Here There Be Tigers (3 page)

She waited. He remained silent. She glared.
“Talk, or I’m going to start calling you Mikhail.”

That earned her a snort of reluctant laughter.
“Fine. I’ll tell you what I can, but I’d rather you heard the story
from your father. You’ll believe him.”

“
Fine. I’ll call him.”

“
Don’t panic if you can’t reach him.
He said they might be in places where the cell service was
bad.”

“
I’ll panic if I damned well want
to,” she groused and hit the speed dial for her dad’s phone. When
it went right to voicemail, she tried her grandmother’s phone.
Voicemail. “Damn it.” She stared at the screen as worry ate at her.
“You’re sure they’re okay?”

He didn’t answer immediately. She turned as far
as the seatbelt would allow and stared at the side of his face.
“Are they in trouble, Mitch?”

“
You’re all in trouble.”

“
Why? Why the hell would this
Dubrovsky guy want to hurt us?”

“
He’s your birth mother’s
mate.”

She blinked, thinking she’d misheard him. “My
birth mother is dead. She died when I was born.”

“
Actually… She didn’t. She returned
to her people and mated with one of her kind. Unfortunately, he
found out about you. You shouldn’t even exist.” He refused to look
at her despite her stare.

“
Telling me I shouldn’t exist is
rude.” She wasn’t entirely sure why that was the next thing out of
her mouth, but it was all she could think to say as the
overwhelming news turned her world upside down. Her mother hadn’t
died. She’d left her and her father and gone off to marry another
man.

She frowned. Mitch hadn’t used the word
husband. “Why did you call Dubrovsky her mate? That’s a weird way
of saying her lover, husband, boyfriend, whatever.”

“
Because that’s what they were. A
mated pair. He caught her in the Mate Run and she
conceived—”

“
Wait.” She held up a hand to stop
him. Again. “Nothing you’re saying makes any sense. I detest when
things don’t make sense. It irritates the hell out of
me.”

“
Yeah, Rossa warned me about that.
You really should wait to hear this from your father.”

“
Well, I can’t reach my father right
now. You know what’s happening. You’re going to explain.” When he
hesitated further, she actually snarled. “Mikhail, I swear to
god…”

“
Fine.” He tossed her a glare of his
own. “Just don’t call me Mikhail.” Then he faced the road again.
“And don’t say I didn’t warn you. You’re not going to believe half
of what I tell you.”

“
Tell me anyway. Start with this
business of my birth mother still being alive. Did my grandmother
and father know?”

“
Was alive,” Mitch said quietly.
“I’m sorry. She died a few weeks ago.”

Well that just made it all worse! Now she
couldn’t even contact this woman who’d abandoned her, even if she
wanted to. What the hell? “Did she and my dad have an affair? Is
that why her…mate wants me dead?”

Mitch shook his head. “Her relationship with
your father was before she married Petrov. She gave birth to you,
waited for her cycle to begin again, and then took part in the Mate
Run.”

“
The Mate Run? What the hell is
that?”

“
That is a much longer part of this
already long story.”

She rubbed her forehead. “You’re giving me a
headache.”

“
I’m not surprised. You’ve been
travelling for days. You must be hungry. We can stop…”

“
I’m too worried and nauseated to
eat.”

“
Well, I’m starving, and a
hungry…man is always a bad thing.” He flashed her an arched
look.

She snorted, trying not to laugh. How the hell
could she find him charming in the midst of this nightmare? For all
she knew, this was an elaborate part of the kidnapping. Her
grandmother could have been under duress when she left her
voicemail. The email picture could have been sent by anyone using
her grandmother’s account. She had no real reason to trust this
man, despite what her generally good instincts were telling her.
Hell, she couldn’t even be sure his name was Mikhail, Mitch,
whatever.

Staring at the side of his face, she pursed her
lips. There was something strange about him, and she couldn’t put
her finger on exactly what it was. Nothing bad, just…he didn’t
feel
like other men. That didn’t make sense. His presence
was more pronounced maybe? Like he took up more space and air than
his actual body mass would indicate. That sense of otherness
reminded her of the cats she worked with. Which was so weird, the
thought momentarily made her forget her myriad
questions.

She shook off the strange idea, putting it down
to jetlag.

He pulled off the road at the next exit and
went through a fast food drive thru. He ordered enough burgers to
feed an army.

“
You’re going to have to eat all
those yourself. I’m a vegetarian,” she commented.

“
That was the plan. You said you
weren’t hungry.”

“
Get me a coke.”

Once they were back on the road again, she
motioned with her free hand. “Continue with this
explanation.”

“
Try your father again,” he said
instead.

She barely held her patience as she rang her
dad, then her grandmother again. Both phones went straight to
voicemail. “Damn it.”

“
They’re okay,” Mitch said, his
voice quiet and full of understanding.

She swallowed back her worry. “I don’t know
what I’ll do if anything happens to them. They’re all I have.” She
forced down the threat of tears, not wanting to cry in front of a
stranger. “Okay, you’re up,” she said when she was sure her voice
would be steady. “Mate Run? Dubrovsky? Mother alive longer than I
was told. I shouldn’t exist. Someone wants me dead. Time to explain
all that.”

He devoured the last of his second burger
before saying, “Your mother was a tiger shapeshifter. Humans and
tigers can’t have children. At least, that’s the prevailing wisdom.
But you exist so obviously the prevailing wisdom is
wrong.”

She stared at him, not even blinking, certain
now that she was hearing him wrong and wondering if maybe this was
all a dream. “Tiger shapeshifter?”

He nodded.

“
Like…werewolves?”

“
Similar idea. Different
species.”

“
You’re talking nonsense, you
know?”

He sighed. “I told Leo this would be better
coming from him.”

“
My father thinks my birth mother
was a…weretiger?”

“
He doesn’t think. He knows. She
told him. She wanted him to be prepared for… Well, for what might
happen with you.”

“
With me? Because I shouldn’t
exist?”

“
Because a lot of tigers would want
you dead if they found out about you, and others might want…other
things.”

“
Other things?”

“
It’s complicated. Just, let’s say
your connection to your mother was best kept secret.”

“
So, she just left, and—” Nila
stopped suddenly as something she’d never thought to worry about
occurred to her. “What was her name? My mother?”

“
Anaya. Anaya Pujari.”

Nila closed her eyes briefly. Her dad had told
her the truth of that at least. For some reason, knowing hadn’t
lied about her mother’s real name made a difference in all this
craziness. “I keep thinking I’m going to hear the fasten seatbelts
ding any minute, and I’ll wake up from all this as my plane is
landing.”

“
I’m sorry.”

She waved away his sympathy. Too much and she
might really break down in tears. “Keep going. Why would
these…weretigers want me dead if I shouldn’t exist?”

“
That’s probably a story best told
once we reach my cabin.”

“
Your cabin?” She raised her brows.
“That’s the safe place you’re taking me? Isolated is
it?”

“
I promise, I’m not going to hurt
you, Nila. I’m just trying to protect you.”

“
You’ll pardon me if I’m a little
suspicious since you just told me werewolves exist.”

“
Tigers.”

“
Sorry. Weretigers. So no
werewolves?”

“
They exist, too. They just don’t
have anything to do with this.”

She rubbed her forehead again.

“
I’ve got some pain relievers in the
glove compartment.”

She sighed. “This is just a little too much to
take in on jetlag.”

She shuffled through the contents of the glove
compartment as she searched out the little bottle of pills, looking
for anything that might give her a clue about the guy she was
trusting with her life and the lives of her family. She found the
car registration, the bottle of aspirin, and a toy from a fast food
kids’ meal.

“
You have kids?” she asked, waving
the little robot thing at him before putting it back. She glanced
at Mitch’s hand and confirmed he didn’t have a wedding ring
on.

“
No kids. No wife or girlfriend.” He
shrugged. “Not likely to be either.”

“
Not likely—why? Are you gay?” That
would be very disappointing.

He chuckled. “No. I like women. Just… It’s not
important.” He nodded at the now hidden toy. “That belongs to one
of my nephews.”

“
Ah. Okay. Back to this weretiger
nonsense.”

He shook his head. “Why bother when you don’t
believe what I’m telling you?”

“
Because someone wants me dead for
reasons I don’t understand.”

“
Right.” He finished off his third
burger. “You sure you don’t want to wait and talk to your father?
Or at least wait till we get to the cabin and can be more
comfortable?”

She growled. “Why are you stalling?”

“
I’m not. I just don’t want to keep
telling you things you aren’t going to believe.”

“
How long before we reach your
cabin?”

“
Couple more hours. It's in the
Adirondacks.”

She shuffled the two pain pills in her hand.
She hadn’t swallowed them yet, hesitating despite the fact that her
instincts still told her she was safe with Mitch. She felt so off
balance, so outside what she had always believed to be the real
world that she didn’t trust anything at the moment—even her
instincts. Talk about going down a rabbit hole. She felt like Alice
discovering Wonderland was full of monsters. She stared at the
pills. If she took them would she shrink? The idea was so absurd,
she laughed.

“
What?” Mitch asked.

“
Nothing. I’m just tired.” Her head
was killing her, but she tucked the aspirins into her pants pocket,
deciding taking any drugs right then might not be a great
idea.

“
Sleep,” Mitch said, gently. “We’ve
got time.”

Sleep sounded really good right then. Maybe if
she went to sleep, she’d wake up on the airplane, this would all be
a dream, and she could forget she’d ever heard of weretigers. She
blinked. Tigers… “Wait, you said a tiger showed up when you were
with my dad and grandmother? What was that about?”

“
Ah. Yeah. When we were planning to
come get you, one of Petrov’s…associates showed up. We got away,
but afterward, Leo decided it was safer to split up. He didn’t want
Petrov using him and your grandmother to get to you.”

“
And my dad thought I’d be safer
with a stranger?”

“
With me, yes.”

“
Why you?”

“
I know what we’re dealing with and
how to protect you from the people after you.”

“
The weretigers.”

“
Yes.”

She shook her head. “None of this makes
sense.”

He didn’t answer and she didn’t press him. She
was overwhelmed, exhausted, and not sure she could take on anymore
anyway. Instead, she tried her dad and grandmother’s cellphones
again. Still nothing. It was almost midnight. Where the hell were
they?

She confirmed her phone battery was good for
the rest of the night, then looked out the window. They were on the
highway heading north into the Adirondacks. The combination of
sparse highway lights and darkness beyond lulled her, and without
her permission her eyes closed. She snapped them open and blinked,
but exhaustion still weighed on her.

“
Nila.” Mitch’s voice was quiet,
calming. “Sleep. You’re safe with me. You can rest.”

Hell. She might as well sleep while she had the
chance. Could be just the thing to wake her up from this nightmare.
“Don’t tell me if I drool,” she said. “I don’t want to
know.”

She closed her eyes, leaned her head against
the window, and let exhaustion take her. If Mitch was going to kill
her, she was a dead woman anyway. Might as well be rested when she
faced her future.

Or lack of one.

CHAPTER THREE

Mitch waited until he heard her steady, even
breathing before he glanced at her. Nila De Luca wasn’t what he’d
been expecting from a human-tiger shifter cross.