The Tiger's Tale

by Nara Malone

  Can’t be without you, Ean. Can’t do this without you.

  If I go away it will keep you safe, sweetheart.

  I don’t know why we get these urges to run, Ean. Maybe it’s a tiger thing. I know running feels like an answer. You feel in control alone. But I’ve learned going it alone doesn’t solve anything.

  He was rigid, a wall of resistance. She couldn’t find words to break through.

  You gone leaves a hole in us, Ean, makes us all weaker. Do you remember how you felt when I was the one running?

  He pressed his face into her neck, clutching fistfuls of her fur. A tremor rattled through him, a slight waver in his determination that she dove for with the last thing she had to offer—her last island of independence.

  If you need to get us away from here, I have a place up in the mountains. My safe place. Even Adam doesn’t know about it. We’ll move, but we all go. We stick together.

  It was like launching herself from an airplane with no chute. Marie’s stomach had that same queasy feeling it got when she looked down from high places. A private space to escape to had always felt as necessary as air. Ean, with his head pressed to her chest, must hear the rapping of her heart against her ribs, notice the staccato pant that didn’t bring enough air to her lungs. It didn’t help that his arms closed tight enough to make her ears pop.

  “How?” he asked. “How am I supposed to say no to you sweetheart? I should. I know I should. But I know what it cost you to make that offer.”

  We all go?

  “Together,” he agreed. Then he added. “Brace yourself for a talking-to. Here comes the boss.”

  She turned, gauging Adam’s mood by his approach. He limped and his breath had a hitch. His step had lost its pep and his fur rippled with agitation. He shifted as soon as he reached them. The better to fill their ears with his displeasure, she supposed.

  “I want to know how you do it.” He rubbed his thigh around the thick scar tissue. “This teleporting thing…you can’t shift, but you can blink all over creation?”

  Marie yawned—the tiger version of a shrug—and sat back on her haunches. I don’t know how to explain. Lilly taught me.

  “The rabbit?” Both men said it together.

  “I might have known,” Adam growled. “Any gift from my father should be regifted. Quickly. And as far away as possible.”

  A soft breeze stirred the branches and set shadows rippling across Adam’s naked body in an intriguing way, dark fingers that beckoned.

  “Don’t look at me like that, love. I have a few things to say. Which one of you wants to tell me what this is all about?” His gaze flicked to the duffle bag floating in a drainage ditch, to Marie, then to Ean. No one volunteered.

  But Marie was ready to change the subject. The rest of this discussion could wait until they’d dispelled some tension.

  She caught the neck of Ean’s jacket with her teeth and tugged. Get naked for me, Ean.

  Adam folded his arms. “I’m waiting for an answer.”

  Ean tugged back. “Okay, I’ll get naked. But, I really like this jacket so let me. And maybe we should go home first?”

  Marie flicked her tongue over his ear. Ever hear that song, why don’t we do it in the road? I really like that song.

  She had their attention now. Adam looked like he’d forgotten to be bossy. Certainly, he was willing to leave off the interrogation for now. He was good at knowing when to let something go.

  And Ean, well he looked like leaving was the farthest thing from his mind. Their mouths were hanging open and their eyes had a primitive gleam.

  Marie leapt over Adam’s head and bolted down the road toward home, certain Adam would find new energy and Ean would lose his clothes before she made it back.

  They were slower than she thought.

  Marie raced across the yard, her breath coming in quick puffs, power making her giddy. It wasn’t easy to stay ahead of Adam but the trees gave her an advantage. Males weren’t agile. She heard a thud and a grunt or two when he misjudged his turns. Ean sprang from behind a hedge when she broke through the trees onto the lawn. Surprise slowed her enough for Adam to tackle her. The three of them tumbled together in cool grass. Her heart hammered.

  The scent and weight of males was too good to resist. She rolled to her back, batting at them with her paws, careful to keep her claws in. Ean shifted and sat astride her belly. His cock, thick and ready, nestled against her fur. Adam shifted and rubbed his face against her furry cheek. She inhaled his scent like a drug she craved, tasted it with her tongue. Her mouth went dry, all the moisture in her body seemed to be gathering in an alternate location. That sweet ache bloomed between her legs and through her belly. Moonlight gleamed on Adam’s skin. Starlight danced in Ean’s eyes. Shamelessly, they rubbed their naked bodies against her, a sensual slide of skin oven fur. She wanted them as a woman, wanted her naked skin sliding over theirs.

  Her mind touched Adam’s with a plea. Shift me.

  His teeth nipped her ear. “You have to learn to do that on your own.”

  Not now. No tiger lessons now!

  She wriggled, dumping Ean to the ground. He rose, the light casting his body in angles and shadows her tongue needed to explore. She licked her lips. His cock bobbed as he moved. Her mouth watered. She started to purr.

  She licked a path from Adam’s ankle to his knee, paused there. She gave the inside of his thigh the tiniest lick. A salty tang spread over her tongue.

  Pretty please, Adam? I’ll make you smile. And she added, I’ll make you both insanely happy! She purred louder, hoping to seduce.

  Ean cleared his throat. “Pretty please, Adam?”

  Adam folded his arms, standing above her, legs spread in firm stance. His gaze determined. His mind set. He shook his head. She loved his stern, frosty side. It made her want to wrap herself around him and melt him like snow. It made her hot enough to do it. It usually made her able to do whatever it took to have him, but her last attempt at shifting hadn’t gone well.

  “You can do it, Marie. Try for me.”

  She rolled to her feet. All she had to do was call up the energy. Her purr disappeared. She couldn’t.

  It’s not fair, she pleaded. You shifted me to come out and play. Shift me back.

  Adam’s arms remained folded. She looked to Ean and he shook his head. He always took Adam’s side.

  “It’s safe, love,” Adam told her. “I promise you it’s safe. You can’t hurt us.”

  “We can make you very happy,” Ean coaxed.

  She tossed her head back and looked up to the moon, felt the breeze ruffle her fur. She opened that place right in her center and the humming started, singing in her bones, spreading out through her body to the tips of her fur, rising, carrying her up vibrating until she was a light cloud on another plane. And she hung there.

  This was the part she couldn’t work out. It was like she was a program stuck in a loop. She didn’t want to be stuck. She had something else she really wanted to get back to.

  It hit her then, that was exactly where she was, in a loop and to escape she needed to call herself, call the part of herself she wished to be. Marie had to be willing to be who she was, the tiger and the woman. She had to be willing to own her power.

  She snapped back to human shape with such force it knocked Adam and Ean down. Her landings still needed work.

  Adam reached up, grabbed her wrist, and pulled her down beside him. She sighed, rubbing her skin over his in a slow, lingering, feline way. His eyes glowed and he purred. Ean settled beside them and rubbed his chest against her back. His nipples were hard pebbles against her shoulder blades.

  “Don’t do that,” she said, “you’re making me drip all over Adam’s leg.”

  Both men purred louder, like jet engines. She especially liked the way Adam’s chest vibrated against her nipples, and the throbbing purr of Ean’s cock sliding back and forth over her dew slick petals. Adam’s tongue vibrated, licking a path from her neck to her ear. Ean’s fingers vib
rated, stroking her bottom. Marie decided tiger men definitely had a lot to offer. She curled her fingers around Adam’s hard cock and sent out some good vibrations of her own. Skin gathered, rippling as her fingers worked pleasure up, then down.

  “Mmm…I love you,” he whispered.

  “Turn around, then, and let me make you smile.”

  He did. She took his cock in her mouth as Ean’s slid into her pussy.

  “So hot,” Ean sighed.

  Adam’s tongue licked her mound, sending needles of pleasure through her with each raspy stroke. His tongue’s tip found and hummed against her clit. Sparks burst like fireworks behind her eyes.

  It made her clamp so tight around Ean’s cock that he moaned, “I love you more.”

  I think highly of you both, she teased. Her mouth was filled with Adam, so she couldn’t say it. But they knew. They knew they were loved. She heard it in their sighs and purrs and moans—a unique language. Their love language. Love rose in her, like energy gathering for a shift.

  Yes.

  Ean’s cock pumped faster, urgently. Slick, throbbing heat inside her. Her tongue swirled over the tip of Adams cock, nuzzled that little hole in the tip. His almond taste seeped onto her tongue. He was close. He growled. She smiled around him. She imagined the same dribbling from Ean’s cock mixing with her own juices.

  Adam’s tongue circled her clit, fast little flicks that said he was ready. Her muscles tightened around Ean, quick squeezing motions to match Adam’s pace.

  Yes.

  Spring pulsed in the earth under them, energy rose through them like the sap rising in the trees. Passion bubbled, scenting the air with promise.

  Ean was panting, his breath hot on her shoulder, his teeth nipping.

  Adam roared, pushing into her mouth, exploding like a fountain on her tongue, flowing and flowing. Ean roared, his cock jerking and spilling while she squeezed around him, milking his pleasure. Ean’s teeth sank into her shoulder unlocking her. She threw her head back letting Adam go as her own orgasm exploded.

  “Yes,” she cried out. “Yes. Yes. Yes.”

  They curled together as tigers in the peace that followed, the earth their mattress, the stars their blanket. She was snuggled between two sexy males. Their story was just beginning. With Adam and Ean at her side, no challenge was insurmountable. They’d said they couldn’t promise her a fairy tale life. They’d given her something better, a tiger’s tale. She didn’t doubt there was a happily ever after out there somewhere.

  About the Author

  Whether writing a shapeshifter romance exploring the primal power of the wild feminine, or BDSM romance where love digs into a character’s shadows, Nara believes romance should open the door and push lovers into a new dimension: sexually, emotionally, and sometimes physically.

  Nara Malone is an award-winning novelist and poet. As a freelance journalist and writer, her feature profiles on women entrepreneurs and her romantic short stories have been published in newspapers, magazines and digital publications.

  Nara welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.

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