The Tiger's Mail Order Mate (Paranormal Shifter Romance)

by Jade White

  “How do you know this?” Russell asked softly, he felt the same conviction as Yuri. He was a monster in body, but not in mind.

  “I saw it.” Yuri replied bleakly “Russia let us into a village to see how we would act among regular people. The splicers were all male, I guess that’s what happens during our creation, only the Y chromosome can carry the animal genes, anyway. They killed all the men, and male children; all of them. Went absolutely berserk and killed every male human in the village. They then took the females as their own, without regard for them. Raped them repeatedly, even the children. The KGB deemed the experiment a failure and destroyed the evidence.” Yuri looked at Sonja and pulled an SD card out of his pocket. “You missed that part. Here, here is the evidence, including video footage of Yansa. You’re going to need it to bring crimes against humanity charges against Russia at least.”

  Russell took the SD card and handed it to Sonja who then placed it in her bra with the first one. “One question, are we capable of producing offspring?” Sonja shot him a strange stare as he finished his sentence.

  “Not without help.” Yuri replied. “The egg needs to be artificially inseminated and then implanted into the woman. She then needs to have a special hormonal injection to keep from rejecting the fetus.”

  “You didn’t know that?” He asked Sonja.

  “Nope. News to me. I think I would have learned about it in the briefing I would have had before Yuri and I went through the bonding process.” She replied.

  “Well, at least that means we don’t have to worry about you getting pregnant while we try to sort our shit out and find a safe place to live.” Russell said as he gave her a hug.

  “You have probably the best handler in the world.” Yuri assured Russell. “I feel bad for giving her up, but I couldn’t handle my aggression. You deserve her.”

  The trio started their way towards the crew quarters. “I placed your uniforms on your racks. Russell, you’re an assistant steward. Sonja, you will be a cleaner, I hope you are all okay with that.” Yuri explained.

  “Definitely.” Russell said. “We need to earn our keep somehow and keep our profile low.”

  “You also have a few weeks to earn tips before we head on to French Polynesia. You will be paid in cash by me.” Yuri explained. “From there, you can get in touch with my contact from Beijing and see what he can do for you from there.”

  “Thank you so much, Yuri.” Sonja said. “I’ll never forget this.”

  Yuri nodded. “It’s the least I could do.” He said as he walked back to his cabin.

  “So, the world is about to be toppled onto its ear. For once the USA and Russia are going to be the bad guys. Let’s hope the EU listens to China.” Russell said sourly.

  “Yeah, let’s hope. The USA and Russia’s secrets need to be exposed once and for all, and we are the ones to do it.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Russell and Sonja stood on the deck, watching the large cruise ship pull away. They stood on the docks of Papeete, the capital of French Polynesia, and watched the sun set into the glassy Pacific Ocean.

  “You know, I think we should take a breather.” Russell placed his arm around Sonja’s waist.

  “This is a really nice place and it might be some time until we can organize a flight to China.”

  “True.” Sonja replied. “There’s paperwork, contacts and a whole slew of red tape we’ll need to get through.”

  He nodded. “That, and there’s no guarantee we’d even be able to get through to them. Remember, China won’t act unless there’s something in it for them, they aren’t the bastion of human rights, you know.”

  “True, but it’s worth a shot. If anything, there’s the EU. They would definitely have a vested interest in keeping this from happening,” Sonja explained as they strolled towards the center of the city.

  “You have a point. I think we need to find a hotel soon. We were paid enough for working there. I think we both have a few thousand dollars?”

  “We both have three thousand. Who knew we would luck out and get a cruise full of oil barons?” She gushed.

  “That will go reasonably far, here. Thing is, we need to get a flight out of here, somehow. We have these forged documents that Yuri made up for us, but looking at them, I doubt they’ll pass any kind of scrutiny.”

  “We need to get ourselves proper passports to get anywhere. I think Yuri said something about a former colleague living here. We should try to find them.”

  The couple made it to a small hostel. They walked in and Sonja took the lead. “We would like a room if you have any, please.” She said in French.

  The dark haired woman at the counter flipped open a book and browsed inside. “Yes, we have one room left; it has just one bed, if that’s okay?”

  “Yes, that will be fine.” Sonja replied. “How much per night?” she asked as she pulled out a thick billfold.

  “Twenty US Dollars a night.” She replied. “You pay each day. So you pay now for tonight and you pay tomorrow morning if you wish to keep your room. You can stay for up to a month.”

  Sonja placed a twenty-dollar bill on the wooden counter and the woman turned to get the key. “Now, don’t leave belongings here, they might get stolen, bring your backpacks with you. There is a sheet of paper with information on it in your room about the local area. Please, enjoy your stay.”

  Sonja and Russell took the key and wandered to their room. The hostel was clean and tidy. It was obvious it catered to those young yuppies with wanderlust, or hard-core surfer dudes in search of the next big wave. They were fortunate to get the only private room in the place; this hostel, like many others around the world had many beds in a few large rooms with foot lockers at the end, similar to a military barracks, but better decorated.

  They unlocked their room and looked inside. The room was dim, it had one bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling and the curtains were drawn over the window. The white walls had generic photographs from around the islands hung up with haphazard care and the small bed sat forlornly in the corner.

  “Well, it looks like it’s going to be a tight fit.” Russell said as he surveyed the small room. “At least it’s private.” He placed his hand on Sonja’s firm butt.

  “Not right now. We need to find our Chinese contact and see what he can do for us, after we get work done, and then we can play.” She wrapped her arms around Russell’s and moved in for a kiss.

  Russell returned it and gave her pert bottom a pat. “Alright, let’s go find this guy of yours. The less time we spend here, the less of a chance we’ll get caught. They might not be able to legally extradite us, but they sure can send some black ops in and covertly tag and bag us.” He was no stranger to those kinds of ops because he participated in many of them.

  Sonja understood the urgency. “He should be in an office nearby. That’s why I picked this hostel, she said as they left.

  The smell of fish filled the air as they walked by the wharf. The bright South Pacific sun warmed them, despite it being mid winter in the southern hemisphere, and seagulls wheeled in the air. Palm trees swayed gently in the cool ocean breeze.

  Kids ran around carefree in the streets of the small capital city; stray dogs ran out of alleyways to bark weakly at passers-by. Sometimes, a tourist would offer one of the dirty mongrels a bite to eat as a gesture of kindness. Life in the small South Pacific country seemed rather simple and carefree. Russell was tempted to stay there and make a living as a mercenary or something/ if he weren’t a wanted man.

  “I hope we can get this over with soon.” He said. “I’m down to my last box of adrenal suppressants.”

  Sonja nodded, her red hair shining in the sun, “I know. It’s getting down to the wire for you. There might be a black market around here somewhere, or even my contact can procure some for us. At least, Yuri was willing to help you by giving you some of his. I just wish he would’ve told us where he got them.”

  “If I’m forced to transform and I’m out...”

/>   “I know.” Sonja said. “You’ll get stuck and require a more direct method to bring you back.”

  “Yeah, that one dose of heavy duty tranquilizer Yuri gave you, the one that’s enough to euthanize a full grown bull elephant, that’s the direct method. No guarantees I’ll survive it, but at least it’ll be painless.”

  Sonja nodded as she felt inside her jacket for the small handgun that was loaded with the dart. She wanted to make sure that it was still there and properly concealed. Her 9mm pistol was in the other pocket and she really didn’t want to confuse the two. “Well let’s hope that this is the last leg until we get to China.”

  “Yeah China can help me stay stable, I hope. I’m just not too terribly excited to go over to them. It feels wrong somehow. Like ‘yay the communists are the good guys now!’ It’s just all sorts of wrong.”

  “I wouldn’t say that they are the ‘good guys.’ Just the ones who have enough political clout to smack both Russia and the USA back into behaving themselves. That and the EU anyway.”

  “Yeah we’ll try the EU if China turns us away. I’m just leery of them extraditing us,” Russell said.

  “We’ll be safe in France. I know there is nothing in place between them and Russia. In the USA, however, we might need to play the human rights card.” Sonja explained. A car blared its horn as it tried to push the wrong way down a one-way street.

  “Thing is, I’m not human.” Russell said sadly. “We both know it, so why should we even bullshit ourselves. I exist in a legal limbo.”

  Sonja sighed as they strolled slowly down the main boulevard towards her contact’s office. “Well, the one thing the EU has going for it, as well as China, is they despise human experimentation. Too many bad memories from back in the day. I think we’re here.” She said as they stopped in front of a building. Like many others in the area, it was only two floors, and spread out, and the front was white stucco. The eaves and shutters were painted a gorgeous royal blue and the door was ornately decorated.

  “Wow, not a very understated place is it?” Russell quipped.

  “I think that’s par for the course here if you look around.” She motioned to all the brightly accented buildings.

  “Alright, let’s go in.” He sighed as he began to go up the cement steps leading to the building.

  Sonja pushed past him. “It’s best I go first. I know three Chinese dialects and he’s also expecting me.”

  They opened the door to a dim hallway. They walked in and saw an open door to their left and entered. The office was Spartan and there were a few threadbare chairs to sit in while they waited.

  A small Chinese gentleman stepped out from the closed door and motioned them inside. He was dressed in a grey business suit and was sweating profusely. His black hair was greasy and combed in a rough comb-over to hide his premature balding.

  “So, you’re the ones who want to defect,” he said in Mandarin while he mopped his forehead with a handkerchief. The fans on his desk, as well as the ceiling fan were going full tilt, yet the small man still couldn’t find relief. He definitely wasn’t suited for the tropical climate.

  “Yes. I take it you’re from the North?” Sonja replied perfectly in the same language, noting the man’s discomfort.

  “Ah, yes, how observant. My name is Fai Guo. I am with the Ministry of State Security of China. I was told that you have some kind of intelligence on both the US and Russian governments.”

  “Ah yes.” Sonja replied. “This place isn’t...”

  “You mean tapped? Not by your governments. Ours, definitely.” He tapped his desk a few times and two heavily armed guards appeared from the closed door behind him. “Not only tapped, but these two are trained to repeat everything they hear to a government official.” Fai Guo replied.

  Russell stood off to the side, unable to understand the conversation that was going on. He looked out the window instead to take in the view of the bustling capital of Tahiti and its surrounds. The traffic was thick and the pedestrians didn’t care. The beggars on the side of the road who ran up to the stopped vehicles to beg for alms so they could eat for another day.

  “So, Russell and I here and need to get to China. We will only hand over our intel once we are guaranteed safety from both the US and Russian governments.”

  “Ah, that’s where we must disagree slightly.” Fai parried in English, noting Russell’s discomfort. “You see, my government wants the info, not you, and definitely not that... Guàiwù” he spat. “Maybe we will take him. Our science team would probably find many uses for him.”

  “Well, we need to part ways then,” Sonja replied. “It’s either both of us, alive, and the Intel, or nothing.”

  “Such a shame.” Guo replied. “Don’t worry, we won’t kill you. We just have no use for a washed-up mutant and a splicer. China has, oddly enough, no desire to produce an army of tigers and bears, nor do we have any reason to call the USA and Russia out on their abuses. I hope you can find what you are looking for. Neutrality costs nothing, and that is how we choose to remain.”

  “Until they roll up on your doorstep.” Russell growled. The light on the implant located at the base of his skull was blinking a dangerous red, and his muscles were tense. The patience he had for this slimy bureaucrat was about to run out.

  “Oh my.” Fai replied as he sat back in his chair. The two armed guards pointed their sub machine guns at Russell in unison, in case he changed shape. “You see, we can help you a little bit, if you give us a sample of your blood, nothing more, I have in my office at least three months of adrenal suppressing drugs, in the ampoules, all ready to go.”

  Russell looked at Sonja helplessly. The offer was reasonable, and he was already wanted for treason, so he figured why not. “Yeah, get the nurse.” He replied as he rolled up the sleeve to his white cotton shirt.

  Sonja shot him a dirty look as a small Chinese lady stuck a needle in his arm and collected five vials of blood from Russell’s bulging veins.

  “Hey, it isn’t like I have a choice here. They aren’t able to clone me, if anything, the more information about the experiments that created Yuri and I get out, the less likely more of us will be created in the future.”

  “Or more,” Sonja snapped as the nurse pulled the needle out of Russell’s dark arm and placed a bandage on the small wound.

  “Your cooperation is appreciated.” Fai said as he placed the boxes of the sustaining drug on his desk. “As I said, China has no desire to make an army of animal men. We do have scientific interest in this, only. This kind of opportunity only comes around once. I will also provide you with more authentic looking documentation. It is the least we can do, and remain neutral, politically, anyway. We do have a vested interest in watching both the US and Russia gets their collective hands smacked, but we cannot be the ones to do it,” he concluded with a Cheshire grin.

  *

  Sonja and Russell arrived back at the hostel and she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as they reached their room.

  She turned around and took a good long look at Russell. They were bonded now, so she could almost sense his thoughts and she felt that because of his earlier anger, his hormone levels were out of balance and he was about to pounce on her. Sonja turned around and put her arms around him, and gave him a strong hug.

  “Shh. It’ll be okay.” She soothed him. She felt his tense muscles ripple under his clothes as she held him tight.

  It took every ounce of self-control Russell had to not throw Sonja down on the bed and rip her clothes off. His human mind screamed against the pure animal instinct that was attempting to drive him to rape the woman he loved. The sound of his ragged breathing filled the air as he fought his inner demon. “I can’t be here right now.” He growled through gritted teeth.

  “Breathe.” She whispered in his ear. The smell of his musk began to fill the room and take over her senses. She didn’t need it to realize that he was in dire need of her help. She caressed the back of his neck and found the blinking r
ed LED and pushed it once.

  Russell relaxed a little as the soothing drug entered his system, but it did little to quench the burning sexual desire he had coursing through his veins. With his adrenaline suppressed, his body used testosterone in the stress response process, and because of that, there was no real way to burn it off except through sexual release. “Look, I don’t want to if you don’t. I don’t want to be like Yuri.”

  “I was able to fight him off, just like I can fight you off if I’m not interested, and you know that.” She said as she held his dark head in her hands, pressing his forehead against hers while staring into his amber eyes. She started to kiss him gently on his full lips, her tongue darting over the sensitive flesh causing him to growl in response.

  He clutched at her in desperation as she kissed him and returned it feverishly. His tongue darted around hers, stroking it softly, sending shivers of desire down her spine. His strong hand rested at the base of her spine as she leaned into him. Russell ran his hand through Sonja’s red hair as they lingered over their passionate kiss.