Tiger Born

by Tressie Lockwood

  Deja tapped her lip with her fork. “Uh-huh, something tells me the newest generation isn’t respecting that rule.”

  Joe frowned. “What makes you think people aren’t obeying Ward’s law?”

  Before she could answer, Heath spoke up. “I’ve observed it myself. I think some of Siberia’s citizens are less selective.”

  “It’s a problem,” Deja agreed, annoyed Heath seemed to back up her opinion. “I get the need. No one knows like I do.” Heath stirred in his chair, but she ignored him “I met some ladies in the grocery store the other day, and neither of them recognized me. I don’t think I’m a celebrity or anything, but from what I could tell, at least one of them was pretty new here. One didn’t have that high of an opinion of shifters, which made me wonder what the hell she was doing dating one. Her attitude was not the attitude of a woman in love, who was ready to commit to being with her shifter for life.”

  “You would recognize that too, wouldn’t you, Deja?” Heath laid his own fork down and sat back in his chair.

  She glared at him. “What are you trying to say?”

  He didn’t respond.

  She turned back to Ward. “I don’t pretend to have the answers, but I can see the tension. The shifters outnumber the humans here. It seems to me there’s also some type of hierarchy going on, and the humans feel it. They separate themselves even if, like you say, many of them are committed to their shifter partners. As for the shifters, they’re only too happy to let the humans stay to themselves. It isn’t right, and I think you should do something about it, Ward. Before it escalates.”

  Ward studied his beer and then downed a few gulps. He set the bottle on the table and sighed. “You have a very intelligent mate, Son.”

  She felt rather than saw Heath’s wince, which matched hers.

  “I’m going to look into what you’ve said, Deja. And think about ways to improve the situation. Does that meet with your satisfaction?”

  The fact that he acted as if he was pacifying her pissed her off. If he were so interested in balance among his people, he should have seen the situation already. Then again, she wondered if he already had. Ward didn’t share everything with Coreen from what the woman told her. He wouldn’t likely tell Deja any more. She already knew Heath kept some of the details of work to himself. “Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks.”

  Joe leaned forward on the opposite side of the table. “What are the names of the two women you were talking about—from the store?”

  “I didn’t catch their names.” Since one of them was Melanie, she would not say anymore. Let them investigate on their own.

  After dinner, Deja helped Coreen clear the table and wash the dishes. She leaned against the kitchen counter drying her hands and listened to the loud voices from the men in the other room as they discussed some type of sporting event.

  Coreen smiled. “Let’s get some dessert in to calm them down.”

  Deja laughed. “Won’t the sugar just rile them up more?”

  “One can only hope it will burn up fast and have them knocked out within the hour.”

  “I like the way you think.” Deja set out small bowls to dish ice cream while Coreen cut the homemade chocolate cake. “I don’t know why I didn’t think to ask where the boys are tonight.”

  “That’s okay. They should be walking in any moment. They went to McAllen to a soccer game with friends.”

  Coreen might as well be a shifter because no sooner had she spoken the words, Deja picked up Aaron’s and Abel’s scents. Seconds later, a vehicle pulled into the drive, and a car door slammed. Deja heard the boys greeting their dad, their brother, and Joe.

  “Better set out two more bowls,” Coreen told her.

  “They might have eaten dessert out.”

  Coreen raised her brows, and Deja laughed. “Yeah, I guess I better.”

  This time in the living room, Deja found the spot farthest away from Heath and not in his direct line of sight. She welcomed the addition of his little brothers since they commanded a lot of attention being loud and offering a play by play of the game they’d watched that afternoon. Deja contemplated whether now was a good time to escape when the bell rang. She just kept herself from rolling her eyes. Even before Coreen led the woman into the living room, Deja knew who it was, and she pressed her lips together while holding her bowl of ice cream in a death grip.

  “Hello, everyone,” came the sultry voice, “I’m sorry for interrupting your family time.”

  No one corrected her about the fact that Joe wasn’t family. He was unmated and without a steady girlfriend as far as she knew, and his immediate interest in the new arrival was like a blinking neon sign above his head. Deja tried not to gag.

  “Tina, what are you doing out alone this time of night?” Ward snapped. Deja blinked from the alpha to the woman and back again. So Ward didn’t approve of the bimbo.

  Full lips—Deja would have liked to put down to the work of collagen—poked out in a pout as Tina ran nervous hands over her thighs. The movement brought focus to her curvy hips encased in tight slacks. The blouse she wore plunged deep and showed off an unnecessary amount of cleavage.

  “Please have a seat, Tina,” Coreen offered. “Can I get you anything?”

  “No, ma’am. Thanks.” Of course the nearest empty spot turned out to be next to Heath. Deja resisted checking out his reaction to the blonde beauty, preferring instead the puppy worship from his brothers. They each practically sniffed the woman, and Ward stood up, his face a mask of fury.

  “Out!” he roared. Both Aaron and Abel scurried from the room. Ward turned back to Tina waiting. She fidgeted with the end of her blouse. Deja wasn’t fooled with the frightened damsel in distress act, even if she did know most of the people in Siberia feared Ward.

  “I didn’t want to have to bring my problem to you, Ward, but I couldn’t turn to anyone else, and we have to have your permission to leave Siberia for an extended period.” Tina didn’t look at Ward but instead peered through her lashes at Heath. There was the evidence right there. The bitch was interested in Heath, just as the rumors said.

  Heath stood up and shoved his hands into his pockets. He strolled toward the window and turned to face her. When Ward didn’t speak right away, he did. “Why would you need to leave Siberia?”

  “It’s my cousin.” A real look of pain and fear came over her features. “He’s no older than one of your little brothers, and he lives with foster parents. I had planned to take him before…I was captured…” Her chin dropped to her chest, and Coreen rushed over to join her on the couch, wrapping an arm about her shoulders. Deja felt a tightening in the pit of her stomach. She had no family other than her stepmother, who she couldn’t stand, but if she did, she knew it would kill her to fear Spiderweb had gotten their hands on them. She also knew any rule Ward set up wouldn’t have held her here one second longer than it took for her to get her stuff together. Tina continued, “I got a letter from John a couple days ago. I keep calling, but it goes straight to voice mail. Now, I’m not getting an answer at all. The message says his phone is either turned off or out of range. I called the house phone, and there’s no answer on that one either.”

  Tina Patel, Deja recalled. She had handled a letter addressed to the woman a few days ago. Remembering wasn’t so hard given that she’d sorted and delivered no more than a dozen. A tear slipped down Tina’s cheek, and she stood up, moving from Coreen’s embrace. “I wouldn’t want to burden you to help me with this, Ward. I know you have so much going on already. If you could loan me Heath and let us go over to North Carolina, I can let go of this stress and worry about John. I’d know for myself if he’s okay. And I know he’s human, but maybe because he’s family you could make an exception and let him live here.” She approached Heath and laid a hand on his arm, turning watery frightened eyes up to him. “Please, Heath, won’t you help me?”

  Deja surged to her feet. She took two steps in the woman’s direction when Coreen appeared before her and grabbed her hand. “
Come on, honey. Let’s get some fresh coffee so they can discuss the details of this rescue.”

  Deja hesitated, but Ward muttered, “Go on.”

  She scowled at him. Heath hadn’t looked up from gazing past Tina’s head. Nor did he shake her hold off. Deja spun on her heel and stomped out of the room. As soon as they hit the kitchen, she rounded on Coreen. “Why did you drag me in here? I was two seconds away from removing her head from her neck.”

  “Exactly.” Coreen banged through cabinets for coffee supplies while Deja paced. “You don’t have to worry about her, Deja. You’re mated to Heath. That settles it for the both of you. No other woman could exist for him.”

  “Says you.” She no longer believed in that mating crap. If she and Heath were so solid, why did he let her move out? Why did she want to? Nothing in their relationship was perfect or even close to being right. “My insides feel like they’re on fire with dislike every time that woman comes around. Explain that.”

  Coreen laid her hands on either side of Deja’s face and kissed her forehead. “Because you and Heath are walking out of sync. Everything feels worse, but it’s not forever. The two of you will figure it out. I promise.”

  “Somehow I’m not convinced.”

  Back in the living room, Deja caught the tail end of Ward and Heath’s conversation with Tina. “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fine,” Ward assured her. “I’ll get together a team to go out there and investigate. If Spiderweb does have its hand in this, I will make sure they’re crushed just like I’ve done every time they crawled out from under whatever rock they’re holed up beneath.”

  Deja didn’t miss the fire in Ward’s eyes. He looked like he wished an operative were in his living room at that moment so he could burn the man alive or rip him limb from limb. Heath’s expression held the same emotion, and she didn’t blame them. The pain that corporation put them through would never fade, and even sometimes at night in bed she woke soaked in sweat because she’d heard her own screams tormenting her mind. She didn’t want to remember but was sure she would never forget.

  “Thank you so much, Ward. This means a lot to me.” Tina now sat next to Ward and squeezed his hand in earnest. Deja glanced at Coreen. The woman’s face held concern for Tina but no anger or annoyance. Deja wished her emotions didn’t bandy her about like a ragdoll.

  “I’ll send Heath as lead and a few of my men. That way there’s an alpha should the need arise for one.”

  Tina pounced on this like the cat she was. “I’ll go too. If John’s hurt or scared, he’ll need someone he trusts there.”

  Ward agreed.

  “Then I’m going too.”

  Every head turned in her direction. Heath’s brows furrowed, and his nostrils flared. “No, you’re not. It’s too dangerous. You’ve had all the interaction with Spiderweb you’re going to ever have.”

  Deja raked him from head to foot with as scathing a look as she could. “You’re under the impression you have say in my life. You don’t. I’m going. If you don’t like it, kiss my ass.”

  She was pretty sure she heard a snort from Joe, and his eyes twinkled. Tina’s hands lay in her lap balled into fists, but she managed to keep the frightened poor-me facial expression in place. How she could on one hand be worried about her cousin and on the other manipulate some alone time with Heath, Deja didn’t know, but the skank would not get away with it. Deja ignored the voice in her head that said she had rejected Heath herself but was throwing a fit about anyone else having him. Well, c’est la vie. She’d deal with the aftermath later.

  Chapter Five

  The dinner party broke up soon after Ward collected a few more details about Tina’s cousin. Deja watched in amusement when Tina’s frustration surfaced because Heath and his dad saw Joe off and then went to another part of the house to discuss matters, putting Heath out of her reach. Deja laughed and shook her head.

  “Coreen, thanks for dinner. It was delicious, and most of the company great.”

  “Deja,” Coreen scolded.

  Deja widened her eyes. “What?” She smiled and hugged the older woman before stepping out of the house onto the front porch. A chill stirred the night air, and she stretched her arms over her head before zipping her jacket. An odd stirring started inside her, and she noticed a longing to shift and run off into the trees for a bit of exercise. She frowned. Sure, many of the citizens of Siberia did just that, but she’d never given into such an impulse. The thought of being alone out there in the darkness didn’t appeal. No, on some level it does. Well, forget it, little tiger. I’m still a woman. Settle down!

  A step behind her brought Tina’s scent, and her mood plummeted. She turned and scowled as the woman slipped by her and stepped off the porch. Deja curled her hands into fists at her sides. Clenching her jaw didn’t keep the words from popping out of her mouth of their own accord. “Stay out of Heath’s face.”

  Tina, in the act of walking away, stopped and spun slowly toward her. The Cheshire cat smile spreading over her face brought up an urge for violence in Deja, but she tamped it down. Tina took a step back toward Deja.

  “You don’t even understand what you are and what Heath needs from you.”

  Deja’s hackles rose. “Not that it’s any of your business, but I satisfy my man just fine. He’s never found a need to complain.”

  “Your man?”

  To keep from advancing on her, Deja looked away, but Tina had no such reservations or apparently weakness of control. She approached Deja, moving with the sensual grace of the big cats. Deja could almost see her shifted as one. No one exuded confidence and even satisfaction in what she was like this woman seemed to have.

  “Really?” she said. “Because it’s getting around town that you and Heath are on the outs, that you’ve broken up. In fact, don’t you two live apart?”

  “Fuck you. What we are is none of your business.”

  Tina went on as if Deja hadn’t spoken. “The problems you’re having are unheard of among our people, not among mates, not to this extent. Once two people have discovered they are mates, they are as one, bound to each other and unable to be apart. Maybe you’re not really one of us. Maybe you’re defective.”

  Anger clouded Deja’s mind and robbed her of the ability to think of a good comeback—that and the fact that she feared Tina was right. She’d second-guessed the mates thing from the start. She and Heath were pretty much broken up. She’d seen a few shifter couples in town, and they walked in harmony, “in sync” as Coreen had called it. Oh, she wasn’t so naive as to think every couple didn’t have their issues, but what if she was broken? After all, they were manufactured in a lab. Wasn’t it reasonable to suspect any one of them could vary from the norm in their DNA?

  She stood there so long, frozen in fear and doubt, Tina flashed her a triumphant smile and spun her heel to walk away. Deja opened her mouth to shout after her, but what was the point by then? She’d lost the argument, and it pissed her off beyond belief. Alone, the dark trees no longer called to her to run among them. She’d snuffed out the voice of the tiger, and the prospect of going on like this, in a state of uncertainty, had her stumbling home in a daze as if she’d drunk the night away.

  * * * *

  At work the next morning, Deja stared out the window of the office. Three letters sat in her carrier bag waiting for when she would close and go out to deliver them. Big whoop. She sighed, remembering her conversation with Tina. The problem was that no matter whether she was meant to be with Heath or not, she still loved him. Sleeping alone sucked ass, and when she had the occasional nightmare, he was not there to hold her and whisper comforting words until she slept again. The advantage for him, of course, was he’d been born the way he was, but she knew he also hurt seeing her so shaken up from her memories.

  She groaned in frustration and stood to find a broom. Maybe a little sweeping would distract her. No one had come in so far that morning, which made it pointless to even be there. As soon as she walked away from the desk, her c
ell phone rang, and she darted back to it. Her heart slammed against her ribcage at the caller ID.

  “Heath.” She cleared her throat and said his name again without sounding like a lovesick idiot. “What’s up?”

  “Have dinner with me tonight.” Did his voice sound rough as well?

  “Dinner? We just had dinner at your parents’ place last night.” The eagerness to see him again would not be squelched. The beast within almost purred in anticipation. She wanted to beat her into silence.

  “That was with a crowd. You and me alone,” he promised. “Say yes, Deja. I’ve missed you. We have our problems, but I think…I know…we belong together. Please.”

  “Yes.” Her voice came out in a featherlight whisper, and she wasn’t sure he heard until he spoke again, excitement in his tone as he explained when he would pick her up and where they would go.

  “Wear a dress, a short one.”

  She frowned.

  “You’re always so beautiful in a dress, and I think I may go crazy if I don’t get to see you in one again soon.”

  She laughed. “Flattery will get you far. I had on a dress last night.”

  “I noticed.”

  Her breath rattled in her chest. “Okay, fine. Pick me up at seven. I’ll be ready.”

  “Perfect.”

  She’d said the words—I love you—before she could stop herself, but he’d already broken the connection. After dropping into her chair, she put her head down on the desk and shut her eyes. Which dress should she wear, or should she buy a new one? Hell, maybe she should ignore Heath’s request since he did sound like he just wanted to tell her what to do and just go in a pair of jeans. Then again, the restaurant seemed like a nice one from the name, unlike the casual ones here in Siberia. Decision made, she popped up from her seat, locked the broom in the closet, and snatched up her message bag. No one would care she closed shop a couple hours early. She could deliver the letters and spend time shopping. Her budget didn’t exactly allow for anything new, but she could eat ramen or whatever for the next week and be fine. Heath would soon regret being so stubborn.