Her Undercover Panther : A Paranormal Shapeshifter Romance

  HER UNDERCOVER

  PANTHER

  A PARANORMAL SHAPESHIFTER ROMANCE

  JASMINE WHITE

  Copyright ©2017 by Jasmine White

  All rights reserved.

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  About This Book

  FBI Agent Tara Strong was about to embark on the most dangerous mission of her career.

  She was set to go undercover in order to infiltrate a gang of evil shapeshifters who were suspected of people smuggling. But if her cover was blown then there was a good chance she wouldn't make it out alive.

  Good thing that the FBI sent WerePanther Luis Vargas along to her protect her if the situation ended up getting sticky.

  However, as Luis's good looks and sexy body began to charm Tara she was soon to find that she would be UNDERCOVER in more ways than one... ;-)

  This is a sexy but thrilling paranormal romance with lots of adventure and excitement. Start reading now to be a part of this awesome ride!

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER ONE

  Tara Strong hurried through the alleyway, the hard, recently swept dirt beneath her feet uneven in the dark. She had a single, carry-on-sized bag slung over her shoulder as she walked, her eyes scanning the area around her before she double-checked her coordinate tracker on her phone.

  She was close, but she still had almost a mile left to walk before she made it to the rendezvous point. She cursed her late flight that had left her at the airport long after the cabs that typically hung out in Chiclayo, Peru, had gone home for the night. Apparently, everyone else on her late night flight was coming home to family or had other accommodations lined up. After looking up the coordinates she’d been sent on her encrypted email, she decided that a three-mile walk after such a long flight was exactly what she needed.

  Putting the phone back in her pocket and continuing at a fast clip down the alley, she mentally went over the details that she knew so far. She was done in a few seconds, having been brought into this mess with almost no information at all. It wasn’t how she normally worked, but Tara was flexible. She would knock this one out of the park and prove once and for all that she was as good as, or better than, her male counterparts. Once she proved her worth, maybe she could move out of the tiny office in Fort Worth, Texas, and transfer to DC or New York. Even Los Angeles would be preferable to her current assignment.

  A soft noise yanked her out of her musings, and she stopped for a moment when she saw movement in the shadows. A man stepped out of the shadows and directly into her path, no more than ten feet in front of her.

  Tara stopped, her stance casual, her breathing steady and even. The man was standing, his legs shoulder width apart, his hands at his sides, flexing in anticipation. He smiled, the expression not even slightly kind, and took a step toward her.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” she said evenly in flawless Spanish.

  He took another step, and she stood her ground, giving the man a chance to change his mind.

  “You need to turn around and walk away,” she said, still in fluid Spanish without a hint of a foreign accent despite her obviously natural platinum blonde hair that gave away her Norwegian ancestry.

  “I’m where I want to be,” the man said to her. “It is you who is in the wrong place at the worst time.”

  He took another step, but Tara still didn’t budge. A smile spread across her face as she watched the man, and her heart skipped a beat when he pulled something out of his pocket and flipped a switchblade out.

  “This is your last chance,” she said. “I would say that I don’t want to hurt you, but that would be a lie.”

  The man laughed at her.

  “Do you think that you are any match for me?” he said, still laughing at her show of bravery.

  She shrugged. “I guess we’re about to see.”

  The man stepped forward quickly, closing the gap between them and rushing at Tara with the knife out. Tara reached out, grabbing his wrist in the same instant that she stepped back and pivoted. She twisted and jerked, causing the man to drop the knife, which she promptly kicked into the shadows across the alley.

  Angry, the man shoved her with his free hand, sending her sprawling on her ass in the dirt, and ran in the general direction of the knife she had kicked out of his reach. Tara stood up and rushed to stop him, but he found the knife quickly and turned, slashing the air a few inches from her and laughing again.

  “Beginner’s luck,” he said snidely.

  Tara circled with the man, jumping back when he jabbed at the air, and otherwise letting the man wear himself out.

  When she grew bored with his antics, she stepped into the circle and gestured for him to come at her. The man smiled, rushing forward wildly, hand extended, knife at the ready.

  Tara waited until the man was almost on top of her, then ducked, spinning with her leg extended and kicking his feet right out from under him. The man’s legs shot up, and for a moment, he seemed to be suspended in midair before he fell, landing flat on his back on the hard ground. The man stood quickly, but Tara could see that she had caused him a great deal of pain. Still, he refused to give up, lurching forward stiffly and trying once again to catch her with the knife.

  Tara jumped out of the way and back, elbowing him in the side of the face as he rushed at the place she had been standing when he’d first moved at her. The man howled in pain, but Tara wasn’t done. She had places to be, and she was done toying with the man.

  Before he could even think of running, she spun, treating him to a roundhouse kick in the chest and sending him flying. He hit the ground hard, his head slamming back into the wall behind him with a crack.

  The man went limp, the knife falling out of his hand and onto the ground.

  Cautiously, Tara moved toward the man, kicking the knife out of his grasp and checking the man’s pulse. It was strong and steady, and the man didn’t appear to have life-threatening injuries. Still, she wasn’t about to turn her back on him with the knife still sitting there.

  She bent down and closed the knife, dropping it in her pocket and giving the man a soft kick for good measure. He fell over, still unconscious and limp.

  Tara turned and walked down the alley, looking over her shoulder a few times to ensure that the man hadn’t gotten up.

  He was still there when she turned the corner and slipped in between two small buildings to the street that was still busy with tourists and tiny carts filled with handmade crafts
and art being sold by the locals.

  Tara stopped in front of a cart, pulling her wallet out of her bag and handing the old man behind the cart a hundred-dollar bill. He looked at her curiously, but didn’t say anything until she spoke.

  “A man attacked me in the alley,” she said quietly in Spanish. “I think he needs medical attention, but I don’t want to be involved. Can you pretend to find him and get him the help he needs?”

  The old man nodded.

  “I will wait five minutes,” he said.

  “That’s perfect. Thank you.”

  He patted the buttoned shirt pocket that held the crisp bill. “No, thank you.”

  He smiled at her and she smiled back, then turned and moved quickly through the crowd. She didn’t have far to go now, but she didn’t want to get held up explaining how she had kicked the ass of an armed man without even putting her carry-on bag down. It hadn’t been a fair fight, and she didn’t need all the questions that would likely come if anyone found out that it was a woman who had taken the man down. She didn’t even know why he had come after her, but it didn’t matter; she wasn’t going to ask if he was planning on robbing her or attacking her. He’d had a knife, and his intentions had clearly been bad. That was enough. She’d given him a chance to walk away, and he had chosen to stay and attack her.

  That wasn’t Tara’s problem.

  When she finally saw the small hotel that was almost identical to every other hotel on the narrow street, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was tired and it was late. She needed to get through this meeting and get on with her job.

  Whatever that is, she thought, but a quiet thrill still ran through her. It was the first undercover work she had done, and it was so top secret that even she didn’t know what she was in Peru to do. The unknown was exciting, and Tara was ready for whatever was thrown at her. The encounter in the alley had only solidified that for her. She was exhausted from a day of travel and far from on the ball, yet defeating the man in the alley had been mere child’s play; Tara hadn’t even broken a sweat.

  Tara opened the heavy door and went to the front desk. The man didn’t even look up at her, pointing to the “no vacancy” sign without taking his eyes off his phone.

  “Room fifteen?” she asked.

  The man pointed her down a hallway, still not removing his eyes from his phone. When he suddenly jumped to his feet and shouted “Goal!,” Tara about had a heart attack, but she kept it together. No wonder the man couldn’t be bothered to look up at her. Somewhere in the world, there was a soccer match holding this young man’s attention, and Tara couldn’t help but think about how lucky that was for her. If anything came of the injured man in the alley, she could count on this young man to have no memory of her at all, if he even remembered someone coming through the front door. His focus on the overseas game was in her favor, and she wasn’t about to look that gift horse in the mouth.

  She hurried down the hall, looking at the numbers on the doors and following the narrow corridor until she found the room she was looking for.

  Knocking three times, she stood back and looked at the peephole in the door. Something covered the peephole, and then the locks tumbled open and she stepped inside. The man looked out into the hallway, looking both ways before closing the door and locking it behind her.

  “Were you followed?” he asked.

  “Yes, but I bagged him.”

  The man’s eyebrow raised, but he couldn’t hide the amusement on his face.

  “Is he dead?”

  “Probably not, but I’m sure that he wishes he was.”

  “I’m sure he deserved it.” The man motioned to the only chair in the room. “Please, sit down.”

  He sat across from her on the bed and pulled a stack of documents out of a leather briefcase.

  “I can’t stay long, but here is your new identity, complete with a back story. Your press pass and your laptop are in the laptop bag.”

  “Is it an actual laptop?” she asked.

  “Yes and no. It’s a mobile satellite uplink and an ERH unit.”

  “ERH?”

  “Electromagnetic Radioactive Handheld. You can use it to access keypad codes and passwords from computers onsite. You can also pull out the retractable USB cable and plug it into any computer to download encrypted and protected files and upload them via the satellite link.”

  “Sweet,” she said, taking the laptop bag from the man and putting her new identification in the side pocket.

  “It’s experimental technology, so be careful with it. There’s also a solar panel to charge it, and you can hook your phone up to the USB and charge it off of the device. Just make sure that you choose charge and not download.”

  “I will.” She sat there for a moment, watching the man before she spoke. “Sir, I just want to say what an honor it is to work with you.”

  “Please, call me Andrew. Well, for now, call me Arnold, but let me introduce myself first.”

  “I understand. Are there more of us on the inside?”

  “No, just you and me.”

  “Will I be working with you?”

  “No. You’ll be working alone, but I’ll have someone I trust with you.”

  She stopped again, trying to find the right wording for her next question.

  “Arnold?”

  “Yes?”

  “What exactly am I doing here?”

  Andrew looked at her, a surprised expression on his face that was quickly replaced with amusement.

  “I guess I didn’t tell anyone, so they couldn’t very well tell you what was going on.”

  He handed her a bottle of water and sat back as if settling in for a long discussion. Tara opened the bottle and took a long sip, leaning back into the uncomfortable chair and waiting for him to lay it out for her.

  “Tell me, Tara,” he began, “what do you know about shifters?”

  “Shifters?” she asked, perplexed.

  “That’s right. Are you familiar with the treaty that forced them all onto an island in the Pacific for their safety and the safety of humans?”

  “I am, but I was seventeen when that happened. I didn’t know ten years ago what I know now.”

  “That’s good. That will actually help you be a little more open to a lot of things that are a little hard to absorb.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Well, first of all, the treaty was mishandled. The shifters were supposed to be moved to an island for their safety and for them to have a bit of sovereignty over their own kind. Somehow, that got twisted by the governments in South America, and they got banished to a pair of islands owned by the United States in the Pacific off the coast of Peru. The first island, Shifter Island, has a self-sustained resort on it. Isla Escondida, the second island, is where the shifters that aren’t involved with the resort live, as well as several humans.”

  “Why would humans be there?”

  “That’s part of what we’re looking at, though it appears that most are there willingly. But the resort is another story. The women who visit are hand-picked, and they are sent publications to convince them to come to the island.”

  “Isn’t that what all exclusive resorts do?”

  “Yes, but this one is different. The resort is stocked entirely with male shifters and billed as a Vegas style resort with ample opportunity for no-strings-attached sex for the rich and powerful women who visit.”

  Tara wrinkled her nose. She liked a good roll in the hay as much as anyone else, but the thought of bouncing from man to man over the course of a week or two wasn’t really her thing.

  “I’m not going to have to indulge in the no-strings sex, am I?”

  “Oh no. I wouldn’t ask you to do that. You see, the problem isn’t the way they choose their clientele nor the way the resort runs its business to avoid some of the prostitution laws.”

  “Then what is it?”

  “The problem is that the women who come here are never heard from again, with rare exceptions. Some of those women live
on Isla Escondida with shifters that they’ve fallen in love with. But there are not nearly enough women there to account for the missing women.”

  “What do you think is happening with them?”

  “We think the resort is a front for a human trafficking ring perpetrated by GRE.”

  “GRE, as in Genetic Research Enterprise?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s a big company to be doing something like that.”

  “I know. That’s why I’ve worked my way into their company, and I’ve been working on getting closer to the CEO. But Ian Cross is a suspicious man, and he doesn’t trust easily.”

  “How am I going to get closer to him?”

  “You’re not. I’ve convinced him that having a reporter doing a human interest story on the islands would bring in new investors. GRE lost quite a few investors a few weeks ago when two women and two shifters escaped the island. There are a lot of people who are interested in the research that GRE is doing, but none of them want to be attached to the island if GRE gets caught.”

  “Isn’t Ian afraid that I’ll find something substantial and destroy him?”

  Andrew shook his head.

  “That’s part of the reason I chose you.”

  Tara’s shoulders fell. So that was it then? He chose her because she wasn’t the best agent?

  “I chose you,” he said before she could even ask, “because you are always underestimated, even though you don’t deserve it. I’ve seen your service record, and you have nothing but good evaluations. Yet you are routinely passed over for promotions and good transfers. Even the senior agent in your office wondered why I wanted you for an undercover assignment.”

  Tara opened her mouth to protest, but Andrew held up his hand.

  “This is a good thing. You have this sweet, girl-next-door vibe that disarms people. No one even considers that you’re a threat. That’s exactly what I need. The only way that Ian is going to let me give you free run of the entire facility and both islands is if he believes that you won’t find anything of substance. You’re perfect, you’re beautiful, and people feel like they can open up to you. They never suspect that you’re a third-degree black belt who could kill a man with her bare hands. It never occurs to them that you’re a threat. These are all wonderful qualities.”