by Ashlee Sinn
Copyright © 2016 Ashlee Sinn
http://www.ashleesinn.com
This is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. This is a work of fiction intended for mature audiences only. All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. If you’ve illegally downloaded this book for free, shame on you. Authors work too hard for you to be stealing their books.
Cover Design by Ashlee Sinn
TEMPTED BY THE TIGER
Major Patel has started to call Alaska home. Originally a temporary assignment, he now finds his work for the International Shifter Coalition a part of his life in Homer. As the newly famous white tiger shifter, he’s struggling over his decision to reveal himself. While the others continue to live their lives as normal, Major finds himself all alone. The groupies and the publicity stunts are not his thing—but then he meets one striking photographer who captures more than just the perfect shot.
Fiona Walker looked toward Alaska as a new beginning. Fresh off a divorce from both her husband and her overbearing family, she uses her photography as an excuse to escape her past. The shifter reveal is the perfect opportunity for her to make a living while getting settled. After all, she is a nature photographer, and shifters are animals. But when she meets the elusive white tiger in the wild, her life instantly takes a drastic change.
The shifters are being hunted. Their secrets are being exploited. Major suddenly finds himself in the middle of a public relations nightmare, and he unknowingly drags Fiona into the spotlight. As her life is threatened by his enemies, Major is forced to make a decision that could haunt him forever. And Fiona will have to face demons of her own to overcome the consequences of Major’s actions.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Lured by the Bear
Obeying the Bear
Releasing the Bear
Catching the Bear
The Vampire Huntress Series
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About Ashlee Sinn
The bass seeped through the walls, bombarding my head with a consistently annoying rhythm. I looked around the small office space and wondered how Scarlett could deal with this every night. Especially with her werewolf hearing. Although, ever since the big reveal two months ago, her businesses had grown so fast that she probably thought the pounding noise was worth it.
“You ready for this, Major?” Seth, one of the strongest in Scarlett’s pack and one of the shifters who’d stood on the beach and changed into a wolf in front of the world, threw his head back and downed the rest of his beer.
“It’s going to be a shit show,” I mumbled.
Seth laughed and slapped his hand on my shoulder. “It will be fun.”
Studying the usually quiet and stone-faced man, I wondered just how much he liked the attention. Ever since shifters showed the humans that we existed, our small community in Alaska had been center-stage for the global media. Seth, as a good-looking, muscled-up, eligible bachelor, had become somewhat of a celebrity. Actually, we all had.
I questioned daily if I’d made the right decision in exposing my white tiger. While the International Shifter Coalition hadn’t forced me to be one of the examples, I’d certainly felt the pressure to lead the charge. I’d been the one to recruit Seth and Derrick, Julia and Zane. And now an additional three wolves and a coyote had joined the “Secret Sexy Shifter” lineup. Which was the main reason why I had to endure tonight’s event.
The door to the office opened, a loud rush of music hustling in behind the tall, lean woman who’d let herself inside. “You boys ready?” Julia Housten asked. As the only female to reveal herself on the national news, she’d probably faced the most scrutiny. But with her marketing skills and her grizzly mate, Derrick, by her side, she’d managed to turn all of this publicity into something good.
“No,” I said at the same time Seth said “Yep.”
Julia walked over to where I stood and gave me a quick hug. Equal in height but not in age, I couldn’t believe how well she’d handled everything. For all of us. “Major, you’ll be fine. In fact,” she winked and did a little twirl, “you’ll probably bring in the most money tonight.”
“Hey! What about me?” Zane, a member of the Callaghan grizzly clan and good friend of Julia, strutted into the room wearing nothing but a banana hammock.
“Holy shit,” Seth laughed. “Are you serious with that?”
Zane used the small remaining space on the floor as his catwalk. Even though he was fit and defined like all shifters, the bright yellow fabric contrasted with his pale skin and red hair. But he didn’t care. “It’s an auction, right?” he asked Julia. When she nodded, he struck a few more poses. “And the goal is to raise money for the Boys and Girls Club, yeah?”
Julia said, “Yes…”
“So, I’m planning on making the ladies scrape every last penny together to go on a date with a real shifter like me.”
We all laughed. We couldn’t help it. It was safe to say that Zane had enjoyed his new-found fame the most. Rumor had it that he hadn’t spent a night alone since the reveal. Girls from all over the world were coming to Homer to visit the wholesome grizzly with the cute smile. Their words, not mine.
“Well, that’s great,” Julia said. Her eyes lit up when a new shifter entered the room and she immediately rushed to Derrick’s side and gave him a quick kiss.
“Is he up for sale tonight?” I asked.
Derrick narrowed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. “Not a chance,” he said. “One of the many benefits of being mated.”
When he looked down at Julia with love, my heart hardened. I’d had that once. A mate. A life to share with someone. Love. Now I was stuck strutting around a small-town bar and being auctioned off to the highest bidder.
“Major?” Julia asked, voice softened. “You good?”
No. “Yeah, I’m fine.” I said with a forced smile. Julia had her heart and her head in the right place, and supporting her and her efforts to make the reveal as seamless as possible, was the right thing to do.
“You all ready?” Scarlett whipped her head around the door frame, braids flying forward and covering her face. “This crowd’s riled up tonight.”
“Yes!” Zane fist-pumped the air and sauntered passed us in his yellow string bikini.
Scarlett blocked the doorway. In her black leather halter and pants, defined arms, and alpha stare, she looked intimidating. “What the hell are you wearing?”
Pointing to his junk and flexing his biceps, he asked the most powerful female wolf in our state, “See something you like?”
Her eyes flashed a golden yellow just before crossing her arms over her chest. “Not at all.”
“Come on all of you,” Julia cut in with a giggle, “Let’s get this auction started.” She pointed to each of us. “I’m letting the wolves go first, then Zane, then we’ll finish with Major.”
“Best for last,” Derrick teased.
“No way!” Zane argued. “A grizzly is way cooler than a tiger.”
“No, it’s not,” the girls said in unison.
“Take that, banana ginger,” Seth said as he followed Julia and Scarlett out of the office.
“Here we go,” I muttered to myself.
The hallway led to a makeshift backstage area where we’d each climb up and let Julia auction us off to the crowd of groupies out front. “Win a Date with a Sexy Shifter” had nearly crashed the Shifters Among Us website within the first hour she announced the fundraiser. These women had paid a hundred bucks a piece just to set foot in the bar tonight. Scarlett was donating all of that to the charity, but her and her mate, Brennan, would certainly do well in alcohol and bar food sales. And I was actually glad. When her uncle died a few weeks ago, Scarlett had been appointed pack leader. She’d confided in me that her uncle had some bad debt no one knew about, so I understood why she was looking for ways to make any kind of extra money right now to clear that up.
And what better way to do that than by offering her single friends to the shifter fanatics that wanted to spend just one night with us.
I shook my head, the ear-piercing girl screams grating on my animal senses. Zane and Seth pumped themselves up with man talk, slapping their muscles and oiling up their skin. Derrick snuck up beside me, his smile growing while he watched the display.
“They do know this is all for charity, right?” he mused.
“I have no idea,” I said. “Hey, where’s Calvin? I thought Julia was going to ask him to help tonight?”
With a chuckle, Derrick shrugged. “She did. And I believe his exact words were something like ‘Over my cold, dead body.’”
“Yep, sounds like Calvin.” While the cougar shifter had shared his secret a few days after the reveal, he was not a fan of attention.
“But he donated five thousand.”
“Dollars?” I asked, surprised to hear this.
Derrick nodded. “On behalf of all the cougars.”
“Interesting.” Thinking about how little I really knew of the man, I didn’t even see Julia rush past us. But when she got on the mic and started her role as emcee, I forced myself to focus again.
Two of Seth and Scarlett’s pack mates were up first, each of them bringing in almost a thousand dollars. As Derrick clapped, eyes gleaming with love and respect for Julia, I nudged him in the shoulder. “These women understand it’s just a dinner date, right? No promises afterward.”
“I think so, but I also think they’re hoping they’ll be able to convince you all otherwise.”
My gut turned with that thought. While I enjoyed the female species very much, my animal didn’t do casual. And ever since I’d lost my mate, my tiger had stayed dormant and uninterested. I really didn’t want to have that kind of conversation with a human only looking to have a story about her one night stand with a shifter.
Ignoring the commotion around me, I didn’t realize Julia had said my name until Zane reached down from the stage and slapped me in the side of my head. A growl rumbled through my throat and the colors in my vision started to shift to reds and purples.
“Whoa, man,” Zane said, jumping back and lifting his hands into the air. “Chill out, pussy cat. Julia’s out there waiting for you.”
My animal calmed until I saw the yellow bikini flopping back in forth in front of my face. Then my human side wanted to hurl. A hand on my shoulder shook me back to reality.
“You okay?” Derrick asked.
“Yeah,” I mumbled.
“You need to get out there.”
“Okay.”
“Hey, Major?” he said, tugging on the back of my shirt. “You might want to take this off.”
The sounds of cheering women rushed back to the surface. Zane bounced up and down, chatting with the boys about the insane amount of money he brought in. Julia was egging the female-heavy crowd on, telling them about how rare a white tiger shifter was and how lucky they were just to get a chance to see me. I focused my energy on planting a sexy smile on my face, cracking my neck just before slipping through the red curtain and stepping out onto the stage.
White lights blasted my vision. The music switched to “Eye of the Tiger” and I did my best not to roll my eyes. That had probably been Zane’s doing and I would get him back someday soon.
“Here he is ladies! Major the Magnificent White Tiger!”
Julia beamed at me and gestured for me to take the stage. I tried to block out that nagging feeling I had about what the winner would be expecting and instead refocused my energy on supporting Julia and all of her hard work she’d been doing these past few months. Sauntering down the catwalk, I hooked my thumbs inside the beltloops for my jeans and flexed my abs. The women shrieked their approval, some throwing dollar bills at me, others holding up posters and tee shirts with my face on them. The fame had been unreal, and the fact that we’d been so enamored since our reveal, still hadn’t totally set in yet.
“The bidding starts at one thousand dollars, ladies!” Julia announced.
“One thousand!”
“Two thousand!”
“Show me your ass!”
I laughed at some of the crazy requests being shouted. With a look from Julia, I upped the ante by unzipping my jeans and giving a quick peek at my boxers beneath. The ladies cheered and Julia soon had the bid up to five thousand. Reaching forward, I kissed a few hands and pulled several more off my ankles. For a split second I feared for my life as I smelled the hormones and excitement grow in this small space. But I was a tiger and I would call on him if I needed to.
“Let me see your stripes!”
I enjoyed that one, but when Julia motioned for me to give them something, I let my animal rise to the surface ever so briefly. Knowing my eyes glowed an unnatural orange, we both reveled in the scent of fear and arousal. I moved my head slowly back and forth over the crowd. After a second or two, the women were no longer afraid and instead kept raising their hands to increase the bid.
“Ten thousand dollars.”
Everyone fell silent as the heads turned to find the deep female voice that had just outbid all the hopeful groupies.
“Did I hear ten thousand?” Julia asked, her voice barely containing her excitement.
“Yes. Ten thousand.” The woman, with her tall, athletic body and close-cropped black hair, walked up to the edge of the stage and stared right at me. “I want him for ten thousand.”
Her eyes showed me nothing—just empty black pits that had my animal clawing inside. Something about this woman wasn’t right, yet the way she smiled and interacted with those around her, didn’t seem suspicious. Plus, she’d just committed a ton of money to the local charity. I needed to squash those instincts right now and simply follow through with my promise.
“Sold!” Julia shouted with a grin. “Everyone who purchased a date, meet us in the corner behind the bar in five minutes where we’ll take your photo and of course, your donation. Thank you everyone who came out. Now enjoy two-for-one drinks until lights out!”
A chorus of cheers dissipated into the booming dance song, and the gyrating hoard of female bodies soaked it all in. As I stepped backstage, Seth and Zane greeted me with a high five. “Damn, pussy cat,” Zane said, “you beat us all.”
“Stop calling me that,” I said, but when Zane raked his fingers through the air like a cat claw, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“Come on, boys,” Julia shouted from the hallway. “Time to meet your new mates.”
“Did she say mates?” the frightened look on Zane’s face had us all laughing harder than we had all night.
“She meant dates, Zane.” Derrick wrapped his arm around his fellow grizzly. “Don’t worry, she’s not trying to ruin your bachelorhood.”
I followed behind all of them, wanting to put my shirt on but then realizing that I’d tossed it into the crowd. The werewolves from Scarlett’s pack helped clear a path through the women so we could reach the bar on the other side. There, my h
ighest bidder pulled me to the side and squeezed me tight. She smelled of dominance, yet I knew she was a human. She had my curiosity until she told me to turn and smile at the camera.
The second I looked at the photographer, I forgot all about the mysterious stranger at my side. Shorter than most girls with curves in all the right places, her mixed ethnic background and bright green eyes had me wondering where she’d come from. She wore a set of winter clothes that smelled new, yet her camera strap was frayed and faded. Her hair had been tied up in a loose knot on top of her head as though she didn’t care, but she had spent some time on her makeup. Her beauty far surpassed any female in this bar tonight.
“Okay, give me a pose,” she said through a smile.
The bright flash hurt my eyes, but I didn’t want to close them for fear of missing any moment of what this photographer would do. My animal purred, enjoying the observations. He wanted to be closer…
“No, stay back so I can get your bodies,” the photographer said.
“What’s your name?” I asked her, but the hired date spoke instead.
“Diana,” she said, holding me tight.
The camera flashed several more times and then the woman turned her sights on Zane and his date. My eyes kept following her, my animal committing her scent to memory. What was it about her that had caught my attention so swiftly? Was it the way she wasn’t acting like a crazed maniac? Or was it the way her silent confidence reminded me so much of Annie’s? The ache in my heart rushed to the surface with a swiftness I hadn’t felt in several decades. The thought of my lost mate glued my feet to the floor and weighed heavily on my shoulders while everyone else around me celebrated the success of the night.
“Want a drink?” Diana asked me. She still hadn’t let go of my waist.
“Not really,” I mumbled, eyes on the beautiful woman with the camera.
“Come on, I just spent good money on you. The least you could do is share a drink with me while we plan our date.”