Tiger Magic

by Jennifer Ashley

  Tiger said nothing. Carly couldn’t see Tiger’s eyes from where she stood, but Walker started sweating more, his hand twitching where it was cuffed.

  “They want to know what you are,” Walker said after fifteen solid minutes of silence.

  Carly was the one stretched to her limit. Men enjoyed staring at each other until one of them broke, but she always believed that if you wanted to know something you just asked.

  “Who wants to know?” she broke in. “The Shifter Bureau?”

  Carly expected Tiger to be annoyed with her for interrupting, but he only waited with her for Walker’s answer.

  “Shifter Bureau,” Walker said, giving Carly a nod. “And the commander of my unit. We’re always on the lookout for Shifter anomalies. That order isn’t classified; it’s common knowledge.”

  “Not to me,” Carly said. “Why so much interest in Tiger? He’s just another Shifter, isn’t he?”

  Walker’s tight mouth twitched. “No, he’s not. And everyone in this room knows it. He can do things other Shifters can’t. When he landed in the hospital, I was sent to report.”

  “And shoot him,” Carly said testily. “You came with plenty of firepower.”

  “We were only to shoot if necessary. And it almost became necessary. And then you showed up.” Walker’s gaze moved from Tiger to rest on Carly.

  Carly understood then that Walker wasn’t a pushover, a man doing his job, controlled by others. He was smart—he’d seen how Carly had calmed Tiger in the hospital and gotten him back into bed, had wondered why she’d been able to make him see reason when no one else had.

  “That’s why you and Dr. Brennan came to see me,” Carly said. “You were interested in me, not my observations on Shifters.”

  “We thought you could provide insight on the tiger. When you kicked Brennan out, I stayed to watch you, to see if you’d run to the Shifters and tell them everything. But the tiger showed up instead.”

  “He was worried about me,” Carly said, because Tiger remained silent. “With good reason. You were lurking in my backyard, up to no good.”

  “And now I’m here.” Walker gave her a wry look and raised the hand with the cuff.

  “Don’t let him fool you,” Rebecca said, coming back into the room. “He’s a master at escaping. He’s gotten himself out of duct tape, a zip tie, and once from that cuff already. He put it back on to be polite.”

  Ronan rumbled, “Easy to pick open a cuff, hard to get past two Kodiak bears in bad moods.”

  “I have PMS,” Rebecca said. She smiled at Walker. “Not a good time to piss me off.”

  “Why do you need insight on Tiger?” Carly asked. “He tore it up in the hospital because he was hurt, and because your little army was trying to take him down. I hate hospitals myself—all those machines beeping and people poking at you and sticking you with needles filled with who knows what. You know Tiger wasn’t trying to attack anyone there, because his Collar would have shocked him. That’s what it’s for.”

  Walker glanced back at Tiger, his gaze going to Tiger’s Collar. Tiger hadn’t taken his eyes from Walker for one second.

  “Collar shocks hurt like hell,” Rebecca said. She leaned forward so her breasts clearly filled the V neckline of her T-shirt. “We avoid it, trust me.”

  “Another question for you,” Carly said. “What about the attack on us yesterday? The black SUV chasing us and the spectacular crash at the end? We could have all been killed. And then Tiger gets shot, repeatedly. Was that meant for me? Or him? Both of us?”

  “I don’t know,” Walker said. “You already had me here, remember?”

  “The SUV was similar to what brought you to my house, and the shooter wore the same outfit.” Carly indicated Walker’s black T-shirt and pants, combat boots completing the ensemble.

  “The Bureau might have sent someone to find out what happened to me when I disappeared,” Walker said. “But I don’t think they would have ordered a hit. They don’t work that way. We’re interested in Shifters while they’re alive; we’re not interested in killing them.”

  Tiger finally spoke. He leaned forward and said, “Tell me everything your bureau knows about me, and why they are looking.” It was a command, not a request.

  Walker didn’t answer right away. Tiger returned to watching him with his Shifter stare, but Walker looked back without flinching.

  “You told me you were in a Special Forces unit attached to Shifter Bureau South,” Carly said, again unable to wait for Tiger to win the stare down. “What does that mean? What does the Shifter Bureau do, exactly?”

  “Welfare of Shifters,” Walker said. He talked readily when given questions he felt comfortable answering. “Set up twenty years ago to look into the problem of integrating the Shifters with humans, and to liaise with Congress and other departments who regulate Shifters.”

  “They created the Shiftertowns, you mean,” Carly said.

  “Necessary to protect and reassure the general public that dangerous people weren’t moving into their neighborhoods or becoming threats to their children. If the Shifters lived apart for a time, proving they can do so peacefully, they’ll be more accepted when it’s time for them to integrate with the rest of the population.”

  “Sure,” Carly said, wrinkling her nose. “Like that idea has worked so well in the past. All right, you’ve given me the spiel, the mission statement, but what do you do, in your Special Forces unit? Spy on Shifters?”

  “Oversight. Make sure Shifters aren’t living outside the parameters that would cause danger to humans, or that humans aren’t causing danger to Shifters.”

  “Outside the parameters,” Rebecca said casually. “Like a bear with PMS?”

  Walker’s twitch of the lips returned. “Like Shifters with Collars that malfunction, or Shifters not on our radar until a few months ago. Or a Shifter name in the database that doesn’t match any Shifter I’ve eyeballed, and a Shifter living here that no one calls by name.” His gaze returned pointedly to Tiger.

  “What name?” Carly asked. “In the database? Wait, there’s a database?”

  “The name is Rory Sylvester,” Walker said. “Any ideas?”

  Tiger didn’t change expression. Carly shook her head. “I haven’t met enough Shifters to know.”

  “Someone has a sense of humor,” Walker said while the bears and Elizabeth remained silent. “Felis silvestris is a wildcat. Rory . . . maybe for roaring? Whoever inserted that name thought he—or she—was being funny.”

  “Doesn’t the Shifter Bureau input the records?” Carly asked. “The name had to come from somewhere.”

  “I know it did,” Walker said. “I look at the databases every day. When the name popped up overnight, and no one at the Bureau admitted to entering it, I decided I wanted to know who it belonged to.”

  “I don’t like that name,” Tiger said flatly, breaking in. “It isn’t mine.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Walker was the only human Tiger had met so far who didn’t immediately look away from him. Except Carly, of course. She looked at him fully, with no fear, no submission.

  “We’re on the same side,” Walker said to Tiger, holding his gaze, ignoring Tiger’s statement about the name. “We’re trying to figure out who you are, where you came from, and why you can do what you do. You should be dead, but you’re walking around. Not even in pain.”

  No, Walker was wrong about the pain. Tiger’s pain had been immense, and he was still sore. Being with Carly helped, but the healing wasn’t instantaneous.

  “Why do you want to know who I am?” Tiger asked. “I’m nobody. I live with Liam and help Connor fix Shifters’ cars.”

  “You’re not nobody. You’re different. And I mean more than you being the only Bengal tiger around.”

  Tiger sat straight in his chair, liking that Carly was so near. Her presence, her scent, the lingering feeling of being inside her, gave him strength. “When you find out all about me, what will you do?”

  Walker shr
ugged. “Don’t know. Whatever my commander and the Shifter Bureau decides.”

  “That doesn’t sound good,” Carly said.

  “They’ll study you, probably,” Walker said. “Find out what makes you different.”

  “Still not sounding good.” Carly’s indignation touched Tiger with a scent like wood smoke.

  “We need Liam.” Ronan broke in from down the table. “I don’t like this.”

  Tiger didn’t like it either. His heart beat faster, sending tingles of fear through his body, though he didn’t let himself show any discomfort. “They’d experiment on me.”

  “Maybe,” Walker said. “Not really my decision.”

  Carly tensed behind Tiger, the wood smoke scent turning sharp with her anger. “What do you mean maybe?” she demanded. “You don’t experiment on a person. That’s weird, and wrong.”

  “Like I said, not my decision.”

  “Then whose decision is it?” Tiger asked.

  “My commanding officer’s. Or the head of the Shifter Bureau. I don’t know. I’m not that high in the food chain.”

  Carly leaned forward, resting her arm on the table. It just touched Tiger, the warmth of her stilling his fear again. “I bet you’re higher than you let on,” she said.

  Tiger knew she was right. Walker was playing the junior man, pretending he knew only what he’d been told, giving up to them nonessential things that Shifters could have found out without much effort. Tiger was willing to bet Liam already knew most of what Walker had said.

  Walker hadn’t lied to them—any Shifter would have detected that. But he hadn’t said everything he could have.

  Tiger wasn’t sure what to do now. He’d been bred to fight, not to interrogate prisoners or think up strategies. Every test on him had been about strength, endurance, stamina—not problem solving.

  “Find out,” he said.

  Walker blinked, his blank expression finally cracking. “Sorry?”

  “Go back and find out what they want to do, and why, and then tell me.”

  Ronan growled. “What are you talking about, Tiger? If we let him go, he’ll run back to the Bureau and report this little escapade, especially the part about being chained to the wall. I don’t need human cops arresting me and messing with my family, or coming to Shiftertown at all.”

  “They won’t,” Tiger said. “Walker will make sure of it, because he’s interested in me for his own reasons. He reported me to his bureau because he wanted them to find out about me, but he’s afraid they messed up and tried to kill me instead. He’s angry at them for that, but he’s still curious about me. I am too. I want to know what they know, and so does Walker.”

  Tiger felt their stares—Carly’s, Ronan’s, Rebecca’s, Elizabeth’s. Ronan cleared his throat. “What, now you read minds?”

  “Scent,” Tiger said. “What he said with his words and what he said with his scent are two different things.”

  “Shit,” Walker said softly. “Remind me to take a shower before I talk to you again.”

  “Yeah, I read scent too,” Ronan said to Tiger. “But I didn’t catch all that or figure out what he didn’t say.”

  “He wants to know about me,” Tiger said. “And he wants to use me, maybe, but not for a bad reason.”

  Rebecca said, “Huh. That comes to you through smell? All I get is that he’s nervous, really curious about Tiger, and wonders what it would be like to sleep with me.”

  Walker went beet red, and Ronan rumbled, “Becks, would you cool it? I swear, we need to get you mated. You’ve rejected, like what, twenty mate-claims?”

  “Haven’t met anyone who turns my crank. Not enough to stay with him for the rest of my life anyway.” Rebecca smiled at Walker. “Shifters have long lives. I’m only a hundred.”

  Walker was growing more and more uncomfortable. Tiger read his desire for Rebecca loud and clear. He didn’t need to be a super Shifter to get that.

  “Make a promise to me,” Tiger said to Walker. “Go back to your Shifter Bureau. Find out what they know about me, and share the information only with me. In return, I’ll tell you what I know about myself.”

  Ronan let out another growl, this one louder. “No. We wait for Liam.”

  For answer Tiger reached over and broke the chain that held Walker to the wall, then pulled the handcuff open from Walker’s wrist.

  Ronan was on his feet. “Damn it, Tiger. What are you doing? And did you have to break the chain? We need it for Scott.”

  Carly picked up the end of the chain and examined the place where Tiger had sheared it off. “Sheesh, who is Scott, and why in the world do you have to chain him to your wall?”

  “Scott’s going through his Transition,” Elizabeth answered, as though chaining people up was commonplace in her house. “When his fighting instincts get too bad, we have to restrain him. It’s either that or replace the furniture every day. And Scott worries he’ll hurt Coby.”

  She cuddled the little boy, who was already waking up. Coby looked around with unfocused brown eyes at the many people gathered in his house, opened his mouth, and let out an annoyed yell.

  The sound went straight into Tiger’s brain and stirred a basic, primal instinct. He and Ronan moved at the same time, Elizabeth saying, “It’s all right. He’s just hungry. And wants attention. Don’t you, little guy?”

  Tiger reached Coby before Ronan did, and Elizabeth relinquished him to Tiger. As Tiger lifted the boy, Coby unscrunched his face, stopped crying, and gave a few happy kicks in the air.

  “I love how Tiger can do that,” Elizabeth said. “It’s like magic.”

  Tiger nuzzled Coby’s forehead, then handed him back to his mother. “I should see Scott,” he said. “Make sure he’s okay.”

  He headed for the kitchen, where he knew Ronan’s three foster cubs lingered, listening to the adults. Behind him, Ronan said, “Walker’s gone.”

  Tiger paused at the kitchen door, but he’d already known Walker had made use of the open window to escape. “He’ll be back,” Tiger said.

  “Shit, Tiger,” Ronan snarled, his bear temper coming through. “Why are you doing this to me? Liam’s going to skin me alive. I’ll end up a bear rug on his living room floor.”

  “Walker will be back,” Tiger repeated, knowing he was right. He went on into the kitchen.

  Scott, a black bear Shifter in his late twenties, whose change from cub to full-grown male was making him crazy, grinned at Tiger and held up his hand. Tiger, who’d learned about high fives from both Scott and Connor, slapped his palm, then caught the young man’s hand in a tight clasp.

  Cherie, the female cub going on twenty-one as humans figured years, gave Tiger an impulsive hug. Olaf, who’d changed back to his ten-year-old boy form and resumed shorts, T-shirt, and sneakers, flung his arms around Tiger’s leg.

  Tiger sensed Carly behind him. She was watching him with wonder on her face, surprise at his camaraderie with the cubs coming through her scent, but her smile warming his world.

  * * *

  “I’m going to work today,” Carly said as they walked back to Liam’s house. “It’s Saturday, we get a lot of tourist traffic, I wasn’t hurt in the wreck, and I need the paycheck.”

  “Too dangerous,” Tiger said. He held her hand again, and again the other Shifters shot him looks of wariness. Carly stared right back at them and squeezed Tiger’s hand.

  “Too bad,” Carly said to Tiger. “I’m going.”

  “Then I go with you.”

  Carly pictured the giant Tiger standing in the gallery while yuppie tourists strolled around him, trying to look at paintings around the pillar of Tiger. He wouldn’t fit in there, among slender people who shopped for art as casually as they shopped for postcards.

  Or maybe he would. Tiger had raw strength and wild beauty that was the stuff of art.

  “Fine by me,” Carly said. “But I’m going.”

  She expected Tiger to argue more, but he said nothing as they walked on, hand in hand, through the sunshine.r />
  They arrived back at the Morrisseys’ to find Liam and Spike climbing tiredly out of a small pickup. Spike lifted a hand in greeting to Tiger but said nothing at all as he turned and jogged away down the street.

  Liam gave Tiger a sharp look and motioned for him and Carly to follow him into the house.

  Sean and Andrea had gone, but Connor was there, wiping the kitchen counters with a large blue dishcloth. “I love Sean’s pancakes,” Connor said when they came in. “But damn, he makes a mess.”

  Liam glanced at him but kept the frown on his face, his gaze moving back to Carly and Tiger. Wherever he’d gone, whatever he’d done outside of Shiftertown, he’d returned in a black mood.

  “Well, I have to be going,” Carly said into the tension. “Don’t worry about me. Tiger’s coming along to keep me safe.”

  “No.” Liam’s word was flat, final. “Tiger’s not leaving Shiftertown.”

  Tiger tightened his grip on Carly’s hand. “Then Carly stays.”

  “Oh, no, she doesn’t,” Carly said. “I have a million things to do. Not only do I have to work, I need to start unpacking my stuff again, and explain to everyone I know why my engagement ended, which is going to be extremely humiliating. My car’s totaled, so I have to see about getting a new one, not to mention talk to my insurance company—I doubt Shifter Bureau is going to come forward and admit they deliberately wrecked my car, and pay the damages. Plus I’ll need to deal with Ethan and whatever he’s going to throw at me. A full day. Can’t handle all that sitting here.”

  “Then I go with you,” Tiger stated.

  The look Liam shot at Tiger made Carly’s next words die on her lips. Before this, whenever Liam had pinned Tiger, his gaze had been steady and strong, the stare of a man no one messed with. But this look held depths of rage.

  Liam’s eyes flicked from sinful blue to almost opaque silver, and he took on the stillness Carly had observed in the Shifters before. In one instant, Liam changed from tired man weary from whatever journey he’d taken to a dangerous enemy ready to strike.

  Tiger growled in response. The same rumble that had shaken Ethan’s house flowed from Tiger’s throat, the kitchen windows humming with it. Connor looked up, eyes wide.