by Ever Coming
Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.
This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by Latin Goddess Press, Inc.. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Paranormal Dating Agency remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of Latin Goddess Press, Inc., or their affiliates or licensors.
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Claimed by Her Tigers
By
Ever Coming
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Juniper Hiti calls to cancel her blind date. Gerri Wilder is having none of that.
When hyena shifter Juniper puts in an application at the Paranormal Dating Agency, she hopes to thwart her mother’s plan to arrange her mating. But according to her mother, the cackle’s alpha female, contracts have already been signed. Juniper sees only two choices: Agree to her mother’s plans and be sold to the highest bidder or disappear. She chooses the latter.
But when Gerri arranges a date for you, you’d better believe she’s going to make sure attend.
When her two hot dates, Noah and Shane, come knocking on her door just as she is about to flee her mother’s arranged mating, she does what any woman in position would do. She agrees to one night.
Juniper soon discovers that one night with her sexy tigers will never be enough.
But with broken contracts come consequences, consequences all three will face. Noah and Parker are ready to claim her, consequences be damned. But can they convince their sassy hyena to agree?
Claimed by her Tigers is an MMF Dating Agency Shifter Romance featuring a curvy woman and two hot tigers ready to claim their third.
Prologue
“Get in your own lane, jerkwad,” I yelled at the little old man who probably couldn’t hear me on the best of days, much less when I had already passed his car. I was so not made for city life and couldn’t wait to get back to Oregon and my apartment abutting the forest. I appreciated the money my modeling career provided, but hated that it usually meant blocks of time surrounded by concrete and steel.
I still had another hour on the freeway and decided to call my bestie Gina. Gina was another plus sized model, but unlike myself, she had hit the big time, doing print as well as film. I liked to stick with print. I was still able to bring in enough money I could ignore my trust fund, giving me leverage every time my mother tried to meddle. The second I needed her or family money, I was as good as sunk.
“Dial Gina Beans,” I called out. It still freaked me out a bit that there was a device in my car that could hear and understand commands. Who knew what else it was listening to. My guess was all the things, but so be it. At least I could use the phone while driving without getting insanely high tickets.
The phone rang twice before she picked up. “Gina! I just saw you on Early Morning L.A.”
Poor Gina had been suckered into doing a segment on the morning show all about her favorite snack food or some crap. If they’d done their research, they’d have seen the ridiculousness of it. They assumed because she was plus-sized, she ate like crap. If they’d had me on the segment, it’d have been accurate. I loved me my salty goodness, but Gina was all about the healthy, which her agent told her was completely unacceptable and instead she made wretched looking potato chips.
“Awful, wasn’t it?” she said in defeat. It hadn’t been awful. The host of the segment had been, but that was pretty much her schtick.
“I don’t know how you didn’t kill that skinny bitch on the spot.” I emphasized the word because if that woman had mentioned her “skinniness” once, she did it a dozen times in the few-minute segment. As if her size made her a better person or something. I felt bad for people who felt their worth in their size. Sure, I made money on my appearance, but I that was just a job, and my worth was so much deeper than that.
A yellow car cut me off on their way across three lanes to get to an exit they should’ve been preparing for for a good mile. “Hey, where’d you learn to drive?” Again, they couldn’t hear me, but I felt better. If I let things bottle up inside, my hyena became a little unhinged, and that was the last thing I needed. City life had already her less than pleased.
Being the good friend she was, Gina ignored my driving-enhanced outburst, as my mother called it.
“I would have liked to snap her in half. It wouldn’t have been any trouble.” That was true enough. Even if Gina hadn’t been a shifter, the way she worked out would’ve had her strong enough to take on the awful woman. “Did you see her glom onto that chip? And honestly, the oil was rancid. I only pretended to eat one myself,” she mused.
I had noticed, too. It was as if the woman was experiencing an orgasm just by letting the thing touch her lips and if that was all it took, she needed to get herself a man or a woman—shit a vibrator would do. I should know, being an expert on the subject. It had been my only action as of late thanks to what my mother referred to as me “once again setting your sights too high.”
“Starvation makes the best sauce,” I teased and was rewarded with Gina’s laughter. “Listen, I called because of that love life comment.”
She wasn’t going to like my idea. She never did when I broached it, but it was time. For me, I needed to act fast because mother was starting to get antsy with the “I have the right” crap when it came to mating. Yay hyena shifter laws. For Gina, she was ready to settle down, her cat showing signs left and right. Not that she understood all of the signs, having grown up with humans, but still.
“Another reason to kill that stupid woman?” She laughed at her own bad joke.
“Right,” I scoffed. “But also—I think it’s time we take a more positive stance on dating.” I spat it out quickly as I accelerated to pass a weaving car. I had a bad habit of changing the speed of my words with the speed of my car as if one could actually influence the other.
“Are you saying I have a bad attitude toward men?” she asked, feigning shock.
I hadn’t been, but if the shoe fit…
“I’m saying we need to call Gerri Wilder at the Paranormal Dating Agency. Maybe go out with one of our own kind—or something similar—for once.” I was stepping around words that would shut her down. She didn’t understand that a human man would most likely never be what her cat needed. They might be, but the odds of her finding a mate in the shifter realm were much greater.
“Isn’t she known for permanent hookups?” Because, after all these years, Gina still couldn’t say mate or marriage. Somehow, to her, either or both meant the end of all she’d worked for, which was ludicrous. A good relationship encouraged you to be who you were meant to be—or so I had been holding onto in my going-on five years of rebellion against an arranged mating.
“I work two hundred hours a week and have three movies to film in the next two years.” True, she was busy, but anyone who mathed would easily notice she was exaggerating a butt ton on her workweek.
“Geez. I’m talking about a date with a nice guy. Kind of a palate refresher after our last few experiences. I don’t think she forces you to marry anyone on the first date.” Although rumor had it many a mating happened that way.
“I don’t think there is a guy out there who can handle all my awesome.
” A horn honked through the phone. She was having the same fun I was with traffic. Ugg.
“Then tell her you need two.” Being raised as she was, she probably thought I was kidding.
“Har. Har. Listen I need to go. I’m pulling in. Thanks for calling.” Another horn honked. Traffic sucked.
“Promise you will call?” I pleaded. If anyone deserved happiness it was Gina.
For me I was just about ready to settle because settling with someone Gerri picked was going to be hella better than anyone on my mom’s short list.
“Only if you do.”
Yes.
“Done.” I agree before hanging up.
My next call was to Gerri.
Chapter One
“You really need to pick a pick a mate.” My mother was a broken record. Always.
“And I will. When I am ready.” Fine. I was a perfect case of plant a potato, get a potato. Except it was my life, not hers she was once again trying to meddle in, which was exactly why I’d moved away from the cackle as soon as I was able.
“That time has come and gone.” Her singsong tone had me cringing. This wasn’t her normal call to pester me about being alone. The woman was up to something.
“What have you done, Mother?” I was seething. She might be the alpha female, and I her daughter, but that didn’t make it right to pull this stuff.
“What we should have done eons ago.”
“Explain.”
“You need a mate, and I have facilitated that happening.”
No. No. No. No. No. This could not be happening. No. Just no.
“I. Am. Not. For. Sale.” I had been aware from a very young age that alphas were trying to arrange with my family for me to mate into their cackles. Building alliances and some shit. Just no.
“Of course not, dear.” I could see her fluffing off my comment as if it were not a big deal at all.
“Cancel whatever you did.” The last time I even pretended to entertain one of her notions, I ended up bleeding an alpha who thought that since my mother introduced us, I had instantly become his property.
“I already signed the contract, dear. Call me on Saturday and give me your thoughts.” And she hung up before the string of cursing all her mating attempts resulted in started once again spewing from my mouth.
The memory from only a week earlier came flooding back to me. I’d walked around for two days in complete denial over the entire thing and even attempted to call my father who refused to give me even a hint of what mother had been up to. I wasn’t sure if she’d even told him. Finally, on Tuesday, I gave myself permission to do what I’d been itching to do for weeks, I called Gerri who had miraculously been able to meet me that day having been in the area for, as she put it, “an event”. Maybe if I had a date with an agency as prominent as the paranormal dating agency, mother would cancel whatever she had arranged.
I called home immediately after the appointment, already having a tentative date set up for Friday. The woman was a freaking miracle worker, at least in expedience. As far as picking the best mate for me, I’d never know.
My mother refused to take my calls. I started out leaving the typical call-me-back messages—moved on to the informative messages regaling her with stories about the amazing Gerri and how she’d already found me a potential date—then onto the desperate pleas for her to cancel all things. Her silence was as good as an admission of guilt that she had all but sold me.
By the time mid-day Friday rolled around, I had a decision to make: leave before whomever she was sending my way showed up or face the consequences of a forced mating. Running away it was. I dialed the phone for the Paranormal Dating Agency, my stomach a hot mess from giving up what could be a life altering experience. If only my mother had called back so I could figure out what she’d done and thwart it.
Gerri picked up on the first ring.
“Ummm, hi, this is Juniper,” Crap on a cracker. I had been crossing my fingers that Gerri would not answer the phone, had figured out an entire message, and instead she picked up on the first stinking ring. Who answers phones anymore? “I was calling to say you were very nice and all, but I need to cancel my date.”
I left off the part where I was canceling so I could sneak out of town before the “suitable mate” my mother had hand selected for me arrived. She’d given me “plenty of time” to find a suitable match and was “taking things into her own hands,” to the point where she’d signed actual contracts. She seemed to forget we were not living in the 1600s when the daughters of alphas were sold to the highest bidder.
“Juniper, your date started a half an hour ago. Don’t you think it is a bit late to cancel?” Glancing at the clock, I found she was right. Had it really taken me an hour and a half to work up the nerve to call? “Get your sexy butt down there and get yourself some lovin’.”
“I swear you say things just to shock me.”
Her chuckle told me that was in fact the case.
“Seriously, though. Mama is at it again. I need to disappear for a bit.” Gerri had set up more than a few of the young hyenas with mates. Hyenas, at least in my antiquated cackle, were an odd bunch when it came to mating. The men—they could mate whomever the heck they wanted to, but us females, the ones with the wombs, we had to mate with only the best genes. We had a job, after all, to procreate and bring future generations—blah blah blah.
Shave and a haircut echoed through my apartment. Great. Someone was at my door. As I looked through the peep hole I saw not one but two sexy-as-sin men.
“You didn’t?” But, of course, she had. She was Gerri. Not only did she neglect to tell me she had found me not one, but two men, but she told them my apartment number to boot. If she pulled this garbage in human dating services, she’d have been shut down long ago. Shifters were more forgiving of being so in your face if they got results, and Gerri, by all accounts, did.
“Of course, I did. You need to stop running away from your problems if you ever want to solve them.” Which was easy for her to say, given that she wasn’t a hyena, and sure as the sun rising wasn’t the daughter of my mother.
“Call them and tell them I canceled,” I growled. This was not okay. I had things to do, and by things I meant getting out of Dodge until I could devise another plan.
“I can’t hear you, honey.” She crinkled some paper into the receiver as if I wouldn’t guess that was what she was doing. “Must be a bad connection. Have fun tonight.” She hung up, and the knocking began again.
I swung the door open, my hand fisted on my hip. Sure. they were nice guys and all, but I needed to fly. If my mom’s cryptic message meant what it sounded like, the guy was going to be to my house within the day, preferring to drive over flying.
“You smell amazing,” the blonder of the two men blurted as his partner in crime smacked him across the chest.
“What Shane here meant to say was, hello, we are Shane and Noah, your dates for the evening.” And then he smiled. That smile that said, I dare you to deny us because we heard every last word of your conversation and we will call your bluff. “So if you are ready?”
“I need to grab my bag. I’ll follow you in my car.” I sighed in defeat. One dinner wouldn’t hurt. I could easily leave from the restaurant. If I read him correctly, it would be faster than trying to get out of said date.
I walked back inside. Fine. I stomped back inside, grabbed my bag and filled it with random things. So much for making sure I had everything I needed. It wasn’t like I was going to lose the apartment in my absence. It was on auto pay as were my utilities. I just needed to disappear until the guy was willing to give up on the dumb ass contractual mating or I found myself good and mated. It couldn’t be more than a decade or so. I sighed at the dismal turn my life had taken.
“We are hot and all, but don’t you find that a bit presumptuous?” Noah asked, eyeing the bulging bag.
“As if,” I scoffed as if the idea was beyond ridiculous, which, of course, if it had been a week earlier, it would have
been. They were super-hot, and the vibe in the room, even with my frustrations over my life, was good. I could have easily seen the dinner turning into a hot mess of limbs. Why hadn’t I called Gerri earlier?
“No. I’m going on a trip after our date, if you must know.”
“Which is why you stood us up,” Shane said matter of factly as if that were a decent reason to be horrible. Not showing up at the restaurant was pretty sucktastic of me.
“I didn’t stand you up.” At least not on purpose. “I hadn’t even met you guys. I just canceled because plans changed.”
“It’s not canceling if it is one sided.” Noah raised his eyebrow as if daring me to deny it. “Our reservation is lost, we need to find somewhere else.”
Except I canceled. How had they missed that memo.
“I think she found out we were together.” Shane spoke to Noah, grabbing his hand as if to leave no room for misinterpretation.
“I don’t think she’s that closed-minded,” Noah reassured. Had that been an issue for them? I mean humans were still weird about triads or anything that didn’t fit their cookie-cutter relationships, but it was the norm for so many shifters, I kind of assumed we were exempt from that kind of crap. “If she were, Gerri wouldn’t have sent us her way.”
“Or maybe Gerri just said two, and she assumed that meant we shared her, not all of us sharing each other.” Shane was sounding far too frazzled and as I had, in fact, been the catalyst of his frazzle, I decided to clear things up sooner rather than later even if they were talking in front of me, about me, as if I weren’t there.
“Or maybe Gerri just said date, and none of this has anything to do with the two of you getting it on.” Damn it. Now I’d done it. Just saying it out loud had my head filling with images of them kissing and—more.
“Damn.” Shane’s face lit up. “She tells the truth. Smell that arousal.” Because, again, I wasn’t there to hear him.