Colin: McCullough's Jamboree - Erotic Jaguar Shapeshifter Romance (McCullough's Jamboree Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

of his mate. She had smacked him, and he hurt for them both all over again.
    “Lauren has been hurt, badly.” Mary joined him on the floor. “I don’t know much other than she’s still alive but in bad shape. Her boss just told me he’s sending a car for us to get on a plane to go to her.”
    “When?” He told her within the hour. “All right. We have to get ready to go then. I’ll pack. You call someone in to take care of the farm for us. Call Patrick. His sons are home.”
    Nodding, he stood up on wobbly knees and made the call. Just having talked to Mary for those few seconds gave him strength. And a purpose. His Mary was always good at that. His son Pete was sitting at the table when he got off the phone with Patrick, who said it would be no problem to keep an eye on his herd and the buildings.
    “She gonna die?” He told his son that he didn’t know. “I’m going as well. I…she’s my sister, and I’m going as well.”
    “Of course you are. She’d want you there too.” He had no idea. All he could think about was that Lauren was hurt, and it tore badly at him that once again he’d not been there to protect her. She was…the lost little girl that had come into their life was hurt again. “We need to pack up. Go see to your things for me.”
    As soon as Pete left him, Peter sat in the chair he’d just left. Lauren, his daughter. She was his world and not even of his blood. He thought of the first time he’d spoken to her about being a part of his family twenty years ago, he just realized.
    “I’m not human.” Her nod had him thinking that she didn’t get it. “I’m a shifter, a jaguar. My wife is as well, and our child will be too.”
    “Will you make me go back to them? I’ll do anything you need for me to—clean, cook, take care of everything—if you don’t make me go back there.” He told her that the house had burnt to the ground while she’d been sleeping the three days she’d been out. “So they’re coming here too then?”
    “No. Not ever. Mary and I have talked and we’d like for you to stay with us. Be our child. We’d like for you to stay here and be our child.” RaeAnn, her name had been then, didn’t answer him. “We’ll have to make some changes. Your name for one thing. And we’ll make sure that no one knows who you are to them either.”
    “All right.” He said nothing but watched her face. He’d never seen someone with such a sad and lonely face before. “You won’t make me go back? I promise you, you’ll never have to worry about me being bad. I promise you, I’ll be the best person you ever met.”
    “I know that.”
    And she had been too. When Pete was born, she’d helped Mary out around the house and cared for Pete any time they needed her to. When he was older and going to school, she spent countless hours working with him on his homework, keeping him in line, and making sure he knew the value of an education. Even with the age difference between them, they were close and had continued to be close when she’d left for the service at eighteen. Unless people asked or knew that she was human, everyone assumed that Lauren was their daughter and Pete’s older sister. Peter couldn’t have asked for better kids than the two he had right now.
    The limo arrived an hour later. After they were loaded into it and on their way, his cell phone rang again. It was the major general again. Peter closed his eyes, thinking this was the call he’d dreaded since he’d called him a bit ago.
    “The car will take you and your family to the airport, and from there, you’ll be taken to the hospital landing strip. It’s a military zone, so if you’re armed, I’m afraid that you’ll have to leave your weapons behind.” He told him that none of them carried even a knife. “Good. Once you are in the hospital there will be military personnel everywhere. Ask for me. I’m here now waiting on the life flight to land. Their ETA is about ten minutes. Once they are