Tiger Tail: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  “Hey, I got a couple of peeping toms over here.”

  “Look, you’d be much better off taking your friends and marching right back to wherever you came from without harming any more of these animals. This is a sanctuary and poaching tigers is illegal. You’ll not want to pay the price for your actions today,” Matt warned him.

  “Oh? Is that right? Well, I think that nosey people get what they deserve. You are certainly in no position to threaten me or anyone else. You might be a big son of a bitch, but you appear to be without a weapon other than that utility knife on your belt,” the man said, nodding toward one of the others, who stepped forward and grabbed it from its sheath.

  “Now, get a move on, both of you,” he continued, nudging them forward with the barrel of his gun.

  Tabitha was terrified. Matt was a big guy and she was quite sure he was capable of holding his own in a fight, but as the man had already noted, neither of them was armed and she had seen at least five men ahead chasing after the tigers, in addition to the three that were here with them. The odds were not in their favor. She just might pay a price for this trip that she hadn’t anticipated.

  “Alright, buddy. We’ll go with you. Just keep a cool head,” Matt told him, holding his hands up and being sure to keep his body between the man and Tabitha.

  “Smart man,” the guy growled, his gun still pointed at them.

  She and Matt walked ahead of them. Without turning his head toward here, Matt spoke in a very low voice, so low that the men behind them weren’t close enough to hear it, but she was.

  “When I say ‘get down,’ you need to drop face first onto the ground and crawl behind the nearest tree. Don’t hesitate.”

  “Okay,” she managed in a trembling voice.

  “I won’t let you get hurt. I promise,” he told her.

  Tabitha found no comfort in his words. No matter what he imagined himself capable of, he was still outnumbered and they had guns, big guns. Even if he managed to subdue one of them, the others would have plenty of time to retaliate against him … and her. There was no scenario in which she could imagine them getting out of this unharmed.

  The men marched them through the woods until they caught up with the other men. Matt was obviously seething as he looked upon the carcasses of three dead tigers laying on the ground. She could tell that he wanted to hurt them and that frightened her just as much as anything else.

  “What the hell, Terry?” one of the men said as they approached.

  “I was trying to tell you back there, but you were already off after the cats. I found these two hiding behind a tree watching us.”

  “Well, looks like the day is going to end badly for them then isn’t it?” the man replied.

  “What do you want me to do with them?”

  “Take them with us. We’ll deal with them when we get back to base. I can’t afford to have human blood on my hands out here.”

  Tabitha felt something like a lump of doom rising up in the back of her throat. They weren’t going to kill them, at least not out here where they might be faced with disposing of them or where they might be found. However, when they got them somewhere more secure, that seemed to be exactly what they planned to do and who knew what they would do prior to that. She noted one of the men leering at her and felt sick to her stomach at what he might be thinking.

  “We could tie them up and leave them for the animals,” another one offered.

  “Rope is usually a good sign that there’s something afoot other than an animal attack,” the one who seemed to be calling the shots retorted with a scowl.

  “What if we shoot them and drop them into the river for the crocs to deal with,” the man suggested as an alternative.

  “Jesus, Carl. No. We’ll take them back to camp and deal with them there. Tie their hands and make damned sure they don’t get away.”

  Behind them, one of the men snatched their packs off their shoulders and tossed them forward to one of the others to carry. He protested loudly.

  “Why can’t they carry their own fucking packs?”

  “Because we don’t know what’s in them and they won’t be able to balance them,” he replied.

  “Then you fucking carry their shit or just leave it,” he said.

  “No. It might be useful. We’ll go through it back at base and then get rid of it. We don’t want to leave any signs of them here anyway.”

  “This is bullshit,” the guy replied.

  “Both of you just shut the fuck up and get them secured. We’re losing daylight and you’re acting like a couple of children,” the man in charge barked at them angrily.

  The first man pulled some rope from his pack and quickly bound both of their hands, then tied the ropes around their wrists together with a longer rope. The others made quick work of getting the tigers up and onto makeshift gurney-like contraptions to carry them through the woods. They began making their way with six of the men tied up transporting the tigers, the man who seemed to be in charge walking up front with some of their extra equipment and one man leading them along behind the others using the length of rope as a sort of lead.

  “Tabitha, I’m sorry for what you are about to see. I would have liked to discuss it with you first, but that option is off the table,” Matt said to her in a low voice.

  “What are you saying? Shut up. No talking!” the man leading them barked without turning around.

  “What’s going on back there?” the man in front was saying, stopping to let the others pass and walking back toward them.

  “Nothing. Telling his little girlfriend it will be okay, I guess. Stupid fucker,” the man leading them said.

  “Just keep an eye on them. We can’t afford for them to get away,” the man said, walking back ahead and continuing to lead the group through the trees.

  Tabitha had no idea what Matt was trying to tell her. Everything seemed gray and distorted in her mind as she still tried to formulate some idea as to how they could get out of this. As they neared a clearing in the trees, Tabitha could see a large vehicle sitting there. She assumed it was theirs and that was how they intended to get out of here. They must have come in from the south end if they were able to drive up like that. They were just about to clear the woods and she was losing hope of this ending well.

  “Get down,” Matt told her. His voice was barely audible and she looked at him with a confused expression. They were tied together. If she dropped, he would come down with her, but as she looked at him, her confusion turned to a mixture of disbelief and fear. He was changing, his face distorting, his body bending awkwardly as he dropped to all fours, tearing the ropes away and suddenly lunging at the man that held them.

  The man screamed as Tabitha shook off her state of shock and hit the ground, crawling behind a large tree and holding onto it for dear life. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she finished pulling the now loosened ropes free of her wrists. The sounds she was hearing from the other side of the tree were terrifying, much like those she had heard before when Matt had shown her the tigers feeding on a wild boar. It was horrifying and it was even more so with the knowledge that the tiger attacking the men was, somehow, Matt.

  It felt like her heart might stop completely as a shot rang out, then another. She heard a howl of pain that seemed to be coming from the tiger and then more screams, the sounds of ripping flesh and a roar that shook the trees around her. Then, everything was silent. She lay on the ground, afraid to move, even to look up. She heard footsteps approaching and slowly raised her head to see who was coming to bring the end of life for her.

  The tiger stood over her. It was impossibly large up close. Blood coated its face and one side. At first, she thought it was all that of the men, but then the tiger faltered, falling to the ground beside her. She was afraid to touch it. Was it really Matt? Was he still in there somewhere? Reaching out, she brought her hand to its fur, feeling the hole the bullet had made when it had hit. Her stomach lurched as she struggled to keep her wits about her.


  Afraid to look around the tree, she bent over the tiger and put her head on it. She could feel the rise and fall of its chest as it struggled for breath. Despite how unreal this seemed, she understood that somehow, someway, this was Matt and not just some ordinary tiger, as he had called them.

  “Oh, Jesus. Don’t die, Matt. Don’t die on me,” she pled with the beast.

  Getting up from the ground, she looked around the tree. The men were scattered all across the forest floor, their bodies twisted at odd angles, blood everywhere. Spotting the packs they had taken from them when they tied them up, she tried not to look at the carnage, grabbing hers and running back to the tiger behind the tree. Its eyes were closed and it seemed to gasp for air. She was still having trouble reconciling that it was Matt when it was in this form, but she knew that it was. No matter how crazy it might seem. She had watched him turn into this.

  “Just hang on, Matt. Listen to my voice. Stay with me. Please stay with me,” she told him, pulling a cotton t-shirt from her bag and pushing it against the bleeding wound. What was she going to do? There was no way to call for help out here. Her best bet was to walk out of here and get some help, but what did she do with him? If she left him here with darkness approaching, there was a good chance he would become a part of the circle of life he had told her about earlier.

  “Okay, Tabitha. Think. Just think,” she said aloud, coaxing herself through this.

  It came to her in a flash. The vehicle! In the aftermath of the carnage that had unfolded, she had momentarily forgotten about seeing it parked just beyond the tree line in a clearing. It wasn’t far away. If she could get him there, then maybe she could find her way out of here to someplace where he could get help. She dug around in her bag for something to hold the makeshift bandage in place, ripping apart another shirt and stretching it around the tiger’s massive girth to hold it in place.

  “I’m not leaving you. I’ll be back very soon. Don’t die, okay? Just don’t fucking die on me,” she said as tears fell down her face.

  Running to the vehicle, she wasn’t surprised to find it was locked. She fished around for a hidden key and found none. Her stomach lurched again as she realized what she was going to have to do. She made her way back into the woods and found the badly shredded body of the man that had seemed to be in charge. Digging her hands down in his pants pocket, she pulled free a set of keys. Stuffing them down in her own pocket, she struggled to pull one of the tigers off its gurney.

  “I’m sorry this happened to you,” she told it, suddenly feeling much more in tune to these animals than ever.

  Pulling the gurney toward where Matt lay, she found that her heart was racing wildly. Though she would ordinarily be concerned with how she was going to get out here, all she could really think about right now was taking care of him. She needed to get him out of here quickly. There were maps in Matt’s bag she could follow. She’d have to grab it on her way back past the horrible scene on the other side of the trees.

  “Okay. Let’s get you out of here,” she said as she rounded the tree where she had hidden, but there was no longer a tiger there. Instead, she was surprised to see Matt sitting against the tree. He was drenched in sweat and pale from the loss of blood, but he seemed to be managing to hold the t-shirt up to his side to staunch the flow of blood.

  “Tabitha,” he said weakly.

  “Matt, my God. You turned into a tiger,” was all she could manage to say.

  He chuckled and flashed a feeble smile at her. Tabitha watched as he began to try to stand, faltering for a moment and then grabbing hold of the tree to pull himself up.

  “Matt, you’ve been shot. Let me help you. We’ve got to get you to a doctor,” she told him.

  “No. No doctor. I’ll be fine,” he said as he held onto the tree to steady himself.

  “You’ve been shot, for God’s sake! You won’t just be fine,” she said, worried sick at how he looked and afraid that she might not be able to get him out of here before he bled out.

  “Trust me. I will be. I just need to rest. We should put some distance between us and this mess I’ve made so no one asks questions. We need to head down to the ranger station that’s just south of here and then bed down for the night.”

  “Can you walk? Their vehicle is just beyond the trees. We can use it to get somewhere safe,” she said.

  “Spectacular.” He grimaced, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and letting her help him out of the woods. They paused briefly to grab his pack on the way past the men. She noted that he avoided looking at them as much as she did. It seemed to take forever just to get from where they had been to the door of the SUV.

  “Tell me which way to go,” she told him once they had him settled into the passenger seat and she had started the vehicle.

  “Just follow the tree line this way,” he said, pointed toward the direction they had been headed before they had encountered the men.

  “How will I know when we get to where we need to be?” she said. “You might pass out.”

  “I won’t, but if it makes you feel better, you’ll know because you’ll see the buildings that make up the ranger station. I don’t recommend driving far enough for them to see this vehicle though. We’ll need to dump it out of sight and walk in as if nothing happened.”

  “Got it,” she told him, wondering how he was going to make it when he’d had to hold onto trees just to get out of the wooded area they’d been in.

  Tabitha put the SUV into gear and headed in the direction he had told her. Though he didn’t pass out, she wasn’t sure he was entirely still with her either. His skin was beaded with perspiration and his face twisted into a grimace. She became alarmed as he suddenly reached for his side and dug his fingers into it.

  “What are you doing? Are you okay?” she screeched, wondering if he was having some sort of hallucination and injuring himself further or what.

  Matt didn’t respond. Instead his body twisted in the seat as he fished around. A growl seemed to emanate from deep within him and she wondered if he was going to turn again. What was she going to do if he morphed into a giant, injured tiger in the front seat of the vehicle she was driving? She was about to stop dead in their tracks, and was braking to slow down when he suddenly pulled bloody hands free and held up a small metal object for her to see.

  “Got it,” he groaned, obviously in pain as he gasped between the words.

  Tabitha stopped the vehicle and looked at him in shock. Had he really just dug a bullet out of his side with his bare hands? What was she dealing with here? First he turned into a tiger and killed eight men and now he was performing makeshift surgery on himself with his own fingers. What exactly was Matt Helford? Was he human? Was he an animal? Was he something else entirely?

  “Did you really just dig a bullet out of your side?” she said.

  “Yeah. How cool is that?” he said with a grimaced smile.

  Tabitha stared at him, not knowing what to say. He was smeared with blood, looking like some sort of macabre antihero from a horror movie at the local cinema. Yet, she could still feel everything for him she had felt in the early hours of morning when he had held her and made love to her. This was the man she had given herself to last night. Now, her only question was whether that had been a mistake.

  “We need to get going, Tabitha. Can’t afford to lose time. It’ll be dark soon and tigers might eat us,” he said, still smiling at her.

  “Unbelievable,” was all she managed before putting the SUV back in gear and continuing wordlessly on toward their destination.

  “Stop here,” he told her after a while.

  Tabitha was concerned with how he was going to walk into the camp with his injury and looking like he’s just committed a mass murder, which in a sense, he had. Still, she did as he said and pulled the SUV into a break in the forest beside them. Grabbing their packs that she had retrieved on their way out of the woods earlier, she walked around to help him out of his side, only to find him opening the door and stepping out
on his own.

  “Let me look at this wound really quick before we head out on foot,” she told him, not sure what she could do about it, but wanting to see how bad it was now that some of the bleeding had been perhaps stifled.

  Matt looked at her thoughtfully as she pulled her flashlight from the carabiner that held it to her pack and shined it on his side in the interior of the dimly lit forest. To her surprise, there was nothing but a jagged pockmarked area where there had been a hole. It was red and angry looking, but it was already closed up.

  “I don’t understand. How is that possible?” she asked, a brief flash of the missing scratches on his back reappearing in her mind.

  “I’ll explain a lot to you when we get settled, but there’s no time right now. That’s why I had to get the bullet out when I did. I didn’t want to have to open the wound back up to do it,” he told her.

  “Right,” she said, completely baffled by all that was happening today. “Well, let’s get going then, tiger.”

  “Yes. Let’s do that, princess,” he said with a smile, leaning down to kiss her softly on the cheek before they began walking toward the ranger’s area where they could settle in for the night. Along the way, he fished a clean shirt and some sanitary wipes from his bag and cleaned up the best he could so as not to alarm anyone that might be at the station. Dark was beginning to fall as they stepped out of the forest and into a clearing.

  “It’s all dark,” she said, noting the absence of any lights.

  “Yes. This isn’t the main station. They’ve probably all gone home for the evening. Not every station is manned twenty-four hours a day. We can still use the showers and hole up in one of the shelters. In the morning, someone will be here and I’ll get them to flag the rangers to delay their pickup for a day so that we can finish what you came here to do. Plus, I have some other things to deal with.”

  “I’m pretty sure that I can manage with what I have under the circumstances.”

  “Nonsense. You came here for the full tour and the full tour is what you will get. In a few days, they’ll find the bodies of the men with the tigers, but we’ll be long gone by then. In the meantime, I intend to finish getting you what you came here for.”