The Tiger's Heart (6 page)

“
Don’t tell me it’s
nothing. It’s something and you don’t want to tell me.”

Chapter Ten

How am I supposed to tell
a human that knows nothing about shifters that I’m her mate and
that’s why the pain subsided? This is insane. It’s dangerous and
could expose us all. This isn’t just risking my ass but everyone’s.
Tabitha is in enough danger she doesn’t need more.
Raja paced around the small room, raking his hand
through his hair, as he played out the outcomes to the problem in
his mind.

“
What is your problem, why
won’t you be straight with me?” Bethany voice laced with the
irritation that he could feel building in her.

“
Bethany…” Raja growled
before reining in his temper. “You don’t understand what you’re
asking. This involves more than just me.”

“
If you’re not going to be
straight with me, I’d like you to leave.”

“
Everyone wants something,
but babe, you don’t have a chance in hell of getting that. So just
get some rest and we’ll deal with the rest of this crap tomorrow.”
Raja stopped at the foot of the bed, glaring down at
her.

“
I don’t want to sleep.”
But her body was betraying her. He could see her eyes were growing
heavy, and she tried to stifle the yawn.

“
It’s the best thing for
you. The faster you will heal, the quicker you’ll get back on your
feet.” Her eyes closed heavily. “Sleep, my sweet Bethany,” he
whispered as she drifted to sleep.

Leave it to me to get
saddled with a mate that would be a handful. A full human to boot.
How am I supposed to handle this?

* * *

The hair on the back of Raja’s neck
stood up. Glancing behind him at the doorway, he found Shadow
standing just beyond the frame. Shadow was barely twenty but before
joining their clan, she had a hard life. She spent much of her life
on the street, working odd jobs just to keep food in her stomach.
Yet she still had a childlike innocence to her. She tried to find
the good in everyone, but get on her bad side and watch out. She
could be as vicious as any male shifter in a heartbeat.

There she stood in her oversized
University of Alaska sweatshirt and leggings, looking more like a
college student then one of their best guards.

“
Shadow, what are you
doing here so late?”

“
Doc asked me to look in
on the patient. He mentioned she was human and wanted to make sure
there wasn’t anything going on inside her that his test wouldn’t
show.”

Doc didn’t mean medical. Shadow
wouldn’t have been useful in a medical emergency. Her abilities lay
in the psyche. She was still relatively new to the Alaskan Tiger’s
Clan, and Raja hadn’t had the time to get to know her that well,
but she was clearly making a name for herself. Already one of the
most trusted guards for the compound.

“
Is that implying the
rumors I have heard of you are true?”

“
I’m not sure what rumors
you have heard, sir. But I’m sure not all of them are true.” Shadow
was reserved and spoke in a low tone. If you weren’t a shifter, you
would struggle to hear her. At least she was now speaking. When she
first arrived in Alaska, she barely spoke a word.

“
I’ve heard you can tell
everything about a person just from looking into their soul.
Everything from their past, future, and even their destined mate.
True?”

“
To a degree. I know their
conscious and unconscious minds. If I have met both of them, then
yes I know who their mate is, even before the mating ritual takes
place. I cannot say I know everything about a person. People are
surprising creatures and in the end will surprise you,” she took a
step into the room, coming closer to the bed where Raja stood. Her
eyes closed as if she was concentrating on Bethany. Her long dark
hair falling forward, blocking her face from Raja’s
view.

Raja stood to the side observing
Shadow.

“
Doc has nothing to worry
about. She is and will be fine,” she said, turning on her heels to
leave. She stopped just inches from the doorway. “Sir, if I may
speak freely.”

Raja nodded. If she didn’t feel it was
important enough to risk the wrath of an Elder, she wouldn’t have
asked.

“
Be up front with her. She
can handle it. Subconsciously she already knows of
shifters.”

With that, she was gone.
Leaving Raja alone with his thoughts.
Could she handle the truth?

Chapter Eleven

Bethany woke to find a
strange woman sitting by her bedside, Raja nowhere in sight.
Great, he decided to take my advice and leave.
Why send this woman…unless I’m a prisoner here.

“
Morning,
Bethany.”

Wow, someone is
excessively chipper in the morning.
She
turned toward the bedside clock. “Two in the afternoon.” It was too
late to call her parents. They’d already left for the weekend trip
to their mountain cabin. She wouldn’t be able to get in touch with
them or her sister for the next few days.

“
Raja left me with
detailed instructions. I wasn’t supposed to wake you. He said you
needed your rest and you had a rough night.”

“
He’ll be back? Who are
you?”

“
I’m Tabitha. Yes, he
should be back shortly. He’s meeting with my sweetie and some of
the…um…employees.”

“
I don’t mean to sound
rude, but why are you here?” Bethany inquired, trying to find out
if Raja was telling her the truth when he said she wasn’t a
prisoner here.

“
He asked me to sit with
you in case you needed something. Doc said you couldn’t put any
weight on that knee for at least forty-eight hours. With you stuck
in bed, having someone here with you seemed like a good idea. Plus
after being stuck with Raja all this time, I thought you could use
some girl bonding.” Tabitha let out a laugh.

Bethany might not be a prisoner, but
she couldn’t just get up and leave either. With no other choice,
she laid her head on the pillow with a sigh.

“
If you prefer I
left…”

“
No, you’re fine. I just
hate being stuck in this bed.”

Tabitha nodded. “I bet you could talk
Raja into taking you out of this room for a while when he gets
back.”

Bethany gave her a smile. Tabitha
meant well, but Raja…well, she didn’t want to deal with him if he
couldn’t be straight with her.

“
I doubt that. Raja and I
don’t see eye to eye.”

“
Raja can be stubborn, but
he’s a good man and has his reason for his actions. Anything I can
do to help you deal with him?” Tabitha leaned forward to pour a
glass of water from the bedside pitcher.

“
I doubt that.” She
thought about what happened last night as Tabitha poured them each
a drink. “I’m not in some voodoo colony or something, am
I?”

Tabitha let out a wholehearted laugh.
“I’m sorry,” she apologized for laughing. “What gives you that
idea?”

“
Just something that
happened last night. It was weird.”

“
You mean the pain leaving
with his touch?” Tabitha handed her the cup of water.

“
How did you know about
that?” Bethany eyed Tabitha.

“
Raja was still grumbling
about it when I came down here.”

“
What caused it? It was
the weirdest sensation.”

“
Bethany, honestly I would
like to tell you. To explain everything to you and be able to
answer all your questions…”

“
But you won’t,” Bethany
interrupted.

“
Correct. I won’t. Raja
will be back soon, and I promise he’ll tell you the truth. It’s
something you should hear from him. However, I can tell you this.
Something similar happened to me, but I wouldn’t change the outcome
for the world. Trust in Raja, and you won’t be
disappointed.”

Bethany was doubtful and
tired of the run-around.
Maybe when Raja
comes back I won’t want to hear the answer to my questions. Who am
I trying to kid? I want to know.

* * *

Meanwhile two floors above, Raja was
fighting to keep his temper from blowing. Pierce’s sister, Jessica,
was working his last nerve.

“
Your brother killed
people, do you realize that? He will keep killing unless you help
us.” Raja slammed his hand on the table, making the papers
jump.

“
He’s still my baby
brother. I don’t want to see him killed because of what your kind
did to him.” Jessica sat there in near tears, playing with the
bottom button on her jacket.

“
Miss Black,” Ty said
across the table, “you’re brother isn’t killing out of revenge.
He’s killing because he knows no other way. He was never taught the
way to handle the beast inside of him. In time, the beast took
over. The man he is now is not your brother. He’s suffering; the
beast is making him insane. He’s rabid. The brother you knew is
gone.”

“
He’s still my brother,”
she wailed.

“
I wish I could agree with
you. I wish I could tell you there was hope for him. But you have
to know deep in your soul that there is nothing you can do for him.
With your education and training, you have to realize he’s
lost.”

“
I won’t give up on my
brother.”

“
Miss Black, if there was
anything I could do to help you save your brother…if you would have
come to me sooner I would have done it, but that time has passed.
However it isn’t too late to protect the innocents.”

“
You people are not
innocent. Look what your kind did to Pierce,” she hollered at Ty as
tears fell down her face.

“
The shifter who attacked
your brother was rabid. Like your brother, he let the beast take
control. Once we were aware of the situation, the subject was
terminated. The former leader tried to help your brother, and in
return for his efforts, he and his wife were killed. Leaving an
innocent child an orphan.”

Raja could see that she didn’t know
that part. The shock was shining in her eyes like lanterns on a
dark night, as her hand covered her mouth. Pierce would only tell
her things that would make her feel sorry for him, not something
that she could use against him.

“
I need some time to think
this over.”

“
We’ll have a guard show
you to your room. All we ask is don’t contact Pierce. There are
innocent women and children here.”

She nodded before standing to
leave.

“
Miss Black,” Raja called
as she neared the door, “don’t want too long. Pierce will attack
again, and I’d hate for another innocent woman to be caught in his
wrath. The next one might not be as lucky as Bethany.”

Chapter Twelve

“
She slept the whole
time?” Raja asked, returning from the meeting.

“
No, she was up for a bit.
She is impatient about what happened last night. Tell her, Raja.”
Tabitha went to Ty, who’d followed Raja in.

She wrapped her arms around Ty’s
chest, and the look of love filled her face. It was something,
before he met Bethany, that he didn’t know he wanted.

“
I told you I would. I
won’t wake her up to tell her. She needs to rest.”

“
Here’s your chance,” Ty
motioned toward the bed, where Bethany was stirring. He scooted out
the door with Tabitha in tow.

“
Coward!” Raja called to
them as they left, and in return got two smug smiles.

“
Tabitha left?” Her voice
was filled with sleep.

“
Yeah. You’re stuck with
me now.” He handed her a glass of water.

She took a deep sip from the glass,
watching him she gulped down the rest of the water. “It could be
worse.” She handed him the now empty glass in return.

“
I don’t believe that was
your sentiment last night.”

“
Speaking of last
night…”

“
Wait a moment, Bethany.
We can discuss that, but first you must understand what I’m about
to tell you will come as a shock. There is no easy way to tell you
this, and I’m taking an enormous risk by doing so. There are
hundreds of people that will be in jeopardy if this would get out.
Many would lose everything. We would become prey and be
exterminated if the government was to learn of our
existence.”

“
Raja, you make this sound
like you’re some escaped lab experiment or something. You helped
me, and whatever it is, your secret is safe with me. Please just
tell me what the hell is going on.”

Against everything ingrained in him,
Raja placed his faith in Shadow and Tabitha and prayed they weren’t
leading him down a road he would soon regret. “I’m a shapeshifter,
a tiger to be exact,” he spit out, bracing himself for the impact
of her annoyance and skepticism.

“
Is that like a
were-wolf?”

“
Were-animals can only
change according to the moon. Shifters can change at
will.”

“
Prove it.”

“
Now?” Raja asked,
confused that she wasn’t demanding he take her to the nearest
airport.
Shouldn’t she be freaked out
about this or something?