“Why do people have to be so selfish? Why do they always take, take, take when they have the capacity to give so much, if only they would listen to their hearts?” Carmen leaned forward, rested her head on his knee, sobbing for their suffering.
“Sh... lyubov moya, my love. I am fine, Malik is fine.” He stroked her hair, reveling in the fact that he now knew it was as soft as it looked.
She looked up at him, tears streaming down her face. “You can’t possibly love me. We aren’t even positive we’re mates yet.”
Malik reached down, helping her to her feet. He brushed her tears away with a smile. “We are sure. It is you who has doubts.” He grinned. “If you reacted to Gabe’s toes with such overwhelming emotion, I can’t wait to see how you react to my tail.”
Chapter Nine
“I can’t believe that I paid to rent that room for the night and we’re on the road.” Carmen sat between them, her arms crossed wearing what she hoped was a formidable-looking scowl. She doubted it, though. If the guys’ reactions were anything to go by, she would think she had been smiling and nodding all the while.
“If we drive in shifts, we could lose whoever is following us. From our experience, hit men rarely travel in pairs. None of them wants to leave a witness. If Kitrick travels alone, which is his usual M.O., he’ll have to stop and sleep while we can keep driving.”
“I don’t think it’s going to do much good if they’re using helicopters.” She pointed up at the chopper that had been pacing them for the last ten minutes, or so. “Or is that someone you know?”
“Shit!” Gabe glanced out the window. “It’s no one we know.” He frowned. “But if it’s Kitrick, he could have blown us away by now.” He glanced at her. “Do you know of anyone who would come after you with a helicopter?”
“My uncles are rich, but I don’t think they’re that rich.” Carmen shook her head. “It has to be one of your enemies. Didn’t you say they were into organized crime? Now they would have that kind of money, wouldn’t they?”
Two SUVs appeared out of the haze in front of them, each taking up a lane. One pulled ahead, shooting by them while the other cut the wheel, sliding sideways to a stop in front of them.
Malik jammed on the brakes, their car skidding to a halt. The other vehicle spun around and came up behind them, boxing them in while the helicopter landed in the desert a few hundred feet off their right side.
Shit, shit, shit. What the hell could they do? They were surrounded and outnumbered.
“I don’t know who this is, but they aren’t shooting yet, so let’s take that as a good sign.” Gabe, reached for the door handle, opened the door and slid out. “Stay here.”
Malik followed suit. They strode to the front of the car when four guys jumped them, beating them down.
Carmen screamed as someone opened the door and pulled her out of the car.
“Are you okay?”
“Uncle Mitch!” Her mouth fell open as she stared up at him. “What are you doing here?”
“How did you—”
“We decided to come for you when the tracking device on the car and your portable GPS parted ways. We tried calling, but it kept going into voicemail. You should charge your phone.” He glanced at the four men fighting Malik and Gable. “It’s a good thing, too, by the looks of it.” He turned his dark gaze on her. “Why didn’t you tell us you were taking a trip? We got to the penthouse, found your things gone and Melody went nuts when you didn’t return her calls. She’s been worried something happened to you.” Shaking his head, he rubbed a spot between his eyes. “You know how she’s going to react when I tell her she was right.”
“Stop it!” she cried when two of the strange men managed to get Malik on the ground. “You’ll hurt him.” She turned to her uncle. “Stop them, Uncle Mitch. They’re killing my mates!”
“Your—shit!” Dropping her arm that she hadn’t realized he’d been holding, he moved to the front of the car and pulled the two men off Malik. “Stop it. Carmen is okay and she insists these two are her mates.”
“Who the hell are you?” Malik growled, his eyes glowing in the growing dusk.
She frowned when her Uncle Wyatt stepped up beside Mitch. He brushed dirt off his pants, his lip bleeding. It served him right for participating in that barbaric act. She hadn’t realized he’d been one of the men trying to beat her mates to death.
Men! She shook her head.
Gabe turned to Wyatt, his expression unreadable. “You’re lucky we heard you say something about how we were going to die for fucking with your niece.”
“Lucky?” Wyatt grinned. “We’re not as easy to take as you might think.”
“You would be for our tigers. We’d outweigh you by a few hundred pounds.” Malik spit some blood on the ground. “Now, how about you tell us why you thought it necessary to stop us instead of merely confronting us at our next stop.”
“There were two of you and our niece was between you. It looked suspicious. What would you have had us do?”
“Touché.” Gabe nodded. “You have us there.” His gaze roamed over all of the men who had joined them. “Since you’re here and your object is keeping your niece safe, perhaps you would care to help us.”
“Help you do what?” Mitch crossed his arms and scowled at both Malik and Gable. “Are you saying that you can’t keep your mate safe?”
“We aren’t saying that. We’re merely informing you that we have made some enemies. Our line of work doesn’t leave a lot of room for making friends, at least the kind that we can trust with our secrets.”
Her uncles shared a look that spoke volumes. They had most likely spoken to each other using their telepathic link. “We’re listening.”
“We’ve been bounty hunters for the last several years.”
“What the fuck were you two thinking taking on a job like that?” Wyatt asked, obviously disgusted.
“We were thinking that we were bored and needed to do something with our lives before we contracted mate fever and went rogue.”
“Mate fever is a myth,” one of the men said as he bent to pick his hat up off the ground.
“Tell that to the fifty-or-so that have died in the cascade.” Gabe met each of her uncles’ gazes in turn. “Why do you think our prince took the chance of leaving the cascade to find his mate? Did you really think it was only because he wanted an heir?” He shook his head and laughed. “Sure, that was part of it, but the other part was being one of the oldest, he was showing signs of going mad. He needed a mate and he needed her fast. It was... fortuitous that the two of them stumbled upon your little town.”
Carmen watched their exchange, glad that her uncles and her mates had come to a tenuous truce. So what if they were talking about her as though she wasn’t there? She’d gotten used to that a long time ago. Her uncles were nothing if not creatures of habit.
Chapter Ten
Do you think they believe you? Malik asked through their mental link.
It doesn’t matter if they believe me. If they care even a bit for their niece, they’ll help us protect her from a slug, if that’s what we ask them to do.
You have a point.
“Okay. Let’s say we believe you.” Mitch said, his voice nearly a growl. “And let’s say that we agree to help you protect our niece instead of taking her from you.”
Carmen let out a growl of her own at that. It was everything Malik could do to keep the smile from his face. For a woman who wasn’t quite sure they were mates, she sure objected to the idea of having her uncles save her from them.
“Then let’s say that we lead you to one of the bridges to the cascade. We can take you there and you can tell your people that we are truly brothers in the fight against rogues and rabid humans alike.”
“You would do that?” Wyatt asked, his expression skeptical.
“Would you do any less for your mate?” Malik crossed his arms and stood up straighter. Even in human form, he was taller a
nd bigger. It shocked him to think that only four men had gotten the better of him and Gable. Perhaps, he would ask them to train his men. They would need to know the modern way to fight. Obviously, their ancient ways of brawn over brain were not going to cut it in the modern human world.
“Who is this enemy who has you on the run?” Mitch followed Malik’s lead, crossed his arms and widened his stance. “If you tell me it’s a human, we’re out of here and Carmen is coming with us. We won’t trust our niece to two men who can’t protect her from a human threat.”
Carmen sighed, glared at her uncle for a moment and held out her hand. “Give me your keys. We can’t leave the car sitting in the road all night. Someone’s bound to drive up and think we’re having a gang war, or something.” She wiggled her fingers, her impatience evident. “I’ll move your car while you guys measure your dicks.”
Wyatt nodded to two of the men who accompanied them before they each moved to one of the SUVs and climbed behind the wheel.
Malik shoved his hand into his pocket, dug out his keys and handed them to her before turning his attention back to her uncles as she walked back to the car.
“At least one is a hit man we know only as Kitrick.”
Carmen’s uncles shared a glance that spoke volumes.
“What... you know him?” Malik hoped they could give them some insight on the man.
“If it’s the guy we think it is, we trained the son of a bitch.” Wyatt rubbed the back of his neck. “But don’t worry. We didn’t teach him everything.”
“God damn it! He’s a fucking shifter?” If Kitrick was a shifter, that would explain a few things—like how the bastard managed his hit and runs. “That would explain a lot.”
“No. He’s not a shifter. He’s human. He’s just damned good. The man rarely even leaves a scent behind.”
“That’s not possible.” Malik shook his head. “Everyone leaves a scent.”
“That isn’t always true,” Wyatt said with a shake of his head. “A number of years ago, there were a series of murders involving women, shifter and human alike. The perpetrator of the crimes had devised a way to cover his scent. Perhaps Kitrick also knows the trick.”
“I’ve never even heard of that before.” Malik glanced at Gabe. “Have you?”
“No, but many things have changed since we sequestered ourselves behind the veil.”
The people of Paradise also hid behind a veil, but they also associated with the rest of the world. How they managed it, was anyone’s guess. The security of pulling off something on that scale would be a logistical nightmare.
“True,” Malik agreed with a nod. Many things have happened, including the advancement of technology to the point where their people could walk among humans during Halloween and at what the humans called COS Play conventions.
The people now embrace the idea that a man could shift his shape into that of an animal, and still be a good man.
Over a hundred years ago, people would have run from them or hunted them down and killed every one of them, which, incidentally, had been why the Caspian shamans had created the cascade in the first place.
“So... how do we stop him?” Malik watched as Carmen approached her uncles and gave each one of them a hug.
“We keep him from getting to Carmen. Sooner or later, he’ll make a mistake.”
“True,” Malik said with a nod. “And when he does, we’ll have him.”
One thing was certain to work to their advantage. Even if Kitrick knew about shifters, unless he was watching now, he would have no idea how many men protected his new target.
“At least we’ll have the element of surprise. He won’t know about you and your men.” Gabe voiced Malik’s thoughts.
“Oh, he knows.” Mitch smiled, though it never lit his eyes. “At some point, he managed to put a tracking device on something you always have with you. Hell, he could have cloned your phones.”
Malik glanced around them, wondering if the bastard was targeting Carmen, as they spoke. “If that’s the case, we should get the fuck out of here.” Gabe grasped Carmen by the arm and pulled her between them.
“Take our SUV,” Mitch said as he waved toward one of the huge, black vehicles.
“Thanks.” Malik shook his head. “But if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather have her in the sedan.” He raised a brow. “Our shamans have a way with shielding.”
Carmen’s uncles shared a look and shrugged. “If Kitrick harms her, he won’t have to kill you,” Mitch said with a low growl. “We will, for refusing our offer.”
They all moved to surround Carmen as they made their way to the car. None of them would stop a bullet from Kitrick’s high-powered rifle, but they sure as hell could make sure the son of a bitch couldn’t get a clear shot.
Stirring within him, Malik’s tiger attempted to take control. What creature dared to endanger his mate? While full animal tigers didn’t mate for life. In fact, they led solitary lives, usually only coming together to mate, or hunt large prey.
However, their people were different. Unlike their tiger counterparts, the Caspians were one letter of genetic code away from Siberian tigers. That one letter of code gave them a lot. It gave them the ability to shift their shape and take control of the magic.
The Caspians had more in common with the Siberian tiger than any of them would care to admit. Both species were critically endangered. While around thirty-five hundred Siberian tigers still lived in the wild, only about five hundred Caspians remained alive.
Humans were to blame for their downfall. Loss of habitat and trophy hunting kept their numbers dwindling. Soon the only wild tigers left would be those the elders had smuggled into the cascade.
“Are we ready?” Mitch asked as soon as they had Carmen safely tucked inside the car.
“If we’re not, we’d better be,” Malik replied as he slid behind the wheel. “Let’s get this dog and pony show on the road.”
Chapter Eleven
Carmen stretched her legs with a sigh. She twisted her feet back and forth, working the kinks from her ankles. “You know, the SUV would have been more comfortable.” She didn’t mention that the other vehicle had four bucket seats. She didn’t want them to think that she minded sitting between them. In fact, she liked it. She just wished she had more legroom.
“It also would have been more vulnerable,” Gabe replied as he moved his legs to give her more room to stretch out. “This vehicle is charmed by our shamans. It will even stop a bullet, if needed.”
“I could lay down in the backseat.” Carmen glanced over her shoulder. Her uncles were right behind them. The headlights of the truck temporarily blinded her. They lit up the back dash and the backside of the headrest behind Gable.
She regretted the words almost as soon as she voiced them. She’d never get comfortable back there, either. Plus she’d have no excuse for wriggling around in frustration. She couldn’t very well admit that she wasn’t physically uncomfortable. She was, however, horny and emotionally exhausted as well as utterly confused. Something drew her to the men, yet she hadn’t felt any symptoms of the el calor since she’d gotten ill at the lake where they met.
Sitting between them for the last few hours only proved, without a doubt, that she wanted them. Every moment she spent sitting between them, her desire grew stronger. How much longer could she wait before she snapped?
What if she suddenly attacked them, ripping their clothes off, as she licked every inch of tanned skin she uncovered? Every fiber of her being reached for them. Every drop of the blood flowing through her veins sang out to them, even though she didn’t feel the blistering heat of the el calor flowing through her veins.
Why?
Sinuous warmth surged through her—a delicious, pulsing heat moved through her. Every moment she spent with them only fed it as it grew stronger. Her stomach did a little flip every time one of them even glanced in her direction.
Her heart raced if they made the slightes
t contact, her blood rushing through her veins at the thought that they belonged to her—with her.
“Crawl into the back if you want to take a nap.” Malik slowed the car a bit and glanced over at her.
“I can wait.” She bit her lip, wondering how long it would be before they scented her arousal, if they didn’t already. Every mile drove her closer to a need that she couldn’t deny. Every moment in their presence prepared her for the time when they would take her to their bed. What she felt was nothing like the mating heat as others had described it. Yet, if it wasn’t the el calor, what was it?
She closed her eyes, fighting the urge. She wanted nothing more than to climb into the back seat, taking Gable with her.
Malik and Gabe’s mixed scents almost drove her wild. What if she convinced Gabe to join her back there and then couldn’t control herself? Having Malik occasionally glance their way in the rearview mirror was one thing. Her uncles in the vehicle behind them, with its headlights illuminating the backseat was another matter altogether.
Nobody was that horny.
Taking a deep breath, she drew in the smell of their woodsy-scented aftershave and the underlying scent of something odd, but pleasant, from Malik that she suspected was the residual scent of his tiger.
Resting her head on Gabe’s shoulder, she wondered what it would be like with them. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t positive they were her mates. Wanting them had become her obsession in the few short hours since she’d met them.
Maybe her hormones were trying to tell her something. After all, they weren’t from Paradise. Things could be different with them. What if the Caspians didn’t suffer from the mating heat? If that was the case, she wouldn’t either, would she? If nothing in them triggered the el calor, she couldn’t suffer from it, could she?
Closing her eyes, Carmen concentrated on the drone of the engine and the soft sound of the radio. For the first time in her life, Carmen felt comfortable with men who weren’t her uncles and perhaps that was the most promising sign of them all.
Taming The Tigers Page 4
