A Tiger's Destiny (Tiger Protectors Book 3) (9 page)

Kel stepped back. “Why do you think I believe someone I thought cared about me could just toss me aside?” Kel spat. “You two did. You took us in when we were young, put us through so much training. And then you had Carter and Jace work for you, but no, not me. I was told I could do whatever I wanted. I wasn’t good enough to do the work I was trained for.”

Perry’s silver eyes softened in confusion and he rose to his full, intimidating height as he looked over at Tor, who looked equally confused but much angrier.

Tor shook his head. “You idiot tiger. What made you think you weren’t good enough?” He sighed, slumping in a nearby chair, tired. No, exhausted. “Look, we aren’t total monsters. We already felt bad about training you and your brothers to help us with our work, but the world needed it.” He rubbed his hands over his face and then through his dark hair. “But you were different. You had all the skills. You were whip smart, just as strong, but you had a different heart.”

Kel just stared at Tor, chest tightening as the dragon explained. Had he misunderstood all along? 

“Perry had read your mind too much, I guess,” Tor said. “Not on purpose. But we knew you had a good heart. Maybe it has to do with the fact that you came out as a white tiger. But there was something about you. You weren’t meant to hunt and kill and spend all your time with the worst aspects of shifter society. You were meant to protect.” Tor looked to Perry, who nodded sternly. “That’s why we told you you were free to do what you wanted. Because we wanted you to use that big heart to decide what all of that strength should do.”

Perry nodded. “Because your heart is better than either of ours.”

“Why didn’t you just say that?” Kel erupted. “I was a teenager. I felt like a piece of thrown-out trash.”

Tor stood angrily and paced over to him. “I never said we were perfect. I never said we knew how to handle every situation. I thought you would take it as a reprieve. You hated the training. All of you did. If you hated leaving so bad, you could have said something. Hell, if you want to come back, we could definitely use you now.”

“It’s true,” Perry said. “If you want to get out of the bodyguard business now that you have a mate, we could use another interrogator, maybe someone to play good cop/bad cop with Tor.” Perry grinned. “He can only do bad cop.”

Tor shook his head. “I’m sorry we messed things up. But we’re all wiser now. Can we agree to let it go?”

Kel nodded, sitting on his bed in a daze. He’d been so wrong about things. His heart pounded. Had he been wrong about Sofia, too? His mind raced as he thought over their conversation.

Tor sighed. “You have to stop letting that color your opinion of yourself or you’re going to keep falling into traps like the one Sofia set for you. She had to know it would be easy to just trigger your unworthiness button and watch you shut down.” 

Kel looked up at Tor. “Why would she do that?”

“Did you ever think about the fact that she’s maybe trying to protect you?” Tor asked, folding his substantial arms. “Did you ever think maybe she felt you were in danger and the only way to not involve you in that danger was to somehow make you let her go?”

Kel felt all the blood drain from his face. “That’s crazy. She wouldn’t have…”

Tor cocked his head impatiently, looking at the mark on Kel’s wrist. “Shifters will do crazy things trying to protect a mate.”

Perry stood up abruptly, pushing up his sleeves. He pulled out a hair tie and quickly bound his silver hair into a low queue. “All right, let’s roll out.”

“Where to?” Kel asked.

“To rescue your mate, of course,” Perry said, swinging open the bedroom door. “Obviously, there has been a big misunderstanding, and our treatment of you played a role, so there’s no way we’re letting you deal with it alone.”

Kel’s mouth dropped open, but he followed Tor and Perry out of the house. 

Perry looked surprisingly dangerous, emanating a calm kind of anger as he walked out of the house and transformed into his dragon, a huge, shimmering, iridescent silver beast with a long, graceful neck and giant wings. 

Tor walked next to him, changing into his giant red dragon as well, which was twice the size of Perry’s.

The two monsters looked down at him with glowing eyes, and Kel felt glad they were on his side.

And now he could also see Sofia clearly. Why she’d said what she said. How her actions with him, the loving moments they’d spent, overrode anything she might have said in anger or desperation.

And if he was wrong, he would still rescue her and help the dragons kick ass so he could at least talk to her again. Tell her once more what she meant to him and ask her about about her mating him.

In the past, he would have let someone tell him what to do or what he was made for, but now, he trusted his own instincts. His own strength. 

The past could go suck its own dick.

He was going to rescue his mate.

T
he trip
back to the mansion Sofia had called home for the past few weeks gave her ample time to replay the horror that had been her last minutes spent with Kel over and over in her mind. But every time she wished she could go back, she reminded herself it was the only option for both of them.

But mainly, it had been for Kel.

By the time they arrived, her tears were all but spent, and she was ready to face whatever terrible future awaited her at the hands of Domingo Arnal.

Hopefully, Kel could forgive her and just move on. Maybe even forget about her entirely and find someone normal to settle down with. Someone who wouldn’t have to put his life in danger just by being with him.

The sprawling home was just as large and unwelcoming as she remembered it, opulent and glamorous but entirely lacking the style and character as well as the sheer size of the dragon’s home far outside the city.

Sofia couldn’t help but wonder what Kel was doing right now.

She imagined her thoughts would never really leave him. Somehow, she felt joined to him, no matter the distance that separated them and no matter who he felt about her.

The vehicle pulled up, and she saw her supposed godfather was already outside waiting with what looked like two dozen or so men, all of them armed.

It was like they were expecting Godzilla or something.

At the command of the men in the car with her, she got out, blinded slightly by the noonday sun overhead.

“Sofia, so nice of you to join us. Glad to see you’re all in one piece.” Her godfather beckoned, leading her into the house. To the side, she saw multiple cars parked at the end of the drive, ones that didn’t look like the same models Felding used.

They walked into the house, flanked by the small army of guards, and headed for the main parlor past the entryway. Inside, she could see even more men of all shapes and sizes. She could smell all kinds of shifters, too, mostly wolves, but a few cats and, if her scent was right, even a few bears maybe.

Apparently, this was serious business.

Inside, seated on the couch by himself with guards all around him, was a man with straight, strawberry-blond hair and a unique, craggy face that was neither ugly nor handsome. His eyes were hidden by small circle sunglasses, and even though he was sitting, she could tell he was very tall. He wore a black suit with a dark-blue shirt and no tie, and the way he lounged on the chair, you’d think he owned the place.

“Here she is, as promised,” her captor announced proudly as they came before the man.

At that, he stood to his full height. Nothing like Kel or the dragons, but intimidating still, made more so by the vicious, calculating air about him.

“Ah, my jaguar. At last I’ve found you,” he said, folding his hands behind him and stalking closer to her. His scent was entirely unique, like a mix of two shifter breeds. But he still seemed more man than animal.

“She’s all yours,” her once-guardian said.

But Domingo didn’t regard him at all. Instead, he moved closer to Sofia, walking with long, slow strides as he examined her intently from behind the small glasses that concealed his eyes. When he was no more than a couple feet from her, staring down but saying nothing, he took in a long breath through his nose.

“After all these years of eluding me… you’re finally mine,” he said, his words calm but his voice deeply unsettling.

After all these years? Surely he couldn’t mean…

“Thank you, Felding,” Domingo said, still not addressing him directly. Then he gave a quick wave of his hand, and two men appeared at his sides, bringing with them two pairs of heavy-looking shackles.

“My apologies. Protocol, you must understand. More than one prize has tried escaping during a transaction. I wouldn’t want you disappearing on me again.”

“You murdered my parents, didn’t you?” she accused, emboldened by the mix of fear and hatred roiling inside her.

“A mere formality, but yes. You see, when I learned of their existence, I contacted them, expressing my interest in adding a jaguar to my collection. Namely, if they would let me have their only child. Being typical parents with no regard for the higher purpose that is my calling, they refused my demands. They thought they could disappear, thought they could run, but I eventually caught up to them,” he said, removing his glasses and revealing cold gray eyes behind blond lashes. “Imagine my dismay when I arrived to find the child in question gone.”

Sofia still remembered that day. It haunted her dreams on a daily basis. Coming home from visiting a friend’s house for the weekend. Hearing gunfire, her mother screaming, then flames that consumed the small house at the end of the street. She wanted to run to them, wanted to see them one last time, but she did as she’d always been instructed in case something happened and followed the example set for her by her parents.

She ran. Ran for days and days until she could no longer run anymore.

While Domingo spoke, the men put the shackles on her hands and feet. But she couldn’t feel them. All she could feel was the burning desire for revenge.

“Which is why I hired Felding. Apparently, he has a knack for finding lost things, and even though it took him longer than I would have liked, he found you and brought you in, pretending a presumed relationship with your late parents and acting under the guise of a godfather. Lamentably, others caught wind of my plan while I was out of the country, so we arranged for the exchange to take place while you were away, staged as a kidnapping so as to not raise suspicions of the disappearance of his so-called “goddaughter.” However, the bodyguard Felding hired proved much more meddlesome than we planned.” He grinned. “But now that he is out of the way—”

He was interrupted as the sound of crashes and yelling came from outside. Sofia turned to look at the front door at the same time as her godfather and Domingo.

“It would seem we have guests,” Domingo said. “Time to leave.”

K
el could scent
the fear on the guards outside as he and the dragons tore into them. Still invisible, except for a glimmering sheen that could only be seen when they moved, the dragons went straight for the bulk of them. Cars were tossed like newspapers, men swept away and flung into the air with the swipe of their tails, and pillars and columns were knocked or tumbled over like toy bricks.

It was nice to have allies for once.

As for Kel, the second they were a safe distance from the ground, he’d leapt from Tor’s grasp and charged through the entrance in his tiger form, searching for Sofia. With one breath, one scent, he could take in everything all at once. Knew exactly how long ago she’d walked through the front door and in what direction she had gone.

Unsurprisingly, the parlor was littered with men, shouting and panicking and making their way to the front where the mayhem was. Then all at once, they stopped to look at the huge white Siberian tiger before them.

At the back of the litany of guards, headed for a side door that led toward the back of the house, was a small group. At the head, he could see Sofia being dragged by a tall man in a dark suit.

Suddenly, the parlor became chaos. Numerous men aimed their weapons at Kel and began firing. Several of them shifted into their animal forms, snarling and charging in his direction.

But all Kel could think of was Sofia. Regardless of the odds or the numbers, he’d save his mate.

Years of training and experience kicking in, Kel leapt to the side to avoid the barrage of gunfire, ducking behind tables and couches as he made his way toward the back door where Sofia had disappeared. Two wolves lunged at him in unison, and he lashed at them with one wide, lethal swipe of his razor-sharp claws, tearing through both of them and sending them flying to the side.

As soon as he was closer to the men armed with a vast array of guns, he grabbed a huge, embroidered couch with his fangs and hurled it toward them. Those that weren’t caught by the heavy sofa dove to the sides to avoid it.

But no sooner had he disarmed the mass of them when more came rushing from the back of the house.

Dammit, how many are there?

As if in response to his thoughts, the entire entryway tore open as Tor charged into the house, barely fitting despite the height of the ceiling. With one swipe of his tail, the newcomers were flung into the wall with a crash.

“We’ll take care of this. Get Sofia,” Tor said as he breathed fire into the house and knocked away a wolf with the back of his hand like it was a plush toy.

At that, Kel bolted for the back door, ignoring the remaining men still shouting and firing at him. It would take much more than a few bullet wounds to stop a tiger from protecting its mate.

He ran through the back door, still following Sofia’s scent as he made his way through a maze of hallways that wound toward the rear of the house. Between the yells and crashing and pounding of the dragons, he could hear what sounded like a helicopter engine, revving and increasing speed.

Kel crashed through another door and found a pathway leading down a long staircase into a wide backyard. In the middle of it was a small helicopter, and in it, he could see Sofia being held by two men in the back, with Domingo and a pilot in the front. From the looks of it, they were ready to take off.

Running at blinding speed, his tiger making powerful strides that covered several meters at a time, Kel rushed at the chopper. Several guards stepped in his way and aimed their guns to stop him, but he swatted them down like flies. As he did, the helicopter lifted off the ground, the pilot pointing at the enraged, giant tiger as they ascended.

Balling all his energy, his entire body coiling up like a spring, Kel leapt into the air with incredible height and speed. As he did, he shifted back into his human form and reached for one of the metal rails that made up the landing gear. Just barely, he caught it with his right hand, holding on as the helicopter jostled from the added weight of his body.

I’m almost there, Sofia.

One of the men guarding her let her go to look over the edge and see what had happened, and Kel reached up and pulled him down by his suit jacket, sending the man careening down and plummeting into a small pond in the backyard of the mansion below. Then, with one motion, he pulled himself up the rail and grabbed onto the cabin.

Inside, Domingo was shouting commands to the pilot, while Sofia pushed against the other man at her side. With catlike reflexes, he jumped into the cabin. The guard in the back pointed his gun at Kel, and he grabbed it and tossed it aside just as Sofia head-butted the man and shoved him out.

The pilot drew a weapon as well and turned around to fire, when Domingo yanked the controls in front of him and the helicopter lurched to the side, tossing the pilot and almost sending Kel off balance. Extending his claws, he grabbed the upholstery of the bench seat, anchoring him to it and keeping him inside.

The helicopter finally steadied, and Kel lunged at Domingo when he turned around, pointing a high-caliber revolver at Sofia.

“Don’t make another move, tiger, or I’ll shoot. I know what you’re here for, but don’t test my patience,” he shouted, his voice rising above the cacophony of the aircraft’s engine.

Sofia backed away, still in chains, while Kel readied himself to leap for the gun.

“I mean it. This weapon is loaded with bullets of my own design. A special shifter poison that’s one hundred percent lethal against every shifter breed on the planet. I know because I’ve tested it personally,” he said, grinning with satisfaction as he kept the gun pointed at Sofia with one hand and the helicopter steady with the other.

Every second Domingo had the gun pointed at his mate, Kel’s tiger roared inside him, calling for the man’s blood for threatening her. All he needed was the opportune moment.

Suddenly, in a deafening crash, the door to Sofia’s right was wrenched open, and Perry’s tail wrapped around her and pulled her from the helicopter.

“No!” Domingo exclaimed as his prized bounty was stolen from him. “If I can’t have her, no one can!” he screamed furiously, pointing at Sofia as Perry flew away.

Kel had two options. Tackle Domingo and disarm him but risk Domingo getting a shot off and hitting Perry or Sofia with the deadly poison, or go directly for the only thing left that could harm his mate.

With every bit of strength he had, Kel leapt for the gun in Domingo’s hand. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as he heard the hammer cock, then release as Domingo aimed it at Sofia.

Kel could hear her yelling out to him as Perry turned to shield her with his body. His hand took hold of the revolver, and he could feel the cold metal in his fingers as he wrenched it away just as the hammer made contact, the click of metal on metal ringing in his ears. He heard the gunpowder ignite just as he blocked the gun with his body, and nanoseconds later, he felt searing pain shoot through him as the bullet slammed into his body, passing through it like white-hot light.

Sofia is safe.

That was all that mattered.

Adrenaline still running through his body, Kel pulled the gun free from Domingo’s grip, sending it careening from the copter. But the poison was fast, and before he could do anything else, he felt his heart palpitate in his own chest viciously and with incredible pain, then seize. Then Domingo shoved Kel, sending him plummeting downward.

Kel noted with complete calm the ground far beneath him as he lost his grip. A second later, he heard the sound of a loud crash as Tor’s tail connected with the helicopter, smashing it and sending it diving earthward as Tor let out a furious yell.

Second by second, Kel felt his senses giving out, his body reacting to the lethal poison coursing through his veins and arteries.

He looked up one last time to see Sofia, crying out his name and reaching for him fruitlessly as Perry swept down to catch him and stop his descent.

But it didn’t matter. If gravity didn’t finish him off, whatever toxins Domingo had used sure would.

Sofia is safe. Sofia is safe. Sofia is safe.