Tiger Born

by Tressie Lockwood

  He strolled through the dark house as he’d not bothered to turn on any lights. Moonlight illuminated the furniture, the pictures on the wall, everything as if it refused to leave him alone in black despair. He recognized the beginnings of the same need he’d had the night he called for her. Every muscle ached and a pulsing headache started at the back of his head and made its way slowly toward the front.

  When he walked to the bedroom, her scent filled his nostrils, but he knew she wasn’t there. He glanced at the king-size bed, the rumpled sheets he’d not made from the morning when he woke. Recalling her writhing in ecstasy there not too long ago caused a jagged ache in his groin. His cock swelled, tenting his pants. A run. That’s what he needed to cool the fire.

  While kicking off his shoes, he pulled his shirt over his head and then unzipped his pants. Every scrap of clothing landed in a spot on the floor. The back door of the house led to the deck and yard, and beyond it, the woods. Heath jogged on bare feet, and by the time he reached the edge of the deck he’d shifted into the beast. A growl rose from his throat, and his soft pads hit the ground in rapid speed. He tore up grass, claws gaining a firm grip to keep him moving. Under cover of darkness, he ran and ran, until his lungs burned and his breath came in pants. He ran for what felt like miles, away from civilization and the scent of humans. He treaded over the land that should be his if it wasn’t for red tape and a city official with a bug up his ass.

  At last, when he could go no farther, he slowed down and backtracked to his house. Bones cracked and snapped as he made the transformation. His limbs elongated, and his spine realigned so he could stand upright as a man. Even while he stepped into a cold shower, the realization that nothing would soothe him except Deja came to mind. He dressed in jeans and a T-shirt before slipping his feet into a pair of sneakers. Out on the street, he told himself he would not go near her place. He’d even avoided taking his truck. That didn’t stop him from turning onto her road not forty-five minutes later.

  Hidden in the shadows on the opposite side of the street, Heath watched her door. A shadow moved past the window, and he recognized her slender form. The ache increased. Somewhere deep inside, the tiger whined. “She’s ours. Let’s go take her.”

  “I will never force her,” he answered. Regret weakened him so that he sagged against the side of a building.

  For a long while, Heath didn’t move. He fought the urge to go over and knock on the door to demand she let him in. His cock continued to throb in his pants, and he was glad no one was on the street at that time of night. When the roar of a motor met his ears, he glanced down the road to see a silver car approaching. Jake pulled in front of her door and stopped. He hopped out of the car carrying a bag with the local video rental logo on the front. Two raps on Deja’s door brought her into view, and she smiled at the human.

  “Jake, thanks for coming.” She dragged him inside and slammed the door.

  Heath growled and started forward. No human would ever touch her, especially not that damn pansy of a bartender. He would die tonight. Heath got halfway across the street when he scented another human. He stopped cold. A woman appeared from around the corner. He’d seen her before. Carter’s girlfriend, if he wasn’t mistaken. She too approached Deja’s apartment and was promptly let inside. Heath swore. He couldn’t waltz in there and kill Jake in front of the other woman, and it was likely Deja wasn’t having sex with him with Carter’s human there. He spun around and headed back to his previous spot to wait in silence. The door opened for the third time, and Deja moved out onto the step. She directed a glare right at him, hidden in the shadows. The set to her pretty mouth firm, he knew she wouldn’t give in. Not tonight. Despite how his body wanted her, was she even the right woman for him?

  * * * *

  Heath knocked once and entered his father’s office. Ward sat behind his desk, leaning back in his chair, hands folded on his lap. From the body language, one would think his demeanor calm. Heath had learned better over the last few months of getting to know the man he never knew existed until the one who raised him died and revealed in the letter he left behind the most fantastical story he could ever imagine. The frightening part was that it was all true.

  “Dad,” he said, to get his father’s attention. Often he called Ward by his name, the word dad not coming easily to his tongue just yet. “I need to talk to you.”

  Ward glanced up, eyes blank for a second. He flared his nostrils, then slammed his hands on the desk. “Is everything ready to go get the boy?”

  “We leave tonight.”

  “Good. I don’t like the delay, but it couldn’t be helped with Carmine having his men sniff around here. That had to be cleaned up before I let you leave town with our best men. Damn it, we have to settle things once and for all with him, and soon.”

  “Agreed. He’s held that land over our heads long enough.”

  Ward grinned. “You eager to get your hands dirty, huh? I don’t mind admitting I hoped the bug would bite you soon for the work I’m doing. You’re suited for it. The people respect you.”

  Heath dropped into a chair and put his booted feet up on the desk. His father never seemed to mind as he did the same often. “The people drive me crazy. There are always those that need disputes settled, petty stuff they could do on their own.”

  Ward chuckled. “They can’t help it, Son. It’s in their nature to seek out their alpha for guidance. In my absence, they turn to you. It’s the tiger in them.”

  Heath had no wish to disagree with his father, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed by the way things were right now. In his mind, the people were lazy. Rather than try to work things out on their own, they took the easy way and sought Ward or himself to tell them what to do, or to force whoever they argued with to do what they wanted. He’d never met such a spoiled people. Not that he didn’t care about them. He did. Every last one, but maybe he needed an outlet.

  “Dad, about the land,” he began.

  “Mmm, Carmine.”

  “Why is he so damn stubborn about writing that slot of land as being a part of Siberia?”

  “Because he’s an asshole. His head is big and his dick too small.”

  Heath chuckled.

  “Seriously,” Ward said after he’d indulged in a good laugh, “he and I have history, and because he knows we want the land, he’s holding on tight. The city doesn’t need it. In fact, they could benefit from the sale. I’m sorry, but it all comes back to how he can screw me over.”

  Heath sat up. “Does he know what we are?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Dad.”

  “Let it go for now, Son. We’ll straighten it out when you get back. Now, is that what you wanted to talk to me about, or is there something else?”

  Heath drummed his fingers on the old, scratched desk. Why didn’t his dad get a new one? He could afford it. He often thought at Ward’s age, he was set in his ways. He made changes with reluctance, and the only reason he considered expanding Siberia’s city hall was to make more room for Heath. Heath didn’t know how or when to tell his father he would be pulling out of the day to day over here. He would find some other way of contributing to Siberia’s economy. After all, everyone needed to do their fair share to help the town continue to thrive, and even with its issues, he loved being here, among people who were like him.

  What bothered him most, of course, was the thing he wanted to discuss least. “It’s Deja. I thought we were getting back together, but things went wrong.”

  Ward scowled at him. “You realize you have the power to make her bow to you.”

  “Are you kidding? Why would I want to do that? I want her to want to be with me.”

  “Oh, she wants you.”

  Frustration threatened to choke off Heath’s air supply. “How can you say that? I mean, sure, physically, but her heart—”

  “Is yours.” Ward sighed. “When will you young people understand? None of this is new.”

  “None of what?”

  “Shif
ters.”

  Heath narrowed his eyes. “What are you talking about?”

  Ward stood up and strolled toward the window. He pulled aside the blinds and peered out. Through the gap, from where he sat, Heath saw people walking along the street, animated in conversation. One or two had shifted to their tiger forms as if it was more natural than their human form. Ward turned back toward him with a smile of satisfaction on his face.

  “There are some that believe Spiderweb’s idea for creating shifters is not something brand new. In remote parts of the world, it’s believed that shifters always existed, even as many as thousands of years ago. People born like us with the natural instincts of finding their true mate.”

  “True mate,” Heath growled. “I’m tired of that being stuffed down my throat. Deja and I will never see eye to eye. She wants children.”

  “And you don’t?”

  For a moment, he considered a beautiful little girl with Deja’s big brown eyes, and his chest constricted. “It’s not that I don’t want them. I won’t have them. You didn’t see the pain Deja endured, how small and weak she’d become. It was a living nightmare, and I felt like I couldn’t bear to see it another day. It had to be a million times worse for her. Do you think I would risk my child going through something like that if Spiderweb got their hands on him or her? No, I won’t risk it, and there is no way of knowing if we’ve stomped out that organization’s existence. Even you have said each time you destroyed a base of operations in one city, a new one popped up. No kids.”

  Ward shook his head. “In other words, this isn’t about whether Deja is your mate or not.”

  “Dad.”

  “Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to hear you and Abel and Aaron call me Dad. You can’t know what it means, how it feels. Yes, I would kill for any one of you. I would burn down the world if Spiderweb got a hold of any of my boys, but I would not go back and wish you never existed.”

  Heath shifted in his chair. He looked away from his father’s penetrating gaze.

  “You would rather lose her than give into her?”

  “If I lose her, she wasn’t mine to begin with.”

  “Ah, Heath, you’re just foolish enough to think you have a choice in this matter, and so is Deja.”

  Heath glared at the older man, but received only a grin for his pains. “Either way, these are not the times they were twenty or thirty years ago when the residents of Siberia were in hiding. We’re more exposed. If Carmine does know what we are, then all he has to do is make a call to Washington. Then we’re screwed.”

  “He’d have to have proof.”

  “Damn it, Ward, how easy is it to get proof? You know what happened just the other day. One of the children was almost taken.”

  Ward frowned at the use of his name. “We don’t know that wasn’t just some idiot humans. I’m having it looked into. That’s another reason I had to delay you leaving Siberia.”

  “I understand that, and you’re right. We don’t know who it was. It could have been particular humans, ones working for Carmine or some other branch of the government. If he or anyone gets word back to Washington about a possible town of shape-shifters, we’ll be descended on, and we don’t have the manpower to keep them out. If it was Spiderweb—”

  “If it was Spiderweb, they would be here by now.”

  Heath ran a hand through his hair. “I can’t help thinking they know about the cousin and that we’ll either walk into a trap or leave you and everyone else open to attack after we’re gone. We’re vulnerable. We have to close at least one of these gaps.”

  Ward’s gaze locked onto him. A sizzle of power crackled beneath the surface, making the hairs on Heath’s arms stand up. He had never gone up against Ward, and he hoped he would never have to.

  “What do you suggest, Heath?”

  He sat in silence a few moments, weighing the options. He knew what he wanted to do and that his reasons weren’t entirely for the sake of the people. “Carmine. He needs to be removed if he knows about us.”

  “Done.”

  Taken aback by his father’s rapid agreement, Heath narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure?”

  “I’ve long considered it. If you must know, Carmine and I go back years ago when I first met Coreen. She was all but engaged to him at the time.”

  Heath’s eyes widened. “You’re kidding.”

  “No. I came along and swept her off her feet.” He flashed a self-satisfied grin. “We fell in love, and Carmine never had a chance. Oh, not the love I had with your mother, of course. Your mother was my mate, pure and simple. When she died, I felt my heart die with her. Yet, I lived on. Meeting Coreen sort of brought me back to life. Anyway, Carmine confronted Coreen, demanded she come back to him. He was foolish enough to touch her.”

  Heath understood immediately. He would strip the skin off of any man who touched Deja. No, she and I…I no longer have that right. He wondered how he could resist the instinct to kill if he ever saw it. He forced his focus back onto his dad. “What happened then?”

  “I attacked him, tried ending his life. Only Coreen brought me from the edge. Carmine went to the hospital, and I hid out in the woods, waiting for the dogs to be set out on me. Day after day I waited, but none came. Eventually, I dared to visit Coreen and, to my surprise, she didn’t reject me. I could see she was afraid, but she loved me. She came to Siberia to stay with me, and, well, I didn’t hear anything more from Carmine for a few years, not until he was appointed with his current position as a boil on my ass.”

  Heath frowned. “Nice visual. Thanks.”

  Ward shrugged. “So you need to be really sure, Son, regarding our solution to the situation.”

  They stared at one another for a long time. Heath knew what his father would do. Something told him right from the start Ward would kill for his people’s safety. If it came right down to it, Heath would do the same to keep Deja safe. No one would threaten his family and get away with it. That included Coreen, his dad, and especially his brothers, who still hadn’t accepted him.

  “I can remove him from office,” Ward said. “You don’t have to be involved.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’ve done it before.”

  Heath shoved up from his chair. He’d killed his fair share of bad guys back at the Spiderweb lab, all of them human. This felt different. He paced to the same window where his father stood a moment ago and put his back to it, crossing his arms over his chest. “Dad, we take that step and it gets out into Siberia… You know the peace right now is tenuous. All it takes is a single incident to push one of the humans too far. Just like we were discussing the other day, there’s a separation, even among those who are mated to shifters. Some of the humans have just been here long enough to consider it home. They’re single, but I believe loyal.”

  “Agreed, but what other choice do we have? I’ve been putting up with Carmine’s bullshit for years. He’s not going to back down, and I think he knows I’ve been more concerned with keeping a lid on our secret than going after him. He’s gotten cocky. When I approached him about buying that extra land and having it deeded as Siberia land, he was in hog heaven. He tightened his fist around it, and there’s no way he’s letting go without drastic measures on our part. But the land is not a problem.”

  “Hmm, it’s the day he decides to rat us out to the higher-ups. Then we’ll have government people crawling up our asses, poking us.” Heath clenched his hands into fists. “That child will not be the only one taken.”

  “So we’re doing this?” Ward raised an eyebrow in query.

  “Yeah, I guess we are, together.”

  Ward stood up. “Okay, we’ll do it when you and the others get back. For now, keep it under your hat. Not even Deja, got it?”

  “That’s easy. Deja isn’t speaking to me.”

  Ward grunted and shook his head. “Young people.”

  Chapter Eight

  “What do we have, Joe?” Heath inquired when Joe returned from scouting the are
a surrounding the neighborhood where Tina’s cousin lived. He and the rest of his team had kept to a designated spot some miles away, under cover of trees. The heavily wooded surroundings turned out to be perfect, but they lay low anyway during the day and only stirred at night. He had instructed everyone to dress in all black and to stay together. In some respects, he felt like they were playing spy, but this was serious business. None of them could afford to be caught by Spiderweb.

  The group dropped back from Heath a few steps to let Joe through. While Heath waited for the man to report, he was more keenly aware of Deja at the edge of the group. Every atom in his body seemed to strain toward her, yet from her expression she didn’t give him a second thought. Her attention had been taken up by another man he didn’t know well. Coltrane, a big African American shifter, stood close to Deja but didn’t touch her. He leaned over and whispered comments to her that Heath could pick up if he trained his ears on them. He dared not because he couldn’t afford to take his mind off the mission. Every now and then, Tina made her presence known at his side, but she too didn’t touch.

  Joe reached him. “The block is clean and quiet.” He pulled a rumpled map from his pocket and laid it out. No one bothered with a flashlight as they peered at the page under the illumination from the moon. “I checked in a radius out to about here. Nothing out of the ordinary. I didn’t scent anything suspicious, but you know they just smell like humans, and damn near everyone carries these days, so metal or gunpowder isn’t a giveaway.”

  “Right.” Heath studied the map. “The house is here. Anyone in these?”