“Good morning. Did you sleep well?” His voice is upbeat. Why is he smiling like that? Does he know something I don’t? Haley thought.
“Why are you keeping me under lock and key?”
“For your own safety.” He pushed the cart into the middle of the room.
“But why?”
“You and I are the only ones in this wing. We don’t use it much and as you can see it’s expansive. I rarely sleep here but I did last night. I didn’t want anything to happen to you. I have a lot of people working for me and you’re a beautiful young woman. I just didn’t want anyone to touch you. Are you a virgin?”
“Why are you asking me something that personal?” Brian rubbed his beard and his eyes widen and he eased his long tongue across his bottom lip. Haley suddenly felt naked in front of a man she thought he cared for her like a daughter.
“Where are my clothes? I need to phone my family they will worry about me.” Her eyes meet his.
“Give me the number. I’ll call them and tell them you’re okay. What’s your family’s name?” She thought about it but she didn’t have a choice. She would have to trust him.
“They are the Samsas. Wilder Samsa and his brothers own all of the land northwest of Lake Tahoe.” Brian’s eyes widen. “Have you heard of them?”
“Yes, I’ve heard of them, and I know Wilder personally. And you’re not his daughter. He’s a shifter just like me.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean. He’s a wolf and I’m a lion and we both are men as well. A shifter.” Haley moved back until she touched the foot of the bed. She almost fell over it if it hadn’t been so tall and she wasn’t so short. The towel dropped from around her body that she was clutching with both hands, and she stood before him naked. Her young breasts calling to him and his animal instincts ready to pounce on her and take her.
He craved her and he wanted to take her there on the floor. Bend her over the bed and make one push and open her up and drop his seed, but he had to wait. He would mate with all the females in the same week, and have them pregnant at the same time. He would make his visit with Haley last so he could spend more time with her.
Gazing on her young body brought a swell to his large manhood. He had business to transact before he could rest and lay with his pride. That was the only thing that stopped him from taking her, that and his females. He didn’t know how they would react bringing in a human. They were shifters of different kinds, and most times they didn’t get along, that’s why he stayed in San Francisco at his suite to get some rest from their quarreling and jealousy.
The panther and the tiger shifters were always fighting over him and he had gotten bored and tired of them. That’s why when he saw Haley he wanted something different.
“Are you going to let me go to my family?” She asked him.
“Why do you refer to them as your family? We are your family now.”
“I don’t think you want Hunter after you. I’m to marry him and soon.”
“I thought you said he was your brother. I suspect that you are just a runaway and you’re just name dropping. I bet you don’t even know the Samsas. You’re just one of the humans that is fascinated with shifters. Well I’m the greatest shifter of all.” He walked close to Haley and she turned and reached for a sheet and placed it across her front.
“Do you think that a sheet would stop me if I wanted to do you harm. I could crush you with my hands.” Brian raised his hands and Haley’s eyes followed them. He had the largest hands she had ever seen. He passed his hands over her breasts and one hand covered her and then he turned away.
“I’ll see that you have everything you need.”
“The only thing I want is for you to find Hunter and have him come to get me.” Haley took the plate of food and threw it on the floor. When she raised the glass of milk to throw it in his face, he held her wrists and looked her in the eyes. She dropped the glass on the floor.
“Now calm yourself. You will learn to embrace this life. You will have everything you want and desire.” Haley only wanted one thing and that was to be with Hunter, and to be his wife and mate.
“I want Hunter,” she said her voice weak but in defiance as she caught sight of Brian’s heated glowing eyes.
“You will forget him. Because when I find him he will no longer exist. And you will be mine.” He dropped Haley’s wrists and turned and strode out of the room.
Horrified and hungry, Haley fell in bed. Then she jumped up looking around. She needed to find a way to get out of there. She spotted the pictures and broke the frame and tried to pry open the door, but the door was solid oak and the locks were double bolted. So she worked on the nails holding the lock in the door. No one would be back until lunch to bring her food and she would work until then.
Hours passed and still she couldn’t loosen the lock. She heard a rolling cart. It made a bumping noise as if one of its wheels were uneven. The noise stopped at her door and a key was inserted and standing before her were two people.
One had an arm full of clothes and the other was wheeling the cart with delicious smelling food. The woman in her forties walked in with a sour expression on her face, looked at her a few seconds, walked to the closet and hung the clothes.
She turned walking to a chest with a silk bag in her hand, and said to Haley, “These are your undergarments. This is all you will wear around Brian until your wedding night.”
“What do you mean my wedding night?” Haley questioned. The woman looked down on her and lifted her nose and walked out leaving the male standing near the food.
“And what are you here to do? Feed me?”
“Something like that. I’m here to make sure you eat. Brian will not like it if his new bride starves to death.”
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan on starving.” Haley rushed to the table. “I could eat a horse.”
“We have zebra if you would prefer that to fowl.”
“I was just kidding. What are you for that matter? I know you are shifters,” she said cutting her eyes to him, “but what kind of shifter are you?” Haley questioned sitting down at the table and picking up a drumstick and shoving it into her mouth.
“Brian is the lion. He’s master over all of us.”
“So I was told. And you, how do you rank?”
“I’m a tiger.” She stopped eating. “And Mrs. Anderson.”
“She’s just one of his many wives. She’s a panther.” Haley’s eyebrow raised.
“And do you get a chance to mate with anyone?” The tiger tilted his head.
“He gets all the females?”
“And where does that leave you? To play with yourself at night.” The tiger shifter’s face changed. He furrowed his brow clearly annoyed at her. His eyebrows met.
“I mean you’re a handsome fellow. Why would you let him have all the fun? Haven’t you wanted to get a piece?”
“To get a piece of what?” Clearly he didn’t understand.
“Where have you been? Are you locked up on this estate and can’t go anywhere?”
“Yes. Is anything wrong with that?”
“Nothing, if you don’t have sexual desires. Maybe you’ve been castrated.” The shifter understood what that meant. He took a step in her direction but thought better of killing her.
“When we commit to the king we have to forgo our sexual desires. We pledge to serve him and in return he protects us from man. We have everything we need here. He has a game reserve where we can hunt and kill our food.”
“So you don’t want to have sex with a woman or a female of your own kind?”
“There are few female shifters left in this area, and none that would choose a tiger over the lion.”
“What about a human female? Have you tried them? I hear they love to sleep with shifters because of their large hands.” He glances at his hands.
“Why would they want to sleep with me because of my hands?” Clearly he didn’t get it.
“You have to get
out more.” Haley thought he had missed the whole sexual revolution thing. Human females of all races were clamoring to fuck shifters.
Haley walks over to him, touches his arm and says, “You are so tall and handsome. I would want you. I like you better than Brian. We could be together if you leave this place and take me with you.” Anger passed over the tiger’s face. He paced around and around and then he turned to Haley, his eyebrow raised. She backed up. Maybe she had gone too far. Maybe he would tell Brian.
She didn’t know how committed the tiger was to Brian, the king.
Without a word, he strode to the door, then turning and taking one look at her, he backed out of the room and locked the door. She sunk in the chair and finished the food before her.
Then she heard a growl and roar and footsteps coming in her direction.
Chapter 22
A key was inserted in the door. Haley was sure the tiger told Brian of their innocent conversation. It may have been innocent for her, but she was sure he wouldn’t take it lightly. She coward in the corner with her feet up in the chair and her arms wrapped around her legs.
The door swung wide open and in marched Mrs. Anderson. Her dark black hair straight down her back. She wore a long black gown. Her face porcelain, flawless, her eyes black, onyx, and beautiful. She appeared to be the age of Brian in her late twenties or early thirties Haley couldn’t be sure. Shifters didn’t show their age like humans.
Haley didn’t understand the pack thing and one shifter with so many females. All this was new to her because with the Samsas it was different. Brothers sharing one female.
“I want you to understand that we object to your union with our king. He has a right to choose his mates. I have no objection to leopards, jaguars, tigress, and even a mountain lion shifter but a human. You are dangerous for our family. You will be nothing but trouble.”
“I completely agree with you. So can you just let me go? and I promise you won’t see me again.”
Haley stirred in the chair relaxing her legs. This is the first time she understood stress. She had been protected from all of that by her father. Haley didn’t know whether that was a good thing or bad. All she knew was it didn’t prepare her for the real world. A world filled with humans and a world filled with shifters and all kinds of unusual happenings.
“That’s impossible. As much as I dislike the idea and dislike you, it’s something I will have to live with. That’s why I’m here to lay down the law.”
“I’m the oldest in here and I control his shifter wives. You will do as I say otherwise I will set the others against you. He has many wives living on this compound. When he’s ready to take you, you will not enjoy it. If I discover that he favors you over us, we will kill you and make it look like a zebra got loose and stomped you to death. Do you understand?” Her eyes were black and cold.
All Haley could do was shake her head. She understood everything. She understood that if she didn’t leave soon she would be dead. The female panther shifter would have her killed. And by the look on her face, she will kill her anyway. It was just a matter of when.
The werepanther made a quick turn in her black silk gown, strode to the door, opened it, and locked it behind her. The clacking sound of the locks made Haley shudder.
All Haley could do was wait around and try to figure out how to escape. She peered through the window and saw miles and miles of land and heard the crashing of the ocean it was near. If she could get to the outside, she could get to the ocean and swim.
Traveling at night through the compound, she didn’t know what lay before her. With all those female cats trying to kill her, she wouldn’t get two yards. Or maybe they would love for her to run away so they could blame her demise on the wild animals on the property.
Sleeping didn’t come easy, but when it came, Haley embraced it and slept soundly until she heard a click of the locks. She didn’t know the time but it was night.
Could that be the lion ready to take her? she wondered. She wasn’t ready for him. She couldn’t tell him no because after all he was the king, and now her life depended on him protecting her from the other shifters.
She didn’t hear a cart and she hadn’t eaten yet. When the door opened it was a towering figure of a man standing in the doorway. “Put some clothes on,” he said in a hoarse whisper. He threw her something. She was half sleepy. Wiping her eyes she focused and it was the large tiger standing over her.
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m taking you out of here.”
“Are you sure? You do know what that means.”
“I know that if you don’t hurry, we can both be meat for Brian’s animals. Can you swim?”
“Of course I can swim,” Haley said.
“The safest way is to get to the ocean and then swim about a mile and then we’re free.”
“How are we going to get out of here?”
“We’re going to walk out of here. The ocean is in back of the compound about thirty meters.”
“That seems doable. It doesn’t appear to be that far.”
“A half of a football field,” the shifter said.
“That’s a horse of a different color,” Haley said with panic in her voice.
The tiger closed one eyes and tilted his head. “Never mind.” Haley had dressed and was ready.
“Stay behind me. And hold on to my shirt. Did you mean what you said?” Haley couldn’t remember a thing she said to him. Out of desperation she was just running her mouth. Saying anything she thought a shifter wanted to here. He wasn’t like Hunter. Not as handsome as Hunter and she didn’t know him. She could never see him as an alternative to Hunter but now he was looking pretty good in her eyes.
“Of course I meant what I said.” She smiled at him with innocent eyes after shooting him a wide smile.
The tiger shifter was starved for someone to love or mate with, and that’s why he was susceptible to Haley’s flattery. But Hunter could have any woman or shifter he wanted. He was free and rich like the lion, and he could do and have who he wanted, unlike the tiger.
Hunter only wanted Katie and when he couldn’t have her he slept with the ones who wanted to be with him to say they slept with a shifter. And because the female humans had never had a cock as big as Hunter’s. He was their trophy.
Hunter wasn’t a trophy to Haley. She loved Hunter just like he loved Katie—without question. Without boundaries. Without judgement and without caution.
Haley and the tiger shifter walked around the corner to the French doors which opened into a patio. They stepped out and headed for the tall hedges surrounding the patio separating them from the Pacific Ocean.
“I can’t climb or jump these hedges,” Haley said.
“That’s why I’m here, to help you.” Before he could lift Haley over the bushes, someone called out to the tiger.
“What are you doing over there?”
“We’re going for a swim.”
The puma shifter walked closer to the tiger. The tiger wasn’t intimidated. He stood in front of Haley. The puma sniffed into the air.
“You have the king’s female with you.”
“Nothing escapes you.”
“That’s why he made me head of security.”
“And why do you think I’m his body guard?” He turned lifting Haley over the bushes and dropping her in the sand.
“Go. I can take care of this.”
“If you make it out of here, don’t look for me. Go to Samsaville, they will protect shifters there,” Haley shouted running along the beach, against the wind, over the sand dunes, and finally she reached the ocean water.
She jumped in not realizing how cold and how far she had to swim, but she knew she had to get far away from there. When her father first taught her to swim he didn’t tell her that swimming in the ocean was far different than in fresh water. He didn’t tell her about the currents, and undertow. But she discovered that when she got tired. But he did teach her how to rest by floating on her back.
/>
It was dark and she kept swimming. She wasn’t a strong swimmer. She was just determined. She was determined not to drown because she wanted to live to see Hunter again, and that’s why she put one hand in front of the other not knowing how far and how fast and how long it would take to reach the distant lights and land.
She swam but she couldn’t reach the lights, but she did think she was out of harm’s way. She listened for the tiger. But she probably wouldn’t hear him anyway because of the water in her ears and the darkness. It was so dark.
She was exhausted. And she couldn’t do this anymore.
Chapter 23
Hunter rode his motorcycle searching for Haley every day and night since he heard that she was on her way to meet him in San Francisco. She should have contacted him by now, his mind told him. He stood looking out the terrace of the hotel. Just looking into space not seeing the Golden Gate Bridge. Not seeing the fog as it rolled in and settled over the bay. Not hearing the rising and falling of warning sounds of fog horns blaring in a distance.
He listened for the sound of her voice. He thought he heard Haley fighting to breathe far away. He heard a gurgle as if she was drowning. He became frantic and paced back and forth because he couldn’t do anything to help her. But how could that be. His hearing wasn’t that sharp was it? He dismissed it as his own discouraged breath making that moaning, groaning, struggling sound.
She could be anywhere but why did he think she was in the ocean and drowning? Why was she affecting him this way? Hunter was out of his elements. He didn’t like the coldness of concrete and being surrounded by water. He didn’t want to be here. He was forced to leave. He could have gone anywhere, but he chose San Francisco because of his nearness to home.
Insatiable: Moon Tide Book 6 Page 13
