by Jade White
The standoff lasted heartbeats, but to Kristen it seemed to wear on forever. It wasn’t until Theo ducked his low head and began to revert back into a human that she finally put herself at ease – but still, she remained in Form, wary, waiting for the slightest provocation to leap into the fray. Across from her, the Tiger runt seemed equally appreciable to the task, raking his claws into the earth like a bull tempting a trespasser. He’s young, and ungainly on his feet, she observed her opponent, but it still wouldn’t take much more than a single claw of his to sever Rodney’s neck from his body. The mental image chilled her to the bone and she crouched lower, her shoulder blades rippling, and hoped her singular appearance would dissuade the younger one from taking action.
Rodney must have sensed her anxiety, and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. His head made a barely discernible shake. Whatever else these Tigers are, they obey without thinking, he seemed to say. The runt wouldn’t attack unless Theo ordered it, so she brought her attention back to him.
His transformation was slower, almost deliberate, as the fur sloughed off his body and great hulking arms loomed out of his paws. His hair was white now, she saw, and was trimmed in a military cut. But his face was the same one she remembered.
“Well, well, well,” he said, his baritone voice like gravel hitting a windshield. It was as if he’d temporarily forgotten human speech, and it sounded unusual and awkward as it spilled over his tongue. “Welcome back, little brother. I see you brought company.”
“Leave her out of it,” Rodney said, his voice deadpan.
“You should have thought of that before you mated. You two are mates, aren’t you? Granted, I could only go on what my scouts told me, but it seems like you’ve made quite a home for yourself in this swamp of a place.”
“I came here for one reason, Theo. To make you leave.”
“And how do you propose to do that?” the elder Tiger said. He turned back to his throne and sat down on a crude piece of granite, crossing one leg over the other. His naked thighs were almost the size of small tree trunks.
“Why did you come back?”
“Why, indeed?” he smirked, “This is my home, too. Or it once was, if you remember. We used to be a family. But they kicked us out, burned us out, until we had to flee…”
“That was your fault, Theo. You killed a man,” Rodney said, taking a step forward.
“I did what I had to, in order to protect you… in order to protect all of us!” Theo screamed, “After Craven died, who took care of you, who made sure you had clothes on your back and food in your belly? Certainly not anyone from town, no… it was me! Maybe mistakes were made… but we had to survive, and I’ll be damned if I;ll let you lecture me on that now. I’m back, that’s all that matters.”
“To take revenge, is that it?” Rodney hissed.
“Revenge? Where’s the survival value in revenge? No, to come home. You don’t know what it was like, Rodney… to be hunted. We fled north, where there were fewer people, but it was cold. You don’t know cold until you’ve settled into an Alaskan winter. We lost more than a few of our brothers that first year.
“For too long we’ve been banished. I couldn’t watch them suffer any longer. We’ll take back our farm, and then we’ll take back the town. The way it should’ve been… and if they get in our way, well… but I will not be chased away again. Soon we’ll be a pack again, like no other.”
Rodney shrugged and almost laughed. “Is that why you threatened Kristen? To try and get me to join you? You really have lost your mind if you think I’ll help you after that.”
“We needed to get your attention!” Theo flashed, his anger subsiding as he stood up. “We never would have hurt her. She’s another Shifter, like us! But we knew that if we threatened her, you would come… I didn’t know how else to get you here. I’m sorry… I know it is unforgivable.”
Now Kristen could see there were numerous other scars lining his body, up and down his back and across his arms and legs. Most of them were long gashes.
No doubt he and the others survived by taking down prey, just like our descendants would have done, she thought. But Theo’s were extensive, and it struck her that he must have attended every hunt, spent every spare moment hunting and foraging just to feed his lot. He was misguided, violent, and perhaps the sanity that once belonged to his human side had long ago perished, but he was still their leader and he cared about them, enough to risk his own life again and again.
As much as she hated him, she pitied him, and saw that Rodney did, too.
“What about the woman?” Rodney glared. “The one who came here, and found you. Was she just another casualty as well?”
Theo’s brow furrowed and he looked uncomfortable. “That… that couldn’t be helped. She would have exposed us; it would have ruined everything. We tried to scare her away, but she… she wouldn’t go. We had to get rid of her!”
“You left her to die!” Rodney flared. Even Theo jumped back at the sound of his voice.
Kristen had never seen him angry before, not like this. The normally placid man who had spent his life trying to make up for the violent consequences of his youth had returned to that primitive state. The runt Tiger cowered back at the livid aura that leached off of him.
“It was… unavoidable,” Theo said at last with a shrug, lifting his arms.
“You will leave Nelson, now. And you will never return, Theo. Because if you do, if I so much as see you again… I will kill you.”
Theo’s eyes squinted. He couldn’t tell if his younger brother from years past was bluffing or not – it was almost unthinkable for another Shifter of the same type to hurt another. But there was gravity behind Rodney’s threat, and it seemed to punctuate his every movement.
“I’m sorry, brother,” Theo backed away again, crouching down onto all fours as he prepared to transform again, “but I’m not going anywhere.”
Almost synchronous to each other Rodney and Theo jumped backward and began to transform. Rodney didn’t have time to take his clothes off, and his rippling shoulders stretched and tore through the T-shirt, and his monstrous hind-legs twisted free of his jeans with a shriek of fabric. The two Tigers stood facing each other for less than a heartbeat before they flew at one another.
Kristen leapt forward as well, diving under the fighting pair and intercepting the runt who had collected himself enough to try and fight as well. Her retractable claws tore at the young Tiger’s neck, opening wide gashes that sluiced blood onto her coat, and she brought up her other paw to block his feeble attempt at a counter attack.
The runt was used to taking down prey, not fighting one of his own, and squealed with pain as Kristen tore at him again, scraping his muzzle. Blood flowed into the youngster’s eyes and he tried his best to try and run away. But Kristen was too lost in her own bloodlust, and trampled after him, squashing his small body under her weight, and slamming his head against a boulder. His skull made a sickening crack and he was still.
Both Theo and Rodney were locked in mortal combat behind her, growling and barking at each other as they traded blows. Crimson lines opened on each of them, bleeding into the fur. Their claws tore at the earth, uprooting a dust cloud that spiraled around their twisting bodies, until they became a single pivoting blur of orange and black.
Kristen growled and ran towards them. Rodney saw her approach and reached out, sinking his claws into Theo’s shoulder even as the Tiger leader bit down on his neck. Rodney endured it, and pulled his former brother closer, just as Kristen leapt towards both of them. Theo didn’t see her coming until it was too late and she landed fully on his back, wrapping both heavy padded paws around his head and locking her hind legs into his back.
Theo screamed as she bit down again and again, opening punctures on his head, and she tasted the sweet salty tang of his blood course over her jowls. In a final angry burst of energy, he reached behind him with one of his paws and half-threw Kristen off of him, casting her aside as easily as if she were a k
itten. She landed hard on her side and winced.
At the same time, Theo leapt backwards, still entangled in Rodney’s claws, and used his own hind legs to push off. All three of them stood in a triangle again, bleeding and panting. We have him now, Kristen thought presumptuously. When she looked over at Rodney for support she saw why. In the middle of their fight, she had failed to notice that the gang of Tigers who had departed toward Nelson had returned. They were surrounding the clearing, moving like tenuous shadows down the slope.
No. There were too many.
Theo smirked again, and wiped at his eyes where one of them was clogged with dried blood. If he had been in human Form he might’ve laughed – instead he simply stepped backward, dismissing himself from the battle as he limped to his throne.
Rodney only had moments to act. He growled at Kristen, and spun his head in the direction of the Tiger leader, then turned back to the advancing brood arching down the slope like an orange avalanche of molasses. He planted his feet and his ears twitched, then laid flat against his head. His tail moved back and forth like a metronome. Kristen understood his message, but obeying it would mean leaving him to fight half a dozen Tigers. He growled again without looking at her. Go, now!
She forced back her own fears and gave Theo a dangerous look. He hadn’t expected that. With the return of his troupe, he had lulled himself into a false sense of security, assuming that the two mates would fight alongside each other, and inevitably die as they were overwhelmed. Their strategy clarified in his horrified gaze as he limped back further against the throne. Theo was the key to the gang’s strength, and it had been he that had hurt Gloria, he who had brought the carnage back to his hometown, and he who had threatened both of them. Rodney intended to fight all the Tigers, but he had no intention of winning – he was just giving Kristen the opportunity to put Theo out of his misery once and for all.
The aging Tiger turned on his heels and took off in the opposite direction, and Kristen followed after him, hot on his tail. She couldn’t bear to look behind her, even when she heard the first angry growls and screams. She focused on Theo, letting the adrenaline flood her system as she careened after him. Theo had the advantage in knowing every nook and cranny of his makeshift hideout, but the damage that had been inflicted on his head and paws was slowing him down.
He broke left, following a switchback trail that led up the far cliff. The trees began to thin, and Kristen tasted fresh alpine air, the sweet scent of lupines and mountain air. Her breath was sagging now too, and she found it difficult to keep up with the giant Tiger.
Below them the small ravine fell off sharply into the creek, the same one that passed by the cemetery, and as they rounded the corner of a granite outcrop, she realized they were on the mountainside that overlooked Nelson. Far below she could just glimpse the perimeter of town, and could make out the blue sliver of the lake. The hillsides looked barren, as if someone had drawn a pencil eraser across them.
Have to keep going, she thought, forcing each leg forward. It was a chore even to do that, but her body responded automatically. She didn’t feel like she was in control of it any longer. She had just become a passenger, a disjointed consciousness watching as the body it inhabited moved of its own accord. She tried to stay focused on one thing – Theo.
There were too many other things that would defeat her if she weren’t careful. She kept the thought of Gloria, of Rodney, of the small life she had worked so hard to make her own, as far away as possible. The idea that she might lose all of it was a dagger, sinking further into her heart with each step she took.
Theo was struggling now, and Kristen noticed specks of blood against the cliff face. He’d led them both onto a skirting precipice, and she had to will herself to slow down to keep from tumbling off the edge. Loose rocks scraped free, tumbling over the side where they lost themselves in free fall hundreds of meters below.
The Tiger let out a frustrated growl up ahead as the trail came to an end and Theo found himself stranded on a small plateau with no way back and no way forward. He circled his small perimeter of stone and growled at Kristen as she made her way onto the ledge. Much to her surprise, Theo keeled over, and she saw the telltale signs of his transformation back into a human. He was hunched on his knees, and looked suddenly very frail, impossibly old and decrepit. His lips trembled, despite the fact he was still built like a giant. The veins in his arms bulged outward like upended riverbeds.
Reluctantly, she resumed her human shape as well. Her black hair fell lightly over her breasts, and she scowled at him, forcing herself not to succumb to compassion. She couldn’t bring herself to it even if she wanted to.
“This is the end,” she stated.
“I always knew… always knew it would end like this,” he said, his head bent low, “please…”
“Please what?” she spat. “There is no please.”
She took a step forward and the fetal man cringed, his knees scraping the dust and gravel. “Please, please don’t kill me! I swear… I never meant to hurt you. Or your child.”
Kristen stopped and blinked. “How do you know I’m pregnant?”
“You’re a Shifter… it’s impossible to hide from others of your kind…”
“So you threatened me, knowing full well I was with child.” It wasn’t a question any longer, and she was adding more reasons to her list of wanting to kill the Tiger leader. “But you went too far when you hurt my friend. There’s nothing human left in you…”
“Can you really kill me? I may not be human anymore, but you are. Can you really bear to live with that, Kristen? I don’t think you can… you’re not like me,” he growled, his head ducking under his arms.
Her feet crunched on the gravel and she looked down. No, I can’t, she realized with a pang of regret. In spite of everything he’d done to her, everything he’d threatened, it still felt wrong. She touched her abdomen. She had always wondered why she’d wanted to have a child. It wasn’t a purely biological imperative. It was because she had wanted to be able to share her life, her experiences, to pass them on in some meaningful way.
If I kill this man in cold blood, all our troubles are ended, she thought, and forced back tears when she thought of Rodney. They might have killed him already. She felt impossibly alone. But if I kill him, I will pass that on as well. For Rodney’s sake, she couldn’t do it.
“Rodney gave you an ultimatum… leave, or die,” she said simply, “and I will carry it out. You have one day. If you ever return to Nelson, I swear on my unborn child, I will rip your throat out and let you drown in your own malice while you gaze up at me, so you know who it was that ended your pitiful existence.”
THE FINAL CHAPTER
Without another word, she turned away back toward the cliff face. She didn’t want to look at him anymore, the very thought of him made her sick. She put a hand against the rock face to support her and felt its roughness bite into her palm.
There was only the slightest scuff of gravel, and her ears perked up.
In turning her back on him, Kristen had opened up an opportunity for him to leap forward. His frailness had only been an act, an attempt to dissuade her from her Tiger form so he could fight her on unequal terms. She threw her hands up in defense, but he was already upon her, and his breath reeked against her face, hot and languid as a scavenger’s cave.
“Fool!” he blurted, grabbing her by one shoulder and backhanding her with the other.
A sharp sting like ice water flowered on her cheek and she closed her eyes and felt her body slam against the cliff face. She screamed in pain when a gash opened on her lower back like a ribbon of nerves suddenly plucked. Theo stood over her, blotting out the sun like a human eclipse.
The wounds in his leg were severe, and she could see bone poking through the hairy flesh, but he seemed completely unaware of it. The bite marks she had inflicted on his head were sore and gaping, and a few drops of blood trickled off the tip of his nose and landed on her calf as he stooped over her.
“Back off,” she warned, wiping her lip. No man had ever hit her and gotten away with it.
“Or what? You’re not a Tiger right now, Kristen. And if you even try to change, I’ll hurl you off this cliff right now,” he warned, and blinked away a clot of bright blood that was lingering over one eyelid. “I’m giving you a choice, here and now… you decide.”
“What choice?!” she wailed, and her hand moved behind her, fumbling for something she could use against him. She felt a lose chunk of granite, palm-sized, break off the cliff behind her and wrapped her fingers around it.
“I wasn’t lying in the clearing. We’ve lost brothers in the past years, some to the cold, some to hunger, and some to bastard humans. But as a group, we’ve always survived. Still, if we want to take back Nelson, take back our home, we need help… we need more Tigers to join our ranks.”
What the hell was he getting at? she wondered, and tightened her grip on the stone in her hand. She’d get one chance, and if she failed, she knew it would mean her life. Keep him talking, she decided. Wait for the right opportunity.
“What are you talking about?!” she exclaimed, making her voice more incredulous than unnecessary. A strange tight-lipped smile spread on Theo’s lips as he rubbed his head, almost bashfully.
“It’s exactly as I said. We need more Tigers, more loyal Shifters to support us. And you, Kristen… the only reason I’ve spared you this far is because you’re pregnant. You can bring new blood into our gang, a new hope. Think about it. You could be a queen among our kind.”
She almost gagged on the thought, but she knew she needed to distract him. “That’s your offer, then? To become a whore to your group of Tigers?”
