Chapter 17

Candice couldn’t believe her uncle would have a jaguar shifter working for him. The man must have been born as one and had control over his shifting. “How do you hide what you are?” she whispered. “Don’t you ever have the urge to shift?”

The man smiled. “Your uncle is also a jaguar. All the staff is. I’m Jim, by the way.”

Her heart pounding, Candice felt as light-headed as when she’d learned Owen was a wolf. He must have sensed it because he quickly wrapped his arm around her to support her. Tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. She quickly brushed them away, feeling overwhelmed by the news.

A million thoughts were racing through her mind. Had her parents been jaguars all along too? Had she avoided them because of her shifting problems when they would have welcomed her home even if she wasn’t a jaguar shifter, but a wolf shifter instead? She felt devastated all over again, even though she should be glad her uncle would understand now why she believed she couldn’t see her parents.

“My…my mother and father too?” she choked out.

“Oh, no,” Jim quickly assured her. “Come in. Just your uncle. He was turned years ago.”

That made Candice glad she’d kept the secret from her parents, but she wished she’d known about her uncle once she’d been turned.

“I take it that’s why you changed so much after your camping trip to White River.”

She nodded as Owen helped her into the mansion.

Owen couldn’t believe it when he realized that Jim Winchester, Strom’s assistant, was a jaguar like Everett, and so was her uncle. He was damn glad to hear it, but he could understand how shaken up Candice was. First, he popped into her life as an Arctic wolf, and now her uncle and his staff had turned out to be jaguars. Owen continued to keep her close for physical and moral support, glad he was here for her.

Everett quickly filled them in on how he knew Jim. “Jim’s a former JAG agent like me, Golden Claws, but he abandoned us with a smirk, saying he had some rich new boss who was paying him ten times what we earned with the Force. Hell, and here we all thought he was doing something super important. A butler for a billionaire?” Everett laughed.

Jim smiled at him. “That’s one of the jobs. I’m actually his assistant and personal bodyguard in case he needs one. The only reason I would work for him is because he’s a jaguar. Nice benefits. Lots of trips. First class everywhere.” Jim eyed Candice. “Man, is he going to be torqued off that a wolf turned you.” He glanced at Owen. “Better not have been you.”

Owen raised his hands in a way that said not him.

“The little boy of one of his packmates did it. It was purely by accident,” Candice said in protective mode.

“Hell. Come on in. I’m to usher you into the great room. He’ll be down in a minute, but I’ve got to let him know what’s happened. That’s why you didn’t come when you should have earlier. You’re newly turned,” Jim said, as if the whole situation was now crystal clear to him.

“Yes. The full moon is upon us. I’ve been having trouble the whole time.”

“Not to worry. You’re completely safe here.” Jim led them into a grand room furnished with oil paintings of jungle scenes, rich and opulent leather chairs and couches, Turkish tapestries, and chandeliers. “Maggie will bring some refreshments. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Candice briefly wondered why her uncle didn’t have bronze statues of jaguars out front instead of lions.

A few minutes later, a dark-haired woman came in to offer drinks. Candice surreptitiously took in a deep breath to smell if the woman was human or jaguar. She was a big-cat shifter too.

When Candice told her water would be fine, Maggie gave her a list of things they had, and Candice chose hot cherry-blossom tea. Everett and Owen asked for coffee, and then the woman left the room.

“I can’t believe my uncle is a jaguar,” Candice said.

“It’s not something we can advertise.” Everett looked out the french patio doors at the Olympic-size swimming pool and gardens. “This is big enough to run as a jaguar and never have any trouble. That pool sure looks inviting.”

“It does,” Candice said. Instead of envisioning her uncle exercising in it as a human, she could imagine him swimming as a jaguar.

“I can’t believe it either. But I’m glad they’re all shifters. Takes a bit of the stress off.” Owen pulled Candice into his arms and hugged her tight. “Are you all right?”

“Better, knowing he’s a shifter too. That everyone here is. Unless he’s really angry with me that I’m a wolf.”

“That’s my job,” Everett said. “To intervene and help resolve issues between the different shifters.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t know my uncle.”

“We don’t travel in the same circles. I’m certain he keeps his true shifter self secret from everyone else…the public, that is.”

A few minutes later, Maggie brought their drinks, along with a vegetable-and-fruit tray, chips, and dip.

They all thanked her, and once she left, Jim returned. He shook his head, looking concerned. “Well, Mr. Hart is not happy. I will say he’s glad to know why you were absent from your parents’ lives when they needed you. Really glad. He’ll be down in a little bit. He had some urgent business to take care of. Everett, do you want to take a walk with me and catch me up on what’s going on?”

He and Everett walked outside, and Everett began telling Jim about his mate and forming a new branch of the Force.

Candice and Owen waited another twenty minutes to see her uncle, though she filled the time by taking pictures, trying to keep her mind off meeting him. She hadn’t met him before, and now to learn he wasn’t even human? She hoped he was as nice as Everett was, but if not, she’d just get done what she needed to do and maybe someday they could get to know each other better. Or not. She was only adopted, after all. He might not want to have anything to do with her beyond settling her parents’ estate. That made her feel a little sad.

Owen was trying not to show his impatience and glad Candice was occupying her time and not fretting about seeing her uncle. He understood the man could be busy with important business, but since her uncle wanted Candice here earlier, Owen wished he’d come see her. He hoped Jim was only making a bigger deal of Candice being a wolf, and Strom didn’t feel that negative about it. Then they heard footfalls and Owen moved in closer to Candice. It was an instinctive move, like a wolf protecting his mate. He didn’t want her to feel he was being overprotective, but when she took his hand and smiled up at him, he knew he’d made the right move.

Strom entered the room—tall at six foot four or thereabout, his hair dark, his face clean-shaven. He was wearing a dark suit, his expression just as dark. He gave Candice a growly look, then shifted his hard look to Owen. “You turned her? You knew who and what she was when my assistant first contacted you? And she’s been living with you all this time?”

“No, sir.” Owen explained what had happened, though Candice broke in to tell more of the details and what had happened once she had returned home after the camping trip, unable to work any longer and needing to find a safe place to live, given what she had become.

“You were living in South Dakota?” Strom asked her.

“Yes. I needed to be someplace way out, but also where there’s some snow in the winter to help hide the fact I’m running around as an Arctic wolf.”

“You’re an Arctic wolf?” He gave Owen another irritated look, as if he had anything to do with what she had become.

Owen should have realized the jaguar shifters wouldn’t have guessed they were Arctic wolves, as opposed to regular gray wolves. He explained how that had come about with him and the rest of his pack—all about the wolf pack from north of the border visiting Maine and turning them.

“Well, hell, Candice,” Strom said. “Not only are you at more of a risk because you’re a white wolf with a pack of white wolves, but they’re nearly as newly turned as you.”

Owen suspected her uncle wouldn’t want to hear they were mated either. Then again, maybe he would feel she’d be taken care of if she had a mate.

“Wait… I saw that news report of two Arctic wolves rescuing a couple of snowmobilers in South Dakota. Don’t tell me that was the two of you.”

“Yeah, that was us. We had to do something,” Candice said.

“Hell. That was damn foolishness. What if you’d been shot? What if people had thought you were trying to eat those men?”

“The thought did occur to us,” Owen said. “What would you have done in our place?”

Strom snorted.

“You would have rescued them. Or tried.” Owen was certain he would have.

“And if they’d seen you running as wolves? You think they would have let you be? Or tried chasing you down?” Strom asked.

“We can’t know the answer to that.” Candice relaxed a little. “You can’t imagine how awful it felt being cooped up in the house when I wanted to run free. How did you become a jaguar shifter?” Candice asked, getting the subject off them.

“I was turned nineteen years ago, so I know just what it felt like back then. I was lucky a few jaguars showed me the ropes. It taught me not to mess around with girls I didn’t know, even though it was too late to do anything about what I’d become. Cynthia Taylor was my first too. Both of us were sixteen. She’d invited me to a party one of her friends had at his parents’ house while they were out of town. Several of her friends took her aside and said she shouldn’t have brought me. I was popular with the kids at school, so I didn’t need their approval. I told her I was ready to go, and she said not yet. That she was going to show me something really wild.”

Candice shook her head.

“Boy, did she ever. I was feeling damn good…until she bit me and I woke to find a jaguar in the guest bed. I was terrified. Screaming. She quickly shifted into a naked girl. She’d bitten me by accident…so she said. I don’t remember much after that except for a bunch of people crowding into the room and staring at me.”

She couldn’t imagine how horrified he must have felt. At least she hadn’t been terrified by being bitten, only with what came next.

“It’s not like with wolves, as far as I understand it. The other guys in the house said I could die, or I could keep my mouth shut and live. Neither of us were interested enough in each other to pursue anything permanent. We were way too young. And I was angry with Cynthia for wrecking my life. I ended up having to drop out of school and began taking private lessons from some of the other jaguar families. Her friends had become my friends, and no one was happy with what she had done to me. My parents weren’t happy about me quitting school, but it all worked out in the end.”

“Do you ever see her now?” Candice asked.

“No. She married a guy when she was eighteen and moved away. At the time, my brother, your dad, was thirty-six, married, and working on his first billion. I was a late-in-life baby, so we didn’t really have anything in common. After the change, we really didn’t have anything in common.”

“I can’t believe you’re a jaguar, Uncle Strom.” Candice was shocked to learn it. After all the worry about shifting, he’d been a shifter too.

“I would never have guessed you were a wolf shifter. So how did you locate her then?” Strom asked Owen.

“I learned her new name through her old workplace, and I was intrigued she was writing Arctic werewolf romances. But I didn’t know she was a wolf shifter until I went to see her in South Dakota.”

“That’s why you could only return home at certain times,” Strom said.

“Yes. When I had to leave my life behind, I wanted to tell Mom and Dad why I only returned during the waxing or waning crescent or new moon, but I couldn’t. I visited them for a week every month, allowing for travel there and home again, once I learned I either had more control over shifting or couldn’t shift at all during those times. Every time they had major health issues, it was during the full moon or too close to it, as if that had triggered all the bad things in their life, like it had in mine. They weren’t satisfied that I didn’t come home when they needed me most. I couldn’t blame them either.”

“The fact you returned as much as you did had to have influenced John. He could be hardheaded, but he could be fair too, once he got over being annoyed about something. This explains everything. Why you made up that story about the world tour. Why you couldn’t see me for another week. I just never imagined the timing coincided with the new moon and that was your reason for staying away. What would you have believed in my place?”

“That something wasn’t right.”

“Correct.”

“Is that why you stayed away from Mom and Dad?”

“I never had anything in common with them. We had our own lifestyles. Our own business pursuits. I did take care of them when they became ill. They always asked for you, were worried about you. I can’t tell you how angry I was that you didn’t come home for them.”

“I couldn’t. I swear, every time they became ill, the waxing or waning gibbous or full moon was out.”

“I completely understand. I want you to live with me. You have your own estates, but I’m here alone and would enjoy your company and getting to know you. You’d have full use of my facilities and cars, and the jet can take you wherever you want to go without the fear of shifting.”

“I’m mated. To Owen. I’ll be moving to Minnesota. Though I’ll need to sell off the houses here and in South Dakota.”

Strom narrowed his eyes at Owen. “Was this mutually agreed upon?”

“Of course it was. We love each other. We’re happy together. We’d love to take you up on coming to visit. During the new moon, of course,” Candice said, growling.

“Anytime. I’ll just have my jet pick you up.” Strom took a deep breath. “Any of your pack. The whole pack. I have plenty of room, as you can see.”

“You believe me now? That I am who I said I was? I don’t look much like my picture anymore.” Candice was surprised her uncle didn’t expect her to prove who she was. “The PI’s sister got into my safe-deposit and stole my papers and family photos. I couldn’t believe it. She called ahead and said she’d lost the keys, and they had to drill out the old lock and make new keys for it.”

“She had an ID with your name on it, I take it?” Strom asked.

“Yep. I guess her brother made all the arrangements for her. Anyway, my baby pictures with my parents holding me, my high school diploma, paperwork on the house I bought and sold, the pearl ring my parents gave me when I turned sixteen, and all kinds of documents were in there. I hadn’t moved everything to where I am now because there are no local banks with safe-deposit boxes close by. I planned to eventually move it all to the nearest big city.”

“Robbing a bank’s safe-deposit box should be a federal offense,” Strom said.

“Yeah. I couldn’t believe it. It was still in my old name. I just didn’t think to change it over. I still have the old driver’s license I kept for an ID in case I ever needed it. Did you want to see it?”

“No, that’s okay. I have duplicates of all the pictures. Your hair was red back then, just like it is now. The other woman dyed her hair to match the picture I gave the PI and Owen, and you were wearing the violet contact lenses. But your workplace said that when you returned from the camping trip and packed up your things at the office when you quit, your hair was red, not dyed.”

“Being a wolf knocked the color right out of my hair. You should have heard me telling everyone it was just temporary theater hair color, and I washed it all out in the river that night while everyone was sleeping.”

Her uncle laughed. “I can imagine how that would have sounded.”

“Yeah. Unbelievable. So how do you know it’s really me?” She liked hearing him laugh. Her uncle sounded a lot like her father when he laughed.

“I’ve been to your parents’ home several times. I’d know your scent anywhere. You didn’t have to do anything to prove that you are who you are. Once I met the other woman, I would have known she was a fraud right away.”

Candice took a relieved breath. “I was so worried about having to shift while I was here, but when we learned you were shifters too, I was thrilled.”

“What about Felix Underwood, the other PI?” Owen asked.

“He’s done some business for my firm. He was out of town when I needed a PI at first to locate Clara…Candice. But, Owen, I had thought you might get at the root of why Candice had changed so much after that camping trip. It seems you were the perfect one for the job.” Strom said to Candice, “When Felix learned you were reluctant to come to claim your inheritance, he proved beyond a doubt you were not on a world book tour. He believed you were an impostor.”

“He figured he could create his own impostor to pass off as me to gain the inheritance, especially since there was no way he was going to find someone else who was the real one,” Candice said. “He couldn’t have known I was a newly turned wolf and couldn’t come to see you. He and the woman, his sister, would split the proceeds, and no one would be the wiser.”

“They’ll be here after lunch, which, from what I can smell, is about to be served, and then you can have fun with them. After that, the police will arrest them, and we’ll go to see the judge.”

“What if I have to turn while we’re in the judge’s chamber? Is he one of us?”

“No, he isn’t. If you shift before we see him, I’ll give him a call and we’ll meet a little later and get this done. He owes me for all the money I’ve spent helping his political campaigns. But we still have time left.”

“Good.” She didn’t know what she was going to say to the impostor, but she figured the woman had already cooked her goose. “You’ve talked with Felix and his sister?”

“On the phone, but not in person. And ‘Clara’ has been excited about seeing me, unlike you.”

Candice rolled her eyes. “You never came by. You didn’t speak with my parents, and they never talked about you. What do you expect?”

“That’s what I really expected from a niece who was at odds with me. Not one who would be excited to see me. But she’s nervous too. While you seem comfortable around me.”

“Now that I know you’re a shifter, yes. I was worried sick about this. Didn’t sleep hardly at all last night. You can’t know how concerned I was that I might shift. And still could while I’m here or on the way home.”

Strom frowned. “At least stay for a while. Until the new moon. I’d really like you to stay for Christmas. You know you’re my only living relative.”

She couldn’t believe it. “Could you come to see us?”

He laughed. “In the snow?” He shook his head.