Petting Them: An Anthology of Claw-ver Tails

by Tate James

  I tripped over something and Dharius swept me up into his arms without missing a step. I wrapped my arm around his neck and nuzzled my face against his throat so I could breathe in his scent. I’d slept on Marak, ridden Kazhar’s tiger, and now Dharius carried me in his arms like I truly was a princess.

  My throat tightened with dread and I fought down the urge to tell him to turn around and rush back to his house. To that gorgeous room in the heart of the tree, where the Tygress of the tribe took care of her cubs. To that massive bed, plenty big enough for four.

  Would they even consider it? All three of them at once? They’d hinted, sure. They’d all three hugged me after dinner, and damn…

  I wanted it. I wanted them. All of them. So badly.

  I had to know for sure if all of this was real. Then I’d figure out how to ask them whether they really would share, and more, if they’d be willing to join me in that big bed at the same time. Everything else was a dream come true, so surely we could figure out how to make this new fantasy of mine work.

  Soon the trees parted to reveal the small clearing. Held high in Dharius’s arms, I noticed things I’d missed before. Four large chunks of crystals marked the four corners at the outer edges of the clearing. One for each of the four Tyger tribes. They glowed in the darkness with pearly light that illuminated the entire area.

  In the center, I saw a circle made of what looked like white sand. As we neared, I realized it was crushed crystals that had been compacted to form a flat, even surface. It glowed too, but not as brightly as the larger cornerstone crystals.

  Dharius set me down at the edge of the gleaming white circle. I clung to him. He felt so real. He smelled real. I hadn’t taken a bite of him—yet—but I was sure that if I pressed my lips to his skin…

  I pushed that thought away and stared down at the circle. “This is where you found me?”

  “Yes,” he replied. “Each treefall had a place like this prepared, though the other three have fallen since the Prime Alpha sent you to safety.”

  “How could you be sure I’d come here and not one of the others, if they’d still been standing?”

  Kazhar bent down on my other side and touched a darker stone set in the heart of the shining circle. “The Prime Alpha left one key that we’ve guarded with our lives ever since she passed. Each tribe has taken charge of it one by one as the other treefalls fell, until only Dharius’s remains. This crystal is coded to the one your mother implanted in you. This is how we knew exactly where you’d come. We only had to wait for the perfect alignment.”

  I was trying to be rational and scientific, even though I’d barely gotten through high school biology with a passing grade. “It’s supposedly embedded in me somewhere, right? A small crystal that no one would notice. But where?”

  “If you strip, I’ll help you look for it,” Marak offered with a wicked wink.

  I snorted and shook my head. “Not until I know the truth.”

  His eyes flared and he stepped closer. “That wasn’t a no, and what truth, Tygress? Do you suspect us of lying?”

  “No. I don’t think you’re lying.” My dream men would never lie to me.

  Which made this all so easy to disbelieve.

  When had I ever known a real man who didn’t lie? Who wouldn’t have pressed his advantage and made sure I gave him what he wanted before indulging my every whim? Even if it meant he lost out on the chance to have me?

  “She thinks this is all a dream,” Kazhar said in a grim, hard voice. “We’re not real, and if we’re not real, she can’t stay. Right?”

  I blew out a shaking breath and nodded. “Right. I need to know for sure before…”

  He grabbed my arm, his fingers digging into the back of my arm above my elbow, but he didn’t hurt me or jerk me closer. Lowering his head, he glared at me with a vicious scowl on his face. “I won’t let you go back to that horrible place, Kimber. You were cold. Hungry. Alone. Pick Marak for his jokes. Pick Dharius for his treefall. I don’t fucking care as long as you stay here and let him take care of you. I can’t bear the thought of our last Tygress living alone and miserable on some cursed planet for another twenty-four fucking years!”

  Tears dripped down my cheeks, but I smiled up at him. “You do care about me. At least a little.”

  “Care?” He bellowed, making me wince. “I love every annoyingly frustrating thing about you, Kimber, and that love will only grow every moment of every day and night that you stay with us.” Groaning roughly, he dragged me up against him and squeezed me hard. “Don’t leave us. Please.”

  “I don’t want to,” I cried softly. “I want to stay.”

  He pressed his mouth to my ear and gave me a low, rumbling growl that curled my toes. “Then fucking stay. Forever.”

  I flattened my hands against his chest and slid my palms down the front of his body, searching for the hem of his tunic. The material was incredibly silky and soft like a baby’s hair. He stood locked in place, allowing me to do my worst to him, even though all I wanted was to find his skin.

  I slipped my hand beneath the bottom of his shirt and shivered, pressing my palm against his rock-hard abs. His skin was taut over slabs of sheer muscle. Heat radiated off of him better than any furnace. I wanted to crawl beneath his shirt and press against him for all time.

  “Do I feel real?” He whispered, rubbing his lips against my ear.

  My eyes fluttered shut. “Yes. But maybe this is a really, really, good dream.”

  “It’s almost time,” Dharius said. “The moon is rising.”

  Kazhar hummed out a low laugh. “You haven’t even seen a fraction of everything we’re offering yet.” Lifting his head, he turned me around in his arms so that I faced the circle. His arms looped around me loosely and he braced his chin on my shoulder. “Watch the circle, Tygress. See your dream unfold.”

  I tipped my head back and looked at the moon as it slowly moved across the night sky. Maybe it was the wine from dinner affecting me, but I swear the moon was the same delicate shade of pink. It definitely didn’t have the familiar Man-In-The-Moon craters that I’d grown up looking at.

  Long minutes passed while Kazhar held me. Marak prowled back and forth like he was pacing a cage, but he didn’t say anything. Dharius squatted down beside me, so I draped my arm around his shoulders and leaned against him too.

  My feet ached. My eyes were getting blurry and heavy. How long had we been standing here, watching the moon slowly slide across the sky? “How much longer?”

  “It’s almost time,” Dharius whispered, his voice catching a little.

  That quiet sound of agony made my chest ache and I leaned against him a little harder. Something itched on my chest. Absently, I scratched at the spot. The spot itched more and actually started to heat up a bit. Had some monster bug stung me?

  I glanced down and gasped. Either the bug glowed like a firefly, or…

  I pulled the bodice of the gown down a bit and a glow rose from my chest.

  “The portal’s crystal,” Marak said as he came closer.

  I ran my fingers over the spot and didn’t feel anything beneath the skin, but there was a definite glow rising from my sternum and a quarter-sized circular spot burned beneath my skin.

  Things I felt and saw with my own eyes. The glow heated enough that it almost hurt.

  Would I dream something this complex and believable?

  “Look,” Kazhar whispered.

  Four beams of light shot from the larger boundary crystals, all focused on the smaller white circle that shimmered with rising energy. The surface darkened. I could almost make out… A room. No, a bed.

  My bed.

  The image firmed until I would have sworn that I was looking through a window into my old apartment.

  The dingy gray walls. My tiny twin-sized bed. The milk-crate nightstand with some books and my glasses on top. The massive nest of ratty blankets and pillows. I didn’t have to be there to know that the room temperature would be below sixty degrees.


  “Is that your home, Kimber?” Dharius asked gravely.

  “Yes.”

  “It looks… lonely.”

  A sob made my voice crack. “It was. And it was fucking cold. And hard. I hated being alone all the time.”

  “If you wish to go back, just step into the portal.” Kazhar’s fingers dug into me a moment, but then his grip loosened, and he kept his voice soft. “We’ll let you go, if that’s your wish.”

  I reached down, and felt around on the ground until I found a small pebble that didn’t glow. It was just a normal-looking rock. I tossed it onto the gleaming circle.

  For a moment, it hung on top of the shimmering energy. Rays of opal light spun up into the sky. Then it sank through with a tiny plop and landed on my bed.

  I could see that little pebble lying on top of my pillow.

  It was all real. I was awake.

  And three Tyger princes waited for me to decide whether I was going to stay and live the biggest, best dream of my entire life with them.

  Marak went down on his knees on my right. He leaned against me, wrapped one arm around me and his other around Kazhar, and buried his face against my stomach.

  “Please, don’t leave us, Tygress.”

  I dropped down to my knees at the edge of the gleaming circle and ran my hand through the streamers slowly floating up. I couldn’t feel anything on my skin, and I don’t think it’d hurt when I’d come through the circle the first time. Not if I’d slept through the entire thing. Slowly, I dipped my hand lower, touching my fingers against the surface of the circle. I could feel it. It wasn’t hard like crushed crystals, but more like the warm surface of a pool of water. I pushed a bit harder and my fingers sank…

  Into the cold, drafty air of my apartment. I pushed my arm deeper, leaning out over the circle. I couldn’t quite reach…

  Marak gasped, as if he thought I was going to jump through. Silly man.

  “Don’t let me fall through,” I told him. “Be ready to pull me back.”

  He locked an arm around my waist and I felt Kazhar’s fist gripping the back of my dress. Dharius held my left arm, though he didn’t try to hold me back. He just anchored me as I reached deeper through the portal.

  “Damn my short arms,” I muttered beneath my breath. I leaned out further, straining… My arm went through to my shoulder. I could feel the cold air lapping against my body. The small circle on my chest seemed to pull me closer to the portal. I hoped it didn’t activate something that sucked me all the way through. “Just a bit more…” My fingers brushed the delicate frames and I snatched my glasses. “Okay. Pull me back.”

  Kazhar did more than pull me clear from the portal—he hauled me up into his arms and buried his face against me. He let out a shuddering breath. “Tygress. I thought…”

  I put my glasses on to free my hand and smiled. “Now I can see you better.”

  Brows drawn down in a fierce scowl, he gripped my chin. “You’re staying,” he ground out, though he still managed to put a question mark at the end.

  I nodded. “Yes, but I don’t want to choose among you. I want you all.”

  8

  Kazhar locked his mouth over mine and inhaled me, his lips hard as he took possession of my mouth. Groaning, I opened to him, inviting him inside. His tongue stroked over mine and his chest vibrated on that deep, rattling purr.

  It kind of made me crazy. That fucking purr stirred something inside me. Maybe my Tyger side, or maybe just my own needy self who’d been alone too fucking long. I tangled my fingers in his hair, and gave him my tongue, rubbing inside him. Tasting him. Claiming him.

  Panting, I lifted my mouth from his, and Dharius was there, close enough for me to grasp his nape and pull him in so I could sample his mouth too.

  While Kazhar held me.

  Never in a million years had I thought I’d ever have the chance to explore two men at once. Let alone three. Because Marak pressed closer too, unconcerned by the fact that two other men held me between them.

  Dharius’s lips were softer and fuller than Kazhar’s. I stroked my hand up the back of his head, learning the texture of his shorter hair. Bigger, broader, wider, but so incredibly gentle, he engulfed me without intimidating me at all.

  I twisted in their arms and found Marak’s mouth. He nipped playfully, snagging my bottom lip in his teeth and giving me a tug until I growled at him. “There’s our Tygress.”

  He nestled against me, tipped his head back, and just opened. His mouth, his body, whatever I wanted to take, he offered. While the other two men purred against me. Deep, bone-shaking purrs that made my breath catch in my throat. Desire unfurled inside me, rising quickly. Marak shifted against me, wedging deeper between my thighs.

  Oh fuck. If I could get his purr on my clit, I was a goner.

  I wasn’t sure if we could accomplish it with my long skirt in the way, but I shouldn’t have worried. They lifted and adjusted me between them, using their bodies to support me, while Marak rubbed up against me until I cradled him between my thighs.

  If he’d been purring before, now he rumbled like a jet engine taking off, shooting me straight to bliss. I arched against him, my hips tipping up so he could grind on me harder. Flailing, I came so hard I saw stars. Falling stars. The pink moon in the sky had exploded into a million little shining pieces.

  No, that was our crystals shining with new energy, sending pulses of pink light up into the sky. Their jewelry. My tiara. The four cornerstones. Everything shone like pink pearls. Even the tiny chip embedded in my chest.

  “The crystals respond to you,” Kazhar growled softly against my ear. “This entire planet recognizes you, Tygress. Our Prime Alpha has returned.”

  I turned my head enough so I could see his eyes. “I want you inside me.”

  Golden fires flickered in his eyes. “Now? Or back at the treefall?”

  Without hesitation, I said, “Now.”

  “She’ll be cold,” Dharius warned. “Should I go back and fetch—”

  I jerked my head around to him. “No. I want you too. I don’t want you to leave.”

  Marak pulled the shawl from my shoulders with a wicked, sensual glint in his eyes. “We’ll keep you warm, Tygress.”

  He spread the shawl on the ground within the four main crystals—but far enough away from the portal that I didn’t think any of us would accidentally fall through unless things got really crazy. While he shucked his clothes to add to the pile, Kazhar started working on the tiny buttons that ran down the back of my gown, and Dharius kissed me. One of his big palms cradled my cheek, and his other slid over my shoulders and arms, as Kazhar removed my dress. Keeping me warm, I realized. And yeah, it felt great too, but he didn’t grab my breast or shove the material away to get to my ass. He just stroked his hot palm over my skin to keep me warm.

  Kazhar let the dress pool at our feet and his mouth pressed to the side of my throat, just as I’d wished for. I allowed my head to fall to the side, closing my eyes and sinking into the incredible sensations pouring through me. His mouth seared my throat, his teeth trailing up my skin. His tongue laved the hollow behind my ear until I groaned. He sucked my earlobe into his mouth and bit playfully.

  While Dharius went down on his knees before me.

  I gulped, shivering with hot chills racing up and down my spine. He flicked his gaze up to mine as he licked the tip of my breast. My nipples were so hard that the smallest sensation felt like his tongue was a live wire carrying a million volts of electricity. He sucked and played with my nipples, switching back and forth, until I was dancing in place. My clit throbbed, and I was so wet that it would have embarrassed me if I didn’t ache so much.

  Kazhar gripped my left shoulder in his jaws, pressing his teeth gently into my skin. Not to bite me, exactly, but to hold me in place. Like a male tiger taking his mate.

  And, I wanted it. I wanted him. So bad. I arched back against him, rubbing my butt against his groin. His cock throbbed against me, though he still had his pants on. />
  They all had their pants on.

  Need roared inside me. I trembled with the force of lust boiling inside me.

  Dharius tipped his head back. “Who do you want first?”

  I didn’t stop to think or worry that there might be any jealousy. From the beginning, there had been one of them who seemed to have the upper hand. The one who’d controlled Marak when he’d scared me, and who’d carried me on his back.

  “Kazhar.”

  Judging by the grin he shot over my shoulder, Dharius wasn’t offended or jealous at all. “May I continue to kiss and touch you while you have him, Tygress?”

  I shoved him in the chest and toppled him on his back. Shock rippled through me. I had just tackled the biggest man I’d ever seen. Granted, he’d been more than willing to let me take him down, but still. Was it this planet affecting my strength? Or my Tygress wanting to come out and play?

  Because looking down into his eyes while I hovered over him was hands-down the biggest turn-on of my life.

  Until Kazhar came down behind me and stroked his palms down the length of my spine and kneaded my ass.

  Oh yeah. Now I remembered why I’d wanted to be on the ground on all fours.

  Doggy style might not be all that exciting of a position, but with Dharius beneath me, and Kazhar flattening his entire body along my back, pinning me against the other man…

  Oh fuck. I’d never. I couldn’t stand it. “I need you inside me. Now!”

  Kazhar growled and moved against me, dragging his dick in the wetness dripping down my inner thighs. I hadn’t really gotten a good look at his size yet, but maybe that was a good thing. It’d been over year since I’d had sex, and by the way he stretched me, he wasn’t a small man. At all.

  Dharius rubbed his thumb lightly against my clit, making me whimper. “I’m going to come again before you even get inside me.”

  Kazhar laughed roughly against my ear. “That’s the general idea. Keep stroking her, Dhar.”

  And that was exactly why I’d wanted Kazhar first. Hearing him tell the other man what to do made my need surge even higher. I’d never had more than one partner at a time. I wanted some guidance to make sure it was good for all of us.