Chase, Zara - Tigers' Temptation [Impulse 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (18 page)

But it seemed that life was a trade-off. She’d promised whichever god had listened to her prayers that she’d sacrifice anything to have her daughter well again. She hadn’t realized at the time just how much that sacrifice would hurt.

She was sobbing so loudly that she didn’t hear the door open behind her.

“Hey.” Chantal touched her shoulder. “What’s happened? Has Amy taken a turn for the worse?”

Layla made a huge effort to pull herself together. “No, she’s fine. Just feeling a bit sorry for myself, that’s all.”

Chantal sat beside her and smiled. “Wanna talk about it?”

Did she? She and Chantal had become close during the course of Layla’s short stay in Impulse. Layla needed to talk to someone who would understand, even if it was only to tell her that she was being selfish and self-centered.

“It’s Mikael and Philo,” she said. “I feel so damned guilty.”

“You didn’t force Mikael to do what he did.”

“No, but I could have stopped him. Philo warned me what would likely happen.”

“But you’re a mother.” She glanced at the sleeping, rosy-cheeked Amy and smiled. “Any mother would put their child first in such a situation.”

“Yes, that’s what I keep telling myself. Then I look at Mikael, trying to pretend it’s no big deal that he’s lost what was so important to him, and feel like crap. Philo doesn’t help matters. He’s icily polite, but I know he blames me.” She shook her head. “Not as much as I blame myself, though.”

“Philo doesn’t blame you, but he does love Mikael like crazy. He lost someone before, you see. Someone he really loved. It took him a long time to trust Mikael, and now he’s faced with the prospect of losing him, too.”

“Who did he lose?”

“Apparently, he had an identical twin brother. They were born here in the colony, but both their parents were killed in a raid by bears when the kids were really small.” Chantal sighed. “Although they had the rest of the colony and the other tiger shifters to look out for them, I hear it was Philo and Milo against the world from that day on. They did everything together and were inseparable. Then Milo died.”

“What happened?”

“Philo never talks about it here, but there are some shifters here who still remember. There was a brawl in a bar.” Chantal shrugged. “Wrong place, wrong time. Some drunk produced a gun, fired indiscriminately, and shot Milo dead.”

Layla’s hand covered her mouth. “That’s awful.”

“Yeah, it is. Rafe says Philo was inconsolable, gave up on everything, and went off the rails for a while. Then Mikael arrived at the colony, and…well, he turned Philo around. Gave him something to live for again.”

“No wonder he hates me.”

“He doesn’t hate you. He’s just terrified of losing Mikael.”

“Yes, I know,” Layla said bleakly.

“Have you thought—”

“There’s something Philo’s not telling me, I can sense it.” Layla wrinkled her brow. “I don’t mean about his twin, either. He tried to say something to me when Amy arrived, but Mikael stopped him.”

Chantal stared at her with dawning comprehension in her eyes. “You don’t know, do you?”

“Know what?”

“Okay, let’s come at this a different way. What are your feelings for Mikael and Philo?”

She shrugged. “I should have thought that was obvious.”

“You’ve fallen for them both, I take it.”

“Yes, almost from the first time I saw them.”

“It was the same for me with Rafe and Vilas. You just know deep inside that they’re the ones, don’t you?”

“Well, I do, but they obviously don’t feel the same way.” Chantal’s smile was broad and knowing, which irked Layla. “Glad you find it amusing,” she said, sniffing.

“Babe, what Philo probably wanted to tell you is that he and Mikael need to mate with a human.”

Layla blinked. “Come again?”

“Every other generation of shifters have to find a human mate. That’s how I finished up with Rafe and Vilas, thank heaven.”

“Yes, but how would that help Mikael?”

“Your human DNA would enhance his shifter equivalent.”

“I must be pretty thick today, because I still don’t get it.”

“I’m guessing that they’ve played games with you but you’ve not had penetrative sex, right?”

“Yes,” Layla said slowly. “But I still—”

“They can’t fuck any human until they find the right mate. Only the right person can restore their powers, and if they get it wrong they can kiss good-bye to being shifters.”

“You mean I could make Mikael better?” Layla widened her eyes, her head spinning with the absurdity of it all. “Why the hell didn’t they say something? It would have saved us all a ton of angst, not to mention Mikael’s pain.”

“I’m guessing that Mikael forbade Philo to tell you. You see, if you mate with shifters, it’s for life. You make that commitment and there’s no going back.” Chantal grinned. “There are fringe benefits, of course. Like tripling your life span, being able to breathe the air here,
and
getting regularly fucked by two well-endowed shifters.”

“Then Mikael obviously doesn’t feel he wants to spend the rest of his life with me.”

“Rubbish, I’ve seen the way he looks at you.”

“So why put himself through all that pain if he knew I could help him to avoid it?”

“What would you have said to them if you knew?”

“Obviously, that I’d commit.”

“But would you have been thinking of them, Amy, or you?”

“All three.”

“How can you be so sure? I almost got Rafe killed after I’d agreed to mate with them, but that’s another story. The thing is, you would have said or done anything to save that little scrap, wouldn’t you?” Chantal waved a hand toward Amy’s bed. “If you then decided that you’d made a mistake and hightailed it out of Impulse, you’d leave Mikael and Philo unable to mate again because they’d be committed to you. Their power would decrease even quicker in that situation.”

“They still should have given me the option.” Layla shook her head. “I really thought they were into each other and didn’t need me.”

“All the alpha males looking for human mates fuck each other. If they have sex with a human and, say, the condom breaks, they are quite literally fucked. They can’t risk it, so they play with each other while they wait. And afterward, too. Rafe, Vilas, and I have great fun together.”

“I would have found a way to convince them that I wanted to stay, given the chance. It only takes a minute to fall in love.”

“I know. But you need to be aware of the restrictions you face if you live in Impulse. It’s a great family. You must have gotten the vibes.”

Layla nodded. “Everyone’s been incredibly kind about Amy.”

“Yeah, we all look out for each other. But we’re also under constant threat of attack. We can’t travel safely alone outside of Impulse’s boundaries for fear of being kidnapped and held for ransom by the bears, or whoever else is mounting an attack that particular day. It’s like being under constant siege. In some respects, life here is a gilded cage, but the fringe benefits more than make up for that. Well, I think they do, but it’s not for everyone.”

“If Amy and I could stay here with Mikael and Philo, you wouldn’t hear me complaining.” Layla reached up and touched the diamond collar that Chantal always wore. “Is this their version of a wedding ring?”

Chantal smiled. “Something like that. All the mated females wear them.”

“Yes, I’d noticed.” Layla rested her chin in her cupped hand and scowled. ”So, what do I do now? I can hardly just waltz up there, tell them I know their secret, and demand to be fucked.”

“Oh, I think we can be a little bit more subtle than that.” She glanced at Amy. “Come on, this situation calls for expert help.”

“Where are we going?”

“You’ll see.”

Out of deference to Layla’s inability to inhale the air, Chantal borrowed one of the Institute’s golf carts and drove them to the shopping center. She stopped the cart outside a ladies’ apparel shop called Feline Fashions.

“This is run by Irena. You met her in the bar the other night.”

“Yes, I think I remember.”

Chantal laughed. “No one forgets meeting Irena.”

“Hey.” Irena appeared from behind the counter. “How’s your little girl?”

“She’s doing really well, thanks.”

“That’s great. I’ve been meaning to stop by.”

“Irena, we have a crisis,” Chantal said.

“Crises are my specialty.” She waggled her brows at Layla. “I assume we’re looking to impress two stubborn tigers with more brain power than sense.”

Layla tried to sound miffed. “Does everyone know my business?”

“Honey, in this town everyone knows everything. That’s the downside of all the damned mind power the shifters have.”

“I suppose.”

“I punish Rafe and Vilas by withholding sex if they get inside my head without my permission,” Chantal said.

“Works every time for me,” Irena agreed. “They’ll teach you how to block them, but I don’t bother much with that. I like my guys to read my dirty thoughts and know what I have planned for them.”

Chantal and Layla laughed.

“You’re incorrigible,” Chantal scolded.

“Thank you. I think.” She clapped her hands. “Okay, so you need to convince those two boneheads that you love ’em and need to be fucked. Am I right?”

Layla was rapidly becoming accustomed to the way in which the ladies of Impulse spoke so frankly. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“Okay.”

Chantal and Irena went into a huddle, excluding Layla.

“Right, here’s the plan,” Irena said. “Decorous on the surface, but sexy as hell when they peel back the first layer. Would that work?”

“You tell me. You know them better than I do.”

Irena produced a light-mauve strapless basque, complete with garter belt.

“Try that on.”

So much for decorous, Layla thought, struggling into the garment. It had crisscross laces at the back, which Chantal tightened for her, squeezing her waist in until it looked positively tiny and pushing her tits high into the cups.

“Hmm, good.” Irena stood back and examined Layla critically. “Add these.”

She handed her fishnet stockings and thigh-length boots in the same color, made of soft leather, with four-inch heels. Layla wasn’t surprised to find they were a perfect fit.

“You’ll knock ’em dead in that, no question.” Irena nodded emphatically. “Right, now for the decorous bit.”

Layla felt conspicuous, standing about in her “knock ’em dead” outfit while she waited for Irena to come up with something a little less…er, revealing.

“Here we are.”

She produced a full-length lace garment in, surprise, exactly the same mauve. It slipped over head, covering her from her neck to her ankles, just the boots’ killer heels showing beneath the hem. It was entirely respectable and glamorous, hugging what was now an hourglass figure, thanks to the basque. It was only when she examined herself in the full-length glass and turned sideways that she realized the dress was slit on one side almost up to her waist, revealing a booted and stockinged leg. They wouldn’t have to work too hard to get a front-seat view of her bare butt and naked pussy.