Roy’s Jaguar Read online

  Cherry Matchmaking Agency 1

  Roy’s Jaguar

  Roy’s life takes a turn for the bizarre when he finds himself in a coma after a car accident and must make a deal with Cupid to return to his body. He’s a virgin with a connection to the supernatural, which makes him a prime candidate for what Cupid has in mind. The god wants Roy to mate with a jaguar shifter and have the man’s children.

  Nexus, the Regulus of his clan, has been given a deadline to find a mate or be challenged for his position. Desperate, he turns to Cupid and the Cherry Matchmaking Agency to do so. He’s already had to kill one close friend for the title he now holds, and he doesn’t want to have to kill another.

  Roy and Nexus’s life together gets off to a rocky start that isn’t getting smoother anytime soon. Someone is plotting to remove Nexus from power, and they plan to use Roy and their unborn babies as leverage to do so. Can Nexus keep Roy and his unborn children safe amongst the danger surrounding them?

  Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 63,468 words

  ROY'S JAGUAR

  Cherry Matchmaking Agency 1

  A.M. Halford

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  ROY'S JAGUAR

  Copyright © 2018 by A.M. Halford

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-018-9

  First Publication: February 2018

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2018 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  Thank you to my betas, Shandra, Sheryl, DeAnne, and Tammy! You ladies were amazing and a big help while I wrote this. Thank you for all the feedback and encouragement. Also, thank you to Frey for listening to me bitch about these characters.

  Another large thank you to Siren and staff for all their help and work on this book.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  A.M. Halford lives in Southern Oregon and enjoys spending as much time outside as she possibly can. She and her partner often find themselves hiking with their two dogs when the weather permits it. Fishing, camping, and photography are also activities she greatly enjoys. If the weather doesn’t permit going outside she can be found curled up with a sketch book, drawing whatever comes to mind.

  A.M. got into writing as an outlet for personal therapy and has since expanded that into a hobby and profession that she enjoys. She often writes down anything that comes to mind, combing through the ideas and expanding on plots that sound the most interesting. She likes to write believable relations between people overcoming unfair hardships set before them. She always loves a happy ending, and no matter the hell her characters go through, they’ll always get their forever person.

  For all titles by A.M. Halford, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/am-halford

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  About the Author

  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 Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  Landmarks

  Cover

  ROY’S JAGUAR

  Cherry Matchmaking Agency 1

  A.M. HALFORD

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  “Am I dead?” Roy asked, his voice sounding eerily hollow as white mist swirled around him.

  Roy stood there, wondering where he was. The last thing he remembered was being behind the wheel of his car and two bright lights coming straight at him. Hazy figures that could be other people, but could also be so many other things, were scattered about in the distance.

  “Of course not!” The loud, chipper answering voice had Roy spinning around to come face-to-face with the most androgynous man he’d ever laid eyes on. With long wavy blond hair, blue eyes, trim waist, and a flat chest, Roy wasn’t certain what he was looking at. The chest and voice told him it was a man. The hair and facial structure said woman. “You’re in limbo.”

  “Excuse me?” Roy blinked, not entirely sure what to make of what the man—he was going with man for now—had just told him.

  “Yes.” The man nodded. “To be more accurate, your soul is trapped between the world of the living and the dead. Back in the living world you’re in a coma with a fifty-fifty percent chance of waking up. Head-on collision, nasty thing.”

  Roy’s stomach lurched. He was going to be sick! This man had just told him he was in a coma due to a car accident like he was reporting the weather. What the fuck was wrong with him?

  “No reason to worry though,” he continued, seemingly uncaring for Roy’s internal dilemma. “I’m here to offer you a deal.”

  “A deal?” Roy hedged.

  The man smirked. His blue eyes turned calculating. “Yes. You see you’re a special existence in this world. Your great-great-great-grandfather came into contact with something in his youth, something he couldn’t explain. I’m sure there’s a family legend about it, right?”

  How the fuck did this guy know about his grandfather’s crazy stories? “Are you talking about the cat people in the jungles of Brazil?” Roy asked, his regular mocking humor in his voice.

  “Jaguar shifters, to be more accurate.” The man’s smirk grew, “And yes, I am. You see, the fact you have an ancestor that’s come into contact with one, and survived, has left a trace on your bloodline. All I had to do was wait for one of you to come here.”

  “Okay, I’ll play along.” Roy sighed. If he really was in limbo, then he had nothing better to do. If he wasn’t, and this was all a dream, then at least he’d have something interesting to talk about with his friends in the morning. “Why is this all so important?”

  “Because, you’re a virgin and a mortal,” the man said.

  Instantly Roy felt his face heat with a blush. No one knew he was a virgin. It was his closest guarded secret!

  “Oh, don’t worry.” The man grinned. “Your secret is safe with me. You see, your virginal state is exactly why I’m here, to offer you a contract. A second chance at life if you will.”

  “If I refuse?” Roy frowned. He’d lived in the city long enough to know a scam artist when he saw one. This guy was as shady as a street peddler selling brand-name
watches.

  “You die.” The words were said so easily, as if they didn’t impact everything in Roy’s life. Still, as he stood there, looking at the eerily beautiful man, his words rang with a solidity that carried far too much weight to not be true.

  Roy glanced around at the figures he could see off in the distance. “Are you giving them the same option?”

  “Nope,” the man replied. “Most of them are here because they can’t move on. A few are here because of a punishment. Others, well, they’re just lost. My job isn’t to worry about them. My only concern with this place is when people like you come in.”

  “Virgins with ancestors who have encountered cat people?” Roy couldn’t help but sound a bit cynical. This was all so ridiculous!

  There was that humor back in those blue eyes. Roy wasn’t entirely sure he liked that look. “Virgins with ancestors who have encountered a creature of the supernatural,” he corrected him.

  Yeah, because that made this so much clearer. “Who are you?” Might as well have a name to go with the face, and it was the most normal thing Roy could think of right now.

  “I have many names,” the man said. “My most common name is Cupid.”

  “Come again?” Roy blinked, his voice deadpan.

  “Cupid,” he repeated. “God of love.”

  “Right, and I’m Jesus Christ,” Roy laughed. “Okay, now I know I’m dreaming. You can go away now, and I’ll just wake up.”

  “If I leave, your soul vanishes and you never wake up,” Cupid informed him. “Well, you’ll be reborn eventually, but you’ll have no memory of this life.”

  Okay, this was starting to cease being funny. A large part of Roy actually believed this lunatic and his words. Hell, he was even considering taking his offer. Whatever the offer was.

  “What do I have to do?” Roy found himself asking, even with a small piece of him screaming not to.

  Cupid smiled, and for a second Roy could see the cherub face that so many used to depict this man in modern times. “I want you to mate with a jaguar shifter and give birth to his children.”

  “I’m sorry, what?” Surely, he’d heard the crazy god wrong. He couldn’t possibly have just said what he thought he’d said. There was no way.

  “You are to mate with a jaguar shifter, become pregnant with his young, and then give birth,” Cupid expanded on his previous answer.

  “I’m a man.” Oh, that was smooth. Roy could already see the false surprise forming on the god’s face.

  “Really? I had no idea!” came the predictable reply. “And here I thought you were just a very flat-chested woman, with incredibly short hair.”

  Fair enough, Roy deserved that bout of sarcasm. “What I meant is, I can’t get pregnant, let alone give birth.”

  “Normally, yes.” Cupid nodded his head in agreement. “But the contract you’ll sign with me will change that.”

  “How?” Probably a dumb question, but one Roy felt he had to ask.

  Cupid spread his hands out and waved them in a fanning motion as he said, “Magic,” in a wondrous tone. Roy was sorry for asking.

  “This is all a bit much to swallow,” Roy confessed. “I mean, what if me and this carnivorous cat-man don’t even get along?”

  “Not a chance.” Cupid shrugged.

  “And your confidence comes from where?”

  “I’m Cupid. God of love. I don’t make mistakes in pairing people together,” he boasted.

  “I thought your mom, Aphrodite, was the god of love?”

  “She’s the goddess of erotic love. Common mistake,” Cupid corrected him.

  “Fine,” Roy huffed. “Let’s say I believe you, and I’m still on the bench, why does it have to be me? Why can’t this cat-man just breed with one of his own kind? Surely that would be better.” Roy was secretly a tad proud of himself for coming up with such a logical argument. The fact Cupid was shaking his head and his blue eyes had taken on a melancholy note didn’t exactly reaffirm his moment of pride though.

  “To continue the species, a member of the supernatural world must mate with a man of pure body and soul that has stood between the worlds,” Cupid explained. “In other words, only human men that have come to limbo as virgins are eligible.”

  If this was a dream, it was about time to wake up. This entire situation was becoming more and more ludicrous by the moment.

  “How about this.” Cupid frowned. “I’ll offer you a trial period.”

  “What type of trial period?” Roy folded his arms over his chest and looked at the beautiful man a bit more closely.

  Cupid’s answering grin was unnerving. “You sign my contract, and you wake up. I’ll leave a piece of evidence in your hand to prove this isn’t a dream. Something physical you can have in the living realm. If, when you awake in your hospital bed, you find this piece of evidence, then you will come to my office and I’ll start the process to pair you with your future husband.”

  “I thought you said mate?” Why the fuck was Roy correcting his wording? There was so much more for him to concentrate on, and yet he chose that to nitpick? The fuck!

  “I prefer to use more modern terms,” Cupid said simply. “Besides, I have a hundred percent success rate.”

  He shouldn’t do this! He really shouldn’t believe this craziness. Roy knew he should just walk away. So what if his soul disappeared and he died? If this was all a dream, it wouldn’t matter. Of course, if it was a dream, him agreeing to the man’s offer wouldn’t matter either. And if he really was in limbo, then it was the difference between living with a man guaranteed to love him—eventually—and dying. Roy was willing to choose the possibility of love over death.

  “Fine,” Roy declared, “I agree to your terms.”

  “Excellent!” the god rejoiced. “I just need a drop of your blood here.” A contract on old parchment paper seemed to materialize out of thin air, along with a needle that Cupid was now holding. “Don’t worry, it’s sterile.”

  Yeah, because that’s what Roy was worried about, unsanitary needles. Reaching for the contract, Roy read through it. No way in hell was he agreeing to anything without reading the fine print, especially now that he knew there was fine print.

  I, Rodrigo Veiga, aka Roy, hereby agree to the below terms in return for a second chance at life.

  i – Roy will not have sex with anyone who isn’t his assigned mate.

  ii – Roy will keep all appointments given to him to find a mate.

  iii – Roy will be faithful to his mate.

  iv – Roy will not engage in any activities that will prevent the conception of a firstborn.

  v – Roy will not tell anyone outside the agency, his mate, or those that have entered into a similar contract about his encounter with the god, Cupid.

  Rodrigo Veiga understands that by breaching this contract, he forfeits his life.

  “Forfeits my life?” Roy looked to Cupid feeling queasy again.

  “Yes,” Cupid sighed. “You see, if you go back on your word, you die. Sorry.”

  He was sorry? Roy just bet the man was. He sounded like someone telling a kid they couldn’t have candy for breakfast. Not the least bit sorry.

  Still, what did he have to lose?

  Taking the needle, Roy pricked his finger and placed a drop of his blood on the signature line. He felt his head spin as that single drop of blood bled out and scrolled along the line forming his name. If that wasn’t the damnedest thing.

  “Great!” Cupid snapped his fingers, and the contract disappeared. “Your first appointment, an orientation if you will, is Monday at ten in the morning. Do not be late.”

  “Wait, where is the meeting?” Roy asked, but Cupid vanished before he could answer. Roy was left staring up at a tiled ceiling and listening to the murmurs of people right beside him.

  “I think the worse is behind him now,” said a woman’s voice. “I’ll be back by in a few to check on him.”

  “Thank you.” Was that his mom?

  It took all of Roy�
�s effort to turn his head to look at the two women standing beside him. One was obviously a doctor, while the other was definitely his own mother. Roy swallowed around the lump of fear forming in his throat as he squeezed his hands. The crinkle of something in his right hand drew his attention. Looking to it, he felt his pulse race at the sight of the black business card clutched between his fingers. In elegant red script, like the color of blood, was written Cherry Matchmaking Agency. Above that was a golden cherub with a bow, a cherry at the tip of the arrow.

  It wasn’t a dream. It was real. All of it.

  “Roy, you had me scared,” his mom said, pulling his attention back to her. “The doctor says you’re lucky. You could’ve died.”

  Yeah, luck had nothing to do with it, and Roy knew it. He needed to get out of this hospital, before Monday.

  Chapter Two

  Roy looked at the card that he’d been gripping like a lifeline since Wednesday afternoon when he’d woken up in the hospital. Nothing had changed, and no matter how many times he fell asleep he always awoke with the card within reach or sight. It was on Sunday, the day of his release from the hospital, that he finally noticed the appointment and location was scrolled on the back of the card in the same red ink. He was to meet up with Cupid today, Monday, here at the building he now found himself outside of.

  Turning his gaze from the card, Roy studied the grand structure before him. It almost looked like the building was carved out of black onyx. It was all sleek lines and black glass. There was no way to see into the building, though something told Roy the occupants could see out. A simple bronze plaque was bolted to the building to the left of the door with a very familiar script and name carved into it.