Her Tiger To Take (8 page)

Without any sign or warning, Corwin launched
at him, mouth open, claws forward, moving faster than any ordinary
wolf. Had he been human, Nick would have had his throat ripped out
before he realized the alpha had even moved. But Nick was no
human.

He tracked the wolf’s flight and stepped
aside at the very last second, a move that sent the animal
barreling into a tree. He was up and lunging at Nick again
instantly, his growls vicious.

Nick took the second lunge, grabbing the wolf
by the neck and back leg to fling him bodily into the trees. The
animal crashed into two of his pack in a chaotic mess. Nick rolled
his shoulders. Damned animal was heavy, but not as long as a tiger,
so Nick had grabbed him wrong. He was used to fighting his own
kind.

He reset his stance just as the alpha clawed
back to his feet and charged again. This time, Nick took the full
brunt of Corwin’s weight and rolled with it, falling to his back
and flinging the wolf over his head as Corwin’s front claws raked
over his chest. He rolled to his feet before the wolf landed and
faced the animal again.

A trickle of blood rolled down Nick’s chest.
He ignored it.

As the alpha attacked again and again, Nick
focused on throwing him, keeping him off balance, winding him when
he could. Without claws and teeth, Nick couldn’t win this fight by
simply overpowering the alpha and taking his throat in his mouth.
The only way to win was to wear Corwin out and either make him give
up or knock him unconscious.

Unfortunately, the animal had a thick fucking
skull and he just kept coming.

Nick grunted with the effort of throwing him
again
and forced down the sting of the cuts and slices he
was taking. Around them, the wolves barked and howled. From the
corner of his eye, Nick noticed either three more had shifted to
wolf form, or more wolves were joining the entertainment. Though he
focused on his opponent, some of the taunts and jeers from the
onlookers reached him. A few were directed toward Nick, as he would
have expected.

But louder voices were jeering at Corwin.

Ah, hell. That wasn’t good.

Tiana’s stomach lurched when Nick avoided yet
another lunge from the increasingly erratic alpha. Nick was
amazing. Most tigers couldn’t fight as effectively in human form as
they could in tiger form—especially against an animal. But Nick
handled the wolf with a practiced touch.

Watching him fight drove home just how much
fighting he’d had to do over the years. The thought made her heart
ache for the young boy, learning how to take a beating and defend
himself the hard way.

The wolf dove at Nick’s side, catching him
with a claw swipe that stopped Tiana’s breath. Nick spun away at
the last instant, turning what could have been a serious injury
into a glancing scrape. Nick was accumulating a number of cuts and
gouges, but they were superficial and healing quickly. The earliest
ones weren’t even visible anymore. Still, all those little wounds
would eventually build up, take their toll, and maybe slow Nick
down. He couldn’t hurt the wolf in the same way while in human
form, but he was making the alpha do most of the work, a steady
slog to wear Corwin out.

From what she could tell, Nick was trying not
to kill the alpha, just tossing him around until he either gave up
or was knocked out. Unfortunately, as the surrounding wolves
started to call and whistle at the combatants, the alpha’s energy
seemed to increase. As she’d expect, some of those taunts were
directed at Nick, but a discordant note gained ground as the fight
continued, insults directed at the alpha.

Oh, no. She’d seen enough of him over the
long night to know he was arrogant, proud, and insecure in his
position. Those were very dangerous traits. Having members of his
pack call him weak in front of strangers would corner him, make him
desperate to beat Nick.

And while Nick wasn’t trying to kill Corwin,
she wasn’t sure Corwin would stop short of killing Nick.

She tugged at the two wolves holding her as
they shouted support and encouragement to their leader, but they
held tightly. Irritation at the confinement warred with her worry
for Nick. She almost screamed when the alpha dove low and snapped
his heavy jaws inches from Nick’s hamstring.

Nick avoided the blow but was off balance
when the alpha attacked again. This time, Nick took the weight of
the animal and fell awkwardly against a tree. Desperate to help,
Tiana jerked at the hands holding her again. They gripped tighter,
but because of Nick’s thick coat, she had wiggle room.

Nick threw the alpha bodily across the
clearing, a feat that awed her, but she could tell the move cost
him. He pushed off the tree slower than he’d been moving before and
his shoulders sagged for an instant as he braced for another
attack.

This wasn’t fair. If Corwin was any kind of
leader, he’d have challenged Nick fairly, both of them in animal
form.

To her surprise, she heard those same
thoughts in some of the jeers.

“Let him go tiger!”

“This is boring! Face the beast.”

“Come on, Chernikov, show us your
animal!”

Tiana took her eyes from the fight long
enough to study the pack. A few of the ones who’d been in human
form were changing to wolf, and those already in wolf form were
edging closer to the fight.

She had an awful moment of certainty—they
were going to help their alpha; they were going to gang up on Nick
while he was still in his weaker form.

Rage rushed through her, making her tiger
roar in her head. How dare they? This was already an unfair,
unnecessary fight. No matter how good Nick was, he’d be in trouble
facing half a wolf pack while he was still in human form.

Well, she had no intention of allowing it.
She tested the men holding her arms again. Their grips were firm
but not tight. If she was careful, she’d be able to slip from the
coat and get some distance. She needed enough time to shift, and
she wasn’t sure how she was going to get that before Nick got hurt,
but she had to try.

The men loosened their holds at the exact
moment their alpha barreled into Nick again, and Tiana took
advantage of their lapse. She slid free of the coat and her captors
in a single move. One of the men scrambled to grab her again but
missed as she jerked away. The other caught her more firmly, and
pulled her back against his chest.

“Where you going, pretty?” he hissed in her
ear. “We’re not nearly done with you yet.” He reached up and
squeezed her breast in a bruising grip.

Outrage and disgust had her reacting on
instinct. She reached back and grabbed his balls, twisting with her
tiger strength until he squealed and dropped his hold. She spun and
punched him in the throat before he could recover, a move which
dropped him to a wheezing heap at her feet. The second guard dove
for her and she swung back, taking him down with the kick she’d
been practicing with her self-defense instructor, Alexis Tarasova.
The move broke his knee with a satisfying crunch. His scream was
barely audible over the rising noise from the rest of the
pack—howls and shouts, cheers and taunts filling the air.

She looked back to the fight in time to see
the alpha spin and launch at Nick while Nick was still adjusting
his stance after having tossed off a second wolf. This time, Nick
wasn’t fast enough and the alpha’s massive mouth closed over Nick’s
arm. Even at a distance, Tiana heard the bone crack.

“No!” she roared, the sound pure animal. All
her fear, anger and rage poured into her shift as she let her tiger
out, changing forms faster than she was normally able.

When she blinked with tiger eyes and took in
her surroundings, another two wolves were charging toward Nick
while the alpha rose slowly from a heap at the base of a tree,
blood dripping from one of his eyes. She roared again, the sound
cutting through the other noise, and rushed at the two wolves.

They were so surprised to face an angry tiger
that neither was ready to defend himself against her. With her
teeth, she grabbed one up by the scruff and tossed him back into
the crowd. The second recovered enough sense to attack, but she was
so angry, she rose on her hind legs, took him with her forepaws and
slammed him into the ground. When she stepped on his throat, he
stilled beneath her, whining.

She wasn’t here to kill anyone—and to be
honest, she wasn’t sure if she could since she’d only ever killed
food before—but they didn’t need to know that. She backed off and
growled low, lifting her lips in a snarl that showed teeth. The
wolf under her scrambled back to the safety of the pack,
limping.

She turned toward the fight in time to see
Nick whirling at speeds almost too fast for her to see. He was
attacking now, charging the alpha, picking him up and slamming him
into trees again and again—one handed. He was wild, vicious…
magnificent.

When she felt movement from behind, she spun
to face the wolves and snarled. They held back, though it was clear
some of them were chaffing to reach their alpha.

She kept half her focus on the pack, the
other half on Nick so she could jump to his aid if he needed
her.

He didn’t need her.

As she watched, Nick pulled Corwin into a
choke hold, ignoring his claws as the wolf fought to breathe. The
scent of blood filled her nostrils, instinct making her growl and
chuff. Nick’s blood. But not enough to be dangerous. The alpha’s
struggles weakened, his big body went limp, and his eyes rolled
back. Nick held him two more beats, then tossed him aside.

He whirled to face the rest of the pack,
circling to glare at each of them. She left her post and eased up
to him, nudging his leg with her shoulder. Without looking down at
her, he settled a hand on the back of her head, his touch
protective and gentle.

“Anyone else want a go?” he shouted, his
voice harsh and guttural. His tiger was right there, ready to come
out.

Because his arm was still limp and useless,
she didn’t want him to shift yet—it would complicate the bone
resetting and might force her to break the bone again to get it to
heal correctly. She settled closer to him, her shoulder pressed
against his leg, letting him know she was here to support him.

The wolves surrounding them shuffled
uncomfortably and exchanged looks she couldn’t read.

“Are we done here, then?” Nick said into the
awkward silence. “Idiot pride and territoriality satisfied?” No one
answered. Not a single wolf stepped forward to take the lead.
“Where the hell is your beta?” Nick snarled, his voice settling to
his more normal octave now.

More shuffling, more looks, more unease. A
scent rose to tangle with the pack’s already musty canine smell, a
complicated mix of flavors that her tiger nose interpreted as fear
and disgust.

Finally, one of the men stepped forward. He
was taller than the alpha, with dark hair and blue eyes. He was the
wolf who’d given her boots to wear when they’d left the pack’s
cabin to meet Nick. She thought she’d heard someone call him
Adam.

As they’d held her captive through the night,
she’d scented the essence of a few wolves she thought might be
stronger than the current alpha. This particular wolf was one of
them. Another looked a lot like him and she’d guessed from their
scent signatures they were related. Knowing there were wolves
stronger than the alpha had worried her more than being held by the
group, because it hinted at a dysfunctional pack. And a
dysfunctional werewolf pack was a dangerous thing.

Given what Nick had implied—that he’d paid
the alpha off before this—and the surprise she’d smelled at that
comment, she suspected things weren’t getting better soon.

The man who’d stepped forward looked Nick in
the eyes when he spoke. “No beta in our pack. He doesn’t like
them.” He nodded to the fallen leader. “He’s going to be pissed
when he wakes up.”

“If he comes into my territory looking for
trouble, I won’t stop at just knocking him out. The breach in your
territory was an accident. I have no quarrel with your pack. But I
will defend my town if you come looking for me.”

“No interest in your town. No interest in
you.” He glanced at the downed leader again. “We have some pack
business to take care of, anyway. Get your woman out of here.”

Tiana snarled, her ruff rising in irritation,
a threat in her tone. Nick stroked his hand down the back of her
head, settling her fur and gentling her annoyance.

“You hurt?” he asked her without looking away
from the man who’d taken the lead.

She grunted, a noise she hoped he’d interpret
as “no”. He must have been satisfied because he started into the
woods. She stayed at his side, glaring at the wolves as they opened
a hole to let her and Nick pass. She glanced back and watched them
close the circle again, narrowing around their alpha.

That complex mixture of disgust and fear
followed her away from the group.

They paused a few hundred yards from Nick’s
truck so Tiana could shift back to her human form before they
stepped out into the open spaces around the side road. The instant
she was done, Nick wrapped her up in a tight, one-armed hug,
desperate to make sure she was okay.

“You’re sure you’re not hurt?” he asked
against her hair as he breathed in her scent.

“I’m fine. Just annoyed.” She wrapped her
arms around his waist, hugging him back tightly. “I’m so sorry I
got you into this.”

“My fault. Should have told you about the
wolves.” He was disgusted with himself for putting her into this
terrible position.

She eased back and touched his injured arm.
“Broken?”

“It’ll heal soon.”