Once Upon a Tiger (3 page)

“Bastards. After all I’ve done for them. All the years of service. The only thing I ever asked in return was immunity from the Run.” She met Victor’s steady gaze. “Do you think I’m being selfish, avoiding mating?”

It’s not my place to say. You should be allowed to live as you like.

She snorted a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Tell that to the rest of our people.”

The elders’ decision that she must run now meant she was going to end up fighting tigers she would otherwise have gotten along with. She might even have to kill some of them to protect herself. Where would that leave her?

She blinked and focused on Victor. He was staring at her as if he could see into her thoughts.

“If I have to kill any of them, because the elders have said I have to run, does that mean I’ll become a criminal?”

Victor nodded.

Anger rose to heat her skin. Damn the elders. They were boxing her into a corner. They had to know she’d fight—even if she’d wanted to mate with any of the males they sent after her. Why do that to her?

She tilted her head. Victor’s presence took on a whole new meaning.

“Is that why you’re here? To keep me from killing them?”

He smiled and dipped his head again.

She laughed, a short burst of emotion at the absurd situation. “Bet Nick doesn’t know he should be thanking you.”

Victor shrugged.

“But you weren’t facing me, keeping me from going after them. You were facing the others.”

They were the ones trying to start a fight.

“True.” She leaned back against the armrest. “So now what? I know they haven’t gone away. It couldn’t be that easy.”

I’ll stay. To help.

She worked at squashing the rapid increase in her pulse, but from the way his nostrils flared and his eyes narrowed slightly, she knew the effort was pointless. He could smell her lust rising. And there was no way they’d be able to remain this close without falling into bed. She’d wanted him too much for too long. Even out of estrous, she’d barely been able to resist him. Alone with him, she knew her body would get the better of her brain.

Just the thought made her glance toward her room. When she looked at Victor again, his expression was serious, his gaze focused on her mouth.

“That’s probably not a great idea,” she murmured, even as she leaned a little closer. “Not while I’m in estrous.”

She felt his heat, smelled his desire. The combination was driving her nuts. Every fiber of her being strained toward him, wanting to strip off those borrowed clothes and do all sorts of naughty things to his delicious body. When she realized just how close she’d gotten to him, she jumped up and stumbled back toward the kitchen.

“No,” she said once she was at a safe distance. “No, you hanging around is not a good idea.”

He dropped eye contact long enough to write a note, then rose slowly, his every movement holding her attention. So graceful and strong. What would those big hands feel like on her body? Her skin quivered at the thought. She closed her eyes for a moment to rein in her wayward thoughts. When she opened them, he was standing in front of her, holding the notebook up so she could read.

I won’t stay here. I’ll keep to the woods. But I’ll be near enough to help if you need me.

She didn’t want him to go. She wanted him to stay, to drag her off to bed and fuck her like there were no consequences or repercussions. She could barely think around the thick need racing across her heated skin, the only relief for it in Victor’s arms.

He dropped his hands to his side and took a small step closer. Alexis was so overwhelmed by him she stopped thinking. To hell with the elders and their damned rules. She eased near enough that their clothes brushed. She felt the contact across her entire body. Her nipples hardened, her breathing increased, dampness soaked her underwear.

Their mouths were a breath away, the suspense and desire almost more than she could take.

Then she blinked and he was gone.

An involuntary gasp blew past her tingling lips. She stood exactly where she was for long moments as she concentrated on breathing. Finally, she went to her still-open front door. There was no sign of him. But her keen senses picked him up about a half mile away. Far enough that she was no longer so driven to drag him to bed but close enough he could reach her if she needed him.

True to his word, she thought. Honorable on top of everything else.

No wondered she’d been in love with him for most of her adult life.

Chapter Three

Victor paced the woods in his tiger form, his senses open so he would know if the other males entered Alexis’ territory again. It was harder to resist going to her while he was tiger, but he was also faster, stronger, and more deadly in this shape.

Exactly what she needed from him right now.

He turned in the direction of her cabin and scented the air. She called to him. Not on purpose, he knew. Now, more than any other time, she was a beacon to his desire, a bright white light in the blackness. She drove him wild, past even his usual obsession with her. He was a fool to think he’d be able to stay away.

Yet he couldn’t leave her to face the others on her own. She was perfectly capable of taking care of herself. Just a few months ago, she’d brought an unbalanced tiger in to face the elders’ justice without any help—a tiger whose insanity made him infinitely more dangerous than the current threat. She was an efficient and deadly Tracker.

But this was different. The elders hadn’t even warned Alexis they’d changed their minds about her not running. Now that she was being forced to mate, it would kill him if something happened to her when he could have helped. His own weak will, his inability to resist her, wasn’t an acceptable reason to stay away.

So he continued stalking through the trees, the soil and dead leaves a steadying cushion beneath his paws. Autumn was crisp in the night air. He tried focusing on the scents and sensations of his favorite season—the pine and maple, the earthy scent of dying leaves, the moist soil. But underneath it all, Alexis’ scent rose up to tease him—a feminine musk woven with hints of cinnamon and allspice, along with those unique pheromone flavors he’d never found human words for. This was her territory. There was nowhere for him to go that wouldn’t carry her essence.

If he were smarter, he’d leave. There was no telling what punishment the elders would inflict on him if he gave in to his need for Alexis. He was forbidden a mate. “Defective” males couldn’t be allowed to reproduce with the few remaining females and risk producing defective offspring. That was the argument anyway.

He might have fought the decree. He wasn’t mute because he chose to be—a mental defect as far as the others were concerned—he was mute because of a physical injury. The only woman he’d ever wanted refused to run anyway, so he’d never cared that they excluded him.

Now… Well, that was another reason he’d come to guard her back. He wanted to gauge her reaction to the news, to see if she was ready to take a mate. If she was, he’d have to give up any illusions she might be his one day. He wasn’t allowed to have her, but as long as she didn’t run, he could pretend.

His relief at her reaction to the other males was selfish. Her resistance, the way she showed no interest even in Nick, was more than a little satisfying. Part of him, his tiger he supposed, insisted she was his. That part didn’t want to listen to logic or rules or conventions of his human self. He just wanted to take her and make her his.

Turning toward her cabin again, he felt the coming dawn ruffle through his fur and wondered what she was doing.

Less than half an hour later, she walked toward him through the trees, a magnificent Siberian tiger. Light from the rising sun glinted in her coat. He actually forgot to breathe as he watched her stalk near. When he remembered, his indrawn breath pulled her scent into his mouth, coating his tongue with her taste. He swallowed that delicious flavor as his heartbeat sped. His claws dug into the soil and his tail swished sharply. He couldn’t get enough of her. And seeing her in the pink light of dawn made him forget why he was here.

She nudged his neck, making a soft chuffing noise, then trotted back a few steps and faced into the woods. He stood perfectly still. She couldn’t want him to chase her. He was absolutely positive she would never run from any male, even this deep into her estrous. But then what did she want?

She repeated the neck nudge and the little trot away and he finally understood. She did want to run, but she wasn’t asking to be chased.

They took off together, running faster than a normal tiger could, weaving around the trees, remaining level with each other. The release of tension swamped him with joy. Running at her side was a kind of pain and ecstasy he would hold onto for the rest of his life. He had to work to keep up with her, which thrilled him further. No lightweight, his Alexis. She was everything strong and magnificent about a tigress.

She raced beside him, her lithe form elegant, the deep orange and black stripes of her coat glistening in the morning light, her muscles bunching in sensual ease. Her scent filled him and his nostrils flared to pull in more. His body demanded he move closer, rub against her, mark her, claim her as his. He ducked his head and edged in as close as he dared, a touch of danger adding punch and excitement to the run. She could turn on him and attack if she felt threatened, so he was careful to resist anything overtly territorial. But his cat wanted her so desperately, he would have roared if he could.

They ran over the early autumn detritus, circling her territory. As they did, he noted the other males keeping their distance several miles outside of the perimeter. They hadn’t left the area as he’d suspected. He knew they’d return, but for the moment, they weren’t an immediate threat.

He let Alexis choose their direction, following without chasing, but he was still surprised when she brought him back to her cabin. The sun was hanging higher in the sky. It wasn’t safe to be in tiger form anymore, even though her cabin was in an extremely isolated part of northern Ulster County. Chances of being seen by random hikers or hunters rose during the day so most tigers kept to their human forms.

She padded onto her porch and into her cabin without pausing. He remained in the clearing, not sure she’d welcome him in again after what almost happened last night. He did need to shift, though, and his pack with his clothes—including the clothes he’d already borrowed from her—was over a mile away. He should return to his camping spot and leave her be. The morning exercise would have to be enough. But as he turned to leave, she came back out of the cabin in human form, a robe covering her nude body—a small mercy for his poor heart.

Though the robe did nothing to stop his imagination. He couldn’t help staring. Her short dark hair was a sexy, tousled mess, her blue eyes electric against the morning light, her broad features relaxed, her expression almost sleepy. She was long and lean, even in human form, but had exactly the right amount of curves to take his breath away. He wanted to strip the silky material off her more than he wanted to see his next sunrise.

“Come in, Victor,” she said. “Have breakfast with me. I’d like to try talking some more.”

Her wry smile tugged at his lust. Talk. Right. That’s what he wanted to do right now. Sarcasm edged his inner voice.

“For as long as we can manage,” she said. “There are clothes in the bathroom for you.”

She returned inside while he hesitated, but he couldn’t deny her anything. If she wanted to talk, they’d talk—in a manner of speaking.

As he padded through her small living room into the bedroom, he noticed the notebook and pen he’d used the night before already set out on her coffee table. The gesture made his whiskers twitch, though he kept his face turned away so she wouldn’t notice.

He shifted as quickly as was safe and dressed in the clothes she’d set out for him—a t-shirt, jeans, and a denim work shirt. Then he went barefoot to join her.

She was in the kitchen, her back to him, working over the stovetop. The scents of bacon, sausage, and eggs made his stomach growl. He snatched up the notebook and started writing as he crossed to her.

“I hope you don’t mind the eggs,” she said without facing him. “I thought I heard you liked them, but I’ve got plenty of sausage and bacon if you don’t.”

He flicked to a clean page to answer her question, then held the notebook up in front of her so she could read it.

“Great. A little of everything then.” She started plating food without looking directly at him. “Funny how many tigers don’t like eggs.”

He pushed the notebook close again, showing her his original note.

She read it and nodded, a slight smile lifting her beautiful mouth. “Yeah, the clothes belong to the Chenikov brothers. They visit occasionally.”

His tiger wanted to let out a jealous roar. It was one of the few times Victor really appreciated his mutism—he couldn’t inadvertently growl at the mention of the brothers or in any vocal way reveal his possessive challenge. He was perfectly aware that Alexis thought of the three young men as cousins, maybe even siblings, even though they weren’t biologically related.

Victor knew Alexis had been watching over the brother since she’d had to take their father in to face the elders for committing one of the worst crimes their kind could commit—killing a human in his tiger form and risking the attention of human authorities. The only thing that had saved Ivan was the fact his mother was an elder. But the crime had had a lot of repercussions for the entire family. On top of it all, the boys took a lot of grief for their father’s crime. Alexis had always had a soft spot for them. Just another of her wonderful qualities, he thought, as she continued piling food onto two plates.

“You grab those,” she said, nodding to the cutlery as she took the plates to the coffee table. “I usually just eat sitting on the couch. I hope you don’t mind. No real need for a table when there’s usually just me.”

He nodded, following her. They sat on opposite ends. She put as much space between them as was physically possible, but he still felt her. It was like a warm pressure against his skin, and it made eating a lot more difficult than it should have been.