Taken for the Tiger

by Annabelle Winters

  Tracy felt the truth of Magda’s words, felt the urgency of the situation. It should have driven her nuts, but for some reason she felt calm. She looked up at Everett, standing tall and strong beside her. He was her future, Tracy understood. The witch was right. She and Everett had to complete the rest of the journey alone, as a couple. Every fated couple’s journey was unique, and this was theirs: To navigate through this place beyond death, find their way back to life, find their own way home.

  “Go,” she whispered to her sister. “Go now, sis. You’ve gotten me this far, and now it’s my time.” She looked up at Everett, nodding and then slipping her arm into his, feeling the blazing warmth of his tiger envelop her in the cold darkness that surrounded them. “It’s our time.”

  And then she couldn’t speak, because just as Lacy, Darius, and Magda faded away from sight, her own sight was blocked out by a flash of orange and black.

  It was Everett, eyes shining with need, his body telling her that yes, it was time. It was their time.

  Then he kissed her.

  By God, he kissed her.

  12

  Everett felt the weight of his body crash into Tracy, his lips pressing against hers, his tongue pushing deep into her mouth as he let his need take over. At the back of his mind he knew that this was dangerous, that they were in that place within the Darkness where they could stay in human form. In the background he could hear those soulless Shifters moan and wail as if it was a recording, a twisted soundtrack to their mating.

  “Everett,” Tracy gasped as she broke from the kiss, her eyes rolling back in her head as he held her tight against his naked body. She felt heavy, beautifully full and heavy, and he just growled and kissed her again, pressing his cock against her soft mound until he felt her heat, her wetness, her need.

  “That is my name,” he grunted, licking her face, her neck, even her ears as he squeezed her ass from behind, pulling her big buttocks apart with his strong fingers. “Just like your name is Eliza.”

  She giggled, wriggled, and then moaned as Everett ran his fingers up along her rear crack, his cock pressed lengthwise between their bodies. He could feel her wetness ooze from her slit like a lazy river, coating his balls and dripping down to the invisible ground.

  “I can’t believe you tried to name me,” she whispered, running her fingers through his thick hair. “That’s arrogance, plain and simple.” Tracy smiled, but her smile faded as those background sounds rose up around them like someone had jacked up the volume. “And so is this,” she whispered, blinking as she turned her head while pulling closer to him. “What are we doing, Everett? Is this going to free us or doom us forever? This place . . . Everett, this place is . . .”

  “This place is the only place,” whispered Everett. “The only place we can stay human, stay in the physical, be in the flesh. You heard what the dark witch said: We have to complete our bond in the flesh. The Shifter is human and animal in one, and there’s no escaping the needs of the flesh. We’re trapped here anyway. This is our only chance to get out, to travel back to the Light, to complete our task.”

  Those twisted souls in the background howled and whistled, clapping their hands like some deranged audience of demons. Everett wasn’t sure if it was real or just some manifestation of their own shame, the shame they’d reclaimed just to get down to this place.

  He felt Tracy struggle in his arms, like she was losing her nerve, focusing on the sounds of chaos around them. A chill came over him as he felt her breaking away from him, like her doubt and shame was pulling her away, pulling her towards that dark place. He could feel her body go cold against his, and he kissed her again, pulling her in as he tried to reclaim her like this was a fight! But her lips felt cool against his, and Everett gritted his teeth as he realized that this wasn’t going to be easy. The Darkness was fighting them like it was a living, breathing thing. He could feel the lust between him and his mate, smell the needs of their flesh. But it felt hollow without the warmth of human love, and Everett leaned his head back and roared in anguish. What was missing?! What more could they do?! How could he break free from the clutches of this Darkness? How could he expect to win in this hostile territory, where the forces of Darkness seemed overwhelming, were already overwhelming his mate?! Was he not strong enough? What was missing?! What?!

  Surrender, came a whisper from somewhere far away, and Everett knew it was his tiger. You have to surrender to the Darkness. Remember, Darkness is part of the Shifter’s essence. It is the essence of the animal, and it has to be faced and brought into balance by the human. Your problem is you are reaching for human love in a place where it cannot exist. You are trying to reject the Darkness in you, which is an impossible task, an unwinnable fight. You must surrender to the Darkness, and trust that you both will find your way back to the Light, find your way to balance, to harmony, to peace. Peace only comes after the battle is won. And the tiger does not win a battle by barreling straight ahead like a dumb bear or screaming in like a fire-breathing dragon. The tiger hunts at night. It uses the Darkness as an ally. Use the Darkness, Everett. Use the Darkness to set yourself free, to set us all free. Use the Darkness.

  Everett looked around wildly, images of those twisted human souls coming through the Darkness, a wall of bodies, glistening black, arms and legs entwined, groping, grasping, rubbing, clutching, with moans of hollow ecstasy and wails of feral need punctuating the surreal scene. Surrender? Surrender to this? No!

  “Everett, no,” came Tracy’s whisper, and Everett frowned as he felt his mate try to pull away from him. Immediately he knew his tiger was right, that they couldn’t find human love in a place where that power didn’t exist, couldn’t exist. They were fighting the very nature of the universe, fighting their own nature, trying to reject the essence of what they were: Light and Darkness.

  “Everett, no,” she groaned again as Everett dug his fingers into the soft flesh of her rump, feeling himself slowly open up to the truth of his own being, the Darkness of his own essence. “Everett, look. Look!”

  Everett glanced up at where Tracy was pointing, his eyes going wide as he saw a tunnel of light slowly open up through the Darkness. What the hell? Was this a way out? A way back to that place of Light they’d glimpsed earlier, where Tracy saw her beloved mountains and he saw the sweeping grasslands of the majestic savannah? But was that really a true vision, Everett wondered as he thought back to how he’d seen those two Bear Shifters emerge from the dark cluster of trees in that place.

  Tracy was reaching for that tunnel of Light, but Everett was holding on to her, his mind racing as he tried to decide what to do. Somehow he knew that his next choice was critical, and as he stared up at the Light, he remembered how he and Tracy had felt their need rise when they were in what they thought was heaven, how they’d found themselves back in that pit, back in animal form, amongst the Shifter animals who’d died unmated.

  “Tracy, it’s an illusion,” he whispered. “We can’t go back there without completing our bond. And this is the only place where we can complete our bond in the flesh. We have to stay here. There’s no shortcut to the Light, Tracy. We have to take the long road. Through the Darkness. It’s part of us, and we can’t escape it. We’ll just find ourselves back in that pit again and again until we face who we are, what we are, why we are!”

  “You’re crazy,” Tracy screamed, reaching towards that tunnel of Light with one arm, clawing at his face and neck with the other. “I see my mountains, Everett! We can go there, live there forever!”

  “Forever unbalanced,” said Everett, his determination rising as Tracy slashed at his face with her nails. “Tracy, if we go to the Light without completing our bond, it will split our animals away from us forever. We’ll truly be dead. We’ll be dead like any other Shifter that died unmated. We’ll have failed at our task. We have to do this here. We have to do this now.”

  Do it, snarled his Tiger from what seemed like
a million miles away. Take her before you lose her. If she goes to the Light, her animal and her human will be split forever. It has already been too long for you both. The forces of the universe are splitting us all apart, and now it’s up to you. Take her like a tiger takes its prey in the night. Give in to the Darkness, or else she will be forever lost to the Light, just like Sinesta.

  “Who the hell is Sinesta?” growled Everett, blinking as he struggled to hold his mate back. “And how the hell can someone be lost to the Light! The Light is . . . is heaven, isn’t it?”

  Sinesta is Murad’s mate, whispered his tiger. And to find her you have to let go of the human ideas of heaven and hell, good and evil, darkness and light. The words you use make you believe that Light is desirable and Darkness is to be avoided. But remember your essence, your true nature, the true nature of the universe and everything in it. Our mate is scared of the Darkness. She thinks it is an evil force that is somewhere out there. She is a strong-willed woman, and even though her animal is trying to tell her what I am telling you, it isn’t getting through. Her animal is a bobcat—powerful but also skittish by nature. Her human is winning the battle, but she doesn’t realize that what she thinks is winning is actually losing. If her human finds its way to the Light, it will leave its animal behind. So take her, Everett. Take her like a tiger takes its mate, like a tiger seizes its fate. The hunt is over. Remind her what she is.

  “Remind her what she is . . .” Everett repeated absentmindedly as he felt her nails draw blood on his face and neck. He licked his lips and growled, the taste of blood reminding him what he was: A hunter. A killer. A beast. A creature of the night. A being of both Light and Darkness.

  “Remember what you are,” he growled as he tightened his grip around her waist until she finally went limp in his arms, unable to fight him any longer. He reached around the back of her neck, digging his fingers into her hair, closing his fist around the roots of her thick tresses, forcing her to look into his eyes. “You’re a woman and an animal. You’re Light and Darkness. And you’re my mate, Tracy. You’re my mate, and I’m going to take you.”

  He kissed her hard on the mouth, the blood on his lips mixing with her saliva as her eyes flicked wide open and then slowly fluttered closed. She was trying to say something, but Everett didn’t give a damn. He understood that this wasn’t the time for conversation, that words and speech were the enemy in this place where the flesh reigned supreme. He had to take her quick, take her hard, take her like a tiger takes its prey.

  Without hesitation he reached between their bodies, his other hand holding her tight by the hair. He could feel the outer lips of her vagina throb against the back of his hand, and he fiercely rubbed her mound and fingered her until she opened up for him.

  Then he grasped his cock and lined its massive head against her slit, kissed her one more time, and then drove himself into her, all the way deep, all the damned way.

  13

  I’m being taken, she thought as she felt Everett drive up into her, his cock pushing so deep she almost choked. Taken by the tiger.

  And it was the tiger taking her, she understood, screaming as she felt his power, gasping in shock as sensations of such pure ecstasy rolled through her that she thought she might die. Her flesh felt alive with energy, and she could hear her bobcat wailing in the distance. The feeling of her animal startled her, and it was only then that Tracy realized that it had been missing all this while, like it had been lost, separated, split apart.

  You dumb bitch, roared her cat, its voice thick with fury, wild with indignation. You were gonna leave me to rot alone in the Darkness while you selfishly reached for the Light! Thank God for our Tiger! Now close your eyes and open your legs! We don’t have much time! You need to be taken now, taken hard, and taken fast.

  Tracy blinked in confusion as she felt her bobcat retreat after it had vented, and suddenly she felt a wave of relief wash through her. She glanced up at that tunnel of Light, smiling as she realized that the human in her had been reaching for it but the animal couldn’t follow unless her fated bond was complete. If she’d managed to get to the Light, it would have split her cat from her forever! Her Tiger saved her!

  “My tiger,” she groaned, digging her nails into Everett’s strong back as he lifted her off her feet and began to bounce her on his cock so hard she could barely breathe. The pace was furious, relentless, manic with urgency, and Tracy could feel the fever rise in her body as she opened up to him, to her animal’s needs, to the Darkness.

  Suddenly she was coming, reaching climax so fast she screamed in shock! Her orgasm rolled through her like a freight train, and then Everett was coming too, letting out a guttural roar as he exploded deep inside her, blasting his seed so far inside her she swore she could taste it in her throat.

  At first she didn’t understand, but as Everett pumped the rest of his hot semen into her, making her pussy clench as she milked him dry like a wanton woman of the night, she understood the urgency, understood why their first coupling had happened so fast, with such quickness. It was the tiger’s way. It was how a tiger hunted. No hesitation at the moment of truth. No chance for escape.

  She wailed as she came again, feeling Everett’s seed blast into her like a geyser erupting into the sky. She closed her eyes and howled, and in her mind she thought she could see her womb taking his seed, seven strong swimmers breaking through her barrier, fertilizing her like the rain gives life to the ready soil. Her mind spun as a vision of seven kittens came to her clear as day, and she cried as she realized she was looking upon her own unborn children, a litter of kittens that were not here yet but had somehow always been there!

  Suddenly she was blinded by a flash of the brightest light, and she screamed as she felt herself being pulled at the speed of thought. She shouted for Everett, terrified that she was being split from him, but when she managed to open her eyes she saw that telltale golden thread connecting her to him, joining them together, now and for eternity.

  “Look! No hands!” she squealed, feeling the rush of her climax transform into a spiritual joy with effortless ease as the two of them spun through the universe, connected by that unbreakable bond. She could see their animals spinning along with them, the bobcat and the tiger mewling and growling, purring in delight, pawing at each other in play.

  They spun through starlight and moonlight, past the sun and the solar system like it was all part of a magical ride. She could see every event of time and space like moving billboards as she merrily rode along with her mate. She could see her sister back safely in the “real” world, Lacy cursing and clawing at her mate Darius as she gave birth to her own babies! She could see the other Shifters of her newfound crew watching anxiously, Magda the Witch with tears in her eyes as her shoulders slumped in relief at being able to bring Lacy and Darius back in time.

  Somewhere else she could see Murad’s Black Dragon flying silently through night-skies, ominous and dark like a demon on the hunt. But Tracy was still smiling even though she knew there was still a task for her and Everett to complete.

  “There’s more to our destiny than just each other,” she whispered, both for herself and for Everett. She smiled again as she watched the group of Shifters on that moving billboard of her dream. Each of them had been chosen. They were all special. And each of them had to accept the greater responsibility that came with having the power of both human and animal, Light and Dark.

  She whipped her head to the left, distracted by a screech that she knew was Murad’s mate, the Black she-Dragon who’d swallowed them whole, sent them on this journey, was waiting for them to get back. She could feel its impatience, its restlessness, its dark fury slowly building as it manifested itself on Earth. She understood the urgency, but it didn’t make her anxious. She was bonded with her mate. She’d found her fate. One battle was won, and although the war was still raging, the final battle would have to wait.

  “Because this is ou
r time,” she whispered to her mate, reaching out her hand as Everett grinned and flew over to her like he had the wings of an angel. “It’s our time.”

  14

  This is our time, Everett thought as he watched his mate raise her arms and spin through the air like a snowflake, her body bathed in golden light. He could see the strand of pure energy connecting the two of them, a golden rope tethering them together. In the distance he could still hear the howls of those humans trapped in the Darkness. He could still hear the growls of the animals doomed to that other part of the Darkness. But he could also feel the melancholy of the humans who existed in the Light, the souls of Shifters who’d died without finding their mates.

  “You see that, Tracy?” he whispered to his mate, pointing in the direction of that melancholic sensation like it was a real place. “You feel that?”

  Tracy turned in the air like a feather, and they both looked into the distance, staring at what looked like a dense point of light no bigger than a dot. But as they stared the dot grew larger, until they were gazing upon an island, an island shining with light. On the island roamed the human souls of Shifters who’d died without finding their mates, and Tracy clutched Everett’s arm as the two of them drew close enough to feel the strange desolation that racked these souls.

  “I know the vision isn’t real,” Tracy whispered as they watched the humans mill about with plastic smiles on their faces. They were all naked, but their bodies were smooth and hairless, with no visible sex organs. They were all shimmering with light but still missing something. Missing something essential. Lacking a warmth that Tracy could feel burning strong in her own body. A warmth that she suddenly understood came from the Darkness, from the flesh not the spirit, from the purity of lust not the magic of love. “Oh, Everett,” she whispered. “All this while I thought the Light was a place of infinite happiness, boundless joy. But in a way it’s no different from the Darkness, is it? In a way it’s even darker than the Darkness! Is this really heaven?! What about the myths we all grew up with? The age-old stories that every civilization passes down about the wonderful afterlife? Is it all a lie?!”