Tiger Bound (22 page)

Carter had been the one to reveal who Ward was, and Heath couldn’t wrap his mind around it. He’d known Ward existed, although he suspected he was dead, but having him here beside him took some getting used to.

“Where are we going?” he asked Ward, not comfortable with the fact that he’d left the car behind, but then it was likely it had been reported stolen and that Spiderweb had its description.

“We’re going home,” Ward told him with a wink. “To Siberia, Texas.”

“Is there anywhere safe?” Heath wondered.

“Siberia is,” Carter answered, his tone full of pride. “The town was founded by Ward something like thirty years ago, for us.”

“Us?” Heath echoed.

“Us.” Ward patted his knee as if he were small child. “For shifters. We’re all tigers, but I suppose if we ever find one that’s another type of animal, he can have a home in Siberia, Texas. Hot as hell and dusty, but we love it. Works for us. You’ll like it too, and your mate.”

Heath glanced down at Deja and drew her closer to him. He dared to kiss the top of her head and didn’t care if they rode him for it. Neither of them said anything. “Why do you keep calling her my mate?”

“Isn’t she?”

Heath said nothing for a moment. He recalled the night his tiger claimed her as his and called her his mate. They were one, he and the animal, so maybe his dad was right. Deja was his mate.
My dad
. He’d dropped the title as soon as he learned Tate lied to him, and yet, a bit of guilt remained, along with the feeling that Tate was his dad.

“Is there a hospital I can take her to? She’s been ill since they screwed with her, and she’s in so much pain most of the time.” Heath steeled himself against the desperation that entered his tone. After the fight, Deja had gone paler than usual, and she hadn’t stirred in his arms for several hours. “The only time it eases is when…” He couldn’t admit to his father that Deja found relief in sex.

“Let me see. Carter, take the wheel a minute,” Ward ordered, and reached to peer in Deja’s eyes.

Heath pulled her away. “Are you a doctor?”

Carter laughed. “He’s the alpha, bub. Best listen to him and do what he says.”

“I don’t know what that means.” A low-grade growl started in his throat.

The window in the back of the pickup slid open, and one of the women slapped Heath on the shoulder. “Easy, no need to get worked up. She’s in good hands with Ward, and just like Carter said, he’s our alpha—
your
alpha. He can fix your woman.”

Heath understood being able to hear far better than any human, but it pissed him off that the entire group had picked up on their conversation. Ward took control of the truck from Carter and drove a couple more miles before pulling into a rest area. The space was empty except for one or two cars, and from the look of it, the travelers were just finishing up using the facilities or getting snacks from the snack machines and would head out soon.

“This way,” Ward told him, and he slid out of the truck.

Heath held Deja in his arms and followed with the others trailing behind. They headed farther away from the road with the trees providing some cover. The group stood around, as if stretching their legs, while blocking anyone not in the group from viewing what they did.

“What you need is for her to turn,” Ward explained. “If she doesn’t, she will die.”

Heath stared. “Turn? What are you talking about? Deja is human.”

“No, she’s not. That organization might be run by demons as far as I’m concerned, but they do know what they are doing splicing a human’s DNA with a tiger’s. What they don’t realize is that in order for the women to survive—and some men—they need an alpha to help them. That’s where I come in.”

“But can’t you turn her back, I mean, the way she was?”

The alpha studied him a minute. “Is that what you really want?”

Heath looked down at Deja. Her lips parted, and her breath was so shallow. If he didn’t have advanced hearing, he wouldn’t pick it up. An ache constricted his chest, and he clenched his jaw. “I just don’t want her to hurt anymore.”

“If she’s one of us, she will never get sick. She’ll live a long time, and most of all, she’ll be able to stay by your side as your companion and mate.”

“But you said she needs your help changing. The people at that lab said every one of the women changed and died, but Deja didn’t change. They seemed to think that meant she was worse off than the others.”

Ward dropped a heavy hand on his shoulder. “Like I said, that’s where I come in. I not only help her to change. I guide her two sides to live as one, to work in unison instead of fighting each other. Only an alpha can do that, something Spiderweb never knew, and not every one of us can be an alpha. Now we have another potential one.”

Heath frowned. “Where?”

 “You.”

“Me?” What Ward said to him was hardly believable, and now he claimed Heath was able to do it as well? “I’m not sure I follow.”

“You’re my son. That means you can be an alpha. The fact that you made Deja feel better, even temporarily, proves you have the ability to help her to turn. But she’s in trouble now, so I’ll take care of it, and you can learn later as I teach you.”

Heath snarled and backed up. “You are not having sex with Deja. I will kill you first.”

Both Ward and Carter burst out laughing. Ward wiped his eyes when he was done, and Heath felt heat in his cheeks. So far, these people were not on his favorite list.

“No, no, son, I apologize for laughing,” Ward said. “You, because you’re unlearned and because she’s your mate, can help her when the two of you become one. I wouldn’t dare touch your woman that way, and I don’t need to. Trust me.”

Heath knelt down when Ward indicated for him to, and he laid Deja in the grass. “I will let you try, but I don’t trust you yet. I hope that doesn’t offend you.”

“Not at all. In time, I’m sure.”

Heath watched in wonderment when Ward laid big but gentle hands on Deja’s head. He leaned in close to her, and Heath dropped forward with one fist on the ground when a wave of something rippled through the air. He caught his breath and looked to the others, amazed that every man and woman who had been standing around took a knee and bowed their heads. Only one still stood, dazed and as shocked as Heath.

He turned back to watch Ward with Deja, and was blown away once again. His lover went from being a woman to a beautiful tiger in the blink of an eye. A sweet purr rose from her throat, and she raised a paw to lick it. Her clothes lay in a pile on the ground.

“Deja?” He reached a hand out to touch her head, and she growled at him, tail snapping side to side. He laughed. “I can imagine her saying, ‘I’m not a pet, mofo.’”

The others chuckled.

Heath didn’t need Ward to tell him Deja was well now. He sensed it, saw the vibrancy in her eyes, and knew the pain had gone. Relief flooded his system, and he had to resist gathering her into his arms and rubbing his face into her fur.

“Now you,” Ward said, and Heath glanced up. The man who hadn’t felt the impulse to bow when Ward unleashed his power stared at Deja in abject terror. He seemed rooted to the spot, unable to move, but when Ward held out his hand, he shook his head, stuttering.

“I’m not… I can’t…”

“Jake, it’s okay,” Ward said. “I know what they did to you, and I can help.”

Heath examined the man for the first time. His clothes were rumpled, dirty, and blood-stained. One sleeve had been torn away to reveal bruises on his arm. Heath recognized the marks as those left from repeated injections from the experiments. This was another victim. Anger rose in him at the way Spiderweb treated people. They needed to be stopped permanently.

Deja wandered over to Heath and rubbed up against his leg. He rested a hand on her head, and this time, she allowed it, purring. Heath looked at his dad. “You rescued him?”

“Yeah, I had a friend on the inside. She tipped me off that my son was at the facility in Nevada, one I never knew existed. I thought you’d died with your mother back then.”

All of them fell silent at this news. A desire to know more rose in Heath, but he thought there was time for that. Right now, they needed to help this man.

Ward continued. “When my friend told me you were there, I came right away to get you with the others, but you being you had already ripped the place apart and escaped.” Ward beamed with pride. “I tracked you, but you stayed ahead of me. Of course I also ran into trouble trying to keep Spiderweb’s people off my ass. Anyway, we found Jake at the same facility as you. We freed him and brought him along.”

“I would have been dead. Thank you.” Jake’s thanks was directed at Ward, but his wary gaze never left Deja. Heath wondered how the heck he would survive with that much fear if he didn’t turn.

“I smell the tiger in you, but it’s faint,” Ward told him. He stepped closer to Jake and brought a hand down on his head. Heath braced himself for the surge of power that would bring him under its subjection, but it never came. Ward sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry. We must have gotten to you before they could get very far. You’re human.”

“That’s a good thing,” Jake said, and smiled for the first time. Then his expression fell, and a haunted look entered his eyes. “They’re still going to hunt me, aren’t they?”

“They will,” Ward affirmed. “I know you’re afraid, Jake, but I think you can get used to us. If you have nowhere else to go, you can come to Siberia. We will protect you, and I’m sure we can find you a job and a place to live.”

Jake’s gaze slid to Deja, and he scratched at the tiny scabs on his arm. “Well, I don’t know.”

Carter spoke up. “The way I see it, you don’t have much of a choice, fella. Spiderweb
will
find you, and you’ll tell them what they want to know—after a bit of persuasion.”

Jake’s eyes grew round.

“Don’t scare the boy.” Ward chuckled. “Come along. We can’t stay out here forever.”

Jake followed the others back to the vehicles, and Heath stooped to Deja. “Baby, human or tiger? If you turn here, you’ll be naked.”

The fact that she understood was plain in her mewl of alarm. She padded on elegant paws back to the truck. He scooped up her things and followed, relieved after a quick scan of the area that no humans were present in the rest stop. Excitement colored Heath’s mood for the first time in what felt like years. He wouldn’t have to lose Deja, and as soon as they had a chance to talk, he would set her straight about thinking he blamed her. Then he would make love to her, not as a healing balm, but to seal her as his mate, now and forever.

Back on the road with Deja at his side as a tiger, Heath twisted around to speak to Jake through the open window. “So, do you have any family?”

Jake scratched the back of his head. His sandy blond hair appeared to need a haircut, and the puffiness around his eyes demonstrated he hadn’t slept for days. “No, I ended up in Las Vegas with the last of my money, hoping like a fool to be picked up.”

Heath’s eyes widened. “A prostitute?”

“No!” Jake’s cheeks pinked. “For a job somewhere. I thought with all the money flowing around that city…” He shrugged. “I’m really glad you’re giving me a chance, Mr. Ward.”

“Just Ward, son. Say, do you know how to mix drinks?”

“I could learn.”

“Then you’re hired. You’ll be the bartender at our newly rebuilt bar, and it even comes with living quarters at the back.”

“I won’t let you down,” Jake said with earnestness in his tone.

Ward winked at him, and Heath thought he saw the tiger’s eyes. He grew even more curious about who this man was and what kind of life they lived in Siberia, Texas. “What kind of name is Siberia for a town in Texas?” he blurted.

Ward grinned. “Well, we are rare white tigers, are we not? We were created from a hybrid of the Siberian tiger, or the Amur, which dwelled around the Sikhote Alin mountain region. We’re the big boys, son, the biggest of the cats to ever exist. The average regular Amur male can weigh almost four hundred pounds.”

“Shucks, I weigh that when I’m dieting,” Carter yelled through the window, and the others laughed.

Heath sat in silence, listening to other facts his dad shared about the Amur tigers and how it equated or didn’t equal how they were as hybrid shifters of the animals. He marveled at the others’ easygoing attitudes, their pride in what they were. None seemed eaten up by resentment of what Spiderweb had done, but then they had had time to adjust and to embrace the changes. Not one man showed signs of being wary of the wildness lurking inside. He hoped he too would reach that level and find contentment in Siberia.

* * * *

When they passed the Welcome to Siberia sign, Heath couldn’t get enough of taking it all in. A small town no bigger than back home, yet tigers roamed the streets free and easy. They bowed their heads in respect to Ward as he passed, and Ward waved and shouted greetings to each one by name. Small shops dotted Main Street, and roads led off in various directions, each shaded with plenty of greenery in the large oaks. Longing came over Heath when he spotted ranches in the distance, complete with cattle and horses, barns, and machinery for working the land. He missed his own ranch and wondered if he could get something going here. He’d talk to Ward about it. He didn’t mind starting over from the bottom and working his way up. As long as he had Deja by his side, he’d be happy.

At the end of the main road, they hung a right and took the road a couple miles until they hit a paved driveway. The house stood all on one level, painted white. A simple design but huge nonetheless. He guessed it held upward of five bedrooms.

When they pulled up, the front door opened, and tigers bounded out the door, running straight for Ward. Heath noticed neither of these bowed, but instead, they jumped on Ward, almost knocking him to the ground as they licked his face. “Okay, okay, boys, enough.” He laughed as he shoved the big cats off of him. Heath watched them circle Ward as he walked to the house and realized they weren’t as big as the others he’d seen in town. Were they children?

He and Deja followed Ward inside, along with Jake, while the other members of the rescue party jumped in vehicles parked at various spots in the driveway and pulled out. Ward directed Heath and Deja to a bedroom. “You can change, Deja. And you boys, go get your clothes on so I can introduce you properly,” he shouted to the two young tigers. They bounded off down the hall.