Man-Eater (4 page)

“And now, give it up for the new tigress on the block.”

The bar erupted into catcalls. Oh boy, Cyrus thought to himself. What had that divine creature gotten herself into? Maybe this was a bad idea. As soon as he’d heard that she was going to dance, he should have gone to her, dissuaded h
er. In Cyrus’s opinion, the shift
ers that hung out in these parts weren’t exactly mating material. The odd one was, he supposed, but a lot of them came to Man
-
Eaters because they couldn’t handle a relationship in the real world. He figured that most of the shifters were harmless, but there were those who weren’t.

It was too late to stop her now, though, so Cyrus simply watched the glittering beads at the rear of the stage
swing away
as the silhouette of a curvy goddess walked through the door and onto the runway. Cyrus’s cock instantly hardened at the whiff of her scent.

Kendra was still in heat, and Cyrus immediately knew he’d underestimated the power of this tigress’s allure. Her curves, the way she moved her body, those hips, those breasts, that ass… The lights hadn’t even come on yet and he was already so hard he was sure his cock was going to burst out of his jeans. More catcalls erupted, the lights still down. They were taking their time to start the show, Cyrus thought. If they waited any longer, the stage would be overrun.

∞ ∞ ∞

Kendra wobbled in on sky-high heels, nervous as hell. Both Charlize and Kitty had given her lots of pointers, but they hadn’t told her what it would feel like the moment she walked on stage. It was more than a case of the butterflies. It felt like she’d been hit in the gut with a baseball bat. The lights were low, and every one of the shifters in the audience was waiting with bated breath. Waiting for her. Kendra wavered. Why was she here? Why was she wearing these heels? The sequined gold outfit clung to her curves. It felt hot. She looked around in the darkness.

Get it together, girl.

There were tiger shifters everywhere. Tiger shifters weren’t the kind of guys she generally hung out with, mostly because there weren’t many around, but in this room, they were a majority. And Kendra had to admit, despite her fit of nerves, she liked having them look at her. She liked the feeling of power. The glowing
eyes
stared back at her hungrily, as though their owners wanted to eat her alive. And then Kendra saw a pair of
eyes
she hadn’t expected to see.

Cyrus.

He sat in the back of the room, casually watching her, but Kendra knew his relaxed demeanor was an affectation. She could tell he wanted her, even from way back there. And she wanted him too. Badly. It wasn’t just her tigress, either. Her human side was interested as well. Kendra’s human side wanted to get to know Cyrus, whereas her tigress wanted to ravish him. She felt her tigress purr her pleasure.

Bring up the lights. Please bring up the lights.

As if reading her thoughts, the bright spotlights came up, erasing the crowd from her view. All she heard now was their chatter and heavy breathing as the music started. It was a slow song, exactly the kind she had requested. And Kendra knew what she needed to do. She may have been new to pole dancing, but dancing was something Kendra could handle. She slunk across the floor in the hip hugging outfit. She wore a pair of kitten ears, but she knew all the attention was on her golden-brown curves as she swayed her body to the music. She moved across the dance floor in time with the beat, her breasts heaving, her tigress clawing beneath her skin as she swung her hips.

Ironic that s
he was trying to get away from her heat and she found herself in a room full of tiger shifters, with the express purpose of turning them on. No problem. It wouldn’t take much with this crowd. She grabbed hold of the brass pole, the shiny metal cool from the air conditioning, and slowly swung her body around it. Kendra may have had some extra flesh on her bones, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t graceful, and from the moment she touched the pole, she felt a new life enter her nervous limbs. She let her head fall back as her body twisted languorously around the pole, the bright lights dazzling her eyes from above. Then, she pressed her back to the pole and slid down, splitting her legs open wide.

Catcalls echoed through the space.

“You go, baby!”

“Rarhh!”

Kendra relaxed into the attention. After all, she had three burly bouncers to protect her, and then she had him—Cyrus. Somehow she just knew he wouldn’t let any harm come to her. The lights lowere
d, a
nd she saw Cyrus, staring her down, watching her every move. She met his eyes with her own, well aware that there would be a glow in her look, because she saw the glow in his. Just seeing him had caused her heat to flare up within her. Even as she danced, she could tell her pussy was damp with need. Her essence dripped down her inner thigh. Would the shifters in the audience be able to scent it?

“Heat it up, baby!” someone cried out from the crowd.

Yes. Of course they could scent it. It was obvious from their heavy breathing. Kendra knew she needed to get herself under control or there’d be an incident. The name of the game, after all, was to tease these guys, not drive their animals out into the open. A bar brimming with fully shifted tigers would be chaos.

In an effort to concentrate, Kendra locked eyes with Cyrus as she crawled across the floor on all fours. Bad idea. Just the sight of him caused her nipples to harden. If she wanted to play down her heat, this wasn’t the way to do it. She clawed at the air with a meow and stood, swinging her hips in a wide arc. Time to start the stripping part, Kendra figured. She pulled her gold lame blouse open, revealing the tiger-print bra beneath.

“Yeah, baby!” one of the shifters shouted.

She tossed the flimsy garment into the crowd. Two shifters fought over it. She knew they wanted to scent it, and she couldn’t deny that her own animal wanted them to. It was her heat. It reduced everything to the lowest common denominator. The need to mate was all that mattered. She was pretty sure the two shifters fighting over her blouse had lost control of themselves, but she was not inclined to do anything about it. What could she do? Nature needed to run its course.

Kendra sashayed back to the pole and grasped it with two hands, wrapping her legs around it. Should she try a spin? Her aching pussy said yes. Anything to take her attention off her inner turmoil. She locked her thighs tight around the pole and spun herself around. Yes, it did squelch the ache between her thighs, at least momentarily. The brass pole felt good, hard between her legs.

“You want some of this, baby?” Kendra heard over the music.

And all hell broke loose. The two shifters who had been fighting over her blouse stormed the stage. One of them brushed her arm with his hand, but she quickly stepped back as the bouncers stepped in. The bouncers leaped atop the unruly shifters and Kendra saw claws. One of the men partially shifted into a muscular white tiger. Kendra had half a mind to shift too. It would be the quickest route to sate her desire. The white tiger roared and Kendra felt her own animal leap to life within her. In the fog of her heat, giving herself to him actually looked like a solution. But before she could respond, a third bouncer took Kendra under his arm, whisking her away.

Kendra gasped for air. “Holy shit,” Kendra said, once she was in the back room. “Is it always like that?”

“Sometimes,” Charlize said. “The good news is something like this happens and the other boys always tip you really good.”

Charlize was right about that. Kitty went out to gather her tips and she soon had fistfuls of money in her hands.

“That was quite a show you put on there,” Charlize said.

“What happened to the two that jumped the stage?”

“We threw them out,” Charlize said. “Man-Eaters has a zero tolerance policy for touching the dancers.”

“Am I done for the night?” Kendra asked.

“I don’t know. You think you got one more set in you?”

Kendra felt a little shaken, but she hadn’t even got to try out her best moves. Not to mention the fact that Cyrus was still in the back of the audience. And whatever she told herself, Kendra knew one thing. She may have been a tigress and she may have been in heat, but what was happening on that stage was bigger than both those things. It was because of Cyrus. Despite the fact that they’d barely spoken, the two of them had a connection the likes of which Kendra had never felt before. And on some level, whether she wanted to admit it or not, Kendra was dancing for him.

“Sure,” Kendra finally said. “Why not?”

Chapter Four

Cyrus ached all over and especially in his pants. It was more than just Kendra’s heat. That divine creature had done something to him. And not just to his cock. To his heart. Cyrus had never believed in love at first sight, but he did now. His heart wanted her so badly he felt as if he was going to explode. Still, despite the fact that he desperately wanted to claim Kendra, despite the fact that he needed to claim her, he couldn’t claim her. Not now. Not until he was done with his business. Shit. What was that? He smelled another cat, a tigress he had been diligently working to avoid.

It was Morgan. His ex. Now he really had to leave.

Theirs had been a brief but troubled relationship and it wasn’t even over. Not in the eyes of the law, at least. Cyrus quickly got up to go but not before Morgan managed to interject herself between him and the door.

“Cyrus.”

“Morgan.”

“Fancy seeing you here.”

“Just making sure you don’t get into any trouble before our court date.”

“And why would I do that? Now, if you’ll excuse me,” Cyrus said.

Morgan refused to move out of the way, her skinny frame blocking his exit. What had he ever seen in that pale wisp of a woman? Their mail-order marriage had lasted for less than a week, but why had he gone along with it in the first place? It was because he was lonely, he supposed. Lonely and convinced he would never find a mate. Now she followed him everywhere he went, looking for something, anything to give her an advantage in court. It was a living hell, and the only light on the horizon was that their court date was almost here. Very soon, one way or another, he would be done with her. He just hoped he could hold out for that long.

“Not so fast,” Morgan said.

“I’ll go just as fast as I need to,” Cyrus replied.

“I’m watching you,” she smiled. “I’m watching how you’re looking at that stripper. Remember, we’re still legally married.”

“We’re separated and
you know as well as I do
we’ll be divorced tomorrow,” he said.

“What if tomorrow never comes?” she asked with an innocent smile.

“Get out of my way,” Cyrus growled.

Morgan stepped to the side and Cyrus slipped past her, careful not to even brush her clothes. He didn’t want to give the woman any more ammunition. They’d been together for less than a week and she’d been arguing in court with him for more than five years. It had to end, and
whatever it took, it would end
at the settlement conference tomorrow. He didn’t care what he had to give her as long as she was out of his life.
Thankfully
they didn’t have cubs. Co-parenting responsibilities and the like would have complicated things immeasurably. The way it was now at least they could make a clean break.

Cyrus stormed out i
nto the heavy, oppressive a
ir. He didn’t have a call yet, but he would go hang out in the tow truck. If he didn’t live so far off the beaten track, he’d have preferred to go home. Take a cold shower. Maybe take a lot of cold showers to try to appease his raging hard-on.
He
needed to do something to staunch the overpowering desire he felt. Picking Kendra up in his truck had been bad enough, but after seeing the way she moved her body, his tiger was struck by a single thought—despite his current legal troubles, despite the fact that they’d barely spoken, he was convinced she was his mate.

How could that even happen? It didn’t make any sense. But something about the way she looked at him, something about her scent drove his tiger crazy, and it wasn’t just her heat. It wasn’t just her tigress, either. It was her. He felt a connection to her. Cyrus strode back across the lot toward the truck. Maybe he could at least calm himself down. That would be good. But as he walked, something told him things weren’t going to work out that way. Because Cyrus sensed trouble as he idly passed the two tiger shifters who had stormed the stage. They loitered aimlessly, bottles of booze in their hands.

“You looking at me?” the first tiger shifter said.

“Nope,” Cyrus said.

“Good. Keep it that way,” the second shifter said.

What were they waiting for? Cyrus didn’t want to know. He just wanted to cross the road and get back to his tow truck. He couldn’t afford trouble, not tonight, so he kept right on walking. Yeah, maybe he’d get out of here after all. Go home. Take that cold shower. Anything to get his mind off Kendra. But then it came. That trouble he knew was brewing.

“Rarhh!”
he heard from behind him.

“How you doing, little lady?”

Cyrus recognized the voices of both the drunken shifters. He just hoped he wouldn’t recognize the next voice. No such luck.