forever. Emerson’s boss is a danger to them, Clay’s brother, and the entire shifter community. For once, Emerson must trust a man with her life and her heart.

  With hearts and lives on the line, can Clay rescue his brother… or will he risk everything to save her?

  To read more about The Shifters World, click here.

  Chapter 1

  He was big for a human. Big and – she could admit it – sexy as hell. Emerson watched the human over her glass of wine as Patty yammered on in her ear. He was wearing jeans, a leather jacket, and a long sleeve shirt that highlighted the broadness of his shoulders and the muscles in his upper arms, and the fabric clung to his flat abdomen. She did not doubt that a very impressive set of abs were hidden beneath the black cotton fabric.

  He looked dangerous, she decided. His thick dark hair and blue eyes, while attractive, weren’t what set him out from the rest of the males in the crowded pub. Nor was it the fact that he was the only human in the pub. It was the caged restlessness she sensed lurking just below his skin, the way his body seemed to be both perfectly relaxed and completely on edge at the same time.

  He looked like a man who would handle anything life threw at him.

  He looked like a man who would run headlong into danger.

  He looked like a man who would make a woman scream when she climaxed.

  Emerson’s jaguar trilled so loudly that Patty stopped talking, blinked, and then resumed her chattering.

  Emerson nodded, only half-listening to her co-worker as she continued to study the human. His big body leaned against the bar, and when he smiled at the bartender, Emerson wasn’t at all surprised to see her hurry over immediately. Emerson had only seen half of the man’s smile, and her thighs had loosened.

  The human really was on the big side. Maybe she could take him to her bed without hurting him.

  Her jaguar trilled again. It was entirely on board with the idea of bedding the human. Which was odd because, generally speaking, her cat favoured other big cat shifters or wolf shifters. Emerson couldn’t ever remember her jaguar being even remotely interested in a human.

  She allowed herself a thirty-second fantasy of what it would be like to fuck him before averting her gaze and drinking the last of her wine. She was being ridiculous. She couldn’t take a human to her bed no matter how attracted she was to him. He might be tough, but even the toughest human was no match for her claws and teeth. And her jaguar liked to scratch and bite during sex. A lot.

  “So, then I said to Joanne that I didn’t care much for her tone, and she said to me that I was being too sensitive. Can you believe it, Em? The woman who cries if you tell her the coffee was too strong called me too sensitive. Em, are you even listening to me?”

  Emerson smiled apologetically at Patty. She liked her co-worker, and they had after-work drinks every Thursday night. In between ‘scoping for dudes’ as Patty liked to call it, the conversation was dominated by Patty’s gossipy revelations about their coworkers. Normally, Em was all for a good gossip session, but tonight she wasn’t feeling it. Maybe it was the long day at work, maybe it was her unsettledness at her jaguar lusting after a human, but she was calling it a night.

  “Hey, Patty, I’m sorry, but I -”

  “May I join you, ladies?”

  The low rasp sent shivers down Emerson’s spine and made her jaguar sit up and purr eagerly. She lifted her gaze to see the very human she was lusting after, standing next to their table.

  Of course, he would have a voice that made her want to do naughty, dirty things to him.

  He balanced a glass of wine and a glass of beer in one hand and, in the other hand, whatever fruity drink Patty had ordered.

  “Of course!” Patty’s voice was breathless, and Emerson could smell her immediate arousal. Her jaguar hissed, it didn’t like Patty’s interest in the human one bit, and Emerson soothed it quickly.

  She couldn’t sleep with the human, not without tearing his back to shreds, but Patty was a gopher shifter. She didn’t have to worry about seriously damaging the sexy human while she banged him. It made sense that Patty would be the one who took the human home tonight.

  Emerson’s jaguar hissed again, real anger appearing beneath the school-girl jealousy.

  Knock it off, she scolded her jaguar as the man sat down beside her.

  He placed the glass of wine in front of her and the fruity drink in front of Patty. “I thought you lovely ladies could use another drink.”

  Patty giggled and, before Emerson could stop her, took a large swallow. “You’re right. We could.”

  Good God, had all of Patty’s brain cells flown out the damn window? In what universe did a woman accept a drink from a stranger? He could have added anything to it. Emers
on gave Patty an Oh my God, stop drinking that drink, you moron look.

  Not surprisingly, it didn’t register. But in Patty’s defense, it was hard to convey that kind of sentiment with only a look.

  Up close, the human seemed even more dangerous. Maybe it was the dark stubble that lined his jaw, or maybe it was the hardness in his gaze even though he was smiling. Whatever it was, all the things about him that should have sent her screaming for the hills were, instead, making her fantasize about all the very naughty things she might do to him.

  “I’m Patty!” Patty held out her hand, and the human shook it. Emerson’s jaguar hissed again, this one more of a pout than jealousy. It wanted to touch the human too.

  Shut it. You’ll get your chance.

  “And you are?” The man smiled at her, an easy smile that almost made it to his eyes.

  “Emerson,” she said and shook his hand. Her jaguar purred loudly at the innocent contact and then purred again when the man’s gaze dropped to her mouth. The smell of his arousal washed over her, and she caught her breath.

  Oh shit.

  Beside her, Patty made a low sound of disappointment. She’d caught the scent of the human’s lust as well. Before she could look too crestfallen, a second man approached their table. Emerson could tell by his scent that he was a fox shifter. He bowed lavishly and grinned at Patty. “Care to dance, beautiful?”

  “I would love to,” Patty said. She jumped up, took the fox shifter’s hand, and crossed the crowded pub to the minuscule dance floor at the back without a second look at Emerson.

  Emerson needed to have a serious talk with her about pub safety etiquette.

  “You have a beautiful name, Emerson.”

  She realized she still held the human’s hand, and she pulled her hand free. “Thank you.”

  “A beautiful name for a beautiful woman.”

  She held back the eye roll with herculean effort. If she had a nickel for every time she heard that line…

  The man suddenly laughed, and goosebumps shot up on Emerson’s skin. Good God, how could a laugh be that sexy?

  “Too cheesy, huh?” he said.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “I’ll try better with you in the future,” he said.

  “Cheesy and cocky,” she said. “Not a great combination.”

  He laughed again. “I like to think of it as confidence.”

  “I’m sure you do,” she said.

  “I’m failing to impress you, aren’t I?”

  “Spectacularly,” she said.

  “To failing spectacularly,” he said and held up his beer.

  She clinked her wine glass against the beer bottle, watching the way his Adam’s apple bobbed as he took a long swallow. He had a sexy throat.

  Sexy throat? Jesus, Em, get it together.

  “You’re not drinking your wine.” He indicated the glass she’d set back down on the table.

  She just shrugged. After a few seconds, understanding crossed his face. “You think I drugged it.”

  When she stayed silent, he said, “You’re right to be cautious. A man like me could do all sorts of things to a woman like you.”

  Emerson, it is time to leave! Her inner voice was standing on the table and shouting into a bullhorn.

  But her jaguar… her jaguar was purring like crazy and urging Emerson to imagine just exactly what sort of things the human might want to do to her.

  He suddenly grinned at her, a boyish one that breached the barrier to his eyes and completely transformed him. She sucked in a breath, any idea of leaving buried under a tidal wave of lust so strong it made her panties wet.

  She could smell her arousal covering her like a thick blanket as the man picked up her wine glass and took a healthy swallow before setting it in front of her.

  “Am I more trustworthy now?”

  “Marginally,” she said.

  Her throat was as dry as a dusty road in Georgia. She reached for the glass, ignoring her urge to turn it until her lips touched the same spot his lips had. She wasn’t a lovestruck teenager, for God’s sake.

  The wine washed over her tongue and down her dry and dusty throat. She toyed with the stem of the glass as she stared at him. “You haven’t told me your name.”

  “Clay,” he said.

  “Tell me, Clay, what’s a human doing in a pub that’s full of shifters?”

  He studied the crowd. “I’m new to town. I didn’t know that,” he studied the stack of coasters with the pub’s name imprinted on them, “Orven’s was a shifter’s only kind of place.”

  “It isn’t,” she admitted. “But humans rarely come in here.”

  “Is that why I’m getting so many looks?”

  “Partially,” she said.

  “Is my handsomeness the other reason they’re staring?”

  She laughed. “Sure, we’ll go with that.”

  “You find me handsome, admit it.”

  She cocked her head and pretended to do a slow perusal of his entire face like she hadn’t already memorized every damn feature. “Handsome isn’t the word I would use to describe you.”

  “No?” He didn’t seem pissed. “What word would you use?”

  “Dangerous.”

  He thought it over before nodding. “It’s an apt description.”

  “You’re not doing much to help your chances of me going home with you tonight.”

  Emerson!

  That boyish grin returned, loosening her thighs and making her nipples pebble into hard points. She could smell his arousal thickening, and it intensified her own need.

  He leaned forward, his gaze evaluating and appraising. “You know I’m dangerous, but you’re not afraid of me. Why is that?”

  She took another sip of wine. “Maybe I’m dangerous too.”

  His gaze shifted to her mouth again. “Maybe you are.”

  All the very bad things she wanted to do to Clay flickered through her head like pictures on a screen. Her jaguar purred so loudly that she could barely hear the music in the pub or the low hum of conversation from the other patrons.

  She took a deep breath and looked away, breaking their weird connection. Clay sat back in his chair and took a swallow of beer. He looked a little flustered, a state that didn’t fit well on him at all. Had she done that? Had she turned him inside out with just a look, like he did to her?

  “Emerson, would you -”

  “Em, I’m gonna go.”

  Patty was back, and Emerson didn’t know whether to smack Patty for interrupting them or kiss her. She frowned as Patty grabbed her jacket and her purse. Emerson reached for her wrist. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

  Patty glanced at the fox shifter and giggled. “Um, hell, yes. Peter and I are heading over to Blackjack’s Bar. Do you and your new friend want to join us?”

  “No,” Emerson said before Clay could reply. “Patty, why don’t you give Peter your number and connect with him this weekend instead.”

  “It’s fine, Em. Relax,” Patty said airily. “Peter is cool. Right?”

  “Super cool,” Peter said.

  Emerson released Patty’s wrist. She wanted to keep arguing. She knew better than anyone what impulsive actions led to, but Patty was a grown woman, and Emerson couldn’t exactly force her to stay here. Besides, Emerson knew from experience that it didn’t matter what she said or did. Patty would do what she wanted.

  Emerson stood and hugged Patty, putting her mouth to her ear. “Be careful. Don’t go home with him or invite him back to your place. Not until you get to know him better. Promise me, honey.”

  “It’s fine,” Patty repeated. “Don’t be so suspicious, Em. Have fun with your hot mystery man.” She kissed Emerson on the cheek, pulled out of her embrace, and walked away with Peter without looking back.

  Worry gnawed at Emerson’s belly. She sat down, watching as Patty and Peter left the pub. It was ironic, she thought a little bitterly, that after spending most of her life doing exactly the kind of thing that Patty wa
s doing, she was now the friend left behind to worry.

  Of course, having an impulsive decision turn around and bite you in the ass had a way of making a person lose some of their reckless streak.

  Clay studied her silently. His big body was relaxed in the chair while she felt as high strung as a mouse in a room full of traps. Her jaguar had never been so restless, so jaggedly on edge, so… horny. She couldn’t remember feeling this needy for a man even during her heat.

  Girl, please, it’s been so long since you’ve had a heat, you don’t remember how bad it gets.

  Her inner voice made a good point. And she planned on keeping it that way. After how disastrous the last ones were, she would be happy never to have a heat again.

  They were only bad because Ira was a loser in every single way, including when it came to making an effort to satisfy you.

  Her inner voice was trying to make her feel better, but she was only making things worse. It was humiliating that Emerson couldn’t, or hadn’t wanted to see just what a fuck up Ira was.

  She’d been sitting lost in her thoughts for over a minute, and she could only imagine how much of an idiot she looked like to the god sitting across from her.

  She drained her glass of wine in two large gulps before standing. Clay stood as well, and she said, “excuse me for a moment.”

  Holding her purse, she stepped past him. Even the brief brush of her shoulder against his broad chest made her jaguar purr happily. She walked quickly to the ladies' room and locked herself in the first empty stall, ignoring the chatter of the women standing in front of the mirror.