Petting Them: An Anthology of Claw-ver Tails

by Tate James

  There was a pop. Michaella spun, smile wide, expecting to see one of her husbands. But that was not who stood, glaring at her with a hate so strong that Michaella could almost feel it. “Margery Addington—”

  Not even Evan the Butcher had made Michaella as frightened as she was now. But then, she hadn’t held her baby daughter in her arms when facing down the madman.

  Dark circles rimmed Marge’s eyes, but her clothes and hair were as perfect as they’d been the first time Michaella had met her. “Do you know how long I’ve waited for this?” Marge asked. “A dozen times I had the opportunity to kill you, but I didn’t. I saw you were pregnant, and I said to myself, ‘Margie. Just wait. It will be so much more worthwhile if you wait.’” She smiled, her eyes on Vivian. Michaella turned her body to shield her baby. “Vivian.”

  In all the months between the Addingtons proposal and this moment, Michaella hadn’t thought of Marge. She’d been too busy. She and the guys had had to find a practitioner to perform a binding ceremony to connect her them. Then they discovered she was pregnant, and they’d dealt with her being tired and nauseated for months. And after Vivian’s birth, she’d been too wildly happy settling into parenthood to think about the past.

  How could she have forgotten this woman was still out there? Well, she’d gotten blissfully good at being happy. She’d been an idiot. This baby had powers that Marge thought she could have if she just killed her. Kill Vivi. Kill Zach, Bradley, and David. Marge would have everything she wanted.

  Michaella hadn’t meant to kill Evan. But this woman here, threatening her so that she could turn around and take the life of her baby? That wasn’t going to happen. Not while she had breath in her body.

  Evan had needed healing. Marge didn’t. But as a healer, Michaella had another, unique ability. She could strip powers.

  Before Marge could move a finger, Michaella blasted her with everything she had inside. She didn’t even speak. There really didn’t need to be anything else said. One threat was enough. Marge’s eyes widened as she fell to her knees. Yes, the process hurt. At Prestige they used to numb the patient before they did this, but Marge wasn’t getting any kindness today.

  For all that Marge had wanted more power, had been obsessed with it, she was going to wind up with nothing. Three pops sounded, and she knew her husbands were there. They’d have felt the power surge even in sleep.

  Marge fell to her knees, crying out. Oh, the woman wasn’t going to die. Not yet. But she’d be powerless, grow weaker every day.

  David spoke. “You don’t have to do this, love. We can take it from here.”

  “She threatened us. Threatened Vivi. I can’t abide that.”

  Zach walked over, staring down at Marge. “Did you threaten my daughter?”

  There was another pop.

  Lawson had taken to showing up on occasion. She’d consulted with him on cases where he thought a healer might have insight into the mental capacity of a fallen witch. Whether this time was an accident or he’d somehow known she was about to kill someone, she didn’t know, and didn’t care.

  He was an Enforcer. That meant she was either stopping this or she was going to jail.

  Lawson cleared his throat before her stream of power suddenly stopped. Well, that had to be a nifty trick. Tears flooded her eyes. “She threatened Vivi.”

  “I’m sure she did.” Lawson nodded. “Which makes it a good thing I got here right in time before any of you could use magic. None of you did anything.”

  Marge floated into the air and screamed. Michaella gasped. She felt the moment Lawson tore Marge’s powers out of her body. “Amazing how I got here right in time to hear the threat and take action.”

  She understood what he was saying. They had to go with his story. She linked her fingers with David after passing the baby to Bradley. He’d keep her safe.

  Two more pops and Marge and Lawson disappeared. Michaella let out a long breath. “I would have killed her.”

  “I know.” Zach nodded. “You’re incredibly strong. I hope you finally believe it.”

  She could feel their love inside of her. Never again would she be alone. The baby cooed, the sound trailing off into a contented trill almost like a purr. “Even though Marge’s intentions were bad, if she hadn’t had you turned into cats, we wouldn’t be here now.”

  “I’m not thanking her.” Bradley said. “But you do make us want to purr, baby.”

  She grinned. Meow.

  About the Authors

  To read more from these authors please follow on Amazon:

  Amazon.com/Ripley-Proserpina/e/B01M7O0SZO

  Amazon.com/Rebecca-Royce/e/B004E50FPW

  Or visit their websites:

  www.rebeccaroyce.com

  www.ripleyproserpina.com

  THEIR TYGRESS

  JOELY-SUE BURKHART

  Description

  Three tiger princes find their lost princess, and they’re never letting her go…

  Exhausted after a double shift at the diner, Kimber Leigh falls asleep in her crappy apartment, only to wake up on a strange planet surrounded by huge, ferocious tigers.

  They’re licking her awake and purring as if they found a delicious treat. Turning into a tiger snack was not on her to-do list today, but they don’t hurt her.

  Instead they start talking, and things really get weird.

  Doing her best not to freak out, she listens to the tigers’ tale about their world, Dhalmaria, and the four tribes of Tygers. Each tiger is a prince of his tribe, and they believe she’s the lost princess of the fourth tribe. Which is certainly ridiculous, because she’s human. Isn’t she?

  When the tigers shift into three gorgeous men determined to claim their lost Tygress, she may never wake up from this fantastic dream.

  Because they’re never letting her go…

  1

  So warm and cozy—I never wanted to wake up.

  I knew it was a dream and I clung to it desperately. I hadn’t been so warm in ages. Even if I could afford the gas bill to actually bump up the thermostat, my crappy apartment would just leak all that heat out anyway.

  But this. Oh, this was nice. I could actually feel my toes and fingers. The tip of my nose wasn’t about to freeze and crack off because I couldn’t stand the blanket over my face. My cheap-ass bed wasn’t nearly this comfortable. Or furry.

  Wait. What?

  Now I wanted to wake up, but my brain was still fuzzy and lingered in that half-awake, half-dreamy state of bliss. There was a strange, low rumbling sound beneath my ear. I tried to place that sound. A jet engine taking off in the distance? No, this was close. Like I had my head resting on a growly sports car’s engine.

  But it was soft. I had to still be dreaming.

  Something licked my ankle. Even my groggy brain recognized that sensation as the stroke of a tongue. No doubt about it. Though the tongue was rough sandpaper. And big. Too big to be human.

  Wow, what a fucked-up dream. I laughed to myself, rolling over and cuddling into the incredibly soft, fluffy pillow that purred so beautifully beneath my ear. I stroked my fingers deeper into thick fur.

  The sandpaper swiped over my ankle again. Up my calf. Then my shoulder.

  My brain stuttered a moment, trying to reconcile the two sensations. Two licks. At the same time. So there had to be two tongues. Right? I laughed in my head and it sounded hysterical, even to myself.

  A low coughing sound came from behind me. The fine hairs on my nape stood straight up and quivered with alarm. What kind of thing made that sound? What kind of animal?

  That was furry. And, licked. And, purred.

  Some kind of big cat?

  Two of them.

  Wake up, Kimber, I growled in my head. This is too fucked up even for you.

  Something tickled my nose. I batted it away, but it came right back. I finally got my sleepy fingers to cooperate and grabbed it. The thing that was tickling me was…

  I blinked at my hand stupidly. Were my eyes open? Was I awake? But h
ow could I be?

  Because I held a striped white-and-black tail in my hands.

  A fucking tail.

  It jerked out of my hand and bopped me in the nose again.

  I shot upright with a squeal and looked down at the pillow I’d been using.

  Soft, thick white fur moved up and down gently, but the rest of the body was brilliant orange with black stripes. The tail swished around playfully. A huge paw lay beside my knee. Fucking huge. Like dinner plate size.

  “Ho. Lee. Shee. It!”

  A massive tiger lay curled around me. Bigger than anything I’d ever seen, even on television. I wanted to say it was a Bengal tiger, but surely a real one didn’t get this big. Fucking huge. Like horse-sized.

  My heart pounded so hard that black spots started to float in my vision. What should I do? Slowly stand up and try to walk away? Or sit here and use its stomach as a pillow again?

  A sound escaped my mouth that was part way between a wail and a snort.

  “I told you we shouldn’t wake her up,” a male voice said behind me. “Not while we were close.”

  A second voice retorted, “I’m not leaving our fucking mate unprotected for even one fucking second. She can deal with our beasts, or she’s not our mate.”

  “Don’t fuck this up,” the first voice said sharply. “She may not have any idea what we are. If we scare her away…”

  Their argument gave me a few moments to let my body catch up with my thoughts. My breathing steadied a bit. This had to be a pet trained tiger and those two men were its trainers. How I got to a fucking circus in my sleep was another question entirely, but I could only handle one impossible dilemma at a time. My brain quivered on the verge of full hysterical screaming mode at the thought of mate so I pretended that I didn’t hear that part.

  Slowly, in case sudden movement made the purring tiger pounce on me, I turned toward the two voices. “How did I—”

  My words fell off and I stared with my mouth hanging open.

  Two more tigers. Not men.

  I was fucking surrounded. By three fucking tigers. That fucking talked.

  There weren’t enough f-bombs to sufficiently convey the situation to my groggy brain.

  “Hello,” the one on the right said in a cheerful, deep voice that seemed so wrong coming out of a tiger’s mouth. “I’m Dharius, and this is Kazhar. Welcome to Dhalmaria.”

  “I’m Kimber Leigh.” I was pleased that my voice didn’t crack or quiver with shock. “Where the fuck is Dhalmaria and how did I get here?”

  The tiger lying beside me purred louder, drawing my attention to back to him. He rolled over on his back invitingly. “I’m Marak, and you can use me as a pillow anytime. Dhalmaria is our homeland, and your arrival was entirely your doing.”

  Now I knew that he was full of shit because all I’d done was fall into bed bone-tired after working a double shift at the diner for the umpteenth time this month. “Look, I don’t know what the fuck is going on here. Maybe I ate some really bad shit at the diner and this is all a food-poisoning-induced nightmare. Or I got hit by a bus and I’m actually in the hospital. Or maybe I finally lost my marbles. I don’t know. But there’s no way any of this is real. Tigers don’t talk. I’ve never heard of Dhalmaria. I have no fucking clue how I got here, but you’d better send me back real quick before… before…”

  His whiskers twitched. His tail flipped up and the tip curled around my neck before slowly sliding away. “Yes? What dire threats will fall upon our heads if we don’t comply with your demands at once?”

  The bastard was making fun of me, even if he wasn’t outright laughing. If he were a man, I’d be tempted to kick him in the junk and make a run for it, though I had no idea where I was or where I should go anyway. I didn’t know much about tigers, but kicking one and running away like a prey animal seemed like a pretty stupid idea.

  As if he heard my thoughts, he cracked his mouth open and gave me a glimpse of wicked sharp teeth that sent shards of terror slicing through me. I clenched my lips shut, but a whimper still escaped.

  “Fucking moron,” one of the other two retorted as he plopped down beside me. I swayed, fighting to keep from screaming at the top of my lungs. My heart pounded so hard I was actually afraid I was going to have a heart attack, or at least faint.

  He planted one of his big paws on the other tiger’s throat and pinned him to the ground. “We won’t hurt you. Ever. In fact, we’ll kill anyone who even thinks about hurting you, Kimber Leigh. He’s sorry for scaring you. Aren’t you, Marak?”

  “Yes,” he said, his voice strangled. “Very sorry, Kimber Leigh.”

  “If you want to go back to your home, we’ll help you. Right?”

  “Right,” the other tiger wheezed. “But—“

  “Right.” He shoved his paw harder on the other one’s throat. “If you can, please tell us more about where you came from, and how you came to us.”

  I took a few deep breaths, trying to slow my racing heart. “I don’t know how I got here. At all.”

  The third tiger sat down on my other side. He was even bigger than the other two. I shivered, trying not to flinch. Or scream. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Trembling, I closed my eyes. Maybe if I didn’t see three hulking tigers surrounding me, my heart rate would settle down. They hadn’t tried to hurt me at all. They hadn’t even touched me, other than the playful tail. I needed help. Serious help. Because I had no idea what the fuck was going on.

  If I ever wanted to go home… My breath hitched and I squeezed my hands together in my lap. “I don’t know what happened. I don’t remember anything different or strange.”

  “Tell us what you do remember,” the bigger tiger on my left said. His voice was deep and low, incredibly soothing.

  “I got home from work.”

  The grouchier tiger on my right removed his paw from his friend’s throat. “Where’s home?”

  “St. Louis.”

  “What planet is St. Louis?”

  I blinked. Planet? Like… maybe… we weren’t on Earth?

  Opening my eyes, I looked around. I couldn’t see much but huge, thick trees and lush green ferns. I couldn’t immediately identify the trees, but they weren’t freaky or strange. Just huge, as if they were hundreds of years old. I tipped my head back, trying to see how tall they were, but the canopy went on and on forever. Whoa.

  Pink. The sky was pink, streaked with orange. Was it sunrise? Or was the sky always that color?

  “Is it morning?” I asked faintly. “Or sunset?”

  “Neither.” The biggest tiger rumbled. “It’s midday.”

  “Um. Okay.” I took a deep breath. This was okay. Sure. Pink and orange skies weren’t that strange. Maybe they had a lot of pollution. “St. Louis is in Missouri. In the United States of America.”

  I held my breath, waiting for their response.

  “I’ve never heard of this system or planet,” the tiger on my left said. “Have you?”

  “No.”

  I swallowed hard. “Earth? In the um…” My brain went blank. What was our solar system called other than… solar system? “The Milky Way? Wait, that’s the galaxy. I think. Ugh, I hate science.”

  “I’m sorry, Kimber Leigh. We’ve never heard of this place, but Dhalmarians aren’t known for traveling the universe. The only other aliens we’ve encountered are the Sitti. While they have exposed us to many other races and species, I’ve not heard of these places you claim as home.”

  My head throbbed. Absently, I rubbed my temples and hoped I wasn’t giving myself a stroke and a heart attack at the same time. “I’ve never heard of the Sitti or Dhalmaria. Wait, so you think I’m an alien? I’m human! Aliens are little green men in UFOs who want to blow up the world.”

  Rolling over, the tiger I’d been lying on earlier sat up. Oh shit, they were so big. I felt like a toddler staring up at giants. “Humans are aliens to Dhalmarians. But we’d want you even if your skin was as green as your eyes.”

&
nbsp; “If I’m an alien, how are we talking to each other? How am I breathing your air? This is ridiculous!”

  He lowered his giant head so his eyes were just inches from my face. Fuck, he was beautiful. Never in a million years would I have ever thought to sit so close to a fucking wild tiger. His eyes gleamed like the bluest sapphires I’d ever seen. I already knew his fur was downy soft. The detail of his stripes and markings were incredible. I wanted to trace the stripes and bury my face in his furry white chest and ask him to purr some more. Maybe then I wouldn’t be so scared.

  “May I tell you a story, Kimber Leigh? It may seem impossible, but I swear on your life that this is the truth.”

  Staring into his eyes, I slowly reached up and touched his face, trailing my fingers along the black markings over his broad forehead and around his eyes. I could feel the softness of his fur. I could smell them all, a spicy feral scent that wasn’t bad—but definitely nothing I’d ever smelled before. They started purring, a deep rattling purr that vibrated through me. The biggest one had a bass rumble, but they were all low and growly and very relaxing.

  I was sitting here talking to three tigers that I could see, touch, hear, and smell. I couldn’t reason that away.

  I had to accept the impossible. No matter how impossible it was.

  Sighing, I leaned forward and pressed my face against the soft fluffy white fur of his chest.

  I was an alien lost on a tiger planet. At least they weren’t trying to eat me. Yet. “Tell me your story, as long as you’re not going to make me a tiger snack.”

  2

  I had to lift my cheek from the tiger’s chest so I could hear over the rumbling chuckle that rolled through him. “What’s your name again?”

  “Marak. On your right is Kazhar, and Dharius is the big fellow on your left.” He cocked his head slightly. “Are you comfortable, Kimber Leigh? This story might take a while to tell. We can take you to our home if that wouldn’t alarm you.”