Her Black Tiger (Alaskan Tigers Book 11) (3 page)

“Don’t worry, he’s gone.”

She turned back to him to find that he was still watching her, completely ignoring her questions. “Gone?”

“Yes, and so should we before anyone else comes along.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” She wiped her sweaty palms on the thighs of her jeans.

“Right now, I’m the only one standing between you and an unpleasant death. So if you want to live, you’re coming with me.” An SUV pulled up to the curb behind him and without even looking, he added, “It’s only Red. Now, are you ready?”

“I want to go home.” Her words held the sadness that had replaced her earlier rage. In less than a day, her whole world turned upside down and everything was slipping from her grasp. Now all she wanted to do was go home and grieve for her loss. Right then, she didn’t care about catching a shifter on tape or proving she wasn’t insane. She just wanted the nightmare to be over.

B
rooklynn stared
out the window of the SUV, looking out at the city she had grown to love. If she’d been in her apartment, she would’ve had a better view, but it didn’t matter anymore. Things had gone from bad to disastrous and with every new turn, it seemed this whole mess would keep her from ever reclaiming her old life. It had gotten to the point she wasn’t sure she was even going to make it out alive. Her strength and willingness to fight had diminished, leaving her hollow.

It wasn’t until she was in the SUV and the man with long black and gray hair was driving that she realized she’d never asked his name. Carran…Carran and Red. Those were her saviors and now captors. For over an hour, Carran drove around the city, heading nowhere in particular as far as she could tell, while he questioned her about what she’d witnessed, the lion shifter, and why she’d chosen Reaper’s. He asked the same question multiple times, but phrased differently. As a police officer she knew the tactics. He was trying to trip her up and see if she was lying. Everything she said was the truth.

Finally, while Red pumped gas, she had an opportunity to turn the tables on Carran and ask him the question that had been weighing on her mind since their touch. “Carran…” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “When we…uh…when you…touched me…” She stumbled over her words, not sure how to say it.

“When I touched you, what?”

How could he not know? She turned to look at him and found him staring at her, his face void of expression. Was she the only one who could feel it? Maybe she was losing her mind after all. No, she refused to believe that. She had witnessed the man shift into a lion and she felt the electricity and the heat when Carran touched her. No matter what everyone else thought, she wasn’t nuts. “The…sizzling heat. Damn it, tell me you felt it, too!”

Without saying a word, he reached over the armrest and let his fingers caress over the top of her hand. His touch was feather soft, barely making contact, but the current sparked to life between them, bringing the heat. “This?” His voice barely rose above a whisper as his fingers continued to trace circles around her knuckles.

“Yes.” The word came out breathier than she wanted it to, forcing her to take a deep breath. “Why?”

“Think of it as a sign.”

“A sign? What kind of sign?”

Before he could answer, his phone rang and he withdrew his hand, grabbing the cell that he’d tossed into the middle divide between them. “I’ve got to take this.” He brought it to his ear. “Ty…” He opened his door and stepped out.

“Don’t worry, I’ll wait.” She let out a deep sigh, not sure if he’d heard her. Her frustration was growing but he wasn’t completely to blame. They had been driving around for over an hour, obviously looking for someone, but when she asked they seemed to avoid her questions. Were they looking for Donovick? If so, what were they planning to do when they found him? Eventually she’d have to face her patrol partner, but she needed to have a plan.

If Donovick really wanted her dead, she wasn’t sure how she’d handle that. They had been partners for nine months and she thought he’d had her back. Now it seemed to change. What would his wife think? If he was charged and convicted of murder, he’d be in prison, leaving his three-year-old son to grow up without a father.

Wolf pack…

She remembered that phrase coming up in conversation over and over as Carran and an old man at the bar spoke. Before the lion shifted, he’d told Donovick they were the same. It was coming together. Donovick was a shifter.

The driver’s side door opened and she turned, expecting to see Carran climbing back in. Instead, she found Red holding the door open. His brows knitted together and confusion filled his gaze as his watched her.

“You okay?” he finally asked.

“Umm…yeah?” Startled, her answer came out more like a question.

“Shifters can feel emotions. Feelings like rage and terror make the air so thick it can be difficult to breath. Depending on the species, fear might bring the beast closer to the surface.” He paused as if he’d said too much. “While you’re composed, the jumble of different emotions raging within you are clear in your scent. Rage, fear, anxiety, resentment, confusion, and grief toss within you and from one moment to the next a different one has control.”

“I don’t understand why you’re telling me this. Your kind must live by some rules, otherwise the rest of the population would have found out about shifters by now and my police report wouldn’t have put my life in jeopardy.” She met his gaze. “Or are you going to kill me?” If they were going to kill her, she wanted them to look her in the eye when they did it. She wasn’t sure if either of them had a conscience or morals, but if they did, she wanted them to live with the knowledge that they’d killed an innocent person. She had meant no harm to them.

“Our existence is kept quiet not for your safety, but for ours. We’re no danger to the human population, but they’re a danger to us.”

“Huh?” How could humans be a danger to shifters? All they had to do was shift into their animal and they’d outweigh any human. They were faster, and had claws and teeth that could tear someone apart in moments. How could shifters be victims if their existence was known?

“We’re immune to sickness and diseases,” Red said. “Do you believe doctors wouldn’t want to study us to see if they could duplicate that? That hunters won’t see us as their next target? We aren’t invincible, but we are harder to kill. Due to that, don’t you think the government will try to use us to fight their battles? Or when they can’t use us to kill, don’t you think they’d seek to eliminate us?”

Each question hollowed her heart a little further. Humanity…they were supposed to be a collective group, but with his words she knew humans would never consider them part of that group. Shifters could change from human form to their animal at will, and that would be enough to create a divide between them that would make swimming across the Pacific Ocean seem like a short swim. Wars broke out for lesser things and she didn’t doubt that would happen if humans learned about shifters tomorrow.
What have I done?

“Seeing things in a different light?” Red leaned against the door frame. “I wonder if it was my words or—”

“Get in,” Carran hollered, jogging across the parking lot. He reached the SUV before Red climbed into the backseat. “Brooklynn, I need you to climb in the back. Red, you take the passenger seat.”

Brooklynn stared at him a moment before she grabbed hold of the door handle and started to pull it back toward her. If he thought putting distance between them would stop him from answering her question, he would soon receive a newsflash. Carran had asked her to trust him, and she did, but there was only so long she’d be willing to follow him blindly.
Until I figure another way out of this mess.

“No, you need climb over the seat.”

“Why?” Without removing her hand from the door, she glanced back at him.

“We can’t afford to take the chance someone will see you.” He nodded to Red, who walked around the back of the SUV. “Please…”

“I’ve been sitting here all this time and
now
it matters?” She let out a huff, but let go of the handle and climbed over the seat and into the back as Red came alongside her door. “I think it’s time you take me home.”

“Right now, Red and I have to deal with something. I need you to promise me that you’ll stay in the SUV.” Carran slid behind the wheel, started the engine, and as Red pulled his door shut Carran gunned it out of the gas station. “While we’re gone, you need to keep the doors locked and stay hidden. We shouldn’t be long.”

“Where are we going?” She stayed in the middle of the backseat, rocking sideways as Carran raced through the deserted city streets.

“To deal with what we came to town for.” Carran was forced to stop at a red light and glanced at her in the rearview mirror. “The man you witnessed shifting…”

“What are you going to do to him? He has a warrant out for his arrest. If you know where he is, you need to call the police.” She wanted to be the one to take him down.
How would taking him into custody get me my life back? Could I really expose shifters?
Earlier that night, she knew the answer would have been yes, but in that very moment she wasn’t convinced. That would be like damning a whole species for the crimes of one.

Dad, what would you do?
She didn’t even need him to be there to tell her, because every ounce of her knew he would’ve protected the shifters’ secret. He believed people could improve themselves, could change. He always said that if someone tried hard enough, they could put their bad ways behind them. All they had to do was reach down and pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

“She should team up with Quinn.” Red chuckled. “The two of them seem to have the same views.”

“Who’s he?” She grabbed hold of the edge of the seat to keep from being pushed backward as Carran pressed his foot to the pedal the moment the light changed. “Damn it, Carran, slow down.”

He ignored her complaint and as they reached the outskirts of the city, he continued to accelerate. “Quinn is with the United States Marshal Services, and he’s eager for the day that shifters can be thrown in jail cells.”

“Until his coworkers find out that he’s deceived them all.” Red turned in his seat enough to glance back at her. “He’s a black panther, living the life of a human, and rarely giving in to his beast. One day that will work against him.”

She wasn’t sure what to say to that. How many shifters were law enforcers? Was there any risk of them turning against their fellow officers? One day their secret was bound to be exposed, and then what? Would their species be divided? Humans against shifters? She wanted to believe they were better than that, and that they’d be able to respect their differences. In her heart she knew shifters would be seen as the enemy.

Carran and Red had come to her aid when she needed it, which made her want to believe that good people of any species would always be there to lend a helping hand. Donovick was supposed to be one of the good guys and he’d turned his back on her. He chose his own species over her and now, because she threatened to expose him, he wanted her dead. They were partners. He should have come to her and told her the truth. Instead he did nothing while she was attacked. What if the lion had killed her? Would Donovick have done nothing?

Donovick…he’s a…wolf.
No matter how many times it ran through her thoughts, she still couldn’t wrap her brain around it.
I better get used to it before he finds me.

T
he lights
of the SUV were off as Carran killed the engine. At the far end of the street a single house stood, while all of the others had been demolished. This was the last one that stood in the way of a strip mall and was set to be knocked down the following week. To most, it looked innocent enough, except Carran knew the man they had come after was waiting inside. He was on the verge of leaving his life behind and giving in to his beast. If it wasn’t already too late, they would only have one chance to stop him.

As if knowing Carran needed a moment with Brooklynn, Red stepped out of the SUV without being asked. Alone with her, he took a deep breath, filling his lungs with the scent of…
his mate
. Those two words made his tiger excited and anxious. She was a strong, independent woman and while she had been willing to trust him so far, it wouldn’t last. He’d have to tell her everything and hope she could see him for more than just the animal within him.

“You’re not going to call the police, are you?” Staring straight ahead toward the house, she seemed resigned to whatever would happen.

“No.” He turned in his seat to look back at her. “Your police can’t help him, but we can.”

“He has a warrant out for his arrest.”

“He’s a lion shifter on the verge of going rogue.” If things went as he hoped inside, he needed her to keep quiet about involving law enforcement when they returned. She didn’t understand what a delicate situation they were embarking on and if he’d been able to leave her somewhere else while they dealt with this, he would have. With Donovick out for blood, she wasn’t safe alone.

“Rogue?”

Needing to feel her touch, he laid his hand over hers and was pleasantly surprised when she didn’t pull away from him. Caressing his thumb over the curves of her fingers, his tiger urged him to climb into the backseat with her, but with the mission ahead of him, he resisted the urge. “A shifter has their animal living within them. While we’re human most of the time, our animal is always a part of us. Just like when we shift, our human side is there. We can speak in our animal form but we still think like a human.”

“I don’t understand. What does that have to do with a rogue?”

“Right now you think we’re just a bunch of animals—”

“I don’t.” She cut him off before he could finish. “Maybe I did at first when the lion charged me, but now…I don’t know. You seem human, but so did he before he…”

He watched as she reached up with the hand that wasn’t under his and touched the back of her head. The thick scent of blood and antiseptic drifted through the interior as her fingers made contact with the bandage. “Have you ever lost someone you loved so much that it felt like you couldn’t get through the day without them? The grief tearing at your heart, making your chest tight, each breath a struggle…” The tears in her eyes answered his question before she spoke.

“My father.” The words were barely a whisper. “He was a police officer and was killed in the line of duty.”

“I’m sorry.” He squeezed her hand. “That’s what Ambrose is going through. Humans believe in true love, whereas shifters have a mate. We know there is a mate out there for us and we wait to find them. It keeps us going through everything else, but when you lose them, no words can explain what that feels like. Some do not survive the loss and others go rogue.”

“Is that what’s happening to him? Is Ambrose a rogue?”

“Unless we can help him, yes. The loss of his mate has frayed his control over his beast. If the connection severs completely, he’ll be a rogue and there will be nothing we can do for him. In order to keep people safe, he would have to be put down.” Time was running short and sitting with her might help her understand more about his species, but it was doing nothing to help Ambrose. When he parked, he’d made sure they stayed downwind, so they could come up on the house without alerting him. But wasting time would only give Ambrose more of a chance to learn they were there.