Wish Upon a Tiger: A BBW Weretiger Shifter Romance (Fountain of Love) (14 page)

“
We're
really safe to stay here?” She asked softly.

“
Yes,
we are. But if I have my way, it won't be for long. Up here, like the
gods, we're going to make sure we create order from chaos again.”

I closed the door, folding my arms around her. Jenna's
sweet curves were a thousand times more comforting than these old
walls would ever be.

If I was going to be in exile, at least it was for a
very good cause.

VII: Cyclical (Jenna)

Calm, crisp, and beautiful. We woke up to fresh snows
and a gentle breeze on our second morning at the cabin, a sign from
nature as purifying as the mysterious spark in my blood.

I wish I could've kept it up my front. I wish I could've
fed my fire, giving my tigress infinite fuel to be his rock, to sit
at the rickety old table next to the ancient stove and plot taking
our town with him.

But the scared human girl had returned. As soon as I saw
those angry villagers, I lost my courage. I wasn't sure if I'd ever
find it again either.

Even Erik's magic couldn't hold console me for long.

I did everything to help I could as hours turned into
days, and then into a solid week. By day four, my man broke. His
concrete blueprints for re-taking Tiger Tree turned into maybes and
uncertainties.

“
Winter's
coming, Jenna,” he said, reaching for my hand as I cooked up
meat and greens on the lonely cast iron skillet. “Maybe we
ought to hunker down.”

“
What
about the town? Won't it be harder to get there once the snows come?”

Erik's eyes slipped from mine. I was the last person in
the world who should've been badgering him. Hell, letting my tigress
slink into the depths was probably rubbing off on him.

When he needed his warrior instinct most, he was
softening. Especially the night before, when the trucks rolled into
the valley.

Big human jeeps, SUVs, and rigs rolled onto the rocky
streets below us. Erik watched it all night through his binoculars. I
watched goosebumps rising on his muscular neck.

He stared at the winking lights and frantic shadows in
town for hours, shaking his head and cursing.

“
Oh,
cousin. Oh, you stupid, stupid fucking cat. Someone will kill you for
this. I promise. Someone...”

Someone.
The
word echoed in my mind, eerie and unsettling.
He should be
saying 'I.' Not someone.

I paced the floors,
knowing my lover would be even more hollow, more
human
in the morning.

Tiger Tree didn't need human. It needed a tiger.

And not just the village either. I needed the big badass
tiger back. Our exile together made him focus only on me and not on
his people.

I couldn't live with myself letting that happen.

At night, I rolled around, feverish and sick to my
stomach. I barely slept through the terrible dreams, all the things
Brahm had shown me in the vision, an old apocalypse tuned to re-mix
and repeat.

A curse.

It was happening again. I didn't care what Erik had
said. I knew it.

It happened because of me, because of my blood, human
and God Tiger alike.

My very existence had cursed Tiger Tree. I'd been
captured by Tarken and his men, and brought to this place for a
reason.

When Brahm showed me what it was, I knew there was no
going back, no matter how I'd tried to listen to reassuring words.

Erik convinced me I could resist. I was a fool.

“
Sit
down and eat your dinner, wildcat. Need to keep our strength up while
we're here. It's not like we can just go into town for a medic if
anything goes wrong.”

I obeyed his order. Erik smiled, beaming a dozen mixed
emotions on his face at me.

I returned his grimacing grin, forcing myself to match
the same front he'd thrown up. Erik's forced smile, symbol of all
that was wrong and abnormal, made my decision for me.

That night, I had to leave. If I just got away from him,
and far away from this place, then maybe my love and his village
would still have a chance.

Like a cancer, I had to cut away the curse by extracting
myself.

Did any tiger clans have female Elders who lived in
decrepit caves all by themselves? I didn't have a clue, but just
then, the idea was very appealing.

If I couldn't do penance for all the destruction I'd
caused, then at least I could live like a hermit. I knew my tiger was
strong. She would show me how to hunt, how to survive in the wild
Alaskan winter.

After dinner, I lay with Erik when he came in from
staring down at the town. Tonight, all the lights were out down
there. None of his four men came to brief us on the latest that
morning.

A bad sign. I secretly thought we'd never see them again
– not unless someone came from outside Tiger Tree to remove the
invaders.

“
They've
taken everything. Looks like the whole town's under some kind of
martial law. I just don't know anymore, Jenna. I knew my cousin was a
bastard, but I never thought he'd bring in outsiders to spread his
poison.”

An anguished growl escaped Erik's lips as he lay next to
me. I wrapped my arms around him, snug and tight as I could.

“
Shhh.
It's going to be okay. You
will
figure
this out, Erik. You're too smart and fierce not to.”

I kissed the corner of his weak smile. He didn't believe
in himself anymore because I was here, spreading the dark shadow I'd
carried since birth.

No more of this. No more.

I held him, trying to stop myself from thinking it would
be the last time I had my arms around him. I couldn't afford to tear
up and blubber all over him right now.

Inside, my tiger was restless, ready to assume a
stalking position. I forced my human emotion and clumsy two legged
instinct to disappear.

The tigress was in control of me. She waited until Erik
was completely asleep, his big chest rising and falling slowly
against my fingers.

I got up, and gently paced over to the little table in
the kitchen area, the only furniture we had besides a couple equally
worn down chairs. I thought about taking the note pad on the table
and scrawling a note.

What was a woman supposed to say to the man she loved
when fate forces them to separate? No words were good enough.

My fingers shook as I held the small pen in hand.

Erik, when you're alone, you're free and you'll find
your strength. I'm leaving. I'll be safe. Don't come looking for me.
Save Tiger Tree.

With those simple sentences, I laid the paper flat and
moved to the door. Outside, I slipped off my cloak, letting it fall
into the fresh snow. I took one last look at the cabin, crouched on
the ground, and shifted.

My tiger was in control now. In her, I had total trust.

My body adapted quickly, especially in tiger form.

Easier than I thought. The hardest part was letting go
of him.

A few days out in the wild was all it took for the cold
to become a dull prickle against my flesh rather than a raging bite.
I swore my fur was thickening by the hour the longer I spent out
here.

I hunted in the forests, maybe ten or fifteen miles
outside Tiger Tree. Hadn't sighted any big game yet. Just birds and
the few rodents I could find hibernating in their little hollows, but
it sustained me.

My tiger urged me to move on. But of course the human
girl she'd wrangled with all her life wasn't ready for that, holding
out faint hope that she'd see Erik again.

Surprise, surprise.

I missed him. Surely, he'd come looking for me, right?
It wouldn't take him long at all to track my scent once he was in
touch with his instinct again.

I hunted. I slept beneath a fallen log covered in ice. I
lived more wild and rugged than I'd lived in my entire life. I
survived.

And yet, I wasn't fully tiger. The constant pain in my
heart told me I was a half-blood, a creature condemned to feel with a
woman's ache and an animal's urges.

Yeah, I was really screwed up. Cursed. I had to face up
to it.

One frosty morning, I rose early, tracking a hare's long
footprints through the snow. Warm breath smoked out my mouth and into
the open air.

It would've been serene, peaceful, if it wasn't for
another tiger I spied through the clearing a couple yards away. I saw
him, and then he saw me.

My heart flipped. I swore it was Erik, thought I
recognized his beautiful bright body cross-crossed with dark stripes.

My senses were playing tricks on me. I realized my
mistake when I approached, slow and cautious as the male tiger
crouched in the grass.

He watched. He waited.

Several feet away, I breathed deep through the cool air.
The wind was blowing in the opposite direction. I couldn't get a read
on his scent until I was really close.

Shit! That's not –

Too late. The male flew into the air and crashed onto my
back before I could split. He confirmed who he was by raking his
claws through my fur, hurting me in a way Erik never would.

Rufus. His scent was so much like Erik's, except sour.
Evil.

The world turned red and painful and hot. I screamed,
roaring and kicking at the soft white underbelly of my attacker.

The snarling tiger pinned me down, pinching the loose
skin around my neck in his fangs. I was prepared to run, to tear my
own flesh to bloody shreds if I had to.

Anything to get away.

Before I could move another muscle, something bit my
side. It was too distant to be his claws, the angle was all wrong.

It was like an invisible force sapping all my energy in
one gulp. I went down, slack, my vision growing dark and blurry.

Rufus growled his excitement. His vile tongue licked at
one of the deep scratches in my side where he'd torn into me.

I heard a human voice. It sounded as distant as the
tiger's predatory growls, as though it were coming from underneath
the ground, muffled in my drugged delirium.

“
That's
her, all right. You've done a wonderful job. With this little tiger
back where she belongs, we're going to make a lot of money together.”

I could practically hear the words filtered through a
savage smile. Even in my imploding brain, I recognized the high,
arrogant, nasally voice.

It was Doctor Tarken, and now I was his prisoner.

I woke up naked and human. They hadn't put me in a cage
this time. The cold hit me at once, even though I'd been laying on
the flat metal table long enough to give it some warmth.

Straps held my arms. Not that it mattered much – I
couldn't have forced myself up if I tried.

The drug humming its sleepy song in my veins prevented
it.

A hand tapped on the side of my face. I wanted to snap
my neck and bite. But I wasn't a tiger anymore, and I couldn't do
more than give my neck a weak roll and a groan.

“
Nice
to see you again, my little student. Wake up. I know you're wondering
why I hit you with a tranquilizer dart and not hot lead after all the
trouble you caused me.”

Tarken stepped forward, and his upside-down face
appeared over me.

The Professor looked smug as ever, his eyes twinkling
with vacant light behind their round spectacles. He cleared his
throat, and took his sweet time doing it.

“
Ask
me.”

Go to hell,
I
thought.
I'm not giving you this satisfaction.

His hand caressed my throat. My whole body heaved in its
weakened state, recoiling at his disgusting touch.

It was bad enough to be mangled by Rufus, whose
scratches still throbbed at my sides, but this criminal?

No, no, no.

“
Ask
me.”

His hand began to tighten on my throat. At first, it was
slow and uncomfortable, but there came a tipping point where I
couldn't breathe. Oxygen just wouldn't get through my nostrils and
reach my lungs.

I fought with all my might. The shock awakened my
senses, and I jerked my wrists in the straps.

It was humiliating and terrifying all at once. He had me
naked, defeated, and captive. Instinct screamed there was nothing I
could do about this but give in, but both sides fought. Human and
tiger alike wouldn't – couldn't! – be beaten by this sick
man again.