On the Growl: A Shifter Romance Anthology

by Lynn Red

  Mandy quailed in the face of Vic’s fury, shrinking down lower in her seat. Could an alpha kill one of his tigers, she wondered, even if she wasn’t really officially a tiger? Just sort of acquired by them?

  “Vic, baby,” Estrella said in a soothing voice. “You’re scaring her.”

  “She needs to be fucking scared,” Vic roared. His hands clenched on the table, and then one shot up and pointed at Mandy’s face. “You need to fucking realize who you’re putting in danger with this shitty attitude of yours—“

  “She knows,” Estrella said, her voice still placating and soft. “I’m sure this is all a lot for her to take in.”

  “If you lose control, you risk all of us. If you shift in public, you endanger every-fucking-one.” Vic’s voice was sounding more and more animal, and the urge to flee was growing greater and greater. Not so discreetly, Johnny scooted his chair away from Mandy.

  Coward, she thought. God, what had she ever seen in Johnny other than a pair of blue eyes? Thank goodness she’d never slept with him.

  Vic slowly rose from the table. “I’ll not have my wife and child in a fucking zoo—“

  “I’ll handle things,” Adrian said. His voice was utterly calm compared to Vic’s rage, and everyone immediately turned to him. He didn’t get up. Didn’t look in Mandy’s direction. Just shrugged his big shoulders. “I’ll handle things. Give me the week off of work and I’ll handle Mandy.”

  ‘Handle’ Mandy? She bristled, but remained silent. Vic was ragey enough as it was.

  “Are you sure?” Estrella looked a little concerned. She kept glancing over at Mandy, her eyes sympathetic. Maybe she understood what Mandy was going through, as she was an outsider to the Merino clan herself. She was a liger who had been taken in when she’d mated Vic, or so Johnny had told her. It was one thing that had spurred him on to changing her - jealousy over Vic and Estrella’s mated happiness. “Maybe I can help—“

  “No,” Vic said, voice dangerous. His big arms - yikes, they were big — crossed over his chest. “It’s decided. Adrian can handle her.”

  Mandy’s brow wrinkled as she glanced over at Adrian. Tall, gorgeous, utterly confident. Why was he bothering with her? From what Johnny had told her about the tiger clan, Adrian tended to stay out of the messes. And she was pretty sure that she was considered one of their ‘messes’.

  There had to be a catch here somewhere. Just what exactly it was, she hadn’t figured out yet.

  “All right,” Estrella said, a hint of a smile returning to her lovely face. She kept smiling even as she looked over at Mandy. “We’ll let Adrian handle things.”

  “You have a week off of work,” Vic told Adrian.

  “Week’s all I need,” Adrian replied in that utterly calm voice. “I’ll mentor her into shape by then.”

  And there she was, bristling all over again as they talked about her over her head. Like she was nothing. Tiger Barbie, their newest play thing. That was all Johnny had ever considered her to be, right? “What about what I want?”

  Vic snarled, but Adrian was already on it. Those cool blue eyes looked over at her. “It doesn’t matter what you want.”

  She huffed and sat back in her seat. That seemed to be the story of her life. No one ever cared what Mandy wanted.

  Adrian studied the redhead that sat across from him at the churrascaria restaurant. He’d taken her here for two reasons: one, because she wouldn’t cause a scene in public no matter how much she might pout; and two, because meat tended to trigger a shifter’s instincts. So what better place than all-you-can-eat Brazilian barbecue?

  They’d been silent on the way over to the restaurant, Mandy sitting with her arms crossed in the passenger seat as he drove. He didn’t mind the silence; he wasn’t normally the biggest talker anyhow. He left that for Vic. Actually, he left most things for Vic. His brother was a year older than him and Adrian was content to let his headstrong, charging-head-first brother take control of everything. Most times. But when Adrian saw something he wanted, he went after it.

  And he wanted Mandy for himself.

  He’d never considered having a mate, not really. Female shifters were rare enough as it was, and Adrian had never thought of himself as particularly ‘lonely’. He had his clan, he had the garage he helped Vic to run, and if he had a particular itch, that was what bars were for. You dated a nice human girl, you hooked up once or twice, and then you never called her back. He never took a girl home to meet the family. Never met one he was particularly interested in bringing home before.

  But then Johnny had brought home Mandy, half-transformed and trembling with fear. She hadn’t understood what was happening, and she looked just as shocked as the rest of them when Johnny had declared her his mate. And sure enough, she even wore a mate mark on her neck.

  And for the first time, Adrian had seethed at Johnny’s headstrong carelessness. He’d ruined this girl’s life because he wanted to get his dick wet. Adrian had continued to stew on things as the tiger pair had been sent into exile, and then both Johnny and Mandy returned a month later.

  And it was clear that they were no longer a couple. Johnny, his stupid, irresponsible brother, had complained that he’d turned Mandy hoping it would make her jump into his bed. In fact, it had done the opposite. Mandy wanted nothing to do with Johnny, and for some reason, that had made Adrian glad. Somewhere in the past month, Mandy had found her spine, and she was standing up to everyone. Even Vic, which Adrian found rather endearing. She was terrified, and yet she found the inner strength to lift her chin and protest how she was being handled.

  It was that tiny lift of her chin that had sealed her fate. Adrian wanted her, a bolt of lust and possessive need shooting through him so powerfully that he’d had to clench his jaw to control himself. Outwardly, he might show nothing, but inside, he was a seething mass of lust. His tiger saw Mandy, a female tiger in his territory, unclaimed and alone, and it wanted her. And the human part of Adrian liked that she was brave even when scared, her tiny jaw set to a mulish angle as they decided her fate.

  So he’d stepped in. Offered to mentor her. It’d give him time alone with her. Time to woo her into seeing that maybe a tiger wasn’t such a bad thing to be after all. Johnny had never even given her a choice in the matter, according to Mandy’s protests. Now the choice was ripped from her - you couldn’t go back once you’d been turned - but Adrian would show her that it wouldn’t be so bad to be a tiger’s mate.

  Because she was definitely going to be his. His tiger had never craved a mate before, but now that he’d decided, it was taking everything he had to remain calm when every instinct in his body was screaming for him to place his own mate mark over the fading one on her neck. To take her as his own. To claim her.

  ‘Course, he had no idea how to woo a girl, not really. But stopping a moody Vic from snapping her neck was a good start. Not that Vic would. His brother was a lot of bluster more than anything else…but his mate was also pregnant, and Vic’s protective tendencies were in overdrive. Best to just defuse the situation himself by claiming her as his own mate before someone else could get that idea in their heads.

  He parked his car in front of the churrascaria restaurant and looked over at her. “You know to keep your mouth shut about clan things in public?”

  That cute, stubborn little jaw was clenched. She glared at him. “I’m not stupid. And I’m not hungry.”

  Her stomach growled, loud enough for both of them to hear, and her cheeks flushed a bright red. Adrian raised an eyebrow at her.

  “Oh, shut up,” she snapped and stormed out of the car.

  He bit back his grin and followed her into the restaurant.

  Mandy was silent as they were seated, but he could tell she was irritated. Her movements were jerky, her normally pleasant scent was slightly acrid in his nostrils, and she snapped her cloth napkin as she laid it in her lap. “Why are we here anyway?” she asked him as they sat down at the table. “I thought no one wanted me in public until I was ‘handled�
�?” She made air quotes. “Remember what the psycho alpha said?”

  “You’re with me,” he said simply. And it was true. Vic trusted him. He probably suspected what Adrian was up to, and not standing in his way also meant that he approved at some level. All of which worked perfectly for Adrian. Now that he had his future mate in his sights, the only thing standing in his way was convincing her that she belonged with him. “As for Vic, he’s a little unhinged because his mate’s pregnant with their baby. Her hormones are affecting him, and with a new shifter in the clan, he’s losing his temper. A lot.”

  “Lucky me,” Mandy drawled.

  “Mandy!” A voice squealed a moment later, interrupting his thoughts. “Oh my God, it’s you! Where have you been?” A woman walked up to their table, about the same age as Mandy. She was wearing a pink football jersey and her blonde hair was pulled into a puffy knot atop her head. “You’ve been missing out on all the Tri Delta fun lately.”

  As he watched, Mandy’s expression grew carefully blank, even though her smile was welcoming. “Oh, it’s been a busy time for me, Penny. Some stuff came up at home and I had to drop a few classes.”

  “Oh no.” Penny gave her a fake pink pout. “Well, ring me when you get back to campus, okay?” Her gaze slid over to Adrian, and her eyes widened and a coy look crossed her face. “Is this the boyfriend you were so excited about? I can see why.”

  “What? No!” Mandy’s startled gaze went to Adrian, then back to her friend. She shook her head vehemently. “This is…just a friend.”

  “Mmmhmm.” Penny winked at him. “Well, let me know if your friend wants my number, then.” She sauntered back to her own table, a little swing in her hips.

  Mandy carefully put a hand to the side of her face, discreetly hiding. “I am so embarrassed.” She shrank lower in the booth.

  “Why? Something wrong with being seen with me?”

  Her face grew even redder. “She thinks you’re Johnny,” she whispered.

  “But I’m not.”

  “So you want her number then?” Her look was unreadable.

  “Nope. She stinks of human.” He was interested in an entirely different prey.

  That got Mandy’s attention, though. She sat up and tilted her head. “What do I smell like?”

  “Like tiger,” he told her. And the scent was intoxicating. “But faint. It’d be stronger if you changed again.”

  The mulish look returned to Mandy’s face. “I don’t plan on changing. Ever again.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You think that’s gonna be possible?”

  “I don’t know if it is or not, but I’m going to try.”

  “It’s not,” he said bluntly. “And you’re just going to make it harder on yourself if you don’t try to shift, even a little.”

  She shrugged. “Maybe the whole shifter thing was a temporary change. I haven’t felt the need to shift.”

  “You will.”

  “But I haven’t,” she told him stubbornly. “And I won’t.”

  “And I was born with a tail,” he told her, amused at her sheer tenacity. “And I’m telling you that you will, and when it comes on you, the longer you wait, the more alarming it’s going to be. It’s better to just meet it head on instead of avoiding things.”

  She simply gave him that infuriatingly patient look that told him she thought she knew what she was doing. He knew the truth, though. Mandy could deny, but he knew all too well what happened to a shifter that fought their animal side. It’d pop out when she least expected it, and probably rather violently.

  Which was why he was chaperoning her. Johnny had pointed out that Mandy hadn’t shifted since they’d returned from Alaska last week. So Adrian said, “I’m going to give you lessons on shifting whether you like it or not.”

  One of those red eyebrows lifted in a challenge. “Give it your best shot, buddy boy.”

  Adrian grinned, liking her spirit. “I will do just that. In fact, I bet I can have you shifted and purring like a kitten in three days.”

  Her lip curled. “Will you listen to yourself?”

  He shrugged, still smiling. Everything he said was designed to crawl under her skin. If she was pushed out of her comfort zone, her body would react quicker, and spur on a change.

  “Three days?” She repeated. “You’re on.”

  A waiter passed by with a plate full of steaming meats, and he noticed Mandy’s attention wander there, her shifter side unable to resist the scents. Yeah, this would be the easiest three days. She put up a good verbal fight, but the physical cues of an imminent shift were all there. Whatever she was repressing was going to come roaring out soon enough. “What are the stakes?”

  She considered for a moment. “If I don’t shift in 3 days, you’ll let me go?”

  “Let you go where? You’re not being held captive.”

  “Aren’t I?” Her voice was bitter. “I’m being told where to go, where to sleep, who to spend time with, and what I can do with my day. For a while there, I was even being told who my mate was.”

  “It’s for your own good.” Well, all but that last part.

  “Bullshit. All that’s missing is the collar.”

  He shrugged. “I suppose that’s fair enough. Fine. If you don’t shift in the next three days, I’ll let you go…on one condition.”

  Her eyes lit up. “What’s that?”

  “That we don’t leave each other’s presence in the next three days. At all.”

  Mandy’s eyes narrowed. “What about bathrooms and showering?”

  Adrian shrugged. “I’ll allow the former as a solitary effort but not the latter.”

  “Are you crazy?”

  No, just possessive. But he only smiled. “That’s the rule.”

  “Fine,” she bit out. “I just won’t shower for three days.”

  “Suit yourself.” When she continued to look pleased, he added, “Aren’t you going to ask what I want if I win the bet?”

  Her brows drew together. “I’m almost afraid to ask.”

  “But you’re going to anyway?” Because his Mandy was brave.

  “I am. What is it you want?”

  Adrian leaned forward on the table, eyes gleaming. “If I win, you’ll consent to be my mate.”

  So Adrian played hardball, it seemed. Mandy was still reeling from his admission of what he wanted.

  Her as his mate? Seriously? What was with these tiger guys that they all decided to claim her? She knew what Johnny had wanted - into her pants. He was man-child enough to not think past that. But hearing that Adrian wanted her as his mate? It made her feel…strange. And uncertain. Just what exactly would being Adrian’s mate entail? And why was he interested in her?

  There was no doubt in her mind that Adrian was the most handsome of the good-looking Merino tigers. He was also the quietest, so she never quite knew what he was thinking, unlike Johnny, who constantly ran his mouth.

  To think that he wanted her as his mate unsettled her. It wasn’t that he wasn’t attractive - because he was gorgeous. It was that she never knew if he was attracted to her. At all. He never gave the slightest indication that she was anything other than a pain in his ass.

  Which was pretty dang confusing if you thought about it.

  She pondered their bet all through dinner, eating rack after rack of delicious spiced meat. She pondered it as they drove back to the Merino land and she headed back to her guest cabin. One thing she’d noticed about shifters - they tended to really stick together. All the Merinos lived in a series of houses spread out over a few acres, and becoming a Merino meant that she was expected to live ‘on site’ with everyone else. A free roof over her head any other time might not have been too bad, but right now she was too unhappy about the situation to be content with rent-free living if it came with Merinos.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Adrian said as she started to head down the path to her small guest cabin.

  Mandy paused. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, where
are you going?” He moved next to her, his feet crunching on the gravel path. “Did you forget about our deal already?”

  Their deal? “Are we starting already? I thought we were beginning in the morning.”

  Adrian shook his head. “Nope. We started over dinner.”

  “We did? Are you sure?” She looked longingly at her cabin. She was feeling a little antsy and a hot shower and maybe a little masturbation would help her feel more at ease. Plus, she just really wanted to be alone. “Don’t you want to start in the morning?”

  “No.”

  “You could have a full night to strategize—“

  “No.”

  “And we could start fresh in the AM.”

  “No.”

  “And you’d get all those extra hours in which to enact your plan.”

  “Mandy,” he said, and his voice was low and husky as he moved toward her. God, why did it sound so purr-like when he said her name? “I don’t need extra hours.”

  “Because you’re going to lose?”

  “Because I’m going to win,” he purred (definitely purring). He was standing rather close to her, and her skin was prickling with awareness. “But until the third day is up, we’re together constantly, remember?”

  Damn it. “All right,” she said, taking a step away from him to increase her breathing room. “So are you sleeping on my couch, then?”

  “No.”

  “You can say more than one word at a time,” she snapped.

  “No I’m not,” he said, enunciating each. Was he enjoying himself? What a dick.

  “Where, then?”

  “My bed.”

  “Where am I sleeping?”

  “My bed.”

  “What?”

  “You’re sleeping in my bed.”

  “But…why?” Mandy stared at him.

  “Because that’s the only way I’m going to keep an eye on you while I’m sleeping.”

  “You have a couch, don’t you?”

  “I can’t watch you from my couch.” He didn’t even turn around, just kept walking. “You backing out?”