by Elle Thorne
“What?” He pulled back, studied her face. What had he done?
“Ah, Cristiano. You didn’t know. And I didn’t think to ever discuss it with you. What we did, when you bit me, while we were doing what we were doing. That establishes a couplebond. It means we will be together. Forever.”
He was perplexed. “But we will be together forever.”
She nodded. “Yes, it’s just that.” She shook her head. “I should have told you in advance about the couplebonding.”
“Would you have told me so that I didn’t ever do it? To warn me from doing it?”
Her face grew sad. “No.” She placed a kiss on his jawline. “To tell you to be sure when you did. You would be stuck with me.”
Tino laughed and licked at her bottom lip, tracing the fullness with his tongue. “I want to be stuck with you. Forever.”
“You have no idea. You already are, and it’s more than the couplebond.” She laughed. “You didn’t notice a difference in my scent?”
“Now that you mention it. What caused it?”
“More like who caused it. Our baby.”
“What?” Tino leapt to his feet standing on the bed, fully naked. He bounced up and down. “I’m going to be a father.”
“The best father ever.”
He nodded, then settled next to her on the bed, his palm resting on her abdomen. “When?”
“Seven months.”
“If it’s a boy, we will name it after your father, to honor him.”
Tears sprang to Ana’s eyes. “And if it’s a girl, after your mother.”
Tino looked away. The emotions were too much. It seemed like yesterday he’d lost his mother, but so much had happened.
And now he had Ana.
And they would have a baby.
Perhaps he was better off not seeing his father. Perhaps it would bring up memories he didn’t want. Maybe his father had other children with Iniga. That thought hadn’t occurred to Tino until this moment, but that could be a possibility.
Hopefully, you get the son you want, Marco Ricoletti.
“You look sad.” Ana pulled on his hand. “Let’s watch the sun as it rises and gives new hope for a new day.”
New hope for a new day. Tino liked the sound of that.
He stood behind Ana, her back pressed into his chest and abdomen. Wrapping his arms around her, he found her hands cradling her belly.
He interlaced his fingers with hers.
“Capriana, my savior.”
“Cristiano, my everything.”
Tino felt her sigh with contentment. He relaxed for the first time in a long time.
He watched the sun’s brightness. He couldn’t get enough of the sun these days.
And he would continue to drink his fill of the sun, of life, and of the presence of his soulmate.
“Forever,” he whispered to the sun before him and the stone walls behind him.
Formidable
Isabel Valenti’s on a mission. Her sister needs the help of a legendary witch to free the love of her life.
The legendary witch resides in Tiero territory.
Now the Valenti sisters know better than to trespass on another shifter’s territory.
Of course they do.
Tell that to Isabel, the hotheaded, hardheaded, passionate curvy ballet teacher.
Go on. Just tell her that.
Let’s nominate Giovanni—Gio to those of you who know him—to do the telling.
Except there’s one little problem.
Gio takes her prisoner.
Now whatcha gonna do, bad girl?
Whatcha gonna do when Gio comes for you?
Chapter One
Alpha Giovanni Tiero, white tiger shifter of the Tiero villa in the province of Viterbo, Italy, looked up from the paperwork on his desk.
Dark olive complexion that still boasted of time spent in the sun of his youth was marred by the frown that creased his brow. Had his hair not fallen forward as it was wont to do, the expression would’ve been easier to see. He kept it far too long these days, but who had time or the inclination for frequent visits to the barber?
The bright sun behind his brother caused his eyes to narrow, giving him the countenance that made many of his enemies cringe.
“Are you sure?” Giovanni—Gio to those who knew him well enough—asked his brother Federico.
Federico, two years younger than Gio, pine needles in his hair, dust and dirt on his typically immaculate suit, nodded. “I'm sure. Benito said he saw them.” Benito was one of many security team members Tiero kept at hand.
Intruders. Federico had come into Gio’s office to tell him intruders were on Tiero territory. Not far from his home, actually.
This intrusion was a rare occurrence. Nobody messed with the Tiero family.
Gio closed the file and put it in the top drawer. That was a report he didn’t want to look at. She was no more. She was gone. From his heart, his mind, his tiger, and his world. He pushed the thoughts away. He had more pressing business at hand if interlopers were on his land. He steepled his fingers, touched them to a full bottom lip that defied the stern cut of his thinner top lip. “How many? What can you tell me about them?”
Federico held up two fingers. “Two females. Both shifters.”
Better than hearing it was two witches. He’d had enough of witches lately.
Witches.
Nothing but trouble as far as he was concerned. “What kind of shifters?”
“Tigresses.”
His curiosity was piqued. Why would two females be traipsing through his forest? There was no reason for any shifters to be here without permission. That was unwritten shifter law. And though it was unwritten, it was enforced vigorously. Often to the death.
So why would they enter? Did they not know shifter law? Or did they not know whose territory this was? The thought almost brought a smile to his face.
How can anyone not know this is Tiero territory?
Perhaps the trespassers simply thought they could get away with it.
Or maybe they were a reconnaissance team for another group hoping to uproot the Tieros.
Or could they be sent to distract us. Yeah, this definitely needs my attention now. More than anything else.
He was confident his men wouldn’t be pulled away from their objective of protecting the Tiero territory by temptresses, but it was time for Gio to make things clear to intruders.
Gio forked his fingers through his hair. “Maybe we should check it out. The children aren’t outside, are they?”
“Tito’s got them, six of our best guys are with him, they’re in the safe room. He said he’d meet us outside the north wing.”
Tito was Gio and Federico’s middle brother. The safe room was a steel reinforced room with a hidden door.
“Good.” It wasn’t unheard of for those seeking to take over a territory to kidnap children and use them as leverage. Or worse, kill them.
A chill ripped through Gio. He’d die before he let the children come to harm.
“Get the Tranqs,” he told Federico.
Tranqs. Just like the tranquilizer darts shot through pistols or rifles when capturing animals in the wild, but with a different concentration and a slightly different set of chemicals, almost out of the experimental stage. They worked well on shifters.
Especially feline and bear shifters.
Gio meant business.
Chapter Two
In the depths of the forest outside his home, a modest villa compared to the one in Milan, and even more modest than the one in Rome, Gio and his brothers had been following the two tigress shifters for a few moments. Some of his team members were a bit farther back in case there were more than just the two female shifters.
All the Tieros and their security team had hunter’s block on, so they weren’t worried about being scented. It didn’t escape Gio that the female shifters did as well, though it would seem theirs was beginning to wane as he could every so often pick up the faintest aroma
of tigress shifters.
He particularly picked up the scent of the one with a fiery attitude. He knew which one was her immediately. He wished his tiger would stop pacing in his mind. Pacing, back and forth, around and around, chuffing and alternately snarling at Gio for being so dense.
Gio wasn’t dense. Hell, no. Not dense at all, he snapped at his tiger in his mind.
And he wasn’t unaffected by her.
Nope, not by a long shot. It was safe to say he was very affected by her scent.
He was also damned sure the tigress shifters weren’t here on a mission to usurp the Tieros’ hold on the territory.
How did he figure this out? His supernatural shifter hearing allowed him to listen in. They were looking for someone. He managed to get the tigresses’ names too.
Ana. One sister.
Isabel, her younger sister.
Isabel, the one whose scent was making his tiger crazy. His tiger was convinced that Gio needed to get to know Isabel the same way his tiger wanted to get to know her tigress.
The roaring, huffing, snarling, and occasional chuffing was beginning to irritate him.
Back off or I’ll have you silenced, he warned his tiger.
Gio knew witches could silence a shifter’s inner animal. He also had heard they could make a shifter’s inner animal vanish.
I’ll believe that when I see it.
Gio couldn’t imagine a spell being powerful enough to make his tiger disappear, but he hoped his tiger took him seriously while he analyzed the situation at hand.
The two trespassers.
Ana and Isabel. The patient one and the feisty one.
He stared at Isabel.
Just the right amount of curves and muscle, an abundant amount of cleavage that his brother Tito seemed to have noticed, gaining him a scowl from Gio. Dark haired, she made her way through the forest between the evergreens silently with the grace of a predator.
Yes, she was definitely a spitfire. He could tell from the way she talked to her sister, tell from the way she carried herself, and the way she shook her head, making that dark hair with hints of auburn and gold glisten when the sun managed to slip through the dappled shadows of the forest.
In Gio's head, his tiger roared. Roared so loudly, Gio gritted his teeth. His tiger knew, but Gio was not ready to accept it.
Why did Isabel insist on speaking loudly?
“How much longer? I'm not meant for trekking through woods,” Isabel huffed.
She walked with stealth, but spoke in volumes that would wake the dead.
Why so loud?
“I'm already regretting allowing you to come along,” Isabel's sister Ana snapped.
This brought a smile to Gio's face, mostly because Ana had been patient to an extreme. Oh, yes, he was right about his assessment that she was the patient one. Now, even she had lost her cool with Isabel.
Isabel gave her sister a haughty look with those dark chocolate eyes. “I’m sorry. I'm not a hiker. I’m a dancer.” She tugged on her pant, bringing Gio's attention to her hips.
He chewed on his bottom lip, studying those hips, that ass, in that tight fabric trying to ignore the strain it was putting on his own pants.
Dancing explained the muscles and the grace, but still these two women were clearly not accustomed to hiking through woods.
Now what are they doing here, exactly? Who are they looking for?
“See, there's the forked tree. Not much further,” Ana whispered a response.
Not much further to what, he wondered.
Ana continued, “But I wish you’d lower your voice and quit stomping so loudly. She's bound to hear us and cast a spell. Maybe even turn us into trees.”
She? She who? Suspicion began to build in Gio. An uncomfortable suspicion based on elimination rather than any type of a psychic nature.
Isabel stomped a foot, crushing pine needles beneath boots that had too much heel and not enough padding for hiking.
Gio winced, wondering if she had blisters from trouncing about in the woods in those boots.
“Oh, and you’d rather sneak up on her and really piss her off? I’d sooner announce our arrival with foot stomping so she knows our intent isn’t to sneak up on her,” Isabel hissed back.
This told Gio exactly whom they were looking for.
Esmerelda.
He ground his teeth in frustration.
The witch that lived in his forest.
The witch that trespassed on his territory.
Why were they looking for Esmerelda?
Little did these two sisters know they would not find the witch they were seeking.
He didn’t smirk, though the thought did bring him amusement.
“Your recommendation on how we handle them?” Federico asked him, his voice low.
Gio frowned. Before he could respond, Ana spoke.
“So, wise one, what do you suggest?” Ana asked Isabel, a playful, half-mocking tone in her voice.
Gio decided it was time to step in. He didn’t have time to piss around with this situation. “I suggest you don't move. Unless you enjoy pain.”
Ana glanced in Gio’s direction, but didn't give any indication she could see him or his brothers.
Of course, not. Gio was sure the cover of the trees would keep them hidden until they chose to step into view.
Isabel whirled around, around, and around, looking for the source of the voice. Her twirling was graceful, a dancer’s moves, they seduced him and his tiger, keeping his attention fully entranced by her.
Gio enjoyed the expressive reactions he could see on her face. She wouldn’t make a good poker player, he noted.
Then he heard it.
He heard the creaking before he saw what it heralded, but he knew that sound all too well.
The rasping sound gave away a shift—one of the ladies was beginning to shift.
He glanced between the two. In a split second, he knew who.
Isabel was morphing into her tigress. He better put a stop to this before something bad came of it. Her shifting, his security sensing a threat to him or his brothers—this did not bode well.
Gio issued a warning to Ana. “Tell her not to shift. We don't want to hurt her, but we will if she decides to turn into a tigress.”
Ana put her hand on Isabel's arm. “Don't, sister. Not yet. Not until we know—”
The audacity of this one. The arrogance that Ana thought she was in control enough to decide that if they did shift, they’d have any sort of power on his land.
“There's nothing for you to know. Nothing at all. Except you are trespassing.” Gio stepped out of the forest, his brothers next to him. Tito on one side, Federico on the other.
The two sisters were frozen in place. He locked eyes with the feisty one.
And she kept her eyes trained on him.
Chapter Three
Isabel paused midway into her shift, and pulled her tigress in, not yielding to the impulse to morph into her shifter animal and take on the three men.
She felt like she’d been sucked into a vortex. A howling wind was pulling her deeper and deeper into the maelstrom. She couldn’t take her eyes off the dark-haired, tanned man before her. He was flanked by two others, but it was as if he were the beacon that drew all her energy into him.
She realized quickly that the howling wind was her tigress’s reaction to the man.
More like the tigress’s reaction to his tiger.
He was a white tiger shifter. And the strangest thing happened; she’d never been in a position where she’d met another shifter and could instantly see what shifter animal they were. No, that wasn’t usually revealed to her. Not with the relationship she had with her shifter animal. Many times, her tigress wasn’t the most forthcoming with Isabel.
But in this case, with this shifter, it was as if his tiger was larger than life and present. As in, she could really see his tiger’s image, right there with this giant of a man.
Massive. White with vivid black stripes, it
tilted its mighty head and stared at her.
Then the strangest thing occurred.
Next to his tiger appeared another one. A tigress so faded, it was almost as though it were a mirage.
Isabel closed her eyes, squeezing them tightly. She forced them open again.
The tigers were still there.
The faded tigress snarled at Isabel.
Or was she snarling at Isabel’s tigress?
Isabel almost took a step back.
In Isabel’s mind, her own tigress released a challenging roar.
What the hell is going on here?
She glanced at Ana, wondering if Ana could see the two white tigers.
Ana gave no indication of seeing anything but the three men standing before them.
“We can take them,” Ana whispered to Isabel. “If we shift quickly enough.”
Oh, now she wants to take them? Now that I’ve pulled my tigress in?
Isabel didn't take her eyes off the man or the tigers.
The man in the center took a few steps in their direction. Neither his tiger nor the faded female stepped forward with him.
Isabel bristled at the faded female, still wanting to take her on, still feeling adversarial, but not even sure why. Where was this swirl of emotions coming from?
Staring at the man, Isabel whispered back, “I don't think so.”
He took a few more steps closer. “She's right, Ana. Listen to your sister.”
The tigers had kept up with him. The male was definitely his shifter animal, but who the hell or what the hell was that other one, the female that seemed farther away?
“How do you know my name?” Ana asked, then under her breath, she whispered to Isabel, “Why not?”
Why not? Isabel couldn’t move. She couldn’t answer Ana’s question. The vortex was pulling her deeper and deeper.
She was frozen in place, except that her mind was a whirl of activity. The man had a depth and a sadness to him that was almost tangible. She’d never felt this type of a connection before.
