Bryant: Prince of Tigers – Paranormal Tiger Shifter Romance

by Kathi S. Barton

  They went into the hotel that her family was staying at so she could change too. Bryant had stopped at his home to do the same before coming here. Bryant hadn’t realized that Tyler was in a wheelchair, nor did he know that Meggie was missing her left hand. He hadn’t any idea why, but he would bet it was because of the parents. Taking Tyler down in the elevator, Bryant asked if he wanted him to push him to the meeting or if he wanted to be in a car.

  “You don’t mind pushing me?” Bryant said it would be his pleasure. That he could point out some improvements around town that had been happening of late. “I lived here when I was younger, you know. But since I’ve been in this thing, I don’t get around much. I, too, was rescued by Randy when we left town. I was in a home, however.”

  “The more I find out about your parents, the more and more I wish I had known them so that I could have killed them before now.” Bryant stopped when Tyler asked him if he was serious. “Yes.”

  “Wow, I wish I had known you when I was younger.”

  They were at the attorneys’ offices by then, and he picked the younger man up and carried him into the office. There wasn’t any room for the chair in the office. Plus, it wasn’t any hardship for Bryant to carry him.

  “I believe that I could like having you around, Bryant. But sadly, I’m going to leave when my family does. I live with Meggie for now. She needs help just coping with life most of the time. She and I, we didn’t suffer as much as Harper did, but we did have our issues too.”

  “I’m assuming that you’re in the wheelchair because of them.” Bryant didn’t mention that he and Harper were mates and he’d be wherever she was. It was obvious to him that there was nothing for her here. He didn’t even own a house. “And your sister? She lost her hand because of them too?”

  “I was in the back seat of a van with all of them. I haven’t any idea where we were coming from, but we’d been prettied up, Meggie calls it, and warned that we were to say nothing and do nothing to embarrass them. Not that it mattered—they always thought we were the worst of children. Usually Harper would pay. But I’m getting side tracked.” He grinned at Bryant, and Bryant found himself liking the man. “I had to pee. I mean, like go so bad I hurt from it. When I asked if we could perhaps pull over, they did. Imagine my surprise when Margaret got out of the van and let me unbuckle. But before I could get out, Randal pulled forward at a high rate of speed, like fifty or so, and Margaret threw me from the open door. I hit the road and grass on my back and broke it.”

  “Christ.” Tyler nodded. “I’m so very sorry, Tyler. Seriously, had any of us known, we would have rescued you. We didn’t know.”

  “No one did. I mean, when we were out in public—never in town, however—we were a picture perfect family, all neatly dressed, hair all combed and trimmed. Our clothing was just long enough or loose enough to cover any bruises or wounds. But when we got home, they’d make us undress, then pick one of us to go to the house of horrors. And as I said before, it was usually Harper.” Bryant asked why it was usually her. “I don’t know. I’m not sure any of us knew. She was the youngest, but even that didn’t explain why she was the target of most of what went on. I mean, they didn’t do those things to me when I was the youngest child.”

  When everyone was gathered together, Harper told them what he was to them. Tyler was very excited, and Randy hugged him several times. Whatever he’d expected to happen in the way of welcoming him to their family, this wasn’t it. Meggie was a little reserved, but she did smile at him. And when Townhouse came into the room, he didn’t ask at all why he was there.

  ~*~

  Harper looked over the land rights. They were not signed over to any of them, according to the paperwork from the attorney, which was both good and bad. Whoever was to take it would have had a great deal of land. And if none of them wanted it, the little town would change a great deal, because someone would purchase it for something ugly and huge. Not even Michelle had been given the land rights, as Bass thought she would have been. He told them that because the children weren’t mentioned in the will, nor had they given the land away, it would be divided up between the four of them.

  “I don’t want it.” She looked over at Randy, and he shook his head. “I want nothing to do with it. No money that might come from the sale of it. I’ll never come back here and be nostalgic about it. Nothing. I would very much like for you to divide the land up between the other three. I’m finished with this after we leave here.”

  “Mr. Wilson, the land proceeds alone could pay off a great amount of money if it were sold. Even the fourth that you’d own.” Randy just told him no, he did not want it. “What about you three? Would you be willing to take his quarter without question?”

  “I don’t want it either. It wouldn’t bother me the least bit if it sat there and went back to whatever it was before they built out there. Like Randy, I’m never coming back here.” Meggie looked at Bryant as she continued. “I’m sorry. I know that you live here, and you might even be proud of your town. But I’m not. I don’t want it. Tyler can build him a house and live out here with Harper if he wants, but not me. It’s—”

  “I go where you are, Meggie. We need each other.” Meggie reached for Tyler’s hand and held it tightly. They had formed a sort of wounded family, the two of them. Harper looked at Bryant when Tyler spoke again. “They’re a couple, Harper and Bryant. I’m willing to sign my part over to them, to make it a happier place, if the rest of you would. She deserves it anyway.”

  “I won’t take this because you feel sorry for me.” Tyler threw back his head, and Harper felt her temper get the better of her. “Listen, bub. You know as well as I do that you suffered at their hands worse than me. I can at least walk.”

  “You can. All of you can. But that’s not what had me laughing. I was just thinking about you, of all the kids living there, building a happy home on the land, raising up a bunch of kids, and being as happy as they were only when they hurt us.” Tyler looked at her hard. “Take the land. All of it if they’re willing. And make it a place that it never was, Harp. A place that sings with laughter, happiness, and family. A place where a family could enjoy holidays and birthdays. Hell, you do that, you make it a place that is nothing like it was, and I promise you, I’ll come to see you every summer. Every holiday, just so I can bask in the irony of it all.”

  Both Meggie and Randy were nodding at her.

  “You’d come to see me too? You’d visit me if I took this and made it into my home?” Meggie said that she would, but the house would have to be in a different spot. “I’d do that, only to build closer to Bryant’s family. They’re very close. I might have to take a few ideas from them on how to be a normal family. But yes, I’d do that. And anytime you wanted it back, all you’d—”

  Randy cut her off by looking at Townhouse. “Can you write up a contract for each of us, saying that we willingly give the land to Harper at no cost to her, no give backs? We’d have no ties to it whatsoever other than to come and see her.” Bass asked if he wanted that in there. “All but the visiting part. I will do it, but I have my own family now, and I’ll have to talk to them about the holidays. But yes, we want it drawn up so that she has it.”

  “All right. I’ll do that and have it to you all in a couple of days.” Bass put the paperwork away that was about the land. “I’ll file it for you each as well, and have you a copy of it. Now, we need to talk about the safe in the basement that Harper knew about. Did the rest of you?”

  “Yes, but if it’s filled with anything of value, my thoughts on it are the same as the land. I don’t want it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s blood money. Our blood money. Harper can have mine to build with.”

  Harper stood up. “Wait. This is going too fast for me. All right, I can understand the land. I was going to say the same thing, I didn’t want it, but I found Bryant—or he found me—and we will need a place to live. But this safe? You guys remember that sucker. It’s fucking huge.” Her family nodded. “Look. Just see w
hat’s in it. Please. I’d feel better about you giving the land to me if you first take a look at what else was left behind.”

  “No.” Meggie stood up and asked Bryant if he could help her once again with Tyler. She was leaving, and didn’t want anything to do with the land or the money. When Bryant stood up to help with Tyler, Harper asked her where she was going. “I love you with all my heart, Harper, and I will for the rest of my days. I know what you did for us, protecting us from our parents. You saved the rest of us from being hurt as much as you were. I know that.”

  “How could you know such a thing?” Meggie opened her purse and pulled out an envelope. Then she handed it to her. “What is this?”

  “Every time I was caught at something, every single time after you were old enough to walk, a tally was written up. I guess you could say it was from Margaret, but it was about you and me. Look at one of them.” Harper didn’t want to, but Bryant took it from her and pulled out the very top note. “It says, ‘I know you used a quarter cup of laundry detergent too much today. Harper said she did it.’ I wanted to hate you for that, for being the martyr. But then I noticed something else, something that we all noticed after we thought about it. You didn’t just to it for me, you did it for all three of us. All the time. And you never, not one time, asked for anything in return. Honey, I love you, Harp.”

  “I love you guys too. But I’m sure you have it wrong.” But Tyler handed her his envelope, then Randy. Each note listed something they’d done that Harper had taken the heat for. “Where did you get these? I had no idea she was telling you this.”

  “She didn’t. I found them the night that we left—the day that they burned you to the point where we all thought you’d die. They were out there with you, and I knew that we had to get away or die. So I looked for money and found those.” Randy got up and hugged her. “I have no idea when they were going to give them to us. I don’t care. But the fact that they knew and that you did it makes me want to give you everything you never had when we were children, just to...I don’t know. Just to thank you for everything.”

  Harper looked up after reading every one of the little transgressions. There was even something written on the back of them about how they had punished her. Her brothers and sister were gone, leaving her and Bryant there alone. She asked him when they’d left.

  “Not long ago. About an hour.” She told him that was a long time. “Not to me. Not to see every emotion that you felt racing over your face. The pain that tore through you with every individual reading. To see you deal with each of those slips of papers a great deal better than I ever would have.”

  She gathered them all up and put them back into their envelopes. “I want us to build a house. And once the fireplace is in, the Christmas tree is up and decorated with things we like—the house and the tree—I want to have my family back so that we can burn these in the fireplace and have a party.”

  “All right.” He stood up and stretched. “Bass is going to take us out to the safe with the police. My brothers will be there too, to lend a hand in getting it out of the sublevels. Fisher said that he has located it in the basement, but it won’t come out easily.”

  “You think that—? Never mind. You can get it out of there. I have a single favor to ask of you.” Bryant told her that he’d do anything for her. “Thank you. But you should hear this first. I travel a great deal. I mean, I have enough travel miles to go around the world several times. But I don’t want you to work. I want you to be there with me every time I go someplace new. I don’t know that I’ve felt this safe, this secure, with anything in my life. And it’s all because of you.”

  “Deal. And I have to tell you something, Harper. I’ve fallen in love with you. I don’t know how we’re going to make it in this life, but we will, because we have each other. Too sappy?”

  She wasn’t sure what love felt like, not for someone that you wanted to spend your life with. She loved her family, but of course that wasn’t nearly the same. But Bryant seemed to understand, and they moved out of the room.

  Bryant didn’t say anything more, but she could almost touch his emotions. He was worried. About what, she had no idea, but she’d find out, and she’d do her best to fix it for him. As they were going out the door, he told her they could walk again if she wanted, or they could ride with his pops.

  “His truck is full of junk right now, things he’s been meaning to sell off. But it runs good.” She said she owned a car that she’d have brought here. “That could be expensive.”

  They were going to have to talk, she and he. There were a great many things she was going to have to explain to him and let him know about. Bryant, and his family by extension, were no longer poor. Because she wasn’t.

  “I don’t care if his truck is as many colors as a blanket—I don’t mind at all.” He was laughing as they walked out into the afternoon sunline. “Oh Bryant, I can’t tell you how happy I am that you found me. I know that seems really odd, coming from someone that just met you. But I already know that you’re going to be the best for me, and with me.”

  Buck pulled up just as she was looking for a place to sit down. She wasn’t tired, but she wanted to enjoy the sunshine on her face for a little while longer. When he got out of his truck, which had a great many colorful pieces holding it together, Harper got a hug like none other. She felt it to her toes.

  “I already love you, child. The happiness that you’ve brought to this family is just what we all needed. Bryant told me that you’re going to be living right next door to us, too. Couldn’t have been happier about anything other than you telling me you are breeding. Which, I know you’re not.” She asked him how that worked, and then answered her own question. “Yes, it’s your scent. You’re going to be a good mother, I think. And you couldn’t do better with a mate like my boy here.”

  “He told me how old he is. I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not.” Buck said that she might want to remember that he could never lie to her. It was in their genes. “I think I knew that, but it’s good to hear. Thank you, Buck. Let’s go see what Mr. and Mrs. Wilson left us, all right?”

  The trip was short, and she loved the fun that she’d been having with the patriarch of the family. Buck was funny, smart, and had a good head on his shoulders when it came to farming. She might just have to have him come and see what her and Bryant had in the way of land soon.

  Chapter 4

  Bryant saw Mark coming toward him just as they were getting the straps under the safe. It was large—heavy too. He figured that with it being about six feet by four by four, the thing had to weigh at least a couple of thousand pounds. That wasn’t counting whatever was in it, either.

  It had been his pop’s idea to use the straps. The man from the company, Mr. Talbert, was there with paperwork. He needed to verify the serial number on the back, then he could give Harper the access code. None of the rest of her family was there.

  “Okay, boys. Draw in a deep breath, let it out.”

  Pops did that twice more before he said to pull. The safe nearly toppled back into the hole when they got it to the top, but Mr. Talbert gave it that extra push and the safe landed on its side. Setting it up wasn’t as difficult, but it did give them some trouble. Once it was in the right position, they were set to open it—once they had the combination.

  “You guys did it. Pizza all around for dinner,” Buck said.

  After the serial numbers were identified, Mr. Talbert asked them what they were going to do with it now that the house was gone around it. Harper told him that it would depend on what was inside of it. He said that he understood and stepped back. That gave Mark the opening he’d been waiting for to corner Bryant.

  “You given any thought to taking that job, Bryant?” He told him that he’d not thought of it once. “Not once? I thought you told me that you needed your income to make ends meet. Did I hear you wrong? Have you won the lottery and no one told me?” Mark laughed, but it wasn’t very sincere sounding.

  “First of all,
why would I need to have you informed if I won anything? Second thing, you fired me. Simply because I wanted it in writing that you would pay me as you said that you would.” Mark was shoved out of the way by Harper, and Bryant smiled at her. “Also, I don’t think I’m coming back to work there at all. I might even retire and see the world.”

  “Yeah, sure you will. And I’ll grow horns.” Officer Herb Bonner came up and stood behind Mark. Herb asked if this man was bothering him. “We’re talking about his job. Can we have a few minutes here?”

  “He’s busy, in the event you didn’t notice. Now, you weren’t invited out here for this thing, and I, for one, would like for you to move on. Or, and this would be my pleasure, I can move you on. Up to you.” Mark turned to Herb and asked if he was serious. “I rarely have a sense of humor when it comes to assholes. So like I said, Mr. Shaw, move or I’ll move you.”

  “I just want to know when Bryant is coming back to work.” Harper stood between him and Mark. He hadn’t any idea what she was doing, but he didn’t tell her to move back. “What? The little lady is going to fuck up my day? I don’t think so. Get out of my way.”

  Mark only put his hands out. Bryant wasn’t sure if he ever touched Harper, but she fell back into his arms like she’d been shoved hard. And when he asked her if she was all right, she winked at him and turned back to Herb. This was going to be good. His family was right there watching every move, too.

  “He assaulted me.” Mark said he’d not touched her. “Oh? Well, I guess that I fell backwards on my own. Officer Bonner, I’d like to press charges against this man. He pushed me. Had it not been for my fiancé, I would have fallen on my ass. I have so much going on right now.”