Tigre

by Cara Bristol

  She patted her pocket with the list. “You were smart to note the serial numbers because that increases the odds, but I don’t want to mislead you. Local pawnshops are good about working with law enforcement, but that doesn’t mean the thieves will sell the stuff here. They’d be stupid to, but then again, a lot of crooks are dumb. In all honesty? It’s possible you’ll recover your stuff, but if there’s anything critical, you should just replace it.

  “Herian!” Cam swore.

  Kat widened her eyes in surprise. She’d heard only one person use that word—and he wasn’t from around here. “Um, do you know Tigre by any chance?”

  “He’s my brother.”

  “Your brother? Aren’t you the man on the Argent billboard? You’re not a Saberian…” He didn’t look anything like Tigre.

  “No, I’m not a Saberian. Tigre and I aren’t biologically related, but we’re brothers in spirit. We’re both ’Topian.” Cam’s face colored, turning not red but blue and scaly. “I chose a human personification to present to you because when we called the police, we didn’t know who would arrive. I sometimes use the man on the billboard as a model for my appearance.”

  “We didn’t realize it would be Tigre’s Kat who would respond,” Kevanne said.

  Oh no. No. No. Why did you say that?

  “Tigre’s Kat?” Matt’s eyebrows arched in a way that did not bode well for the return drive to the station.

  Cam nodded. “Kat—er Sgt. Kelley is my brother’s genmate.”

  Matt’s eyes gleamed. “What exactly is a genmate?”

  “They are life mates, bonded by their DNA.”

  “Oh, really?” A smirk tugged at Matt’s mouth.

  Kat’s fingers itched to zap her partner with her Taser. “We’ll get this information out to the pawnshops.” She tried to shift the focus back to business.

  “Yes! They met when the Church of Argent was set on fire,” Cam volunteered eagerly, making Kat want to zap him, too. She’d like to see both of them twitching on the ground. “When two genmates meet, the attraction is immediate, and they’re bonded for life.”

  Kevanne linked her arm through Cam’s. “This is Tigre and Kat’s personal business. I don’t think we need to be talking about it.”

  “Well, I’d like to see them work it out. Tigre’s been such a bear since they met.”

  Matt grinned.

  “I’ll show you out.” Kevanne shot Kat a sympathetic glance.

  Kat followed her to the foyer. “I forgot to ask—did you lose any prescription meds? Those are often stolen because they can easily be sold on the street.”

  “No. I keep some over-the-counter painkillers for the occasional headache and some antacids, but we don’t use or need anything else. If I come down with something, I hop in the ’Topian med pod, and it cures anything I’ve contracted.”

  “Med pod?”

  “It’s a diagnostic and treatment machine they brought with them from their planet.”

  “And it cures everything?”

  “It has eradicated colds I’ve gotten, healed Wingman’s broken ankle, and cured Psy and Meadow of the mumps.”

  Could it eliminate the feral fever? “Where is the med pod? At a doctor’s office?”

  “Oh, no. It’s at the farmhouse—where Tigre, Psy, and Inferno live.”

  She was dying to find out more, but the less Matt knew, the better. She didn’t have a way to contact Tigre. Kevanne probably had his phone number, but she couldn’t ask for it with her nosy partner standing right here. As it was, he’d grill her all the way to the station.

  Kevanne and Cam had been one up on her—they’d known her identity because Tigre must have mentioned her. The “pleasure to meet you” greeting made sense now. What had Tigre said about her? Was it good or bad? Had he told them they’d gotten married?

  “We’ve called for forensics to dust for prints. Try not to touch anything until after they leave. Once they do, you’re free to do whatever you need to,” she said. “You can clean up.”

  “Cleanup will have to wait anyway. After calling the insurance company, I have to replace the computers today. The Lavender Fest is this weekend. All the event scheduling and the volunteer and vendor lists were on my laptop and tablet. I saved most of it in the cloud, thank goodness, but I’ll have to get a new computer right away.”

  “It’s a big event!” Cam chimed in. “My brothers perform. Wingman does aerial acrobatics, Psy tells fortunes, Inferno juggles fire, and Tigre will be doing some sort of strongman demonstration.”

  Strongman? She remembered how effortlessly he’d picked her up and…her pussy pulsed, and waves of desire rode in on Vegas memories. She fought off a shudder and said, “You’re holding the Lavender Fest here? At the farm?”

  “Yes, of course,” Kevanne said.

  “You’ve arranged for security, right?”

  Kevanne shook her head. “No.” She lifted her shoulder. “I didn’t think I needed it. Nobody got rowdy last year. Only locals attended. Argent, Coeur d’Alene, Sandpoint, Post Falls, maybe a few people from Spokane. This is only the second year.”

  “You weren’t burglarized last year.” Matt stepped forward. “The burglary of your home follows the pattern of a string of similar crimes involving rural properties. Quite a few homes have been hit in the past month. In a couple of cases, the thieves returned a second time to get what they missed.”

  “That’s terrible!” Kevanne fluttered her hands. “I don’t know what else they could get from us! They stole everything of value the first time.” She shook her head. “I can’t afford to hire a private security firm.”

  “Let me ask around the station. Many cops moonlight, and there might be a few who’d like a side gig this weekend.”

  “Thank you. That would be wonderful! Would you be interested?”

  “Um…maybe. Let me check my calendar.” Gears spun as she considered it. If the stupid feral fever didn’t subside by the weekend, working the Lavender Fest would give her an opportunity to connect with Tigre and inquire about the med pod. “I’ll see what I can arrange, and I’ll call you.”

  She and Matt left the house. She pointedly ignored her partner’s questioning gaze.

  “So,” he said. “Let me guess. This Tigre person was in Vegas this past weekend.”

  “Shut up, Matt!”

  His laughter chased her to the squad car.

  Chapter Seven

  “On your mark, get set…go!” Meadow dropped her arm, and Tigre shot forward, racing against a little boy with heavy braces on his legs. He slowed his pace, allowing the child to edge ahead by a nose and cross the finish line in the hundred-yard dash.

  “I win! I win! I beat the tigre man!” The boy beamed from ear to ear.

  “You sure did! Fair and square.” Tigre rested his palms on his knees and pretended to pant.

  “And here’s your gold medal!” Meadow placed a plastic medallion around the boy’s neck.

  “Thanks!” the boy’s father mouthed over the boy’s head.

  He flashed a thumbs-up. “Beat the Tigre Man,” was one of the carnival events at the Second Annual Lavender Fest. Uncomfortable and grouchy again, he wasn’t in the mood to deal with people; however, he’d committed to Kevanne, so he couldn’t renege on his word. He’d hoped physical exertion would burn off his excess sexual frustration.

  He’d performed a weight-lifting exhibition in the morning. The original idea of the afternoon event was that adults would compete against him in a footrace, but a lot of children stepped up to challenge him, so he’d had to tone it down. He did enjoy the kids; their contagious enthusiasm lightened his mood somewhat. While he wasn’t getting the exercise he’d hoped for, enough adults had entered to showcase what he could do. Genetically programmed for strength and speed, Tigre had outrun them all. But, even with the adult men, he’d had to make it look like the race had been close.

  The sun glowed high in the cloudless sky over a beautiful Nor
th Idaho day, perfect for an outdoor fair. Kevanne’s rep had grown, and the fair had drawn a much larger crowd than last year. He knew most of the Argent residents by sight, if not name, but he didn’t recognize half the attendees.

  He scanned the crowd for familiar faces and then did a double take as he spotted a woman in a purple security T-shirt. Lust kicked into overdrive. Since seeing Kat at the sheriff’s station, he’d waited on tenterhooks, first hoping she’d call then worrying he’d be notified their marriage had been annulled. He couldn’t continue in a state of limbo. He had decided to force the issue and settle matters one way or another after putting the Lavender Fest behind him, but she was here now. No time like the present.

  “Who’s next?” Psy’s mate, Meadow, the emcee and referee, called. “Who dares to challenge the Tigre? Step on up!”

  “Can I have a few minutes? I need a…breather.” He kept his eyes on his genmate, afraid she’d disappear into the crowd. She was talking to a family, gesturing and pointing.

  “Oops! Sorry, folks. Tigre needs a break,” Meadow said. “He’ll be back soon, but let’s give him a big hand.”

  His audience clapped enthusiastically.

  Kat turned at his approach, her lips parting, her pupils dilating. Her arousal floated on the air like a maddening perfume. His cock throbbed and strained against his zipper. Why couldn’t she see what they had together? What they could have? Why did she continue to fight it? “I didn’t expect to see you here,” he said.

  “Your friends didn’t tell you about the break-in?”

  “Cam told me. Said they’d booked a security detail. He didn’t tell me you were going to be on it.” Why hadn’t his brother or Kevanne mentioned it?

  “I recommended they hire a security team.”

  “You think whoever broke in will try again?”

  “The burglars did hit a couple of homes twice.”

  “Would somebody try to rob them with so many people present?”

  “It’s the perfect time. The Lavender Fest gives them an excuse to be here, and they know there’s nobody at the homestead. That’s the biggest risk to a burglar—the homeowner or tenant is home when they enter. They don’t want to get caught—or shot—so most burglaries occur during the day when people are at work.”

  Tigre spotted several other purple-shirted security people. “Shouldn’t somebody be guarding the house, then?”

  “Somebody is,” she replied. “I recruited several deputies. One of them is assigned to the area around the house. However, it’s been very tame, very quiet—which is good. That’s what we like.”

  He didn’t feel very tame. He wanted to throw her to the ground and mount her right here. The arousal she refused to acknowledge tantalized him, stoking flames of lust and memories of the softness of her skin, the tightness of her pussy clenching his cock, her ecstatic cries of rapture.

  “You’re killing me,” he growled under his breath.

  Her eyes widened. “What?”

  “I said Argent doesn’t get rowdy.”

  “Right.” She folded her arms, which had the effect of pushing up her full breasts, her beaded nipples tenting the fabric. He remembered how softly the mounds had filled his palms, how hard the pebbled peaks had been against his tongue as he suckled. “It’s not the people of Argent you need to worry about. It’s the others,” she said.

  “True that,” he agreed. Besides the burglary at the lavender farm, Argent had experienced only two serious crimes during the two years he and his brothers had lived on Earth—the attempted kidnapping of little Izzy Mason, Delia’s and Wingman’s daughter, and the arson at the Church of Argent. Both had been committed by out-of-towners, although they’d had connections to locals.

  “Anyway…” She bit her lower lip. “I’m glad I ran into you. I hoped I’d see you.”

  Had she reconsidered his suggestion? He craved her with every cell of his being. He ached for her, needed her clenching around him. More than that, he coveted her smiles, her laughter, her company. Desire ran deeper than the physical.

  “I have a favor to ask.” She wet her lips and shifted her weight.

  He moved closer, the better to smell her.

  “I, uh, heard you had a med pod. That it can, uh, cure diseases and stuff.”

  He never knew what to expect from her, but he certainly hadn’t expected that. “Yeah…”

  “Is it accessible? Can anybody use it?”

  He frowned. “The med pod was on our spaceship, The Castaway. It’s in the farmhouse now. Why?”

  “Can it cure me?”

  “You’re ill?” Alarm raced through him.

  She sniffed and rubbed her nose. “You know—the feral fever. I thought maybe the med pod could eradicate it.”

  He jerked as if she’d slapped him. Her ambivalence about their mating had been obvious, but he hadn’t known she still considered it a disease, like a virus to be purged. She didn’t just wish to eradicate the desire, she wished to eliminate their bond completely, to get rid of him. “It won’t work,” he said tightly as hurt morphed into anger.

  “Why not?”

  “Because feral fever isn’t a disease, it’s a natural physiological process. It’s the way our bodies are meant to operate.” He snapped his tail to and fro. She still disliked him. She refused to consider a relationship with him.

  “Maybe your body but not mine. I’m human. You infected me.”

  She kept referring to the fever as an infection. “The med pod is not an option.” He stomped away.

  * * * *

  “Thank you so much for coming today,” Kevanne said. “I felt more secure with you watching over things.”

  Kat nodded, covered her nose with her arm, and sneezed.

  “Bless you,” Kevanne said.

  “Thank you.” The grassy, flower-filled field had brought on a touch of hay fever. She cleared her throat and said, “Security wise, it was an uneventful day—which is the goal. So, mission accomplished!” The deputy guarding the house had reported only a handful of curiosity seekers had approached the homestead.

  Dismissing the security team after most festival goers had cleared out, Kat had remained to watch over the stragglers, probably unnecessary since she’d gotten the impression they were friends of Kevanne’s. She’d seen nothing of Tigre since their interaction. He’d made himself scarce.

  “A group of us are going to the Whitetail Saloon for pizza and beer. Would you like to join us?” Kevanne asked.

  She didn’t have any friends in Argent, and she’d kind of hit it off with Kevanne. Despite the fact the Whitetail was one of only two eateries, she’d hadn’t been there, although she’d heard great things about their pizza. All good reasons to accept the invitation.

  “Tigre will be there, if that makes a difference.”

  After she’d brought up the med pod, he’d stomped away in a fit of pique, his ears flattening, his furry tail swishing like Amanda Blake’s did. Much as she would love another shot at convincing him to allow her use the med pod, a get-together with his family and friends at a public bar would not be the appropriate venue. Besides, she might be better served to allow him time to cool off before broaching the subject again.

  “I’d…better not. It’s been a long day.” The excuse sounded lame; Kevanne and everyone working on tearing down the booths had had a much longer day.

  “I understand. If you change your mind, drop on by.” Kevanne left to connect with her friends.

  Kat’s pickup truck sat alone in the grassy field. She climbed in and opened the window to air out the stifling hot cab. She was sweaty, horny, and irritable. She fired up the engine, and, as she headed down the bumpy gravel lane, she considered her dinner options. She’d scarfed too much junk food today; she should eat something healthy, but most likely she’d pop a frozen pizza in the oven.

  I could have good pizza if I go to the Whitetail. Kevanne had said she could come by if she changed her mind. But a surly, growl
ing Tigre would be there, which would make for an uncomfortable evening. Forming friendships with people within his circle would not be wise until the pesky matter of their marriage got resolved.

  Driving on autopilot, she was startled by a whoosh, a forceful burst of air blowing through the cab windows and shaking the foliage along the lane. A second later a winged motorcycle rocket materialized a few feet in front of the pickup. She slammed on the brakes and swerved. She would have rear-ended it, except the rocket levitated and then settled onto the road after the truck came to a stop. Tigre leaped off.

  Kat jumped out. “Are you crazy? What’s wrong with you? I almost hit you.”

  “You couldn’t hit me. The hover scooter is programmed to avoid collisions.”

  She was so mad, she could spit. “Well, my truck isn’t programmed to avoid collisions. You scared the crap out of me!” And, as she’d feared, his mere presence stirred a fresh wave of lust. Evergreen and lavender wafted on the air, but it was his musk she noticed. Spicy. Exotic. Tantalizing. Her nipples, already beaded, hardened further. Her pussy throbbed. Damn him.

  Maybe I should screw his brains out.

  But what would that solve? The temporary relief after the last “self-medication” session had led to a worsening of the condition. Tigre had become an addiction, and, as long as she kept feeding the craving, she’d never be free.

  “I wanted to catch you before you left,” he said.

  “Why?”

  “You’re not going to the Whitetail?”

  “No,” she said tautly and pressed her thighs together.

  Topaz eyes gleamed. He parted his lips, and she got the oddest feeling he was drawing in her scent. “Because of me?” he asked.

  She said nothing.

  “You hate me that much?”

  “I don’t hate you. My feelings are…complicated.” Messed up.

  “Why is being with me so terrible, then?”

  Actually, it wasn’t. So why not say the hell with it and surrender? It wasn’t like she was on a sex diet. Why deny herself what she hungered for?