by Jane Jamison
Tigers of Twisted, Texas 5
The Tiger and Her Wolves
Weretiger Rachel Woods knows Chance and Dylan Rothman are her mates. Problem? They’re werewolves. Yet she can’t get past a nagging feeling that someone else is missing from their union. Does she have a third mate?
Chance and Dylan are ready to take the sexy weretiger as their mate, but she keeps refusing. As if that isn’t tough enough, they get an additional surprise. Someone has left two bundles of joy wailing in the barn.
Rachel recognizes the two babies as the “someone” she’s been waiting for. She’s ready to raise them as her own, but how can she when one is part werewolf and the other is part weretiger? Where is their mother? And who are their fathers? Can she and her mates convince the towns of Forever and Twisted to accept not only their inter-shifter union, but two hybrid babies?
Yet her problems don’t end there. Danger hides, waiting, putting both Rachel and the babies at risk.
Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves, Western/Cowboys
Length: 30,639 words
THE TIGER
AND HER WOLVES
Tigers of Twisted, Texas 5
Jane Jamison
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
THE TIGER AND HER WOLVES
Copyright © 2015 by Jane Jamison
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-833-2
First E-book Publication: December 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
Dear Reader,
I had a wonderful time combining two of my favorite series, The Werewolves of Forever, Texas, and the Tigers of Twisted, Texas. I hope you enjoy reading about Rachel and her two werewolf mates as much as I enjoyed writing their story. As always, thank you for purchasing my book.
Jane Jamison
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Epilogue
About the Author
THE TIGER
AND HER WOLVES
Tigers of Twisted, Texas 5
JANE JAMISON
Copyright © 2015
Prologue
She woke up, sweat covering her body and soaking through the thin nightgown. The damp material stuck to her and wet the old mattress beneath her. For one awful moment, she was sure the men had come back and were lurking in the dark corners of the rundown apartment. Her fingers dug into the stained mattress, her body stiffening as she prepared to run.
The wails of the two children brought renewed pounding from her neighbor on the wall separating their tiny places. If she didn’t quiet the babies soon, there would be more complaints. Her landlord had promised to put her and her babies out on the street.
I can’t take this anymore.
Tears streaked down her grimy cheeks. Keeping a roof over their heads was hard enough, but how could any woman cradle children she feared?
I’m their mother. I have to take care of them. It’s not their fault.
Yet as much as she’d tried to convince herself the children were innocent, she couldn’t forget how they’d come to exist.
She closed her eyes, fighting against the rising bile in her throat. Even now, she could still feel the men’s hands on her, shoving her legs apart. Her nostrils flared as she remembered how they smelled. The two men who had turned out to be animals had beaten her, but the blows weren’t the worst of the torture she’d endured. They’d taken her, tearing her from the inside out, for several days, time after horrible time, treating her as though she were the animal.
Another wail sent her crawling off the stained mattress onto the chipped vinyl floor. The closer she came to the babies sleeping in makeshift bassinets made from the drawers of the old chest, the harder it was to keep from throwing up the one meal she’d had earlier in the day.
I hate them.
She hated the way she felt about them, but she couldn’t help herself. Their voices inside her mind kept shouting at her, telling her she was scum, demanding she bow to their demands just as their fathers had forced her to bow to them.
Once close to the small bundle wrapped in a dirty blanket, she paused before finally picking up the mewling boy. Her body shivered, not from the constant chill of the dreary one-room dwelling, but from the obligation she dreaded. Like his sister, he was a pretty baby. At least, on the surface. Yet she knew what dwelled beneath the pink cheeks and big eyes.
She glared at the infant. “Shut up,” she whispered, then stilled, holding her breath, waiting to see if he would react.
The baby changed, fur spread
ing along its skin, fangs erupting from his toothless mouth. Her breath hitched in her throat as infant became monster.
Run.
No. I can’t. It’s not their fault.
Run before it’s too late.
I can’t. I’m their mother.
Kill them. Kill them before they change.
The mother fought with the victim, going back and forth until the headache came. But the headache came more often now, faster, unrelenting, driving searing pain through her head until, at last, all she could do was to curl into a ball and scream.
The part of her that was still sane struggled to win, but it was a losing battle, one she’d known from the very beginning she would lose.
She closed her eyes and sucked in a ragged breath. When she opened them again, she was certain she’d find an animal in her arms. Instead, the baby boy gurgled, his tiny fingers grasping for her.
Thank God.
For now, at least, she could hold on, but the days where she saw babies instead of beasts were growing fewer. In her heart, one day she knew the terrible day would come when they would no longer be human.
At first, she hadn’t known what they were. Had, in fact, hoped they were human like her and not like the men who had taken her. But then, she’d seen their eyes change and she’d known. Had she imagined the amber there? Yet, what did it matter? One of her attackers had returned and had seen the babies. He’d laughed his awful cackle and had told her what they were.
I’m their mother.
She repeated those words often, yet, more and more, they were followed by other words. Words that would someday be the only words she would hear.
I hate them.
Kill them.
Forcing herself, she exposed her nipple and gave the boy what he wanted. Crying, she wanted to feel what all mothers felt with their babe at their breast, but she couldn’t. Since the day they were born, she’d grown more aware that she not only resented the babies, but hated them. They’d taken over her life as surely as the two men who had raped her. Even in her sleep, they came after her. First the men again, followed by the babies who weren’t babies at all.
I have to get rid of them. If I keep them…
She pushed away the murderous thought. As she gazed into the eyes of her son, more of her sanity slipped away.
Chapter One
“Miss Rachel, can we have another cookie?” The big blue eyes of Gabby Pritchard took hold of Rachel Woods’s heart and gave it a tug. If anyone could sell ice cream to an Eskimo, it was the four-year-old weretiger beauty. Gabby’s two best friends, April McAlister and Betsy Garton, stood beside their unofficial leader like little curly-headed soldiers and put their own big eyes to work, too.
“You three have already eaten your cookies, sweetie.”
“Aww. Please?”
“Sorry. Now go on and play, okay?”
Rachel didn’t bother reminding Gabby of her one-cookie-a-day rule at Twisted’s Sunshine Child Care. As the owner and only employee of the center, Rachel took her job very seriously.
She leaned against the side of the two-room frame home that served as the center. Snow fell softly from the sky, and although most of the children had coats on, she wouldn’t chastise the others for forsaking their wraps. As shifters, they could tolerate the cold weather.
Taking care of the children of Twisted, including weretigers, werepanthers, one set of triplet brother and sister vampires, and even one cute human child, was fun, but trying at times. Some of the children weren’t aware of what they and their parents were, but they’d soon find out. Even human children in a child care center occasionally bit one another, but it was an almost daily occurrence at the school.
With the center being on a break, a few older children whose parents couldn’t watch them during the day had temporarily joined their ranks. Those children were the hardest to handle because they had a tendency to shift in front of the others. She’d already had to inform angry parents that their child now knew what they and almost everyone in Twisted, Texas was. As far as Rachel was concerned, trying to keep the secret was silly. Why wait until puberty and their first shift to tell a child they were a shifter? Why not prepare them for their initial transition? But it wasn’t her place to go against the parents’ wishes.
She scanned the yard, keeping a careful eye on the older shifter kids. The child care center sat on the edge of town, yet she could see part of the town from the main road. People were walking on the sidewalks, stopping to chat, while others scurried about, getting ready for the next snowfall. With the center closing down for the holiday season, she was looking forward to a quiet two weeks at home.
Gabby and her two girlfriends giggled as they raced around the yard. Another tug at her heart, reminiscent of the first one yet with an added bit of pang to it, hit her. At twenty-eight, she was ready to start her own family, but obstacles still remained.
Chance and Dylan Rothman were part of her hopes, as well as two of her obstacles. She’d known from the first second she’d met them that they were her intended mates. They’d been strolling down the sidewalk, and she’d been doing the same coming from the opposite direction. Her heart had skipped a beat, and for a wild moment, she’d picked up speed, hurrying toward them and her future. If her mother hadn’t grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back, she might’ve ended up in the middle of street, hands on her knees, with a man on either side of her.
Instead, their eyes had met just like lovers in one of those old black-and-white romance movies she enjoyed, and she’d simply known. Wasn’t that the way of the connection, the mystical bond that instantly recognized a shifter’s mate or mates? She’d felt not only the physical chemistry linking them but also the emotional, soul-deep bond all connected mates shared.
That had been over three months earlier, the day before she’d taken over ownership of the center.
Anyone seeing the smile curve her mouth would’ve thought she was smiling at the children scampering around the yard, but her happiness was all for Chance and Dylan.
I can’t wait to see them tonight.
The three of them hadn’t gotten together for over a week. They’d been busy working the Moon Run Ranch they co-owned. She’d been stuck at the center during the day then, at night, helping Lena Fortran at The Rocking Porch Bed and Breakfast with guests filling all the available bedrooms.
They’ll want to have sex.
Of course they would. What shifter wouldn’t? She wanted sex, too, but as she’d done so many times before, she’d put them off. As much as she wanted them, as much as the connection drew her to them, she’d somehow fought the urge to give in. In her private moments she’d thought of herself as a superwoman. Who else could have resisted the Rothman men except a superwoman? Her smile grew, imagining herself in a leotard and cape just like Wonder Woman. Still, her resistance was breaking down.
Damn, but they were hot. Tall, rugged, and good-looking with chiseled jaws and strong cheekbones. They were powerfully built from long hours working the land and their livestock, but it was their inner core of strength that really drew her. How could two men be so tough when dealing with adversities like tornadoes, escaped horses, and other threats to Forever, and yet look at her with such tenderness she almost cried.
Oh, yeah, she wanted them all right. But giving in to her urges too soon might ruin everything.
Not that they hadn’t fooled around. She wasn’t a saint. Yet she wanted everything to be perfect before they consummated their relationship. Perfect as in accepted by her parents and brothers. Perfect as in knowing they could live close to her pride in Twisted and their pack in Forever without anyone hassling them for their “mixed” union. Perfect as in meeting at the ranch instead of meeting in secret.
And perfect as in knowing she’d met all of her mates. Chance and Dylan were her mates. She was sure of it. Yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more, someone else she needed to meet before she could fully commit to them.
Damn it. Why do I f
eel like this?
Soon it’ll happen. I know it will. We’ll have everything we want.
But what if it doesn’t? What if I never get rid of that nagging feeling?
Her happiness dimmed. Even if the missing piece of her wasn’t a problem, they’d have a hell of a bad time with the three of them. What were they going to do? As a weretiger, she was supposed to find a nice weretiger mate or even a good human man and settle down. Instead, she’d done something awful. Something she wasn’t sure her family would ever accept. Many in Twisted certainly wouldn’t.
She’d fallen in love with two werewolves.
Yet what choice did she have? Once a tigress was hit with the connection joining shifters together as mates, she couldn’t say no. At least not forever. How could anyone deny them their happiness when the connection said they were meant to be together? Yet, she knew some would.
One way or another, she and the Rothman men would have to get her parents, as well as most of the people in their two small Texas towns, on their side. It wasn’t as though the two kinds of shifters had never become mates. Granted, it wasn’t the norm, and because of that, it was hard for people to accept, but a shifter was a shifter. Plus, they were humans, after all, so what was the big deal?
Yeah, if only everyone saw it my way.
She checked her phone again and, as expected, saw the text from Chance.
Same place? Same time?
He and his cousin wanted to meet her at their usual rendezvous location. Thankfully, the vampire who owned the ranch next to theirs was willing to let them meet at his place. Unlike their ranch, where the house sat close to a well-traveled road, the vampire’s house was hidden behind trees, making it a more secluded location. Also, as a vampire, he didn’t have many friends who might stop by. He slept in the basement during the day, and at night, he often went to the nearby town of Shatland, where a large community of vampires lived. Although at times it felt strange to be in a vampire’s home—the undead still made her nervous—it was also the safest place to meet.
