by Sky Winters
Slowly, he pulled away from her, turning her around to face him. His lips met hers in a kiss that spiraled throughout her being and sang along every nerve ending, exciting her even more. Reaching behind her, he dug his fingers into her ass, lifting her up to wrap her legs around him. Her hair hung loosely around her shoulders, sticking to her wet skin. It hung forward, partially covering her face, but not her closed eyes. She was biting her lip in anticipation of his entering her as he took his time exploring her skin and kissing her.
Her nipples rubbed against his chest, the friction driving them to harden. It was different being at this level with him, his height usually creating such a disparity. Opening her eyes, she looked into his andsaw that he was watching her as she smiled to herself and partially bit her lip.
“Fuck me,” she said, feeling bold and brazen out here in the middle of nowhere with such an incredible man.
He grinned. “I’d love to.” He moved to push her up against the side wall, bracing her there as he finally entered her. His thumb found its way to her clit, massaging it roughly as he drove into her deeply, his strokes gaining momentum as their cries of passion increased.
Her nails dug into his back, dragging across it as he fucked her wildly. Her legs quivered as she exploded against him, sinking her teeth into his shoulder to stunt the scream that welled up in her throat. She pulled away as he whispered to her.
“Don’t hold it back. I want to hear it,” he said.
Pulling away to look him in the eyes, she watched his face, the way it twisted slightly as he thrust into her, driving into her center heavily each time. His pace quickened as she continued to watch his face and then he was a whirlwind of activity, fucking her harder and faster with each thrust until she let go of a scream that seemed to come from her very center. It seemed to only excite him more. She let go completely as her body bounced up and down the length of his cock as if she were weightless.
“God, it is beautiful to watch you, to hear you lose control,” he breathed, grabbing a handful of hair and kissing her as he plunged into her once again.
“Harder, fuck me harder,” she begged.
Matt was more than happy to accommodate her request, pulling her upward to bite at her breasts as he drove into her fiercely. His mouth trailed upward toward her neck, biting into it harshly as she continued to moan and squeal with utter delight. Their lovemaking was heated, frantic. He drove into her hard, causing her to whine with pleasure. This felt so good, so right. She came again, her juices running down his cock along with the water that flowed across their naked bodies.
“I’m coming. God, I can’t hold back any more,” he groaned.
His fingers dug into her thighs as he sank deep inside her and unleashed all that he had been holding back. The knot of his cock exploded inside of her, filling her before melting away from their fire. A loud moan resounded from his core as he came. Then, he pulled free, sitting her carefully down on the stone floor beneath them.
“I know it’s been a rough day, but I’m glad you’re here with me. I could think of nothing back there with those men but what would happen to you if I didn’t get you away from them. I know that what I did wasn’t pretty to see and maybe it changes how you might have felt for me, but it was the only way I knew to keep you safe.”
“I understand that you did what you felt needed to be done,” she said.
“Those men, they wouldn’t have settled for killing us. They would have hurt you and they would have punished me by making me watch what they did. I could feel their thoughts. I knew what they were planning to do to you, to us. We would have both suffered and then we would have died when they were ready to move on with their next poaching operation.”
“I know. I could see it in the eyes of the one man. I was terrified,” she admitted.
“If nothing else, at least now you understand why you are safe with me. No one will ever hurt you as long as I draw in a breath, Tabitha. I promise you that.”
“I believe you,” she told him, kissing him softly on the lips and stroking the side of his face with her hand.
“Let’s get some sleep,” he told her. He stood, helping her to her feet before taking her hand and leading her outside to pull on some clothes and head for one of the empty shelters.
Chapter Seven
Clean and settled into the shelter, they sat side by side nibbling on the jerky and dried vegetables in their packs. They shared a bar of chocolate as Matt began to talk about himself and try to give her answers to the questions running rampant in her mind.
“My parents were killed in some mysterious accident and I was sent to an orphanage when I was just a baby. I was fifteen before I realized something was different. I was angry, always angry with everyone and the nuns at the orphanage were harsh, which didn’t help my attitude at all. Plus, I was big for my age, towering over everyone around me. I was a bit awkward, believe it or not.”
She giggled. “I do find that hard to believe.”
“It’s true. I felt sorry for the smaller boys that would get picked on by the more ruthless kids and I tended to step in to defend them, so I got pegged by the nuns as being a troublemaker and punished for it along with those I put in their place. One day, I had taken on a group of boys that were attempting to beat up a frail little boy who had just arrived and was scared of his own shadow. I fended them off, but that night, they came in the dark and tried to gang up on me.”
“They hurt you.”
“No. Very much the contrary. Something happened. They had me pinned down and were threatening to do some very not nice things to me and then the same to the other boy I had protected to show me how to mind my own business. One of them cut my pajamas off of me and told the others to hold me as he undid his pants. I don’t know what happened after that. I felt something horrible that seemed to be rippling beneath my skin. It felt like my bones cracked and my muscles pulsed with life.”
“You were changing,” she said, feeling the depth of the horror he must have felt in that moment.
“Yes, but I didn’t understand it. I couldn’t see myself. I could only feel this power and rage as I tore free of them and began fighting back. I heard screams coming from them and then from the nuns that came running into the room. I backed away, looking at the dead bodies scattered all over the floor, frightened. A caretaker came in with a gun pointed at me and I ran, jumping out a window. I knew it would be my death, but I was a monster. To my surprise, I landed on my feet.”
“Like a cat.”
“Not like a cat. Just a cat. I caught a glimpse of myself in a nearby window and stood there looking at myself. I was a tiger and not just any tiger, but the most massive one I’d ever seen. I didn’t know what to think about what I had become or what I had done. I heard voices yelling, coming for me and I ran until I was far out in the woods.”
She reached out and held his hand. “They never looked for you?”
“Yes, and they found me, curled up in a naked ball with blood all over me. They took me back to the orphanage, thanking God that they had managed to save me from the horrendous tiger that had taken me into the woods.”
“Didn’t it occur to them that it was odd for a tiger to be roaming the streets of Liverpool?”
“Yes, but they assumed it was escaped from a zoo or a traveling circus. Of course, even if it had, no one would have laid claim to missing one that had committed such a horrible atrocity.”
“I imagine not.”
“I left the orphanage after that. I was frightened to be around people who couldn’t protect themselves from an animal like what I had become. I lied about my age and joined the forces. In the course of my military career, I learned that my abilities came in quite handy, though I was careful not to reveal them to anyone. After a while, I got tired of running from who I was and decided to try to find out what I could about my origins.”
“That sounds like a very lonely life,” she said.
“It has been. I’ve never felt safe with anyone and hol
ding onto such a secret, I’ve only made casual acquaintances.” He looked at her. “That is, until now.”
Tabitha couldn’t help but note how he looked at her as he said the words. Despite the short amount of time they had spent together, she could see that he had feelings for her. In fact, it was shocking, considering how rough their start had been. Then again, could she deny that she didn’t feel the same?
“I guess it was hard for you to hide it from me considering what happened,” she replied.
“I was going to tell you anyway, believe it or not. You’re the first person I’ve ever met that I felt I could tell the truth, other than a very small number of people I’ve managed to locate who are like myself.”
“Then there are more of you? The tigers you were talking to, were they shifters?”
“No. I’ve yet to run into any other shifters here, surprising though that is. I’m able to communicate with the tigers because I am one of them, of sorts. They don’t really understand my words, but they can read my thoughts and my body language. They can smell my inner nature it seems.”
“What about the others, the shifters that you’ve found?”
“I keep in touch here and there, but most are like me, hiding in the shadows and not getting close to anyone.”
“And were they able to help you with your origins?”
“No. It seems they don’t know where they came from either, for the most part. However, I met an old man here that instantly knew what I was. He wasn’t a shifter, but had known them and knew their legacy. He told me that I was chosen and that my children would be born as leaders that would unite the tiger shifters that had grown apart. He said they would usher in a new age when our pack would be reunited to protect one another, as well as our non-shifting tiger brothers and sisters.”
“That seems unlikely given your solitary nature.”
“It’s not so unlikely at all anymore,” he said with a smile, his hand reaching up to touch her cheek.
Tabitha’s skin felt like it was on fire. She had only just met this man and he was talking about having children from the sound of it, children that could shift into tigers at that. Under ordinary circumstances, she would have been put off by things moving so quickly between them. Instead, she felt only a deep desire for him and all he had to offer. Perhaps a different life was what she had needed all along. Hadn’t that been why she had accepted this assignment? A chance to do and be something different?
“What makes you think that I am interested in any of that?” she asked, her voice trembling despite herself.
He looked at her with a serious expression, taking both of her hands in his. “Tell me you aren’t and I’ll walk away and never bother you again, but you should know that you’ll be breaking my heart in a way that I’ve never experienced before.”
“You know that I can’t say I don’t want you. I fear that I have no secrets from you. Do I?”
“No. Not really. I can’t exactly read your mind, but I know what you’re feeling. I can sense happiness, fear, confusion…love.”
Her heart thudded wildly in her chest. “So, you’re telling me that I love you?”
“I’m telling you that I love you. I will wait for you to tell me that you love me when you are ready to admit it.”
“If you weren’t completely right about the fact that I do love you, I would call you cocky.”
“Whew! That could have been embarrassing if I’d been wrong,” he said with a smile.
“So, what do we do now?”
“Well, I have something else I need to tell you. You might want to remain sitting for this one.”
“Oh boy.” She couldn’t imagine what else he could possibly say to her at this point that would be more shocking than what he’d already said. “What? Are you going to tell me that you’re an alien or a god of some sort?”
“Well, I am a god, obviously,” he said with a laugh.
“A legend in your own mind?” she teased.
“Something like that. The truth is that I’m scared all the time. I just hide it better than most.”
“Is that what you needed to tell me? That you’re vulnerable?”
“No. I need to tell you that you’re pregnant,” he said, watching her face as he said the words.
“You are a funny guy,” she said uncertainly.
“I’m not being funny. You’re going to have a baby, well two babies, actually.”
“That’s impossible,” she said.
Her mind raced wildly, she and her ex had been very careful about such things and even though she’d been reckless with Matt, there was no way he could possibly know that she was pregnant so soon after they had had sex. Then again, she reasoned, he talked to tigers, turned into one, and could sense her feelings. Should this really be a surprise? She wondered what he was sensing from the gamut of emotions she was currently feeling.
“Tabitha?” he said gently as she stared at him in shock.
“I won’t have kittens, will I?” The words tumbled helplessly out of her mouth. It was all she could think of in her current state of shock and she still wondered how he could possibly know so soon.
Matt was suddenly lost in a fit of laughter, pulling her close and hugging her against his broad chest for a moment as he tried to regain control of himself between chuckles.
“No, love. You won’t have kittens. I promise you won’t find yourself nursing a litter of tiny fur balls. They’ll be perfectly normal children until they get into their teens and I will prepare them for what will happen to them then. I’ll prepare you for it, as well.”
“Prepare me for it? Will it be that bad?”
“Well, boys will be boys and boys that shift into tigers will be more than a handful, but if they’re brought up to understand what they are and what it will mean to so many that will come to depend on them, it will be tempered with a reason that I did not possess. I would say that I might have been more, accomplished more, had I understood things sooner, but I don’t think that’s how it works. I don’t think I was ever intended to do anything more than meet you and bring the boys that will make the biggest difference into the world.”
“So, they won’t be out killing neighborhood dogs or anything,” she said, still in a state of shock. “Wait, boys? They’re boys?”
“I can’t promise anything about the dogs if they cross them, but yes, both boys.”
“Fantastic,” she said with a slow smile. “I don’t know what else to say. What to ask. This is too much to comprehend, especially after today. What you did to those men was disturbing. I’m sorry to admit that, but it frightened me.”
“I can understand that. Not everyone sees something like that and especially not when it’s at the hands of someone you know. All I can tell you is that it is not something I would have done if I had known any other way. I would have preferred to have taken those men in, to see them tried for their crimes. I would have liked to have questioned them to find out who they were working with, but we were outnumbered and all I could think about was you and what they had done to my brothers who lay on the ground beside them.”
“I know. Like I said, it’s just a hard thing to see. All of this really, it’s just a little hard thing to understand.”
Matt pulled her to him again, holding her tightly for a while as what was happening to her slowly sank in. It was frightening, but she couldn’t say she was unhappy about it. Wasn’t this what she had wanted when she had planned her fateful wedding not so long ago? She had wanted to be with someone who loved her as much as she did him, to have a family, to grow old together. Matt was more than she would have ever anticipated as a potential partner. He was handsome, smart, strong and exotic in a way that no other man could be. There was no doubt that he was the perfect match for her. She finally felt like she was at home, though in a place she would have never expected to find her place.
Chapter Eight
“Tabitha, this piece is amazing. I didn’t know how you would do with an assignment that was so
different from your usual work, but it’s incredible,” Sam told her the following week when she returned home.
“Thanks. I enjoyed it more than I can say,” she replied.
“It shows. You look so much happier and healthier than when you left here. I’m glad of that. You deserve that. So, what would you like to do next?”
“Well, that’s the thing, Sam. I’m here to turn in my resignation, effective immediately.”
He frowned at her, his eyes widening in surprise. “What? Why? Is it about money? I can find a way to bump up your pay if that’s what you need.”
“No. It’s not about money at all. I’ve just found out what I really wanted to be when I grew up and I’d like to pursue that.”
“Should I ask what that is?”
“No. Probably not, but you’ll be seeing my name. I promise you that.”
“Well, I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but what can I do. Keep in touch and if you ever change your mind, you know I will welcome you back with open arms.”
“I appreciate that. Take care, Sam,” she told him, standing to leave.
Tabitha was careful to keep her rapidly rising midsection covered with the sweater she had draped over her arm. She had been alarmed to discover that shifter babies develop at an alarming rate of speed and that she would give birth in roughly three months’ time, which meant she had already started to develop a slight baby bump even though she was barely more than a couple weeks along. She said her goodbyes and cleaned out her desk before returning to her place.
“How’d it go?” Matt asked as she came in the door.
“It was fine. How did your errands go?” she asked.
“Very well, thank you. You ready to get started here?”
“I certainly am.”
“Then, let’s go,” he said, standing to take her hand in his and walk back to the door with her.
Opening the door, she found Janet standing there with a key in her hand, getting ready to insert it into the keyhole.
