“Tiger,” Carly said. “Come on over here with me.”
Tiger’s glance at her showed rigid anger and pain so deep it cut her from all the way across the room. He didn’t want to look away from Walker, the potential threat, but at the same time, he was pulled to Carly.
Tiger closed his eyes, blotting out the flash of anger, but his face was fixed, the pain obvious.
Carly walked to him and took his hand. Tiger opened his eyes and looked down at her, this time fully.
Carly wanted to both run away and stay under his mesmerizing gaze. As a very small child she’d gone to a zoo where the animals had roamed freely, and the humans walked past them in caged walkways. She remembered a mountain lion that had followed her on the other side of the grille, its golden eyes directly on her. Even now, Carly had no idea whether it had been curious about her or had thought a small child would make a good midmorning snack. She’d cried in terror, and her mother had carried her out.
The feeling, buried deep in her past, flooded out again. Tiger was a wild animal, never mind that he currently had a human body and wore normal clothes and a Collar. The wildness was in his eyes, a creature untamed.
Tiger’s gaze held her in place as though she were the small animal that couldn’t run away. The predator had her, his prey.
He touched her face. Carly shuddered with reaction, his caress a gentle contrast to the obvious strength in him.
Tiger bent to her, as though drawn by her, everything around them forgotten. He nuzzled her as he had in her yard, and Carly caught his face in her hands, rose on tiptoe, and kissed his lips.
* * *
Tiger’s world stopped. The press of Carly’s lips against his cut through his jangled confusion, the need to kill falling away.
Her lips were a place of warmth, satin smooth, the softest sensation he’d ever felt. The touch of her mouth was light, yet he felt it in every part of his body. Every part—especially his cock, which was becoming tight.
Carly’s lips formed a slight pucker, pressing moisture to his mouth. The gentle pressure was both featherlight and firm at the same time.
She brushed her lips over his, moving across them, ending at the corner of his mouth. Her movements were so slight, and yet Tiger thought this was the most important thing that had ever happened to him.
Carly touched her lips to the corner of his mouth again, then she lifted away, her brows drawn down over her gray green eyes.
Her scent had changed, ever so slightly, but Tiger sensed it. She’d been nervous, worried, angry, confused. Now into the mix came wanting. She desired Tiger. That fact spun around and settled in a hot point deep inside him.
“What’s the matter?” she asked, her puzzlement rising again. Carly touched his face with light fingertips, then she gave him a surprised smile. “Haven’t you ever kissed anyone before?”
“No.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“No.”
Tiger had had a mate, the female ripped away from him after he’d impregnated her, but they’d never kissed. It had been animalistic, that mating, though he’d become fervently attached to her, had come apart in grief when she’d died. What Carly had just done was different from anything he’d ever experienced.
“Wow.” Carly skimmed her fingertips across his lips, drawing fire. “I don’t think I’ve met a man who was a virgin.”
“I had a mate. She had a cub.”
“Ah. Then not a virgin. But you’ve never kissed?”
“No.”
“That’s weird. Wait, you had a mate?” Carly asked, her smile going away. “Where is she now? And your kid?”
“They died.”
The words came out flat and didn’t say everything he needed them to. Words couldn’t. Ever.
Carly’s look became shocked, her scent tinged with compassion. “Oh, Tiger, I’m so sorry.” She ran her hands over his shoulders, as though trying to soothe the tension there. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to tease you.”
“Their deaths were not your fault.” Again the words fell flat. Tiger couldn’t explain, couldn’t make her understand why he wanted her to feel better.
“I mean, I’m sorry for you. That she died. That the child died. That must have been awful.”
“Yes.”
Carly’s voice softened. She exuded sympathy, even more than had Iona, or any other Shifter. “There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there?” she asked.
Tiger wasn’t sure what that meant—he knew English, but he’d learned it from scientists, who didn’t so much talk to him as at him or over him.
When he wasn’t certain, he didn’t answer, but Carly didn’t seem to mind. She continued to touch his face, her eyes on his, her smile returning.
“Aw, Dad, what the fuck?” Liam’s Irish tones boomed.
Tiger saw no reason to turn from Carly as Liam banged his way into the living room where his father was wrapping more duct tape around Walker on the floor. Tiger scented Liam and his daughter, Katriona, but not Kim.
“Dad, what did you do?”
“Talk to your nephew and Tiger,” Dylan said calmly. “The man on your rug is Shifter Bureau.”
Liam went silent as he contemplated the situation. Tiger noticed that Connor had disappeared upstairs.
Liam, a talker, didn’t stay silent long. “Why is he here, passed out and trussed up, and why are you here?” He pointed a blunt finger at Carly.
Liam’s daughter, a year and a few months old, was perched on her father’s shoulders, her dark curly hair and blue eyes proclaiming her the Morrissey she was. She saw Tiger and stretched out her hands.
“Tigger!”
Tigger was the name of a character in a children’s story, and Katriona insisted on giving the name to Tiger. Tiger didn’t mind. He turned away from Carly and walked slowly to Liam, indicating he’d take the cub if Liam was willing to hand her off. He wouldn’t reach for her uninvited, no. Liam needed to make the decision.
Liam’s stance exuded more annoyance than anger. He hauled Katriona from his shoulders, holding her out to Tiger before joining his father over Walker’s body.
Tiger closed his hands carefully around Katriona’s torso and lifted her high into the air. She squealed and laughed as she always did, then cuddled down against his chest as he held her close.
Katriona’s curly hair tickled Tiger’s chin as she looked around with interest at everything happening in the living room. Tiger’s body unclenched, as it always did when he was around the cubs. When his instincts got out of control, a cub’s presence could make his animal nature stop and his thoughts cease whirling.
“Well, aren’t you the cutest thing?” Carly poked Katriona in the tummy. “What’s your name, honey?”
“’Trina,” she said.
“Katriona,” Tiger rumbled. “She can’t say the whole word yet.”
“A pretty name for a pretty girl.” Carly seemed delighted with Kat.
“’Nk you,” Kat said.
Liam’s scent broke Tiger’s focus on Carly and Kat as Liam himself stopped in front of them. “Excuse me, if I can be interrupting this sweet little moment. Will one of you tell me what the hell is going on? Seeing as I heard Connor lock himself in his room, which means he’s scared about what I’m going to do, and that means there’s something for him to be worrying about. Isn’t there?”
CHAPTER NINE
“I wouldn’t know about that,” Carly said. She broke into a smile again as she tickled Katriona’s stomach. She couldn’t know how beautiful she looked when she did that. “All I know is, his name is Walker Danielson, he was spying on me, and Tiger caught him and knocked him out. He’s also friends with a professor who wants me to come and talk to you and write reports about you for him. For a research project, he said. Wants me to be his assistant. Anyway, Connor was worried Tiger would hurt Walker even more, so I thought, why not bring him to you and have you talk to him? He’s from the Shifter Bureau, and y’all are Shifters.”
Liam listened, his blue gaze trained on Carly’s face. “And Connor wouldn’t have anything to do with this, would he?”
“Connor was doing his best,” Carly said. “He was scared. Give the kid a break, all right?”
Liam moved the slightest bit closer to her. “And you? Are you scared?”
Carly stepped back into Tiger, and Tiger put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m a little afraid, sure,” she said. “It’s not every day I slap a piece of duct tape over a man’s mouth and stuff him into my trunk. And y’all are not reassuring. If Tiger weren’t here, my knees would be knocking together. But your daughter is obnoxiously sweet.”
Liam’s expression softened as he glanced at Katriona. “You only say that because you’re not chasing her all hours of the day and night. Mum goes to the office, and Da stays home and looks after this wee monster. I thought it was bad when she was crawling.”
“Looks like Tiger makes a good babysitter.”
“He does, that,” Liam said. “But he spoils her rotten. Lets her get away with way too much.”
“She’s a Shifter, right?” Carly asked. “What does she turn into?”
“Nothing yet. Her mother’s human, so Kat was born human, and she won’t start shifting into her beastie until she’s about three. She’s a Morrissey, so she’ll have mostly lion in her. Feline Shifters were bred from all big cats, but families tend toward one species or the other. Except Tiger. He seems to be all tiger, interestingly enough.”
“Tigger,” Kat corrected him.
“Yes, love. Is that the kind of thing your professor friend wants you to be reporting?” The dangerous glint was back in Liam’s eye. But Tiger knew Liam wouldn’t hurt Carly, not physically. First, because Liam only attacked true dangers, and second, because Liam would never get through Tiger to touch her.
“He’s not my friend,” Carly said. “I didn’t like him, if you want to know the truth. I didn’t tell him I’d work for him, because I already have a job—which reminds me, I need to go so I can get to it and not lose it. My boss cut me some slack, because my day yesterday was truly shitty, but he’s not going to give me a permanent vacation.”
Leaving. No. Tiger’s hand tightened on Carly’s shoulder. Not leaving, not for the wide world and its dangers, not without him.
Liam wasn’t finished with his interrogation. “And what is this job?”
“I’m an assistant and receptionist at an art gallery. And no, that doesn’t mean I sit and do my nails. I take orders and keep track of them, do the inventory, sell to walk-in customers, set up receptions and such for the artists, and set up exhibit openings, which are a lot more work than they seem, believe you me. Basically anything Armand needs help with, I do.”
Liam’s gaze didn’t move as he took in her words, also taking in, Tiger knew, her scent, her body language, and the nuances behind them.
“All right,” Liam said as Carly wound down. “You go off and get ready for work, and we’ll deal with duct-tape man.”
“I will go with her.” No way would Tiger let her drive off alone, into danger. The professor’s gun-toting friend might have been rendered harmless for now, but there might be more like Walker out there. Plus, when Walker’s disappearance was discovered, Carly’s house would be first on the list of places to look.
“It’s all right,” Carly said quickly, looking up at Tiger. “I’ll be fine.”
“You won’t be fine. I’ll go with you.”
“Yes, you will,” Liam said to Tiger. “But not just you. Let me see which of my trackers is in need of something to do.”
“What are you talking about now? Damn it.” A cell phone pealed, and Carly dug through the giant bin of her purse until she brought it out, nearly dropping it in the process. She looked at the readout, frowned in a puzzled way, and answered it.
“Hello? Who is . . . ?”
Her face changed from curiosity to outrage in the space of a second. “Are you kidding me? Are you . . .” She looked around at the Shifters, all of whom were watching her closely, and let out a breath. “Hang on. I have to take this.” She lowered the phone as she walked out through the kitchen and onto the back porch. Tiger, bouncing Kat, went right after her.
* * *
“Say that again?” Carly yelled into the phone, pressing it against her ear. “Ethan wants to sue me?”
“He has a list of complaints, including bringing a Shifter in to attack him.”
Carly’s rage changed from the simmer to which she’d managed to lower it to a full-blown boil. “Are you fucking kidding me?”
The smooth voice of one of Ethan’s friends, who happened to be a lawyer, continued: “You returned his car damaged and are in possession of a number of expensive items he’s given you, including a sixty-thousand-dollar engagement ring.”
“Sixty-thousand?” Carly thought about the ring that was tucked into her jewelry box, with no lock, no alarm system on her house. “What, is he stupid?”
“If you want, Carly, you and I can settle this. It doesn’t have to go to court.”
“To court? He cheats on me, and he wants to take me to court?”
“Now, Carly, calm down. We can—”
His voice cut off as Carly slammed her thumb on the End button. She stopped herself from flinging the phone off the porch and into the green, because it was her phone, and expensive. She settled for throwing it—hard—back into her purse, where it clattered against her sunglasses case.
She turned around to find Tiger standing three feet behind her, the glower on his face telling her he’d heard everything. Didn’t matter. Ethan was a dickhead, and she didn’t care who knew it.
“I have to go,” Carly said. The hour was early enough that she’d have time to go home, get changed, stop at Ethan’s, and drive to the gallery. The stop at Ethan’s wouldn’t take long.
“I’ll go with you,” Tiger repeated. He’d planted himself so stubbornly in her path, she’d never get around him even if she tried to force her way.
“Fine. I don’t have time to argue. You might want to leave the kid, though. My language is going to get ugly.”
Tiger held Katriona out, not to Liam but to Sean, who was approaching through the backyard. With him was a guy with a cowboy hat who studied Carly and Tiger in open curiosity.
Sean took Katriona into his hands with a bemused expression. Carly pushed past him and descended the porch steps, hurrying around the house and down the driveway to her own car. Tiger was right behind her, sliding into the passenger seat as Carly climbed behind the wheel and started it up.
Before she could pull from the curb, the back door opened and the cowboy dove in. He yanked his feet clear and shut the door as Carly peeled out into the street.
Other Shifters were out in the early-morning sunshine, walking or just standing in yards or on porches. Every single one stopped what they were doing and stared the predatory stare as Carly sped down the road to make her way out of Shiftertown.
“Whoa,” the cowboy Shifter said as the car rocketed forward. “Maybe I should drive.”
“And you are?” Carly asked, tearing around a corner and sending him down into the seat.
The man righted himself and clicked on a seat belt. “I’m Ellison Rowe. Lupine Shifter.”
“Lupine?” Carly asked, distracted. She whisked the car around another corner and onto Fifty-first, heading west.
“Wolf, darlin’.” Ellison clutched the back of the seat as Carly sped between two cars and around a truck. “Take it easy, sweetheart. I’m just mated. I want to live long enough to put a cub in the nursery.”
“I’m so sorry,” Carly said, putting on her sugary sweet voice. “I’m just mad at all things male right now, and would really like to know what are you doing in my car?”
“Liam sent me.”
“To keep an eye on me?”
Ellison pointed at Tiger. “No, to keep an eye on him. You seem to have things under control.”
“Then you’ll have to put up with how I drive.” Ca
rly smiled at him in the rearview. “And you can help me carry things.”
Ellison tossed his hat onto the seat beside him, scraped a hand through blond hair, and grinned back at her. “That’s what I live for.”
* * *
Carly got herself showered and dressed for work in record time, including doing her hair and makeup. She enjoyed sliding into her prettiest sheath dress, a silk moiré that was bright green to go with her eyes, plus jewelry that Ethan hadn’t bought her—her earrings had come from her mother, the dangling gold necklace from her oldest sister, Althea.
She put on killer high heels that made her legs look wicked and red lipstick that made her mouth ready for kissing. But not for Ethan. Oh, no.
Carly headed out to the front room, where Tiger and Ellison were doing what Connor had enjoyed doing when he was here, watching sports on cable television. While she moved down the hall, she heard Ellison saying to Tiger, “No, see, this guy over here caught the ball, so even though this guy hit it well, he can’t stay on first base. He’s out.”
A full-grown American male who didn’t understand baseball? Shifter or not, that had to be a first.
Carly nearly danced into the living room, and Ellison rose swiftly from the couch. “Well, damn.”
Tiger said nothing at all. His gaze roved Carly, lingering on her legs and then on the curve of her waist.
“Why, thank you,” Carly said, reaching for her smaller purse to transfer into it what she needed for the day. “It’s nice to be appreciated.”
“Sure you don’t want me to drive?” Ellison asked as they went back to the garage.
“No, I’ve got it. I want to.” Being driven around in Ethan’s expensive cars or in the limos he hired for special nights out had made her feel like a princess. But today Carly wanted to feel powerful, like a kick-ass chick in a superhero movie.
She waited until Tiger and Ellison were settled inside the car before she opened the garage door, started up, and backed out. The neighbors wouldn’t be able to miss Tiger sitting in the front seat with her, but they’d be more freaked out if they caught the whole massive bulk of him.