Taming The Tigers (3 page)

“Yes, it is.” Gabe curled his upper lip. “Don’t say a fucking thing.”

“What’s your problem? It’s not as though I tell every female cat I see to fall in lust with you.” He opened the door and slid behind the wheel. “Get in the car with or without your little pussy. We can’t afford to lose Carmen Satriano. That delicious-smelling little brunette holds our futures in her delicate little hands.”

Carmen sped away from the two men with her thoughts racing and her body on fire. She knew what experiencing the mating heat meant. She also knew that the two men could only hold out for so long before the madness overcame them and they took her by force. She didn’t want that, especially after finally finding them and discovering just how deliciously handsome they both were.

Taking her by force would mean an end to their lives. At that point, they would be no better than rabid animals, and her people would put them down with extreme prejudice. No one harmed a woman in Paradise and Gods help anyone who did.

It was exactly why she wasn’t taking any chances. She needed to put as many miles as she could behind her as she headed toward Paradise.

The closer she got to her uncles’ home town, the safer she would be. The men in Paradise would see to it that the two men who were, no doubt, following her would give her the time she needed to get to know them before she agreed to spend the rest of her life as their woman.

It wasn’t that Carmen was afraid to mate with someone. She merely wanted to know that the men fate had designed as her mates, weren’t crazy criminals led by the old council, who would hold her prisoner for the rest of her life. Yes, they were shifters. She just didn’t know what kind of shifters and that bothered her.

She glanced at her ruined phone and wished that she’d thought to take the damned thing out of her pocket before she ran into the water to save a kitten that she’d never had to touch.

Carmen smiled when she thought of Gable’s expression when he held the poor frightened little kitten. She almost convinced herself that she should fear no man with so much patience that he wouldn’t harm a house cat, even when it was clawing him the way it had been.

The poor man had looked harried more than angry. It was as though he held a naughty child that he wasn’t sure how to handle. Now that she thought about it, wasn’t a kitten exactly like one of their own young? That the man hadn’t hurt the tiny animal was a sign, wasn’t it?

Biting her lip, Carmen slowed down a bit. She probably shouldn’t try so hard to lose her mates, seeing as they had no idea who she was or where she was going, but then she didn’t want them to think her easy, did she?

She turned down the air conditioning. The air was cold and making her shiver now that she was wet below the waist. It would take at least an hour before her clothes dried. With a sigh, she glanced down at the caramel-colored seats and wondered if the lake water would stain the buttery-soft leather. Getting back in the car wet hadn’t been a part of her plans. However, her plans had changed when two handsome shifters showed up.

If she had thought about it, she would have realized that they hadn’t poisoned or drugged her. They’d practically dove into the water thinking to save her from herself.

Apparently, they thought I planned to commit suicide.
She snorted. As if she would do something as crazy as drown herself.

Slowing to a crawl, Carmen pulled onto the shoulder and turned on her GPS. After setting it to take her to Mason, one of a handful of neighboring towns, she pulled out onto the road and continued her drive.

Two and a half hours later, she had just entered her room at a seedy-looking motel when she saw a familiar sedan pull into the parking lot. She dropped the curtain in place with a grin and ran to the shower. The last thing she wanted was to smell like lake water when her mates followed her scent trail to the room.

When forty minutes passed and they still hadn’t come to her door, Carmen slipped on her shoes, ran a brush through her hair, and put on some lipstick. If her mates refused to come to her, she would simply go get something to eat and go to bed. The two men could kiss her ass.

Carmen glanced critically in the mirror. “You’re a modern woman. You don’t need men any more than you need a hole in your head.”

Plastering a fake smile on her face, she strode to her door and flung it open. “Oh!” She brought her hand to her chest at the sight of the two men sitting just outside her door. “What are you two doing here?”

Looking frustrated and upset was difficult when she couldn’t help but be happy to see them.

“We’re protecting our mate.” Gable glanced up at her, his brown eyes shooting golden sparks. You wouldn’t do such a foolish thing as running off alone if we were mated.”

“Then it’s a good thing we aren’t.” She scowled down at the man. Who the hell did he think he was? He hadn’t claimed her and even if he had, she hadn’t accepted their claim. “No man tells me what to do. Get used to it or
we
have no future.”

“You could be in danger.” Malik didn’t train his beautiful blue eyes on her. He merely stated his case while staring at his sleeve and picking at little balls of lint.

“Men are always saying that women are in danger. What you fail to realize is that it’s men who make it that way. Teach men to control their base urges and you wouldn’t have to try to control women under the guise of protecting them.”

Malik nodded, though he still didn’t meet her gaze. “That is true. However, it doesn’t hurt to be cautious. Besides,” he said as he stood with one smooth motion. “We have enemies that would do more than force themselves on you. They would kill you just for associating with us.” He took her arm and pulled her along beside him so fast that she had to trot to keep up.

“Close her door, Gabe, and let’s go get something to eat.”

“What kind of enemies do you have?” Carmen didn’t see how they could be much different than the men who plagued Paradise from time to time.

“Our enemies are hardened criminals. Most are the very dregs of society. They’re men who have threatened us and our families.” Malik shrugged. “It never made a difference before. What’s left of our families are sheltered within the cascade. Their threats never worried us... until today.”

“There was no reason their intimidation tactics should have worried us. As Caspian tiger shifters, we and anyone we cared about have lived hidden in a protected town, much like a few others our people have discovered over the last year, or so,” Gabe said from slightly behind her.

“Like your Paradise, the cascade is a safe haven, frozen in another dimension. No one who doesn’t belong can enter. The cascade occupies space where, in this dimension, would be somewhere over the Pacific off the coast of Oregon. The only way to reach it is through an area guarded by elder shamans who can open an invisible gate to a bridge across both time, and space.” Malik still dragged her along beside him, his expression fierce.

“I can see why such threats wouldn’t concern you.” They were shifters. They could take care of themselves and they would be difficult to kill. However, a mate would be a weakness their enemies could exploit. “My friend, Melody, told me a little about the Caspian Cascade.” Tilting her head back, she gave them a soft smile. “She didn’t tell me that they had such handsome tigers there, though.”

Their expressions were priceless. Normally, it would have taken every ounce of willpower she had not to laugh. However, she was sure that it was the
el calor
she’d felt at the lake.

Though she didn’t feel it at the moment, it had been there at first. It had settled deep in her belly and scorched her from the inside out. It was only a matter of time before she, or they, made the first move in a violent mating that might end all of their lives.

“And I am certain that you understand why such tactics would worry us now.”

“Our enemies have spies. And a hit on us and anyone they even think we care about.” Malik stopped, his gaze searching hers. “No doubt one of them has already seen us together, deemed you a valuable target and set his sights on you.”

“I’m a shifter. I can take care of myself.” Carmen yanked her arm from his grip. “Just like you, I’m not as easy to kill as a human woman.”

“Perhaps not,” Gabe agreed from behind them. “However, a bullet to your brain will make you just as dead.” He let out a breath on a sigh. “God knows I don’t want to frighten you, but most of those guys go for head shots.” He moved up beside her. The kind of men we’re talking about are professional killers. Most of them are ghosts. You wouldn’t even see it coming.”

A soft breeze blew down of the mountain and Malik stiffened. Pulling Carmen behind him, he lifted his nose to the air. “I smell Kitrick.”

Gable, too, lifted his nose to the air. “I just got a whiff of that bastard’s stench, too.”

Malik scanned the hillside, searching for something that would give the man’s position away. There could only be one reason the bastard was following them. Someone had finally paid the asshole to kill them. He pushed Carmen into Gabe’s arms. “Take her somewhere safe. I’m going to sniff him out.”

“Alone?”

Gabe shoved Carmen down behind their car when she popped up, her concern for Malik obvious. Kneeling beside her, he glanced up at the mountain through a car window searching for a glint of metal in the thick brush.

“Of course I’m going alone.” Malik dropped to the ground and rolled behind another vehicle when a spray of gravel kicked up from the parking lot near his feet. Four seconds later, the sound of a gunshot reached his ears.

“He’ll be gone by the time you get there. He’s got to be at least a mile away.”

“Yeah, which is why he missed. He’s not used to the way the air travels down the mountain.” Malik grinned. “He’s a city boy, remember? He’ll sit there until one of us leaves, hoping for another shot now that he’s got the wind figured out. When he doesn’t get another clear shot and realizes that I’m coming after him, he’ll leave. That’s when you get our mate to safety.”

“What do you plan to do when you find he’s gone?”

“He’ll leave a trail. They always do.” He needed to find that bastard’s perch. From there, he could determine the size of his vehicle by the tracks it left behind. There were always tracks, especially when a sniper shot from a hillside as Kitrick just had.

Carmen stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Stay safe.”

“I always do.” Malik smiled, pressed a quick kiss to her lips and dove toward the next vehicle before she could protest.

One by one, he used each car in the lot to maneuver his way around to the side of the motel where he made a mad dash for the woods. He enhanced his speed just enough to throw off a lead shot and dove for the cover of the trees.

Now that Kitrick knew he was on his way, the gunman would pack up his equipment and leave. Malik also knew that the other man wouldn’t go far. He’d want his money and the five minutes of fame he would get in the organized crime circuit for killing the two men others had deemed so damned difficult to kill.

For years, he and Gabe had been dodging one hit after another. Sometimes laughing when the hit men sent after them shot each other in their attempt to bring the two bounty hunters down.

Undressing as quickly as he could, he reached for the magic and shifted into his tiger, relishing the sensation of his bones reshaping and his muscles growing stronger.

Kitrick would be looking for a man approaching. He wouldn’t be looking for a tiger and if he saw him, the idiot would be too busy running from him to shoot.

Malik lifted his head, the broad snout of the tiger pulling in the scents of the forest. A family of rabbits huddled frightened in their den, a raccoon hiding in a tree, a deer with her young fawn in a thicket, their hearts racing with fear as they sensed, or scented a new and dangerous predator close by.

Slowly, he made his way to the place where Kitrick had sat, waiting to get his shot. He sniffed the ground and chuffed. The air still reeked of the other man’s stench. Killers had a distinct odor, a smell akin to weeks old rotting meat. He’d never figured out why. Still, it had held true for every criminal they had hunted and returned to jail. Three of which had been on the FBI’s ten most wanted list.

It didn’t take long to find the other man’s brass. He must have left in a damned hurry not to have picked
that
up.

The sloppy bastard.

Lowering his head, Malik picked up the cartridge and followed Kitrick’s sickening scent about a half mile until he found the clearing where the man had parked his vehicle.

Malik studied the tracks. They were too far apart to be a car or minivan and too heavy to be a pickup.
Some kind of SUV, then.
Knowing the asshole’s penchant for hiding in plain sight, it would be something flashy. He thought back on their trip. Three times over the last several days, he’d seen a bright red SUV nearby. That bright red monstrosity could be the vehicle they should be looking for.

It didn’t matter. He got what he came here for. He closed his mouth over the brass and trotted back to where he left his clothes. Kitrick was gone, for now. Whether the man had meant to or not, he’d warned them and they would take heed.

After changing back to his human form, dressing, and pocketing Kitrick’s brass, he made his way back to the motel and Carmen’s room. He had no doubt that was where Gabe took Carmen as it was the closest and easiest safe place available to him.

“It’s me,” he said as he knocked on the door.

“It’s about time you got back here.” Gabe reached out and pulled him into the room before slamming the door shut behind him.

“Yeah, it’s about time you came back. I’ve been worried sick,” Carmen said as she threw herself into his arms.

Closing his eyes, Malik wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in the crook of her neck. God it was good to feel her wrapped around him. Until recently, he’d never thought about how nice it would be to have a mate, someone besides Gabe who gave a damn what happened to him.