Shifters Unbound [5] Tiger Magic (23 page)

Tiger kept to the sticky shadows of the building, walking through noisome trash until he slid inside the front door. The clerk saw him but made no indication.

Tiger moved noiselessly up behind the lanky man holding a shotgun. Why did humans like guns? Did they fear so much to fight close to?

He stood right behind the robber, who never heard or sensed him until he felt Tiger’s body warmth. Then the robber jerked, and the gun went off, but not before Tiger had grabbed the weapon and yanked the barrel to point upward. The clerk dove behind the counter, and the slug lodged in the ceiling.

Tiger jerked the weapon out of the robber’s hand and snapped it in two. At the same time he kicked the robber’s feet out from under him, sending the startled man to the stained floor.

The robber started up, a knife in his hand, so Tiger broke his hand. Screaming in pain, the man collapsed to the floor again.

Tiger broke the shotgun into a few more pieces and poured the bullets onto the man’s chest.

“You can call the police now,” Tiger said to the clerk.

The clerk climbed up from behind the counter and leaned on it. “Thanks, man,” he said, gasping. “I thought I wasn’t ever going to see my kids again.”

“Go home and hug them,” Tiger said. “You should work somewhere safer.”

The clerk shrugged, giving him a scared smile. “No choice.”

“There’s a bar just outside Shiftertown. Go there and tell Liam to hire you. Tell him Rory sent you.”

“Liam. Right.” The clerk was wide-eyed and terrified.

Tiger looked at the robber, who was holding his hand and spewing curses and threats. Tiger leaned down, carefully raised the man’s head by his hair, then thumped it against the floor with just enough force to knock him out. Then he walked out of the store.

Carly waited for him where he’d left her, her eyes wide with worry. “Tiger, don’t
do
that. You nearly gave me a heart attack.”

Tiger looked her over. “I think you are too young for them.”

“I don’t mean . . . Never mind. I hear sirens. We need to leave.”

“The clerk called the police. I think he will be all right, and maybe find a safer job.”

Carly studied him, one hand on her hip, which gave her the sexy, saucy look. “You know, if you go around saving everyone in the world, you’ll never stay off the radar. I mean,” she added hastily as he started to ask what she meant, “you’ll be found.”

Tiger frowned at her. “But those people would be safe.”

Carly drew a breath to answer, then she shook her head. “Tiger.” She touched his face, her eyes filled with something he didn’t understand. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Raise our cub.”

She gave him a worried look. “You can’t possibly know I’m pregnant. Janine, yes, if she’s already two months gone, but it doesn’t work that way.”

Humans, who’d invented everything from traveling to the moon to cures for deadly diseases, could sometimes be so blind.

Tiger pressed his hand to her abdomen. “I
know
. You hold our cub.”

Carly’s eyes filled with sudden tears. She pulled Tiger down to her and kissed him, the kiss slow, warm, and loving.

Tiger drank in the sensation of her lips and tongue, the taste of her, her warmth. He eased away, smoothing her hair.

“Walker is here,” he said.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

W
alker picked them up in a dark blue SUV that looked as though its best years were behind it. His gaze fixed on Carly as Tiger climbed into the backseat and pulled Carly in beside him.

“You didn’t say anything about bringing her,” Walker said.

“She didn’t give him a choice,” Carly said, slamming the door and fishing for a seat belt. “Is this your SUV? If anyone finds out you’re helping Tiger, they’ll be looking for it.”

“I bought it today,” Walker said. “Used, for cash. You can thank me later.”

“I’ll thank you now.” Carly leaned against Tiger. “Where are we going?”

“Away.” Walker put the SUV in gear and pulled from the dark curb where he’d halted. “There’s water in the cooler, and enough food for a couple of days. Sandwiches and chips and stuff. I figured he wouldn’t remember to pack food.”

“Tiger didn’t pack anything,” Carly said. She closed her eyes, happy for the downtime.

“I don’t need anything,” Tiger said.

His chest rumbled pleasantly, and Carly snuggled into the vibrations. He was an incredible man—an incredible
Shifter
. Strong and sometimes terrifying, but he’d gone inside the store to help the clerk without a second thought. Before that, he’d pulled Carly from a wrecked car, then kept bullets from hitting her. She’d come out of the incident without a scratch.

And his reward for being so amazing? People shooting at him and wanting to Collar him, cage him, test him, torture him.

Well, not on Carly’s watch. She’d find a place to keep him safe where no one could hurt him.

The cynical voice inside Carly, the one she kept silent most of the time, told her that things would not be that easy. Tiger was right about the trouble she called down upon herself for going away with him or even helping him get away. She might never see her family again.

Carly suppressed that dart of pain. She’d help Tiger, and deal with the rest of her life later.

Walker was talking to Tiger. “My commander ordered the hit on you, I figured out. To see what you’d do, and to see how well you’d heal. I told you that I got curious when I read up on the Area 51 experiments and then found a new Shifter wandering around. I reported to my lieutenant colonel, because it’s his command, and unfortunately, he got interested.”

“Why unfortunately?” Carly asked.

“Because he sees Tiger as his ticket to promotion and a way out of the Shifter Bureau attachment. If he’s found a new weapon—a person who can move with stealth and survive enemy fire—he’ll be a hero. He’s the one who wants Tiger found, imprisoned, and tested, and he wants to breed more of him.”

“Breed.” Tiger’s word held anger.

“Yep. Breed. You heard me.”

“He would take the cubs.” The rage in Tiger’s voice was fierce.

“And have people cut into your brain and maybe shoot you full of holes again to see how fast you can heal.”

“He must not touch the cubs.” Tiger pulled Carly closer, his arm as strong as iron.

“That’s why I’m driving you away,” Walker said. “I’ll face my court-martial like a man.”

Carly thought about everything Tiger had told her Walker had told
him
. Every single person she’d met wanted to control or use Tiger in some way—even Liam, talking about putting a real Collar on him. And now they were trusting Walker not to take them right back to his commander.

Tiger didn’t seem worried, though. And because Tiger had been right about pretty much everything since she’d met him, Carly decided she would need to trust
him.
Not that she had much choice right now.

Walker and Tiger fell silent as Walker navigated the dark streets out of town. Carly leaned against Tiger, worn out and worried, but warmed by Tiger and his arm around her.

* * *

W
alker drove them a long way west, where Tiger had never been. When he’d come to Austin, Tiger had been flown in a private cargo plane by a man named Marlo, a friend to Shifters in the Las Vegas Shiftertown.

Flying had been an interesting experience. Tiger had seen mountains rippling below him, then flatlands neatly sectioned into fields, and precise circles of green Marlo said came from circular irrigation systems. Those had dissolved into squares of brown dust with narrow roads that ended in dots. Oil wells, Marlo had said in answer to Tiger’s questions, pumping the veins of West Texas.

This drive took them farther south and west, ever west. By the time the sun came up behind them, they were in a wide plain of nothing. Brown land with tufts of brown grasses and scrub stretched as far as Tiger could see, the green hills of Austin and the river country far behind. The sky was clear overhead, not a cloud in it, and already the temperature was climbing.

Tiger didn’t mind. He looked from horizon to horizon, drinking it in. He loved seeing anything new, loved the amazing variety of the world.

Carly lay against his side, sleeping, her feet tucked up on the seat. The mate bond that connected them shimmered in the sunlight. Carly couldn’t see it, but Tiger knew she could feel it.

Another bond stretched between the two of them and the new life inside Carly. Tiger let out a protective growl. The Shifter Bureau could never get his cubs.

Tiger would not let his cubs—anyone’s cubs, for that matter—live through the hell he had. No cages, no needles, no shocks, no experiments. He might die trying to save them, but that didn’t matter. He would make sure his cub would live and grow up like the other cubs in Shiftertown—safe, protected, happy.

As the sun climbed, Carly woke and stretched. She gave Tiger a quick kiss on his cheek, then rummaged in the cooler Walker had brought and pulled out a bottle of water, droplets of moisture clinging to it. Carly offered it to Walker and to Tiger, who both declined, then she opened the bottle herself and drank.

Tiger watched her lips purse over the bottle’s mouth, her throat move in her swallow, her eyes close as the cool water slid over her tongue. Tiger clenched his fist and made himself only watch, not touch.

Carly waved her hand in front of her face. “I bet it’s already ninety out there. Been a while since this truck’s AC has had a tune-up, I’m guessing.”

“Probably,” Walker said. “Open the window.”

“I might. When I’m hot enough to put up with swallowing half the dust of Texas.”

Tiger hadn’t noticed the temperature, but Carly was perspiring. He’d never had to worry about another person before. If he let her stay with him, would she be cool enough where they ended up? Or warm enough? Safe enough? Comfortable? Happy? Would their cub be?

Carly rested her head on his shoulder again. “You look like you’re thinking deep thoughts.”

“I want to take care of you,” Tiger said. “Hoping I know how.”

Carly patted his arm. “Don’t you worry about that. I’m very good at taking care of myself. I’ve had a pretty good sleep, Walker. I can drive when you need a rest.”

“Thanks,” Walker said. “I’ll take you up on that in a little while.”

“I’m not tired,” Tiger said.

“Mmm.” Carly slanted a glance up at him. “You know how to drive?”

He hesitated. “Connor was teaching me.”

“I see.” Another pat, this one on his chest, and she left her hand there. “I think Walker and I should handle it.”

Tiger liked that she didn’t move her hand from over his heart. She leaned her head on his shoulder, continuing to drink the water, her tongue coming out to wipe it from her lips.

Tiger leaned to kiss her, licking the moisture from her mouth. She smiled when they broke apart, and the need inside Tiger threatened to choke him.

They drove on. Tiger checked behind them constantly, as did Walker. No cars followed, no flashing lights appeared, and no police vehicle they passed, waiting for speeders, paid them any attention. Walker drove calmly, not going too fast but also not being overly cautious, which would also attract attention. The man would make a good Shifter.

Carly insisted on stopping at a rest area where she could use the bathroom, countering the two males’ annoyed stares by saying she didn’t have outdoor plumbing and couldn’t pop behind the nearest bush. Not that there were many out here anyway, and she had no intention of getting foot-long stickers in her privates.

Tiger hated every second she was out of his sight in the restroom. He didn’t relax until she came out, purse over her shoulder, and walked briskly again to the SUV.

Carly took over driving then, competently steering onto the freeway. Walker rode in front with her, both he and Carly wanting Tiger to stay in the back. He was too big and too conspicuous, Walker said, even if he hid his multicolored hair under the baseball cap.

“Will you really be court-martialed?” Carly asked Walker. “Are you—what’s the term—AWOL?”

“No, I had some leave coming. I won’t be AWOL for a week. But unless I can convince whoever tries me that Sheldon is a cruel bastard and endangered people’s lives, they might decide to make an example of me.”

“I’m sorry.” Carly sounded sad. “You shouldn’t have gotten dragged into this.”

“Doesn’t matter. I believe in doing what I think is right.” Walker shrugged bulky shoulders. “I’ve had a good run.”

“You can’t be much older than I am.”

“You grow up fast doing what I do.”

As Tiger listened, a recently learned emotion welled up inside him, one he’d never experienced in the research lab. Tiger had felt something like it for Iona when he finally realized she meant to release him from the research building and let him go, and again for Liam for taking him in and giving him a home. He felt it also for Connor for trying to teach Tiger how to live in the world. Now for Walker for helping at a cost to himself.

Tiger had a word now to put to the feeling: gratitude.

“Take this exit,” Walker told Carly as a green sign loomed up. “No more easy freeway.”

Carly smoothly steered off the road and followed Walker’s instructions to turn left onto the empty, narrow road at the end of the ramp. This road, a little rougher, no shoulder beyond the white stripe at its edge, stretched straight and long southward, going as far as Tiger could see.

They were still on this road as the sun moved slowly westward, but they’d left behind flatlands for small mountain ridges that hugged the horizon and made the road bend around them. Carly had switched with Walker again, but she remained in the front, her sunglasses on against the glare.

She looked as neat and edible as she had when Tiger had first met her—she standing on the side of the road in pristine white, one hand holding her cell phone, fingers of the other splayed on her shapely hip.

Some instinct buried inside him had told Tiger that she was his mate. No other.

And Tiger had been right. No woman not a mate of the heart would be so determined to help him, so ready to endanger herself to help him get away.

Tiger wouldn’t let her endanger herself much longer.

The afternoon grew hot, then hotter. Walker turned off on another road that led into rocky hills and canyons. The road became dirt, the SUV shaking over ruts and washboard grading.

After about an hour or so on this road, traveling at a crawl, Walker pulled over. There was nothing out here except heated sky and rock, with trees and scrub clinging to the sides of the canyons. No other cars, no buildings, nothing.

“Carly, how good are you at reading maps?” Walker asked.

“Pretty good,” Carly said. “I go on road trips with my sisters. They talk instead of watching the road, and they never pay attention to their GPS, if they even turn it on. So I navigate. Put it another way, I yell at them to not miss the turn.”

“No GPS service in this truck,” Walker said. “And it’s best if you don’t turn on your cell phone. If you can read a map, I’ll show you. If not, I’ll just tell you.”

“No trouble about my cell phone. It’s broken.” She shot a look at Tiger. “Show me the map.”

Tiger waited while Walker spread out a map on the seat and pointed out the roads she needed to take to lead her back to the freeway and on to El Paso. She’d cross the border there and take more back roads to where she could pick up Tiger.

“And you’ll be . . . ?” Carly asked him.

“With Tiger.”

“Oh,” she said. “Good.” Carly glanced over the seat again at Tiger. “Someone to take care of you.”

Tiger wasn’t sure having Walker come along was the best idea. He knew he’d end up taking care of Walker, not the other way around.

Tiger opened the back door and stepped out of the SUV. He flexed his cramped muscles—he didn’t like being confined for long stretches of time.

He sniffed the air, smelling nothing but grasses, wind, earth. No pollution, no scent of humans touching the breeze. Clean, fresh, beautiful. A wild place, which called to his heart. He wanted to shift and run, never stop running.

He heard Carly leave the SUV, her sneakers crunching on the gravel of the road. Tiger went around the vehicle to her, catching her before she made it to him.

Her eyes were luminous in the sunlight, which burned her hair with golden highlights. “See you soon,” Carly said softly.

Tiger pushed her against the side of the SUV, his body hemming hers in. He put his fingers under her chin, turning her face to his.