The Tiger's Mate: (Book 12, Grey Wolf Pack Romance Novellas)

by E A Price

  “You know you can still change your mind,” murmured Simone. “You’re not mated yet.” Technically females could say no to any offer of mating. The big no-no was mating outside the pride. Trying to do that would get you banished and never allowed to see your family again. It was something a lot of pride members were unhappy about – particularly the large number of unmated males. But then a lot of pride mates were also fine with it. There was a lot of controversy about the way the Alpha led the pride, but no one ever worked up enough courage or support to confront him on it.

  Lauren licked her finger and dabbed at the crumbs from her cupcake, and then picked up another. “I don’t think the Alpha would be happy about that. Or Carrick,” sighed Lauren.

  Simone’s tiger chuffed in agreement. No, he wouldn’t. Carrick was one of the Alpha’s closest friends. Or at least, Carrick was the largest male in the pride and the Alpha liked to keep him close. It wasn’t a surprise that the Alpha had pressured Lauren into mating Carrick. Carrick decided he wanted Lauren, and the Alpha wanted to keep Carrick happy.

  “They’d get over it,” suggested Simone, although she wasn’t overly convinced by that. “You don’t have to get mated.”

  “You did,” said Lauren with a hint of defiance.

  Yes, yes she had, out of desperation. “Parker’s a good man.” And he was. They pretended to be mated so that Parker wouldn’t have to deal with his father’s outrage at his son’s disinterest in females and so that Simone could afford her mother’s medical bills. Simone considered that she was a lot luckier than most of her fellow pride mates.

  “Lucky you.”

  Simone tried not to smile. At least Lauren wasn’t quite as docile as everyone thought. Maybe Carrick’s little mate wouldn’t be quite as eager to lie down like a tiger skin rug as he hoped.

  “What are you two whispering about?” demanded Nita, stepping into the room and rubbing her swollen, pregnant stomach. She was carrying her fourth child, and the Alpha’s fourth grandchild. One of many reasons why she was the Alpha’s favourite.

  “Nothing,” said Lauren, quickly. Nita eyeballed her and then smirked when she spotted the empty cupcake wrappers. “Good to see you’re not worried about fitting into that mating dress. I did hear your mother already had to let it out for you, I’ll talk to her in the morning about adding a few more inches.”

  Lauren turned a shade of red that a tomato would envy. It wasn’t the first time she had been teased about this.

  Simone smiled at Lauren and pushed a triple chocolate cupcake at Lauren. “I’ll bet Carrick likes curves.”

  Nita’s smile didn’t fall but it seemed to congeal on her face. Simone didn’t enjoy irritating Nita, but she had to admit her tiger took a little bit of satisfaction from it. Before Nita mated with Asher, the Alpha’s son, she had been chasing Carrick. He was nonplussed by her attentions and so Nita instead turned her wretched attentions to Asher. She managed to persuade him that she would make the perfect mate – even though he had disliked her all his life - within the space of a month. However, clearly Nita wasn’t thrilled at being rejected. When Carrick started pursuing Lauren, Nita started tormenting Lauren every chance she got.

  Lauren gave Simone a small smile before picking up the tray of cupcakes and disappearing back into the throng of tigers.

  Nita recovered well and beamed at Simone. “Enjoying the party?”

  Simone’s tiger huffed. If the object of the party was to upset half the females of the pride, then it was a huge success. “It’s fine.”

  Her tiger growled as Nita patted her stomach. “Won’t be long until a little Parker Jr. comes along I’ll bet. How long have you been mated now? Two or is it three years?”

  “Four,” said Simone, boldly. Nita was a bully, and she liked nothing more than to see someone muttering and cowering. Simone may not have a dominant beast, but she wouldn’t give her the satisfaction.

  Nita was about to say something else when Lauren reappeared, her eyes were downcast so she didn’t see the look of irritation on Nita’s face. “I’m about to open my presents if you guys are coming.”

  “Absolutely,” said Simone, plastering a fake smile on her face.

  *

  Simone suppressed her yawn. She was twenty-three, and she couldn’t wait to get home and go to bed, and yikes, it was only nine-thirty. Damn, she was an old woman already. But hell, she’d happily be prematurely old to get away from Nita.

  She slipped on her coat and smiled at Lauren who followed her out the door.

  Simone saw the hulking mass of Carrick leaning against the porch steps, waiting to escort Lauren home. She bit her lip and gave Lauren a look.

  Lauren grasped her hand. “Don’t pity me,” she hissed. “You mated to make sure your family was taken care of, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  Carrick stood up straight as Lauren approached. He placed a hand on her shoulder and led her away. Simone’s tiger bristled. It wasn’t a tender action; it was proprietary. At least Parker wasn’t like that. Parker left her to fend for herself.

  “Simone,” purred a deep voice from the darkness.

  She flinched and instinctively, her tiger cowered. Just his voice was enough to turn her into a silly, little girl. The Alpha stepped onto the dim porch; he was watching Carrick and Lauren with a vague smile on his face.

  “They will make a fine pair, don’t you think?”

  Simone stared at him, not bothering to answer that. After all, lying to your Alpha should generally be avoided.

  Locke turned the smile on her. He wasn’t intimidating or brutal looking, in the same way that Carrick was. No, it was worse than that. He was handsome. He was nearing middle age, but he was still the best-looking male in the whole pride, he lulled you into a false sense of security with his disarming smile. But that was countered by the fact that he was the most vicious. It was worse because he looked kind on the outside. He hid all the darkness inside him, and it lashed out when anyone least suspected.

  “Fun party?” he asked, mildly.

  “Yes, thank you, Alpha.”

  He spread out his hands. “Simmy, call me Locke. We are family after all. You’re like a daughter to me.”

  Simone ignored the snort of her animal. Yes, she was the daughter-in-law of the Alpha, mated to his youngest son. But unlike Nita she didn’t use her position to torment the rest of the females. Nor did she relish how close she was to the Alpha. She preferred distance in that respect, because, in her experience, fathers didn’t look at their daughters in the way he was looking at her.

  “I told my son I would escort Nita home.”

  More like insisted, thought her tiger. Nita spent more time with the Alpha than her actual mate. Simone assumed that Nita’s mate wasn’t altogether unhappy about that. “How kind.”

  “It’s important for the future of the pride that we care for our young ones. I’m very proud of Nita and Asher. Did she tell you? She’s carrying another boy. My fourth grandson.” He looked as proud as if he had fathered the cubs himself.

  “That’s… wonderful, I…”

  “Hopefully this won’t be my last grandchild.” He took a step closer to her and gave her a hard look, and Simone struggled to meet his eyes. Her tiger wanted to lower her head in submission, but Simone fought against it. She had nothing to be ashamed of in this respect. Nor did she have to explain herself. Females may get a rum deal in the pride, but they weren't breeding machines. They weren't forced to give birth on a schedule.

  “I must get going. I’m sure Parker’s wondering where I am.”

  Locke let out a long breath and chuckled. “Of course. I feel like I never see you or my son. Come to my house for lunch tomorrow. I’ll have one of the girls cook us something.”

  “Actually I can’t,” she said, hoping she was managing to hide the relief she felt.

  The Alpha stared at her, and she could feel the ripple of power. “Oh?”

  She ignored her shivering beast. “My mom has a doctor’s appointment.
I need to drive her to Alexandria.”

  Fury flickered across his face. “Can’t someone else take her?”

  “She’s my mother,” said Simone, firmly.

  Yellow filtered into his eyes and a deep rumble escaped his throat. “Fine, but you’re not going on your own.”

  “I…”

  “My Beta will drive the two of you.”

  Her tiger shuddered. Patrick the Beta was not a tiger you wanted to spend ten minutes with, never mind a four-hour car journey. Ugh, eight hours there and back. “That’s not necessary.”

  “I insist.” A smile spread across his face, but there was no warmth in it.

  “But…”

  “No arguments!” he roared and his eyes flashed yellow, fur started sprouting on his face.

  Simone felt the tendrils of his power seeping into her body, commanding her to obey. She tried to stay strong but after a few moments she gave in. She inclined her neck in submission. “I’m sorry, Alpha, of course,” she panted.

  The handsome Alpha returned. “Great, and tell Parker I still expect him for lunch.”

  “Yep, I will. Sure thing.” She didn’t even bother trying to come up with an excuse as she hurried away. There was no point. Excuses ranging from root canals to attending the birth of your first child wouldn’t be accepted. The Alpha’s word was law, and she couldn’t wait to get away from it.

  Chapter Three

  Acksel groaned as he pushed the door open to his mom’s house. It had been a long day. Teenagers from the next town over had taken to sneaking onto pack land and lighting bonfires at night. They were ruining pack land. With the help of the pack tracker, Don they had managed to track one of the teenagers and spoke to the boy’s father. The human didn’t seem overly enthused with punishing his son. The son had smirked at him and Don as they tried to impress upon the father that if the son returned to their land, they were prepared to shift into their wolves and eat him alive to teach him a lesson. Neither father nor son believed them. His wolf was itching to teach the boy a lesson, but Acksel held back. Wolf shifters had a hard enough time being accepted by humans. They didn’t actively need to give humans reasons to dislike them.

  He wasn’t really in the mood to deal with any other argumentative teenagers, but his mom, against Hans’ strenuous objections, was out of town on vacation with her new boyfriend. Their twin sisters were seventeen and Acksel had lost the coin toss to see which of the brothers would move back home to make sure neither Gwen nor Britt burnt the house down or threw any parties.

  Acksel sniffed and scented Britt but no Gwen. There was, however, a male scent - an adolescent male.

  “Hello,” he called, hoping that if anything were going on it would stop at the sound of his voice.

  “In the kitchen,” came a tired sounding Britt.

  Acksel found Britt at the kitchen table, scowling, and Craig Tanner beaming at her. Textbooks, paper, and pencils were covering every inch of available space.

  He nodded at them and scooped a beer out of the refrigerator. Apparently his mom knew in advance he would be staying – she’d stocked up on his favourite brand.

  “Checking up on us already?” she asked, tartly.

  “I’ll be moving in while mom’s away.” Although, apparently their mom decided to let him tell them.

  “That’s not necessary,” grumbled Britt.

  “The last time she left you two alone, Gwen got her hair caught in the waste disposal, and you blew up the microwave.”

  Craig chuckled, but it quickly turned into a cough as Britt glared at him. “The microwave didn’t blow up; it set on fire.” Apparently there was a big difference. “And it wasn’t my fault, the instructions on that bag of popcorn were printed way too small.”

  “If you’d just wear your glasses…”

  “You wear glasses?” asked Craig lighting up like a particularly gleeful fireworks display.

  “No!” said Britt as Acksel said, “Yes.”

  Britt gave Acksel the ‘embarrassing brother’ look usually reserved for Hans. “Only sometimes for things close up. I don't really need them.”

  Acksel almost choked on his beer. She did need them; she was just too vain to admit it. It was a source of contention that Gwen didn't need glasses and Britt did. The girls were only indistinguishable by their scent – they were like mirror images. But there was some kind of stigma that since Gwen was a cheerleader and Britt was part of the model UN, that Gwen was the ‘hot’ twin and Britt was a nerd. Britt hated it, and assumed the glasses made her nerdier. Craig, however, didn’t agree.

  “Can I see them?”

  “No!”

  “I’ll bet you look cute in them.”

  Britt flushed, trying not to look pleased while Craig looked far too excited at the prospect of seeing the she-wolf in glasses. Acksel’s wolf growled. He considered that he might have to talk to the boy about his intentions towards his sister.

  Acksel started pulling out food for a sandwich. He tried to ignore the whispering between Britt and Craig until his prowling wolf couldn’t take it anymore. He disregarded the nagging voice that told him he was behaving like Hans. No, if he were Hans he’d have already kicked Craig out of the house.

  “Where’s Gwen?” he interrupted.

  “Out,” said Britt evasively. Which was code for ‘out with her boyfriend’ - Darryl Tanner. Oddly enough, Acksel considered that if it had been their mom asking her, Britt wouldn’t have lied. But then their mom considered the Tanner boys to be cheeky young boys. Hans and Acksel considered them to be walking hormonal nightmares that were only going to get worse with age.

  Feeling unusually tetchy, Acksel slammed the refrigerator. “Jeez, Britt, Mom’s gone three hours and already Gwen’s out with her boyfriend and you have a boy in the house. Can’t the two of your act responsibly for once?”

  Hurt flashed over Britt’s face, and Craig shot him a dirty look. Great, now the pup was feeling protective of his sister.

  “I don’t have a boy in the house,” she declared in the face of all evidence to the contrary. “I’m tutoring him in math. Being a tutor will look good on my college application, and I made the mistake of putting up a notice at School to say I was available for math and French.” The last part was said while she narrowed her eyes at Craig.

  “Hey, babe…” started Craig.

  “Britt!” snapped both Britt and Acksel at the same time. Acksel’s wolf voiced some loud objections about anyone calling his sister ‘babe’.

  “I need help in math, and since my mom’s willing to pay…”

  “You seem to be doing fine without my help.” She held up a graded test paper. “You got a B+ on this one.”

  “Wow, even I got solid Cs in math,” commented Acksel. He was solid student rather than a great one. He preferred sports to studying.

  “But I could be doing better,” Craig told them, solemnly. “Hans isn’t going to be staying here, too, is he?” asked the young wolf, with just a modicum of fear.

  “No. You glad about that?”

  Craig visibly relaxed. “He threatened to cut off… well, he threatened me the last time I saw him.”

  “Why? What were you doing?”

  He shrugged, and looked far too innocent. “Nothing.”

  Acksel quashed a throaty growl from his wolf as he guessed it involved leering at some part of his sister he shouldn’t be leering at – such as any part of her.

  “Hans is all talk,” said Britt.

  Acksel winced. For the most part, yes, he would agree with that. But his brother wasn’t exactly known to think about consequences before he acted. If Hans really thought that a boy was out to hurt his sister, Acksel worried about how far he’d go. In fact, considering the restive mood his own wolf had been in recently, Acksel worried what he might do.

  “Well, mostly,” he agreed. “He’s been much better since he stopped cage fighting, and since he got out of prison, and, of course, meeting his mate helped.”

  Craig nodded before snapp
ing to attention. “Wait, what?”

  Britt frowned. “You know Melanie.”

  “No, I meant about the whole…”

  “Why don’t we have a study break?” suggested Britt, brightly.

  Curiosity was forgotten in the face of excitement. “Sounds good.” The young wolf leaned back in his chair and tried to look pensive. “What could we do during our break?”

  “Nothing that you’re thinking of,” growled Acksel, darkly. His wolf seconded that with a snarl.

  Britt closed her textbook with a thud. “Why don’t we take a run?”

  “Yeah, I guess that’s fun, too. Let's see if you can keep up with me.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Keep up with you? Maybe you should worry about whether you can keep up with me.”

  Acksel took a bite of his sandwich to stop himself from laughing. He loved his sister, but she wasn’t overly athletic. She’d tried out for every sports team at School – because it would look good on her college application - and had been rejected by them all. She was in mathletics, though. Craig, on the other hand, had been a freshman for a month and was already on the football team.

  Craig smirked. “Please, babe…”

  “Ahem.”

  “Please, Britt,” he corrected. “I promise not to go too fast for you.”

  In a hitherto unknown fit of athletic confidence, Britt taunted him. “Oh, you wanna race do you, junior?”

  “I’ll feel bad when I crush you, but I reckon I’ll enjoy it.” He jumped to his feet; his huge body towering over Britt’s slim form. “Besides, what do I get if I win?” The young pup almost vibrated with excitement as he considered the options.

  “Hey, take it down a notch, kids, okay. No racing! And don’t go near the road!” Acksel called as they ran out the door.

  *

  The moment Britt hit fresh air she started stripping out of her clothes. Craig stared open-mouthed, practically drooling. Even at pack runs she didn’t like stripping in front of other pack members. But she had written some checks her body couldn’t cash, so when it came getting on edge over Craig, she wasn’t above resorting to dirty methods. Of course, she kept her back to him, and she was so fast that he only saw a flash of flesh. But the mere hint was enough to send his teenage hormones soaring.