Wish Upon a Tiger: A BBW Weretiger Shifter Romance (Fountain of Love) (3 page)

“
Why
do you think?” I shot back.

I folded my arms over my breasts, blushing at being bare
before him. I stepped into the brush a couple feet away, hoping to
hide my curves, not to mention the swollen heat pulsing between my
thighs.

Hadn't I suffered plenty humiliation for one day?

The man came closer. “We came to help you. I
followed your scent, but I knew something was wrong the very second I
laid eyes on you. We chased the humans off. You've got nothing to
worry about now.”

“
No?
I don't know you from Adam. Not sure if I want to take your word for
it.” I sounded like a complete bitch, but I couldn't help it.

Trust in the wrong places had brought me to the cold
Alaskan wild. Sure, this strange, marvelous tiger had saved me, but I
knew he could just as easily have his own interests in mind.

He'd mentioned my scent.

What if he's just offering me a chance to trade one
captor for another?
The idea
brought a chill up my spine. My teeth began to chatter.

Slowly, the man smiled. “I'm Erik Nordclaw.
Knowing names makes things more familiar. You got a name, or have you
always just been Tiger X to those vipers?”

“
Jenna.
What, do I really seem that uncivilized?”

He laughed. “Of course not, wildcat. You're a
fighter. I can tell that much.”

A big hand reached forward through the brush. I didn't
know why, but I took it, and gave it a firm shake. His warmth was
welcome in this cold, creeping deeper into my bones by the second.

“
Are
they really gone?” I asked. My stomach did a roll whenever I
thought about Tarken pursuing us through the dark woods.

I couldn't be his prisoner again. Not ever.

“
Yeah.
They hauled ass out of here as soon as my boys laid into them. I tore
into the old guy's boot myself before they piled in and drove away.
No human ought to return after a fright like we gave them.”

That made me smile, though I secretly wished he'd gotten
a hold of the professor's flesh and blood, rather than his boot.

“
You
don't know them like I do. I have to keep moving...just to be sure.”

Surprise lined Erik's face. His breath streamed out into
the cold night in steady puffs. Behind him, several tigers
approached. They fell to the ground almost at once and became men.

“
Then
you'd best be moving in the right direction. We've got a settlement
not too far from here, at the base of the mountains in the distance.
It'll be about an hour. Think you can make it?”

I opened my mouth to answer, but hesitated. Without
actually saying it, he was asking me to trust him, to follow him to a
strange new place where escape might be even more impossible than
before.

But what choice did I have? My belly rumbled, demanding
food. Out here, I was hopeless.

I'd never hunted in a sub-arctic environment. I doubted
I'd survive a week, much less any longer.

“
You'll
get a bed and a warm meal,” Erik said knowingly. “We're a
tight clan. These boys you see behind me have been with me long
enough to work like a well oiled machine.” He turned around,
and pointed to them one by one. “That's Harry, Zee, Christian,
and Egil.”

The men nodded at me when he said their names. They were
dark silhouettes against the forest. Each one was strong and tall,
handsome in his own right, but the four were leaner than the cat who
seemed to be their leader.

And my, his body showed it! Much as I tried, my eyes
kept wandering to Erik's rock hard ass, up the muscular trunks of his
legs and toward his broad shoulders. Front and back, he was ripped,
the kind of rugged strength that can only come from wrangling with
raw nature.

“
What
do you say, Jenna?” He turned back to me. “If you're
self-conscious, you can shift before you come out of the trees. We'll
get you some fresh clothes when we get home. The journey needs to be
made in tiger form anyway.”

Of course. At the time, I ignored the odd reluctance in
his voice.

I had nothing on him. Talk about a man a dozen leagues
away from my looks. I couldn't believe he enjoyed seeing me naked.

The pheromones! It's got to be.

The idea made me rage and flush. I could've used some
more to warm in this icy darkness.

If it wasn't for my tiger, I would've been like any
other fat girl, subjected to disinterested looks from men like him or
outright mockery from assholes. I was used to attraction being a one
way street, and I didn't even blink when I imagined it was the same
here, even when Erik and I were naked with lush nature all around us.

My tiger whined deep inside me. She needed to feed, and
soon.

All I could think about was food, the hunger for meat
overpowering the nascent lust steaming in my bloodstream. At least it
had overpowered the mating instinct from whatever the hell they'd
shot me up with.

I fell, snapping leaves off the brush as my body
contorted. When I came out of the trees on four legs, the men were
tigers again too.

Erik nodded, snorting smoky breath from his nostrils. He
turned. I fixed my eyes on him and we took off into the night, moving
through the forest's depths and toward the god-like outlines of the
mountains.

“
Let's
see...we've got caribou steaks, caribou bacon, and more caribou.”
I watched him dig through an antiquated looking freezer.

My stomach growled terribly. Erik's cabin was spartan,
but nicer than I expected. Honestly, anything would've felt like the
Four Seasons just now, as long as it came with a fresh change of
clothes and a warm fireplace.

This cozy cabin had both. When we got to the edge of
town, one of his boys – Zee, I think – went into a nearby
cabin and returned with several cloaks.

I was surprised to see the tigers lived in a little
community that didn't look a whole lot different from a small
mountain town. If I weren't so hungry and cold, I would've taken a
walk through it, studying my new home for at least the next night.

I looked up from the table, staring at my hands.
Woodland dirt remained crusted beneath my fingernails.

Erik moved through the kitchen as decisively as he did
in tiger form. I watched him carve meat off an enormous slab, chop up
some peppers and onions, and begin frying it up.

Looking out the window
next to me, I laughed. How had things turned into an exhausted stay
at a dopey little resort so damned fast?

“
What's
so funny?” he called across to me.

“
Nothing.
Guess it's just a little giddy excitement at being free.” I
shrugged. “I've had way too much excitement for one day.”

“
It's
behind you now. Tonight, you can sit back and relax. I'll show you
the town in the morning.”

I smiled. It felt like a small eternity since I was
really looking forward to anything. Then Erik looked up and stared at
me across the sizzling meat, eyes narrowing like a big cat on the
prowl.

“
Look,
I hate to bring up bad memories. But before we turn in tonight, I
really need to know what those guys were up to. Anything you can tell
me. Making sure Tiger Tree's protected is my job, and I take it
damned seriously.”

Tiger tree?
Was
that the name of this place?

I flushed, hot and red and sweaty. A million dizzying
emotions flashed through me. Memories too new to be blunted by time
and passing danger burbled up.

His request wasn't unreasonable. I just hoped I'd be
able to spill my guts without passing out or having a total spaz. I
didn't answer him, trying to gather my thoughts.

The stove clicked off. Erik joined me at the table,
carrying two plates of steaks.

I'd never eaten caribou. Just now, anything would've
tasted like a slice of heaven, but this meat was truly divine.

Across the table, his kind, strong eyes watched me dig
into my dinner with gusto. I was too hungry to even worry about
looking like a glutton digging into something scrumptious, a fear I'd
always carried on my sparse dates.

This isn't a date,
I
reminded myself.
This is a weird sympathy stay at a strange
man's house after were you used as bait by a pack of criminals.

“
I'm
glad you like it,” he said.

I looked up, blotting the edge of my lips. “It's
very good. Tender and tasty. A little more wild than beef...it's
nice. Also nice to see you guys aren't eating possum or rabbit stew
all alone out here.”

“
I
happen to like snowshoe hare. Seriously.” Erik smiled with his
eyes, keeping the deadpan expression on his face.

I laughed. Much as I wanted it to, the kind and carefree
tone couldn't go on forever.

When my food was down to a few last pieces, I put my
fork down, folded my hands, and looked across at him.

“
You
made me a good dinner and probably saved my life back there. I'll
tell you whatever you think will help your people. I owe you that
much.”

Erik leaned back in his chair and folded his arms,
waiting.

“
Where
do I start?” I pursed my lips. “I first met Doctor Hal
Tarken a little while after my mother died. He was the only one
around who knew about my heritage.”

“
Your
tiger side?” Erik looked at me, quirking an eyebrow.

I nodded. “Yeah. He's a folklore professor at a
university in my area. I guess he's more than that, but I didn't know
it until recently.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid.
I
clenched my jaw, pushing the angry thoughts from my mind.

“
At
first, everything went well. I didn't realize he was playing me the
whole time...feigning research interest, looking for answers,
anything to get to me and use me. I shifted for him, and then his
questions picked up, like he was in a hurry to do something. He took
my amulet when he captured me. The professor's convinced there's some
kind of special tiger treasure up here.”

“
Amulet?”

“
Something
my mother gave me. I know it's from Alaska. She met my father near
Fairbanks when she was a nurse in the air force. The amulet looked
like a tiger's tooth forged from silver...it was all she kept after
he disappeared. When I got old enough, she passed it along to me.
Told me it would always protect me, the same as it did for her. The
professor took a keen interest in it...Gods, I was a fucking idiot.
Young and stupid. I should've seen something evil coming.”

Erik smiled at the curse. I eyed him hopefully,
wondering if he knew more about the stolen jewelry than I did.

Apparently not. He revealed nothing.

“
Go
on,” he urged.

“
I
never knew I was about to be abducted when I walked into his office a
day ago. No, a little more than that now. How long does it take to
get up here from Atlanta?”

Erik shook his head. He didn't seem like the kind who'd
ever traveled very far. When I said Atlanta, I might as well have
been talking about Shangri-La or Troy, or any mythical city.

Very slowly, I was starting to realize I'd entered a
very different world from the one I'd left.

“
Anyway,
I was meeting him at his university office, just like we always did.
The place was deserted. It must've been a holiday, a break between
classes, or something. As soon as I stepped in his office, three men
held me down, threw a rag soaked in something awful against my
face...I blacked out and woke up on the plane.”

Erik suppressed a growl. His lips peeled back, hinting
at his fury.

“
Humans.
We learned long ago not to trust them. Tiger Tree has been under
treaty for generations. As long as we keep to ourselves, the
government goons don't bother us. It isn't hard when their world is
so different, so despicable.”

“
My
mother was human,” I blurted out. Sadness throbbed behind my
eyes.

“
Ah,
you're a half-blood.” Erik's eyes showed surprise when he saw
my defiant stare. “It's nothing to be ashamed of. We've had
them in our village before, in older times, though it's been awhile
since our last half-blood brother passed.”

“
Sorry.
I thought you were judging me.” I lowered my eyes.