Tiger Betrayed

by Tressie Lockwood

  When she said nothing, he pumped harder. She curled her fingers into his, struggling for breath. Pretty soon, another orgasm would take hold. Tonight, her body wound so tight, she couldn’t help being stimulated ten times greater than any other instance of their lovemaking. Maybe it was the separation that did it, or because she was desperate to have him back. To have the right in this dream world and in real life to call him her own and no one else’s.

  “Deja!”

  She jumped at his sharp use of her name. “Yes?”

  “Say it.”

  “Say what?”

  “Say you belong to me and no one else, that no one else will touch your body.”

  She did so without hesitation. At this point, no one else mattered.

  He thrust deeper. She raised her legs and wrapped them around his waist, locking her feet behind him. He pounded into her pussy until the bed creaked and they bounced on the springs. Waves of pleasure rocketed through her being, and she clenched her jaw while raising her hips to meet his thrusts. He let go of her hands, and she rushed to grasp his arms. One hand bracing some of his weight, he watched as he took her over and over. Then he reared back and plowed into her heat one last time.

  “Deja…” Warm come flooded her channel. She came on the heels of his release, wriggling and moaning until it passed.

  When he was done, Heath pulled out and collapsed at her side. Already, she felt the edges of the dream dematerializing. Pain caught in her throat because she wanted it to go on.

  “I want to stay here with you, Heath.”

  “I know, baby.” He stroked her cheek. “I want to stay too. Just know…” He hesitated. She looked around. Now the doorway through which she hadn’t wanted him to pass, drew closer and ate up the side of the bed behind him. None of it made sense.

  “What, Heath?” she said in a panic. “Tell me. What is it I should know?”

  But he was gone.

  Deja opened her eyes to find herself back in the locked room. She listened to the sounds around her and picked up the calm breaths from her twins. Depression weighed down on her chest. Everything about the dream had felt real, and when she’d told Heath he belonged to her, she’d sensed a pull as if she’d exercised some force over him. In the end it meant nothing. He drifted away, and she found herself here at the mercy of the cruel corporation that put them in this position in the first place. She had to escape and take her chances with Maia and Neve. She’d been foolish to try this, and it showed how confused she’d been over losing Heath. One way or another she would survive. She would live, and so would her girls.

  Chapter Eleven

  Heath stood in the bedroom doorway at Tina’s house watching her sleep. She lay with an arm extended across the bed as if she searched unconsciously for him, and he pushed fingers through his hair, sighing. Barefoot and dressed only in jeans, he turned away and walked into the living room. As a single woman, Tina had never bothered with more than an apartment, so the smallness of the place closed in on him. Even as he could see well in the dark, he always banged his knee on the end table too close to the walkway into that room.

  Grunting and limping, he made his way to the window overlooking the street and peered out. No one moved about. No shadows shifted. Before the threat, some of the shifters enjoyed midnight strolls in their tiger form, a habit even he had enjoyed. Now they were prisoners in their own town.

  He leaned his forehead against the glass and shut his eyes. The scentless tiger was not what woke him at this time of night. The real reason he couldn’t sleep was Deja. He felt her inside him—in his head, in his soul almost. He smelled her, could hear her call out his name, and the fact that she consumed him in this way drove him insane. He’d awakened earlier feeling like he’d just been making love to her. The softness of her skin seemed almost tangible on his fingertips. Had he imagined it, or had she claimed him anew in his dream? The entire experience left him reeling, and to feel the effects after he came back to reality did not help.

  “Deja,” he murmured, seeing her face in his mind’s eye. He should be out there right now to search for her and his daughters. He’d called to them but felt their pain when they couldn’t come to him. Knowing he had made his girls suffer had forced him to back off. He had intended to hunt for them, but Karl stood in his way, along with a dozen other shifters who were loyal to the bastard just because he happened to be alpha. He’d been commanded not to leave Siberia. Leaving might have been delayed for that time, but he had every intention of going against Karl’s orders the second he found an opening. No, he would make the opening, and soon.

  Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he turned his head in that direction. He strained to see deeper into the area to the right of the window but failed. Not bothering with shoes, he left the apartment and walked down to ground level. The street remained empty. Holding his breath, he listened, but no sounds reached him. No birds, no breeze stirring the leaves in the trees, and because of it an eerie sense came over him. The shadows appeared more elongated than before.

  He stepped with caution toward the curb and peered inside the nearby, parked cars. A sniff of the air brought the scents of shifters and one or two humans. The guards paroled the outer borders of the town, but none were close. A sixth sense said someone—something—lurked feet away.

  The beast landed in the middle of his back and sent him crashing to his knees. Gravel bit through his jeans and dug into his knees and into his palms. Claws ripped at his back, and he growled in pain, arching away.

  “Not this time, pal!” He launched the tiger over his head, and the indentation it caused in the car door it hit would bring curses to the owner’s lips in the morning. The impact didn’t slow the beast down for a second. Heath poised for another attack. “Show yourself. Let me talk to you as a man.”

  The tiger stood up and shook itself. A crazed roll to its eyes turned Heath’s stomach, and he knew a frisson of fear but tamped it down. Without the help of his people the last time, he’d have been killed, but he refused to die tonight. Not without ripping this bastard apart who thought he could trounce around killing the citizens of Siberia, even hunting them down after they’d moved out of the town.

  Heath shifted, and they fought hard. One minute he had the upper hand and clawed without mercy at his opponent. The next second, he was thrust back, his head shattering glass. Blood caked his coat and dripped from a cut into his ear.

  Die, bastard! He bit down on the beast’s neck, but a cuff to the head dislodged his hold. Bleeding, the tiger turned tail and ran. Heath pursued. You’re not getting away from me this time.

  They sprinted down street after street until asphalt gave way to dirt and then grass. Trees sprung up around them and thickened. Heath pulled out the stops to run faster. Twice he almost caught the tiger’s tail but just missed. His lungs burned, and he thought he’d cut his paw pad on a sharp stone. Ignoring the pain, he pushed harder. They neared the edge of Siberia property. Although he had wanted the kill all to himself, at least he knew they were coming up on an area the guards covered. When Ted’s scent and another shifter’s filled his nostrils, relief washed over him. That is until their dead, mangled bodies came into view.

  Heath’s steps faltered, but the tiger didn’t break stride as he bound past the site where he had clearly murdered two guards. Heath redoubled his efforts. If he didn’t catch the killer, more people would end up in the same position.

  In a last ditch effort, he pushed off the ground and pounced on the back of the tiger, forcing it to the ground. He shifted in an instant and wrapped an arm around the cat’s throat and squeezed. The hoarse cough did not move him. He added pressure, and the feline thrashed to get free.

  “Turn, damn you,” he snapped.

  A growl unsettled the somber night. He constrained the animal further with a knee to its spinal cord, knowing the pain he caused. The same wildness came over the tiger, as if it sometimes came unhinged and gained added strength. Heath’s arm muscles strained
with the pressure and burned until he had to grip his teeth against his own discomfort. The thick head came up and cracked him in the chin. Stars danced before his eyes. His hold loosened, and before he could recover, he lay alone in the foliage.

  “No way in hell!” He shoved up from the ground and started in the direction he’d last seen a flash of stripped white and black. Listening hard since no scent guided him, he sprinted full tilt.

  When he paused a moment to catch his breath, he perked up his ears. The snap of a twig and leaves rustling had him smashing through the underbrush and square into Jake. Heath dragged him up off the ground by the front of his shirt and lifted him off his feet.

  “What the fuck do you think you’re—” Heath froze, eyes widening. “You have no scent.”

  “Wait, wait,” Jake croaked, struggling in the air.

  Heath shook him, allowing his head to bobble about and tightened his hold. “I can’t even tell you’re human. No… You’re not human anymore. You let them change you right under our noses. We rescued you from Spiderweb, and you came back here to kill our people. This is how you repay us?”

  “That’s a lie. I would never do that.”

  Heath tossed him, and Jake thumped against the bark of a tree before crumpling on the ground. He fought to right himself, and Heath only watched. He paced, a craving to kill him so powerful he could scarcely bear it, but he wanted answers. “How long have you been fucking Deja?”

  Jake’s mouth fell open. “What?”

  “You heard me, you piece of garbage. Did you think I wouldn’t find out?”

  Jake stood up, using the tree for a crutch. “You are one to talk. I heard about Tina.”

  Heath formed claws from his fingertips and tore into the bark at the side of Jake’s head. The high-pitched squeak gave him little satisfaction. “I don’t have to answer to you.”

  His rival stood straighter, clenching his fists at his sides. Heath raised an eyebrow, but Jake didn’t appear about to attack. He went over the facts that he knew in his head.

  “Did you get into bed with Spiderweb to make a deal so they’d leave Deja alone and you could have her?”

  Jake waited a beat before he answered and glared. “Yes, I did. They have her and your daughters.”

  Something fractured in Heath’s mind. He had the man on the ground, one hand around Jake’s throat and the other trapping his arm in a punishing grip. Heath twisted, and he heard the bone snap, followed by Jake’s howl of pain. Nothing moved Heath except the intent to kill. He squeezed, and Jake gasped, fighting for breath.

  “I-if you kill me…you won’t find them,” he croaked. Heath squeezed harder. Blue tinged Jake’s skin in the pale moonlight.

  “Heath, stop!”

  He paused, gritting his teeth. Jake’s eyelashes fluttered as he dipped close to unconsciousness, and Tina dropped to her knees beside Heath to grab his arm.

  “Stop, you’ll kill him,” she pleaded.

  “He deserves it.” He never took his gaze off Jake, but his tiger responded to his mate’s voice. The pressure eased against his will.

  Tina stroked the damp hair from his forehead. On some level he noticed she wore only a nightgown with bare feet. She must have awakened and found him gone, then come searching for him.

  “You’re better than this,” she soothed him, “better than all of us.”

  “I have the ri—” he began but stopped. He didn’t have the right. Only if Deja was his could he kill another man who’d touched her. Deja no longer belonged to him. “The girls…” He squeezed, but Tina laid a hand over his and drew it away. Jake found the strength to scuttle back against the tree and cradled his broken arm. His gaze, full of terror, darted back and forth between Heath and Tina, and tears flooded his eyes to spill onto his cheeks. Heath sneered.

  “This isn’t right,” Jake sobbed. “You and her? What about Deja? She loves you.”

  “Shut up,” Heath ground out and stood. He reached down and forced Jake to his feet, ignoring the agonized cry. “Where are they?”

  Jake swallowed, the Adam’s apple in his neck bobbing. He threw his shoulders back and sagged as if he would fall down again, but then he raised his chin. “I’ll take you to your real family.”

  Tina stepped forward, the threat rolling off her. “I’m his real family.”

  Heath dropped a hand on her shoulder. “Go home. I’m fine now.”

  She turned to face him, alarm in her wide gaze. “But, Heath—”

  “I said go home!” Power went out from him, and she stumbled back and lowered her head in submission.

  “Of course.” She took a few steps toward Siberia and stopped. “You’ll come back to me, right?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “Heath?”

  He shifted and nudged Jake away from the tree with his nose. Together they walked, leaving Tina behind.

  When they pulled up, Heath took in the grounds and the building, which looked like a school. That was the last rational thought he had because he scented Maia and Neve. He reached across the cab of his truck and grabbed a fistful of Jake’s shirt then kicked the door open. Dragging the man with him, he stormed up to the gate and hauled Jake into the first two guards that turned their weapons his way. In the blink of an eye, he shifted to his tiger form and mowed down five more men. Bullets peppered the air around him, but he kept moving, using the cover of darkness to throw off their aim. A burning sensation in his arm didn’t slow him down. His rage spurred him on.

  Inside the front entrance, he slid to a halt on the titled floor and crouched low as more humans flooded the hallway. These few didn’t appear to have weapons, but he wasn’t buying it. Nearby running feet told him more guards were on the way. An oddly familiar scent met his nostrils, and he raised his head to growl as loud as he could. An immediate thumping against something metal was the response. Shouts echoed from his right. He called again, and this time had the satisfaction of creaking metal and shattering glass. A man howled in pain, and seconds later the biggest tiger he’d ever seen slipped into the hallway at the opposite end of where he stood.

  “What the hell?” came Jake’s horrified cry.

  Several humans began shouting. “Get the darts, get the darts! We can’t let this one escape!”

  Too late for them, Heath thought, he’d already made the connection and knew that while the tiger was probably half-crazed, it had submitted to him. Heath sent out a wave of power, knowing the tiger would understand the order. Kill everything.

  They mowed down human after human, Heath remaining behind the other tiger and using him as a shield. He had no conscience when it came to the safety of his daughters. When they reached the door where he knew his girls were, he chuffed another order, and the tiger blew through the barrier. The tiger paused long enough to scan the sparse room with its white, unadorned walls and the metal table in the center. Then he bound toward the table where a scientist holding a long needle bent over Maia. At their sudden entry, the man had frozen in fear, staring with wide eyes.

  Heath leaped into action and shouldered the tiger aside so hard, it smashed into the wall. Rising and shaking its massive head, it growled at Heath and crouched as if to attack. Heath snarled. Try it. The tiger lowered its head to the floor. Dismissing the beast, he turned back to the man, who had come out of his shock and held Maia’s arm with the needle poised above it.

  “If you come any closer, I’m going to stick her,” he threatened. “You understand what I’m saying, don’t you? This stuff will kill her.”

  Heath swung his gaze from the man’s face to Maia’s face, relaxed like they’d already drugged her. Rage boiled inside him.

  “Did you hear me? Back up. Get out of he—”

  Heath crushed his windpipe, and the scientist crumpled to the floor. He shifted to his human form and slammed a fist into to the mechanism, which operated the straps holding Maia down. He lifted his little girl into his arms.

  “Maia,” he whispered against her cheek. She didn’t stir. Pai
n tightened his chest. He hauled her to his shoulder and returned to the hall, the tiger following. The room next door turned out to hold Neve, and he took her, too, into his arms.

  “Are they okay?” Jake asked from the doorway.

  Heath glared at him.

  “T-they look fine. Maybe they’ve been given a sleeping pill, probably formulated for your kind. Then again,” he rambled, “they are young, so maybe anything that works on humans might work on them. It’ll wear off.”

  Heath ignored the man he’d let live for the time being. He lowered his head and rested the girls’ faces on either side of his. Healing energy permeated his being and flowed out to his daughters. He felt it enter them and radiate from their heads down to their tiny feet. Their limbs spasmed right away, and Maia was the first to open her eyes and lift her head.

  “Da.”

  His heart constricted for the second time, but in this instance, relief flooded him. Neve followed her sister and babbled. He figured she complained about how he should have been there sooner, and he kissed her cheek.

  “I know. I’m sorry, baby.” He kissed the top of Maia’s head. “We’ll go find Mommy now.”

  He set the girls on the table a second and donned the dead man’s pants then lifted the girls into his arms again. He sniffed the air and turned toward the door, the tiger by his side. Jake blocked the exit, one hand raised and the other hanging limp at his side. The tiger snarled.

  “Easy,” Heath ordered. “You’re playing with your life, Jake.”

  “I’m not trying to.” He hesitated. “Look, you have your daughters. Why don’t you let me get Deja?”

  He curled his lips. “Why should I trust you to rescue her?”

  He shouldered the man to the side, and Jake bumped the wall and stumbled on his feet. Heath turned his back on him, but he knew the tiger kept an untrusting eye on his enemy, and he started down the hall.

  “We’re having an affair,” Jake called out.