Jennifer Ashley - Tiger Magic

“Connor said he broke in here too, stealing my shirts. He was looking for something that might have traces of my DNA, I’m thinking.”

“And you slept on my sofa that one time. How could he have known that? Unless . . .”

“He was spying through the window. I sensed Walker that night, but . . .” Tiger thought about it. If Crosby had been outside Carly’s living room window, he’d have known. “He could have been spying far away, if he was looking for an opportunity to shoot me. Some rifles have good scopes.”

Carly’s amusement died. “And then he tried to kill you.” Tiger had come very close to death that night Crosby had snuck in, but whatever had been bred into him had made him wake up, alert, in time to stop the shot.

Carly wrapped her arms around him. “I hate how close to losing you I came.”

“And I came too close to losing you,” Tiger said. “I almost didn’t make it in time.”

“But you did. You saved us all.”

Tiger looked down at Carly, her green eyes, her fine-boned face, her wide-lipped smile. Desperation tugged at his heart. “I can’t lose you.”

“I’m right here, love,” she whispered.

Tiger kissed her again, gently at first, then letting his mouth become firmer, bolder. Carly returned the kisses with as much boldness, her arms tightening around him.

Tiger needed her. Lying here next to her for days, scenting her, feeling her, wanting her, had made him insane. He was hard with mating frenzy. She’d declared herself his mate, and Tiger had been too weak to do anything about it.

He wasn’t weak anymore. Tiger parted Carly’s thighs with one hand, then pushed his wide-awake cock straight inside her.

Carly’s eyes opened wide, the gray sparkles in the green beautiful. “Mmm,” she purred. “I have missed you.”

Tiger’s powers of speech deserted him. He only felt Carly around him, his mate.

The mating frenzy reached up and closed its fist around him. Thought fled. There was only Carly, her scent, her heat, the dampness of her skin, the scalding moisture that gripped his cock.

Carly, always Carly. The beautiful woman who’d healed him with her touch. She’d saved Tiger, given him his name.

The room filled with the sounds of their lovemaking, their quick breaths and little moans, the creak of the sturdy bed, the slide of skin on skin, their mouths coming together.

Tiger pumped into her in a hard, fast rhythm, his body knowing what to do. Carly rose beneath him, legs coming around him, her bare feet pressing him. She took him easily now, fitting around him. Her eyes were half-closed, lips parted with pleasure.

As Tiger wound up toward his climax, she did too. Carly’s movements became jerkier, her hips rolling with his, her quick cries fueling his frenzy.

Tiger’s growl vibrated the air. His fingers grew claws, then quickly receded, Tiger wanting to be a man when he was with this woman.

Carly crushed against him as she rose into him, crying his name. Tiger held her close, the frenzy erasing all pain, including the sunburnlike tingle. Being inside her took away all sorrow, all grief, all hurt. He had so much hurt, and Carly was dissolving it.

“Carly,” he cried as the white-hot point of climax clenched him and didn’t let go. “I love you.”

“I love you,” Carly’s reply came, loud and clear. Tiger kept driving into her, both of them seeking, rocking, holding, loving.

Then they crashed onto the bed, the morning sunlight kissing their skin. Tiger rumpled Carly’s hair and let kisses fall on her warm face, her neck, her breasts.

Carly gathered him into her, laying his head on her chest with a happy sigh. “My Tiger,” she murmured, her voice broken. “I very much love you too.”

When they straggled down to breakfast, Tiger’s first since he’d come home, Sean was there, making a special batch of pancakes, with Connor assisting. Walker waited at the kitchen table, looking content. Smug even.

Carly felt warm, stretched, satisfied. She’d thought Tiger would tire soon after his first foray back into lovemaking, but she’d been proved wrong very quickly. Tiger was healing fast, and with the healing came his stamina.

Carly sat down at the table, gently, a bit sore, and reached for the pitcher of orange juice.

Walker nodded at Carly, then looked up at Tiger. “Thank you,” he said. “For the promotion and the command.”

Carly blinked while Tiger sat down with his usual stoicism and accepted the glass of juice Carly handed him. He’d resumed the fake Collar before coming downstairs, preserving the illusion.

“Promotion? Command?” Carly asked Walker, when it became clear Tiger wouldn’t speak.

“Because of Tiger, I get to trade my captain’s bars for gold leaves. And assume command of the detachment to the Shifter Bureau. Lieutenant Colonel Sheldon has disappeared.”

Tiger set down the glass he’d just drained. “Disappeared where?”

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have said disappeared . Seems that someone tipped off Shifter Bureau, the army, and the media that Sheldon ordered the fire to be set in the community center. He’s public enemy number one. Post vacant, and I was offered it, as I was XO and knew all about the training and projects at the camp anyway.”

“Someone tipped them off, eh?” Sean said at the stove. “I have to be wondering who did that.”

“Couldn’t say,” Liam said, coming into the room. “These rumors, how do they get started?”

He and Sean shared a conspiratorial grin.

“Anyway, I’m now in charge of all research concerning the tiger Shifter,” Walker said. “Who’s not to be harmed, by the way, because he’s become a freaking superhero.” Walker leaned forward, looking Tiger in the eyes, a gleam of excitement in his. “And I’ve figured out, my friend, what you were made for.”

Tiger lifted his head, waiting, his heart beating rapidly, but Walker only sat there, hands around his coffee cup, grinning.

“What?” Carly asked, fists on the table, her impatience heightening her scent. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

Walker cleared his throat and moved his coffee cup on the placemat. “Sheldon thought Tiger was a weapon. A perfect soldier who never gets tired, heals right away, and doesn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep for long stretches of time. As I mentioned, Sheldon wanted to use Tiger as a prototype. He wanted to take Tiger to Afghanistan and demonstrate how well he heals from being shot up or burned. Sheldon’s plan was to breed more Shifters like Tiger, except ones more easily controlled than him, using Collars and other things. He regarded Tiger as his beacon, one guiding Sheldon all the way to brigadier general and higher.”

Liam sat down in his usual lazy way, holding a mug of steaming coffee. “The Fae bred us a couple thousand years ago to be the perfect soldiers,” he said conversationally. “We’d fight their wars so they wouldn’t lose so many Fae, who are, of course, the most important beings in the universe. The Fae found out the hard way that they couldn’t control us, when we fought a war with them and won our freedom. They’re still trying to control us, but in, oh, about a thousand years, they still haven’t figured out how.”

“But you wear Collars,” Walker said.

Liam’s eyes widened. “Well, now, that’s true, isn’t it? How about that?”

Connor snorted a laugh from the stove. “Too right.”

“Anyway,” Carly said. “Back to Tiger. Is that what he was made for, to be a soldier?”

“I thought so at first,” Walker said. “Then I did some digging, back to the original experiments. My old friend Dr. Brennan knew a few of the people from the research team way back when. He consulted with them, as a Shifter anthropologist. I hunted up a couple who were still around and talked to them. The project had been shelved and most of the files sealed, and more was lost when the building in Area 51 burned down. But the researchers had kept their personal notes, and they gave them to me.” Walker shot Tiger a look of sympathy. “They put you through hell, didn’t they? Believe me, I’d never do that.”