The Jaguar Star (Tales of the Were: Jaguar Island Book 4) by Bianca D'Arc (the first e reader .TXT) 📕

his sunglasses so he could meet her gaze with nothing between them. With her, he would never hide behind mirrored lenses. He wanted her to see, and accept, all of him, once he figured out how to break the news to her.

“Are you all right?” he asked, wanting to chase down the man who had dared accost his mate while, at the same time, wanting to comfort her and be certain she was okay.

“I’m fine, but I told you that guy was a creep,” she said, showing surprising spirit. He was both relieved and impressed.

“You were definitely right about him, but we’re on alert now, and if I know Dave, he’s already got the license plate number of the guy’s car and will be tapping his law enforcement sources shortly so we know who he was, where he was from, what his problem is.” Ren forced a smile. “If we wanted, we could probably learn his shoe size and what he ate for breakfast, as well, I bet.”

She chuckled. “Franny was saying Dave is one of your bodyguards?”

“Yeah, Dave and Bryan.” Ren motioned for Bryan to come closer as they all stood, waiting to be seated, as a group. “Bryan Hilliard, this is Kat,” he introduced them formally. “Kat, this is Bryan. If you ever have any trouble and I’m not around, Bryan and his brother will help you out.”

“Oh, Dave is your brother? I see the family resemblance,” Kat said, shaking Bryan’s hand politely. “I’ll have to thank him for helping us get away from that creep.”

“He’ll be along in a bit,” Bryan assured them both. “Like Ren said, he’s probably looking up everything we can find out about that bald guy right now. He’ll have a preliminary report for you in a few minutes, Ren.” Bryan nodded politely and withdrew to answer his cellphone, which had just rung quietly.

The group was seated at a banquet table in the back room of the restaurant, and dinner was one big, happy, noisy group. Ren couldn’t forget, however, that his potential mate had just been accosted by some dude with a camera. It didn’t sit well.

The dinner itself was a message from his Clanmates to him. They were acknowledging the possible mating and showing their approval and joy that Ren might finally have found his One. They were being his family. Looking after him and his potential mate and reinforcing those bonds of Clanhood and friendship.

Any other time, Ren and his inner jaguar would have been basking in the love and affection of his people. The threat to Kat, however, made it hard to enjoy the meal and the camaraderie. He kept looking over at Dave and Bryan, knowing they had a report to give him once dinner was over.

When dinner ended, Ren walked Kat to her room, doing his best to make sure she was safe for the night before he left her. He would sleep in the bushes in front of her hotel room window in jaguar form, if he had to. He’d do anything to be sure she was safe, but he didn’t want to scare her off. He had to be smart, too.

Ren went straight from seeing Kat safely to her room to his suite. Dave and Bryan were already there, laptops open, screens filled with all the information they’d been able to dig up, beg, borrow or outright hack about the bald man.

Ren felt anger rise and knew his eyes were blazing as each new piece of information was revealed. Something was very wrong with that so-called photographer. A man who had little to no interest in photography based on his past history. One thing became very clear to Ren as the Hilliards pieced together a very grim picture of the man who had been lying in wait, not once, but twice, for Kat. They needed to warn everybody to be even more on their guard than usual.

“We need to brief Sonia on this,” Ren muttered. “Can you track down Greg and have him meet me at Sonia’s suite? If she’s not there, have him ping my phone.” Decision made, Ren stalked toward the door, turning back only to thank the brothers for their good work and instruct them to keep digging.

Greg was waiting for Ren when he turned the corner into the hall leading to Sonia’s suite. They nodded at each other after Greg flashed the hand signal that meant he’d checked out the corridor and they were alone for the moment. There were probably security cameras, but they weren’t about to do anything that anyone who might see the footage would regard as suspicious. Ren fell in beside Greg as they walked the rest of the way toward the door to Sonia’s suite.

“Bryan gave me the bare bones on the phone,” Greg said quietly. There was no need to say more. Of all the jaguars in this production, Greg was the best at personal security. He had trained everyone else, including the Hilliards.

“We need to step it up a notch,” Ren replied cryptically, but he knew Greg would understand.

“No doubt,” Greg agreed immediately.

They arrived at the door, and Ren knocked without ceremony. A moment later, Stella answered the door and let them in once she saw who was there. She was a younger cousin from the Clan, and though she had a spunky spirit, she was deferential in the presence of Greg and Ren. Greg for his status as an elder and a teacher among the Clan and Ren because of his sheer dominance.

“We need to talk to Sonia,” Ren said without preamble. “Is she available?”

“I’m here,” Sonia said, walking into the main room of the suite from one of the bedrooms, a towel in her hand as she dried her platinum blonde hair. She was wearing one of the hotel’s cushy robes and looked as if she’d just come from bathing. “Is there a problem?”

“You could say that,” Greg muttered, but everyone heard him. “Stella, is there any coffee?”

“I’ll get it,” Stella