Tiger Tail: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  Savannah moved to the last aisle of the library, sank to the ground, and leaned against the shelves to read it. The chapter was only a few pages long and filled with detailed black and white drawings that had probably been done exclusively for the book. She wasn’t really interested in any other legend apart from the one about the wolf prince. She stared at the image of a man with the head of a wolf, and then started to read:

  Back when Grey Mountain was known only as Grey Mountains, there was a great chief who had three daughters by his three wives. His daughters were all tall and beautiful and respected among the tribe as skilled wolf hunters. His oldest daughter was flaxen haired and blue eyed, and she was the best hunter. His second daughter was black haired and green eyed, and she was the best archer. His youngest daughter was red haired and brown eyed, and she was the best fighter.

  The chief’s oldest daughter was promised in marriage to the son of a prominent member of the tribe, and they would take over as the leaders and elders of the village when the time came. The chief’s youngest daughter was famed for her unusual red hair, which was considered the ultimate in beauty. She had many suitors and she was eventually promised to the son of a powerful, neighbouring tribe.

  The chief’s second daughter, however, was disinterested in men and marriage. She explored the mountains of her tribe, and came to know nature more intimately than anyone else. She was an adventurer who never stayed in one place for long. She spent more time in the trees and mountains than she did in the tribe with her own family. She was the wildest of the chief’s three daughters, and her name was Mira.

  One day, Mira traveled further into the forest than she had ever traveled before. She came upon a clearing that held in its center the most perfect blue lake she had ever seen. Enchanted with its beauty, Mira removed her clothes, and prepared to swim in the lake’s clear waters. She was about to enter the lake when she heard a noise behind her.

  She turned, and found herself faced with a terrifying black wolf that was bigger than any she had seen before. She had left her bow a few feet away with her clothes, and she had no way of defending herself as the animal moved forward with its teeth bared. With no choice left to her, Mira jumped for her bow, but the animal was too fast. It attacked her and tore at her flesh until she fell back into the lake, bleeding from a thousand different wounds.

  The animal left her in the lake surrounded by her own blood, contaminating the clear blue water and turning it red. Mira believed she was going to die, but then something happened. She sensed it as she floated in the water waiting to die. The water was magic, and it had begun to heal her. An hour later she rose from the waters, her body new and free of any wounds or scars. She felt stronger and more powerful. She felt whole.

  But Mira knew she was more than just a woman now. She could feel the animal inside her, and as night descended, Mira transformed into a great beast, similar to the one that had attacked her, and instinctively she knew she could never go back home. She ran through the forests, feeling a new sense of freedom unlike any she had experienced before. She kept running until she caught a scent that was strangely familiar to her. She stopped and turned and found herself face to face with the creature that had attacked her in the lake.

  Now that she herself was in wolf form, she could communicate with the beast. Mira learnt that he was a man named Kian, who was afflicted with the same transformative powers she had. The difference was that a witch had cursed him, and so he could not control himself when he turned. He became a beast, an animal in its most dangerous state. Mira promised to help him so that he would maintain some sense of control when he transformed.

  For many months, Mira and Kian roamed the forests together, and she helped him control his beastly instincts. She taught him how to suppress the wild beast inside him, and he taught her the little secrets of the forest. Eventually they fell in love, and Mira gave birth to a son. The boy had all the wolfish traits of his parents, but he could control himself better, he could think and decide, and when he transformed, he was still a man inside a wolf's body.

  Mira and Kian named their son Kato, and they taught him all they knew, but it was a lonely existence, for Kato had no one to talk to but his parents. He would watch the people of the village from the grey mountains, and wish he might walk among them, and live his life among them. It was not the same for his parents. Their instincts were more animal than human, and they did not miss their old lives.

  One day, when Kato was watching the tribe and its people, he noticed a beautiful woman with golden hair and soft brown eyes. He kept coming back to watch her, day after day, and soon he was in love with her. His parents warned him against the tribe, for they were fierce wolf hunters, but Kato would not listen. One day he grew bold, and went down to the tribe in his human form. There he spoke to the young woman, whose name was Alais. They met secretly over the next few weeks, and eventually Kato told Alais the truth about who he was. The young lovers dreamed of leaving behind the place of their birth and roaming the world. Scared that they could not be together, Alais sought out the help of a witch who lived in the mountains.

  The witch gave her a special potion that gave Alais the ability to transform into a wolf as well, but the potion came at a price. Alais and Kato could never be free to roam the world as they had planned. They had to stay in the village, forever tied to it, obligated to protect the tribe’s people, whatever the cost. They could never leave, their children could never leave, and their grandchildren could never leave.

  For Alais, it was a small price to pay. She and Kato both agreed to stay and be protectors and guardians of the mountains, and the villagers who lived at its feet. Alais drank the potion, and she and Kato married. A year later, they had a baby boy and thus, the first wolf prince was born.

  Savannah read through the passage again, staring at the drawings and wondering if even a quarter of the legend was true. She was fascinated with the story, but she was not sure if she could trust it. Just then, the bell went off, and Savannah knew she had to get to her next class. She shut the book and sighed. Then she got up and walked to class alone.

  Chapter Thirteen

  After the first couple of days, Savannah realized that she really enjoyed the long walk home. It gave her time to enjoy the raw nature that surrounded her, time to reflect, and most importantly, it gave her time to think about her future.

  Lately she had been thinking about taking a gap year between high school and college to travel around Asia. Then, maybe she would go to Europe somewhere and get her degree. She had always been interested in linguistics for obvious reasons, but lately she had been thinking about Classics, and mythology as well. It didn’t seem to matter how far her thoughts or her dreams took her, she always ended up back in Grey Mountain.

  It was becoming increasingly more difficult to go to school each day and see Xander. He always gave her a smile, his eyes softening with the weight of emotion, but he never approached her, and Savannah knew she could go to him.

  From time to time she would feel the jealousy coming off the other girls when they noticed how often Xander glanced her way, but it had ceased to bother her. Their jealousy paled in comparison to the weight of everything else Savannah was feeling. She stopped walking as her mind reeled back to the first day she had met Xander, the day he had taken her to the lake.

  It clicked that perhaps the lake he had taken her to was the lake in the book she had read in school that day. Savannah knew it was not true. She also knew she was searching for an answer that simply wasn’t there, but she didn’t care. She turned from the road and moved into the trees, determined to find the lake again.

  The truth was she simply wanted to be comforted, and since she couldn’t turn to anyone, she decided to seek solace in the one place she felt was hers and Xander’s alone. She moved through the trees, trying to remember the trail that Xander had taken her through.

  An hour later, Savannah had to face the fact that she was completely and totally lost. She turned three hundred and six
ty degrees, and nothing around her was familiar in the least. The scent of the air around her was clear and fresh, but she could pick up the number of wild animals hiding in the trees around her. A part of her knew it wasn't safe for her there, but she was past caring.

  That was when she smelt it. It was subtle at first, but she was now so familiar with the scent that it took her only a moment to place it. She knew it wasn’t Xander, but she suspected it was one of the girls. She turned in the direction of the scent, and before she could try to figure out who it was, a man walked out of the forest from between two trees.

  He was tall, taller even than Xander. He had short blond hair with brown roots, and pale blue eyes that held little tinges of grey speckled throughout. He was bare-footed and naked to the waist. The only thing he had on was a pair of ripped shorts. He looked at Savannah with interest, his expression narrowing into a smile that made her supremely uncomfortable.

  “Hello, Savannah,” he said, as though they were long lost friends.

  “Who are you?” Savannah demanded.

  She knew from his aura that he was a wolf shifter, but there was something very wrong with what she was sensing. His aura was filled with greys and blacks, shadowy colors that sucked out the light and left nothing behind. She could sense power and control, but she could also sense a darker and more sinister nature lurking underneath.

  “Me?” he asked. “I would have thought you’d know.”

  Savannah wrinkled her brow in nervous confusion and it dawned on her almost instantly. As was the case so many times in the past, she had sensed the truth beneath his bright aura, but she had never concentrated hard enough to uncover what it meant.

  “You’re…Xander’s half-brother,” she whispered.

  His smile grew wider, even as his eyes narrowed. “So, he did mention me,” Dominic Wilson said. “I’m touched.”

  “And I’m leaving,” Savannah said.

  “You’re staying right where you are,” Dominic said instantly, freezing Savannah in place, terrified by the threatening conviction in his tone.

  “What do you want from me?” Savannah asked, trying to keep the fear from her voice.

  “All my life I’ve wanted things I couldn’t have,” Dominic said, ignoring her question. “And the reason I couldn’t have them was because everything I wanted belonged to Xander. I was the older one, I was the first born, and yet he…got…everything.”

  “He didn’t ask for it.”

  Dominic shrugged. “Irrelevant.”

  “So you’re here now because…”

  “Because for the first time in my whole life, I have the opportunity to possess something Xander can’t have,” Dominic said slowly. “It’s almost poetic, really.”

  “What are you talking about?” Savannah demanded, backing away from him slowly.

  “I’m talking about you, Savannah,” Dominic replied as he took a step toward her.

  “What makes you think I want anything to do with you?” Savannah demanded, fear creeping up her throat.

  Dominic laughed. “Oh, don’t mistake my intentions, Savannah, my only interest in you stems from my little brother’s love for you. Can you imagine how upset, how angry he will be when he discovers that I have had the girl he loves?”

  Savannah felt her body grow cold and she had to remind herself to breathe. “Are you insane?” she asked. “You can’t do this.”

  “Watch me,” he said after a heartbeat of silence.

  Savannah felt her fear hurtle up toward her throat like a building avalanche. She suppressed a scream, and bolted for the trees. Her head start didn’t make even the tiniest of differences. He caught her before she had a chance to get away and pushed her down onto the muddy forest floor. When she hit the ground, Savannah saw a vision flash across her eyes. She saw herself standing in front of three people in long grey cloaks. They were looking at her with accusation, and she felt the fear of her vision merge with the fear she was already feeling.

  Dominic grabbed her by the torso and spun her around, so he was standing over her, looking down at her with sadistic glee in his eyes. She struggled under his grasp, but he was too strong. Dominic lowered himself on top of her and Savannah screamed, but she could hear no sound coming from herself as he forced her mouth shut with his hand and pulled her legs apart.

  “No,” Savannah said, unsure if she was saying the words out loud, or if they were all in her head. “This can’t be happening! No, no, no!”

  And then it was no longer happening. One moment Dominic was straddling her painfully, and the next she was freed from his weight and it was easier to breathe. She also realized she could no longer hear anything.

  She stayed where she was, her eyes trained on the sky above her. She had lost her hearing aid. It had fallen out when she was struggling with Dominic. She wondered if perhaps she was really dreaming. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to decide if she was awake or asleep, then she felt something touch her hand, and she felt her stomach turn in fear.

  It was not a dream, this was really happening, and Dominic was about to rape her, and leave her for dead. What was strange was that he was touching her gently. She wanted to open her eyes, but she was scared to.

  And then she smelt it, another scent, different from Dominic’s, but all too familiar.

  She opened her eyes to find she was staring into Xander’s soft grey ones. She gasped out his name, though she still could not hear herself speak. She bolted upright into a sitting position, and fell into Xander’s waiting arms. He looked worried, but he also looked relieved. He looked at her again and spoke. Savannah focused her eyes on his lips.

  “Are you all right?”

  Savannah nodded. “I think so,” she signed to him.

  He stared at her in confusion and shook his head. “I can’t understand you, Savannah,” he responded.

  Savannah looked around her and noticed the white earpiece of her hearing aid half hidden among the grit and dirt of the forest. She pointed to it, and Xander retrieved it, and helped her fit it back on. Almost instantly, Savannah felt a flush of sound fill her ears, though it was somewhat muted, and she was getting more sound in her left ear than she was getting on the right; she suspected it might have been damaged in the scuffle.

  “Savannah?” Xander’s voice was so beautiful to hear.

  “Where is he?” Savannah asked, hearing her own voice at last.

  “Gone,” Xander replied. “For the moment--”

  “You got rid of him?”

  “I… pulled him off you.” Xander nodded. “But I couldn’t fight him. I was too worried about you.”

  “But then how…”

  “The boys were with me,” Xander explained. “They took him on, but he knew he was outnumbered, so he ran. They went after him. Did he hurt you?”

  “He almost did.” Savannah nodded, feeling a little light headed.

  “Come on,” Xander said, putting an arm around her and lifting her easily to her feet. “Let’s head to the cabin. You’ll be safe there.”

  Xander half carried her to the cabin. As soon as they were inside, Xander locked the doors and turned to Savannah. “Is there anything I can get you?” he asked. “Anything you need?”

  “I want to shower,” Savannah said. She wanted to erase the feel of Dominic’s hands on her body. She could still feel the weight of him on top of her.

  “Of course.” Xander nodded and led her to a little room with an attached bathroom. “There are towels in the bottom drawer, but the water will be cold.”

  “That’s okay,” Savannah said. “I don’t mind.”

  Xander turned to leave and give her some privacy, but Savannah grabbed him by the arm before he could go. “No,” she said. “Stay with me.”

  He turned around slowly and saw a spark of hesitation in his eyes, but it was eclipsed by his desire. Savannah knew this would only make it harder for them later, but at the moment she didn’t care. She needed him now to erase the pain and fear she had just experienced, and she
knew he wouldn’t be able to deny her.

  Xander moved toward the bathtub and filled it with water. Slowly, Savannah began to remove her clothes. When Xander turned back to her she was naked. He glanced at her body for only an instant, and then averted his eyes. He helped Savannah into the bathtub, and then knelt down beside the tub and scrubbed her gently.

  “He wanted to rape me to hurt you,” Savannah said after a moment.

  “He hates me,” Xander said. “He knew that hurting you would be the surest way to destroy me.”

  Savannah shivered, but it wasn’t because of the cold water. “I can’t believe that he would do something so deplorable.”

  “People are capable of all sorts of deplorable things,” Xander said, running a soft sponge along Savannah’s arched spine.

  “I think I discovered something about myself today,” Savannah admitted as the thought came to her, out of the blue.

  “Tell me.”

  “I lost my hearing aid around the time Dominic grabbed me, and threw me to the ground, and almost immediately afterwards, I had another vision.”

  “You’ve had them before, haven’t you?” Xander asked. “With your hearing aid on?”

  “Yes.” Savannah nodded. “But the visions aren’t clear. They’re so fast I can barely understand them, but they were clearer without the hearing aid.”

  “What did you see?”

  Savannah smiled. “The vision was clear, but I still don’t know what it meant. I was standing in front of three people--”

  “That’s all?”

  Savannah nodded. “That’s all. But who knows? Maybe I’m just as special as you are.”

  Xander smiled. “You already are.”

  “I can’t turn into a wolf.”

  “Then you’re the luckier one.”

  “You love being a wolf,” Savannah said.

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Xander,” Savannah said gently, “you forget my other gift: I can sense things from people, and the better I know them the easier it is for me to read them. I know you love it; I can sense it.”