Loving the Tigers

by Tianna Xander

  Kelly almost cried when her friend agreed with her. Gawd they’re gorgeous! Her body practically hummed with the need to jump their bones. You can’t leave without knowing if they’re attracted to full-figured women.

  Reaching out, she picked up her glass, tipping it back. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Just eat your lunch and leave. They’re too hot for you anyway. What guy who looks like that would want your big ass in your size twenty jeans?

  Chapter Four

  Derek studied the interior of the diner for a bit, watching the costumed townsfolk, until his curiosity got the best of him and he turned his attention to the two women they passed on the way to their table. He’d had a difficult time walking by without stopping. He wanted nothing more than to kneel at the brunette’s feet and beg her to go home with them.

  Her dark beauty nearly brought him to his knees and her scent was intoxicating. His body hardened to the point of pain when he drew in his first breath near her. His tiger rammed at the ethereal barrier that kept him caged within his human form. The animal wanted his mate. How could he blame the beast for wanting the very thing his human half craved with every passing moment?

  Glancing at Mac, he lifted a brow as if to ask what in hell the other man wanted.

  “What are you two doing here?” Mac curled his lip. He appeared about as pissed as Derek felt. What were Mac and Gareth doing ogling his and Zach’s mate?

  What’s his problem? he asked Zach through their private mental link. We aren’t the ones ogling their mate.

  The other two no doubt communicated through their own link. As far as Derek knew, all shifters had limited telepathic abilities. Those with a strong emotional or blood bond had their own private link, akin to their own radio station, only they could receive.

  Maybe they’re looking at the blonde. Zach shrugged when he glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. I can hope, can’t I? The last thing I want to do is go home and tell our prince we fought the men he sent us to guard and protect.

  Hell. Derek sighed. You’re right. You know I hate it when you’re right. Zach just grinned. The ass. “Corbin sent us to keep an eye on you two. In the event that you find your mate, he wanted to know that someone had your backs.” He leaned forward in his seat, snatched a menu out of the holder in the center of the table and opened it to the first page.

  “We have each other’s backs.” Mac growled when he noticed Derek studying the brunette. “And stop staring at our mate.”

  “Your mate?” Derek tightened his grip on the menu. Shit! We’re going to have a fight on our hands. “Which one?” At least he’d had the presence of mind to ask the question before his tiger tore free of his tight leash and ripped the other man apart.

  “Yeah.” Zach shifted in his seat, thrusting his shoulders back, no doubt preparing for battle. “Which one?”

  “The blonde.” Mac glowered at them. He sat stiffly, his hands balled into fists as he, too, fought his beast’s wrath.

  Derek breathed a sigh and Zach sat back in his seat.

  Thank the stars they didn’t attempt to lay claim to the brunette.

  Yes, Zach agreed, obviously relieved.

  “It looks as though someone else needs to watch your backs, as well.” Gareth grinned.

  To hell with that. Derek cleared his throat. “We’ll have to watch each other’s backs and make sure that none of us does something stupid.” He took a deep breath. “I’m not about to call any more tigers into this situation. Two mates for two different sets of tigers is coincidence enough. I refuse to take the chance that our mate could be compatible with someone else.”

  Mac and Gareth nodded their agreement.

  “There is one good thing about the two of them being potential mates.” Zach set his menu down, sat back in his seat and crossed his legs at the ankles. “We can all move just that much faster. I don’t know about you two, but I can hardly wait to get our woman alone.”

  “Neither can I,” Derek couldn’t help but add. He couldn’t wait to see if her lovely coffee and cream skin was as soft as it looked.

  “You two might like to take things fast, but Gareth and I like to take things a bit slower,” Mac said as he relaxed into his chair with a slow smile. “We like things hot. You can’t get hot when you’re in a hurry.”

  Wanna bet? Derek did his best not to smirk at the other man who thought so much of himself. When aroused, he could make things hot in the worst of circumstances—especially with the woman nature intended to complete him.

  With an expression that said, watch this, Mac pushed away from their table and stood. Stretching, the ass made sure to get the women’s attention by showing off his height and muscular build before he slowly made his way over to their table. “Excuse me, ladies.” He bent slightly at the waist. Derek could only assume the showoff was smiling at the two unsuspecting females. “Would you mind if I borrowed your sugar?”

  He turned and waved his arm toward his companion. “Our table doesn’t have much.”

  The females stared at him, speechless. What was the ass trying to prove, anyway? That their mate was attracted to them? Hell, it was most likely obvious to the humans in the room.

  “Um...” The blonde licked her lips.

  He’d better not make a move on our mate, Zach practically growled through their mental link.

  He won’t. It’s the blonde he’s after. Leash your beast before he makes a spectacle of all of us. Zach had a handle on his tiger by a thread. His tension was palpable. The last thing they needed was for the idiot to cause an incident.

  “Keep it,” the blonde said as she handed him the sugar. “We obviously don’t need it.”

  What in the world did she mean by that? he asked Zach with a frown.

  Zach shrugged. Hell if I know.

  “I’m Mac,” he said as he offered his hand. “It’s short for MacKenzie.” He half gestured to the rest of them. “The man by himself is my best friend Gareth. The other two in the blue and green t-shirts are Zach and Derek respectively.”

  “I—um... it’s nice to meet you. I’m Jessi.” She pointed to her friend. “This is Kelly.”

  Zach almost laughed aloud when she jerked her hand from Mac’s and wiped it on the napkin in her lap.

  “Well, you’re probably right about the sugar. It would only make you sweeter.”

  “Don’t you mean fatter?” She glared up at him and thinned her lips.

  Fat? Derek studied the two women for a moment. I only see two beautifully curvy women in need of real men to show them their worth.

  Me, too, Zach concurred. At least they could agree on that one thing. The rest would remain to be seen.

  Chapter Five

  Kelly stared at herself in the mirror. Her hazel eyes looked huge, no doubt because she was scared to death. Whatever had possessed them to agree to spend more time with the four men?

  After the men convinced them to have dinner with them, they all went out and purchased costumes for Jessi and her. Jessi’s had been that of a white tiger and hers red. The red-gold material shot through with black stripes had been little more than what appeared to be a long-sleeved bodysuit with a tail.

  Still, they had each looked amazing, as the men, no doubt, knew they would. After dinner, they went dancing then each ended up back in their guys’ room.

  Biting her lip, she stared at her reflection. Could she really do this? They said they were shape shifters. Hell, they’d even proved it by shifting into huge tigers right in front of her. Still, there was the little devil’s advocate inside her insisting that they could never, would never, give her the lifelong commitment they promised.

  “You’re damaged goods,” she whispered into the mirror. Tears streamed down her face as she came to a decision that she knew she couldn’t tell Jessi about—at least not yet.

  Never would she take the chance of ruining Jessi’s chance at happiness. Jessi had a shot. She’d never been as bad as Kelly when they were younger
. Kelly didn’t deserve that kind of happiness and she certainly wasn’t worthy of the two men in the bedroom who were so earnest to love a woman—any woman, apparently.

  Mind made up, Kelly took a deep breath and reached for the doorknob. She would tell them her decision then she would leave. Jessi was in the best of hands. It was time for her to disappear before she ruined things for everyone.

  Squaring her shoulders, Kelly opened the door and faced the two men who awaited her.

  “I thought you were going to undress.” Zach’s brow furrowed as he glanced at her costume. “You even still have your shoes on.”

  “Yes. About that,” she said, swallowing thickly. “I’ve changed my mind.” She stared at the floor, unable to meet their gaze. What could she say? That she’d chickened out?

  “Why?”

  “What changed your mind?” Derek stood still—too still. It made her fear the predator within him.

  “Me.” She shrugged at his frozen expression. “I’m not good enough for you.” She held up her hand when he would have interrupted her. “Don’t. Just don’t. Hear me out before you argue with me.”

  She moved to stare out the window at the sparkling lights of the town below, tapping her fingers on the sill. “I’ve never been what you might call a good girl. In fact, people where I’m from have many names for girls like me.” Tears burned her eyes as she prepared to voice her wanton behavior.

  “A nice way to put it is loose. More derogatory terms would be slut or whore.” She rested her forehead against the cool glass and shook her head at the sound of their approach. “Please don’t touch me. Let me finish.” She wanted to finish, yet wasn’t sure how.

  “For whatever reason, when I was younger, I liked having sex with two men at once.” She laughed. “Maybe I should have said boys, because none of the males in Langston hold a candle to either of you. Still, they were up to the task, though I never found what it was I was looking for. It took me nearly a year to discover that guys don’t need to love you to have sex with you.

  “It’s different for girls. At least it is for most of us. We think that a guy loves us when they have sex with us. That is, until they call us names and point and laugh at us when they’re with their friends.”

  God, why did this have to hurt so much? Why couldn’t they just let her go so she didn’t have to relive her mistakes?

  “But we would never—”

  “Please, let me finish.”

  “You are finished as far as I’m concerned.” Derek grasped her arm and turned her around. “I’m not going to stand here and listen to you tear yourself down. What you did in the past is in the past. What you did only prepared you.” He gestured to Zach. “It prepared you for the two of us and we will never be anything but grateful.”

  “Right.” She laughed. “Men are never grateful that someone else was there before them. It’s only a matter of time before you two decide you held yourselves too cheaply and you could have done so much better than me.” Tilting her head back, Kelly squared her shoulders and looked each of them in the eye, in turn. “I don’t want to be the one to blame for your unhappiness a year down the road. I can’t—”She sobbed. “I just can’t.”

  Pushing her way between them, she rushed to the door and paused. “Don’t tell Jessi I’ve gone. Not yet. Let her think that we’re all headed to the cascade to live happily ever after. This is her time. Don’t ruin it for her. Just tell her not to change her cell phone number. I’ll contact her again when I’m ready.”

  Opening the door, she ran from the room.

  * * * *

  Three months later...

  Kelly stared out the window still lost in her memories. That chance meeting had changed her friend’s life. It could have changed hers, as well, if only she hadn’t chickened out. If only she could have trusted the two men who claimed to love her after only a day.

  It had been too much, too fast. Besides, had they truly loved her, they would have found her, wouldn’t they? Turning, she studied the apartment she had called home for the last several months and knew her decision to leave had been the right one.

  The first couple of weeks away from them had been hell. Worse than hell. Her stomach burned and cramped, and she thought she would die, if not from some virulent disease, or whatever it was they had called their mating heat, from the heartbreak of knowing they hadn’t cared enough to come for her, to find her.

  Obviously, her decision had been the correct one, but being right didn’t keep her warm at night and it certainly wouldn’t take the place of her battery-operated toys that had seen better days—most of which had been thrown into the trash. There was nothing more frustrating than having one’s vibrator sputter out at precisely the wrong moment.

  “You said I was your mate, that neither of you could ever love another.” Something wet hit the back of her fingers. She looked down, startled to see a second drop splashing against her skin. Reaching up, she swiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand.

  “You both lied to me.” Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out her cell phone and stared at it. She dreaded her monthly calls to Jessi. Every time they talked, Jessi attempted to get her to reveal her location. Maybe this time she would. It’s not like Zach and Derek would show up on her doorstep anytime soon. If they’d wanted to find her, they would have, she was sure of it.

  “Hello.”

  Kelly closed her eyes at the sound of Jessi’s voice on the other end of the line. “Hi, Jess! How are you doing?”

  “I’ll be there in a few minutes. I’m talking to Kelly,” said the muffled sound of Jessi’s voice as she called out to someone. “Where are you?”

  “Why is it that those are always the first three words you say when you find out it’s me calling?”

  “Because where you are, is just about the only thing I want to hear from you, other than that you’re alive and well.” Jessi sighed. “You have to let Zack and Derek come for you. You’re the only person they think about. They’ve been searching day and night. Heck, Kell, no one even knows where they are. They just disappeared off the face of the Earth. Neither of them even answers their cell phones anymore.”

  Great! It would be safe to tell Jessi where she was. Kelly blinked back her tears. Wasn’t that what she wanted?

  “Now... where are you?”

  “I’m in Rhode Island.”

  “Rhode Island? What the hell are you doing there?” Jessi screeched.

  Kelly pulled the phone away from her ear. “Hiding out. I thought you knew,” she said dryly.

  “What made you decide to finally tell me?” Jessi lowered her voice. “Have you changed your mind?”

  “No. Not really. I mean...” She bit her bottom lip. “Don’t you think if they wanted to find me, they could?”

  “Maybe they’ve been giving you some space.”

  “For all these months?” She snorted. “Come on, Jessi, you can’t really believe that.”

  “I don’t know what to believe other than now that I know what it means to be mated, I know that being apart from you has to be killing them.”

  “Being apart from me can’t really kill them,” she said with a laugh. Then her heart skipped a beat. “Can it?”

  “I have no idea,” Jessi replied with a sigh. “All I know is that I’ve seen a few tigers, and a few of the people from another town called Paradise, while they suffered from the mating heat and it wasn’t pretty. And...” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “They said they’ve had to kill a few of them.”

  “No!” Kelly gasped. “Why would they admit to such a thing?”

  “Apparently, they go crazy or something, and attack their mate, or others. They become dangerous and must be eradicated before they call attention to the others of their kind.”

  Crap! What should she do, now? Kelly stuck the tip of her thumb in her mouth and bit the nail. “I—I don’t want them to die, Jess!”

  Chapter Six

  “Sh
e’s finally told Jessi where she is.” Zach ended the call to his voicemail and glanced at Derek.

  “Where?”

  “Jessi didn’t say. I think she wants me to call her back.”

  “Bribery, huh?” The right side of Derek’s mouth kicked up in a half grin. “What are you going to do if she’s bluffing?”

  “What can I going to do?” Zach shrugged. “It’s not as though she doesn’t have two mates who would rip us apart if we attempted to take her to task for lying.”

  “True.” Derek sighed and lifted a brow. “So... are you going to tell them, or should I?”

  “I’ll do it.” After all, they really should tell her best friend that they’d found her nearly eleven weeks ago and had been staying nearby to both protect her and to be close when she finally changed her mind and decided they were right for each other. Zach took a swallow from the drink in front of him and glanced through the window. “Shit!”

  “What?” Derek turned his head to follow his gaze. “Well... I guess your phone call is going to have to wait.” He laughed with a shake of his head. “We’re both going to be too busy explaining what the hell we’re doing here, for the next few minutes.”

  “You got that right.” Zach took another pull from the glass of iced tea and wished it had been something stronger. Unfortunately, the diner across the street from Kelly’s apartment didn’t serve anything stronger than coffee, tea, and soft drinks.

  “What do you think brings her over here, today?” Not once in the last few months had Kelly stepped one foot in the place. In fact, they’d never seen her eat in a restaurant since they’d found her. She’d grown thinner. While still curvy and beautiful, she had lost the fullness they loved. She’d also lost something else. Her smile was different now than it had been before. Maybe she’d lost her joy for life. He pressed his lips together to hide his reaction when her stormy hazel eyes stared into his.