Carly caught her breath. She pictured a cute kid, like Jordan or Olaf, looking up at Tiger with his same golden eyes, and saying “Daddy.” She wanted to cry.
“Mate of my heart,” Tiger said, tugging her closer. “Come here and kiss me.”
Carly leaned to him and kissed the corner of his lips again, trying to be careful.
Tiger slid his good arm around her neck and pulled her down for a true and thorough kiss. Nothing wrong with his mouth.
When he eased away, Carly looked down into the face that she loved, no matter what. Tiger’s left eye was definitely clearer, the golden iris coming into view. Both eyes fixed on Carly, strength returning.
“The touch of a mate,” Tiger said. “Heals. Which means you need to keep kissing me.”
Carly laughed as he pulled her back down, then she gave herself over to healing him the only way she knew how.
* * *
Tiger did mend, inside and out, but it took days, and it was painful. But Andrea confirmed that though Tiger had been as near to death as anyone could get, his thread of life barely intact, he would make it.
Andrea came over many times in the next few days, she and Sean lending healing strength through her gift and the Guardian’s sword. At least Tiger didn’t have to worry about seeing the big sword coming toward his heart to send him to the afterlife. Not yet.
One morning about a week later, Tiger opened his eyes to find Carly at his side. She’d insisted on sleeping with him every night, and she slept now, her head on one hand, her sleek hair in fine strands on the pillow.
Tiger immediately knew he was well. His skin was whole—the pain that lingered was like the remnants of a sunburn. He’d gotten his first sunburn this spring, a new and interesting sensation.
Tiger had slept without covers, but a thin sheet hugged Carly’s breasts, her dusky areolas showing through the pale cloth. Her hip rose in a sweet curve, legs stretched out and touching Tiger’s.
Tiger gently pushed Carly onto her back, peeling the sheet from her and replacing its drape with his body. His ready cock nudged between her legs.
Carly stirred, woke, smiled. “Hey there. I guess you’re feeling better.”
Tiger wanted to tell her he loved her, that he loved waking up next to her, that he was grateful beyond words for what she’d done for him, but his throat closed up, and he couldn’t speak. His need climbed, the mating frenzy tapping him.
Carly stretched, saying “Hmm,” then she brought her arms around him. “I’ve missed you.”
That, Tiger could respond to. His voice rasped. “I missed you every day, every hour, every second.”
“Then why did you go? What were you doing all this time? I was going crazy without you.”
Tiger’s fears, which had been dulled by pain, rose again. “I wanted you to be safe. So that if they came for me, they wouldn’t hurt you. But I couldn’t stay away. I had to protect you, to watch over you.”
“That was you in my house, saving me and bandaging me up.” Carly touched her face, where the bruises had been. “And what was with stealing my sofa cushion? Which I found in my yard, unsalvageable.”
“The man Crosby took it,” Tiger said. “He dropped it when he ran.”
“He broke into my house to steal a cushion. What a weirdo.”
“Connor said he broke in here too, stealing my shirts. He was looking for something that might have traces of my DNA, I’m thinking.”
“And you slept on my sofa that one time. How could he have known that? Unless . . .”
“He was spying through the window. I sensed Walker that night, but . . .” Tiger thought about it. If Crosby had been outside Carly’s living room window, he’d have known. “He could have been spying far away, if he was looking for an opportunity to shoot me. Some rifles have good scopes.”
Carly’s amusement died. “And then he tried to kill you.” Tiger had come very close to death that night Crosby had snuck in, but whatever had been bred into him had made him wake up, alert, in time to stop the shot.
Carly wrapped her arms around him. “I hate how close to losing you I came.”
“And I came too close to losing you,” Tiger said. “I almost didn’t make it in time.”
“But you did. You saved us all.”
Tiger looked down at Carly, her green eyes, her fine-boned face, her wide-lipped smile. Desperation tugged at his heart. “I can’t lose you.”
“I’m right here, love,” she whispered.
Tiger kissed her again, gently at first, then letting his mouth become firmer, bolder. Carly returned the kisses with as much boldness, her arms tightening around him.
Tiger needed her. Lying here next to her for days, scenting her, feeling her, wanting her, had made him insane. He was hard with mating frenzy. She’d declared herself his mate, and Tiger had been too weak to do anything about it.
He wasn’t weak anymore. Tiger parted Carly’s thighs with one hand, then pushed his wide-awake cock straight inside her.
Carly’s eyes opened wide, the gray sparkles in the green beautiful. “Mmm,” she purred. “I have missed you.”
Tiger’s powers of speech deserted him. He only felt Carly around him, his mate.
The mating frenzy reached up and closed its fist around him. Thought fled. There was only Carly, her scent, her heat, the dampness of her skin, the scalding moisture that gripped his cock.
Carly, always Carly. The beautiful woman who’d healed him with her touch. She’d saved Tiger, given him his name.
The room filled with the sounds of their lovemaking, their quick breaths and little moans, the creak of the sturdy bed, the slide of skin on skin, their mouths coming together.
Tiger pumped into her in a hard, fast rhythm, his body knowing what to do. Carly rose beneath him, legs coming around him, her bare feet pressing him. She took him easily now, fitting around him. Her eyes were half-closed, lips parted with pleasure.
As Tiger wound up toward his climax, she did too. Carly’s movements became jerkier, her hips rolling with his, her quick cries fueling his frenzy.
Tiger’s growl vibrated the air. His fingers grew claws, then quickly receded, Tiger wanting to be a man when he was with this woman.
Carly crushed against him as she rose into him, crying his name. Tiger held her close, the frenzy erasing all pain, including the sunburnlike tingle. Being inside her took away all sorrow, all grief, all hurt. He had so much hurt, and Carly was dissolving it.
“Carly,” he cried as the white-hot point of climax clenched him and didn’t let go. “I love you.”
“I love you,” Carly’s reply came, loud and clear. Tiger kept driving into her, both of them seeking, rocking, holding, loving.
Then they crashed onto the bed, the morning sunlight kissing their skin. Tiger rumpled Carly’s hair and let kisses fall on her warm face, her neck, her breasts.
Carly gathered him into her, laying his head on her chest with a happy sigh. “My Tiger,” she murmured, her voice broken. “I very much love you too.”
* * *
When they straggled down to breakfast, Tiger’s first since he’d come home, Sean was there, making a special batch of pancakes, with Connor assisting. Walker waited at the kitchen table, looking content. Smug even.
Carly felt warm, stretched, satisfied. She’d thought Tiger would tire soon after his first foray back into lovemaking, but she’d been proved wrong very quickly. Tiger was healing fast, and with the healing came his stamina.
Carly sat down at the table, gently, a bit sore, and reached for the pitcher of orange juice.
Walker nodded at Carly, then looked up at Tiger. “Thank you,” he said. “For the promotion and the command.”
Carly blinked while Tiger sat down with his usual stoicism and accepted the glass of juice Carly handed him. He’d resumed the fake Collar before coming downstairs, preserving the illusion.
“Promotion? Command?” Carly asked Walker, when it became clear Tiger wouldn’t speak.
“Because of Tiger, I get t
o trade my captain’s bars for gold leaves. And assume command of the detachment to the Shifter Bureau. Lieutenant Colonel Sheldon has disappeared.”
Tiger set down the glass he’d just drained. “Disappeared where?”
“If I knew, I wouldn’t have said disappeared. Seems that someone tipped off Shifter Bureau, the army, and the media that Sheldon ordered the fire to be set in the community center. He’s public enemy number one. Post vacant, and I was offered it, as I was XO and knew all about the training and projects at the camp anyway.”
“Someone tipped them off, eh?” Sean said at the stove. “I have to be wondering who did that.”
“Couldn’t say,” Liam said, coming into the room. “These rumors, how do they get started?”
He and Sean shared a conspiratorial grin.
“Anyway, I’m now in charge of all research concerning the tiger Shifter,” Walker said. “Who’s not to be harmed, by the way, because he’s become a freaking superhero.” Walker leaned forward, looking Tiger in the eyes, a gleam of excitement in his. “And I’ve figured out, my friend, what you were made for.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Tiger lifted his head, waiting, his heart beating rapidly, but Walker only sat there, hands around his coffee cup, grinning.
“What?” Carly asked, fists on the table, her impatience heightening her scent. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”
Walker cleared his throat and moved his coffee cup on the placemat. “Sheldon thought Tiger was a weapon. A perfect soldier who never gets tired, heals right away, and doesn’t need to eat, drink, or sleep for long stretches of time. As I mentioned, Sheldon wanted to use Tiger as a prototype. He wanted to take Tiger to Afghanistan and demonstrate how well he heals from being shot up or burned. Sheldon’s plan was to breed more Shifters like Tiger, except ones more easily controlled than him, using Collars and other things. He regarded Tiger as his beacon, one guiding Sheldon all the way to brigadier general and higher.”
Liam sat down in his usual lazy way, holding a mug of steaming coffee. “The Fae bred us a couple thousand years ago to be the perfect soldiers,” he said conversationally. “We’d fight their wars so they wouldn’t lose so many Fae, who are, of course, the most important beings in the universe. The Fae found out the hard way that they couldn’t control us, when we fought a war with them and won our freedom. They’re still trying to control us, but in, oh, about a thousand years, they still haven’t figured out how.”
“But you wear Collars,” Walker said.
Liam’s eyes widened. “Well, now, that’s true, isn’t it? How about that?”
Connor snorted a laugh from the stove. “Too right.”
“Anyway,” Carly said. “Back to Tiger. Is that what he was made for, to be a soldier?”
“I thought so at first,” Walker said. “Then I did some digging, back to the original experiments. My old friend Dr. Brennan knew a few of the people from the research team way back when. He consulted with them, as a Shifter anthropologist. I hunted up a couple who were still around and talked to them. The project had been shelved and most of the files sealed, and more was lost when the building in Area 51 burned down. But the researchers had kept their personal notes, and they gave them to me.” Walker shot Tiger a look of sympathy. “They put you through hell, didn’t they? Believe me, I’d never do that.”
Tiger gave him slow nod. “I believe you.”
“You thought so at first,” Carly broke in, still watching Walker. “What do you think now?”
“That Tiger wasn’t bred to be the perfect killing machine,” Walker said. “Yeah, he has all those qualities I mentioned—stamina, rapid healing, a body that adapts to extreme stress.” He fixed his gaze on Tiger again, the excitement still in his eyes. “But you’re not a killing machine, my friend. You’re not a gun to point and shoot.” Walker stopped, letting them all stare at him, waiting, including Sean and Connor, who’d turned from the stove.
Kim came into the room with Katriona, dropped a kiss to Liam’s cheek, and sat down next to her mate. She fixed Walker with a steely glare. “Well, come on, then. Spill.”
Walker grinned. “Search and rescue.” He delivered the words, then sat back and drank his coffee.
They sat in stunned silence, until Liam said, “Ah. Yes.”
Tiger said nothing, but Walker’s words made something click inside him. Something right.
I know what I was made for. What I’m meant to be.
Carly, though, still looked bewildered. “Search and rescue? You mean like with people trapped after a disaster or missing out in the middle of nowhere?”
“More than that,” Walker said, animated. “Search and rescue, domestically, or behind enemy lines. He was going to be put in with A-Teams, to go deep into enemy territory. He’d find civilians hurt by the fighting, like kids and moms, fix them up, keep them safe. The same for civilians of allies or our civilians when war comes to them.”
The sense of rightness spread through Tiger, weaving around him as strongly as the mate bond. Yes, his entire body said. I was made to protect.
Carly’s surprised look fled. “Of course,” she said to Tiger. “That’s why you’re so adamant about the cubs.”
“All Shifters protect the cubs,” Kim said.
“Yes, but Tiger goes above and beyond,” Carly said. “He looks out for every cub in Shiftertown. Anyone who’s vulnerable, actually, like the clerk in the convenience store.”
“She does have a point,” Liam said. He sipped coffee, looking the least surprised of everyone.
“And the cubs aren’t afraid of him,” Carly said. “They all adore you, Tiger. The adult Shifters look at you like you’re some sort of Frankenstein’s monster, but the cubs are always thrilled to see you.”
“That’s true,” Connor said. “I’m still a cub, and I like Tiger.”
“So do the little kids, like Olaf and Jordan,” Carly said. “They trust Tiger completely, no matter how much the adults try to say that Tiger needs to be controlled and contained.”
“That’s because cubs are smart,” Connor said, his expression serious.
Katriona laughed and held out her hands toward Tiger. “Tigger.”
Tiger couldn’t stop himself from rising, going to Katriona, and lifting her from Kim. He touched a light kiss to the little girl’s forehead, sat down again next to Carly, and balanced Katriona on her little feet on his knee. In about a year, he’d be holding his own cub, with Carly at his side.
The conversation around him dimmed and became unimportant.
“See?” Walker was saying. “There’s something inside Tiger that makes the kids seek him out and trust him. Makes sense if his mission is to find them and get them to safety. They’d need to trust him completely.”
Liam nodded in silence. Sean had gone back to making pancakes, and Connor, after one more long, thoughtful look at Tiger, turned to help him.
“One thing I don’t like about your explanation,” Carly said to Walker. “You say the kids trust Tiger because there’s something programmed into him, some genetics thing.”
“Probably having to do with pheromones,” Liam put in. “And scent and so forth.”
Carly waved that away. “Maybe, but could you consider that cubs trust him because they can see he’s just a wonderful guy? Caring, protective, amazing?”
Liam chuckled, lifted his coffee, and patted Kim’s knee. “Spoken like a true mate.”
Carly frowned at him. “I refuse to believe that Tiger’s the way he is because a scientist mixed something in a test tube. People don’t work that way. A lot of what makes Tiger Tiger is . . . Tiger.”
“Exactly,” Kim said. “Well said.”
“All of us are a bunch of chemicals stuck together,” Liam argued. “Even you, love,” he finished, with a warm look at Kim.
“I don’t believe that entirely,” Carly said. “My sisters and I share the same genetic makeup and we’re all very different. So even if people were created in test tubes, even clones, what w
ould come out of each test tube would be different.” Carly looked at Walker, sudden concern in her expression. “Wait, you didn’t mean you wanted to make clones of Tiger, did you?”
“Sheldon did,” Walker said. “I’m of the mind that we don’t have the technology yet to get cloning exactly right. But studying you could tell us a lot, Tiger. And you could do your rescue thing and train others in search and rescue. We could sure use you.”
“Wait a minute,” Carly said. “You are not going to do experiments on him and torture him and treat him like a guinea pig. Tiger’s a person. And I’m going to marry him. Or mate with him, as Shifters call it. I accepted his mate-claim.”
Her announcement fell into stunned silence, and Tiger looked up. Carly had already declared to Tiger that she was his mate, but he hadn’t expected her to state it to other Shifters, in terms they’d waited to hear.
Connor let out a wild whoop from across the room. He threw his spatula into the air, scattering droplets of batter, rushed to Carly, and dragged her up and into a hug.
“Another mating,” he shouted as he released her. “Sun and moon. Time to par-tay. Get on with it, Liam.”
“Give us a chance, Connor.” Liam was out of his seat too, waiting while Kim crushed Carly in an enthusiastic embrace.
Carly had tears on her cheeks when she emerged. “I didn’t realize y’all would be so happy.”
“Of course we’re happy.” Liam caught Carly in a hard hug, ruffling her hair. “Tiger needs a mate, and you’re perfect for him. Another mating means more cubs, more Shifters.”
“There will be more cubs,” Carly said, and she smiled. “Sooner rather than later.”
Connor let out another whoop, and this time five pancakes went to the floor. Instead of scolding him, Sean shoved Connor out of the way and came to hug Carly himself.
“Now, that’s a fine thing,” Sean said, wrapping his arms around her.
“I thought you were up the spout,” Liam said to Carly, still holding on. “I scented the change. But I was waiting for you to say.”
“You waited more patiently than Tiger did.” Carly laughed from within their embrace. “He blabbed to my whole family.”