Her Tiger To Take (13 page)

He wanted her, too. But he had to know, “If I
don’t run, what will you do?”

“I’ll talk to the elders about
alternatives.”

“Alternatives?” A growl crept into his voice
without his permission. If she thought he’d give her up to another
tiger now…

“Maybe artificial insemination. I still want
children. My brothers can help me raise them.” She shrugged. “I’ll
still be contributing to our population. No one will be able to
complain too much.”

“You think they’ll allow that?”

“It’s either that or nothing. This is going
to be my last Mate Run. Three years is long enough.”

Nick blinked. No one had ever given up on the
Run before. Alexis refused to run back in her day, but no tigress
had ever tried and then decided she’d had enough without ever once
finding a mate. It was unprecedented. Would the elders even allow
it?

“I’d better go,” Tiana said, pulling him out
of his thoughts. “I need to pack.”

Another bolt of panic tightened his gut. He
desperately wanted to keep her here, to maintain this illusion of
peace and happiness they’d built. “You don’t have to leave now.
Stay until tomorrow.”

She smiled, but her mouth wobbled. “If I
stay, I might never leave. Then we really will get into
trouble.”

She kissed him gently on his cheek, and her
scent wrapped around him in delicious perfection. Before he could
force his brain to function, she grabbed her coat and hurried out
the door.

Several minutes passed as he stood in the
dining room, stunned by her sudden absence. Then he remembered
they’d taken his car last night. Hers was still at the motel. He
charged after her, intent on at least driving her back, but as soon
as he took the time to sense for her, he realized she was already
miles away, running at top shifter speed.

He stood in the cold for a long time, until
he couldn’t feel her anymore, until even his warm body started to
shiver with the chill.

Then he went back inside—to think.

Nick was still thinking a week later, sitting
in the quiet dark on his small front porch, when one of the wolves
joined him—the one who’d spoken for the pack after the alpha had
gone down.

Nick considered him without speaking. He’d
caught the wolf’s scent as soon as he entered Eirene, but Nick
didn’t smell any others, so he was prepared to give the werewolf
some leniency for coming into his territory unannounced.

The man was taller than Corwin, close to
Nick’s own six foot three inches, and thick with muscle beneath
casual jeans and a dark colored ski jacket. His blue eyes were dark
and hooded in the dim light from inside Nick’s house. His jaw
muscles flexed as he stared back at Nick.

Finally, the man dropped his gaze—a wolf sign
of submission—and said, “I’m alone.”

“I know. Why are you here?”

“Thought you might want to know what happened
with our former alpha and how that affects the situation between
you and the pack.”

Nick raised his brows at the “former”.
Everything about the man’s scent conveyed non-aggression so Nick
gestured to the other seat on the porch. “You want a beer?”

The wolf shook his head. “My name’s Adam, by
the way. Adam Walsh.”

Nick shook his hand—a human greeting he’d
made habit over the last five years—then Adam took a seat.

“Is your alpha dead?” A deposed alpha wasn’t
left alive in a typical werewolf pack. Changes of allegiance
required blood. And death was the only way to replace an alpha.

Adam nodded. “My brother’s the new
alpha.”

Nick blinked, then frowned. He’d assumed Adam
was in charge now since he was here.

“I’m his beta,” Adam said. “He sent me to
speak for him and the pack.”

“You looking for more money?”

“We didn’t know Chris made that arrangement
with you. We didn’t even know how bad the financials of the pack
were. When he started taking some of the more aggressive wolves
into Eirene and harassing the townspeople, we thought he was… Well,
let’s just say it wasn’t outside his behavior. Those of us who
didn’t approve also didn’t have any cause to see it as something
unusual. It wasn’t until your fight that we realized what had
happened.”

“What excuse did he give for ceding some of
your territory to a tiger?”

“He didn’t give an excuse. Just said he’d
made a sweet deal with a tiger shifter. But he didn’t explain it.
Ordered us to avoid certain boundaries from then on.”

“And you just bought that?” Nick didn’t know
that much about the workings of a werewolf pack beyond the basic
structure, but he found it hard to believe none of them bothered to
dig into the alpha’s “sweet deal” with a strange shifter.

Adam shrugged, but his lip lifted in a faint
snarl. “Packs aren’t typically included in the decisions of their
alphas. That’s why there’s a beta—to mitigate and balance alpha
decisions, to be the voice of reason or dissent if necessary. That
way the rest of the pack knows what’s being done is for the best,
with the pack interest in mind. Unfortunately, the ingrained
instinct to follow without question can get us into trouble when we
have an alpha like Chris.”

“How’d he last so long, if some of you had
doubts he was best for the pack?”

Adam snorted. “He was the son of our
former—beloved—alpha. Doug Corwin requested we give his son our
loyalty, so we did.”

“Stupid.” Nick had some loyalty to his
people, even now, and he understood loyalty to family, at least
where his brothers were concerned, but blindly following a bad
leader in the name of a dead one?

“I’m not here to debate our stupidity,” Adam
growled.

Nick raised his hands, palms out. He didn’t
really care either, outside of how this change in leadership would
affect his relationship with the pack.

Adam let out a sigh. “Sorry. Sore spot. We
kept expecting Chris to be more like his father once he took over.
His father was a brilliant alpha. One of the best we’ve ever had.
We
wanted
the son to be like the father. They even looked
alike. But lineage doesn’t always make the man. At least not in
this case.”

Nick felt like he’d taken a gut punch. He
blinked, staring into the dark night beyond his porch, as the
beta’s words rolled through him. “Lineage doesn’t always make the
man.”

“Anyway,” Adam said, getting back to
business, “our new alpha wants to keep the boundaries you set up
with Chris. Your territory won’t be disputed.”

Nick forced himself out of his personal
upheaval to ask, “Why?”

“You paid for it,” he said simply. “You
basically bought the land. It’s yours.”

Nick hadn’t actually thought of it that way
before. He’d viewed the payoff as a bribe to get the werewolves to
leave the town alone. But if the new leadership wanted to view it
as payment for land, he was happy to oblige.

“That said, we’re still in a financial fix.
Chris had no sense when it came to money. He spent like he was a
king and left us in debt. Again.”

“And this has to do with me, how?”

“We’d like permission to come into your
territory for commercial reasons.”

“Commercial reasons?”

“We have a few businesses in Vail, which help
support the pack. You get day tourists here. Especially in the
winter. We’d like to set up another two businesses here.”

“How, if you’re in debt?”

“Not your concern. We just need permission to
come and go from the town.”

“There are other places to establish
businesses. Why here?”

“Cheap overheads. Decent traffic. And thanks
to word spreading about the food in your diner, more and more
tourists are making trips to Eirene. You haven’t noticed the
increase?”

He had, but it hadn’t crossed his mind that
it had anything to do with his diner. The people here were smart
and industrious. The town was charming and quaint. Why wouldn’t
people want to visit?

“You planning on opening something to compete
with current businesses? I don’t want anyone here hurt.” Nick was
very protective of his adoptive town. He wasn’t about to allow
Eirene to be overrun by wolves if they were going to put people who
lived here out of work.

“Nothing like that. We’ve started a
hydroponic farm. We want to open a place to sell what we grow.”

That got Nick’s attention. He was always
looking for new suppliers for the restaurant. “You said two
businesses.”

“My sister is…good with clothes.” Adam
frowned a bit. “She designs stuff. She wants a boutique of her own
but can’t compete in Vail yet. We thought Eirene would be a good
place to start.”

Intrigued, Nick spent the next hour
discussing options with Adam. They came to an agreement which
allowed a limited number of wolves to come into Nick’s territory
regularly, so long as they agreed to hire local people to work in
their shops.

Over the course of the discussions, Nick
decided he liked the pack’s new beta. He was smart, reasonable, and
down to earth. If the alpha was anything like his brother, the pack
was in good hands now.

Adam’s words came back to Nick then. “Lineage
doesn’t always make the man.” Nick thought about his own brothers.
They’d all come from the same heritage, but Dom and Mitch were both
strong, loyal, decent men. They’d escaped their father’s defects
somehow.

Nick was afraid to even consider that maybe
he had, too.

But he’d felt the lurking insanity in his
fight with Chris Corwin, fighting for Tiana. He wasn’t sure he
could trust himself
not
to be like his father.

Nick pushed the confused thoughts to the back
of his mind and focused on his discussion with Adam. Eventually,
they moved from business talk into lighter stuff, and Adam finally
took Nick up on that beer. Nick, for his part, embraced the
reprieve from his own thoughts. He’d barely gotten through the
dinner shift tonight without burning his restaurant down because of
inattention. Tiana filled his head, and fear haunted him.

“Where’s your woman?” Adam asked, shattering
Nick’s momentary peace.

“She had to get home.”

“You want to talk about it?”

“Nope.”

“Fair enough. Will say, she’s a brave one.
Didn’t even balk when our less upstanding wolves tried to bait
her.” Adam smiled. “She rolled her eyes at them. Thought she might
end up in a fight well before we met with you. Not sure she
wouldn’t have won those fights, too. She’s got some skills.”

Since she’d been training with Alexis, Nick
wasn’t surprised.

“I’d better get back.” Adam set his empty
bottle down on the porch and stood. “Good luck with your
woman.”

“Thanks.” Nick stood, too. “Good luck with
getting your pack healthy again.”

Adam snorted. “Thanks. I’ll be in touch.”

Nick waited on the porch until he was sure
the werewolf had left town. Then he went inside.

He sat at his desk chair and opened the box
of letters and emails from Tiana, the box she’d discovered just
before telling him she loved him. He could still hear her sweet,
husky voice murmuring those words in his ear.

He was absolutely terrified of ruining that
love, of destroying her with his love.

Staring at the box, he was no closer to a
decision about running, but he was absolutely certain of one thing.
He was in love with Tiana. He belonged to her, heart and soul.

Would that be enough? Would it be too
much?

And could he really let her go now, even for
her own good?

Tiana answered her door on the second knock.
She knew it was Ethan, one of her older brothers, but she didn’t
really want to talk to him. Unfortunately, he didn’t take the hint
and go away when she ignored his first knock.

“Why are you here?” she asked the moment she
opened the door.

“Hi to you, too.” Ethan snorted and moved
past her without waiting for an invitation.

She scowled after him, then closed the door
with a thunk.

All her brothers resembled their father, as
was typical for tiger shifters, but Ethan Gupta looked the most
like him. He was very handsome with beautiful caramel-colored skin
she’d always envied, dark hair and eyes, and the kind of charm
they’d all been certain would land him a tiger mate. In fact, of
all the brothers, Ethan had been the one everyone thought would end
up mated.

She’d often wondered if that pressure had
been hard on him, but he’d never discussed it with his little
sister.

“What do you want?” she asked, following him
into her living room. She had her laptop open on the coffee table
where she’d been trying to concentrate on work emails—and failing
miserably. He tried to look at the screen and she slammed it shut.
“Nosey. Why are you here?” she repeated.

“You have another Run coming up,” he said,
dropping onto the couch and patting the cushion next to him.

She groaned. “I know. I know.”

“We’re worried about you. All of us.”

“Yeah, well…” She sighed and sat next to him.
“I guess I should warn you. This is going to be my last Run.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“I’ve been running for three years.”

“There’s still options. That trip to
Russia…”

She shook her head. “I can’t. Not now.” She
pressed her lips together. Damn, she hadn’t meant to say that. Her
brother’s narrowed eyes confirmed he knew her slip was
meaningful.

“What’s happened?” He sat up a little higher.
“No one’s hurt you?”

“No. Nothing like that.” She patted his knee
and he relaxed, but only a little. “It’s just…” She sighed. “Fine.
I’m in love.”

His eyebrows rose so high, she might have
laughed if she wasn’t still so heart sore.

“In love?” he said. “With who? A human?”