The Tiger's Baby: A Paranormal Pregnancy Romance (9 page)

There were too many other things that would defeat her if she weren’t careful. She kept the thought of Gloria, of Rodney, of the small life she had worked so hard to make her own, as far away as possible. The idea that she might lose all of it was a dagger, sinking further into her heart with each step she took.

Theo was struggling now, and Kristen noticed specks of blood against the cliff face. He’d led them both onto a skirting precipice, and she had to will herself to slow down to keep from tumbling off the edge. Loose rocks scraped free, tumbling over the side where they lost themselves in free fall hundreds of meters below.

The Tiger let out a frustrated growl up ahead as the trail came to an end and Theo found himself stranded on a small plateau with no way back and no way forward. He circled his small perimeter of stone and growled at Kristen as she made her way onto the ledge. Much to her surprise, Theo keeled over, and she saw the telltale signs of his transformation back into a human. He was hunched on his knees, and looked suddenly very frail, impossibly old and decrepit. His lips trembled, despite the fact he was still built like a giant. The veins in his arms bulged outward like upended riverbeds.             

Reluctantly, she resumed her human shape as well. Her black hair fell lightly over her breasts, and she scowled at him, forcing herself not to succumb to compassion. She couldn’t bring herself to it even if she wanted to.

“This is the
end
,” she stated.

“I always knew… always knew it would end like this,” he said, his head bent low, “please…”

“Please what?” she spat. “There is no
please
.”

She took a step forward and the fetal man cringed, his knees scraping the dust and gravel. “Please, please don’t kill me! I swear… I never meant to hurt you. Or your child.”

Kristen stopped and blinked. “How do you know I’m pregnant?”

“You’re a Shifter… it’s impossible to hide from others of your kind…”

“So you threatened me, knowing full well I was with child.” It wasn’t a question any longer, and she was adding more reasons to her list of wanting to kill the Tiger leader. “But you went too far when you hurt my friend. There’s nothing human left in you…”

“Can you really kill me? I may not be human anymore, but you
are
. Can you really bear to live with that, Kristen? I don’t think you can… you’re not like me,” he growled, his head ducking under his arms.

Her feet crunched on the gravel and she looked down.
No, I can’t
, she realized with a pang of regret. In spite of everything he’d done to her, everything he’d threatened, it still felt wrong. She touched her abdomen. She had always wondered why she’d wanted to have a child. It wasn’t a purely biological imperative. It was because she had wanted to be able to share her life, her experiences, to pass them on in some meaningful way.

If I kill this man in cold blood, all our troubles are ended
, she thought, and forced back tears when she thought of Rodney. They might have killed him already. She felt impossibly alone.
But if I kill him, I will pass that on as well
. For Rodney’s sake, she couldn’t do it.

“Rodney gave you an ultimatum… leave, or
die
,” she said simply, “and I will carry it out. You have one day. If you ever return to Nelson, I swear on my unborn child, I will rip your throat out and let you drown in your own malice while you gaze up at me, so you know
who
it was that ended your pitiful existence.”

THE FINAL
CHAPTER

Without another word, she turned away back toward the cliff face. She didn’t want to look at him anymore, the very thought of him made her sick. She put a hand against the rock face to support her and felt its roughness bite into her palm.

There was only the slightest scuff of gravel, and her ears perked up.

In turning her back on him, Kristen had opened up an opportunity for him to leap forward. His frailness had only been an act, an attempt to dissuade her from her Tiger form so he could fight her on unequal terms. She threw her hands up in defense, but he was already upon her, and his breath reeked against her face, hot and languid as a scavenger’s cave.

“Fool!” he blurted, grabbing her by one shoulder and backhanding her with the other.

A sharp sting like ice water flowered on her cheek and she closed her eyes and felt her body slam against the cliff face. She screamed in pain when a gash opened on her lower back like a ribbon of nerves suddenly plucked. Theo stood over her, blotting out the sun like a human eclipse.

The wounds in his leg were severe, and she could see bone poking through the hairy flesh, but he seemed completely unaware of it. The bite marks she had inflicted on his head were sore and gaping, and a few drops of blood trickled off the tip of his nose and landed on her calf as he stooped over her.

“You think I give two shits about someone like you? You’re nothing… one of my brother’s little playthings. And don’t think for an instant that I have any compunction about killing a pregnant woman. You’re weak, weaker than Rodney…”

“Back off,” she warned, wiping her lip. No man had ever hit her and gotten away with it.

“Or what? You’re not a Tiger right now, Kristen. And if you even try to change, I’ll hurl you off this cliff right now,” he warned, and blinked away a clot of bright blood that was lingering over one eyelid. “I’m giving you a choice, here and now… you decide.”             

“What choice?!” she wailed, and her hand moved behind her, fumbling for something she could use against him. She felt a lose chunk of granite, palm-sized, break off the cliff behind her and wrapped her fingers around it.

“I wasn’t lying in the clearing. We’ve lost brothers in the past years, some to the cold, some to hunger, and some to bastard humans. But as a group, we’ve always survived. Still, if we want to take back Nelson, take back our home, we need help… we need more Tigers to join our ranks.”

What the hell was he getting at?
she wondered, and tightened her grip on the stone in her hand. She’d get one chance, and if she failed, she knew it would mean her life.
Keep him talking
, she decided. Wait for the right opportunity.

“What are you talking about?!” she exclaimed, making her voice more incredulous than unnecessary. A strange tight-lipped smile spread on Theo’s lips as he rubbed his head, almost bashfully.

“It’s exactly as I said. We need more Tigers, more loyal Shifters to support us. And you, Kristen… the only reason I’ve spared you this far is because you’re pregnant. You can bring new blood into our gang, a new hope. Think about it. You could be a queen among our kind.”

She almost gagged on the thought, but she knew she needed to distract him. “That’s your offer, then? To become a whore to your group of Tigers?”

“I didn’t say that! I said
queen
,” he clarified, holding the syllables too long so that they became a perversion in his mouth, “but we need more than a single Tiger. Perhaps, in time… you would find yourself attracted to others. You would give birth to an entire army. An army of Shifters! How can you possibly say no to that?”

Kristen stood up. His handprint still felt fresh on her skin.

“Let me tell you something about Shifters,” she replied coldly, “if ever in this world I
am
made a queen, I tell you this now… Rodney is the only king I’ll ever have. And you… you’re nothing. Nothing at all, Theo. You’re a bad dream. Something meant to be woken from. And then disappear forever.”

Her words grated on him like fingernails on a chalkboard, and she saw the tension mount in his face, driving itself toward a terrible finale. He reached toward her, his ropy hands clutching at her neck, and she gasped as she felt the air constrict and his fingers press in against her windpipe. Even in human Form, he was still a monstrous figure to contend with, and the wiry muscles on his arms strained as he lifted her off the ground. Her feet treaded the air helplessly.

Without thinking, she pulled the rock from behind her back and brought it down on his face. He grunted but held her fast, and she plunged the makeshift dagger into his head again and again until it was wet with his blood. He screamed and dropped her, holding the mangled remains of his face, which hung off his features like a wet bag of laundry.

His nose was completely crushed, and she felt sick at the sound of air trying to make its way through the sucking bloody wound. She’d almost caved in one of his eyes, and its white soupy liquid was pouring down one inflamed cheek. Theo screamed again, something unintelligible as his remaining eye spun in circles before finally locking on her again. She staggered with her back to the wall, horrified at what she had done to him, but also that he was still conscious enough to come after her.

“AAAUHHH!” he wailed, lunging forward with both hands.

Kristen had dropped the stone when she’d fallen and it was too far away. Her jaw clenched as she waited for the misshapen Tiger to finish what he’d started. Theo’s feet scuffed across the stony plateau and he fell upon her.

She barely registered an orange and black blur that flashed past her ear, followed by a tremulous growl that resonated within the stone cliff. Theo screamed again, but this time in pain as huge feline teeth sunk into his shoulder blade, piercing downward almost to his heart. There was a ripping and tearing of flesh as a full-sized Tiger tore at its quarry, loosening bones from their joints.

Blood dripped onto the stones, pooling in a red arc where it finally careened over the cliff edge, and the Tiger pulled back, still snarling, its lips pulled back over its teeth, which gleamed with Theo’s life-blood.

“Brother, no,” the elder Tiger murmured, “…why… why…”

The last Kristen saw of him he stumbled backwards, his chest almost torn away and his abdomen and legs slick with red. His feet tripped over the edge of the cliff and he wordlessly plummeted out of sight. A moment later, the sound of breaking branches was followed by a hollow whump, and Kristen winced. Beside her, the Tiger emanated a labored breathing. There were numerous marks across his body, but most of the blood on his coat did not belong to him.

“Rodney,” she said with relief.

The Tiger turned its head, and gazed at her with yellow eyes. There was no anger in them, no bloodlust, only a tranquil green flux. The air hummed with the tingling of ozone as he resumed his human shape and clambered toward her, enfolding him in his arms. She hugged him back fiercely, not caring about the blood and sweat and grime that coated both of them. They were safe – that was all that mattered.

“Sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” he apologized, stroking her hair, “I was detained.”

“You idiot,” she sobbed, and held him closer. He winced when her hand brushed one of the open lacerations on his back, but he winked. “H-how did you get away from them? What happened… I thought, I thought for sure I’d lost you…”

“Hey, now. I promised I’d never let anything bad happen to you. Could hardly live up to that promise if I went and got myself killed, now could I?” he murmured.

“But I don’t understand…” She shook her head.

Rodney helped her to her feet, but it was Kristen who had to thread an arm under his lower back to support him. He’d taken several bites to his right leg, and even with his Shifter’s high healing rate, he had to favor his other leg.             

“Let’s just say, my diplomacy skills are top-notch.”

Kristen didn’t understand the meaning of his words until they’d made their way back down to the clearing. She was surprised to see that instead of Tigers, there were about seven or eight boys and men, all ranging in size and age, and all naked as the day they were born milling about on the stone outcrop. They all looked up when they saw Kristen and Rodney approaching, and two of the older men raced forward to support them. Kristen flinched at first when she saw how dirty they were. Their hair was ragged and long, and most of them seemed to have a second skin of dirt growing on them, but their eyes were alert and deferential. A few of them looked injured, and she saw a smaller boy, no more than sixteen, holding his side – her face stretched in agony when she realized it was the runt Tiger she had beat up so mercilessly.
He’s only a kid.

“Rodney, what’s going on?”

He let himself be supported by one of the men as they limped together down the embankment toward the waiting throng. All eyes were on the couple, but more specifically on Rodney. One of the men raced forward with a filthy sheet, which Rodney swathed rather clumsily around his midsection and sat down facing them. With their wide eyes and listless stares, they reminded Kristen of pious pilgrims, finally having reached their promised land only to find it wasn’t at all what they expected.

“They came after me. I put several down immediately – they weren’t used to fighting other brethren. But more than that,” he motioned outward to the group of men, “they’re tired. They’re tired of fighting and scraping for their lives.”

“They look rough,” she confirmed.

“They are.” He smiled. “I have that much at least in common with them. They’re ready to come home, but on our terms. I guess, in the last year, Theo had been acting strangely, forcing them to be more aggressive. Kristen, they’ve just been waiting for someone else to show them another path.”

One of the older Tigers stepped forward, and Kristen guessed his age to be around thirty. It didn’t seem as if anyone – save for Theo – lived much past that age. He had a rigid scar crossing one side of his face to the other, starting from his left eyebrow and lingering all the way to the right side of his jaw where it tapered off. She shivered to wonder what sort of accident had caused it.

“This is Clement,” Rodney said, “one of my brothers. When Craven died, if it hadn’t been Theo who’d taken control of the brood, I’d like to think… it would have been him.”

There was a kindness in Clement’s eyes, which were a sapphire blue, but it was shadowed with the same sort of animalistic fury and instinct that claimed the eyes of all the others who stood watching in a circle around them.
More Tiger than human
, she thought, but human enough.

“My brother speaks the truth,” Clement said, raising an arm. Like Theo, human speech was unusual to him and it took effort for him to speak clearly. He spoke slowly, as if trying to dredge up a long forgotten vocabulary that he had rarely had the opportunity – or desire – to use. “Theo was weak. More than that, he was mad… he kept talking about taking over the town. We have done… things that perhaps are not right. Many things. But in our hearts, we all knew that it was wrong, the things he proposed.”

“And yet you still followed him,” Kristen said accusingly. She was aware of the fact she was the only naked woman in a clearing full of other naked men, most of whose attention was focused either on her or on Rodney. “What do you have to say for yourselves?”

He was careful in his choice of words, and Kristen had to admire that. “I speak for the others here. It is the Shifter way – the Alpha must lead,” he said, as if it explained everything away.

“And now?” she asked.

It was Rodney who spoke this time. “I have killed Theo,” he announced, straining his voice, and a hush settled on the chattering group below. Their eyes were filled with wonder, and with fear. “He was weak, as brother Clement said. Weak and unfit to lead. Now
I
am Alpha, and choose to lead.”

“Rodney-” Kristen hissed, but he silenced her with a look.

“However, as is my right as leader, I can choose another to take my place,” he continued, “and Clement has proved himself both strong and wise. I lend command of the pride to him. You will obey him as leader now!”

There was a muted whisper between them, followed by an inhuman strangle of voices. Kristen wanted to call it a cheer, but it sounded more like a crow being torn apart from the inside out. The sound of their cry echoed through the woods, spilling between the columns of old growth. Rodney was helped to his feet, and braced his arm against Clement’s.

“What do we do now, brother?” Clement asked. “Theo is dead, and we are homeless.”

Rodney shook his head. “No, you’re not. You have the farm, Clement… our old home. That’s the place where you belong, where
all
of you belong. Go there…”

“And what about you?” Clement said, standing tall.

Kristen came to his side, and he put his arm around her, though it took a great amount of effort to stand and speak at the same time.
He’s going to need some medical treatment as well
, she realized. But he was alive, they were both alive, and nothing else mattered.

“He has me,” she said, breaking protocol by speaking out of turn, but Clement’s surprise was suppressed by his respect for the one who had helped to thwart their previous leader.