by Aubrey Rose
Prettier than I expected, but definitely had Denali's overwhelming, showy vibe. I suppressed a shudder, expecting it to be over with this thing on my finger, but he held on.
“Wear it proudly. Good reminder to everybody you're my wife.” He smiled and I almost turned to stone.
But I really lost my breath when he pulled my hand toward his lips. We locked eyes, and he held my gaze, daring me to fret or scream. Behind me, I could practically feel Daddy turning red as a firecracker, or else biting his tongue.
James dipped his big head, planting his hot, firm, and dangerous lips on the back of my hand. His tongue flicked out for a micro-second, just long enough to taste, and to let me know that he'd done it.
The laughter and jeers fell silent. James held on, deepening the fire he breathed into my shaking hand, until the priest cleared his throat.
“It's done, sir. You're free to take her home.”
James broke the kiss and looked at the man in the robes between us. “Thanks. I'll do that.”
My jaw was still hanging halfway to the floor. Without releasing my hand, he pulled me closer, and then made a direct line down the long carpet I'd just walked with my father to be handed over to him.
The badass in the suit was practically towing me behind him, and I had to pump my knees quickly to keep up. We branched off in the hall, not even stopping to shake hands or pause for photos.
They would've been for history and gossip anyway. Not for real memories we could cherish.
Before I knew it, he tugged me into the waiting car at the bottom of the stairs. James yanked the door shut after I was in, shoving me up against his lap, and the bear in the driver's seat floored it.
His hands were still wrapped around my waist. I stared out the window in horror as the quaint seaside town I'd known my whole life became a disappearing dot. We were heading straight for Denali territory now, into the bear's world and the great unknown.
I twisted to face him and slapped at his hands. “Hey, grizzly paws! The wedding's over! We don't have to keep up this act...”
Smiling, he clenched his hands around me tighter. When he saw the panic emerge behind the fury in my eyes, he eased up, but only a little.
“You...you know this is just for appearances, right? Daddy told me he cleared all this with the bears before he handed me over.”
Gods, what if there was some mix up and he doesn't know? What if my father made darker promises? He wouldn't do that to me...would he?
Both possibilities felt so real and grim I nearly clawed at the handle, ready to jump out the moving car as it lumbered through the dense Alaskan forest. I'd take my chances in the wild.
Sure, I'd always been a sheltered tigress, but hunting and survival was in the blood. I could make it if I had to, even among all these bears.
“Baby, I know exactly what this is,” he said, never shaking his damnably charming smile. “Just because we're forced together doesn't mean we can't learn to like each other. Doesn't look like you really want these hands off you very much either.”
I gritted my teeth and gulped. He was an observant sonofabitch. My body tightened and warmed in his embrace. At some base level, he must've sensed the betrayal in my flesh.
The bears senses were sharp for such overgrown monsters.
“It's cold in here,” I said pathetically. Had to offer some excuse, however weak, though it really was pretty frigid in the back of the car.
“Heater's out. This was the best vehicle the clan could send to the wedding too. We bears do pretty well, but we're more concerned with family and hard work than glamor and riches. That's for Tiger Bay.”
I rolled my eyes. Another thing I hadn't thought about. Just what kind of backwater was I off to?
“Don't worry. It's just another half hour or so to my cabin. I'll get a good fire going that'll keep you warm one way or another.”
I looked at him and narrowed my eyes. “And then what happens?”
James smiled wider, showing his teeth. They were big, polished, and perfect, just like the rest of him. One more compliment to a look that was hard to resist until I reminded myself he was a grizzly shifter.
“Then you're gonna stop rolling your eyes at me, enjoy some wine, and act like a decent human being. You'll have your own bathroom and a separate bedroom. Already arranged for you. Unless you'd prefer closer quarters. I'd be fucking happy to dance up close with a tiger.”
I wrinkled my nose at the lewd idea. Gods, mating with a man this size would probably do serious damage.
Every part of me screamed out in defiance, revolted, offended by his very being. Or that's what I tried to tell myself as a sinister heat flared in my core, feeding the unwelcome ache between my legs.
I shook my head gently to myself, trying to make it stop.
Crap. I hadn't counted on this at all.
I expected calling this bear husband and putting up with his barbaric manners would've been the worst of it. I never thought it would be my own body and mind unraveling in his powerful arms.
“Dig in. You look like you need to get your strength up after all the bullshit today. This meat's a big part of why we're hitched, after all.” James accented his words by stabbing the caribou steak on his plate with his fork.
I wasn't feeling hungry. I sliced off the corner of my steak and held it up, pouting because he'd actually made a good point. Just not one I wanted to acknowledge.
“Daddy said it's about keeping the peace and preventing bloodshed,” I said coldly. “I think that's worth more than some stupid hunting rights.”
James shook his head. “Then he told you wrong. Yeah, saving lives is one thing. But the real bone between tigers and bears has always been about hunting and fishing. Wood too, now that your town's burned up all its forests trying to be like a human village. Our clans have been neighbors since the thirties. The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
“You mean ever since bears muscled their way into tiger country? I know my history too.”
He dropped his fork and laughed. I winced a little at the deep, throaty sound, and again when my stomach growled. I forced the bite into my mouth, treating it more as pain relief than succulent food.
He wasn't a bad cook by any means. If he weren't a grizzly Alpha breathing down my neck, then maybe I could've enjoyed it.
“Is that what he told you?” James folded his hands and leaned forward. “Listen, baby, I don't know where you tigers get off thinking you own Alaska. Grizzly shifters have been here since your forefathers were saber toothed killers. When my clan set up in Denali, there was nobody on our turf.”
“Not true!” I said with a huff. “Tiger Bay was founded in the seventeenth century before any human eyes laid eyes on it. The mountain range protected us from the natives, and we built our town long before any fur trappers came over from Siberia or Canada.”
“Very good. I must've been sick that day in class.” He nodded, looking strangely pleased. Then his tone darkened. “Truth is, history's ghosts never much appealed to me. I'm more concerned about the fucking present.”
“Sure you are.” I shoved another bite of caribou meat into my mouth and chewed angrily.
Gods, what was this big, mean, and very blunt bear doing to me?
I didn't normally act like this much of a bitch. By some wicked magic I couldn't sink my claws in, he was bringing out the best and worst in me.
Simultaneously too. Crap.
Keep it together. Just like Daddy asked. This is for Tiger Bay.
“Your people ought to be glad bears showed up when we did. Saved you from taking on a lot of losses when we had our spat with the humans. Things weren't always as peaceful in the days before we had treaties with the Feds, you know.”
“Now who's giving the history lesson?” I said, narrowing my eyes.
“Better close your pretty mouth around that dinner, beautiful. In this household, we enjoy our dinner without the sass and always clean our plates. Best way to stay healthy and happy.” H
e took a big bite to underscore his point.
I dropped my fork and fumed, watching anxiously as his masculine jaw worked at his dinner, and then drew it down his throat. My stomach prickled with hunger, now more intense thanks to this bear detonating emotional dynamite in my belly.
I looked down and focused on my meat and veggies. Yeah, the bears might be brutes, but they could cook, all right.
The cuisine he served was a pleasant change from what I'd grown up with.
Tigers hunted, fished, and ate their annual truckload of meat, the same as the grizzlies. But we liked it raw while the bears added some spice. Whatever the heck he'd added did tricks on my tongue, and soon I really dug in, forgetting about how exposed I looked eating in front of him.
Pretty rare for me. Back home, I worried about looking like a glutton during dinners out. Everybody secretly wanted to judge your eating habits when you carried a few extra pounds.
“I'm glad you're finally enjoying yourself, Laura.” He said my name and I looked up. “You deserve a little happiness on your wedding day. Might as well make this fun for both of us.”
With just a few bites left, I lost it. The chair screeched on the floor as I jerked back, throwing my cloth on the plate.
“That's it!” I stood up. “You keep acting like I'm really yours, James, but I'm not. Stop teasing me! I know it's a big joke. I don't need you to ram it home even more. I'm not your mate, not your lawfully wedded wife, and I'm sure as hell not your friend. I'm here to do my job and pretend this whole thing isn't an unnatural offense to the gods.”
The amused glow on his face melted. The stern and dark look I'd first seen at the altar was back, a hot glare so intense it had caused me to faint.
“If that's the way you really want it. You're lucky this cabin's plenty big to pretend I don't exist. Take the whole bottom floor if you need to. I'll stay out of your fucking way, beautiful.”
“I'm not beautiful either!” I said, balling fists at my sides. “Stop patronizing me. Don't you have a female you can take as a mistress on the side? What kind of Denali man wants an overweight tigress who just happens to have a father forcing a ring on her finger?”
The shadow on his face turned another shade darker. He looked like he was holding in a seething storm – or else the urge to bite somebody's face off – and for a second I fearfully regretted my words.
He got up, took the bottle of wine I hadn't bothered enjoying with him, and brushed past me.
“Turn in whenever you want, or don't for all I care. I'll make sure you get my schedule tomorrow so you can have the kitchen and library to yourself when I'm not around, your highness. Don't need to get in anybody's fucking way who doesn't want me there.”
A growl trailed the bitter words in his mouth. I watched his big, broad shoulders bob down the hall, and then he disappeared into a dark room. The door slammed so hard behind him the whole house shook.
I was left alone in his spacious, simple cabin. I grabbed my untouched glass of wine and quickly sucked it down.
Anything to thaw the uneasy frost in my belly helped just now.
But the wine didn't go nearly far enough. Damn, why hadn't I snatched that bottle out of his hands?
I quietly stepped downstairs, opening my ears for any sign of movement from above. Part of me feared he'd come storming out, ready to exact revenge, rather than the weird passive-aggression I hadn't expected.
How could he flip so fast?
One minute he'd been friendly, playful, teasing in his own big barbaric grizzly way. The next, he treated me like a little brat.
I hadn't expected that. Even if I actually deserved it.
I had the urge to cry, to scream, to run out into the early Spring snow and shift. Finding my head in the woods would've been good.
My tiger paced angrily inside me. She wanted to taste blood, something savory and sweet to take her mind off the beast who'd imprisoned us both.
The bottom floor was like an apartment. It had a couple sleeping rooms, a bathroom, and a small area with books and a TV. Wasn't anything like the fine décor and literary classics I'd grown up with at Daddy's house, but it would do.
I lit the fireplace and sat in front of it, staring into the dull orange waves.
“Crap. This is really my life now...for the next month, anyway...”
Daddy's plan popped in my head. Thinking about tiger troops marching into Denali and chasing the bears away forever should've been a comfort. Instead, it just twisted my stomach more, upping the anxiety suffocating me inside-out.
I laughed. This whole thing was ridiculous.
The wine began buzzing comfortably around my brain. I'd always been a total lightweight. My inner tigress furrowed her lips and snarled at the horizon, just as deliciously drunk and confused as me.
Clutching the soft cushions beneath me, I kicked my legs. Orange and black hairs bristled on my skin. I felt my teeth grow sharper, and the delicate fingernails lengthened, becoming claws.
The tiger didn't feel safe here. She needed to make a nest, to hunker down until she got her bearings.
I was halfway through shredding long cuts in the leather seat when I jerked to a stop. Watching my reflection in glass cover over the fire, the predatory slit in my eyes disappeared, and then the rest of my wild features receded.
Embarrassed, I moved and flipped the cushion over, hiding the damage.
Great. That big dumb bear upstairs hasn't just pissed me off and insulted me. He's made me feel guilty on top of it...
I thought about home, my father, his grand scheme using me as a Trojan horse. Or Trojan tiger, maybe?
If this is what it took to serve my people, then I hoped this sacrifice would be plenty. I wondered if I was cut out for leadership and self-sacrifice like Daddy. Somehow, I doubted it.
I laid down and rolled toward the fire, staring into its depths, and seeing all my brutal imperfections steaming there.
It wasn't really James' fault that he was a brutal bear who'd been forced to marry me. I just hated him for making all this so hard.
More importantly, I hated myself.
Staring into the flames too long produced a tear. Being an Alpha's daughter always carried responsibilities.
Just then, I wished I could give it all away and push the burden onto someone else.
It was one thing to be trapped in a sham marriage with a man who was hot and rugged and totally untouchable. But it was another to realize my whole damned life was one big tiger trap.
I didn't see a happy ending, even if every second of Daddy's plan went perfectly.
II: The Art of Taming Tigers (James)
Where the fuck does she get off?
I was staring at the woods near dawn, taking my morning walk like always. My bear was extra pissed today because I'd barely slept a single wink.
The red hot wildcat snoozing in my basement had sunk her claws into me last night. I hadn't expected her to be so damned fierce, ungrateful, and frigid.
Yeah, these stupid marriages between tigers and bears had been dumb traditions for several generations now. Lucky me for being an Alpha who was next in line to put up with a woman he couldn't fuck, let alone love.
The gods are cruel. It's all the worst parts of a marriage and none of the best.
The two unlucky couples who came before me had lived in separate houses, total strangers. They only appeared together at rare events back in the day, when the politicos in Tiger Bay or Denali wanted to convince the citizens all was well between us, or when we faced the Feds and pretended to have a united front.
Idiot. What gave you the balls to think you can undo decades of hatred between skinwalkers? You should've spelled out boundaries instead of trying to be her friend.
My bear rumbled angrily deep inside me.
I didn't want any fucking boundaries between us. Didn't much want to be her friend either. I wanted her in a way no sane bear ever should, much less an Alpha.
I snorted, stopping at the edge of my property where th
e forest began. I dropped my robe in the snow and fell to the ground naked, my grunts becoming an inhuman growl.
For a brief second, I was a mangled mess of flesh, bones, and fur, but then I got up on four big legs, in my primal state once again.
My bear had emerged. I was the biggest, baddest grizzly in all Denali. If I encountered anyone in the woods, human or bear state, they moved the fuck out of my way fast with nothing more than a respectful nod.
Being Alpha was supposed to be a ticket to the good life. So they said.
If that was true, then why the hell did I feel like complete shit stomping through the brush?
My human senses were normally duller when I let the bear come. Today, they were right there with the powerful sense of smell and enormous claws, taunting me whenever I thought about Laura.
And I thought about her constantly.
Another bear practically got the drop on me when I was deep in the woods. It was just after sunrise while I bowed to the stream for a drink. Hoped like hell the water would help put out the raging fire inside me, the need to unravel the curvy tigress at my cabin and make peace with her, however bitter.
The bear bleated behind me, announcing its presence. I spun, bowed up and ready to charge, but relaxed at the last second when I caught its familiar scent.
Hannah stepped behind the brush and shifted. She barely allowed the trees to cover her nakedness.
“Great Gods, James! You find a dead porcupine in your bed this morning or something? Thought you were really going to charge me.”
I dropped to the ground and shifted. When I stood up, wiping dirt off my knees, I saw a different kind of fascination in her eyes than concern about my attitude.
“None of your business. Long night. The wedding was yesterday. I'm sure you heard all about it.” I glared.
Unlike her, I didn't bother to cover up anything. An Alpha didn't need to.
Hell, there wasn't anything to hide anyway. I didn't get hard when I looked at her, and I didn't need to see her whole body to recognize all the telltale signs of arousal she had for me. Hannah was a looker, but she didn't have half the supple curves and bright eyes my new wife did.