Here There Be Tigers (24 page)

“
Hard to argue with love,” she
commented, holding Gregory’s gaze with an effort.

He raised his brows. “Love? Love isn’t the
final deciding factor. Conception is. That’s the only way we’ll
ever get a mate. We have to get a female pregnant.”

Something in the way he spoke made her want to
hide in the chair. He made getting a woman pregnant sound like a
threat, a committing of violence. She shifted a little, closer to
Mitch.

“
Do you approve of the Run?” Gregory
asked her.

“
I don’t really know enough to make
a judgment,” she hedged.

“
And what about you, Mikhail? Do you
approve of the Run? You’ve run before, though not for Irina as I
recall.”

“
I ran during her very first
estrous,” Mitch said.

Shock reverberated through Nila. She tried
hiding the reaction. Again, she wasn’t sure why this came as such a
surprise. Mitch had admitted to running. Why would he not run after
Irina?

Gregory watched her closely as he spoke. “I
missed that first Run. But I was part of every one after that. For
two years, Max was the only male who ever caught her.”

“
They fell in love on the first
Run.” Mitch’s voice was quiet and his tone held an edge of
something a lot sharper than his words warranted. “Lucky for them
he managed to finally get her pregnant.”

“
Lucky,” Gregory echoed, a faint
growl to his words.

“
Why didn’t you continue to run?”
one of the other males asked Mitch.

The question diverted another staring session
between Mitch and Gregory.

“
Max is my best friend,” Mitch said.
“He loved Irina.”

“
But there are so few females,
didn’t you want to at least try?” Richard asked.

Mitch stared at Richard a moment before saying,
“Things worked out in the end.” With a very purposeful glance at
Nila, he placed a hand on her shoulder.

The atmosphere in the room tensed, and Nila
swore she heard a soft growl from somewhere off to the left. She
didn’t dare turn to look, afraid of what she might see. Her pulse
pounded hard. Could they tell, could they sense her growing
fear...smell it? If Mitch smelled Gregory’s unbalance, she was sure
everyone in the room could sense her discomfort.

“
Don’t you intend to run, Nila?”
Gregory asked.

She frowned. “I’m not like you. I can’t do
that.”

“
You realize what you represent,
though? You know what you mean to the tigers? To the males here?
You have to at least give us an opportunity to plead our case. It’s
only fair.”

“
Not sure what fair has to do with
any of this,” she said.

“
Oh, I couldn’t agree more,” Gregory
said. “The Mate Run isn’t fair. Irina being allowed to let only one
male catch her wasn’t fair at all. That will have to change in the
future.”

“
You mean you want the Run to end?
Or are you saying you don’t think the woman should have a choice in
who she mates with?” Nila bit out the words, anger mixing with her
fear.

Gregory’s eyes narrowed. “With so few females,
no one female should be allowed to limit herself to one male. At
least until she conceives. Whether she runs or not.”

The threat had Nila bristling and next to her
Mitch stiffened. “But all your females do run, don’t they?” Nila
said, making a clear distinction between herself and a tiger
female.

“
They do. It’s the law.”

Again there was threat to Gregory’s
words.

“
Maybe the law should change. Maybe
the Run isn’t the best answer anymore,” Nila ventured, though
feeling a lot less secure in her arguments now. She believed the
tiger females should have a choice in mates, and she understood the
logic behind the Run and how it had protected the females for a
long time now. She wasn’t sure it had outgrown its usefulness, but
then she didn’t know nearly enough about their situation to be
sure.

What she did know was that she wasn’t a tiger
shifter, so she had no intention of running with a bunch of male
tigers chasing her. She intended to choose her own partner. No
matter what Gregory thought was fair.

“
Actually, I think it has,” he said.
“I don’t think the Run works for us anymore.”

The fact that Gregory agreed with her statement
made her rethink the position. “What would you propose, then?” she
asked.

“
I have a few ideas.” He shifted his
gaze to Mitch. “What do you think? Is the Mate Run the best option
for us still?”

Mitch shrugged. “I don’t know. If the males of
our species could control their baser instincts, we wouldn’t have
needed it to begin with.”

Nila swallowed a surprised gasp at Mitch’s not
so subtle jab at Gregory.

“
But you don’t approve of it, do
you?” Gregory asked, ignoring the slight.

“
Why do you assume that?”

Gregory glanced between Nila and Mitch. “You
appear to want to bypass it now.”

“
Nila can’t run.”

Gregory didn’t immediately respond. Nila swore
all the men in the room took another step closer. She tensed, ready
to launch off the seat and run for it if necessary. Which was
ironic given the fact that they were talking about how she couldn’t
“run”.

“
Well, as I said, there are other
ways to decide the strongest male,” Gregory finally
answered.

“
Yes, there are.” Mitch’s voice was
flat, direct.

Nila’s gaze shifted between the two men. She
knew Gregory had just challenged Mitch, and Mitch had accepted, but
they wouldn’t fight one of those death challenges that had been
outlawed.

Would they?

Oh, she and Mitch had to get out of this house
and soon. She didn’t want to stay the night. She didn’t want to
stay till dinner.

To her amazement and relief, Gregory broke the
unrelenting tension by smiling and standing. “Well, I don’t know
about you two, but I’m hungry. I had a late lunch readied. Please,
join us.”

He turned his back to Mitch, a snub, Nila was
sure, and headed toward the hall leading off the main room.
Reluctantly, she rose after Mitch and they followed the other men
trailing Gregory. A few men tried flanking Mitch, but he paused and
jerked his head in a gesture for all the men to proceed him down
the hall. For a moment, she thought Richard and another male whose
name she couldn’t remember would refuse. But at a glance from Dr.
Ryan Yin, the other two reluctantly moved on. Ryan held back, still
walking in front of Mitch but close enough to talk to
them.

“
You’ll have to forgive their
attentions,” he said to Nila. “They are all…well, we’re all in a
very awkward position as you might imagine. Your existence has
given us renewed hope. Unfortunately, since you’re the only one of
your kind, so far, you’re taking the brunt of our
eagerness.”

“
It’s fine. Just so long as no one
gets the wrong idea,” she said, as firmly as her shaken nerves
allowed. “I’m not a tiger shifter, and we don’t even know yet if I
can have children with a tiger, so there’s no point in getting too
excited about my existence.”

Ryan studied her a moment. “You’re right. But
we are excited. A lot of the community will be happy to welcome you
into the fold. My sister, Sarah, is a genetics researcher at
Chernikov Labs. She’s been on the front lines of the hunt for
people like you. She’ll be thrilled to meet you.” His half smile
faded as he said, “Not all tigers think like Petrov.” He met her
gaze over his shoulder. “Remember that.”

He jogged forward to join the other males as
they turned into an open doorway. Nila watched him disappear. Ryan
didn’t give her the creeps the way so many of the other males did.
In fact, she thought she might like him if she’d met him somewhere
besides this hideously perfect cabin. Glancing at Mitch, she
noticed him also staring after the doctor.

“
What are you thinking?” she
whispered.

“
Later,” he muttered
back.

Despite her curiosity, she held her tongue.
Mitch insisted on walking just in front of her into the room,
blocking her with his body. The move sent another warm rush of
gratitude through her. She was afraid that falling sensation she’d
been worried about just sped up. How was a woman supposed to resist
falling in love with a man so willing to put himself between her
and a room overflowing with threat and danger?

Swallowing, she kept close to Mitch’s side as
they were directed to two chairs near the head of the table,
unfortunately close to Gregory.

She was not looking forward to this
meal.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR

Nila’s nerves stayed on constant alert
throughout the afternoon and evening. She was exhausted by the time
they’d finished dinner, but there was no chance she was going to
get much sleep. Not in this place.

As night fell, she made excuses to get out of
the cabin, pleading a desire to watch the sun go down behind the
mountains. Mitch stuck close to her, a constant, solid, reassuring
presence. Many of the other males followed them outside but then
disappeared into the woods, a move which both pleased Nila and left
her suspicious.

Unfortunately, she and Mitch weren’t left
entirely alone as they had been earlier in the day, so they
couldn’t discuss anything. But Ryan was one of the men who stayed
behind, and Nila found she could have a relatively pleasant
conversation with him without feeling on constant alert.

Mitch made a point of touching her constantly,
a message to the lingering men that she was taken. To her surprise,
they all seemed to respect the body language and kept their
distance. Ryan even smiled at them when Mitch very pointedly
dropped his arm around her shoulders.

As darkness filled in around the cabin, Nila
tried relaxing against the railing of the upper deck. She refused a
very politely offered beer and remained quiet, listening to the men
talk. The conversation was all very casual—sports, weather, food.
If she hadn’t known better, she’d think this was just a group of
friend out camping; nothing strange or dangerous about
it.

The fact that Gregory had gone out into the
woods probably helped. Now that she was watching, Nila noticed the
subtle tension that infused the group whenever he was around. Ryan
in particular seemed to grow watchful and wary. If she wasn’t so
worried for her own safety, she’d want to question those reactions,
ask him why they were all here following a man they had to know was
dangerous.

She didn’t dare voice her concerns to anyone
but Mitch, though.

When full dark brought out the quiet hoot and
chirp of night animals, Nila realized no one had discussed the
sleeping situation. Not like she was going to sleep, but what did
they intend to do with her and Mitch overnight?

She got her answer a half hour later when the
other males returned. Gregory came directly to Mitch and said,
“There’s no sign of Petrov in the area. But he’s sent others to
watch us. They’re keeping a distance, for the moment.”

Mitch nodded. “Suspected as much.”

Where the hell were the Trackers? Nila wondered
yet again. Why was Petrov still wandering around out there intent
on killing her?

“
Don’t worry, you’ll be safe here,”
Gregory said to her. “We’ll set out a guard tonight, to patrol and
make sure Petrov doesn’t attempt anything.”

“
Thank you,” she said.

The tactic was sound, she knew. But a part of
her wondered if the guard was as much to keep her and Mitch in the
cabin as it was to keep Petrov’s people away.

Gregory smiled, a nice, friendly smile that
would have been charming if not for his creepiness factor. “I’m
sure the day has exhausted you. Sanjay will show you both to your
rooms.”

“
I’ll be staying with Nila,” Mitch
said.

Gregory’s dark gaze flickered toward Mitch, but
he continued smiling as he said, “Then, Sanjay, be sure to give
them a room big enough for two.”

To Nila’s surprise, no one objected, none of
those quiet growls filled the air, and the tension didn’t suddenly
spike. Had the others finally realized and accepted that she was
not available? Or were they all just biding their time?

Either way, she wasn’t going to push the
matter. She’d had no intention of staying in a separate room from
Mitch. At least this way, they wouldn’t have to sneak
around.

Nila yawned as Sanjay led them up one of the
spiral staircases to the second floor. She cast Mitch a half smile.
“Long day.”

He nodded but his attention shifted quickly
back to studying their surroundings. The room Sanjay showed them to
was a large one with two twin beds. The pair of beds made her
furrow her brow. The room was decorated in greens and tans. The
large windows along one wall looked out over the lake. When Nila
moved closer, she noted the very long drop to the slopping ground
below and the lack of any trees near enough to reach from the
room.

“
If you need anything during the
night, please call. Someone is always awake and will be happy to
help you.”