Here There Be Tigers (17 page)

“
Like jail?”

“
Our equivalent.”

“
How long?” She shifted a little
closer to him, not touching because she wasn’t sure if he’d want
physical contact, but she wanted desperately to comfort
him.

“
Only eight years the first
time.”

“
First time?”

“
Despite the counselling, he never
really recovered from my mother’s death. He blamed himself for not
recognizing the severity of her depression, that it would push her
to suicide. He was out for…seven, almost eight years, and then he
started stalking a human woman who looked like my mother. Before he
could do anything, the Trackers brought him in, and he agreed to
another confinement.”

“
Agreed?”

“
He didn’t trust himself either.
He’s never said so to me, but I think he recognizes how close he is
to…instability. When he was confronted about the stalking, he asked
to be confined.”

“
How long that time?”

“
He stayed five years before my
grandmother finally talked him into leaving.”

“
Where is he now?”

“
He moved to South
America.”

“
South America?”

“
Lot of open spaces for a man, and a
tiger, to disappear.”

“
Why not someplace where other
tigers, non-shapeshifting tigers, live? He’d blend in
better.”

Mitch snorted. “Poaching mostly. My father
spends more time as a tiger now than human. He runs less risk of
being killed by random poachers in the jungles were hunters aren’t
expecting to see him.”

“
That… That must be really hard on
you.”

“
Probably be worse if he’d raised
me. But I barely know him. He’s always kept his distance. Hard to
miss what you’ve never had.”

She wasn’t sure what to say. Condolences and
sympathies seemed hollow in the wake of his story. Her heart ached
for him. He’d been essentially orphaned at six months old. She
might not have known her mother, but she’d had her father, steady
and strong, in her life.

“
Who raised you?” she
asked.

“
Mostly my Uncle Erik. He’s the
third of five boys. My dad was the baby in the family…but the only
one to find a mate.”

“
But you have a nephew.”

“
One of Alexis’ kids. She not just
like a sister, she’s also my grandmother’s adopted daughter. So her
kids may as well be my nephews and niece.”

She couldn’t resist touching him any longer so
she snuggled up next to him against the headboard. To her relief,
he wrapped an arm around her and held her close.

“
So…a lot of family tragedy, but…I’m
not seeing how this answers my question.”

“
The bargain my grandmother had to
strike to prevent her youngest son from being executed involved a
serious financial payment to the elders’ coffers and a drop in
status for her entire family. In the tiger world, mental lapses
like my fathers are viewed as detrimental to the entire community.
His sons were labeled as defective, too, making us free game to any
tigers who wanted to challenge us.”

“
Challenge?”

He shrugged. “We got beat up a lot. Or at least
others tried. We all became very good fighters, very quickly. I
grew up looking over my shoulder.”

“
That’s awful! Why was that
allowed?”

“
Because there was nothing to stop
it. My grandmother wasn’t allowed to interfere, and kicking the ass
of an elder’s grandchild is a treat a lot of males couldn’t
resist.”

Nila scowled at the sheets. He wasn’t making
tiger society sound like a very nice place. In fact, the more he
said, the more she
didn’t
want anything to do with tigers
beyond Mitch.

His arm tightened around her. “Hey, it is what
it is. Not so bad as all that. My brothers and I are pretty tough.
We survived. And the elders didn’t take away our option to
mate.”

“
Wait.” She faced him. “What does
that mean?”

“
Usually, when a tiger is deemed
unfit, he’s forbidden from taking part in the Mate Run. The
community doesn’t want him potentially passing on his ‘weakness’ to
his children when we’re already so close to extinction. The one
concession my grandmother was able to get from the elders was that
her grandchildren still be allowed to run for a mate. But we’re
considered bottom of the barrel among the tigers. Even though we
can run, none of us were ever likely to be chosen—despite my
grandmother’s hopes.”

Nila wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Mitch
had run so he’d gone after a potential wife, even knowing he
wouldn’t be chosen. Why had he done it? Did she really want to
know?

“
My grandmother insisted we run,” he
said, as if reading her mind. “All three of us have taken part in
at least a few but none of us run now. My oldest brother, Nick,
hasn’t run in…ten years. Dom is pretty close at almost eight. I did
a few Runs about three, four years ago because my grandmother
nagged me until I did.”

“
Ah.” Relief seemed a weird reaction
to have, but there it was, and she couldn’t really explain why she
was relieved.

He shifted to face her, making sure she met his
gaze when he said, “So you see, I’m considered weak and powerless
among my kind, even if my grandmother is an elder. I can physically
fight off any tiger that comes, but no tiger will be deterred from
coming after you if I’m the only thing standing in the
way.”

She stared into his eyes and hated. She hated
the situation. She hated that he’d been through so much. She hated
that his people treated him so badly. And most of all, she hated
that, despite everything, he still tried convincing her he wasn’t
the right man for her, that she shouldn’t even consider him as an
option.

“
Thank you for telling me all this,”
she forced out around a churning mix of emotions too tangled to
clearly sort through. “Now I need you to know
something.”

He nodded and straightened away from her,
taking a deep breath as if he was bracing himself for whatever she
had to say.

“
I don’t give a fuck about any of
it.”

He frowned.

“
I don’t give a fuck about your
position, or that the others think you’re weak even though you’re
not. I don’t give a fuck about status. I only care about your
father’s crime in so far as it’s negatively affected your life. I
have little sympathy for a man killed while he was beating a woman,
so I can’t be outraged by your father’s crime. I am…heartsick to
think how you and your brothers had to grow up. But as far as your
bottom of the barrel position in tiger society…I don’t give a
flying fuck.”

She held his gaze as he stared at her for a
long moment, not flinching despite the fact she couldn’t read his
expression. Then suddenly he swept her up into his arms and kissed
her, hard, with a fierceness that matched the kiss when he’d
slammed open the bedroom door earlier. But there was more here, not
just lust, something…something she was afraid to dissect. Something
with emotion and power. She tunneled her fingers through his hair
and held him tight, answering his passion, pouring all her tangled,
chaotic feelings into their kiss.

She had no idea where this conversation left
them, what would happen when the sun rose, but in that moment, he
was hers, she was his, and the rest of the world could
wait.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Nila woke hours later to a bright morning. She
was sated, a little sore, in desperate need of a shower, and
feeling warm and fuzzy down to her toes.

Mitch held her, his arm around her waist as she
snuggled her back to his front. The pillows and tattered sheets
smelled like him. And sex. She rubbed a hand along his forearm,
loving the strength and muscle.

Her emotions weren’t any more settled than they
had been the night before, but for one thing—she still wanted
Mitch. She had no idea where this would lead, or what he wanted
from her in the end. She just knew she wasn’t prepared to give him
up. Not yet. Not because of idiotic politics.

Her stomach rumbled and she had to stifle a
groan.

Gently, she disentangled herself from his hold
and slipped from bed. She brushed a finger over his temple. He
looked gorgeous in sleep. The last time she’d woken up next to a
man, her mind had been on the job ahead of her that day. Mitch was
completely different. It wasn’t just sex with him. It was something
more. Something more was a scary prospect. Especially because she
was a little afraid of what
more
meant.

Nibbling her bottom lip, she scooped up her
clothing and headed to the bathroom. She took her time in the
shower, trying not to put too many expectations on the day ahead.
They’d broken the tension, and she understood him a little better
now, but there was a lot unsaid between them.

Mitch was still asleep by the time she was
dressed, so she made herself a cup of tea and went onto the porch
to savor the morning. Things would heat up over the course of the
day, but this early, the air was both warm and inviting. Taking a
deep breath, she swallowed the smells of woods, earth, and the
steaming floral scent of her tea. A musky addition caught her
attention, something vague, just at the edge of her senses that she
couldn’t quite identify. She frowned out at the trees, wondering
what it was. It didn’t stink like badger or skunk, it wasn’t
pungent enough, and it wasn’t bad, just…

A sense of awareness curled through her,
something vague and insistent. It reminded her of the feeling she’d
had that afternoon in Mitch’s cabin, just before he’d realized a
tiger had found them.

She released a slow breath. Probably just an
animal she wasn’t familiar with skirting around the edge of the
cabin. The possibility of a bear made her move closer to the
door.

Her stomach jumped and her nerves tingled. What
the hell? She was suddenly edgy and felt…hunted. They hadn’t seen
evidence of a large predator, but that didn’t mean they weren’t in
the middle of one’s territory. She narrowed her gaze as she studied
the sun dappled ground under the trees. Mitch would have picked up
a dangerous predator in the area, wouldn’t he?

Her screaming instincts assured her she was in
danger, though. That weird sense of awareness told her threat was
coming from all around the cabin. Swallowing a panicky need to call
Mitch’s name, she eased inside and locked the door. The feel of a
hunter’s gaze followed her. Trying not to scream or hyperventilate,
she set her tea down and backed to the bedroom, keeping an eye on
the front door as that sense of awareness centered in that
direction.

What the hell was she sensing?

She heard the bedroom door open but didn’t turn
to face Mitch. “Something’s out there,” she said
quietly.

“
Yes. Tigers.”

“
More than one?”

His hands clenched her shoulders. “I’m sensing
five.”

As he said it, she realized she felt five
different points of danger with that weird sense of awareness. Was
she sensing them, too, or was she just imagining things? “This is
so not good. We can’t outrun them if they’re in front of the only
exit.”

“
You can’t run fast enough anyway.
They’ll shift. If I changed to a tiger, I could get away,
but…”

“
But I don’t have that option. Now
what?”

“
Barricade the door for what it’s
worth. Then we’ll try slipping away.”

Mitch moved around her to the couch. She
followed, helping him move the heavy piece of furniture without
discussion.

“
Will this help?” she
murmured.

“
Not for long.”

Just as they got the couch in place, a huge
thump shook the door. Nila squealed in surprised shock, despite her
best efforts to remain quiet.

Mitch pulled her away from the door, scanning
the small cabin. “Let’s get the rifles?”

Nila tried not to wince. Having an actual
weapon in her hands should make her feel better when facing down
tiger shifters, but she hated the damned things so much they still
gave her the willies. Since arriving, Mitch had made sure they both
new how to use the two rifles John had stored here: one
lever-action and one bolt-action. They hadn’t actually fired the
guns because they only had one box of ammunition per gun, and Mitch
didn’t want to waste any—even to get used to the rifles’
recoils—but she at least knew how to take off the safeties, load
them, and pull the triggers.

“
You want the bolt-action?” he asked
as they backed toward the bedroom again.

She was much more comfortable with that rifle
since it was similar to the tranquilizer guns she’d used, but it
wasn’t as quick to fire a second round and it carried one less
cartridge. Still, given her nerves, sticking with what she was
comfortable with seemed the better idea. “Yeah. You’ve got faster
reactions anyway.”

At the bedroom door, he took her face in his
hands and stared at her, hard. “You will have to shoot to kill. Can
you do that?”