Kylan: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  “Christ.” She didn’t know what she’d done, but she was glad for the reaction. Instead of just inhaling his scent, the need to taste it had her licking his throat and finding his pulse beating like he’d run a race. “We’re never going to take this slowly if you keep that up, Emmie. I’m a man on the edge, and you’re pushing me over.”

  “Good.”

  Before she could figure out what he was going to do, she felt her clothing being torn from her body. It was the sexiest sound she’d ever heard, hearing her pants being ripped apart. When Kylan sat her on the desk in the room she’d been using, she moaned when he took her breast into his mouth and bit down.

  “Yes. Oh yes, Kylan, I need to come.”

  Wasting no time, he was laying her back on the desk and tearing at his own clothing. She knew she could dress and undress herself and that he could do the same. But this, the desperation of him ripping things, was just what her body needed right now.

  “I’m so sorry about this.”

  He slammed his cock deep into her. The scream that she released felt as if it had been storing up for years, decades even. When he took her hard, moving not just her but the desk she was on across the room, Emmie did the only thing she could do and wrapped her body around his and held on.

  When he came, she could only hope it was as powerful as it looked on him. He threw back his head, his body bowed. Seeing his tiger there, racing over his skin like he was going to take him, Kylan did the most incredible thing. He roared.

  His teeth had changed. Even his face, smooth and handsome, took on some of the features of his cat. Whiskers came and left. The greenish of his eyes darkened to almost black. The deepening of his skin, the fur she knew to be soft, made him appear to be half man, half beast. The thought of them, the two of them, taking her had her coming hard enough that it was almost as if she were being consumed by it.

  Opening her eyes, she laid there for several seconds to gather her thoughts. She’d fainted. Emmie was so proud of herself that she found herself looking for Kylan. Sitting up just a little, she found him sitting in his chair, his eyes closed and his body covered in a fine sheen of sweat. But his cock, his lovely cock, was still standing high and hard as stone.

  Being as quiet as she could, Emmie moved so she could sit on him. Riding his cock was the only thing she could think of right now. As soon as he touched her, helping her to settle over him, her body hyped up like it had not just come an amazing number of times.

  “I think you broke me.” She smiled at him as she sat down on him, his cock so thick, filling her out in parts of her that she’d not known existed before this. “I was going to suggest taking you to bed, but I like where your mind is right now. Ride me, Emmie. I want to taste you.”

  Emmie rode him as best she could. Each time he touched her, suckled on another part of her, she’d lose her rhythm and have to start again. Not that she minded. Oh, no. Making love this way afforded her the ability to watch his face, see his cock sliding in and out of her, wet and hard. When he nudged her neck, then licked it with his tongue, Emmie braced herself for another epic climax. She wasn’t disappointed.

  This time she woke in their bed. Kylan was sitting on the side of the bed with a phone to his ear. She was afraid. In that very moment, when he turned to her, she could see that whoever he was talking to had just given him bad news. He said he’d tell her now and that they’d be there as soon as they could get dressed.

  “What is it?” He turned in the bed and told her everything. There wasn’t any sugar-coating it either. Her daughter and the other four had been taken from the packhouse. “When? How?”

  “One of the wolves, they believe. Everyone is out looking. There are even faeries looking for them. I’m so sorry.” She didn’t know what he had to be sorry for and smacked him on the arm. “I told you she’d be safe there, and she wasn’t.”

  “She was safe there, Kylan. Someone from the inside did this, and they’re going to regret it when I find them.” Emmie tried to remain calm. To think. “She’s not stupid. If anything, having Olivia with the other three is going to be a good thing. Olivia will get them home. I know it.”

  When they arrived at the packhouse, there were police and all kinds of shifters there. Without a thought to what he might say to her, Emmie found the pack leader and hugged him. She was sure, for whatever reason, that he was blaming himself. The man, a large wolfman, hugged her back, sobbing about how sorry he was.

  “They’re all right.” He said he hoped so. “No, you don’t understand. If we start thinking like that, then we might as well go back to our beds. They’re fine. They’re going to come back to us. Tell me what happened, and we’ll work from there.”

  “I have nine dead.” Emmie hurt for the families and told him if he needed anything to call her. “Thank you. I might need you later. The nine dead were killed one at a time. Ambushed while they were on patrol. Usually, we only have four or five out, but I had a dozen out because of the night class we were holding.”

  “Are any of the others, the ones that survived, part of this, you think?” He nodded but said no more. “All right. We’ll deal with them later if you have them locked up.”

  “I do. At least three of them. The last one, it doesn’t look as if he is going to make it.” She told him again how sorry she was. “Thank you, Emmie. You’re a good person.” He paused for just a moment and shook his head. “Ten dead. The other pack member died just now.”

  ~*~

  Olivia didn’t know who had taken them, but she knew her cousins were hurt. She was as well, but they had to be saved. They were the only friends she had right now. Not to mention, they were in a place she didn’t think she’d been to before. A well, she thought, or a cave.

  They were lying on stones, and the walls were also stone. Not just stones, but large rocks, rocks she was sure were as thick as she was tall. She remembered being told that no one would be able to hear them if they called out because they were surrounded by the stone. Figures, she thought. Nothing was as easy as she wished it was. Trying to get up to check on the others, she knew she’d been hit pretty hard at some point. Her head was hurting, and there was blood on her hand—at least, with the darkness around them, she thought it might be blood. Olivia told herself that since she wasn’t dead or unconscious, she could still think and get away.

  Putting her hand over the mouth of Lynette, she woke her up. The terror on her face had her putting her finger to her lips for her to be quiet. Nodding once, she went to wake up the other two. Hanna didn’t wake as easily, and it worried her. But when she finally came around, Olivia noticed that not only was her head bleeding, but it looked to her like her arm was broken. Taking her time, Olivia asked Melissa to find her something to put on her sister’s arm. While she did that, Olivia started tearing the legs off her jammies.

  “We have to figure out things before we move. I don’t know where we are or how long we’ve been here, but just staying here will get us killed.” Lynette said she’d go look outside. “No. Don’t leave us. Sticking together is going to be the only way we’re going to get out of this. Did you see the person who took us?”

  “I don’t remember anything after the lights went out. I heard something but didn’t think anything about it as I knew there were adults around that would protect us.” Lynette whispered even quieter than they’d been talking. “Do you suppose they’re all dead as well?”

  She didn’t get a chance to answer her.

  “Olivia?” She turned to where Melissa was, and when she realized she’d found something, she and Lynette went to her. The young girl, Maria, was dead. It was her body, the body of their friend who had invited them to the pack tonight. She had been mutilated. The only thing that helped them know it was her was the clothing that had been torn up when they destroyed her body. “Someone killed her.”

  Taking her face in her hands so the little girl wouldn’t look at her bod
y, Olivia told Melissa it wasn’t going to happen to them. When asked how she knew, she forced a smile on her face.

  “Because we’re together, and we’re children of the Prince family.” Knowing it sounded stupid, she winked at Melissa. “We have to fix up Hanna’s arm, then we need to see if there is a way out of here. That’s the only way we’re going to be able to get back to our family. All right?”

  “You be in charge.” She knew what it cost Lynette to tell her that. The girl was nearly eighteen and had been lording that over them since she arrived. Not saying anything, really, but rolling her eyes a great deal. But now, she seemed to know that Olivia being in charge might give them a chance. “You tell us what we need to do, and the three of us will follow you.”

  They were able to find the broken bat that had been, they thought, used on Marie. Putting it against the wall where the police would be able to find it when they came back for the little girl, they bound up Hanna’s arm the best they could and moved toward the little sliver of light they could see.

  “That’s my dad.”

  Melissa started forward, but Olivia snatched her back before she exposed where they were. The opening of the cave was close enough that they could run out. But what sort of dangers were there none of them knew. Olivia explained to them what the red fox had given her in the forest. She pointed to the man standing next to the tree in front of them.

  “I don’t know what he is, but he’s not a tiger. From here, he looks like what I would think a troll might look like. Have you ever seen one?” None of them had. “Okay. He’s huge for one thing and has long claws at his fingertips. We’ll want to avoid him.”

  But they couldn’t. Not really. Every time it looked as if they could get around him, he’d turn in their direction. She didn’t think he could see them. Olivia had shown them how to dirty up their faces, so they didn’t shine in the moonlight. At least, she hoped it was working.

  Olivia asked the others to stay there, and she’d be back. Testing the wind, which there seemed to be very little of, she shoved the troll-like thing forward just before he turned toward her. Her hope was to knock him down so they could get around him when he fell over an embankment. One of his claw-like hands scraped along her arm, causing her to cry out from the pain of it. The long trip down the embankment had the thing ending up in fast-moving water. It was gone before she could worry about him getting out.

  Olivia was beginning to feel every one of her bumps and cuts. Her arm was already looking festered, something she’d heard her grandda tell her once when she’d had a splinter in her finger for a long time. She didn’t want to think about how dirty the claws had been on that troll. Instead, she focused on the fact that they’d gotten this far in their escape.

  Melissa laughed but quietly. Olivia was glad for it. It did make it seem less serious. She was also worrying about her own head. It was thumping like a hammer had been put to it. But she kept telling herself that she was alive, and that was what mattered right now.

  They moved in and out of the trees and around large rock stacks. Twice she tried to reach for someone, but her head was hurting much too badly for her to concentrate. If her faerie was around, she couldn’t find him. Everything was blurry, so he could have been right in her face, and she’d not see him. As they made their way toward what she hoped was north, the other three kept up with her. Melissa asked if she could go pee. At first, Olivia wanted to scream at her that she wanted to get home. But then, looking at the kid, she realized she needed to pee too.

  “Yes. Of course.”

  Olivia tried her best to make this sound like they were on an outing. The girls were afraid, but they were doing what she asked them to do. Twice now, they’d had to hide from something coming around them, and both times it had looked like someone they knew, a family member or something. But she knew what they were thanks to the fox who had given her sight and understanding of things. It was always the troll things. There must have been five or more of them, the way they kept moving around them. Whoever they were, they were very tricky.

  They had walked for what seemed like miles when Olivia turned to the others. Having had enough, Olivia had to sit down. Just as she was getting ready to tell the others she needed to rest, she heard something or someone behind her. Standing up, she felt something hit her in the chest. Falling back, she took down Lynette and Hanna as she fell back a long way. Hitting her head several more times, it was the blow to her arm that finally knocked her out.

  Waking up, Olivia leaned over and threw up three times before she felt like she could move. Not only were the other two with her, but Melissa was there with them. Looking around, she knew that this time she was in a well, not a cave. There was no way out but up.

  “You have given me a hard time.” She looked at the other three and asked them if he’d put them in here. After having Melissa tell her she’d fallen and had been shot, she looked down at her belly. Hanna told her she wanted to go home.

  “I do too. We’ll get there.” Looking up at the troll, whatever he was, she asked him what the hell he wanted of them. It threw back its head and laughed at her.

  “You understand me, child? You have been blessed by the queen, I’m betting. No matter. She shall not get you back. You will be my slaves forever now.” He laughed again, like a grating sound on a chalkboard. “When I get my ropes, you will hold on, and I will pull you up.”

  “I don’t think so.” Olivia knew she was bleeding and thought of something she’d read in a book. Looking at the other three, she thought this might be it for her. They were blurring in and out, and her nose was bleeding. “Don’t go with him. No matter what happens.”

  “You’re bleeding pretty badly, Olivia. You had better not die on us. We need you.” Melissa started crying, and Lynette held her. “You’ve gotten us this far. We know you’re going to get us home.”

  “I’m going to try something. I haven’t any idea if it works or not, but I’m getting too weak to go much longer. To be honest with you, I’m not even sure how we’re going to get out of this hole with the big lug up there waiting on us.” They nodded and told her she could do it. “If I don’t—and I’m not saying I won’t—but if I don’t, tell my mom and Kylan I love them both so very much.”

  Rubbing her hand in her blood that seemed to be in an endless supply on her belly, she wiped it on the wall of the well where the moss was. She was crying then, so upset that she was going to die before she even got her first kiss. Looking up at the hole when something hit her in the head, she saw that the tormentor and another troll had gotten a rope and looped it for them. Like they were going to gladly go up and be his slaves. Olivia grabbed the rope and tugged with all her strength.

  She looked at her blood on the wall of the well. “Aurora, if you can hear me, we’re in a shitload of trouble here. I need my mom and dad. Please, come and get us.” The troll above them said they were his, and Olivia leaned against the wall. Sick again, when she puked this time, her head felt as if it were coming off. There was nothing left inside of her but dark stuff that she didn’t want to think about. “Please, someone come and save my cousins.”

  The bright light seemed to come at her in a pinhole. Looking at it, she could see a face but not make out who it was. Whatever was coming for them now, they could have her in exchange for her cousins. Trying to say that, the thing, the light, spoke to her.

  “Come now. You mustn’t give up. Look at what you’ve done just now. Pulling those two trolls down into the hole with you has broken both their necks. That is very brave of you if you ask me.” She told the light she was a goner. That she didn’t have anything in her. “But you’d give what is left of your young life for the others? Do you know how brave that is?”

  “I don’t care if it’s brave or not. They’re so nice. Let them go, and if I live, I will be your slave forever.” The tinkling of bells made her smile. She thought of Christmas at her mom’s home. How sad and
lonely it was without Kylan and his family there. Closing her eyes against the brightening light, she worked up enough energy to speak again. “Tell Kylan I wish I would have gotten to call him dad. He is the best.”

  She was floating. There was no other way to describe it but that she was floating on air. When she was laid down, her body no longer in pain, she thought she looked around. When she saw all the colors of flowers, the way they moved around the room, Olivia thought this might be the best Heaven she’d ever seen. Flowers and waterfalls. Then she was gone.

  ~*~

  Kylan and Emmie beat the ambulance to the hospital. Waiting for their daughter was nothing that either of them had thought they’d be doing tonight. The first ambulance that pulled in had the body of the young pack member. Marie had been eleven years old, and her body had been torn apart. The second one held Samson’s daughters. Hanna was on the gurney with her arm in an air cast, while the other two were sitting in the front seat holding tightly to each other. After giving them hugs, holding onto them, they went to be taken care of while he and Emmie waited.

  “She’ll be here soon. The queen, she said she was badly hurt and that she’d have to take the poison out of her, but she’ll be all right.” Emmie had said that to him several times now. The same thing. He didn’t care. Kylan was repeating it in his mind each minute too. Finally, an ambulance pulled up, and he could see the queen in the back. “Is that her?”

  He didn’t know but moved himself and Emmie out of the way. It was Olivia. He’d only gotten a glance at her as they moved her by them on their way to the operating room. A second—he wanted just a second to assure himself and Emmie that she was breathing. Suddenly the gurney stopped, and one of the men turned.

  “Come, quickly, before the elevator gets here.” They both rushed to the gurney. “We’ve done everything we could on the way here. She’s in bad shape, but luckily she’s strong.”

  Emmie was sobbing when they shoved Olivia and the men into the waiting elevator. They could head up there in a moment, but they had the rest of their family there, and Kylan wanted to tell them what he’d seen. Before he could move, his body aching with his pain for Olivia, his dad grabbed him up like the big man he was and held him. It was only in that moment that he realized he had been falling.