Turned by a Tiger (Eternal Mates Paranormal Romance Series Book 12)

by Felicity Heaton

  He grabbed her around the waist and tried to pull her down to him, but she twisted free of his grip and leaped off him. He growled at her, but she didn’t come back.

  She stared off into the distance, along the path she had been taking when he had made his presence known.

  “Is that a lake?”

  Before he could say that it was, she took off towards it.

  Talon rolled onto his knees and groaned.

  Sherry bounced along the path ahead of him, stripping off her boots and her jeans as she went.

  His groan became a growl when she revealed she wasn’t wearing any underwear.

  Damn. He had never seen a backside as beautiful as hers.

  He loosed a low snarl and sprang to his feet, launching after her. She looked over her shoulder, squeaked when she saw him sprinting towards her, and quickened her pace.

  She wouldn’t be fast enough to evade him until she was a tiger.

  Fuck, she was going to be beautiful.

  She was going to drive him wild.

  He was never going to be able to get enough of her.

  He grabbed her from behind just before her right foot hit the water and she laughed as he hauled her up into the air and twisted her in his arms to face him. Her whole face glowed with it, with happiness that looked as foreign to her as it was to him.

  One hand came down on his shoulder and the other ploughed through his black hair, slender fingers tugging on it as she pulled his head back. Her mouth claimed his, her kiss fierce again, dominating him in a way he found he loved. He had been in a position of power his entire life, had never submitted to anyone, not even Byron.

  He willingly submitted to her.

  Her tongue duelled with his, stoking a dangerous need inside him, a dark urge to make her submit to him, to show her just how powerful he was and that he was the only male she needed.

  The only one for her.

  He growled and seized control of the kiss, and his reward was the sweetest moan he had ever heard.

  Gods, his fangs itched, body felt too tight, as if he would explode if he didn’t claim her soon.

  He needed to claim her, before she changed her mind, before she could escape him. She had been made for him. She was his everything.

  He wanted to be her everything too.

  He angled his head and kissed her deeper, sank to his knees at the water’s edge and groaned as her legs parted and slid down his hips, and her warm core met his aching shaft.

  It throbbed against her, as eager for her as the rest of him, sending pulses through him that were both pleasure and pain, a sweet torture that he endured as he kissed her. She rubbed against him, rocking her slick heat along his cock, and he groaned again, his breath coming faster in short bursts as he struggled for control.

  Her nails scored his shoulders, spurring him on.

  He growled and dropped his lips to her throat, devoured every inch of it and nipped at it with his teeth as he grasped her backside and drew her closer, pressed her harder against his shaft. Part of him had hoped it would stop her from driving him mad with the rubbing, but it only encouraged her, only worsened the torture as she rocked on him, breathless little moans leaving her lips and teasing his cheek.

  “Talon,” she murmured, a throaty plea that sent a shiver tumbling down his spine and cranked his need higher at the same time as it unleashed the side of him he had been trying to keep under control.

  He growled against her skin, his fangs pressed against it, his entire body as tight as a bowstring as he fought to master the urge, the driving need.

  Sherry made that impossible.

  She rose off him, reached between them, and stroked his cock, easing it down through her slick folds.

  Talon roared and had her twisted in his arms in a flash, her back pressed against his chest. She cried out as he drove her down onto his cock, sinking deep into her, trembling deliciously in his arms. He wrapped his arms around her, cupped her breasts and toyed with her nipples as he fought for control again, tried to claw back some semblance of it anyway. He was beyond being in control now, could only hope to hold himself back enough that he didn’t hurt her.

  She moaned and rolled her hips, and he shuddered and groaned, pressed his teeth against her shoulder as she tormented him. Her hands came down on his, stroking over them, and then dropped lower, caressing his thighs between hers and then reaching back to run over his hips. She sighed as she lifted her arms and stroked up the back of his head, and held his mouth against her flesh in a way that told him everything.

  She did want this.

  She welcomed it, needed it as fiercely as he did.

  She was ready to become his mate.

  He lowered his right hand to the curve of her waist and twisted her hair into his left. She moaned as he pulled on it, tugging her head back, and began moving on him, slow and deep, pushing him to the very brink.

  Talon slowly thrust into her, as deep as she could take him, drinking her moans as she arched and tightened her grip on his head, holding on to him. Heat curled in his belly, became a fire that blazed out of control before he could stop it, and he slid his hand up and cupped her breast again, tweaked her nipple and tore another moan from her as he began to quicken his pace, driving harder, deeper still, filling her with every inch of his cock.

  She rolled her hips, rotating them in a way that had his heart pounding harder, that brink coming at him faster. She pushed him closer still by lowering one hand and stroking it between her thighs, brushing his cock with her fingers as she teased herself. Too much. He tried to hold back, but it was game over when she cried out as she shattered. The feel of her body milking his propelled him over the edge.

  He snarled, clutched her tighter and thrust into her harder, faster, until she was through the haze of one orgasm and climbing towards the next with him. She rocked faster too, a wild little thing in his arms as she bounced on him, moaning with each deep plunge of his cock.

  He tightened the fist in her hair, pushed it up the back of her head and exposed the nape of her neck.

  A low growl rumbled through him.

  The moonlight played across it, luring his eyes to it and keeping them there.

  Gods, he needed to mark it.

  He swooped on it, laved it with his tongue and shuddered as he tasted her.

  The need to lick it seized him, jacked him higher and filled him with desperation, a deep and powerful urge that he couldn’t quite sate or control as he stroked his tongue over her nape, drank her moans and whispered pleas.

  He growled, held her harder and thrust deeper, but it wasn’t enough to satisfy her.

  It was a world away from satisfying him.

  There was only one thing that would do that.

  He laved her harder, trembled with each one as the fire in his belly spread lower and his balls tightened, tingling with each stroke of his tongue in time with every thrust of his cock into her.

  He needed her.

  Needed her to be his.

  She needed him too.

  Gods, he could feel it already.

  He could feel her desperation, that wild need she didn’t quite understand but that mastered her, had her writhing and rocking in his arms, trembling as violently as he was as she sought release that refused to come.

  He would give it to her, to them both.

  He pumped her deeper, harder still, unable to hold himself back. His tongue pressed hard into her nape with each stroke, each thrust, teasing her higher together with him, until he was at the precipice and couldn’t go any higher, couldn’t take it any longer.

  “Talon,” Sherry whispered.

  A plea and permission all rolled into one.

  On a feral growl, he sank his fangs into the back of her neck.

  Her cry echoed around the forest, beat in his heart and warmed his soul.

  He pulled her against him, plastered her back to his front and buried himself deep inside her as she shook, her body convulsing around his and pushing him over the
edge with her. His entire body quaked from the force of his release as he throbbed and spilled inside her, and he fought to remain conscious as her emotions flowed into him, her joy and excitement, and her fear.

  Talon closed his eyes and held her with his teeth, and in his arms, keeping her close to him and focusing as best he could so she would feel how much this meant to him.

  How he would always be there for her, would be the one to take care of her now, and forever.

  Because he was in love with her.

  His beautiful mate.

  She slowly began to relax against him, little by little sinking into him. He kept her pinned to him, unable to convince his body to do the same, needing to hold on to her. He was probably hurting her, hated that he might be, but his body and mind were ignoring his heart’s attempts to calm them, screamed at him to keep her locked in his arms and in his teeth.

  Her blood was warm on his tongue, tasted like honey and vanilla.

  “Talon,” she murmured, no trace of pain in her voice even though he knew she was hurting already, that the bliss of the moment was passing and she was growing aware of his fangs in her flesh, and her body as it began the first steps of her transformation.

  His mate needed him.

  She needed him to comfort her, to take away her pain and her fear.

  Instinct as her mate seized him, more powerful than he had expected it to be, overpowering him.

  His fangs were out of her flesh in a heartbeat, his tongue laving over the wounds to soothe them as his grip on her loosened.

  She sighed and relaxed a little.

  He purred like a fucking cub again, the pleasure that ran through him on realising he had satisfied her, his mate, stronger than any physical release, sweeter than anything he had ever experienced.

  He kept purring as he licked her wounds, as she relaxed further and he felt her fear ebbing away, her pain fading.

  She lifted her left hand, brushed his cheek with her fingers and then traced them over one of the wounds on the back of her neck. He drew back to give her space, a desire that lasted all of a second, obliterated by a need to crush her against his chest when he saw her fingers trembling and felt the flicker of fear ignite inside her again.

  “Is it done?” she whispered.

  Talon didn’t stop her when she turned to face him, straddling his thighs. No fear touched her blue eyes. They were beautiful and mesmerising as they held his, filled with hope and excitement, and a fucking hell of a lot of love.

  He nodded, raised his right hand and swept his knuckles across her cheek before opening his palm and cupping it as he stared into her eyes.

  His mate.

  “Soon, you’ll be like me,” he husked, thanking the gods for her and her courage, her strength, and humbled by what she had done for him, giving up her life as a mortal to step into his world.

  Her lips curved into a slight smile that stole his breath. “A tiger.”

  He purred and wrapped his arms around her, held her closer so he could feel her heart beating against his. “My mate. My pride.”

  That smile grew a little wider as she looped her arms around his neck and leaned in, bringing her mouth close to his, and melted the heart she now held in her hands with her words.

  Two whispered ones against his lips that told him everything she felt, and echoed his own feelings perfectly, showing him just how much they were meant to be.

  That meeting her had been his destiny.

  “Mine forever.”

  The End

  Read on for a preview of the next story in the highly addictive Eternal Mates paranormal romance series, Tamed by a Tiger

  Tamed by a Tiger

  Maya walked beside her brother, taking in everything as the sun cast beautiful evening colours across the sky above the city. A city. She had never imagined she would see one with her own eyes, especially one as large as London.

  Grey grumbled something, but she ignored him. He was probably complaining about walking for the millionth time.

  She had convinced him to ditch the taxi, mostly through begging and a small dose of guilt trip when she had mentioned how badly she wanted to experience a city before they continued their journey.

  She felt bad about that.

  It wasn’t like her to resort to such tactics with her brother, or with anyone.

  She glanced up at Grey. He towered above her, a wall of muscle and darkness, glaring at anyone who dared to look at her, his ice blue eyes as cold as Antarctica. The evening breeze ruffled his unruly silver hair, brushing fingers through it. Beneath the ice, and the anger, she could see the beginnings of worry.

  He was worried about her.

  She had asked him to keep things upbeat during their journey, and he had managed it so far, had held his tongue and not mentioned how he was against what she was doing. He had even only made one attempt to convince her to go against their oldest brother’s, Byron’s, and their dead parents’ wishes and break the contract between her and the Altay alpha.

  She hated it whenever he tried to make her do that.

  He sounded so much like Talon, his twin. Talon had been telling her for years to call things off, had relentlessly tried to convince her, to the point where it had started to hurt and she had almost wavered.

  Her parents had promised her to the Altay male though, a contract that had been formed at her birth, and she needed to honour their memory and that promise.

  It was hard sometimes though.

  She didn’t want to leave the pride.

  Not because she feared becoming a mate to a male she had never met.

  Because she feared for Grey.

  She gazed up at her brother, soaked in the way his eyes leaped around the city, looking at everything, and that ripple of excitement she could feel in him, one that echoed her own feelings.

  She wasn’t the only one who had spent the majority of their life in the pride village.

  Grey had been stuck there too, because of her.

  Their parents had given him the role of protecting her, one that always went to the son who was next in line from a daughter. Grey had relished the role when she had been a cub, doting on her, growing closer to her while he drifted away from the pride. Their mother had once told her that she had been the best thing to happen to Grey, and Maya hadn’t understood until she had finally noticed the way some of the pride treated him.

  The role was both a blessing and a curse for him.

  When their parents’ had died, and Byron had taken over the role of alpha, Maya had only been young, barely a century old. Byron had decreed that she wasn’t allowed to leave the pride village, and had taken Grey’s freedom together with hers.

  She was glad that with her leaving, he might finally have some freedom, could experience the world Talon got to see, but she was worried too.

  What was going to happen to Grey?

  She brushed the back of her hand across his, and he glanced down at them, and then up into her eyes. He frowned, his pale blue eyes warming but then cooling again as he looked at her, searching hers for the reason she was upset.

  She feared something terrible might happen to Grey in her absence.

  Some members of the pride looked at him in a way she didn’t like, a way she knew Grey had noticed, silently scorning him because of his markings, making him feel like an outcast.

  Making him feel he didn’t belong.

  She knew he hated his colouring, that he believed his white and black markings were ugly, and not beautiful.

  All because of how people at the pride treated him, and how they talked behind his back.

  He was beautiful though.

  She had never seen a tiger as beautiful as Grey.

  His frown hardened, and he stopped, turned to face her, and lifted his hand. She didn’t stop him as he swept his finger below her eyes.

  “You don’t have to do this,” he murmured, a wealth of love in his blue eyes, mingled with hope.

  “I do,” she whispered, ignoring that ach
e in her heart that had started five days ago when Byron had announced that he was changing the plans and she was going to head to the Altay pride in the coming week.

  Grey looked as if he wanted to tell her that she didn’t, but he lowered his hand instead, and adjusted the straps of the pack slung over his left shoulder, cutting into his thick black coat.

  His eyes shifted to his left. “You know he’s going to say the same thing, right?”

  She nodded, and she was prepared for that, but she still had to see him.

  She couldn’t go to Siberia without saying goodbye to Talon.

  Grey sighed and started walking again, his long legs easily carrying him away from her so swiftly that he was at the corner of the street before she had even moved. She hurried after him, her deep gold dress flapping around her knees. She had chosen her favourite one, a knee-length affair in the empire line style, cinched beneath her breasts and capped with short sleeves.

  When Grey had seen her in it, he had asked why she had chosen to wear her shield. She hadn’t understood at first, but as the journey to London had dragged on, she had begun to realise what he had meant. This dress was her shield. It made her feel confident and a little brave, and as if nothing bad could happen to her.

  He turned the corner when she reached him, and she looked there, her feet sticking to the ground when she smelled the jaguar who had come to the pride with Talon when Archangel had attacked them and spotted the neon sign of the club.

  A big male stood outside it, his tone gruff as he spoke with the people heading inside. She wasn’t sure what species he was, but he wasn’t human. Black jeans and a t-shirt hugged his broad frame, and a black skullcap covered his hair. Maya figured he was the bouncer, because he matched the image she had of them from the television shows and movies she had seen.

  He gave Grey a puzzled look as her brother approached him. Understandable. Talon worked at the nightclub he protected, had been there for a few weeks now with his mate Sherry, staying at her home while she became accustomed to being a tiger shifter.

  Grey and Talon were almost identical, separated only by their hair and eye colour.

  Maya wished that they had come out perfect twins, because then Grey would have been happy, would have been accepted.