Tiger in Her Bed Revised Kindle (8 page)

What the—

She widened her eyes to get a better look.

A tiger?

She was so surprised she fell out of the bed. She landed on the carpeted floor with a thump.

“Are you okay?” Quinn’s sleepy voice came from above her.

She rubbed her elbow. It took her a second to finally recover her ability to speak. Apparently, Quinn had returned and slept next to her. Why did she think it was a tiger? She must have been hallucinating. Yeah, that was it. It didn’t make sense at all. She was so tired, she started seeing things.

“I… I’m okay.” She got up and joined him in bed.

“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. I think I was just sleep falling.”

“That’s new.” Quinn laughed softly. He spooned himself next to her and nuzzled behind her ear. “Tired?”

She stifled a yawn. “Bone tired.”

“Sleep then.”

She closed her eyes, but she couldn’t sleep right away. She wondered what she’d just seen. She decided it was all in her head.

I must have been dreaming. There’re no tigers in Aspen.

Chapter Four

It was a dull winter morning when Vanessa finally stirred from the bed. She looked at the clock. It was well past nine. Quinn had already left, but his side of the bed was still warm. Vanessa sleepily closed her eyes and scooted to Quinn’s side, sniffing his scent. It was strange how his smell comforted her.

The house was quiet. She didn’t hear any noise from downstairs. However, she could smell the lingering aroma of breakfast: freshly brewed coffee, eggs, and savory bacon. She should get out of the bed, but she didn’t want to give up the warmth the comforters provided. She pulled up the blanket up to her chin and drifted back to sleep for another hour.

When she opened her eyes for the third time that morning, she forced herself out of the bed and took a shower. By the time she went down, it was clear nobody had come home yet. She saw Savannah’s note on the kitchen fridge, saying she wouldn’t be home for lunch. The cleaning crew was going to come around noon, she informed Vanessa, so she wouldn’t freak out when strangers came into the house.

Vanessa had coffee and a light breakfast. She turned the TV on, looking for a weather channel. A snowstorm had arrived overnight. She looked out the windows and saw the flurries coming down. Despite the storm, the temperature hovered around thirty-two degrees, which wasn’t too bad.

She logged into her laptop to do some work, but still couldn’t concentrate. The scene last night played in her mind. She could swear she saw a tiger. In her bed. She must have been crazy to have seen such a thing. It felt so real.

Where was Quinn anyway?

She texted him. No answer. She tried to call, but it was directed to his voicemail. She gave up. She gave up on work too. She decided to take a walk to clear her head. It wasn’t too bad today. Besides, she liked the snow. She put on her parka and meandered into the backwoods.

The landscape was blanketed with fresh, fluffy snow. The ice made crunchy sounds under her boots. The scenery was so pretty, just like in a postcard. Pine trees covered in powdered flakes, quite picturesque. Luckily it wasn’t windy, so the temperature wasn’t too cold for a morning stroll.

Quinn and his brothers seemed to like to walk down the trail. They might be somewhere in the woods. If she followed the path, she might catch them. She needed to talk to Quinn about a work-related problem she had read in her email this morning anyway.

An icy breeze sent her shivering like a wet dog. She should have brought her gloves with her, but she had forgotten about them and left them on the kitchen counter. She thought of going back, but decided against it. She had already walked too far from the house.

She crammed her hands into her jacket pockets instead. She plodded in the snow as she skirted the bend. She dreaded this part of the path. From there, the trail came to an incline. She wasn’t athletic and packed thirty pounds more on her frame than her ideal weight; hiking this section would inevitably make her breathe hard. The view was spectacular, though. She didn’t mind that. She needed the exercise anyway.

When she got to the clearing, she didn’t see anybody. The Alexanders had a gazebo built here for summer entertaining. Although she couldn’t fathom who would come here just to relax after such a steep incline spent sweating their asses off.  She sat on the bench, catching her breath and enjoying the view. She took her hands out of her pockets and rubbed them together. A fire would be nice. If Quinn were here, he’d know how to make one. That guy had great survival skills.

By the way, where was he? It wasn’t like him just to take off like that without leaving a message.

After a few minutes, she decided to walk some more. If she couldn’t find Quinn, she would head back to the house. There were emails to respond to. Some small patches she must fix. Stephen had been nagging her about some glitches in the programming she wrote. The other programmer who worked on it now had a hard time merging it into their portion of the project. She must take a closer look.

She blew on her hands and crammed them into her pockets again as she got up. She wondered what it looked like here in the summertime. The sight must be spectacular. All the snow was gone and replaced by grasses and greenery. The scent of the pine trees must be aromatic. At present everything was frozen, waiting for the winter to render the landscape white for another few months.

After a few minutes of walking, Vanessa decided she’d had enough. The trail ahead of her was beginning to get difficult to climb. And besides, walking by herself was actually quite dangerous. If there were an avalanche, she could be buried and nobody would know what happened to her.

Suddenly, something rustling in the background caught her attention.

She felt creeped out, like she was being watched. She didn’t like it. When she turned, she was shocked to find Ivy Bishop.

“Ivy? Is that really you?” Vanessa asked.

Her coworker came out from behind a particularly large fir tree.

“What are you doing here?” She saw Ivy had three huge dogs with her. “Are those Siberian Huskies? They’re so big. And cute.”

“They aren’t Huskies; they’re wolves.”

“Right. Like wolves are going to be that tame. Anyway, what are you doing here?”

Ivy advanced. “I know you slept with Quinn. I can smell him all over you. How dare you?” Ivy accused her.

Vanessa was taken aback but quickly recovered. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”

Ivy Bishop looked a mess. She didn’t seem like herself this morning. Her eyes were wild and glassy. Her hair was in disarray. No makeup either. She had never seen Ivy like this. Ivy always dressed like she was going to enter a pageant. Big hair, full makeup and full-on bling. She hadn’t been nicknamed The Princess for nothing.

Ivy had dark circles underneath her eyes as if she hadn’t slept in a week. Vanessa wondered if she had run out of her medication. Ivy was known for being extremely moody.

And when did she fly in here anyway?

“You know I like him!” Ivy shrieked. “We’re supposed to get engaged and married. You ruined that for me.”

“Excuse me?” Vanessa said, bewildered. Did she just hear right? “You’re supposed to be engaged to Quinn?”
What is the meaning of this? What is going on?

“Yes. My uncle had arranged it for me. It’s supposed to unite our families. But you had to mess things up.”

“Ivy, you have to start from the beginning. You’re not making any sense. Quinn had an arranged marriage? He didn’t tell me anything.” Anger flared inside her. Did Quinn just two-time her? Why did he seduce her if he was engaged to someone else? If he planned on marrying this woman? “I didn’t even know you knew Quinn outside the office.”

“Of course, I do.” A look of triumph colored Ivy’s face. “I’ve known him since I was a kid. I’ve loved him all my life. I did everything to make myself beautiful. The diet. The exercise. Do you think this look just happens? I even followed him to New York to be with him. How could you do this to me? You’re not even pretty.” Ivy shot her a dirty look. “You’re fat.”

“Hey! I’m Rubenesque and proud of it.”

“I don’t know what he sees in you.”

“Great personality and brains, apparently,” Vanessa scoffed. “Something you clearly don’t have.” She couldn’t believe she was arguing with Ivy over a guy. How childish.

And how come Savannah also didn’t tell her anything? Quinn’s mom had taken her shopping and given her a makeover. She and Savannah had become close in the past couple days. One would think Savannah would mention it if Quinn had a prior marriage arrangement. Or perhaps Quinn’s own mom didn’t even know? No. Quinn wasn’t that kind of man. Not after what they shared the past two nights. Vanessa knew better than to draw hasty conclusions. She needed to hear Quinn’s side of the story. “We need to clear up this misunderstanding. How about we find Quinn and ask him to set the record straight?”

“It’s too late. You ruined my chances. I hate you!”

“What are you—five? We’re adults. We’ll talk and solve our problems like adults. Enough with your tantrum. I’m not happy Quinn had an arrangement without telling me. But I’m sure he had a solid reason and I’d like to hear it.”

Ivy didn’t seem inclined to embracing her reasonable side. “None of this would’ve happened if you hadn’t kissed Quinn.”

“You’re the one who dared me to do it. Did you forget that?”

  “I didn’t think you had the guts. You should’ve known better. I love him. No one can ever love him like I do. No one!”

“Jesus. You need to calm the hell down, girl,” Vanessa snapped. Ivy came easily unhinged. She became touchy and irritated when others expressed interest in Quinn. She didn’t pay her too much attention when she was in emo mode. Vanessa had better things to do, but it really irritated her now. “Look, we can argue until the cows come home, but it won’t do us any good. I suggest we get out of the cold and find Quinn. I’m freezing.”

“Fuck you. You’re going to pay for this,” Ivy snarled. She lunged and knocked her off her feet.

Vanessa yelled. This woman was crazy. What the hell was wrong with her? Ivy came at her again, attacking her head on. Vanessa shielded her face with both arms. “Ouch!” Pain exploded.
What the hell, man? What is this?
Vanessa watched in horror as a droplet of her blood fell onto the snow.

She had been wounded. Ivy struck at her again but Vanessa rolled aside to avoid her. She staggered to her feet, trying to flee. She couldn’t believe Ivy had attacked her with a knife. This woman was crazy. She didn’t even see it coming. No. It wasn’t a knife. It was claws.

Claws?

Something wasn’t right about Ivy. She had mutated into a freaking beast. Her face looked misshapen. Her mouth elongated into a muzzle. All her extremities were covered in fur.

Panic set in. She scrambled away. She had to get away from her. Ivy became a monster.

But the snow made it hard to flee on foot. She stumbled again as she tried to run. The snow beneath her feet gave way and Vanessa found herself sliding down the trail. She avoided a collision with a tree. Narrowly. Using the fall as leverage to put distance between her and the crazed woman, she ran in the direction of the house. She screamed as loudly as she could, calling out for Quinn.

Ivy’s dogs chased her, closing the distance between them in no time. She screamed in terror. One of the dogs bit her arm and shook her violently. The other got a hold of her boot. She tried to fight back but it was a futile attempt.

When she about to give up hope, three tigers leapt at her. This time, she freaked out even more. Were there tigers in Aspen?

The biggest of the three tigers pounced and yanked off her attacker. The dog howled in pain. The tigers were totally decimating her dogs. She didn’t see Ivy but a fourth dog ran away. Wolf? Were they really wolves? Nothing made sense anymore.

The tigers had saved her from the wolves’ attack.

But that wasn’t the most shocking part of all of it. The real surprise was when the biggest tiger suddenly transformed into the man she knew intimately in the past few days.

Quinn.

“Vanessa, you’re hurt,” he said in dismay.

She immediately fainted.

Chapter Five

“A shifter?”

Vanessa sat on the examination table, clutching her bandaged arm. The doctor had just finished suturing and dressing her wounds and left. Quinn was with her, fully clothed and silent. Even then, his simmering anger was still palpable.

What had happened to her in the last hour was still rather blurry. She couldn’t wrap her mind around the fact that Ivy had attacked her out of jealousy, or that Ivy turned into a werewolf. Or that the man she was dating was not completely human. She
hadn’t
been hallucinating when she saw a tiger in her bed.

After the doctor finished treating her, Quinn began telling her the truth about himself, and his family, about the underground world where things that bumped in the night weren’t just products of fevered imaginations. It totally blew her mind.

Curious
. How was it possible a man could become both human and animal? Could it be that the anomaly in human evolution existed all along? Or were mutants like in
X-Men
?

“So shifters really exist,” she repeated

“Yes.”

“Tiger shifters and werewolves. What about vampires? Do they exist as well?”

“I believe so.”

“Sparkly vampires or the Dracula-kind of vampires?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never met one.”

“How about elves? Do they exist too? Do they look like
Lord of the Ring
-type kind of elves or are they funny looking, like the ones that bake cookies in a tree? You know, like that commercial.”

Quinn came to her and held her hand. “Vanessa. Focus. We’re having an important discussion here.”

“I’m sorry. This is so freaking amazing. I had no idea cryptids existed.”

“You don’t seem upset that I’m not entirely human. I imagined the worst.”