Here Kitty, Kitty!

  “Angie?” After a moment, she turned those beautiful brown eyes in his direction, but didn’t stop masturbating. “You thinkin’ about me right now?”

  She licked her lips, then slowly nodded.

  “About me deep inside you? Fuckin’ you?”

  She nodded again.

  Nik sat up, bracing his arms on his knees, his hands clasped together. “I’ve got you pinned to the bed. My body between your legs, my dick buried deep inside you.” He paused for a moment, making sure he had her attention. “I’m holding your arms above your head. You struggle to get away, but I don’t let you. I’ve taken control. And you can’t fight it. I won’t let you get away. Not ’til I’m done with you. Not ’til I’ve fucked you raw and made you scream my name, over and over again.”

  He hadn’t even finished when her entire body went rigid and she groaned out an orgasm that shook her right down to the hot little stilettos she wore.

  Angie couldn’t believe how hard she came. But before she even had a chance to recover, Nik knelt in front of her. He lifted her other leg up over the opposite arm of the chair and buried his face between her thighs, feasting on her pussy like a starving man.

  Too much. Too much Nik and his hot body and amazing tongue. But at the same time, not nearly enough Nik. She was starting to feel like there would never be enough Nik. At least, not for her.

  Growling, Nik pulled away from her and lifted her out of the chair. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, burying her head against his neck.

  “You really like carrying me around.”

  He shoved papers, folders, everything but the computer onto the floor. “Why not? You’re such a little thing.”

  He placed her on the desk, then dug into the back of his jeans, pulling out a condom. She stared at him. Was he even remotely serious? He didn’t need to bullshit her to get between her legs. And, unlike most sane men, he didn’t fear her.

  He looked up at her, his hands opening the packaging. “What, sugar?”

  She grinned, shaking her head. “Nothing. Just having a moment.”

  “Well, have it later.” He whipped his cock out, sheathed it, and had it inside her in seconds. His hands firm on her thighs, yanking her to the edge of the desk.

  Angie gripped Nik’s arms, her fingers digging into the hard muscle as his cock dug into her.

  “By the way.” He smiled. “The Ferragamos…” He looked down at her shoes. “They were a nice investment.”

  In response, Angie wrapped her legs around his waist, making sure the heels of her shoes dug into his ass. He groaned, his hands tightening on her flesh.

  “Aren’t they fabulous?” she panted.

  So tight. So hot. He’d never felt anything like it. Like her.

  After several hours of abusing the furniture on his entire first floor, they finally made it to the bed in her room. Now she straddled his waist, his dick buried deep inside her. She rode him. Hard. Apparently she used to barrel race. Explained those thighs. Horse-ridin’ thighs. Thighs that could snap a man in half.

  Nik buried his hands in Angie’s sweat-drenched hair and pulled her down until her pebble-hard nipples burrowed into his chest. He kissed her, their lips fusing, their tongues mating. He loved how this woman kissed. Swinging from intense to sweet and eventually around to hard. Exactly like she fucked.

  He pulled his lips away. “Harder.”

  She gripped his arms, her nails digging into the flesh. The pain biting and erotic all at once. Her pussy clenched his dick tighter as she rode him harder.

  Nik never thought someone completely human could take him like this. She did, though. She took. She gave. She demanded more. And had been for hours.

  Angie rested her forehead against his. “You sure I’m not hurting you?”

  “Naw, sugar,” he groaned, gripping her hips tighter. “I can take a lot.”

  “Good. Very…” she shuddered violently, “…very good.”

  Nik slid his hands down her hips to her ass, his fingers digging into the smooth cheeks. She gasped and smiled at the same time. He loved seeing that smile on her face. It turned his dick into steel.

  “Nik…” And his name on her lips. Nothing sounded better. “I’m…I’m…”

  “Do it, Angie. Come all over me.”

  He kissed her again, letting her soul-shaking groans pulse through him. Her pussy still spasming around him as his dick swelled further and exploded. Nik was so lost inside of her, he didn’t even realize he unleashed his claws, lancing her ass cheeks until she cried out.

  “What?”

  “Claws! Claws! Claws in my ass!”

  He retracted them. “Oh, God, sugar. Are you okay?”

  Taking hold of her waist, Nik pulled her off his softening dick and placed her gently on the bed. He turned her over so that she lay on her stomach.

  He winced when he saw the perfectly formed claw marks. Five in each cheek.

  “How bad is it?” she demanded, trying to get a good look, but a hand against her back kept her from seeing much of anything.

  “Um…not bad.”

  “You are lying to me. I can tell,” she accused.

  “Now, now. Don’t throw around them kind of accusations.” Nik jumped off the bed. “Cool your jets, sugar. I’ll be right back.”

  Trying not to laugh, he went to the bathroom and grabbed what he needed. When he walked back out, she still lay stomach down with one leg up, the foot perfectly arched and pointing toward the ceiling. He wondered if she took dancing classes when she was a kid.

  Nik crawled back on the bed. “Leave this to me.”

  “I did. And you impaled my ass.”

  They looked at each other for a moment, then burst out laughing.

  Angie pointed a warning finger at him. “Don’t even think about going there.”

  “I didn’t say a word.”

  “You didn’t have to. Your big kitty eyes give you away every time.”

  He kissed her shoulder, then licked off the sweat there. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll make this all better.”

  In the end it took him twenty minutes. He couldn’t help himself. The woman had such a sweet ass. He kept kissing it. Licking the wounds he inflicted.

  And, some deep, dark part of him wanted to tattoo his name all over that sweet ass.

  Nik cleared his throat, freaked out by his suddenly territorial thoughts over an amazing fuck.

  An amazing fuck and nothing else.

  “So, sugar, your tattoo. When did you get it?”

  “During my out-of-control youth. For protection. Your grandmother would understand.”

  “You were up to all sorts of stuff back in the day, huh?” He finished taking care of her wounds, moved the first aid supplies off the bed, and settled in next to her.

  “You have no idea.” She threw her arm over his chest, her head against his shoulder. “But that was a long time ago, hillbilly. I’m a different person now.”

  He pushed her wet hair out of her face. “What made you change?”

  “Fear of prison.” She sounded drowsy and he knew she’d be asleep soon.

  So he found the sudden roaring coming from the woods behind his house really kind of annoying.

  “Go,” she murmured.

  “What?”

  Angie kissed his shoulder. “With your brothers. That’s them, isn’t it?”

  Not even close, but he wouldn’t expect her to know that and he didn’t want her to worry.

  “Go,” she said again.

  “You sure?”

  Angie let out a satisfied sigh. “Are you going to France?”

  “What? No.”

  “Then fuckin’ go.” She spoke without any malice or anger. Instead, she rolled onto her back, wincing a bit as the sheets rubbed against her wounded ass. “Go. Do. Whatever tigers do at night. When you get back, I’ll be here.”

  She didn’t cling. She didn’t need him to hold her through the night until she fell asleep. In fact, he got the feeling she wanted so
me time alone. It suddenly occurred to him this woman didn’t need him. She wanted him, but she didn’t need him. She didn’t need him to survive. She didn’t need him to make her life better.

  Angelina Santiago where have you been all my life?

  Nik straddled her hips. “You’re amazing.”

  She stretched, enjoying how he looked at her. Really enjoying how he felt on top of her. “Aren’t I though?”

  He kissed her and for a second she thought he wouldn’t be going anywhere. Finally, he pulled away, giving her one more kiss on the neck. “One sweep around, maybe a deer, then I’ll be back.”

  “A deer?”

  “I told ya. I get hungry after that kind of fuckin’.”

  “Charming.”

  “Yeah. You are.” He kissed her again. Then shifted. Right on her lap.

  “Okay,” she stated simply. “If that becomes a habit, you’re going to start freakin’ me out.”

  Nik licked her cheek with that huge tiger tongue, dived off the bed, and out the window.

  Angie turned over, the sheet wrapped tightly around her.

  Well, she’d gone and done it. Fallen for a shapeshifting hillbilly who had no desire to attach himself to one woman. And since she didn’t share…

  Whatever. She wouldn’t worry about that now. Not with that hand slapping over her mouth. Angie barely had time to struggle before they sprayed her face with something smelling like peppermint. The last thing she saw? Eyes reflecting at her in the darkness.

  Nik followed those growls. He smelled tiger, but he couldn’t place it as any kin or even a neighbor. Something wasn’t right, which meant Angie wasn’t safe.

  He hadn’t gotten far from the house when he found it. A top-of-the-line portable CD player with Surround Sound and next to it a modified scent dispenser.

  Staring at it for only a moment, Nik turned around and started back to the house. But he didn’t get far because they came out of the trees. Quietly. Moving as if they had all the time in the world. She-wolves. Smart. Mean. And one look at them told him they were as vicious as they come.

  They didn’t move on him, though. They watched him as he watched them. But he couldn’t ignore that scent. Not the wolves. Not even the manufactured tiger scent. Something else all together.

  A gestating female. A human one.

  He spun around. She stood there. A black girl. Cute. Short. She kind of looked familiar. And in front of her a good-sized black she-wolf. It took him a moment to realize scars covered one side of the wolf’s face.

  “Hey, sunshine.” The black girl shook her head, causing her mass of shaggy curls to drop into her eyes. “All I can say is—your boys snatched the wrong girl.”

  She raised a rifle. Nik let loose his threatening growl, charging the wolf protecting her, preparing to drop them both on their asses. But like Angie said, her friends were fast and brutal.

  An explosion in his brain flipped him back. Then nothing.

  Chapter Sixteen

  She forced her eyes open. Her head throbbed. Her back hurt. She felt a slight pain in her upper shoulder. She sat up, slowly, and kept her eyes turned away from the large windows that had bright morning light streaming through them.

  She waited until she felt like she could look around without throwing up, then she took in the room. It was her room. In Sara’s house.

  “I’ll kill her.” She’d kill them both.

  She dragged herself out of bed, stumbling as soon as her bare feet touched the carpet. Leaning against the bed posts, she took a few seconds to let the nausea pass. Who knew what wacky, untested, non-FDA-approved shit Miki Kendrick had used on her. Angie reached up and touched her head. Thank God. She still had her hair. She glanced down at herself. Gold sweatpants and T-shirt. Well, at least the bitches got the color coordination right.

  She took several steadying breaths. Once she had herself under control, she walked out of her room.

  Angie didn’t have to seek her friends out. She only had to follow the yelling. Not surprisingly, they were in the kitchen where the wolves seemed to congregate.

  No one noticed as she walked in, so she let the swinging door close, and leaned against the doorjamb. Then she waited.

  “Tell me where he is, Sara. Now!”

  Angie recognized that look on Sara’s face. Her “I’m not budging” look. Zach could yell until he was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t make a difference. Sara wouldn’t tell Zach anything until Sara wanted to.

  Conall slammed his hand on the kitchen counter. “Tell him, Miki!”

  “I said I don’t know.”

  Zach turned on her. “How could you not know?”

  “’Cause I don’t know!” Miki wasn’t lying. Angie could tell. Sara kept Miki out of at least that much so this wouldn’t blow up between her and Conall.

  Zach ran his hands through his hair as he paced around the kitchen. “If you two think tigers are an easy take down, you’re nuts. And they protect their own. Trust me when I say they’re headin’ this way. Now…” He looked at Miki again, “Tell me where the fuck he is!”

  “I said I don’t know. And stop yelling at me!”

  In exasperation, Conall turned away from his mate and toward her. In surprise, “Angie?” They all turned to look at her. “How ya feelin’, hon?”

  “Like I’ve been drugged.”

  Conall’s face turned red and he swung on Miki. “Miki!”

  “Hey! You said I couldn’t drug you. You didn’t say anything about drugging anybody else. Besides, I invented a cool new aerosol. It smells and tastes like peppermint.”

  Zach snarled. A sound that made Angie want to back up out of the room. Even Miki didn’t test him. Only one woman existed who thought it just fine and dandy to play with the man at this particular moment.

  Sara stood up, her chair scraping against the floor. “Don’t think for a second I don’t know the part you played in this. And don’t think you can scare me. You want the motherfucker so bad, you be a fuckin’ bloodhound and track his ass down.”

  Angie didn’t believe this. What the hell was Sara thinking? How the hell could she do this to Nik? What if he were lying somewhere really hurt? Did she take him somewhere or did she kill him? Question upon question swirled through Angie’s brain. Questions she didn’t have answers for. And the more unanswered questions that came up, the angrier she got.

  Years of anger management went out the window and she launched herself at Sara. Her hands wrapped around her throat and Sara snarled, lips drawing back over bright white fangs. Sara drew her fist back to punch Angie in the face, but before either female could do even a modicum of damage, Zach had Sara and Conall dragged Angie back.

  The two women glared at each other, both taking in deep gasps of air.

  Zach looked at Conall. “Let’s everybody calm down.” He released his hold on Sara as Conall let her go. Within seconds the two women were back at each other, hands wrapped around each others’ throats.

  Then Miki was there. Short she may be, but the woman knew how to handle two crazy bitches in a fight. She took handfuls of hair and snatched them both down to her level.

  “Listen to me, ’cause I’m only saying this once. You two bitches back the fuck off or you’ll both wake up tomorrow completely hairless. You remember how that feels, don’t ya, Ang?”

  “Yeah, but she—”

  “She started this—”

  Miki yanked their hair harder. She had them both twisted in such a way that neither of them could turn to snap her little neck.

  “Maybe I wasn’t fuckin’ clear.” She twisted her fists tighter.

  “Okay! Okay!”

  She shoved Sara away. “Go run or do whatever dog thing you need to do, but when you get back here, you better be fuckin’ rational.”

  Sara opened her mouth to argue.

  “Hair!” Miki shouted.

  Growling, Sara threw open the sliding door, shifted, shook off her clothes, and ran.

  Miki released Angie. “Could you guy
s please excuse us?”

  Stunned and a little wary, both men left. Angie rubbed her head where her best friend almost ripped her hair out.

  “She—”

  Miki held up her hand. “Before you even start, let me say one thing to you. When Zach first showed up to get Sara, the Alphas thought about taking her. Just taking her and turning her. If that had happened, what would you have done? Honestly.”

  They both knew the answer. They both knew Angie wouldn’t have rested until she made sure every shapeshifting bastard in the Continental United States ended up dead for taking her best friend.

  Angie took a deep breath. Then another. “Just tell me—is he alive?”

  Miki nodded. “Of course he is. She wanted to make a point. Not murder anybody. At least, ya know, not anymore. So he’s definitely alive. But I don’t know where he is.”

  Angie walked out of the kitchen, leaving Miki standing there. She went back to her room and grabbed up her cell phone. They’d taken all her stuff when they snatched her back. Angie’s new clothes dumped in a corner the way dogs will do. They even brought her baseballs and bat.

  A man answered. “Yo?”

  “Derek. It’s me.”

  “Hey, beautiful. Haven’t heard from you in awhile.”

  “Been busy. Look, I have a job for you. I need you to find something for me. Something big.”

  Nik slowly opened his eyes. His head throbbed. His entire body throbbed. He hurt all over.

  He glanced down at himself. He was still tiger. He hadn’t shifted back. And he didn’t think he’d be able to. At least, not for awhile. Nor was he dead. When that crazy wolf-lover pulled the trigger, he thought for sure he was dead. But instead she tranquilized him with something. Damn geniuses. They should keep them in special homes where they could do the least damage.

  And where the hell was Angie?

  Nik pushed himself up, but his back slammed into something. He blinked, forcing his eyes to focus. He looked around. Blinked again. Then looked around again.

  I can’t be…they wouldn’t…

  “Well, well. Look who’s up. How ya feelin’, big fella? I bet you’re hungry.”