Tiger Tracks (Alaskan Tigers Book 9) (9 page)

With every touch, she arched against him, demanding more. Within him his beast roared with frustration and need, but he swatted it down again. If this was the only time he had his mate without the fear of him in her eyes, he’d take his time. Next time they were together might only be to satisfy the mating desire, and not because they wanted to. He kissed along her throat, his teeth grazing over her skin, only to be met with a demanding moan vibrating in her throat.

“Styx…” She cried out as her hand wrapped around his shaft. “Now! Or I’ll make you suffer.”

“Oh my, the kitty has found her claws.” He spread her legs farther, giving him the access he needed. His shaft slid along her folds, and his control snapped. Instead of being gentle and easing his way into her, as he had planned. He pushed himself in, thrusting himself completely inside her.

He buried himself deep within her, only to pull out and slam back in again. With each thrust he sped his pace, each time completely filling her with his manhood. The heat between them built and their beasts mingled, amping up the tension building within him. Every glide of his shaft inside her seemed to set off another cascade of heat. Their bodies rocked back and forth, tension stretching her tighter as they fought for the release they longed for.

“Faster.” She clenched her muscles tightly around him and her nails dragged along his chest.

He grabbed hold of her hips, and as he plunged toward her, he pushed her down onto him. Together they worked to find the rhythm they needed until their breaths grew ragged as he rocked in and out of her. Each thrust brought him closer to the ecstasy he longed for.

“Oh, Styx.” She tipped her head back and cried out his name as her release took hold. Her nails dragged down his chest, drawing blood, but he didn’t care. His own orgasm followed. As he buried himself inside of her one last time, he tipped his head back and roared.

Mine…

With the mating bond firmly intact, Mira laid curled next to Styx and tried to make sense of everything she felt. He expected her to be appalled by his past, but she wasn’t. The blood of those he killed roiled her stomach, but not because of his actions. The blood only reminded her of all the blood Frank had spilled over the years. While it was true that he was an assassin and had more kills than anyone else, she had seen what had brought him to that. It wasn’t out of the desire to kill and he wasn’t a sociopath looking for an easy way to get away with murder. Like her, he had been led astray by someone he trusted. Lies led him to kill because he thought he was saving the world from a scumbag.

She also knew something that no one else knew.
Sasha.
She tipped her head up to him and found him watching her as if waiting for her to pull away from him. “I’m so sorry.”

“What for?”

“Sasha.” The name rolled off her tongue like a lead weight and her stomach sank. She was about to fall neck deep into murky waters.

“That was long ago.”

The words didn’t match with his reaction. His body tightened and his eyes filled with pain. Years might have passed on the calendar, but to him it was still a wound he carried within him. Never quite healing, only being bandaged over. No matter how he tried, the death of his sister was always there.

“I know what I feel, and maybe I know parts of it, but with everything flooding toward me at once I can’t keep things straight. What happened?” She ran her hand along his chest and hugged herself tighter to him.

“She’s dead, what more matters?”

“It matters because she’s the reason you became an assassin. You tried to protect her.” His pain ripped through her as if it was her own. “You’ve never shared the story with anyone but it’s time you tell it. Tell me.”

He closed his eyes and leaned back against the pillows. “Sasha was a wild child. Maybe it was growing up on the streets and having to fend for ourselves, but she rebelled and got into some deep shit. We were in New York and there was a group of underground shifters. They weren’t of any one animal group, more like rebels joined together to survive. Sasha started hanging around with them, even began to experiment with drugs. Because of the beast within, things don’t affect us the same way as humans, so she was doing more and more of the drugs trying to seek that high she so badly wanted. It became expensive quickly and she couldn’t pay the shifter she owed money to. He was the leader of the group and threatened to kill her if she didn’t pay up.”

“You offered to work off her debt in exchange for her life,” she supplied when he fell silent.

“What else was I supposed to do, see her be murdered? I was her older brother and it was my job to watch out for her. In the end, I failed.”

She laced her fingers around his. “You didn’t fail. You saved her then, and you would have saved her later if you had known.”

“If you already know this, why are you making me tell you?”

“You need to get it off your chest. Who better to share the pain with than your mate? Now, go on.”

“I didn’t know what I was getting myself into when I agreed to work off her debt. It started small, with guard duties and some minor unwanted tasks, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I thought I was getting off easy. Sasha was clean…it only lasted a few weeks, but it was something. When she started doing the drugs again, that’s when everything changed. No longer was he satisfied with what I was doing, and I received my first target.” He let out a deep sigh that held so much regret. “If I refused, Sasha’s life would be forfeited. He even held her hostage until the hit was complete to ensure I didn’t try to whisk her away to safety.”

“That was the first step to you becoming an assassin.”

“Yes.” He opened his eyes and their gazes met. “When she died, I embraced the job because of my anger. I had hoped that eliminating another scumbag would help me move past my own grief, but it didn’t. Instead, I just buried it deep within.”

“I know she killed herself, but why? Was she able to find the right combination of drugs that worked for her?” She tried to approach the subject carefully, but she wanted to know.

He shook his head. “She was to be mated, and the tiger was worse than any we had met before. What she didn’t know was he was my next hit. I was hunting him when she took her own life. She left me a note explaining that she’d rather be dead than be trapped with him. If only I had known that was her destiny, I could have told her he’d be dead before he could even lay a paw on her.” His voice trailed off, and he laid there for a few minutes before adding, “After she started using, we started to grow apart. I didn’t know what to do for her and every time I tried to fix her, it seemed to make things worse. The gap between us grew until we came to a point where we stopped confiding in each other. That’s when we doomed ourselves.”

“I’m sorry.” She rose up on her elbow, so she could get a better view of him. “Her choices were her own, and in the end it led her to an early grave. Those choices also took you down a road that led you to me. I’m sorry for your loss, for the pain you’ve suffered, but I’m not sorry it brought us together.”

“For the first time, I don’t regret it either. My past was the reason I was sent after you. Ty and Tabitha knew I was the best chance you had, especially since you went to Washington D.C. My years as an assassin make others think twice before they screw with me. It makes me good at what I do now, and keeps those I’m in charge of protecting safe. It will keep you safe, too.”

“Even if your past was different, you’d still keep me safe. You saved me when I needed it the most and you made me feel like I belonged again. When I left my clan, I lost that scene of belonging, but you brought it back to me.”

“We brought it back to each other. Though I have belonged to the Alaskan Tigers clan for some time now, you gave me back what I’ve been missing since Sasha died. I’ll admit I was terrified that you would turn from me, and this bond. Yet, here you are.”

“And I’m not going anywhere. You’re stuck with me.”

“There’s no one else I’d rather be stuck with.” He wrapped his arms tightly around her. “We should try to get some sleep. In a few hours, we can call David and make our decisions.”

She nodded and snuggled deeper into his embrace. An hour ago, she felt no connection to him. He still had her on edge, but that all changed. She wouldn’t say she was in love with him, but there was a bond between them that made her willing to stand up and fight for him. She wasn’t lying when she said she wasn’t going anywhere. They were meant to be, and there had to be a reason destiny had decided to tie them together for all eternity.
Mated to heal each other and make us into a stronger pair.

* * *

Morning came long before Styx was ready for it. He would’ve preferred a few more hours alone with his mate, cuddled together while the world passed them by. He didn’t want to get out of bed and call David, because no matter what news he had for her, it would bring the sadness back. He had no doubt that there were at least some deaths that David would report that would hit home for her. By mid-day, they’d know just how many friends and relatives she had lost and how much damage Frank managed to do to the clan before his death.

In a little more than twenty-four hours, his whole life had changed. He went from being alone, with no one understanding him, to being mated. It was all a whirlwind. He suspected the next day or two were going to be more so. His mate was going to go through many emotions as she accepted what had happened to her sister and other clan members. It pained him that the only thing he could do was be there for her, even when she fought against him. And she would, because her decisions brought her to him.

He rubbed his cheek along the side of her face, her hairs teasing along his skin as he marked her again. “Catnip.”

“Huh?” Her voice was whisper quiet and she barely stirred.

“We should get up.”

“Just a bit longer.” She tugged the thin blanket closer to her chin.

“I wouldn’t wake you if it wasn’t important.” He brushed the hair away from her face and stared down at her. She was beautiful, her face soft and relaxed as she fought to cling to sleep. “We need to call David and make a decision if we’re going there or back to Alaska.”

A soft growl answered him and her eyelids popped open. “Fine, but I need some
strong
coffee first.”

“I’m sure Theodore has some made and waiting for us.” To keep himself from claiming her again, he forced himself out of bed and began dressing.

“I’ve been thinking…” She leaned back on the pillows. “I think I should go alone.”

“What?” There was no doubt she meant to Connecticut, and he wasn’t letting that happen.

“Frank instilled fear in the members when it came to you. If you show up, they’re going to think you’re there to kill them,” she reasoned.

“It won’t be the first time someone thought that, and I suspect it won’t be the last either.” He slipped his shirt over his head. “The fear they have when it comes to me will keep you safe.”

“I don’t want them to be scared of me. Some of them are my family…my friends.”

“And some of them are your enemies. They might seek to kill you because of what happened and in revenge for the people who died. I’m not letting that happen.” Now dressed, he grabbed her clothes from the floor where they were tossed hours before and held them out to her. “We haven’t even decided it’s safe for you to go. We need to call David and see where things stand first.”

“If my brother asks me to come, I can’t deny him.”

“He took over the clan, but he’s not your Alpha. No matter the status of the clan, or where he stands on supporting Tabitha, he can’t be your Alpha. You must return to Alaska with me.”

She snatched her clothes from him. “Controlling me, just like Frank did.”

“Catnip…” He raised an eyebrow at her as if letting her know she wasn’t thinking clearly.

“Don’t
Catnip
me!” she snapped.

“I’m only telling you what must happen. You knew it when you agreed to this mating. My duty lies in Alaska, and to the Elders of the clan. I must return and you will be at my side.” He had thought she would have wanted to go to Alaska. After all, she called them to rescue her, and it seemed like the ultimate outcome of the whole situation.

“You think you’ve got it all figured out, and that I’ll just follow you. Maybe David needs me. Maybe I can help my clan.”

“They’re not your clan any longer.” He took a deep breath and tried not to give into his tiger’s irritation. “David couldn’t protect you from the clan members. It should be seen as showing favoritism. If they’d challenge you, you’d have no choice but to accept, and David could do nothing. It would be their right because of the role you played in the demise of the clan. If you commit to David as your Alpha, it could mean your death. You must see that.”

“So, returning to Alaska with you is my only way of surviving.” She fastened her bra and pulled the sweater over her head before moving to the edge of the bed to finish dressing.

“It must have been what you wanted.” He reached down and touched her shoulder. “You can commit to Ty, serve the clan to make sure that Tabitha can complete her destiny, and be with me. What’s holding you back from that?” He waited, even as his tiger fought against her emotions.

“In truth…fear.” Her lips curled down into a frown and her shoulders sank. “Fear of the unknown.”

He took hold of her hand and pulled her up into his arms. “It’s normal but I’m going to be there every step of the way. I promise you’re going to fit into the clan and in no time it will be your home.”

“What if it’s not? Then I’m stuck.”

“You have my word that it’s going to be fine.” There was nothing that could be said or done to relieve her apprehension. “The sooner we get to Alaska, the sooner you’ll realize this. The longer we take here, or in Connecticut, will only increase your uneasiness.”

“I know you’re not lying. I can feel the truth between our beasts, but it doesn’t eliminate my nervousness.” She wrapped her arms around his waist. “I’ve never been away from the clan. I can count on one hand how many times I left the compound. One of those rare times was the trip to Washington D.C. It’s why I went there, thinking the crowd would help keep me safe. Frank controlled every aspect of our lives. This freedom is…unnerving.”

“I know, Catnip, but things will be okay. You’re going to enjoy this new freedom. I’ve no doubt that Tabitha, Bethany, Kallie, Robin, Courtney, and the other females of the clan will look out for you, and have you enjoying life in no time. Now, get dressed and we can find out what we’re going to do.”

“As much as I’m nervous about going to Alaska, I’m excited. I believe in what Tabitha and all of you are doing. I want to be a part of that, but I’m not sure what I can do that will be helpful.”

“We’ll work it out.” He kissed her forehead before she stepped back to dress.

What was happening between them was quicker than he might be comfortable with, but he didn’t have time to give into his own unease. He needed to be strong and reassuring for her. They’d get this over with quickly, and get her back to his clan to help ease the doubt. It would also give them time to get to know each other better, to connect on another level. Their time alone wouldn’t just be getting to know each other’s personalities, but also he had plans to explore more of her body.