by E A Price
“Come in,” he commanded a little more forcefully than intended. “If you want to,” he added grudgingly.
He stepped to one side, and after only a small pause, she walked past him. He inhaled deeply; the rich honey scent of his future mate making every part of him sing.
His tiger growled triumphantly. Mate. Mine.
Lauren shifted from foot to foot in the hallway. Unease rolled off her in waves, and his beast urged him to soothe her, to make her feel welcome, to assure her that their mating was a good thing.
Carrick didn’t move. He leaned against the door, simply watching her.
She folded her arms. “You have a lovely home.”
“It’ll be your home soon, too,” he rumbled.
Panic briefly flared in her eyes before she forced a laugh. “Yes, I suppose so.”
She looked around the house, and he hoped she meant it. He wasn’t much for design or decorating, but it was comfortable enough even for him to relax in. He wanted and needed her to want to be there.
“What made you change your mind?” she asked abruptly.
“About what?”
“Five years ago you told me you’d never mate anyone.”
He flashed back to the scene in his kitchen. Yes, he had said that. He could put it down to his frustration at Nita, but honestly, there was only one answer – Lauren wasn’t around back then. She was the only female he had ever wanted to mate with… to his knowledge. Course, he wasn’t about to say that. If she knew the way he yearned for her, she’d probably run for the hills.
“I changed my mind,” he growled, not liking this conversation much.
“I guess I should go home, and tell my parents the good news.” She didn’t sound altogether happy about that last part.
His tiger roared at him. “Just one thing…”
Lauren looked like a deer caught in headlights as he slowly moved towards her. Her large eyes widened to saucers as he clasped her arms and gently unfolded them. He held her in place and leaned down, rubbing his chin over her shoulder and neck, fervently trying to inhale as much of her as he could. She trembled, and he gripped her, lifting his head and moving onto her other shoulder. He couldn’t help the growls escaping his throat as he marked her with his scent. It was primal and electrifying and one step closer to mating. It showed everyone that she was his. No one else may touch her. Even more enchanting was the fact that she couldn’t hold back a small, lusty moan at his ministrations.
He pulled back, making sure her legs didn’t collapse under her as he let her go. He couldn’t help the preening tiger inside or the grin that spread over his face – an honest to goodness happy grin. It elicited a scowl from her, but he didn’t care.
“I’ve never seen you look so happy,” she grumbled.
“I will walk you home,” he said, the grin not fading even a little bit.
He was happy. He affected her, too. One of his worries had been that the physical side of their mating would be one-sided, but that moan gave him hope. He could satisfy her, and their mating could not come soon enough.
Fourteen
Four weeks later, they were mated.
The time seemed to drag by. Lauren saw little of Carrick. A few times he surprised her at the grocery store – he always seemed to be there when she was there. The other times were a couple of excruciating dinners at her family’s home. Could her parents’ lips be any further up Carrick’s butt?! Then there were a couple more driving lessons, which usually ended in arguments. So what if she never learned how to parallel park – she could get by without it!
The only other time was when he walked her home from her ill-conceived bachelorette party. The party had been Nita’s idea, and she had only gone along with it because Carrick voiced the opinion that it was a bad idea and she wanted to be stubborn. That was shortly after the parallel parking fiasco - which she was definitely not talking about.
The party had been dire. Nita only did it so she could get Lauren on her own and demand to know why Carrick wanted to mate her – to which Lauren had no answer and was in no way able to appease Nita. Then, the party was to embarrass her in front of Nita’s sycophantic friends. Just because Lauren had never seen a butt plug before was no reason to laugh. Made her wonder about Carrick and what he expected of her, though she had a hard time imagining him doing anything kinky.
Could she imagine him in a sexual light?
Lauren eyed the large male and felt a quiver in her sex. Most definitely. Particularly when he rubbed his scent all over her and made her moan. He’d done that to her thrice more since the first time, and each time her legs turned to jelly and her tiger turned to mush.
Warmth started prickling her skin, and she fretted over her upcoming heat. The day before had been her nineteenth birthday. Usually, the mating happened within the month after the birthday, and Carrick, apparently, hadn’t wanted to wait. Heat curled in her stomach as she watched her mother feeding her new cub. Another boy – which was perhaps for the best.
Perhaps we will have a cub soon pondered her tiger.
No, thought Lauren. That was the last thing she wanted at that moment.
The heats started sometime after a tigress turned nineteen, but she could have months left before that happened. She hoped so. Her mother had been merciless about what happened during a heat. It was supposed to be excruciating and unbearable. She was already concerned about her first time with Carrick – she didn’t want the added pressure of being in heat.
Would Carrick even want cubs? It wasn’t something they’d talked about. They hadn’t talked about much really. The last four weeks had been filled with yelling and sniffs.
After the ceremony, the pride went for a run. Lauren hung back with the older and pregnant pride members. Her tiger wasn’t so boisterous that she needed the hunt, though she noticed Carrick was the first to strip and take off. He flashed her a hungry look before he left, a more intense version of the look he was giving her through the whole ceremony.
Nita watched him strip with just a little too much attention, and her tiger felt a kindling of something inside herself. Whatever it was, she didn’t like it. Nita shouldn’t be looking at Carrick. She was a mated tigress, and now Carrick was mated too – to her. He belonged to Lauren. Grrr.
Lauren busied herself setting out the food for the party. There was a huge bonfire, and the tigresses had cooked up a storm. For once, Lauren hadn’t been expected to do half the cooking. All she’d had to do was show up.
Pride members started trickling back, and Lauren noticed Clay among them. He winked at her but didn’t try to approach - probably for the best. The moment he said hi, Carrick would probably pop out of nowhere and go nuts. It made her a little sad, but it wasn’t like she was really losing anything. Clay had been friendly, but they weren’t friends.
Carrick’s tiger bounded to the party, and he effortlessly eased into his human form, barely missing a step. He made it look so easy. Lauren loved her animal to pieces, and her big soppy beast adored her in return, but shifting had always been an ordeal. She just wasn’t as in tune with her animal side as Carrick, but then she doubted many other shifters were either.
He strode through the gathering, completely comfortable with his nudity. Some pride mates stared at his scars. Lauren just tried not to stare. Carrick was never one for modesty, but Lauren had always been shy about looking at her pride mates. She supposed she ought to get used to seeing him naked… and up close…
The gathering passed in a blur. Carrick was moody and impatient, snapping at all the males who tried to talk to him and casting murderous glares at any that dared make any lascivious comments about ‘deflowering’ Lauren.
Nita for some reason tried to be nice to her, tried to get her to join in with her tedious friends, but Lauren was too nervous to pay any attention to her. Simone tried to reassure her, but by that point in the evening, Carrick had lost all pretense of patience.
He walked over to her and placed a hand on her neck. She was used to i
t by now and didn’t flinch. She might even go as far to say that she liked the brush of his fingers against her skin, missed it when it wasn’t there.
“It’s time,” he said, gruffly.
She nodded and Simone squeezed her hand reassuringly. If Simone could get through her mating night, then so could Lauren.
The alpha stepped forward, followed by Nita and the beta, Patrick. Locke slapped Carrick on the back; he looked unimpressed. Or possibly, downright annoyed.
Nita smirked at Lauren. “Have a nice night, you two.”
Patrick let out a dirty laugh and Lauren blushed. Carrick gave Nita and Patrick a steady glare, and they cringed slightly.
Locke blessed Carrick and Lauren and hoped that their union would be fruitful. Carrick nodded and carefully led Lauren away to the mating hut before she exploded in bashfulness.
It was a small hut away from the larger settlement. Newly mated couples were expected to stay there for at least three days. It was to ensure that they definitely consummated their union. It was always stocked up with food, towels and clean sheets, so the couple didn’t have to leave. At the end of the three days, they were supposed to produce the soiled sheets with the female's virginal blood.
Her tiger nudged encouragingly as Carrick steered her towards the hut. She could do this – there was nothing to worry about, right?
*
Carrick closed the door behind him and watched as his mate ventured into the hut with tentative steps.
His mate. His. Mine. Rawr.
His tiger had never been so excited nor deliriously happy. The past four weeks had been excruciatingly long. His visits with Lauren and moments alone had been fleeting and too few, but he feared that he might not be able to control himself if he spent too much time with her.
His dreams had become increasingly violent, and flashes of new, bloody memories came to him more and more. He wanted nothing more than to comfort himself in the body of his mate, to satiate his desire and forget about all the pain he had endured.
Now he could.
The ceremony had been typically tedious. He would have been content for the alpha to hand him Lauren and say they were mated – the end. But tradition might be important to Lauren, and the last thing he wanted was for someone to turn around and say their mating wasn’t binding.
The pride hunt had been a good idea. He had made sure to expound as much energy as he could. He didn’t want to be too enthusiastic with Lauren. His previous couplings had been rough and animalistic, but he needed to rein himself in for Lauren. He needed to be gentle and slow. Not things usually attributed to his beast, hence the need to be half-dead on his feet.
The tiger sneered. As if he would hurt his mate.
Carrick waited as long as he could, as long as he could stand before he had to take Lauren out of there. Now he just needed to think of a smooth way to divest her of her clothes…
“Did you try the chili?”
“Hmmm?”
“Did you try the chili?” she asked again. “I didn’t, but I was told it was really good. Millie made it – she’s supposed to be an excellent cook, and I think she is. I tried her cookies once and… and they were delicious.”
Lauren was standing in the middle of the room, wringing her hands. The hut was basically one large room, with the bedroom, living room, and kitchen area merging, and a small, separate bathroom in one corner. Her eyes flickered to the bed, and she swallowed.
Carrick moved slowly towards her. She forced herself to remain still, and she exhaled in relief as he clasped her arms and proceeded to rub his cheeks and chin over her, neck and shoulders - pressing his scent to her, as he had done before.
“You’re nervous,” he growled as he rubbed his chin over her skin.
“I always get nervous before the first time I do anything. If you think this is bad, you should have seen me before I learned how to ride a bike.” She laughed forcibly.
“Try not to be.”
“I’ll try,” she whispered.
Carrick let go of her arms and slid his own around her waist, pulling her against him so they were embracing. Hesitantly, she placed her hands on his arms.
“I didn’t see you while I was hunting.”
Truthfully, he’d never seen her hunt. Then, he’d never hunted with the rest of the pride until the last couple of months. Hopefully, they could hunt together in future – their tigers running side by side. His beast growled gleefully as he imagined the tigress by his side. In fact, he’d never actually seen her tiger. That needed to be rectified.
“I didn’t hunt,” she admitted.
“Why not?”
He tipped her face up to look at him. It was flushed pink, and her eyes were bright and wide. He was struck anew by just how beautiful he found her. The other tigers in the pride could not appreciate her, but he was glad of that. Carrick saw nothing but beauty and sweetness when he looked at her – no one else needed to understand how fine she was.
Lauren grimaced slightly. “My tiger isn’t very aggressive. She doesn’t like to kill. I like to run now and then, but I don’t like hunting. I’m sorry, I should have told you before we mated.”
Carrick frowned. “Why?”
“My dad seemed to think it would make a difference… he doesn’t think it’s right to be a tiger who doesn’t hunt. He didn’t think you would either.”
“I could care less.” He really didn’t mate her for her hunting skills – only a moron would think that would matter. “I haven’t seen your tiger.”
“I know.”
Lauren wiggled slightly in his arms, and he groaned inwardly. He was trying to relax her, but her soft, warm body pressing against him was hardly helping his own situation.
“There’s something else…” She pushed against his body and reluctantly – against the beast’s wishes – he let her go. “I don’t really like to shift around the rest of the pride because my tiger looks a little… odd.”
“Odd?”
“Her markings aren’t… well, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them, but everyone else who has seen her seems to think there is… my mom said it was a good thing you’d never seen me shift because it might put you off…” Lauren flustered over her words.
“Lauren,” he growled.
His mate immediately stilled and looked up at him, worry in her gaze.
“Show me.”
“Show you?”
“Shift and show me your tiger.”
Fifteen
Panic set in. Or, more panic set in. She was already pretty panicked about the whole mating thing, but showing him her tiger just added another layer to an already very well padded ball of panic.
“What, right here?”
“Yes.”
“Right now?”
“Yes.”
“Just like that?”
“Yes!”
Carrick struggled to control his temper, and maybe Lauren smiled inwardly at that. He always seemed to be on the verge of losing it, and she couldn’t deny that sometimes she seemed to get a little enjoyment out of goading him. It was only something she’d started noticing in the last few weeks, and she was surprised at herself, but it was kind of funny when he got all mad. Maybe because she knew he wouldn’t hurt her, she could just enjoy how cute he looked when his face scrunched up… Wait, what? Carrick? Cute?!
But that didn’t diminish her panic in any way, shape or form. She really did fear his reaction when he saw her tiger. Her beast mewled pathetically, and Lauren soothed her. Honestly, she had no problem with the way she looked, but the other pride members who had seen her seemed to think it was an issue - particularly her parents.
Your beast is a disgrace, Lauren.
No male will risk having cubs that look like you.
“Shift,” he growled, putting an awful lot of force behind the word.
Lauren tried to ignore the urge to follow the order, but the power surrounding the command beat against her defenses until she gave in. Licking her lips, she
shrugged out of her dress and quickly tore off her underwear, only pausing at the slightly strangled sound that seemed to be coming from Carrick. Letting out a shuddering breath, she willed her beast forward, and with some gentle coaxing, and reminders that they couldn’t hide from their new mate forever, the tiger allowed it. Slowly, her body twisted and changed until she was standing on all fours before him.
Carrick stared down at her open mouthed, and the tigress lowered her head, waiting for the insults.
*
He should have guessed, what with Lauren being blonde and all - a white tiger. Not an average white tiger, either. She was snow white, nearly all white, her stripes were so pale, they barely stood out against her white fur.
“Fuck me,” he breathed and his tiger let out a growl of desire for the female.
Why the hell had she been hesitant? She was fucking gorgeous! He knew that Lauren was special to him; he should have guessed how special she really was. White tiger shifters were incredibly rare, and her markings were unusual even for a rare creature.
He kneeled in front of her and stroked her head. She lifted it to look at him, her blue eyes blinking. She was utterly perfect.
Abruptly, he stood and shed his own clothes. The tigress shuffled away from him as he quickly allowed his own shift. The female trembled slightly as his huge tiger stood before her. In human form, Lauren was perhaps a little larger than other females, but as her tiger, she was small, a slip of a tiger compared to his massive beast. He rubbed his cheek against hers, and after a few seconds, she rubbed back.
The tiger scent marked her, just as the man had. She may be shy about her tiger form now, but he would show her she had nothing to worry about. They would run and hunt together. His tiger rumbled, and they would mate in their animal forms… but not now. Now, the man needed her more.
Carrick eased through his shift, taking back control. He scratched her ear one last time and ordered her to shift back. Shuddering, she did.