by E A Price
“I’m engaged to someone else now. A human called James. He’s… he’s a good man, and he loves me.” Emily gave him a look of longing. “I never forgot you.”
“I’m mated to Lauren.”
She looked down at her ring. “The blonde who opened the door?”
Carrick nodded.
“She makes you happy?”
“Yes.”
Emily smiled wryly. “You love her?”
“I do,” he admitted. Though perhaps he should have told Lauren that before his ex-girlfriend.
“Then I’m happy for you, and I’m sorry that…”
“It wasn’t your fault,” he interrupted brusquely. “Don’t think that it was,” he added a little more kindly.
“Thank you.”
She moved towards him and his tiger growled. Emily stopped and sighed. “It was nice to see you again, I… I wish you all the best.”
She stepped down off the porch. “I might just slip out past the garage. No offense, but your sisters… they’re a little hard to take.”
“Humph. None taken.”
“Goodbye, Gilly.”
Carrick watched her disappear, and his tiger grunted in relief. He had no lingering feelings for her, and no regrets that they couldn’t be together. She was a female he cared for when he was little more than a cub. That was over now.
He went into the house to find his mate and possibly kill his sisters.
*
Lauren strode past the garage, her tiger letting out a war cry like howl. She walked for ten minutes, her thoughts crashing into one another until she realized she was an idiot, and turned back. She had left the man she loved alone with his gorgeous, alleged ‘love of his life’ ex-girlfriend, without even bothering to try and fight.
True, her tiger was somewhat small and docile, and would most likely be flattened like a fly by the beautiful, lithe lioness, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t try to fight.
“Now see here…” she started, coming up short as she found Carrick alone, prowling the garden.
“Where the hell have you been?” he snarled, rushing to her and clutching her to him.
“Can’t… breathe…”
He loosened slightly and glared down at her. Her tiger might have slunk away from his dominating glower were it not for the fact that she could scent that Emily was long gone. Instead, she was celebrating.
“I didn’t know where you were,” he snapped, his eyes blazing yellow.
“I was only gone for twenty minutes…”
He growled in a way that suggested that was twenty minutes too long.
“What happened to Emily?”
“She left. Where were you?” He wasn’t to be deterred.
“I just went for a walk. I thought you might need some time alone with Emily, but I came back because I didn’t want you to have any time alone with Emily… She’s definitely gone, right?”
Carrick grunted and started rubbing his chin over her neck, scent marking her. As if she could lose his smell within twenty minutes.
“How did it go with Emily?”
He sighed and filled her in on what Emily said, never missing a beat as he proceeded to douse her in his scent.
“So that’s it?” she asked hesitantly.
Carrick pulled back and frowned. “What did you expect?”
“I expected the worst, but like always, you pleasantly surprised me.”
Carrick still looked slightly confused, and she brushed her lips over his. “I love you. Now, c’mon, let’s go see if there’s some apple pie left.”
“Okay,” he muttered grudgingly. “But next time you try to leave the house, you tell me first.”
“Maybe you should just get me chipped.”
“You’d be okay with that?”
“You’re turning into quite a funny guy, Gilligan.”
“Who the hell’s joking? And don’t call me that.”
“Gilly, Gilly, Gilly… ooh!”
Carrick pulled her into a bone-melting kiss; her tiger purred, and all her thoughts and fears fluttered away.
Thirty-Five
Lauren stretched her arms over her head, letting out a long yawn. Carrick watched the curve of her breasts as they rose and pressed against her shirt. Not a sight he would ever tire of.
They were home again. Georgie tried to cajole them into staying in Los Lobos, but Lauren wanted to be near her family, and Carrick didn’t really want to stay. Los Lobos may have been his home for longer, but his happiest memories were with the pride.
The same could be said for his name. Gilligan was his given name, but Carrick was the name his mate whispered the first time they mated. Carrick felt right.
Lauren promised Georgie they would visit often. Carrick didn’t say anything. He didn’t want to get Georgie’s hopes up, and he also wasn’t sure what would happen next.
In spite of his tiger’s insistent pushing, he still hadn’t told Lauren about their defunct mating. It wasn’t something he could put off for much longer. Someone else would tell her if he didn’t.
Coward sneered the tiger.
He should do it now, quickly, like ripping off a band-aid. Lauren smiled at him, and he faltered.
His tiger howled, still antsy from being cooped up in the airplane, and now frustrated by the situation with Lauren.
“I need to shift,” he muttered.
She nodded in understanding. “You go. I’m going to start unpacking.”
Carrick hesitated. “Stay here while I’m gone.”
Lauren shrugged. “Sure.”
He pulled her into his arms and dipped her, covering her mouth with his. The kiss he gave her was hungry, desperate, all-consuming – full of fear that it might be the last time he ever could kiss her.
Whiny coward amended the tiger.
Lauren’s eyes fluttered open, and she gave him a dreamy look. “Hurry back.”
He gave a quick rub of his chin over her neck – for good measure – and strode outside.
His tiger didn’t want to go, but he needed to shift. If he stayed in the house much longer, he would shift there, and that wouldn’t help with any of his problems.
He tore out of his clothes and pounded through the trees, trying to outrun his fears.
*
Lauren skipped to the door. Was Carrick back already? No, wait, why would he knock at his own door?
She tore it open and her tiger huffed in disappointment. Clay.
“Hey, Clay, how’s it going?” she murmured.
“Lauren,” he grunted, pushing past her into the house.
She rolled her eyes, wishing she had the sense to pretend she wasn’t home.
He started pacing up and down, and she tried to quell her unhappy beast. “Is everything okay? I’m a little busy…”
“I’m surprised you’re still here,” he said, giving her an odd look.
Lauren frowned. “I just got back from Los Lobos.”
“I saw Carrick leave.” Clay gave her an expectant look.
Lauren rocked on her heels, waiting for him to get to his point. She couldn’t imagine Carrick would be pleased to return home and find Clay there.
“Things are different in the pride…”
“Umm hmm.”
“I just figured that if you still wanted it, I’d be willing to mate you.”
Her tiger yelped in laughter. Was he joking? He had to be. But the serious look on his face didn’t indicate that he was about to shout ‘gotcha’.
“You’d be willing?” she repeated incredulously.
“Yeah, look, I know you were hoping I’d mate-claim you and I didn’t. But things are different now, and if you’re still interested, we could talk to Asher about him performing our mating ceremony.”
Lauren let out a chuckle. “You’re kidding right?”
Had Clay gone mad? What on earth did he think he was doing rocking up at the house she shared with her mate and trying to get her to mate with him? Had he lost his marbles? She was already mated,
and to a tiger who was liable to kick his ass to hell for talking to her like this.
He took a step towards her and her tiger snarled.
“You need to leave,” she said slowly.
Clay gave her a look of frustration. “Really? You’d rather get re-mated to Carrick than mate with me?”
“Re-mated, what… you should go.” The guy was nuts, and she wanted him out of her house and away from her.
He gave her a long look before shaking his head. “Fine, I was trying to do you a favor, but you want to re-mate him, good luck with that.”
Clay stomped away, slamming the front door behind him.
“What in the world was that about?”
Lauren looked to her beast, but the tiger was even more confused than her.
*
The scent of Clay hit him. It lingered on his porch and oozed into his house. Fucking pup. His tiger snarled furiously. If he had touched Lauren, he was already dead!
Red tinged his vision as he tore into the house, stumbling as he fell over their suitcases. Lauren hadn’t moved them. Then what had she been doing?
It was a relief that he couldn’t actually scent Clay in the house. He must have left, but it was only a mild relief as he found his mate huddled on the couch, frowning.
“What the hell was Clay doing here?” he roared.
Lauren looked up in mild surprise. “He asked me to mate him,” she said in bewilderment. “How could I mate him when I’m mated to you?”
Carrick glared at her, his whole body tingling as his tiger prowled. “It’s… we’re not mated,” he growled.
“But, how?”
Shortly and with as few words as possible he filled her in. Her expression became increasingly worried.
“So, we’re really not mated anymore?”
“No.”
“Did you just find out when we came home?”
“No,” he admitted reluctantly. His beast sent him a swipe for that. He could easily have lied.
Lauren licked her lips and stood up to face him. She folded her arms and took a defensive stance. “When did you find out?”
“About a week ago when I called Asher.”
Hurt flashed in her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
His tiger decided to step back and let Carrick take this one. Asshole. Lost for words, lost for excuses he just shrugged.
“I wonder why Clay was here,” she murmured.
An unholy roar ripped through his body. Lauren was too lost in her thoughts even to react to it. He could guess why Clay was there. Before the old alpha died, Clay had the pick of the female tigers. But now, the she-tigers could mate whomever they wanted – including humans and a whole boatload of other species. Why would they settle for a chauvinistic tiger? The male tigers probably all still wanted to mate female tigers, but the pickings were even slimmer now. Clay probably figured that Lauren would be an easy target.
“Carrick.” Lauren gave him a strange look and pursed her lips.
Alarm bells went off. She was leaving him. No, he had to stop her. He wouldn’t allow it. How could he stop her? He felt like he was falling and there was nothing he could do to stop himself.
Lauren looked at him sternly. “I know things are different outside the pride, but I’m old fashioned. I can’t live with you…”
Carrick’s heart clenched. He’d survived so much but could he survive this?
“Unless we are mated,” she finished. “It would just feel wrong. We have to be blessed by our alpha under the moon god. It may seem silly to tigers that don’t grow up in prides, but part of the mating ritual is about blessing our future offspring. Maybe it’s superstitious, but I want that for our cubs. How soon can our new alpha perform the ceremony? Technically we’ve been living in sin for the past week.” She pressed her fingers to her cheeks as they heated in embarrassment, but when she caught his expression she was confused again. “What’s wrong?”
He just about managed to scrape his jaw up off the floor to answer. Even his beast was amazed by her words. “You want to go through the ceremony again?”
Lauren gave him a patient look. “Unless I’m missing something, we have to do it again otherwise we won’t be mated.”
“You want to mate me?” he asked slowly, just in case she really didn’t grasp it.
Now she was getting impatient. “Of course.”
“Why?” he breathed, and Lauren looked affronted.
“How can you ask why? Carrick, I love you.”
“You didn’t want to mate me the first time,” he huffed, and his beast covered his eyes with his paws. Perhaps letting Carrick do the talking wasn’t the best move.
Lauren’s cheeks reddened. “I didn’t know you. But I do now, and I want to be with you.”
“You can do better than me; maybe you should mate Clay…” The beast roared at him to shut the hell up.
Her face flushed in irritation. “Is this some kind of payback because I rejected your first mate-claim?”
“Of course not!”
“Then why are you being like this? I don’t know how many times I have to say it. I love you, and even though you don’t say it, I know you love me. We are happy together, and we are going to stay mated and have lots of cubs and live happily ever after. Is that okay with you?” Lauren was almost at boiling point and took a deep breath at the end of her mini-tirade.
Carrick gave her a long look before saying, “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, that’s okay with me.”
“Well… good.”
Carrick ate up the floor between them and swept her into his arms. “It’s more than okay,” he muttered. “More than okay. I love you.”
“I know,” she said more than a little smugly, and his tiger preened.
“You’re my mate with or without the ceremony. You are mine. Only mine,” he murmured, huskily, afraid that tears might actually fall if he didn’t control himself.
His tiger roared in triumph. He was never letting her go. Everything he’d been through, all the horror and pain, it just led to her – his mate, his life, and he was grateful for every moment he had with her. He wouldn’t waste another second agonizing about it – she was his forever.
Lauren kissed his cheek. “I think so too… whoa, hold on now, honey.”
“What?” Carrick gave her an innocent look but didn’t stop his stride, moving through the living room and up the stairs to the bedroom.
“I may agree that we are meant to be together, but we still need that ceremony before anything else happens.”
“You’re not serious?” he growled.
“Very – I told you, I’m an old-fashioned tigress.”
“But we’ve been having sex without being mated for the past week.”
“Yes, we’re going to have to talk about that later,” she told him disapprovingly. “But for now, we need to have another ceremony.”
Carrick kicked open the door to their bedroom and threw Lauren on the bed. She bounced around, giggling as her hair fell over her eyes. “Carrick! We are not having sex.”
“I know,” he grumbled, impatiently pulling a shirt and pair of jeans out the closet.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting dressed. I’m going to see Asher. He’s performing our ceremony tonight, or I really will challenge for alpha and perform the ceremony myself.”
Lauren raised herself on one elbow and gave him a wry look. “You’d challenge for alpha just because you’re horny?”
Carrick’s eyes filtered to yellow as he looked her up and down. “You wouldn’t believe the things I’d do just to be with you.”
“It’s not worth challenging for alpha…”
Carrick paused in the process of pulling the jeans on. “That mean you’ve changed your mind?” he asked hopefully.
“No.”
He groaned and muttered curses under his breath against her parents.
“I’m sorry,” she offered.
“You don’t sound so
rry.”
“I can’t help it. I’ve been told over and over that females have to be mated to have sex otherwise we go to tiger hell, and our cubs will be cursed. I’m just too well trained.” She clambered off the bed and hugged him from behind. “Besides, I want to be mated to you. I want to stand up in front of everyone in the pride and let them know that I am yours and you are mine.” Her hand lightly stroked his stomach. “Actually, I’m kind of glad this happened.”
Carrick growled.
“I’m serious. I’ll admit I had a few misgivings the first time, but now… now, I have no doubts.”
“Because you love me,” he murmured, perking up a little.
“That and you give great foot rubs.”
He twisted, so they were facing each other. “That’s not the only thing I can rub.” His voice turned husky, and he moved his hand down to her…
“No!” She pulled away from him. “Not until after the mating ceremony.” She held her head up, merciless to his pleading, kitten eyes.
“You’re lucky I love you,” he groused.
“I know.”
Carrick’s eyes widened, and his tiger damn near swooned for his pretty mate. She’d brought happiness back into his life. Helped him remember his past, reunited him with his family – though the jury was still out on whether that was a good thing or not. In spite of everything she’d done for him, she thought she was lucky to have him. Waiting a few hours to be with her was the least he could do, but that didn’t change how much he was going to complain about it.
He leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “I’m going to talk to Asher. You stay here and relax; I’ll get everything ready.”
Lauren nodded. “I think I’ll take a bath and maybe slip into that new red lingerie I haven’t worn yet…” Her cheeks flushed, and he growled. “What? I want tonight to be a night you won’t forget.”
Damn right he wouldn’t. He would never forget a moment with Lauren. They were all too precious.
His tiger roared. Mine.
Thirty-Six
Four months later
Lauren shut her car door. Yep, she was mobile! After some intense lessons from Carrick – which always ended in intense bedroom sessions with him – she passed her test, and they found a sturdy, jeepy-like vehicle for her.