by Lynn Red
If he wanted Mandy to be his mate - body and soul - she had to come willingly.
He stroked her soft red hair again, his heart already overflowing with affection for her as she slept, her nose buried against his chest, her smaller form cradled against his. There was a lot at stake, but Mandy was worth the risk. Funny how he was in love with her already, after only one day. Then he amended that thought. It wasn’t just one day.
Adrian had been in love with Mandy the moment Johnny had dragged his newly-bitten human girlfriend in front of the clan, and instead of cowering, she’d raised her tiny chin in defiance.
That was the moment he’d fallen in love.
“So,” Adrian asked her over morning coffee. “What do you want to do today?”
Mandy looked over at him in surprise. “What did you say?”
“I said, what do you want to do today?”
A hot flush of pleasure coursed through her. She…actually got to decide what she wanted to do today? No one was going to tell her what she had to do? It seemed like ever since Johnny had bitten her, her life hadn’t been her own. Even when they’d gotten back from Alaska, she was more or less parked in a cabin and told to stay put. “Is this a trick?”
Adrian shook his head, his blue eyes still sleepy. He rubbed his face and picked up his coffee cup again. “I’m off work since we’re on this ‘project’ together.”
“Ah yes, Project Trap-Mandy. I hadn’t forgotten.”
“I just thought maybe you’d have an idea of how you wanted to spend the day,” he said. “I can figure something out—“
“No,” she said quickly. “That’s okay.” Mandy tapped her fingers on her lower lip, thinking. She knew what she wanted to do but wasn’t sure if he’d go for it. Then again, it never hurt to ask. “I’d really like to go by the college and register for classes. If I wait too long, all the good ones are going to be full.”
And she braced herself. She knew Johnny, despite knowing that she was in college when they’d met, had been against her enrolling again. She should want to spend all her time with him, he’d told her after he’d turned her. What a rotten apple he’d turned out to be. And she wasn’t sure how Vic had felt about her going to college, but considering that all his tiger-people lived at the same address, she suspected he wouldn’t be keen on it.
Being a shifter sucked.
But to her surprise, Adrian took another gulp of coffee and set his cup down. “Sounds fine to me.”
“Really? It does?” She scarcely dared to breathe, in case he changed his mind. “You’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Shall we get going?”
“Give me five minutes to get ready,” Mandy told him, excited, and dashed off to the bathroom. She couldn’t stop smiling.
An hour later, they were walking toward the campus and Mandy had a course-booklet in hand, circling the classes she wanted as her first picks. They had to go through her advisor first, of course, but she had an idea of what she wanted to take. Adrian was quiet, letting her take the lead, and she felt almost normal back on campus again. Almost normal. There was still a spicy-scented shifter male at her side, and now when she entered the hallways of the building, they smelled like dust and old books and the scent of hundreds of people who’d passed through. It was a little overwhelming for her tiger senses, but Adrian’s hand at the base of her spine kept her steady.
The advisor’s office was busy and so Mandy wrote down her name and student ID number, and then sat down in an empty chair in the waiting room. Adrian sat next to her, and to her surprise, he leaned over and whispered, “So what’s your major?”
“My major?” She blinked at him. “Why?”
He shrugged. “Curious? Can’t I just wonder what it is that makes you tick?”
Well, that made her feel like a jerk. “No one seems to care lately.”
His intense blue-eyed gaze fell on her. “I can’t speak for everyone, but I happen to care.”
Yup, that pretty much made her a jerk. “Sorry,” she said meekly, toying with her phone to avoid eye contact. Not that it mattered. She could smell his scent changing to something slightly more discordant. Was that annoyance?
“Not all of us are like Johnny.”
Definitely annoyance. “I know. It’s just that…he was pretty much my only experience, you know? And it wasn’t a great one.”
He nodded, but she still felt guilty. Like she’d judged him unfairly and hurt his feelings somehow. “Biology.”
Adrian raised an eyebrow. His lips twitched. “Really?”
“Really. Though I have to admit my enthusiasm has palled a bit at the moment.”
He chuckled, and the sound was warm and silky against her skin. “I’ll bet.”
She leaned closer to him, interested that his scent seemed to be growing warmer, spicier, as if his happiness had something to do with the delicious smell he exuded. Fascinating. “So, what is it you do again? I’m pretty sure Johnny mentioned what everyone does and I’m pretty sure I didn’t listen.”
Adrian’s smile grew thoughtful. “I help Vic out in the garage. I do a lot of the antique restorations and run the books. You know, family business.” His gaze fixed on her and she could have sworn that there was a look of pride in his eyes. “It’s not the most glamorous job, I admit.”
“But helping out family isn’t a bad thing. It’s kind of noble. Is it what you always wanted to do?”
“Nope. I wanted to go to medical school, but there was never any money for it. So I stayed home and helped family.”
Her heart gave a painful thud. Her own family was in New England, probably busy attending parties or yacht clubs or something. They’d never had a ton of time for her, always shipping her off to one boarding school after another. To say they weren’t close was an understatement. “Your family must be very proud. They’re lucky to have you.”
“Family’s everything to us,” he said in a low voice. He leaned in close, so close that she could feel his warm breath against her skin. “We’re not all bad, you know. Just because being a tiger isn’t the choice you would have made…it doesn’t mean it’s the worst choice ever.”
She gazed up at him, eyes wide. What was he trying to tell her?
A hint of a smile curved his impossibly sexy mouth again, distracting her. “As for me and medical school…it worked out for the best. Did I mention I faint at the sight of blood?”
Mandy’s laughter pealed through the registrar’s office.
The rest of the day was wonderful, Mandy thought. She registered for classes and even got into two she’d been hoping for. Once her schedule was sorted out, Adrian took her out for Greek food and they snacked on gyros and tzatziki sauce while discussing what classes would move her closer to her major in the quickest amount of time. He seemed to think that her going to college was a terrific thing - unlike Johnny - and insisted on paying for classes if she couldn’t swing the tuition. “Education’s important,” was all he’d told her, but it left her mystified nevertheless. She declined the offer of money, but told him she’d take a free ride to classes when she needed one.
From there, they’d spent the afternoon running errands. Mandy bought her textbooks for classes, Adrian had to pick up a part from a specialty dealer across town, and Mandy had accompanied him. They’d passed a farmer’s market and when Mandy pointed out how much she loved fresh peaches, Adrian immediately pulled over and bought her a basketful.
That evening, they ordered pizza and watched television on Adrian’s couch together. It turned out they both liked watching the same kinds of shows - true crimes, forensics, and repeats of Law and Order. She’d spent most of the evening with her feet against his leg, happily munching on triple-meat pizza and eating fresh peaches.
At some point, she’d dozed off on the couch. She woke up back in his bed, under the covers, his back to her. She drifted back to sleep, snuggling a bit closer to him. He smelled really good.
Two hours later, though, her stomach revolted once more, and she spent
the rest of the night hugging the toilet. Adrian kept his place at her side, smoothing her hair back and giving her sips of water between puking. And when she was completely wrung out once more, he carried her back to bed.
The next morning, Mandy craved sausage. Badly. She got up and headed to Adrian’s fridge, only to growl at the sight. “There’s nothing in here but beer.”
“I eat out,” he told her with a yawn. “Want to go get breakfast?”
Boy, did she. She was ravenous. So she nodded and grabbed his car keys off the counter, tossing them at him. “Come on. I want breakfast as of yesterday.”
They dressed and headed out to a tiny little pancake house off the highway, and Mandy ordered extra sausage, extra bacon, and every meat product she could find on the menu. Omelet? Extra ham, please, with extra chorizo, bacon, and extra-extra sausage.
Adrian’s brows wrinkled as he watched her order. “Maybe you should have pancakes or something…benign.”
“Maybe you should shut up,” she shot back, feeling surly. Why was he bossing her around suddenly? “The order stands.”
He shrugged and returned to his order.
By the time the food came, Mandy’s mouth was watering and she was about to toss back the bottle of ketchup sitting on the table when the mountain of breakfast meats arrived. She made a small moan of pleasure and tucked into the food before the plate was set down in front of her. God, she was so hungry.
It was midway through her extra-bacon, extra-sausage, extra-chorizo omelet that she realized she was going to be sick. Her stomach gurgled unhappily and she shot a panicked look at Adrian, eyes wide.
“Shit. Meat.” He pulled out his wallet and tossed several twenties on the table. “We need to go, now.”
For once, she didn’t argue. Her organs were giving that weird, painful twist that told her that something was going to be shifting whether she liked it or not. It was like last night’s barf-session in the bathroom, but worse. The meat, she groaned, hating herself. Adrian had warned her that it triggered a shift, and this morning she’d woken up all fired up to eat as much greasy meat as she could shove down her throat.
Her body was telling her it was time for a shift, whether she wanted it or not.
She bolted up from the table and raced out, Adrian’s hand pressed against her back. She barely made it back to the car before her stomach gave in and she doubled over in pain. “Oh God.”
“Are you going to puke?” Adrian’s voice was soft, soothing, even as he reversed the car out of the parking lot at high speed. He reached over and smoothed her hair off her damp brow.
“Worse,” she told him, panting hard. “I’m going to shift.”
“We can handle it,” he told her. “Just stay calm and breathe.”
“I don’t want to shift,” she told him, a bit of a whine in her voice. “I want to go back to my old life. This isn’t what I wanted.”
“I know,” he told her, voice full of understanding. “But your body’s not listening and we need to make sure everything’s going smoothly before we panic over who wants what, okay? So don’t worry. I’m here for you. Now, breathe.”
She nodded and breathed slowly, trying to calm her body. Maybe if she kept control, kept calm, everything would lock itself back into place and be normal again. Even as she told herself that, her lower arms itched, and as she scratched at her skin, fur began to sprout.
Fuuuuuck. A whimper escaped her throat.
“S’okay, Mandy. I got you,” Adrian comforted her. His hand smoothed her hair. “I’m here.”
And for some reason, that did make her feel better.
When they pulled back up to the Merino land, Adrian jumped out of the car and raced over to her side of the car. He tugged her door open, and she spilled out into his arms. Her legs weren’t working right at the moment, her calves cramping something fierce. But he seemed to guess that she was going to have trouble, because he immediately picked her up and began carrying her. “Just relax and try to breathe,” he murmured. “Everything’s going to be fine.”
“It’s not,” Mandy said, and she began to weep. “I don’t want to change.”
“I know,” he said as he carried her down the path toward his cabin. “But it’s coming on whether you want it to or not.”
“I don’t,” she sobbed, burying her face against his chest. “Everything hurts.”
“That’s because you’re fighting it. You’ve got to let go.” He pushed his front door open and strode down the hall, toward the bedroom.
“I can’t not fight it! I don’t know how to welcome it.” Nor did she particularly want to. But the pain tearing through her guts was destroying her will to fight rapidly.
“Which is why you have to relax,” he said patiently. He set her down on the edge of the bed and began to undress her, his movements calm and even, as if he dealt with panicky human-turned-tiger-shifter women all the time. “Breathe with me. Breathe.” He inhaled deeply and then exhaled noisily, even as he tugged her shirt over her head.
She nodded and tried to match her breathing to his. He pulled the rest of her clothing off, tossed it aside, and then pulled the blankets over her. His hand stroked her sweating brow. “You want a drink?”
“Cold water?” She asked hopefully. Maybe they could still turn this around.
He shook his head. “That’s a bad idea. It’ll just prolong things. Let me get you some hot tea. Or something.”
She settled back down in the blankets as he headed out to the kitchen and turned on the coffee pot. While she waited, she flexed her tingling fingers and glared at the claws slowly curling out of her fingernails. Her skin was starting to take on the tiger stripes, her arms and legs slowly furring over.
God, she hated this. Day three of their bet had barely begun and here she was, losing her shit and transforming and crying like a baby. Ugh. No wonder he’d taken the bet. He’d probably known all along that he was going to win, and that depressed her even more. Now he was stuck with her, just like she was stuck being a tiger.
When he entered the room with a cup, he set it next to the bed and then helped her sit up to drink, even as her body clenched and protested. “It’s coffee, but the heat will relax your muscles,” he told her. “Drink it and it’ll speed things along. I also turned the air conditioner off. Same reason.”
She nodded and sipped the drink. It made her clenching stomach protest and she flopped back onto the pillows, panting. Adrian started to get up and she clung to his hand, feeling needy. “Talk to me?”
“Of course.” He smiled down at her and stroked his fingers over her face, seemingly unbothered by the fact that she was sweating like a fevered woman or that she was randomly sprouting fur. “You’re doing great. This is, what, your third shift?”
“Fourth,” she told him. “How come you don’t have a mate?”
“It looks like I do,” he teased, and touched a finger to her nose. “She’s currently on her fourth change.”
“Not me,” she said, swiping at him with one hand that looked more and more like a paw as the seconds passed. “How come you never had a mate before me?”
He shrugged. “Never was interested before.”
That was surprising. He’d been all over her ever since he’d declared that he wanted her as his mate. Not in a bad way, just in a way that let her know exactly what his intentions were. Then, it dawned on her. “Oh. It’s because I’m a tiger, right?” The only other female tiger-shifter in the area was Estrella, Vic’s mate, and she was only half tiger. The rest of the Merino clan were men, and as a one, they seemed very, very single. That was the reason why Johnny had turned her, after all. He was lonely.
“Not the tiger thing,” Adrian said in a musing voice. “Though I admit, I find it attractive. But there are other big cat females in the territory. I could have pursued one of them, I suppose.” He shrugged and brushed another sweaty lock of hair off her face. “Like I said, just wasn’t interested before. They were missing…something.”
And b
ecause she was feeling a little pathetic, she asked, “Something that I have?”
His mouth curved into a smile. “Yeah. Which is why I wanted to murder Johnny when he got you exiled, and why I nearly murdered him again when he abandoned you. Because you’ve got that something that attracts me, and I was helpless to do anything about it, short of fighting my brother for you.”
“He didn’t abandon me, he dumped me. Though it was kind of mutual at that point.”
“He abandoned you,” Adrian said, his expression hard. “He turned you and then when he didn’t get his way, he left you to fend for yourself. That won’t happen with me.” He leaned in and caressed her mouth. “I would never leave you to fend for yourself. Ever.”
“I know,” she told him. It was true; she did believe him. Since they’d been forced to spend time together this week, he’d been nothing but attentive and caring. It was a shame they had to meet under these circumstances, really. If he hadn’t been a tiger, she’d have loved dating someone like him. But because he was…it felt like giving in to like him. Like she was just giving up on who Mandy Used to Be. And she couldn’t. She had opinions, dreams, plans. She mattered, damn it.
Adrian gave her an intense look. For a moment, Mandy wondered if he was going to say something to her. Something to make her feel better, less hopeless. But he only leaned in and very gently kissed her mouth.
And oh, that was so sweet that she couldn’t help but respond to it. Her lips parted under his, and she kissed him back. His hand caressed her cheek, and then he continued to kiss her, nibbling and sucking at her lips. She moaned against his mouth…
And then her transformation kicked into high gear, and Adrian pulled away with a look of regret as Mandy went tiger.
If she had to be a shifter, she supposed, being a tiger wasn’t so bad. She was strong, and powerful, and her sense of smell was great. She prowled through the woods, her tail swishing back and forth as she chased down rabbits and armadillos and whatever else caught her attention. Adrian was there, in his transformed tiger form, but he stayed out of her way and let her have the roam of things. If she got too far off track, he’d swing by with a nip to remind her to stay on the Merino land. Other than that, she was on her own, and it was gloriously freeing.