She froze in the icy water, and stared at her list. Dark hair. Muscles. Tall. Tattoos. Take charge.
Vic. It was all Vic.
Damn it. She tossed the notebook and pen to the far end of the bathroom and sank into the tub, cheeks flushing with embarrassment. She supposed she could lie to others but not to herself. Did she really want Vic that badly? When had her appreciation for him turned to full-blown desire?
It was bad to want your alpha. Bad bad bad. It mucked up a relationship that she couldn’t afford to muck up. Things were awkward enough for her as one of the few females in the tiger clan. Mix in her liger heritage and things were already weird. Crushing on her alpha? Just made things even worse.
Her hand slid to her belly under the water, and she stared down at her naked body through the bubbles. She’d always thought she was pretty sexy, if it weren’t for the height thing. Would a guy like Vic find someone like her attractive? Estrella raised one long leg into the air, studying it. Her muscles were tight, her skin tanned. She had a good body. Average face, maybe, but a good body.
Now Vic, he had an amazing body. She pictured his big, muscular arms, rippling with tattoos, and a shiver of desire flashed through her. Her hand slid lower, to her sex.
It was just the heat that was making her so turned on, she told herself. Passing phase. Even so, she pictured Vic’s strong, muscular arms and her fingers slid between the lips of her sex, finding her clit. She was already aching with need; the heat gave her a hair-trigger reaction to anything sexual. A quick stroke of her fingers and she sucked in a breath. This…was not helping her ridiculous crush on Vic.
And yet. She couldn’t resist sliding her fingers over her clit again and then circling the sensitive bud with sudden, sure moves. The heat that was making her crazy unleashed like a hurricane, and within seconds, she was gasping through the waves of a powerful orgasm, her other hand clenching on the side of the tub, splashing water over the side with the force of her movements.
The force of it rocked her to her core. She’d had sex before. She’d definitely had orgasms. But never quite like that. All that for a few quick brushes of her fingers? Jeez. When she finally found the man to father her child, she was going to tear him apart.
That left out humans and smaller shifters for sure. Estrella sank deeper into the frigid waters. Her choices seemed to be narrowing by the minute.
BY THE TIME SHE finally got out of the tub, her apartment was a comfortable 42 degrees, her orgasm was a distant memory, and her skin was beginning to itch with desire again. Instead of sating the urge inside her, the furtive masturbation in the tub had only made things worse. As she toweled off her skin, she groaned every time the terry-cloth of the fabric brushed against her.
This was not going to work. She needed to burn off some energy. Best cure for that as a shifter was to either have lots of sweaty sex, or to shift and go for a run in animal form.
And since she couldn’t do anything about the former, the latter would have to do.
Estrella dressed as gingerly as possible and then grabbed her keys and phone, heading out of her apartment and to her car. There was a definite icy bite to the weather, the skies, overcast. The sun was just about to go down, dropping the temperature further, which would be welcome given her state of mind. She would love a cold snap.
Jumping into her car, she dialed Vic’s number as she drove.
“Everything okay?” he asked as soon as he picked up.
“Fine,” she said, then exhaled sharply. Had her nipples just hardened at the sound of his voice? Jesus. She was a mess. “I’m coming over for a run. Be there in five.”
“I’ll run with you,” he said, and hung up before she could protest.
Damn it. Bad enough that she had to call and let him know that she needed to run. As shifters that stood out like sore thumbs amongst the local wildlife, they didn’t have the freedoms that the badgers, the foxes, or even the were-cougars did. A normal person would probably panic if they saw a badger or a were-cougar. They’d certainly call the cops if they saw a tiger — and the media would go wild. One of the Barlows had the clever idea of a big cat rescue project as a cover for their clan. So, when they needed to run, they headed out to Little Paradise and Kenna Barlow’s farm. Kenna was Vic’s sister.
She parked in Kenna’s yard and didn’t bother to head in to introduce herself — Kenna was used to the tiger clan prowling around at all hours and wouldn’t bother to check on her. Instead, she glanced around for Vic’s car. No sign of it yet. Damn. She lifted the floor mat and tossed her keys and phone underneath it, then headed to the gate on the side of the farmhouse.
The need to shift into liger form was bristling through her skin. Vic wouldn’t like it if she took off on her run without him, especially after he’d told her that he was on his way. You didn’t piss off your alpha with stupid, passive-aggressive moves like that. Not if you valued your place in the clan. If there was one thing Estrella didn’t mess with, it was her tenuous spot in the clan.
Of course, nothing said she couldn’t go ahead and shift herself. It would probably be better, considering her nipples would stand at attention as soon as Vic came into view, and she’d probably start giving off the scent of a cat in heat. With those embarrassing thoughts flaring through her mind, she hastily stripped out of her clothing and tossed it into a pile near the barbed-wire fence. Then, she crouched low in the grass and waited for the transformation.
It came a few moments later, ripping through her with a force that was almost orgasmic. God, it felt good to switch to her liger form. Yawning, she lazily stretched her large paws out in front of her, arching her back. Her tail flicked back and forth. She smacked her chops a few times, the scents of the night more powerful now that she’d shifted, the lighting as clear as day despite the sun’s disappearance. The scents of the trees in the distance filled her nostrils, and she looked at them with longing, then sighed and flopped her large body to the ground, waiting.
Vic pulled up a few minutes later, just when her patience was reaching its breaking point. Good. Casually, she lifted a paw and began to wash it, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary as Vic entered the gate and then shut it behind him. He gave her an amused look. “Sorry I’m late.”
She ignored him, licking the pads of one foot as if it were the most fascinating thing ever. Her tail twitched.
“There was a cop behind me, so I had to go the speed limit all the way here,” he explained, then grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head, exposing rock-hard abs and more tattoos.
Estrella froze, mid-paw-lick. Okay. Okay. She could do this. She knew Vic had all those yummy tattoos and washboard abs. She’d seen him naked dozens of times. She’d seen every shifter in her clan naked dozens of times. So why was Vic’s delicious body driving her wild now? She dropped her paw, and her claws curled. She might have kneaded the grass with her claws a little while he stripped out of his jeans and tossed his clothing over hers.
Damn. She had to do something about this, she realized as he began to change.
Even when her heat was taken care of, this infatuation with Vic was going to continue to be a problem.
“IT’S EMBARRASSING,” ESTRELLA TOLD Jayde over coffee. “As soon as I see him, my kitty goes wild. And this time, I’m not referring to my liger.”
Jayde snorted and stirred her iced latte vigorously with her straw. Her bracelets jangled with her movements. “So did you tackle him in the woods and show him your wild side?”
Estrella sighed. “No. I ran like a chicken. Did my liger thing and avoided him as much as humanly possible.”
“Pathetic.”
“I know.”
“You should tell him you like him,” Jayde said. The tip of the straw disappeared between her bright pink lips, and she slurped loudly. Jayde was a good friend, but she didn’t know the meaning of low-key. Even now. They were having a quiet morning coffee between friends. Estrella was dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. Jayde wore a neon green
mini-dress with a ruffled hem and enough bracelets to make a jewelry store pause. Her long black hair was pulled up in a high ponytail. “You want him, right? Just tell him. I bet he’ll be flattered.”
“Or horrified,” Estrella said quietly, sipping her own iced coffee. She normally preferred her drink scalding, but, with the heat, the thought of putting anything warm in her system was repulsive. “I just don’t want anything to jeopardize my spot in the clan, Jayde. Bad enough that I’m an outsider. I don’t want to be that weird outsider who’s crushing on the alpha. I’ll never be able to look him in the eye again if he turns me down.”
“So who are you going to go with? The chauvinist asshole, the competitive asshole, or the pothead?”
Estrella buried her face in her hands. “I really hate that those are my only options.”
“So don’t have a baby. Get hot and bothered, get a date for the night, and then go on with your life.” Jayde shrugged. “It’s what I’d do. No time for a kid. I don’t know that were-jaguars are the most maternal anyhow. Maybe tigers aren’t either. Skip it this time.”
Not have the baby? But she’d spent the last week hyper-focused on the possibility of an upcoming child. Estrella touched her abdomen. “It’s weird, but I want this baby.”
“It’s not a baby yet.”
“No, but it’s a sure thing,” Estrella told her. “And what if I don’t go into heat again? I’ll have missed my chance to be a parent. The timing isn’t great, but the more I think about it, the more I want this.”
“Suit yourself.” Jayde sucked loudly on her straw, and then eyed her. “Which one of the three screams daddy material to you?”
“God. None of them.”
“Time to climb that alpha like a scratching post, then. I bet he’d make some pretty babies.”
Estrella grinned. “You are single minded, aren’t you?”
“That’s why we’re friends. I have the cojones to say things that you won’t admit to yourself.” Jayde winked and shook her cup, dislodging the ice at the bottom. “And I’m telling you, bag that alpha.”
Estrella bit her lip, pushing aside her iced coffee. It was leaving a sour taste in her mouth…either that, or it was nerves. “I wish it were that simple, Jayde. I—”
Her phone rang. Estrella frowned and glanced at the screen. Unlisted number. After a moment’s hesitation, she answered. “Hello?”
“Hi, may I speak to Estrella?” The chirpy voice on the other end was instantly recognizable. “This is Ryder.”
“Oh, hi Ryder. This is Estrella. Did you get my message?”
“I did,” Ryder cooed. “And I’m so glad you called me back! We did have someone mark you down on your card as interested.”
Jayde wiggled her eyebrows at Estrella encouragingly, her shifter senses able to pick up every word of the phone conversation. Estrella crossed her fingers. “Who was it?”
“Let me get out my notes.” On the other end of the phone, Estrella heard paper shuffle. “Ah, here we go. It was number six.”
“Which was…”
“Vic Barlow.”
Estrella’s mouth hung open. Across from her, Jayde did a fist pump in the air, making her bracelets crash like cymbals. “I…he did?”
“Yes. Should I contact him and let him know you’re interested?”
“I…no, no thank you.” Her voice came out a breathless squeak and she clicked the call off.
“What are you doing?” Jayde tried to grab the phone from Estrella. “This is perfect!”
“He only went to that dating — mating — thing because he was feeling protective of me. That’s probably why he put my name down.”
“Uh huh.” Jayde didn’t look convinced. “Couldn’t be that he wants to tap that ass?”
“He knows I’m going into heat. Why wouldn’t he say something?”
“An alpha skeeving on a chick in his clan? That probably wouldn’t go over well if he didn’t know you were interested. Talk about an abuse of power. My guess is that he’s being super careful.” She gave Estrella a knowing look and sipped from her iced latte again. “Has he ever given you any hints that he might want you for himself?”
“No, I don’t think so.” Bewildered, she thought back to their recent conversations. You’re the only one here worth having, ‘Strella.
She’d thought he was just being a nice alpha. Supportive. Like finding her other tiger males to consider.
And yet…he’d snapped a pencil when she’d told him she was going into heat. He’d looked so rattled.
Maybe…maybe this would work out after all. Estrella reached across the table and grabbed Jayde’s hand. “Should I do this?”
“Girl, I’ve been saying that all morning. Of course you should!”
“Then I need a plan.”
GOD, THIS WAS A bad idea. Jayde was a good friend, but a good planner she was not.
Estrella paced in the woods, dressed only in a thong and a lacy, sheer bra. The heat was burning through her, making her thighs — and other parts of her body — ache with need. Even though nightfall was approaching and the wind was picking up, with hints of snow and ice in the weather, she didn’t feel it. The heat was keeping her warm, elevating her body temperature to an almost feverish degree.
And heavens, she was horny.
Her fingers itched to touch herself, to relieve some of the pressure she was feeling, but she kept her hands clasped. Touching herself wouldn’t do any good — her biological urges would override any sense of relief and this torture would just keep going and going until she either passed through the heat in another day or so…
Or until she found a man to make her pregnant.
A visual of that whole ‘getting pregnant’ process flashed through her erotically-charged mind. Of Vic, looming over her, muscles straining and tight ass flexing as he pounded into her.
She whimpered, shaking her head to clear it.
Her cellphone rang. Jayde. Her purse and clothing were hanging on a low branch nearby, though they’d soon be snow-covered if something didn’t happen. The droplets were frosting her hair and turning the woods into a powdery white.
The plan was a simple one. Tell Vic that she’d been out running in her liger form and she’d gotten caught in some barbed wire. He’d come running to protect her — or possibly yell at her since she’d have theoretically gone out in cat form without his permission.
And then when he ran across her, he’d see her, oozing mating pheromones and dressed in sexy lingerie…and hopefully nature would take over. Problem solved.
She tapped her screen to answer the call. Before she even had a chance to say hello, Jayde’s voice rang through the air. “He’s coming and he’s seriously pissed, girl.”
Estrella winced, just imagining her large, often surly alpha angry at her. “Well, I suppose that’s not a surprise.”
“Maybe we should come up with a Plan B,” Jayde said thoughtfully.
“This was your plan, Jayde!”
“I know, but I forgot the part where your alpha has a volatile temper. It’s not going to do you any good if he gets there and he’s too pissed to make babies.”
Estrella groaned. “There’s no time for a plan B! Are you kidding me? You said this would work.”
“Well, it should still work,” Jayde said brightly. “Call me when you’re pregnant. Good luck!”
“Jayde—”
Click.
Estrella growled. Sometimes her friend could be really, really annoying. She tossed her phone back in her purse and ran her fingers through her hair, trying to make it look tousled and sexy. Fuckable. She’d even worn a hint of eyeliner, though that was all she dared as far as makeup went. Male shifters didn’t like the scent of makeup. No perfume, either. Her own turned-on musk would scent the clearing. It was definitely a good thing that Vic had sent the others out of town, or she’d be dragging every half-interested tiger or lion male toward her no matter what she did.
So she paced. And she waited.
Vic’s scent reached her first. Still distant, the masculine smell of tiger sent waves of pleasure rolling through her body. Her nipples tightened in response and she crossed her arms over her chest, shivering at the sensation. Her toes wiggled in the inch-deep snow, but she forced herself to remain where she was.
He needed to come and find her.
Of course, just waiting made her nervous. She chewed on her lip, thinking as she studied the naked trees nearby. Maybe a sexy pose? She could lean up against a tree trunk, cock a leg, maybe thrust out her breasts…
Vic crashed into the clearing in full tiger form.
Estrella yelped in surprise, flying backward automatically, her claws coming out. She could feel her cat under her skin, an automatic defense mechanism, and forced herself to calm, shoving away her shifter form. The last thing she wanted was to transform right now.
Vic’s gaze moved to her, studied her for a moment, and then he opened his mouth and roared so loud that her eardrums vibrated.
Boy, he was furious. Estrella backed up to the nearest tree, automatically feeling that awful mental heaviness that came with disobeying your alpha. She leaned against it, forcing herself not to cringe away from his anger, and thrust her breasts out in the skimpy bra. “I’m so glad you’re here, Vic,” she murmured huskily. “I’m in trouble.”
The tiger paced around her, nostrils flaring and scenting the clearing. His tail lashed wildly.
She patiently waited for him to finish checking out their surroundings, knowing that he’d find no other scents but hers. Once that was done, he leveled her another pissed off gaze and then hunched in the snow-covered grass, shoulders flexing as he began to change back to human form.
A few rather long minutes later, and he was in human form. She eyed him appreciatively, noticing for the first time that his chest was sprinkled with dark hair and he had the tightest buttocks she’d ever seen. God, she wanted to wrap her legs around them right about now.
She forced herself to meet his gaze as he approached her, his dark, damp hair steaming in the bitter cold. “What is it?” Vic growled. “What trouble?”
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