The Jaguar’s Secret Baby (Tales of the Were: Jaguar Island #3)

Prologue

“Who is the father?” Tracy’s father demanded.

He might be Alpha of the Big Wolf Pack, and therefore the owner of Big Wolf Airport, Big Wolf Barbeque, where she worked, and mayor of Big Wolf, Texas, but she was his daughter, and he couldn’t really compel her with his dominance.

They were too much alike. She was a dominant female in her own right, and she’d long ago, grown accustomed to her father’s bark.

He would never bite one of his own over something like this, so she knew she was safe, which gave her added strength to deny his command.

“I’m still not telling you, Dad. Now, if you want your first grandchild to be born without medical assistance, just keep doing what you’re doing. Otherwise, I came downstairs to call the midwife.” She made her way slowly toward the phone.

She should’ve had her cell phone by her bed, but she hadn’t been thinking clearly these last nine months. Doing stupid stuff had become the norm ever since she’d discovered she was pregnant. Pregnant and unmated. At her age. As the result of a one-night stand. Could she get any more pathetic?

Okay, it had been the best one-nighter of her life, but still… Pregnancy shouldn’t have been the result. He wasn’t even a wolf! It shouldn’t have been possible to be so damned fertile across species like this, but the little person clamoring to get out had other ideas.

“You mean it’s coming, now?” Her father’s face paled.

She would have laughed if a contraction hadn’t hit her just at that moment.

She leaned against the kitchen island and grit her teeth as she growled low in her throat through the pain.

That seemed to set her dad in motion. He grabbed the phone and dialed the number for the Pack’s healer.

She heard the conversation in the background as the pain stole her breath and made her want to howl.

The important thing was, her father was getting help.

When the pain eased, he was at her side, loving concern on his face.

“They’re on their way,” he told her in a soothing tone. “Now, can you walk, or should I carry you back to your room? I assume that’s where you want this to happen, right?”

She nodded and leaned heavily on him as they went out of the kitchen together, but the staircase was beyond her.

Her steps faltered, and her father picked her up, as he had when she was little, and mounted the stairs with her in his arms. He didn’t put her down until they had reached her bed.

He deposited her gently on the bed she had prepared.

It was covered in toweling with plastic underneath so she wouldn’t ruin the mattress.

Aida had helped her gather the necessary supplies and would—Goddess willing—see her through this birth.

Aida was the midwife, mated to the Pack’s healer, Giuseppe.

They were both on the way here, according to her dad, but she really only needed Aida.

They’d been talking about this for almost nine months—ever since Tracy realized she was pregnant—and they’d been making plans the whole time.

Aida was the mother Tracy no longer had, and she probably couldn’t have handled this situation half as well without her guidance.

Aida had been close to Tracy’s mother and had stepped in to help when Tracy’s mom had died in a terrible accident.

Tracy still missed her vibrant, vivacious mother every day, but it was good to have someone like Aida around to help.

Tracy’s father didn’t leave her side, looking around to see what he could do to help prepare, but there wasn’t anything. She’d done it all last week and had only been waiting for the signal that the little one was ready to meet the world. It felt like it wouldn’t be long now.

“Tracy, sweetheart,” her father said, sitting at her side and pushing her hair back from her brow. “Who did this? Who’s the father?”

Stubborn Alpha wolf. Tracy smiled. “Why? So you can go hunt him down and shanghai him into mating with me? Dad, this isn’t 1850 anymore.” She named the year her father had been born and rolled her eyes.

“A man should be there for his children,” he insisted. “At the very least, he should help support the pup.”

“I don’t need his money.” She shook her head. “And I don’t need his interference.”

Dawning realization broke over her father’s face. “Sweet Mother of All. You haven’t even told him!”

Tracy grimaced. She’d debated a long time over whether it was better to let her father think poorly of her child’s father or reveal that she hadn’t tracked down the perpetrator and told him about the impending birth.

She’d just let it ride, not really knowing what to do, and hoping a path would reveal itself.

Well, it looked like the revelation had just taken place, and she wasn’t altogether sure it was a good thing.

Now, it was solidly her fault that the baby’s father wasn’t here.

Tracy felt a little guilty, but really…it was an impossible situation.

“Is he even a wolf?” her father asked, his tone aghast. He’d been eyeing every male in the Pack with suspicion for the past few months, but it hadn’t done him any good. The father wasn’t a Pack member. “Is he even a shifter?”

She could give him that much, she figured. “Yes, he’s a shifter, but no, he’s not one of ours. And that’s all I have to say on the matter.” She gasped as another pain hit and grabbed her father’s hand.

He didn’t say anything more until the contraction had passed.

“I’ll accept that,” he told her, his eyes narrowing, and his dominance a palpable thing in the room. “For now.”

Tracy gulped, but Aida bustled into the room and shooed Tracy’s father out.

Giuseppe was waiting in the hallway, and Tracy saw him put a friendly arm around her father’s shoulders before guiding him away from the bedroom.

Giuseppe would keep her father distracted while the women got down to business.

Goddess help them all.