Caging the Bengal Tiger

by Trinity Blacio

  "I'm sorry. I told her not worry, that everything would work out. She helped me pick this place out. We both thought when I was done with this house, we'd donate it to the local veterans for a place to go when they want to relax," she stopped talking noticing Akaos’ frown.

  "When was she here? She knew about your foolish plan?" his voice dropped an octave, and Lacey knew she’d put her foot in it now.

  "Excuse me? My plan is not stupid. I've been trained for security and I have traps out there that these idiots won't even recognize..." The high pitch of an alarm went off and she smiled running towards her command center. All four men followed behind her as she came to a halt in front of a brick wall. Grinning like a fool, Lacey placed her hand over the hidden scanner and stepped back. The wall slid to the side. "I take it you didn't know about this," she said, very pleased that every man behind her said nothing.

  "Men," she rushed down the metal steps, and lights kicked on as she stepped into the main room. She looked up at the left panel camera and laughed. "Looks like one of your men has found one of my traps. Thank god his reflexes are faster than that of the shifters." She nodded to the screen. "Those are poison darts. We’ll have to collect them to set up the trap again." She sat down in the chair and squealed as the cold leather hit her ass.

  "Damn it!" She glared up at Isaac. "If you're going to make me go naked, heat the place up, please." Lacey turned back to the control panel and frowned as she pulled up the map of her traps. "You need to have your men take a look at his. That way they won't be setting off the traps."

  "What if a child or animal gets on the property? The traps need to be deactivated." Akaos said behind her to Isaac.

  She turned to blast Akaos when Isaac placed his hand over her mouth. "Relax, Lady Cat," he said taking his hand away and turning towards his brother. "I've seen the protection she has set up to keep others out and her scent as a tiger is all over the place. No animals will come near the traps. They have done a great job with security. I'll have the men double check, but I'm almost positive that Lacey and Maya have thought of everything."

  "Do not remind me that my woman has been here. She has once more transported without us knowing it," Akaos said, turning his glare on her.

  "No, she didn't," Lacey said defending Maya. "The last time she was at her house, we went over the plans. She was the only one who knew about this place and what I was going to do. Maya has only been here once and that was before she even met you."

  Both men studied her. "What? You don't believe me, do you? Fine whatever." She turned back to the panel and started turning on the shield around the house, locking the front gate and firing up the generator. After that, Lacey got up and moved over to the next room. At once the lights came on as she riffled through the dresser, grabbing one of her T-shirts, hurt and angry. Lacey stared at the shirt. Could she disobey him?

  ***

  Knowing he'd hurt Lacey, Isaac followed her into the room and watched as she stared at the shirt in her hands. "I owe you an apology, Lady Cat. It wasn't my intention to hurt you."

  "I have never lied in my life, Isaac. I might keep things to myself so I don't have to lie, but never would I tell an untruth. My father was the deceiver and I refuse to be anything like him." She stuffed the shirt back in the drawer and turned to face him.

  "Will you join us in the kitchen? Anthony has already started to cook and I would like your input on a few things." She nodded and proceeded to walk right by him, but at the last minute, he reached out and wrapped his arm round her waist holding her still. He came up behind her, pressing his body against hers. "I am truly sorry we've hurt you today." He ran his fingers over the bruise that was forming on her arm. "Give us time, Lacey. All of us are going to have to learn how to deal with each other."

  She turned in his arms and stared at him. "After all of this is done and we head to see Dan's family, where are we going to live?"

  "Where would you like to live?" She stared up at him with her blue eyes.

  "I'd like to live here on Earth, at least for a little while. I want to help find others out there. I know there are more of us out there hidden and afraid."

  Their woman had a huge heart. "We'll discuss it with Anthony and Dan later." He leaned down, capturing her lips with his. He traced the gentle warm skin with his tongue before slipping inside her mouth. She relaxed in his arms, her tongue meeting his in a hesitant touch. She whimpered, needing his touch.

  Not wasting a second, Isaac wrapped his hand in her long blond hair, holding her steady for his exploring. Her teeth were different than that of a human or his kind. They were sharp to the touch, her tongue a little rough like that of a cat, but her taste was her own and it made him want to spend hours just kissing her.

  "Hey, you two going to come here so we can talk?" Akaos yelled down, interrupting his pillage.

  "I'm with Dan. We need to kill my brother," Isaac said leaning his forehead against hers. She laughed and stood on her toes to place a quick kiss on his lips.

  "We have plenty of time for kisses later. Come on, I'm hungry." She grabbed his hand and started to pull him back into the control room.

  "Lady Cat, why are you being so cooperative now? I would have thought you'd put up more of a fight with the bonding," he asked as Lacey climbed the stairs.

  At first he didn't think she'd answer when they'd walked down the hall into the kitchen. She whistled and looked all around her. "Wow, now this is a kitchen." She released his hand and ran it over the dark green marble counter top.

  "You're not the only ones who have been watching. I've kept my eye on you and Anthony for a while. With Dan, even before he changed, I knew he was something to me, but I'm afraid I don't do well when dealing with others in a social environment. Well, unless I'm at the club and that is a controlled setting."

  She peaked over at Dan and he winked at her. Her face turned a little pink. "So I kind of figured something was happening to us, it just hard to trust someone else when you’ve been alone for over thirty years." Lacey faced him. "So I'll also ask you for time to adjust to everything. I'll make mistakes, Isaac." She looked down at the ground. "You should know, my father was one of the shifters to start the uprising three years ago in Chicago." Lacey glanced at Akaos sitting at the table.

  "How do you know this?" His brother asked, his legs out in front of him, but Isaac knew Akaos. He was not relaxed. He was wound up, ready to explode.

  Placing his body in front of Lacey, Isaac tugged on a strand of her hair. "No one is perfect, Lacey. As I said, we will all make mistakes, but together we will get through this." He pulled her over to him as he sat down and placed her onto his lap.

  "Now explain why you believe your father started the uprising?" Isaac leaned in and took a deep breath of her hair.

  "It's easy, really. If I'm not mistaken, you were there for the first battle, Akaos?" His brother nodded and waited.

  "There was a battle cry before the fighting actually started between the shifters and your people. 'Bloodsuckers will not take my Princess! Kill every one of them!" Lacey squirmed on his lap. "We all watched it on TV. My father started it, but in the next few minutes he was gone, allowing the others to fight for him." She leaned back and pulled his arms tighter around her.

  "I was sick that night. I saw at least six of the men that had killed my family there. I had nightmares for a good six months until Maya demanded to know everything. That's also the night we planned all this. It' took us a while, but we did it. We hired different people, always changing them so no one knew the whereabouts of all the traps, the bunkers and so on." She looked over to Dan.

  "I remember that week. You wouldn't come out of your room and Maya was furious. All of you stayed inside that week," Dan said, and she nodded.

  "We didn't trust ourselves to go out. My cat wanted to hunt and so did Maya's and when your cat has a target..." She shook her head. "It just wasn't safe for us to go out. We would have hurt someone and the other women knew we were wound up, which in turn had them
acting up. No, that week was bad. It was one of the reasons we kept you away from the compound." Lacey frowned and looked over at Anthony who leaned against the counter, watching the steaks.

  "Has there been any movement on the warehouse in Detroit?"

  "No, it's been rather quiet. Why?" He frowned and stared at her.

  "I was thinking we could stay..." Every single male in the room yelled “NO” at the same time. "Well, jeez, bite my head off. I just thought since we are going back to see Dan's parents...plus there is plenty of room there. We could pack up a few things while we were there and have them shipped back to California." She hedged looking back at him.

  "No. You are not going anywhere near that place. One, Koti knows where it is and he can get in. Two, we'll be staying at Dan's place so we can help him pack his belongings. Now, if you want something there, I'd be happy to have someone stop by and pick whatever you need." She actually crossed her arms and pouted.

  He threw his head back and laughed so hard Isaac had tears in his eyes. Even Akaos was grinning.

  Chapter Four

  "Damn it, Isaac! I need to go there. None of us knew we were going to be staying in California. Everything is there. Just like Dan, I'd like time to pack up my things. Plus, there is a place I can run my cat. She hasn't been out for a run in over two months." God, Lacey hated to beg, but she needed to go home. The only remaining items belonging to her mother and siblings where there. Plus, she wasn't lying; her cat wanted to run and the thought of that new playhouse that Maya had created for them had her cat itching to go.

  "I know we could bring the other women too. That way there will be more of us in case something does happen, which I don't think it will since we had a whole new alarm system installed last month. I know for a fact, Abby would love to go. Her sister’s belongings are there." Lacey turned in Isaac's lap. "Please, we all need to go home for a little while. Being cooped up in that castle is driving everyone insane."

  "What’s the difference between the castle and the warehouse? It's the same amount of space," Akaos said, frowning.

  She shook her head. "No, it's not." Lacey looked around for paper and pen. "Hold on," she got up and ran in the hall yanking open a small desk drawer and pulling out a pad and a pencil.

  Turning, Lacey caught Isaac staring at her ass and she laughed. "Cool it. This is important to all of us." She climbed back onto his lap and placed a quick kiss on his lips.

  "Akaos, you were only in a small part of our home." Lacey mumbled and started to draw hopping they would understand her scribble. "The one warehouse you were in held our dining area, Maya's room, and a few others. Oh and our family room, but what you didn't know was there was a hidden tunnel connecting all of the other five warehouses. One we used as a storage area, two others were personal rooms, including mine. This one,” she said, pointing to her illustration, “was just purchased, so it's empty, but this one Maya created for all of us. It's huge and like a jungle inside. Trees, a pond, things to climb and enough room to run. Acres, Isaac. She did this for all of us. The last night we were there Maya showed it to us. We have tunnels under all of this." She sat up and looked at Akaos and frowned.

  "What? What's wrong?" She didn't like the look on his face at all.

  "If you'll excuse me," Akaos nodded to his brother and vanished.

  "What did I do now? I swear, you guys and your damn weird ideas. Jeez." She threw her pencil down and jumped up. "I'm going for a damn walk."

  "No you're not," Isaac said behind her, his arm wrapped around her and caging her up against his body. "Don't you think Akaos should have been told about this, or Anthony, since his men have been protecting the area?" he asked as he yanked her head back, holding onto her hair.

  "And when exactly would I inform Anthony or Akaos?" she snarled, working his hand from her hair and turning to glare at him. "When Abby was killed, or when Dee was in trouble? Or how about at the kings crowing? Oh, I know, when the kids’ home was attacked!" She yelled the last part. "Do you know we haven't even had time to morn Agatha? Parts of her body still sit waiting to be buried, but no, we want too much. Get the fuck away from me, all of you." Lacey was furious, and when she got mad, the cat came out.

  Bones crunched and she jumped out of Isaac's arms shifting and running for the back door. Both Anthony and Dan tried to catch her, but she was quicker, dashing out the door as soon as it came down from her weight on it.

  As soon as the night air hit her fur, Lacey let go of a scream that she had been holding in all day. The pain of losing her friend, and the anniversary of her family’s death 36 years ago .were weighing on her Hearing their footsteps, Lacey took off, running full out for the woods, knowing exactly where she would go.

  "Lacey, stop!" Isaac ordered behind her.

  She lifted her head and looked behind her. He stood in-between Anthony and Dan. "Would you walk with us at least?" He asked knowing she was angry.

  Turning, Lacey waited till they were right behind her before she took off running, knowing they would keep up. When they had first bought the place, the one thing she had loved was the small waterfall at the back of the property. A natural hot spring-fed pool was at the bottom of the fall. Trees surrounded the place making it look like no one had ever discovered the hidden gem.

  Hearing the crunch next to her, Lacey looked to the left and was so shocked at what she saw she stumbled and fell to the ground. Three male tigers nudged her with their heads. "Are you okay? Did you hurt yourself?" Isaac asked inside her head.

  "What? How can you do this?" She rose and shook herself, looking at each of them. Isaac was one of the biggest cats she'd ever seen. Hell, he was even bigger than Akaos had been when he changed into a tiger.

  To her right was Anthony. His fur a dark red and he was smaller than Isaac. Next to Anthony, stood Dan. Surprising Lacey a little bit that he could shift at all, his coat a blondish brown and his size between Isaac and Anthony he held his head high scanning around them. She nudged his head. "Are you okay? I know this all is new to you." Lacey licked the side of his face.

  "It's different and it will take me time to get used to this, but for you, I'd do anything." He rubbed his head against her. "Go on, do what you were going to do. We’ll be right here for you."

  "Follow me. I want to show you something." She took off, running through the woods making sure to stay away from the traps. Every once in a while she saw one of Akaos’ men moving through the woods. Coming up to the pond, she looked behind her and made sure all three men were still behind her. Seeing them, Lacey crawled under the thick hedge. Clearing the prickle bush, Lacey shifted at once, moving toward the warm water.

  Stepping into the pond, Lacey sunk into the water with a moan, watching each of her men shift as they came through the hole. "Well, do you like my little secret?"

  ***

  Stepping into the water, Isaac groaned. "Amazing," he mumbled, moving in on his prey. They were totally surrounded by trees and brush and hidden well. Not even his men had found this little hide-out. He stopped and frowned. "Are there any more of these little hideouts?" He asked and she shook her head.

  "No, Maya and I went over ever inch when the papers were signed. We were not taking any chances." She turned away from them and swam toward the small waterfall.

  "Lacey, do you really believe your sisters want to go back to Detroit?" he asked, following her.

  "I know for a fact they would. We were discussing it the other night. Even Maya had said she'd love to bring Rosa and Emma to her private room and the new play area." Lacey leaned against the wall and looked at him. She smiled, but it was a sad smile, not reaching her eyes.

  "You have to understand. Maya spent ten years building this place for us, keeping it a secret till it was done. It's just there are no words for it. Plus, it was home. With Maya gone and now Dee, we were all feeling a little lost, that our family is slowly being torn away from us. We'd promised ourselves we wouldn't stop looking for others, but how can we do that if you won't let us search? We'v
e lost a lot while you and your men have gained."

  He stood before her and frowned. "You really believe you have lost so much? Don't you think you've added to your life?" Isaac, a little hurt by her words, waited.

  "You're not listening, Isaac. You are just seeing with your own eyes and hear what you want to. Look at Dan. Sure his life was saved, but look at what he lost in the process. His family, his career, friends, his home. Look at what my sisters have lost. Not once, but twice now, they’ve each lost their home, three of their sisters and their freedom. You and your men surrounded us and refused to let us breathe. Hell, you have Maya and Dee locked up on your world where they can't continue what they have been doing all their life." She shook her head.

  "Of course I'm happy I have you three and I wouldn't give you up, but why can't we have it all? Why must we give up our family, our dreams of finding others, and our homes? Don't you think Maya would love to help find her blood sister now that she’s learned that she is out there, alive?"

  There were no words. He was amazed. His Lady Cat was right. "I'm sorry Lacey. We worry so much about your safety that we didn't see your needs." She placed her hand on his shoulder and stood in front of him.

  "Isaac, we know you’re trying, but sometimes everyone needs to step back and look around. I want to be able to show you the things that I love." She wrapped her arms around his neck resting her head against his chest. "I want to show you my sisters and my collection of glass cats. We’ve been collecting them since we were babies. It was one of the few things I was able to save from our house. I have pictures of my first family I'd love to share with all of you, videos. We all do, but we're not allowed."