Tiger Born (2 page)

“Coreen?” she called through the house.

“In here, honey,” Coreen answered from the kitchen.

Deja paused to call into work. She’d been due to start that morning, but with everything that was going on, she hoped her new boss would understand if she asked for it to be switched to the next day. Sure, she was taking advantage, kind of being the alpha’s daughter-in-law—even if she and Heath weren’t married yet—but if she couldn’t use the connection sometimes, why bother?

She strolled into the kitchen. Bacon sizzled in a frying pan, and Coreen stood at the counter stirring creamer into her coffee. Heath’s younger brothers, who were fourteen and twelve, and bore an incredible resemblance to Heath with their blond hair and blue eyes, sat at the table looking like the food couldn’t be cooked fast enough. Shifting her gaze back to Coreen, Deja determined the woman worried more than she’d at first thought. Coreen didn’t use creamer in her coffee but preferred real milk.

“Let me get you the milk, Coreen. I’ll take that cup if you don’t mind.” She whipped away the mug and added sugar. After she’d prepared a fresh one for Coreen, she grabbed a seat at the table. The kitchen had been designed to accommodate the entire family plus guests, but sometimes Ward rose earlier than the rest of them and had breakfast alone. Coreen seemed to have no problem cooking breakfast twice. While Deja was comfortable, she couldn’t wait to have her own with Heath. She sighed and then recalled the incident from earlier. “Carter was fighting with someone named Frank.”

Abel, the older of the boys, perked up, his blue eyes glittering with excitement. “Did Carter kick Frank’s ass?”

“Abel!” his mother scolded.

“Did he bite his ear off?” Aaron chipped in.

“If you two don’t stay out of adult conversations, I will send you to your rooms until breakfast is ready.” Coreen pinched both young tigers by the ear, and they howled, muttering a “yes, ma’am” in unison. Deja hid a smile. Coreen might be human, but she was time enough for the cubs. “What were you saying, Deja?”

Deja shook her head. “Well, apparently two people were caught with ties to Spiderweb. One of the men, Frank, is a shifter, which I can’t even imagine why he would betray his own kind.” She shivered and shut her eyes, trying to stave off memories of the hell she went through when that evil organization spliced her DNA with that of a Siberian white tiger against her will. She could imagine every one of the shifter residents in Siberia, Texas had gone through the same thing, including Frank. Well, all of those not born as shifters as Abel and Aaron were. “The other person involved was human. He had a broken arm, and Ward took them both back to his office. I just don’t get why Frank would do it. Do you know him?”

Coreen made a small sound of dislike. “Not well, but what I have seen of him, he has a bad attitude.” Her eyes glazed over, and Deja wondered if she was worried about the fact that one of the suspects was human.

Abel echoed her thoughts, spitting out his next words as if in revulsion. “Humans! I think my dad should kick them all out of Siberia. We don’t need them, and they obviously don’t have any loyalty.”

Coreen opened her mouth to speak, but Aaron cut her off. “Yeah, who needs them anyway? They’re slow, blind, deaf, and they have no instincts. Even Dad said so. I’d have rather been born a shifter any day.”

“Oh, is that right?” Coreen growled, giving a good imitation of a tiger if Deja did say so herself.

She couldn’t believe how condescending these two kids were being. They acted like they were better than all humans just because they were shifters.

“You know what I think?” Deja snapped, putting a hand on her hip. “I think you’re rude, and you need to watch your mouth. Did you once consider the fact that you’re insulting your mother while you’re laying out humans like they’re no better than garbage under your feet? What, you think anything you have someone didn’t give to you? Please, you couldn’t survive out there in the world alone. You’d be crying for your
human
mother in a heartbeat!”

Both boys’ faces reddened. Abel, as usual, spoke first. “I’m sorry, Mom. Of course we didn’t mean you.”

“Yeah, sorry, Mom,” Aaron echoed. “We weren’t talking about you.”

“You shouldn’t have been talking about anybody,” Coreen told them. How their attitudes affected her showed in the tremor in her hand when she set their food on the table. Coreen wasn’t afraid of her boys. She was probably afraid
for
them—and for what would happen if the other, stronger shifters agreed with their sentiment.

When the boys had wolfed down their food and thanked Coreen for the meal, they escaped the kitchen. Once they were out of earshot, Coreen dropped into a chair and released a heavy sigh. “There aren’t a lot of humans in Siberia, and I’m worried about where this mess will lead.”

Deja rested a hand over Coreen’s. “You know Ward will look out for you. Besides, no one would breathe wrong in your direction and risk Ward’s wrath.”

Coreen nodded. “I know that, but what about the others?”

Deja didn’t have an answer. “I know why Jake’s here. They started the process toward making him a shifter but were interrupted when Ward rescued him. Even if it failed, Spiderweb would hunt him down and kill him rather than leave a loose end. What about the other humans? Were they rescued early too? And you?”

The alpha’s wife stared down at the table as if remembering. “No, most of us lived in one of the surrounding towns or in some other city where Ward and his people visited, looking for clues to other Spiderweb cells. I met Ward in McAllen.”

“The city near here?”

She smiled with sadness in her eyes. “He was so angry, but handsome too. There was something about him that set my pulse to racing. I worked in a surplus store he decided to target for supplies.”

“Hold up.” Deja laughed. “You married the man who robbed the store where you worked? How does that happen?”

Pink tinged her cheeks. “The shifter appeal? It wasn’t as simple as that, and back then I saw that he loved someone else. Ward was a man broken in heart and spirit. I think just the fact that he needed to take care of his people kept him on his feet and nothing else. I fell in love with him on sight. It took some time, but eventually he let me in his heart.”

“Do you ever regret it? I mean, I bet you miss your family.”

She stood and began stacking dishes in the dishwasher. “I had little family. My parents disowned me when I refused to live my life their way. That was in Ohio. I’d been living alone in Texas for a few years.”

“Oh, shucks now, Coreen, the rebel. Who’da thunk it?”

The older woman chuckled and waved her hand. “That was a long time ago. I’m nothing more or less than Ward’s wife and mother to his children.”

“You’re something special.”

“Thank you. So are you.” The smile left Coreen’s face, and a frown creased her brows. “There’s a real species issue here, Deja. I wish it wasn’t true, but it is.”

“I see it now.”

“You heard my sons. They think they’re better than humans because they’re shifters. Makes no difference that they are, in a way, half-human too. And when I’ve visited the school, I’ve heard the other children talk and some of the parents. The younger generation believe they are a cut above because they were born that way. I’m just thankful Spiderweb didn’t try making children into shifters. Can you imagine the time they would have had living in Siberia? This was supposed to be a haven for their kind, safe from Spiderweb and safe from exploitation from the government. Now look at us.”

Deja stood and retrieved the dishcloth from the sink so she could wipe the table. She’d declined eating breakfast, preferring to wait for Heath so they could go to the diner. “I’m starting to see what you’re saying. What I don’t get is why let humans into the town at all?” The offense in Coreen’s expression made her rush ahead to explain. “Trust me. I love humans. I still feel like one and only remember I’m not when some intense smell from a block away burns my nose, or I break an object a human woman shouldn’t have been able to. I’m just saying it’s risky letting them in. Spiderweb seems like they’re everywhere, and, aside from you, who, it’s obvious loves Ward with all your heart, I think some of the people I’ve met are just…well, fuck buddies. Oops, excuse my French.”

Coreen hid a smile. “You’re right. One thing we can all agree on is that shifters have a really high sex drive.” The embarrassment in her beautiful face was clear. “The shifters could visit other towns and find someone for the night and not bring them home. They are fewer in number compared to other towns. However, they also have the instincts of the tiger.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning they crave someone to reproduce with.”

Hope sprung to life in Deja. “Whoa, are you serious? Is that with all of them…I mean, us?”

“As far as I’ve seen.” She shrugged. “On one hand, Ward knows it’s probably best for the shifters not to increase their numbers. After all, he has no plan to raise a race of unstoppable tiger shifters. He only wants a safe and happy home for those that already exist, far from the evil designs of Spiderweb, who created the creatures for their own reasons.”

Deja caught on. “But the instinct of the tiger says have babies?”

“Yes, and since most of the shifters are men…”

“They have to go find women in the only place they can be found—among humans.”

“Yes.”

Deja strolled toward the door. “Seems like an impossible situation. I for one know the tiger refuses to be denied when she wants something. In many ways, I’m thankful. I have it easier than most. Heath and I are both shifters. We shouldn’t have much of an issue with staying on the same page. Thanks for explaining it all, Coreen, and don’t worry. I know Ward will figure out how to get this craziness resolved among the townspeople, shifter and human alike. I’ll talk to you later.”

“Okay, honey, and you be sure to tell me when I can expect grandbabies. I can’t wait to shower them with love and kisses.”

Deja’s turn to be embarrassed, she ducked her head, and scrambled out of the room. She’d been too transparent about her longing to get pregnant. Being no different from all the others of her kind, she ached to have kids, and knowing the need was shared by all shifters, she looked forward to discussing it with Heath. They just needed to decide on how many.

* * * *

By the time Heath called Deja to tell her he would meet her at the diner, she was starving. She arrived ahead of him and pulled up to a spot just outside the door. “Lucky,” she said, deciding to take the fact that she didn’t have to park across the street on the community parking lot as a good sign. Coreen had lent her the use of her minivan since she didn’t have any errands, and Deja had grocery shopping to do. Usually they did it together, but Ward and Coreen were going to be spending some much-needed alone time together, and the boys were spending the weekend with friends. Deja planned to cook a nice meal for her man.

The diner, Melly’s Kitchen, was built like a cute little house as if one were visiting a friend rather than a restaurant. The interior, just as inviting, sported wooden tables covered in airy blue cloths and the chairs were made comfortable with flowery cushions. Each setting included a small bouquet of real flowers, which Melly refreshed regularly. To top off the atmosphere, the food tasted so good “it makes you wanna slap yo momma,” as some of the older women liked to say back in her hometown. Deja sighed thinking of home and then shoved the sad feelings away. This was not the time to get down.

She found a table near the back of the restaurant after weeding through the other patrons. Used to the small-town atmosphere, she waved and called greetings by name to practically every person in the room. She might not have known Frank, but she knew darn near half the town—or at least those that frequented Melly’s place.

In her seat, she ordered sweet tea for herself and Heath. Being close to lunch, she figured he wouldn’t want coffee. Melly brought the tea along with a dish of warm bread and butter, and Deja dove on it. “Oh, girl, you’re a life saver,” Deja mumbled around a mouthful.

Melly chuckled. “I’m glad to help, Deja. No Heath today?”

“He’ll be here.”

Shouted greetings from several corners brought her head up to see that Heath had just walked in. Deja’s heartbeat kicked up a notch. How long would it be until her reaction to him wouldn’t be so violent? Sometimes it seemed like she couldn’t take a good breath without him, which was ridiculous. He paused inside the door and scanned the restaurant. She waited, watching him and seeing what almost looked like desperation to find her. Were his emotions just as wild when it came to her? They locked gazes, and he started moving again, heading toward her. Deja was aware Melly spoke, but she couldn’t make herself concentrate on the woman.

Heath stopped at the table and reached for her chin. She tilted her head back in expectance. Their lips touched, and the world slipped away. Her eyelids fluttered closed, her breath caught in her chest. A chill brought goose bumps to her arms, but then a fire ignited deep inside, threatening to burn the two of them up, the building, and anyone within fifty feet. Heath’s tongue delved between her lips. She answered with a hungry moan and let him in. Her pussy pulsed with need, and she ached to feel his fingers threading deep into her channel to satisfying the ache to come.

All too soon, Heath backed off, and then as if hurtling from miles away, sound returned to the world around her. Catcalls and whistles pierced the air. Melly stood at the side of their table gripping her apron with white fingers while her face glowed beet red. Short of breath, she fanned her face. “Well! That was some hello, huh?”

Heath looked around at her. “Oh, hey, Melly. Uh, sorry. Keeping my hands off of her, even in public, isn’t something I’ve mastered yet.” He dropped into the chair across from Deja.

Deja curled her lips to the side. “You better not be trying to master it.”

“The usual?” Melly prodded them both.

“Oh, yeah, thanks, Melly,” Deja told her. “A mushroom cheeseburger and plenty of fries for me. I can’t believe how I can put it away after changing.”