Tiger Tail: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  “Of course not,” Marissa said immediately. “No one needs to die. As long as you are prepared to move your allegiance moves to Dominic and I, then you will all be welcomed into our pack.”

  “And what if no one is willing to change allegiances?” Zanna asked, stepping forward.

  “You have to,” Marissa said. Savannah saw wild fear pass through her eyes as she considered the possibility the pack might choose to die fighting than submit to Dominic’s rule.

  Principal Harris stepped forward. She looked hard at her daughter. “You have made a mistake, Marissa,” she said, her voice low with pain. “You acted impulsively because you were hurt, but you didn’t stop to think it through. You thought the pack would change loyalties if they were faced with death, but you thought wrong. We would rather die than accept Dominic’s authority here.”

  Marissa’s eyes filled with panic as she stared at her mother. Marissa gasped. “Don’t say that.” She took a step forward. Dominic reached out to hold her back. “Please,” Marissa pleaded, “don’t say that!”

  “Looks like the decision has been made, Marissa,” Dominic said, a confident smile playing on his face. “Time to say goodbye.”

  “No!” Marissa screamed. “I will not hurt any of them.”

  Dominic’s eyes narrowed. “Then it was a foolish mistake to partner with me, but it's too late now.”

  “No, it’s not,” Xander said, stepping forward. “Marissa can choose to break ties with you.”

  Dominic nodded. “She can, but that won’t change much. She's still created the bridge that's allowed us into Grey Mountain, and we can still challenge you for this land.”

  “But you won’t win,” Xander said matching his half-brother's confidence.

  Dominic laughed. “I beg to differ.” He changed his gaze so that it fell onto the trees a short distance from where the packs stood. “Welcome, Abel.”

  Savannah felt her body grow cold when she heard the friendly way Dominic had greeted Abel. She stared at the line of trees as Abel emerged. His brown-gold eyes glittered in the sun as he approached them to stand between the packs.

  A hiss went through the root pack, and a few of the boys actually bared their teeth. Xander’s eyes narrowed. When he finally spoke, his tone was cold and quiet.

  “This is not your territory,” Xander said, full of venom.

  “How is it possible you're even here?” Elvira asked.

  Abel smiled politely at her. “I'm here because of my dear friend.”

  “Dominic?” Elvira asked, confused.

  “No.” Abel shook his head. “Savannah.”

  Savannah felt the gaze of everyone in the clearing turn toward her, and she wished for the ground beneath her to open up and swallow her whole.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Abel,” Savannah said, her voice shaky with horror. “What did you do?”

  “It’s not what I did,” he said calmly. “It’s what you did.”

  “I came to you for help,” Savannah said desperately. “I came to you because I didn’t have options.”

  Abel turned his calm smile on Xander. “I suppose I have you and your pack to thank for that. Prey is usually caught through isolation and you lot did a great job of pushing Savannah out.”

  Savannah felt the burn in the pit of her stomach. “What was that potion you gave me?” she demanded, trying not to clutch her stomach.

  “Do you know what the real problem with isolation is?” Abel asked. “It's that you have no one around you to help or advise you, no one there to explain things to you or to teach you.”

  “What did you do to me?” Savannah gasped as pain shot through her stomach.

  “I took a page from the history books,” Abel said simply.

  Savannah looked toward Xander and saw the devastation in his eyes. “You remember the legend of Kato and Alais?” Xander asked softly.

  “Yes?”

  “The history of their story is incomplete,” Xander explained. “The books detail the part where Kato and Alais employ the witches help Alais take on a wolf’s form, but the price of that help was that they could never leave Grey Mountain.”

  “I know the story--”

  Xander shook his head. “You know the story that's been written down, but that's not the whole story.

  "The witch tricked Alais and Kato. Not only were they tied to Grey Mountain forever, they were also under her control.”

  “You mean…”

  “The witch had complete power over them,” Xander said in a hushed voice. “She could make them do whatever she wanted.”

  Savannah stared at Xander without really seeing him, the words, what have I done? repeating in her mind. When she looked back up her eyes fell onto Abel. “So that means the potion you gave me…”

  “It wasn’t a protection spell,” Abel said, calmer than the situation would seem to warrant. “It was a spell that allows me to control you and the rest of your pack.”

  “How can it control the rest of the pack?” Savannah demanded scrambling to understand.

  “Because a pack is connected by bond,” Abel said. “You are carrying the future alpha in your belly, which means that you are the source.”

  “Oh God,” Savannah gasped feeling her knees buckle.

  Abel opened his coat and drew out a blade gleaming with the promise of a thousand colors. It shone for a moment and then it turned a nearly colorless silver-white. “Oh, God,” Savannah said, “an imbibing blade.”

  Abel’s smile went deeper. “You see how much she knows, Xander?” he asked sounding a little too familiar. “It's because she was taught. I was the one to teach her about imbibing blades." He turned to Savannah and said, "Now it's time to finish the lesson, Savannah, with a demonstration of its power.”

  He reached into his coat and withdrew a small vial, much like the one he'd handed Savannah when he gave her the potion. He pulled the tiny stopper out with his teeth and raised the bottle in his hand for all to see.

  “I didn’t teach you about potions, did I, Savannah?” Abel asked conversationally. “If I had taught you the art of potion-making then you would have known something was not right, and you would have known not to trust me. But then again, you weren't taught, were you?. Do you want to know what this potion does?”

  “Yes,” Savannah said breathlessly.

  “This potion will kill every elder in your precious pack while retaining their knowledge and their skill, so it may be used at a later date.”

  Xander turned to Dominic with fury in his eyes. “You're a fool if you believe he's your ally,” Xander said angrily. “He has aligned himself with you now only because he can use you. Do you really think he won’t betray you once he has power?”

  Dominic smirked at Xander. “He cannot control me or my pack--Savannah’s connection is to you and your pack alone."

  “He has magic,” Malick spat as he came forward, “and he will use it against you.”

  “I am no fool,” Dominic said calmly. “I have made sure my pack and I are protected in all this. The only fool here is my dear brother."

  To Xander he said, "You refused to step down and give me my land and my rightful pack, and then you chose a weak and ignorant human who enslaved you all without even realizing it as your mate.”

  Savannah heard Xander’s jaw grind together, and the burn in her stomach and the growing feeling of discomfort she sensed from Xander’s pack had her attention.

  “What’s happening?” She shivered as she spoke. “Something's happening.”

  Abel focused his brown-gold eyes on her. “What you're feeling, Savannah, is the potion spreading. It will infect every part of you, and once it travels to your womb it will infect your child. Once that happens, the whole pack will be under my control.”

  Savannah felt the urge to rip the alien substance straight from her veins. She knew Abel had well and truly betrayed her and there was no way out of this.

  “How could you do this?” Savannah exclaimed with sorrow. “I truste
d you.”

  “You were a fool to trust me,” Abel said without feeling.

  “I should have listened,” Savannah said weakly. “I should have listened when everyone told me that witches were not to be trusted.”

  “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” Abel said. “You should have been taught, but your partner and your pack isolated you. You were desperate and alone, and that makes for easy prey.”

  Savannah felt Xander slip his hand into hers and squeeze it slowly a moment later. Savannah didn’t dare look at him because she knew that if she did she would break. She felt the poison spreading and she knew there was nothing she could do about it.

  “Now,” Abel said enthusiastically, “I think that’s enough talk for one day—time to set things in motion.”

  Abel tipped the contents of the vial onto the silver-white blade of the dagger which instantly turned a rich, fiery red that seemed to exude heat. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” Abel said, looking at the imbibing blade with fondness. “Now, it’s time to take what I need.”

  “Wait,” Dominic said, stepping forward. "Does it matter who uses the blade?"

  Abel cocked his head to the side. “No.”

  “Good,” Dominic said with a small smile. “Then I think there's someone here who needs to prove herself.” He slowly turned his gaze on Marissa.

  “No,” Marissa said, shaking her head. She took a step back.

  Dominic reached out, grabbed her by the arm, and pulled her violently toward him. “You're the one that came to me.”

  “You told me you would spare them,” Marissa said.

  “If they joined me,” Dominic said. “If they bent to my will--which they did not.”

  “No,” Marissa pleaded. “They're my family.”

  “No, they’re not,” Dominic replied coldly. “If they truly were your family, you never would have betrayed them in the first place.”

  “I only did it because–"

  “You wanted to hurt Xander like he hurt you,” Dominic interrupted. “But you didn’t think things through, did you? You made a choice, and now it's time you stand by it.”

  Dominic turned to Abel who stretched out his hand and passed the blade to Dominic. Marissa looked at her mother helplessly, as though she were silently begging for help.

  It happened all at once. Savannah felt a flash of pain scream through her body. This was followed by Xander and his entire pack screaming in pain, their bodies bent over as though they were being electrocuted. Savannah looked around her helplessly, her eyes meeting Marissa’s for a moment.

  “What’s happening?” Savannah gasped, dropping to her knees beside Xander.

  “The poison in your body is spreading,” Abel said calmly. “Its hold is extending to the rest of the pack. That's what they're feeling now, the loss of their autonomy, the destruction of their free will.”

  “No!” Savannah begged. “This has to stop.”

  “There's no stopping this,” Dominic said calmly as the rest of his pack watched on, half horrified, and half amazed.

  Dominic held the blade out to Marissa. She stared at it in disgust, shaking her head. “I will never use that on my pack.”

  “The only pack you belong to anymore is the one standing behind you,” Dominic reminded her threateningly. “It's time you embraced that and put an end to the pack kneeling in front of you.”

  Savannah looked around her in desperation. She could see the nightmare unfolding in front of her, felt Xander's body shivering uncontrollably beside here, and she was powerless to do anything about it. His pack was halfway gone and she was the only one left. Savannah glanced up and her eyes met Marissa’s once more.

  There was fear in Marissa’s aura. Savannah sensed nothing there but fear, pain, and sorrow. She was looking for a way out, too, a way to reverse every action she'd made in the past week, as was Savannah.

  “Take the damn blade!” Dominic said, his voice rising in anger.

  He forced it into Marissa’s hand but she was shaking so hard she dropped it. The blade fell mere feet away from the glistening water of the lake, its bright red sheen disrupted by a bolt of silver-blue streaming across it.

  And then it hit Savannah. It was entirely possible that the legends about the lake were as true as the legends about Alais and Kato, which meant the waters were healing, just like Xander had told her. The waters had the ability to save lives and make magic, magic that was good and strong and enabling. Savannah knew the lake was their last hope.

  “Pick it up.” Dominic’s voice echoed through the clearing. “Pick it up now, or be the first to die.”

  Savannah didn’t know what was driving her instincts, but she knew they were all she had left. She pulled out her hearing aid and the world went instantly silent and still as the night. Though Savannah couldn't hear a sound, the world seemed to open up a little, as if by magic. She closed her eyes in the next breath and her world seemed to expand a little more.

  She felt the rustle of movement next to her and knew, instinctively, that it was Xander. Savannah held up her hand and the movement ceased, seeming to edge further away from her. Blind and deaf, Savannah concentrated on Marissa’s bright and terrified aura echoing with fear, with which she was able to perfectly relate. She reached out, and a part of her could almost feel that delicate aura.

  “Marissa,” Savannah sent her thoughts in waves, desperate to connect with the girl she'd thought would be her murderer. “Marissa, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I really, really need you to.”

  There was a strange bristle from Marissa’s aura, as though Savannah’s thoughts had been transmitted and reached their target through sheer force of will.

  “Pick up the dagger. Pick up the dagger and plunge it into the lake. The blade will absorb the lake’s water. Then, come toward me. Come toward me and…stab me in the chest.”

  Savannah kept repeating the words, unsure if she was imagining the connection between Marissa and herself, or if she was just desperate and delusional. Unable to keep her eyes closed, Savannah opened them a fraction, just in time to see Marissa’s unsteady hand reach out and pick the imbibing blade up.

  Savannah could see in Marissa’s eyes that she'd heard the message through her aura, and that she'd listened. Savannah straightened up and took a step toward Abel and Dominic, who were staring at Marissa in satisfaction.

  “That’s right,” Savannah, read Dominic’s lips as it formed the words she could not hear. “Pick it up and walk over to your mother.”

  Savannah moved closer to Principal Harris who was on her knees next to Malick, staring at her daughter in desperation, her eyes shrouded in misery and pain. Marissa held the blade uncertainly in her hand. She glanced at Savannah for a split second before looking toward Abel and Dominic.

  “Do it,” Savannah read Abel’s lips. “Do it now or die.”

  Marissa turned back to her mother but her eyes were on Savannah. She took a tentative step forward and then another, and then another.

  “Yes, that’s right,” Dominic encouraged. “Do as you’re told.”

  Marissa started walking faster and Savannah could see the resolve on her face. She was inches from her mother when Marissa veered suddenly right, and plunged the dagger into the clear waters of the lake, as if she were cracking through solid ice. There was an abnormal ripple. The dagger glowed hot. As fast as the red drained from its blade it was replaced with a warm, yet icy blue.

  Marissa didn’t hesitate as she pulled the dagger from the water, turned around, took one leaping step forward, and plunged the dagger straight into Savannah’s chest.

  The moment the blade made contact with Savannah’s skin she experienced a strange explosion of sorts, but it felt as if it were happening inside of her, and she was thrown back with a blast of light, the burn in her stomach was instantly extinguished, and she registered blue sky and silver clouds before her world went black.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The first thing Savannah became aware of was the shape and feel of X
ander’s hand ensconced in her own. She opened her eyes slowly to see Xander’s face hanging over hers in concern. He looked the same, except for a long scar that snaked from just below his eye almost down to his chin.

  “Savannah,” Xander said, but she was unable to hear the sound of his voice.

  She sat up slowly, with Xander's help. A moment later he handed her the hearing aid she'd taken out in the clearing. She looked around and realized they were in a bedroom in Xander’s family's cabin.

  “Savannah,” Xander said again, and this time was able to hear him.“The scar,” Savannah said. She reaching out to touch it.

  “It’s only a surface wound,” Xander insisted, brushing aside his concern. “How are you feeling?”

  “Tell me what happened,” Savannah insisted, ignoring his question. “What happened after Marissa stabbed me?”

  “It broke whatever hold Abel had on us,” Xander said. “The pain, the loss of control we were all feeling--it just disappeared, and we were ourselves again.”

  “Savannah…”

  Savannah turned her head to the door at the sound of the soft voice. Marissa’s blue eyes were subtle and calm and she no longer looked angry or scared, and her aura was calmer and more controlled than Savannah had ever experienced. She edged into the room looking as though she would rather be anywhere else.

  “Hello, Marissa,” Savannah said.

  “Was it you?” Marissa asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Marissa claimed that she just…knew what to do,” Xander said, sounding baffled, as if he didn’t quite understand what had happened.

  “I was completely lost,” Marissa said. “I had no idea what to do. Just as I thought it was all over, suddenly I knew what to do. It was like there was a voice in my head guiding me, but it wasn’t a voice so much as a feeling.”

  “You didn’t hear me speak to you?” Savannah asked.

  Marissa's face lit up with realization. “It was you.”

  “It was,” Savannah said, nodding. “I've always been sensitive to other people’s auras, but this was the first time I ever tried communicating with anyone. I thought you might have heard me.”