The Tiger’s Ambush

by Tate James

“Uh, no. No, he admitted that was deliberate.” She sat back and fiddled with one of her batwing earrings. “He had heard about what Dupree did to me and how it almost bagged her you in return, so initially he took the job in an effort to use me as leverage.”

  “Leverage?” I squeaked. “For what?”

  “He didn’t really have anything in mind. Just... general leverage.” She grinned at me. “Got to appreciate that kind of initiative, right?”

  “What? No! Lucy, that’s—” I could feel my eyes bugging out of my head in outrage when she cut me off.

  “That’s none of your damn business, is what that is.” She gave me a stern glare. “I’m a big girl now, too, Kit. If someone wants to use me, I’d much prefer they be upfront about it. Besides, that was before we got to know each other better.”

  “Uh-huh.” I waggled my eyebrows. “Got to know each other, hey?”

  “Really, little miss shower sex? We going there, are we?” She gave me a no bullshit look, and I pulled my head in. I’d been right about being late for meeting Lucy. In fact, I’d been still in the middle of a third screaming orgasm under River’s skilled hands, and cock, when she had arrived.

  “Touché. So how serious is this thing between you two?” I asked, genuinely concerned for my best friend who was hooking up with a potentially dangerous supernatural being.

  “Not. I mean, not yet anyway. We just enjoy each other’s company, but it’s nowhere even near ‘official’ or really even monogamous, to be totally honest.” She nibbled at the disgustingly healthy, sugar-free muffin she had bought. It looked like it was made of cardboard, and based on the face she was pulling, it tasted the same.

  “Okay, just be careful, okay? Any sign of crazy or dangerous, you call me immediately. I’ll make Caleb zap me over to you in one of those Mage circle things.” I gave her my most serious glare so she knew I wasn’t fucking around on this subject.

  “Understood,” she agreed. “Now can we talk about your boyfriends?”

  “No,” I growled. “Nothing to talk about, but thanks for your little intervention with Wesley last night, you bitch.”

  She snickered with a decidedly evil grin. “Oh, please, you needed a little push. You two are like awkward school kids together. Tell me about Austin, though.”

  “What about Austin?” I frowned. “There’s nothing going on there.”

  “Uh-huh. So you let him tattoo you with no idea what he was going to draw and lay there with his hands on your skin for hours and felt nothing?” she challenged, and I shook my head.

  “Absolutely nothing. We are barely even friends, let alone anything more.” Okay, that was a dirty, great lie, and I damn well knew it.

  “You’re such a liar,” my best friend chuckled. “And how about the fact that he literally tattooed his name onto you, like he was staking a claim? Still feel nothing?”

  “He was just being his usual asshole self. It would have been too nice to just do an incredible tattoo; he had to slip a bit of dick into it.” I rolled my eyes, and Lucy snorted a laugh.

  “Oh yeah? Slip a bit of dick in, huh?” She grinned broadly, and I noticed what I’d just said.

  “You know what I mean,” I muttered.

  “I sure do,” she teased. “So I guess if you are already juggling five guys—”

  “Four,” I corrected.

  “Five guys,” she stubbornly continued. “Then you have no interest in tall, dark, and smolderingly sexy coming our way right now. Oh, dibs.”

  “What?” I turned in my seat to see who she was talking about, and my heart skipped a beat.

  “Uh, let me guess,” Lucy groaned, as I shot from my seat with my pulse racing.

  “Vali,” I gasped. “What are you doing here? Is everything okay?” I glanced past him to see the stunning brunette I’d met at Vali’s home. She was, once again, dressed impeccably in designer threads and spike-heeled shoes.

  “Dragă,” he murmured in greeting, kissing both my cheeks and turning to Lucy. “My apologies. We have not yet met; I’m Vali.”

  “Yes, you are,” Lucy agreed, her eyes practically popping out of her head as she eyed up my massive Romanian guardian. But what was more interesting was the way she blushed when she looked at Vali’s girlfriend, Elena. Guess she was the tall, dark, and smolderingly sexy who Lucy had been referring to.

  “I’m Lucy,” she introduced herself, taking the hand offered to her to shake. “Kit’s best friend.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Lucy,” Vali responded, the picture of gentlemanly manners, had I not been able to see the outline of at least two weapons concealed on his body. “This is my sister, Elena.”

  Sister? I choked on the sip of water I had just taken in an effort to combat the sudden bout of dry mouth I was experiencing in Vali’s physical presence.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, frowning in concern and patting me on the back while I coughed the stray water droplets out of my lungs.

  “Um, yeah,” I spluttered. “Totally fine.”

  “Why don’t you guys pull up some chairs and join us?” Lucy offered, and I gave her a grateful smile.

  “Thank you, Lucy.” Vali nodded. “We would enjoy that.”

  Sister? I mouthed to Lucy while Vali and Elena sorted themselves out chairs, and Lucy grinned.

  Dibs, she mouthed back at me, and I snorted a laugh. I guessed her relationship with Finn really wasn’t monogamous.

  “Vali, what are you doing here? I thought you were supposed to be flying under the radar?” I frowned. “Dragon pun not intended. But has something happened?”

  “Yes and no. I’d like to speak with you in more detail later, if you and Lucy might join Elena and me for dinner?” He arched an eyebrow at me in question, and I froze.

  “We’d love to, wouldn’t we, Kit?” Lucy kicked me under the table, but I hesitated.

  “Luce, River—” I started, and she shook her head.

  “River will be fine if you are with Vali. He is one of your dianoch too, is he not?” She glared at me, and while I knew she just had the major hots for Elena, she also had a point. It wasn’t like Vali could really come back to our apartment at Omega Headquarters, either.

  “You’re right. I’ll send him a message so I don’t get chewed out over the phone.” I shot Vali a shy smile and pulled out my phone, tapping a quick message to River. I wasn’t stupid. I knew he was going to be pissed, but Lucy did have a point. Vali was just as qualified to keep me safe as any of the guys. More so, even, if his Romani danger alert system was still working.

  “So what’s the plan for the afternoon?” Elena asked, beaming with excitement. Something gave me the feeling she didn’t get to hang out with other girls very often.

  “Just a bit more shopping and then we were going to head home, but we can do dinner instead. Anywhere in particular?” Lucy was like a damn puppy that had just been shown a squeaky toy; it was actually really entertaining to watch. Reluctant as I was to admit it, my relief at hearing Elena was Vali’s sister, not girlfriend, was making me a bit jittery. It also seriously changed things.

  For a while longer, Lucy and Elena carried the conversation while Vali and I played some sort of silent game exchanging heated eye contact and then breaking away before being dragged back like a damn magnet.

  As the four of us left the café in search of shoe shops, Vali took my hand and held me back from the girls, letting them get a few paces ahead of us.

  “Dragă, I need to ask a favor of you,” he said quietly, still holding my hand in one of his warm palms. “Elena is no longer safe within my home base in Nevada. I’ve been doing a little bit of company restructuring, bringing all our business ventures in line with the law and cleaning house of any unsavory employees.”

  “Vali,” I groaned. “Why do I get the feeling that when you say cleaning house you really mean you’ve been killing people and leaving them in shallow graves somewhere in the Nevada desert?”

  “Beautiful, you watch too many movies. I would never bury my
own victims.” He looked down at me with a dead serious set to his face but a mischievous glint in his familiar, granite eyes.

  “I don’t even know if you’re joking or not, and it worries me that I’m not more worried. Anyway, what’s the favor?”Almost without even meaning to, my hand flexed in his, and our fingers twined together.

  “Could Elena come and stay with you for a little while? Just until I take care of the troublemakers and show them that I am still in charge, despite my desires to legalize our business.” There was a cold fury to his voice, and I definitely would not want to be on the receiving end of his anger.

  “Of course she can. Omega HQ has got to be just about the safest place for her, right?” I smiled and squeezed his hand reassuringly. We’d reached the shop Lucy and I had been intending to hit before heading home, and the two girls were inside trying on shoes already while Vali and I stood outside.

  “I mean, knowing she’s your sister makes it considerably easier to accept.” I grinned. I couldn’t help myself.

  “What did you think she was?”

  “Um, your girlfriend?” I felt my face flush with heat and looked away, suddenly really interested in the window display.

  “Ah, that makes sense now, the weird mix of emotions you were putting out at the café just before. You had previously been feeling guilty for being attracted to me, hadn’t you?” His lips pulled up in a cocky grin, and I wanted to shoot him down. But he wasn’t wrong.

  “Whatever. Yes, she can stay with us. Wait, does that make her Cole’s sister too?” The thought had just suddenly occurred to me.

  “Technically yes, half sister. He doesn’t really know her though; she lived with her mother growing up and only came to move in with me after her mother died several years ago.” He stared through the window at the stunning brunette, and I could see the affection for her on his face. “I’d do anything to keep her safe. Just as I would for you.” He turned his hard eyes down to look at me with such a serious, charged look that it sent a shudder through me.

  “Sorry, this is all...” I dislodged my hand from his, even though it required an immense effort to do so. “I’m not used to having so many people care so much, and it’s all just getting a bit overwhelming. Maybe dinner isn’t such a good idea after all.” I folded my arms, tucking my hands under my armpits like I was hugging myself.

  Vali’s intensity when he spoke of my safety, on top of River’s use of the L-word this morning in the shower... it was sending me fast into a bit of a panic attack.

  “Shit, dragă, don’t do that,” Vali cursed, sliding one of his huge hands around my waist and pulling me back close to him. “I can feel you freaking out. I’m sorry if this feels really fast. I know the last time we saw each other things were different. But I feel like I know you now. We’ve talked so often that it feels...” He trailed off with a manly sort of shrug.

  “I know; it feels normal to be like this. Talking and touching.” I didn’t unfold my arms, but I also didn’t step away from his grip on my waist. “I’m just having a hard time adjusting to the fact that anyone other than Lucy or Jonathan cares enough about me to be worried. I pulled a really dick move sneaking out to rescue Austin without telling anyone. Totally didn’t take into consideration the fact that you all might worry. Like, I knew everyone would be pissed, but that was about it.”

  “You’ve not had many people in your life that have loved you,” he observed, tilting my chin up with a finger so I’d have to look at him. “It’s something you have in common with all of your chosen guardians. But hopefully that will soon change. For all of us.”

  He released me then, brushing a soft kiss over my forehead before heading inside to join Lucy and Elena as they tried on a mountain of designer shoes. For a moment, I stood there in stunned silence while I processed what he’d just said. Even with his ability to read my emotions, it seemed like he was so incredibly in tune with the sad, lonely, unloved kid inside of me. It scared the shit out of me, but also gave me excited, nervous jitters.

  Vali’s fingers stroked down the inside of my wrist, sending warm heat through my sensitive skin and causing my breath to catch. We had ended up letting Elena and Lucy talk us into extending the evening past dinner and on to drinks and dancing at a local hot spot. The two of them were hitting it off, and I had no doubt that if there wasn’t already something between them, there soon would be.

  Vali and I were leaning against the bar watching them both dancing on a podium and having the time of their freaking lives. River had not been happy when I’d told him, but what could he really say when I was in the company of a dragon shifter?

  “So, you’re going back to Nevada tonight then?” I asked, glancing up at the dark-haired Romanian and wishing he wasn’t leaving. He had a magnetic pull about him, like the rest of my guys did, and it seemed like the more time we spent together, the more physical contact we maintained and the harder it was to accept I might not see him for another few weeks.

  “I am.” He looked down at me with heat in his gaze, his strong fingers stroking another lazy pattern on the underside of my wrist. He’d been using little threads of his dragon magic, so it felt like his finger was on fire... in the best possible way. How he was making such minor, innocent contact so damn sexual, I had no idea, but my whole body was thrumming with want for him.

  “Being here, so close to Omega’s base when we know they were testing my blood, doesn’t seem so smart, you know?” The corner of his mouth pulled up in a small smile.

  “So, why come? Why not send Elena on her own?” I raised my brows at him, already suspecting the answer but wanting to hear it from his lips. His lush, smooth lips.

  “You know why, dragă. I needed to see you.” His intense stare captured my slightly alcohol-fuzzed eyes and held them.

  “Needed?” I repeated, and he dipped his head in acknowledgement.

  “Yes. Needed. This past ten days being away from you...” He shook his head, breaking our eye contact and looking out into the crowd. “I am doing all I can to establish my business as a legal venture and have someone put in place to run it for me so I no longer need to be there. But it takes time.”

  “I get that,” I murmured, even though I really didn’t. “You can’t just... quit? Despite your casual attitude toward cold-blooded murder and kidnapping, I don’t feel like you’re really the crime lord type.”

  He turned an amused look on me. “Oh no?”

  “I mean, yes, obviously you’re this big, bad criminal and whatever. But you’re not your father, and I suspect that guy you shot on the runway when we met, had it coming?” Or at least, I really hoped he had and this wasn’t my weird version of Stockholm Syndrome making justifiable allowances for murder.

  “Gheorghe.” Vali scowled, and his fingers tightened around my wrist. “He did. He tried to assault Elena when she was home alone one day. She’s tougher than she looks, though, and fought him off, then locked herself in her room. I’d been biding my time, waiting for an opportunity that my men wouldn’t question, and you provided that for me.”

  “Well then, good.” I pursed my lips, assessing my new acceptance of death and violence. Seemed strange to think that a short six months ago, my worst crime had been stealing from slimy child abusers who damn well deserved to be hit in the wallet a few hundred times over. Now I was condoning and even partaking in killings.

  “This world we live in,” Vali murmured, returning to drawing patterns on my wrist, “it is not the world we grew up believing was real. Despite the bad things that we both endured as children, I don’t think either of us saw what was beneath the surface.”

  “Magic? A covert war for supreme power over all supernatural kind and a startling lack of laws or morals?” I scoffed. “No, no, I definitely did not see this coming.”

  “Nor did I,” he agreed, staring at me for a long moment before tucking a loose curl behind my ear. “We should get you home before your Alpha comes to get you himself.”

  “Vali,” I warned, narro
wing my eyes at his borderline sarcastic tone of voice.

  “Don’t worry about me, dragă,” he smirked. “I might like to push his buttons a little, but I know, as my dragon does, that he is the true leader of your dianoch.”

  “I don’t know about that, but he definitely has control issues,” I murmured, and Vali snorted a laugh.

  “That’s for sure. I think I will have a lot of fun with him over the next millennia by your side.” His fingers tightened around my wrist once more as a little surge of panic ran through me at his words. Millennia.

  “Don’t,” he commanded. “It is what it is, and you won’t ever be alone.”

  “I know; it’s just... it’s a lot to process in a short space of time.” I set my drink down on the bar and dislodged my warm, tingling wrist from his grip. “I’m going to run to the bathroom, then the girls and I should head back.”

  Unable to help myself, I glanced over my shoulder at him as I walked away and snorted a laugh. I’d just caught him unapologetically checking out my ass. Fucking man.

  Once inside the bright lights of the bathroom, I realized how unsteady on my feet I was and ran a quick mental check on how much I’d actually had to drink.

  Yup, about enough to kill a small horse, so probably just enough to get me tipsy.

  Not that I was concerned. I knew my body was working it through at a stupid-fast rate, so probably the level of light buzz I was in would be as bad as I’d ever really get.

  I washed my hands and wiped away the black smudge of mascara above my eyes where my eyelashes had been rubbing. Damn mascara never actually stayed where it was meant to go. After quickly ruffling my fingers through my hair, I pushed through the swinging door and collided straight into a girl on her way in.

  “Oh shit!” I exclaimed as the door smacked into her and she lost her balance on her stilettos. The girl landed awkwardly on her side and yelled with pain.

  “Oh, my gosh, I am so sorry, I didn’t even see you there!” I dropped to my knees and saw she had been carrying a martini glass before she fell. A glass which was now broken with the stem sticking out of her wrist.