Tiger Tail: Shifter Romance

by Sky Winters

  Jolene smiled at him. “You better not take me to an ice cream parlor either. Although, mmm, okay that can be included if you want.”

  Beaming, he shook his head at her. Then he started the car. “Maybe on the way back. If you’re good.”

  Oh, he was going to be a good daddy.

  Y’know. If he was in fact the father of her babies.

  Not that it would really matter to her.

  Zebe took her on a long, scenic drive alongside the beautiful blue waters of Lake Champlain. Jolene couldn’t say what she had been expecting from this excursion, but she had been imagining more city sights. It pleased her to know that he was thinking more about nature and pretty views. His twin was clearly the more urban-focused one.

  “Wow,” she said as she gazed out of the windows. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a pretty lake… or so many trees in all of my life.” Boston was a wonderful city of its own, but she hadn’t ever seen trees there that were like the trees of Burlington.

  So tall and green and begging to be sniffed.

  He smiled at her, clearly pleased to see her so awed by the things he liked.

  “So how did you get into motorcycle clubs?” she asked him suddenly, her mind going back to the conditions she had met him in. Someone who loved nature as much as he surely did would probably be more at odds with such noxious, noisy automobiles, right?

  Jolene didn’t even know if motorcycles counted as automobiles, but she figured since they had engines and required a license to operate they had to count.

  Zebe glanced at her as he drove along the winding, waterfront roads. He smirked a little. “Does it surprise you?” he asked in a playful sort of voice. She could tell right away that this was something he was asked with some frequency.

  “It doesn’t quite surprise me,” she said, laughing in a way that she hoped would be seen as playful and friendly, not like she was being untruthful because she thought she had struck a nerve. She really didn’t want to offend him. He had been so nice to her that she felt like she was bound to fuck it up. And sooner rather than later.

  Jolene just did not get guys like Zebe Weir.

  “I just see you being more interested in taking the scenic route,” she added.

  That made him laugh, which helped her feel as though she was in the clear. As if Zebe could ever actually be angry with her. She doubted that he had ever truly been angry, period.

  Maybe when Luke had gotten possessive of her.

  “The scenic route is great on the back of a motorcycle as well,” he said. “I’ll have to show you sometime.” He flashed his pearly whites at her. “But you’re right. Motorcycles are more Luke’s thing. I joined his club because I wanted to be supportive of his endeavors. And, well, also because I didn’t want him to be pissed at me.”

  Looking from the window to Zebe, she let her eyes linger over his little scar a moment. “Is he pissed at you a lot of the time?”

  He glanced at her again and their eyes met. His hazel ones were lighter than Luke’s. It was the first time she’d noticed that. “Not as much as he used to be,” Zebe said. “Not as much as he was before the club. Now we have a common interest and a common goal.”

  The irony in his smile was not lost on Jolene.

  “Can I ask you something?” she asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Did you name the club?”

  Zebe seemed a little embarrassed, but he nodded. “Yeah. I know it seems cheesy, but my reasoning behind it is that we aren’t alone out there. We are united in our uniqueness, if that makes sense.”

  Jolene nodded. “The Lone Wolves,” she said, really letting herself feel the name of the motorcycle club on her tongue. “It’s still pretty silly, but I can appreciate it. You’re a group of anomalies.”

  “Ah, damn,” he said with another sudden laugh. “The Anomalies. That would have been a better name.”

  Once the road moved away from the lakefront and back towards the trees, Zebe brought the car into the parking lot of a park. The sun was starting to get low in the sky. “Are we supposed to be here?” Jolene asked him. “It’s almost sundown.”

  Zebe shrugged a little, stopping the car and unbuckling his seat belt. “The rules do not apply to people such as I.”

  “Are you a poet now?” she asked, laughing as she carefully unbuckled her seatbelt.

  He chuckled and got out of the car, coming around so he could help her out. The park seemed like a nice sort of place, with a long bike path and lots of picnic areas. He took her hand and they began walking along the path together. “My brother would never want to come here,” Zebe said. “He’s bored by places like this. I think his profession has made him cynical about things that aren’t wired and buzzing.”

  Smiling, Jolene pointed up at the trees. “Those are buzzing,” she said. Cicadas loudly sang their songs, sounding like a warning siren. The trees belonged to the birds and the bees as soon as dusk arrived.

  Zebe let out a short laugh, almost like a snort, at her silly yet apt observation. “The trees sound angry,” he said.

  For a while, they walked along together, hand in hand and just enjoying the simple beauty of nature. The cicadas started to sound less like a siren and more like music to Jolene’s ears. She wondered what they sang about, and then realized that it was most likely their mating call.

  Looking over at Zebe, Jolene wondered what he was thinking about. Did werewolves have mating calls? If they did, they were probably not too different from the howls of wolves during mating season. There was something about Zebe that was wolf-like—mainly his shaggy hair and his sort of pointy face. Was he as loyal as a wolf? Jolene thought that she’d come out to Burlington in search of a bad boy like she the kind she used to date—someone wild and crazy and different from the ‘boring’ man she had married.

  She had found that in Luke. But she was starting to realize that what she really wanted was someone like Zebe. Sure, he was wild but he also seemed so stable. She didn’t feel like she had to worry about him running off to the club and flirting with another woman. She didn’t feel like she would be left alone at night, wondering where he was.

  Most importantly, she felt things for Zebe that she didn’t feel for Luke. Even though Luke was sexy as hell and a wonderful lover, the time spent with Zebe made her feel not only pleased but happy.

  All of a sudden, the trees parted and they came upon a beautiful meadow. Off in the distance, they could see the edge of Lake Champlain. Evening was settling in and the stars were coming out up above. Zebe took one look at her, smiled slightly and then brought her by the hand into the meadow.

  “This would be a great place for a picnic,” she remarked a bit awkwardly, not knowing quite why he was suddenly so interested in strolling there. A few bunnies lifted their heads from the grass and looked at Zebe and Jolene warily. They ran for the shrubberies and thickets at their approach. Jolene wondered if they could sense that Zebe was part animal.

  She didn’t imagine that she would be brave enough to stick around if she was a small bunny and a tall man was approaching, werewolf or not.

  “Of course, we would need a blanket,” she added when he did not respond. She looked at him and realized it was growing hard to see him as the darkness settled in for the night.

  Zebe smirked at her. He sat down in the tall grass and beckoned for her to do the same. Jolene was much more awkward in doing so, but she somehow managed to get herself down on the remarkably soft ground beside him.

  For a few blissful moments, they looked up at the stars together. It seemed that every moment brought more stars into view, as if they were all just starting to wake up. The moon was out as well. A crescent moon.

  Jolene looked over at him and wished that she could see his face more clearly. “The moon looks like your neck,” she said.

  He grinned at her and she could swear that his grin became like the moon as well. Maybe he was less of a werewolf and more a Cheshire cat. She was impatient without knowing what she was waiti
ng for.

  Then, all at once, their mouths were on each other. He lay over her, careful not to put all of his weight onto her belly. She moaned against his lips, hoping that this property was not populated at this time of night. She hadn’t seen anyone since they had left the waterfront road.

  “This night is mine,” he said to her between kisses, letting his hot breath touch her face and send shivers up her spine. “And I fully intend to own it.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Best Kind of Love

  A picnic blanket would have been helpful. Jolene did not relish the grass stains and bug bites that she was likely to receive from this new adventure, but at the moment she didn’t care because Zebe’s lips and tongue were on hers. He smelled so good and he tasted even better. The darkness that took over did well to cloak them and keep them safe from authority. One thing was for sure: even though he didn’t seem like much of a bad boy biker, his shrugging off of rules proved that he was a part of the club.

  Right then, he was shrugging off more than rules. He removed his pants and then helped Jolene wriggle out of hers. They assisted each other with their shirts and then made out for a while longer in their underwear, feeling each other a bit on the cool, tall grass. Had his cock always been so thick? Last time she had made love to him, Jolene had mistaken him for his twin so now she was doing her best to mentally map him so she knew for sure that this was Zebe.

  Her Zebe.

  When he’d had enough foreplay, he pulled her panties off of her and tossed them aside. The wind picked them up a little and sent them further away than he had planned, which just made them both laugh. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him deeply as he removed his boxers and entered her.

  Making love with Zebe was unlike anything else Jolene had ever known. It felt so much like a team endeavor; they took turns asking each other if it felt good and what they wanted next. She wrapped her long legs around his middle, grinding her hips against his in an effort to bring him further inside her. “Ohhh,” she moaned. “Ohh, Zebe… I’ve never done this before.”

  “I thought so,” he murmured back to her, smiling so brightly at her that she had no trouble seeing it. “But you didn’t resist me.”

  “I could never resist you,” Jolene said.

  He kissed her neck and bit at her earlobes, shifting their bodies from him being on top of her to them lying side by side. She liked this position. There was something cuddly about it. It was a comfortable position with her being as pregnant as she was. And that was a stark contrast to Luke and the way he behaved during sex. She could not imagine Luke ever wanting a position like this. He was all about dominance, whereas Zebe was all about what made her feel good. He took his time and in doing so made her feel an intense, indescribable pleasure.

  Both Weir twins were sexy and dangerous… but Jolene was really falling for Zebe now. She thought she had been falling for him ever since she realized his existence.

  Suddenly, to pay him back for all of his kindness, she pushed against him until she was on top of him, straddling him and riding his cock. She dug her fingernails into his hips and pushed against them as she gyrated, bobbing up and down against him.

  Zebe closed his eyes, moaning and licking his lips. “Jolene… Yeah… Yesss!”

  She could tell that he wasn’t far away from coming, and she appreciated that he was holding out from doing so. She could practically see the thoughts swimming through his head as he brought his hands up and rubbed them all over her baby belly. “You don’t have to fight it,” she said. “You can give in…”

  His eyes shot open at that. “Never,” he said with a wicked sort of smirk. His hazel eyes were goldish now, changed by the pleasure and the lust. All at once, he flipped her back over so he was on top of her. Zebe quickened the pace of his thrusting until she could do nothing except throw her head back into the grass and shout.

  “Oh!” she shouted in time with his thrusts. “Oh! Oh! Oh ZEBE! Oh! I’m coming! I’m comiiing!”

  “Yeah, come for me,” he demanded, placing one hand against her jaw, as though he was about to force it open and stuff his cock inside it. Perhaps he was thinking of doing that. He pushed a finger into her mouth and felt her tongue as it rolled around.

  Eyes widening and body trembling, Jolene came hard around his thick cock. She could feel herself tightening and loosening as Zebe continued to thrust a few more times. At last, he clutched her to him and came inside of her, opening his mouth in a silent howl.

  He did not rush to pull out of her. Instead, he rolled back so they were side by side again. He kept her in his arms, petting her face and her stomach while they both came down from their heights of ecstasy.

  Jolene smiled at him.

  She had to say it. Even if it made things awkward and difficult, she had to say it.

  “I love you.”

  Zebe looked at her, surprised and seemingly delighted. He leaned in and kissed her, carefully moving his penis out of her now that things had settled down. “I love you,” he replied. “When Luke told me about the new woman in town, I thought I’d pop over to welcome you to the neighborhood… Best decision ever.”

  She giggled a little, feeling an amused kind of embarrassment. She was glad that things had worked out and he hadn’t run away screaming after she jumped on him at their first meeting. How could she have been expected to know that Luke had an identical twin brother who lived in the same place? He might have mentioned that.

  They hugged each other, nuzzling their cheeks against each other’s faces. Jolene imagined him in his wolf form and blushed a bit, wondering what it was going to be like to be in a relationship with a werewolf.

  “We should probably head back,” he said, bursting her bubble somewhat. Going back meant having to deal with reality again. Couldn’t they just stay there, naked, in that meadow forever?

  “Yeah,” Jolene said somberly. “Luke is probably wondering where we are.”

  “Well, I was,” came a familiar voice from behind them. There was a rustle in the grass and was Luke. In his wolf form.

  Jolene sat up and quickly gathered her clothing together to put it on, as if Zebe’s brother hadn’t seen her naked before. But Luke paid no attention to her. He growled at Zebe and slowly approached, clearly trying to start a fight.

  Zebe looked at his brother and stood up, blocking Jolene from his view so she could get dressed and feel somewhat safe. She did feel safe with him there, although she wasn’t sure how much of a match he was for Luke while he was still in his human form.

  “Shift,” she said to him under his breath.

  He gave a small nod and then smoothly shifted his skin into his wolf form. The only way she could tell the two wolves apart was the fact that Zebe was slightly lighter, and he had that crescent moon mark on his neck, much clearer when he was a wolf. It seemed almost like it was a marking in his fur.

  As soon as he had shifted, Zebe was off like a shot and on top of his brother. The two wolves fought and tore at each other. Meanwhile, Jolene stood there in her state of half-dress, watching and hoping that they did not kill each other. “Stop it!” she cried, seeing that they were bleeding and doing real damage to each other. “This is not helping anything!”

  Luke rolled off of Zebe, blood coming from his mouth. His eyes flashed gold and green in the darkness. From far away they might have been mistaken for fireflies. “We had an agreement!” he barked at Zebe, though it seemed that he was saying it to both of them. “We were going to put aside our differences and raise the cubs together!”

  Jolene felt terrible for choosing one over the other now, but she could not deny what her heart wanted. For so long, she had been in what she thought was a happy marriage but in the end it had been proven to be loveless. Now she had a real shot at love with Zebe. Sure, it wasn’t without its…difficulties. But she really did feel like she had a chance now. She loved him. It had been fun with Luke, but she loved his softer, gentler brother.

  She did not want to hurt Luke’
s feelings, though. She could see now that he liked her quite a lot. It made sense. Why else would he have kept coming back to her? “I’m sorry,” Jolene said, and she meant it. She finished pulling on her shirt. Zebe’s shirt. She hoped Luke wouldn’t notice. It felt unusual to be having this conversation with a wolf creature. If she kept looking at his eyes, she could almost forget that he was a snarling, drooling beast. Almost.

  Meanwhile, Zebe slowly shifted back into his human form. The cuts and gashes were much more noticeable now that he was in this skin. “It started as an accident… A simple mistake. Jolene thought I was you.”

  Luke switched back into his human form as well. His clothing was all ripped from the fight and from the movements involved in shapeshifting. This was why Zebe had not even bothered to put clothes on. No sense in ruining a perfectly good pair of pants.

  “I gathered as much when I introduced you to each other,” Luke said. He was clearly not happy, but he had calmed down considerably. “You seemed like you’d already met.”

  Jolene fidgeted with her fingers a bit, not knowing what to say. “I didn’t know you had a twin. When Zebe showed up…” She cleared her throat and looked Luke in the eyes. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter now. You know what happened. The point is, whether or not these babies are his or yours… I want to be with Zebe.”

  Luke appeared hurt now. Irritated at his brother, but hurt that he had lost this round. “Did I do something wrong?”

  She shook her head, hoping that he could see it in the dark. “Why don’t we go back to your house and discuss this in a well-lit place?”

  The irony was not lost on her. This big, important conversation with her electrician savior was being conducted in darkness.

  Zebe went to her and then bent down to pick up his discarded boxers, carefully putting them back on as if the effort was seamless. Then he did the same with his pants. Compared to her mad scrambling to get dressed, he was so graceful. Jolene could not help but smile at him.

  “How did you get here?” Zebe asked his brother. Even after all of their tousling, he was still caring enough to ask that.