by Tamsin Baker
“She’s a … why?”
Tommy exploded, throwing his hands in the air and screaming in Jeremy’s face. “Why do you think? You fucking idiot!”
The impact of that insult sent Jeremy’s common sense into a downward spiral. Natalia had waited for him.
Misplaced anger at himself turned and fired at Tommy.
“You shouldn’t have left her a virgin. They could be raping her right now!” He ground the words out, each one edged with his fury.
Chapter Three
Tommy felt every bit of anger and frustration of the past few years boil up inside him. They had been waiting a decade for this big asshole to return from whatever hiatus he had gone on. Now that he was finally back, he was blaming Tommy for not sleeping with Natalia? Tommy’s hands clenched into fists at his side, and without any thought except for the wasted years they had waited, he swung his arm and connected, punching the tiger shifter in the jaw.
He heard a sickening crunch of bone on bone, and his hand throbbed like hell fire, but he continued to glare at the man who was now reeling backwards after Tommy’s blow.
“Me? She’s been waiting for you since she turned sixteen! We both have! Where the fuck have you been?” Tommy panted hard, his heart beating so fast he knew he was going to shift soon. He needed to get clear of the people nearby or he’d hurt someone.
He staggered towards the forest’s edge and pulled off his t-shirt and jeans. Jeremy followed him, his eyes narrowed and nursing his jaw. Fuck my hand hurts!
Tommy felt the heat of the Alpha’s gaze all the way to his throbbing balls, and he shifted, unwilling to deal with Natalia’s predestined mate a moment longer.
Grey fur, four legs, and a tail emerged where his human form used to be. He howled, long and loud. Then he turned his back on his friends and ran.
Dirt beneath his paws, he ducked and weaved through the thick tall trees. He needed to put as much space between him and the tiger as possible.
He couldn’t believe Jeremy was such a dick-head! Drop dead gorgeous, yes, but arrogant and unkind. Who was he to blame Tommy for not claiming Natalia?
He and Natalia had discussed it years ago. She wanted to wait for Jeremy to come home before she decided. Natalia had admitted to Tommy that she wanted both of them as mates, and if Jeremy would agree then she would bind herself to both of them.
But would Jeremy agree to sharing her with him? And what would Jeremy think about Tommy’s unnatural attraction to him?
Tommy ran, anger and confusion beating against him hard. He had a chance of outrunning Jeremy, but he was unable to escape the true despair chasing him.
Sensing movement behind him and not wanting to stop, he pushed himself harder. He knew who was coming.
A deep growl sounded behind him, and he whirled to face the tiger that landed on the dirt in front of him.
He was magnificent. Huge, bright orange and black with razor sharp white teeth.
Tommy snapped his jaws at the man that could be his Alpha and turned, ready to run. He couldn’t stay and fight an animal five times his size. But instead of running away as he wanted to do, he was soon flipped onto his back and pinned to the ground.
Jeremy growled down at him, his silver eyes intense and powerful. Tommy whimpered feeling helpless and unfairly attacked.
Jeremy locked his jaw around Tommy’s neck in the ultimate sign of dominance, and Tommy let go of his wolf, shifting back to human.
Jeremy must have felt the change because he also shifted, and their fur disappeared.
Now Tommy was staring up into the glittering blue eyes of a naked Jeremy, still pinning him to the ground. He was burning hot even against Tommy’s own heated skin, his huge muscles bulging beneath his smooth skin.
Tommy’s cock hardened and lengthened as he attempted to get up but was pinned back down by the man he hoped to share a mate with.
“Let me up.” He grunted and twisted, but Jeremy just held him as though it were no effort at all.
“No, Tommy.”
Tommy arched his back and screamed out, but nothing changed. Jeremy grabbed his wrists and held them tighter. Panic began to swim through him.
“It’s not my fault.” He panted as he thrashed his head from side to side. Tommy was frantic in his arousal now. What would Jeremy think when he felt it? He was fully hard now, so there was no way of hiding it.
Jeremy dropped his head and bit into his neck, the move carnal as well as dominant.
Tommy shuddered and worked to slow his breathing down. Jeremy didn’t lift his head, just whispered into Tommy’s ear.
“I know, and I’m sorry. We’ll find her together.”
Tears formed at the back of Tommy’s eyes, and he blinked them away. There was the man he wanted. Fuck! He wanted to keep on hating Jeremy! It made things so much easier.
After another few minutes Jeremy rolled off him and got to his feet.
Tommy’s cock was fully erect, weeping pre-cum, and his balls hurt. How was he going to explain that?
He sat up, lifting his knees to disguise some of it and looked up at the tiger shifter. Jeremy had the longest, thickest cock Tommy had ever seen, and it was also heavily aroused. Wow, really?
He reluctantly looked up into Jeremy’s eyes, he shrugged. “I always get horny when I shift and run. You do, too?”
Tommy nodded and got to his feet. He couldn’t have come up with a better excuse himself.
The problem was that he ached to touch Jeremy, to run his hands over those huge shoulders, the rippling abs. He wanted to sink to his knees and take that weeping cockhead into his mouth and taste the flesh as though it were his right.
The thought made his cheeks flush crimson, and he turned away. “Should we shift back and run home?”
A growl sounded behind him, and Tommy turned to find Jeremy had already shifted. He was huge, at least ten feet long. Jeremy, as either a tiger or a man, was powerful, strong, and capable of protecting them all.
This was the sort of man their pack would follow, no matter what.
His pack didn’t distinguish among the different shifters. If you were a shifter of the land then you belonged with them. They only differentiated between those of the sky and the water.
Tommy laughed, second again. He shifted and ran after the retreating figure of the man he wanted as his Alpha.
****
Jeremy pulled on a pair of his dad’s jeans and pulled the belt tight. He really needed to get some new clothes.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Tommy return from their “run”, but he disappeared into a house before Jeremy could get another glimpse of the beautiful body he had held beneath him in the forest.
Pinning Tommy’s hard cock beneath him while he got hard himself. Fuck, that had felt good. Feeling the heat and arousal of the young wolf and knowing that Tommy wanted him.
Shaking his head, Jeremy forced the blood back to his brain. He would deal with Tommy later. There were more important things to organize today. He had to focus on getting Natalia back, and he had no idea how to do that now.
How were they going to find her?
Jeremy shrugged on a large black jumper and walked up to a group of elders. “Dad. Tell me who you think has Natalia.”
His dad glanced at two of the other male elders, and they nodded.
“You know the old stories, Jeremy.”
Jeremy nodded though he didn’t understand the relevance. He had heard the many legends of their shifter ancestors throughout his life.
“What do they have to do with her disappearance?”
“There are three groups of shifters. Those of the land, the air, and the water. We have always been at peace with the shifters of the sea, but the sky creatures have always envied us.”
Jeremy groaned and rolled his eyes.
“There has to be a better reason than that, Dad. Natalia is not only a rare shifter. She is a fertile, unmated female. They have chosen extremely well if they meant to capture someone of great worth.”
>
The men all nodded, and Jeremy felt a warm body press up next to him.
“Natalia and I have seen bird shifters north of the woods.”
One of the old wolves growled at Tommy. “You know you are not meant to run north.”
Tommy shrugged, the stubborn set of his jaw strong. “Natalia needs the extra space, and she likes to stretch her legs. If she went too far up north without me and ventured into their area, they could have captured her.”
Jeremy nodded. It made sense, and at the very least, it was somewhere to start. “Yes, we need to send some people up there to see. What is the smallest shifter animal we have?”
Tommy grinned. “We have a raccoon shifter, but he’s slow.”
A smile tugged up Jeremy’s lips, despite the seriousness of the situation.
“Do we have a fox? Or some other animal that is fast yet undetectable.”
Tommy nodded and stood on his tiptoes.
“Hey! Bobby!”
A short, plump young man came running. “Yeah, Tommy?”
“Bobby, we need you to run north for us and see if you can smell or sense Natalia. If I come with you, would you go?”
The young man’s eyebrows rose, and then he nodded. “Yeah. Of course. When do we leave?”
Jeremy felt useless as all the plans were taken out of his hands and organized without him. He hated that.
Tommy gave him a sideways glance and a small push with his elbow into Jeremy’s ribs. The move showed a camaraderie that lessened the impact. “Don’t worry, you can come, too. You’ll need to hang back and wait for our signal before you run in. They’ll be able to sense you pretty much from here.”
Jeremy nodded again. He hated not knowing what they were going into.
“What’s the plan exactly? How are we going to get her out if she’s hurt?”
Jeremy looked around their group, and fear threaded itself around the men like an invisible needle.
An idea occurred to him, and he straightened, stretching to his full six foot four inches. “I could carry her if I could get close enough without alerting them.”
Tommy and Bobby nodded.
“I’m a fox shifter, so they shouldn’t be able to detect me. If Tommy goes with me, he can send a signal back to you if it’s ok for you to come in.”
Tommy nodded. “I’ll howl three times if I need you to come. I don’t know if we’ll even find her…”
Jeremy swallowed. “We have to. They could be doing anything to her.”
All of the men nodded, and they began to strip. They would need to work together, but if they could get her back, they would. Then Jeremy’s true fight would begin. To stay here and fight for his right to mate with Natalia? Or go home and continue on with his life as though his shifter blood didn’t exist? There was only one way to find out how he would feel, and that was to find Natalia and let his tiger decide.
Chapter Four
Natalia raised her heavy head. She had a metal collar around her neck that was so tight she didn’t dare attempt to shift. They had tied her to two trees about six foot apart. The collar, her arms and her legs, all tied to the trees. Her arms and legs were spread, and she was completely helpless. She was also exhausted. She had been in this position for almost two days.
Her arms ached, and her legs burned. What made it worse was the fact she didn’t know why she was being punished. They had told her nothing except that she would stand trial for her crime the next day.
Yes, she had run too far into the bird shifter’s lands, but why were they holding her for it? It wasn’t a true crime, and the question was, what did they want from her?
She caught a whiff of a land shifter and took a deeper breath, a familiar scent making her moan in relief. Tommy. Oh, thank God. He’s found me.
A small fox was sniffing around her, and even in her tired state she recognized his scent.
“Bobby...” she whispered, fear catching in her throat. The bird men would be around, and they could hurt the lovely boy trying to help her.
One of the larger men had given her a long shirt that almost decently covered her, but other than that privilege, she had been tied up and starved. It had been the worst two days of her life.
A naked man appeared at her feet, and Natalia closed her eyes. That was the one thing she found hard to handle about being a shifter, the lack and loss of clothes.
A wolf’s howl broke the silence around them, then again and again. Tommy.
“They’re coming.” Bobby whispered.
A loud squawk rent the air, and Bobby began to frantically unclip her ankles. The bird shifters had heard, and they were coming for her again.
“Hurry, Bobby, please.” Natalia began to sob.
She was truly scared now. She didn’t know what these men wanted, and she certainly didn’t want an all-out war between their two groups.
A growl ripped through the air, and Natalia shivered. A tiger. There were only two in their pack. Jeremy’s parents, but they were old.
It couldn’t be him … could it? He had been missing for ten years.
A tiger landed on the dirt in front of her, and beside him came Tommy in his wolf form. The tiger was magnificent, strong, huge, and clearly in his prime. Jeremy.
“Tommy…” She sobbed as Bobby untied her wrists and her arms dropped to her sides. Her legs could barely hold her.
Tommy appeared, naked and beautiful, and unclipped the collar that held her up.
She fell into his arms, tears of relief streaming down her face.
“Get on Jeremy. Quickly.” Tommy lifted her onto the tiger’s back just as two hawks flew down toward them.
Natalia screamed as the bird’s claws pulled at her hair, and the tiger took off. Natalia could barely hang on as she heard the screech of birds and the snap of Tommy’s jaws behind her.
“Tommy!” she cried out even as she was taken away from him. Please let him be all right.
Natalia closed her eyes and concentrated on holding onto the tiger beneath her. Her arms were so weak, and she was so sore.
“Slow down. I can’t hold on,” she whispered, and the tiger immediately slowed, moving gracefully through the woods.
He was so warm and soft. Sleep beckoned to her exhausted body. She was so grateful for being rescued, and the feel of another tiger was soothing to her soul.
They were almost home, and the pure relief of that sent her into shivers.
When they finally stopped, she slid off Jeremy, or the tiger she assumed was Jeremy, and onto the dirt covered floor.
The huge tiger shifted, and there stood the man she had dreamt of her whole life. Thick black hair, cat-like silver eyes that were transitioning back to blue. He had the most incredibly muscled body she had ever seen.
His male parts looked huge, yet Natalia could barely consider the implications of that. She was too overwhelmed with both the relief of being rescued and the amazement of seeing the man who was her destined “mate”.
Lost in her own thoughts, she yelped when Jeremy grabbed her under the arms and hauled her into his chest. He was naked and warm. She felt vulnerable and awkward.
He held her to him, and she stilled before she slowly pushed back from him.
“Thank you for rescuing me, J-Jeremy.”
What else could she say? She barely knew this man.
Then she turned and staggered towards her boyfriend, the man who had loved her and supported her as they had grown together. The wolf who had led them all to find her was quickly pulling on a pair of pants.
He knew she didn’t like him being naked in front of everybody.
“Tommy!” She screamed as she launched herself into his arms.
He stepped forward and caught her, as he always did. He wrapped his arms tightly around her body and kissed the top of her head. Tommy ran his hands up and down her spine in that reassuring way he had.
Jeremy may have saved her by running away with her, but Tommy had known where she would be. She loved Tommy; she always had.
****
Jeremy stood on the front step of his parents’ house watching Natalia. She looked exhausted, but so incredibly beautiful. She had grown into an even more striking young woman than he had feared, with jet black hair to her waist, silver-blue eyes, and red full lips.
He had a lot of catching up to do with Natalia. She was his mate. He knew she was, but the look she had given him when he’d held her after they had rescued her had hurt.
It was time to talk to her.
He pushed himself off the step and strode over to the common area. She sat with three other young women, but Jeremy couldn’t even find the energy to greet the others.
“Natalia, can we go for a walk? Talk?”
She turned silver eyes on him and frowned.
He held his hand out. “Please.”
She sighed and reached out. Her hand in his sent little frissons of awareness down his spine, and a growl arose.
She heard it when she pulled herself to standing and immediately dropped her hand away. She might be innocent to the pleasures of the flesh, but she would know what sort of affect she had on him.
“What do you want to talk about, Jeremy?”
He grimaced before he even asked the question. “Firstly, I wanted to know how the bird shifters treated you. I couldn’t smell any blood on you…” He trailed off, unable to say that he hadn’t smelt any semen on her either. She had been exhausted but otherwise unharmed if the reports within the community were correct.
She looked down at her feet as they moved and twirled her fingers together.
“No, they didn’t hurt me. Not really. They told me that I had committed a crime and that I needed to stand trial for it. I suppose I had in a way, as I crossed over the borders into their lands. Their reaction was far too extreme for that, though. Other than that they just left me.”
Relief flooded Jeremy, and he reached a hand out to her.
She moved away, and her blue eyes flashed at him. She was angry; that was clear.
