Tiger in the Pack

by E. M. Shmitz

  “I’m going to enjoy this cat.”

  Theo jumped at her, much faster than she thought the lout would be able to move. She swiped at him, leaving red streaked down his face, but missing the arteries in his neck that she had been aiming for.

  Theo didn’t pause; he jumped at her, catching her off balance. She ended up on her stomach, with the half changing wolf pinning her against the couch. Sabine was very close to losing her temper entirely.

  She raged, “Get your disgusting, slimy dog jaws off me Theo. And for fucks sake have a doggie mint, your breath stinks.”

  She was about to change and teach the dog a lesson he wouldn’t forget when the lights licked on and Marcus strode in looking pissed off.

  “You heard her Theo. Let her go or I’ll set her loose on you, damn the cost of the dry cleaning and re-carpeting.”

  Theo slowly stood up changing until he was fully human again. Sabine sat up furiously swiping at her neck. Dog drool was disgusting.

  “My apologies Marcus. I didn’t realize I was encroaching on your territory,” he gave a sly smile.

  “It’s not my territory I think you need to worry about,” Marcus growled.

  Despite his words and the fact that Sabine was more than capable of defending herself, all he wanted to do was rip out Theo’s throat. Damn right he was encroaching on Marcus’ territory, Sabine was his property.

  With one last calculating flash of teeth Theo left the house. He was submissive enough that Marcus could find no reason to swipe at him, although he would have clearly liked to. Sabine shook her head at the men and brushed past him to head upstairs. Marcus reined in his errant anger and stopped himself from grabbing her possessively.

  “Thank you for not slaughtering him in my recreation room. Did he hurt you?”

  She turned slowly, there was real concern in his voice, but looking at his eyes all she could see was anger and hardness and behind it all she could see that he was tired. Her causing problems was probably the last thing he needed right now.

  “I’m fine. There is absolutely no need for antiseptic.”

  She pulled her collar down a little to prove it. He thought she was joking and smiled a little, but she was deadly serious. That man was far too eager to splash around antiseptic.

  She took a longer shower than usual, trying to banish memories of another man who had tried to rape her while sleeping. That one had almost been successful and worse yet it had been at her father’s blessing.

  Royce had been adamant that she would marry Robbie, and at her stubborn refusal he had decided that she needed to be ‘broken’. She got away from Robbie that night and earned a small reprieve when the council had sent Marcus against Marie and Anya. She hadn’t been sure what she was going to do faced with the probability of rape once she was back within the pack. If she killed Robbie or went too far against her father’s wishes she would have been fair game for the pack, no longer under the protection of being the strongest fighter and daughter of the leader.

  She spent a few hours writing about it in her diary that night, trying to purge the memories from her mind before succumbing to an exhausted sleep.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  The next morning as they ran she was more out of it than usual. She had not gotten anywhere near the required amount of sleep for a happy kitty cat. They had just reached a path that they often ran, when Sabine scented something out of the ordinary. She stopped abruptly and breathed deeply, drawing the air across the back of her tongue.

  Marcus had taken a few more steps before noticing she had stopped.

  “Did you smell that?” she asked, knowing he had a more sensitive sense of smell than her.

  He looked confused before scenting the air around them. He did a thorough job of it, not in the habit of ignoring Sabine’s hunches. In the end, they were unable to locate whatever she thought was out there and so continued with their run.

  She was sure she knew what had been there, but clearly it was holding back for another time. She was more vigilant than usual in the week following, but nothing out of the ordinary happened until the next Saturday morning.

  There had been a party the night before to celebrate the engagement of Poppy and Jerry, two of the older wolves who lived in town with quite a few human friends. Sabine and Marcus had attended, and Marcus had had a few drinks and a later night than usual. She had stayed sober at this request and kept a watchful eye over the wolves interacting with the humans.

  This time she didn’t stop, just slowed her pace until she reached the curve in the trail and there they were. Four men and a woman stood waiting for her naked in various stages of their changes.

  “Aw, a war party from Royce. How sweet of him to think of me. How fucking predictable.”

  Looking over them she saw Robbie, licking his lips obscenely at her. Taj, one of her father’s most trusted tigers and an old sparring mate. Heath, a cunning little shit; she’d have to watch him for weapons. The other two she hadn’t personally known, but she’d seen the female fight and knew she’d give her a run for her money. The male had done a lot of time in the fighting ring. She had s distinct memory of him being used to train young tigers, he didn’t go easy and more than a few young men and women bore his scars.

  Her father had sent his best warriors to finish her off, which was strangely gratifying. She was a little glad to see that he had been paying attention to just how good she was. The odds were slightly stacked against her, but she was confident. In her world, shifters were good or they were dead. She was good, and these cats were about to become dead.

  Robbie stepped towards her opening his mouth as if he was about to say something. Trust that little fuck to have prepared a speech. Sabine didn’t give him a chance to say his spiel. Instead she charged him, knocking him to the ground.

  The others were ready and she was immediately engaged in a four on one fight. Her body took over and her mind supplied well-rehearsed fight combos. Step to the side, elbow to the gut, duck, grab, swing, crack. She broke Heath’s neck. He fell instantly and a delicate silver blade slid towards her. Where the heck had he hidden that?

  She picked it up and instantly sliced Taj’s chest open. It wasn’t deep enough to be fatal, but she would bet that it hurt like a bitch. Taj took a step back as Robbie joined the fight.

  She stabbed at Robbie, her blow glancing off his shoulder as she was forced to duck the unknown male’s leap. As he recovered and Robbie stumbled she delivered a lightning fast kick to the female’s throat, crushing her windpipe. She dropped gasping for air and gurgling.

  The male changed fully into his tiger form and took another leap at her. This time she didn’t duck, she did her best to evade the claws and thrust the dagger deep into the tiger’s chest, miraculously missing his ribs and catching something vital. The light had already died in his eyes when he hit the ground.

  Taj and Robbie changed fully into their tiger forms and attempted to bulldoze her to the ground. Sabine punched Robbie hard enough to break the skin over his eye socket and kicked Taj hard enough to break ribs. While they were occupied she slipped off her clothes, changed and rushed Taj.

  She tricked him into thinking she would engage him head on and then swerved to the side. Taj had never remembered to keep his chin down when they were fighting and she took advantage of that now. Delivering the killing bite with a little regret that he’d never get the chance to learn it.

  Robbie paused for a second before reengaging her. She took advantage of that and spun behind him, catching a hind leg with her outstretched claws and doing some serious ligament damage to the slower tiger. They tussled for a moment and then broke free, staring each other down and limping in wide circles.

  Sabine had not got through the fight unmarked, but she ignored the aches and pains, focusing only on Robbie. Then it was over. Robbie roared and attacked, slow on his damaged hind leg. She swiped twice, missing his neck once and then found her spot the second. Her claws dug deep into his flesh and he collapsed panting and bleeding pr
ofusely into the dirt.

  She stood looking at the dead around her and roared her rage. How dare Royce send his missionaries to kill her, and only five of them! He had seriously underestimated her, yet again.

  She changed back into her human form and taken a quick catalogue of her injuries. She had what felt like a deeply bruised wrist, a sprained ankle, some deep scratches over her ribs and most concerning was a deep cut across her hip. Heath must have got her with his dagger before she broke his neck.

  She dragged all the cats off the path and into the valley, where she covered them with branches. Then she disguised the blood on the path with leaves. It would have to do until she had help to dispose of the bodies properly. Slipping her ruined clothes back on she grimaced at her need for modestly and headed back to the house.

  When she walked into the kitchen Bucky was the first to spot her. Marcus and Finn turned to see her when Bucky dropped the coffee pot he was filling and ran to grab the first-aid kit.

  “Don’t even think about it. Put the fucking antiseptic back in the drawer,” she snarled before heading upstairs to shower.

  Marcus stood and evaluated the amount of blood on her clothes before taking the kit off Bucky. The blood was probably not all hers, but he wasn’t going to take the chance.

  “Finn, Bucky grab a few others and go see where the bodies are. Don’t come back until it’s clean.”

  As they left he headed up the stairs. He didn’t stop at the bathroom door, she hadn’t locked it anyway. He locked it after himself though, just in case she tried to get out.

  Sabine had hopped into the shower, hoping to get some of the blood off herself before Marcus came to investigate. He pulled back the shower curtain and gave her a once over, practically ignoring the fact that she was naked. No doubt planning which part of her body to douse in antiseptic first.

  “The hip’s a bit of a worry. You might need stitches there. I can’t just bandage it. Everything else will be fine; the scratches on your ribs are closing already. What else hurts?” he asked.

  Sabine rolled her eyes and turned off the water. Marcus passed over a towel to pat herself dry with.

  “My ankle’s sore as hell. It’s not too swollen though. It feels like a strain and my wrist hurts. I landed on it hard at one point, but I think I’ve just bruised it deeply. You can see where it’s beginning to color up now. It doesn’t feel like the bone,” she said rotating it experimentally.

  Marcus shook his hair back and prodded at her wrist and ankle before agreeing with her. He strapped a couple of cold packs to each, and then pulled a tube of white cream out of his pocket.

  “Antiseptic. No stinging and no smell.”

  He handed it to her and she gave it a cautious sniff before dutifully beginning to apply it to her cuts. He wrapped bandages around her ribs to keep the scratches clean, and then bent down to examine her hip.

  “How in the hell was this done? Never mind, you’ll tell me later.” He said, sounding angry to his own ears.

  “Does it really need stitches?” she asked.

  He looked at her incredulously. “Yes, it does. Its deep and it’s not in a spot that would naturally heal quickly.”

  He shook his hair out his eyes and looked over her again. She looked resigned to her fate, and he wanted to hug her. Then shake her for finding trouble again.

  “I’ll do it. With these injuries, a doctor would ask way too many questions. I’m going to have to use the smelly stuff to sterilize the needle.”

  Marcus kept up a steady stream of soothing talk and worked quickly. He had to crowd her into a corner to get her to stand still, and even then, it was a bit of a mission.

  Sabine minded her manners and resisted the urge to kick him and run. The antiseptic made her nauseous and she was developing one heck of a pounding headache. By the time, Marcus was done she had spots in front of her eyes, and wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to stay standing.

  He took one look at her and wrapped her in a towel before picking her up and carrying her to her room. He nearly took her to his, but thought that may be overstepping the boundaries a bit. Hell, he’d seen her naked, had her sleep on him and tended her wounds, but it would have been totally improper for her to wake up in his bed. Sometimes he confused even himself he thought shaking his head.

  Sabine pressed herself into his chest, and it felt surprisingly good to have her there. He slid her into her bed carefully, discarding the towel. He thought briefly about finding her some clothes, but decided he liked her better this way. She lay sleepily against the pillow, and he reached out to tuck some of her curls behind her ear. This was totally normal, with all the adrenaline in her system she was going to crash a bit when it all disappeared. The color was coming back into her face and he could hear Finn and Buck coming back along the side of the house.

  “Stay put. Sleep. That’s an order. If I catch you up I’ll drag you across my knee and punish you myself.” His cock twitched a little at that thought, and her eyes opened wider from surprise. Maybe a little curiosity? He didn’t ponder it, instead turning to head downstairs.

  “We’ve got ourselves a bit of a fire cat here; there’s no doubt about that,” Finn said shaking his head.

  “She took out four guys and a female. Based on the tracks, they all came at her at once too. Mostly, nice efficient kills. She crushed the female’s throat and broke one of the guys’ neck before they could change. She stabbed a tiger in the heart with a dagger, and ripped the other two’s throats out. That girl isn’t scared of gore that’s for sure.”

  Bucky nodded agreeing with Finn. “She took the time to hide some of the signs of the fight and dragged the bodies into the valley too. Those guys were big. Even the female was big.”

  “So, it’s taken care of” Marcus asked.

  “Yeah mate. We’re good,” Finn agreed.

  It was a sad fact that deaths happened in their community, and the wolves were more than capable of disguising the evidence and if need be making the death look accidental.

  In their human forms shifters looked entirely human, including their blood. If one was found dead it would cause a lot of trouble to Marcus and his wolves. Dead wolves were easily explained in the forest, but exotic large cats would have been much harder.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Later that night Marcus entered her room to find her holding a creamy white notebook and looking a little guilty.

  “Before you say anything, you can’t prove I got out of bed to get this,” she said.

  He sighed drumming his fingers against her dresser. “You’re right. I can’t prove it, but do I really have to?”

  She moved over a little on the bed and he flopped down gracefully on it, his back against the foot board and his feet crossed on the covers near her hand.

  “Now, you were about to tell me what the hell happened and how long you knew they were sniffing around.” She bit her lip and fiddled with the cover of her diary.

  “And that is an order.”

  She shot him an angry look and gave his exactly what he had asked for.

  “Sir, I first suspected the Moon pack tigers were in the vicinity when running with you at 0530 hours on Saturday the eleventh. I picked up no substantial proof of them until scenting them at roughly 0600 hours this morning.”

  “Sabine, don’t fuck with me. Just tell me what happened.”

  She growled at him and told him the story in plain words. Getting increasingly angry with him, although she had no idea why.

  At the end of her tale he examined her face and nodded slowly.

  “Why didn’t you come to me and let me know you though they would try something?”

  “Because I handled it. It was my problem, and I fixed it. Besides I didn’t think you’d really appreciate me coming to let you know that, yet again, I was about to cause more trouble than you really want to deal with on top of everything else,” she shrugged, a bit like a sullen teenager.

  “So instead of alerting me and my wolves to a secu
rity threat, you just assumed the cats were her for you and let it all play out until you were left with no choice but to fight and kill them. And on that subject, I would never have expected you to fight shifters you’ve lived your whole life with. Were you close with any of them?”

  Marcus’ voice had lost a little of his angry tone as he watched her. Sabine thought back to Robbie’s attempt at raping her and sneered a little.

  “Yeah, real close.”

  Marcus sighed and got up off the bed. Sabine’s heart dropped. Clearly, he thought she was a heartless bitch for that, but she had no way of telling his what she really felt. She hadn’t had much practice at feeling and sharing in the Moon Pack.

  “Fine we’ll talk about it later. If you need anything call. Don’t get up. Give your body a chance to heal and there’s a chance I’ll let you out of your room by Thursday.”

  He left the room ignoring her cry of “THURSDAY!? Are you fucking kidding?”

  Later that night, despite her harsh words to Marcus she cried for the cats she had killed. She hadn’t given a flying fuck what happened to Robbie, but she had genuinely cared about Taj. Marcus, in his own room, heard her crying but forced himself to allow her to grieve in private. Instead he paced in his room wondering how to get through to his tiger.

  For some reason when she heard him pacing in his room she cried harder. After Sabine had healed sufficiently for Marcus’ liking he had begun to take her everywhere with him. She assumed it was a matter of him not trusting her alone anymore. She found it hard spending almost every moment with him, aware of whenever he shook his hair out of his eyes, whenever he smiled at one of his wolves, and whenever he frowned at her. She tried to distance herself from him by talking less and putting a wall of sorts up between them.

  Her crush on him grew to the point she would look longingly at the adjoined door between their rooms and be damn glad that she had moved her dresser to block it.