Trusting the Tiger: BBW Tiger Shifter Paranormal Romance (3 page)

Not that any of that stopped her from silently freaking out when they jumped into activities like the BMX aerials. Logic took a back seat to what Toni liked to think of as “Auntie terror,” i.e., the fear of what her sister would do to her if anything happened to her children while Toni was looking after them.

Felix tugged at her sleeve and pointed across the track. “Look! There’s Karen! She’s awesome. She showed me how to do a new jump.”

Toni followed Felix’s pointing arm to where Jack was still talking with the slim blonde woman. Jack turned away just as she looked across, putting his back to her.

Karen
was looking up at him, her hair a cascade of perfectly, straight, perfectly shiny gold. Toni looked away, disappointment curling in her stomach.

“I’m going to try it that new jump now!” Felix crowed, jumping on his bike and wheeling across to the ramp.

“And I’m not going to watch!” Toni caroled after him, secretly grateful for the distraction.

Toni settled back to watch Felix as he launched himself back onto his bike. She steeled herself as he approached the jumps.
This is fine,
she told herself.
I didn’t
actually
scream out loud when I watched Lexi jump. I can totally deal with this.

Besides, the more I freak out over the kids, the less I’ll think about Mr. Perfect Butt over there.

“Watch
this!
” Felix yelled, and Toni flinched as he twisted around to poke his tongue out at her. He swerved toward a tree, over-corrected in the other direction, and then righted himself at the last second, cackling madly. Toni hadn’t even had time to leap to her feet.

Felix’s voice echoed in her head. Toni could rarely tell when her shifter family were using their telepathic voices rather than their real ones, but she could tell this time. The clue was that there was no way he could have called out to her like that with his tongue still sticking out.

Toni rolled her eyes and slumped back in her chair. If she was ever going to get used to her niece and nephew’s death-defying displays, now was the time.

With the late afternoon sun behind her, the whole clearing was flooded in clear, golden light—the perfect calm backdrop for her niece and nephew to go wild.

Lexi was hollering encouragement at Felix as he sped toward a ramp. Toni had just taken a gulp of soda and fixed her eyes determinedly on the small figure hurtling across the ground when the shade of the tree suddenly got a lot colder. The crunch of leaves told Toni someone had stepped up behind her.

For one crazy moment, Toni thought it might be Jack, come back to apologize for running off. But a glance across the clearing showed her he was still deep in conversation with Karen.

She twisted in her seat to look at the stranger, and frowned. It was a man – and, whoever he was, he had crept up way closer than she’d thought. Toni fought a sudden impulse to back away.

“Uh, can I help you?” she asked.

He was tall – not as tall as Jack (why did her stupid brain keep going back to him? Ugh!) – but tall enough that he loomed over Toni in her chair. She supposed he was good-looking, but it was a sleek, unnatural handsomeness, like he’d been buffed and polished in a workshop before being let outside.

He was holding a tablet of some sort in his hand, and seemed more interested in it than in answering her question. Toni glared, and shivered. The whole forest to stand in, and not only did he choose to creep up behind her, but now he wasn’t even going to acknowledge her?

Silver Forest?
she thought grumpily.
More like Forest of Asshole Men
.

Well, she was pissed off enough not to let him just stand there ignoring her.

“Hello?” she said, unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice. “Anyone there?”

She waved a hand in front of him. He tucked the tablet under one arm and, like someone had flicked a switch, suddenly looked down at her with a gleaming smile on his face.

“Andre de Jager,” he said smoothly, plucking her hand out of the air and shaking it. “Sorry, I was just – checking something.”

Toni couldn’t pick his accent; it was slightly foreign, but not one she could recognize. Maybe something European, or South African?

“Toni Oglietti,” she replied shortly, unwilling to let his sudden show of manners make up for his lack of them before. “Do you mind? You’re—”

She paused. It wouldn’t make sense for her to say, “You’re blocking my sun,” because she was already sitting in the shade of the tree. But she couldn’t shake the sense that the air had grown colder the moment he turned up.

“…standing behind you like a particularly creepy shadow. I do apologize.” He moved in front of her – but without letting go of her hand.

“Right.” She pulled her hand away. “And that was an extremely creepy … pirouette … thing.”

“Then I apologize again. What a bad first impression I’m making. And on one of Jack’s … friends, no less.”

He was still smiling, but Toni had worked retail long enough to know when someone was making nice.

“You know Jack?” she asked.

“Oh, we go a long, long way back,” Andre said, and laughed unpleasantly. That is, his laugh sounded entirely normal – even pleasant – but it somehow … wasn’t.

It was hard to concentrate on talking. Her heart was hammering in her chest, a panicked drumbeat telling her
danger–danger–danger
. Her eyes flicked automatically to Felix and Lexi, who were playing happily on the other side of the clearing with the other children.

Was it her imagination, or did the stranger – de Jager – follow her gaze?

What was going on? Why was this guy freaking her out so badly? All he’d done was turn up and be a bit of a dick. So why was her body going to panic mode?

Toni shook her head to clear it. She was being irrational. She was just tired, probably. She’d driven all the way from the city today, and it was so hot, and Jack had dropped her like a hot potato
not that she cared
… yeah, she was probably just tired.

And now she’d snapped at this guy for basically nothing. Toni rubbed her face and started to stand up.

“Look, I’m really sorry, but I’ve got to…”
got to go, got to clear my head, got to have a nap like a freaking five-year-old who’s gotten over-excited
… Toni’s head buzzed as she tried to think of an excuse to leave.

She stumbled into Andre as she stood up, and he dropped the tablet. Automatically, Toni stooped to grab it before it hit the ground. As her fingers closed around the black plastic shell, a shock like electricity arced up her arm.

“Ouch!” she yelped, and let go of the device. It fell to the ground and lay there, blinking.

Toni sucked on her stinging fingers and stared at the thing. Now that she could see it clearly, it didn’t look like a tablet after all. The screen and interface didn’t look like machine she’d even seen – plus, it felt like it had
bitten
her. What the hell?

“Shit, that really hurt!”

CHAPTER TWO

JACK

Karen was saying something. Several somethings. Actually she had been speaking constantly for the last ten minutes, but Jack hadn’t picked up a word of it, because every atom of his attention was focused on another woman.

Toni.

He knew exactly where she was, still sitting under the tree, less than a hundred yards away. He didn’t need to turn around to see her; her image was front and center in his mind’s eye. That mane of dark brown hair, almost black, wild curls escaping from their loose ponytail to frame her sweet round face. Her sparkling eyes, blue as the morning sky, and the way she’d glanced up sideways at him from under her long, thick lashes.

Jack closed his eyes briefly, remembering her plump, red lips. And below all of that … he almost moaned aloud in frustration at the memory of her body, held close against his. Her soft, generous curves. The heat of her body and that tantalizing blush as she felt his own heat…

And then – those same blue eyes losing their brightness, barely able to look at him. That mobile mouth turning down, lips tucked in at the corners, biting down on her feelings. She had looked that unhappy when he first saw her, trapped in her own unhappy thoughts. He had brought her out of herself, teased out those flirtatious, flashing eyes and open smile – and then slammed the door in her face.

His life had changed in less time than it took him to draw a breath, and the first thing he did with that breath was ruin it. The best thing that had ever happened to him, and like an idiot, he’d thrown it away.

He’d been attracted to Toni the moment he first saw her. With those curves, and that face, how could he not be? As they had talked, he had realized she felt the same attraction, but it wasn’t until they locked eyes for the first time that he understood the truth. What she was.
Who
she was.

He’d thought she was just a stunning human woman. Someone he would have loved to get to know better but who, in the end, would just be a harmless summer fling. After the last few months, he’d welcomed the thought of summer romance, even a brief one. He’d felt happy, lucky, like everything was going his way. Then –
bam
.

As soon as he looked into her eyes properly, he knew.

She was his mate.

He couldn’t deny it. He literally couldn’t even consider denying it. His brain leapt away from the thought like it was poison. The moment he had looked into her eyes, and seen her looking into his, he had known. Certainty had struck his body like a bolt of lightning. His tiger, already close to the surface out here in the wilderness, had risen up and purred in delight. It had been all he could do not to tear her clothes off then and there.

Instead, he had panicked. Turned away.

Abandoned her.

What else could he do? He was a shifter, his human self inextricably bound up with his tiger self. And she was a human. He’d heard of shifters pairing up with humans before, hiding their true selves, but he’d never heard of it working out in the end.

After all, what would she say if he told her his secret: that he could transform into a massive tiger? That the tiger was a part of him? She would think he was crazy. And if he did shift in front of her, he would be lucky if she didn’t run away screaming.

Jack sighed. He had thought it was his lucky day, but of course it would turn out to be just his same old bad luck. It was true what he had told Toni. His job had taken him all over the world. But that wasn’t the whole truth.

His main mission had been to extend his trust’s land holdings – keeping vital habitats safe and untouched for local wildlife – but in the back of his mind all that time he had hoped he might find
her
on his travels. His one. His mate.

God knows he had looked. For ten years, Jack had introduced himself to shifter clans the world over, from a caribou shifter tribe in the north to a small colony of penguin shifters in icy Antarctica. He must have met every eligible shifter woman from here to Timbuktu. And now, after he had finally given up hope that there was a woman out there meant for him…

A human. A perfect, beautiful, funny human. So now his choice was between being with his mate, but never being
himself
with her – or staying alone.

Jack had fuzzy childhood memories of asking his parents about how they met, what it was like. They had told him that finding your mate was meant to be like finding a missing part of yourself, but how could that happen if he had to hide part of himself to be with her? And could she really be happy with someone who couldn’t trust her with his whole self?

“…you’re not listening to a thing I’m saying, are you?” Karen snapped her fingers in front of Jack’s eyes. “Wakey, wakey, big fella.”

He blinked. “No, I was…”

Karen snorted. “Don’t try telling me you were listening. I just said ‘You’re not listening to a thing I’m saying’ about ten times before you clicked. You were miles away.”

“Not
miles
away,” Jack admitted gruffly.

Karen was one of his oldest friends. Jack had bought the land around the old Silver mine ten years ago – one of his earliest projects with the trust – and she had stuck to him ever since, like a leggy blonde burr. And not in a romantic way. It turned out that she had been bringing classes from underprivileged schools out here on the sly for camping trips for the past several years, and was adamant she be allowed to keep doing so, preferably with some official funding.

Jack had been happy to set aside some of the land for a proper camping and recreation ground. As well as being a refuge for wildlife, the park would be a place for children to learn about the land. A place of knowledge, and learning. And, sometimes, BMXing.

Jack forced himself back to the present. Karen was looking past him, back across the picnic area.

“Not ‘miles away,’ huh?” she said dryly. “I thought you came stampeding over to me a bit faster than usual. Don’t act too coy, though. It looks like you’re not the only competitor in the field.”

Jack spun around, his tiger roaring inside him, teeth bared. He wasn’t a jealous guy – at least, he had never been a jealous guy before now – but the hairs on his arms prickled as he looked across at Toni and the man standing over her.

His first impulse was to storm over there and tell the guy where to go. He held himself back. He didn’t have any claim over Toni, particularly if he was deciding to ignore the mate bond and stay out of her life. He had no right to get angry over other men talking to her.

There was a sudden movement; as Jack watched, his shifter eyes picking up every detail, something slipped from the man’s grip and fell to the ground. Jack had the strange feeling that whatever-it-was had been dropped deliberately, but the thought had barely crossed his mind when Toni bent to catch the object, and then dropped it with a cry, as though it had stung her.

She cradled her hand, pain flitting across her face.

Jack didn’t hesitate any longer. He covered the distance between then in a handful of long strides. Closer, he could clearly see the discomfort in Toni’s face and stance. It wasn’t just her injured hand; his tiger’s senses, more attuned than his human ones, zeroed in on her tightened nostrils, fast breathing and the tense muscles in her neck. She was more than just uncomfortable. She was on the edge of panic.

Toni’s eyes jerked toward him as he approached and filled with an unmistakable look of relief. That was all the invitation he needed.

Jack stepped in beside Toni, sliding one arm behind her to rest reassuringly on her lower back. He felt her lean backwards into him, almost unnoticeably, the slightest pressure on his hand.

“Everything okay here?” he said calmly, though every muscle in his body was coiled to strike.

The man was glaring bullets at Jack. A faint memory stirred in the back of Jack’s mind. Had he met this guy before?

“That thing
shocked
me,” Toni snapped at the stranger.

The man smiled, a smooth, easy expression that Jack didn’t trust an inch. “As I was saying before we were interrupted, Toni, it must have been static electricity—”

“Oh, come on,” Toni scoffed. “Static electricity? I’ve got a niece and a nephew who’re both obsessed with pranking each other. Trust me, I know what static electricity feels like. It doesn’t hurt that much, and it sure as hell doesn’t leave a mark.”

She held out her hand. The tips of her middle and index fingers were an angry red, as though they had been burned.

Jack felt a growl start to build in his chest.

The stranger either didn’t notice Jack’s rising anger, or didn’t care. He looked at Toni’s fingers and an entirely unconvincing expression of sympathy arranged itself on his face.

“Oh, dear. I’ve a first-aid kit back with the rest of my gear, Toni, if you’ll follow me…”

“We’ve got plenty of medical supplies back at the truck,” Jack interrupted, almost spitting the words. “She doesn’t need to follow you anywhere.”

Jack stepped forward, his arm still curved protectively around Toni. He topped the other man by over a head. It wasn’t hard to stare him down when he was literally
staring down
at him, though he would have much preferred to straight-up stamp him into the dirt.

His tiger was spoiling for a fight – and not just his tiger. This was one thing both halves of him agreed on.

Come on, you bastard, talk back. Give me one reason to knock you down.

The enraging, vapid smile returned to the man’s face. “I guess I’ll just see you around the camp, then.”

“Guess again,” Toni said crisply, before Jack could get a word in. “You – oh, just
go away
, would you,” she finished, her voice trembling. Jack could feel her body still slightly shaking against his.

The other man still seemed oblivious to the antipathy both she and Jack felt for him. “Until we meet again, then,” he said mildly, and set off slowly.

Toni raised one hand to his retreating back. “An apology would be nice!” she yelled, to no response. They both watched silently as he disappeared between the trees.

Jack felt Toni droop, tension leaving her body in a rush. “Oh, what the
hell
was that about?” she stormed, and turned to him with her eyes blazing. “I don’t think much of your friends, Jack.”

“Who, that guy? I’ve never seen him before in my life.” Jack paused, that faint memory flickering again. “At least … I don’t think…”

Toni glared. “He said his name’s Andre de Jager. And that you and he go way back.”

De Jager…

Images flashed in Jack’s mind as memories he’d tried to forget rose to the surface. Wide, empty tundra. The hot, hot sun of South Africa. Weeks spent negotiating with local authorities. And then, mere hours before the conservation pledge was to be signed…

Blood pooled on the ground, sticky and red. Flies already buzzing in hordes over the bodies, and the stench of death thick in the air.

A group of local rich kids had objected to the conservation agreement. De Jager was the ringleader, a spoiled, entitled prick who thought the only good thing about the wilderness was that it was full of creatures he could kill. Faced with the ban on all hunting in the region, he and his friends had decided to see the season out with wholesale slaughter.

They’d piled their trophies directly in front of the governer’s house where the agreement was being signed. Jack had walked out of what was meant to be his first big success for the trust, straight into a vision from hell.

And now, ten years later, de Jager was here. Why?

“You do know him,” Toni accused, her eyes narrowing.

“Yes. But he’s not a friend. Not even close.” Quickly, Jack explained how he knew de Jager, and what the man had done. Toni’s expression went from suspicious to horrified.

“But what’s he doing here? It’s not hunting season,” she said, astounded. “There’s no big game in the park anyway, is there?”

“No big game,” Jack agreed, “and no hunting, period. This whole place is a nature preserve.”

“You don’t think this could be some sort of revenge thing, do you?” Toni suggested cautiously.

Jack shrugged. “It’s been ten years, and he hasn’t caused any trouble at the preserve in South Africa in all that time. He was just a kid back then, and you know, people do change.”

He didn’t believe what he was saying himself, and Toni was shaking her head slowly.

“No … he seemed … wrong.” She shivered, and Jack saw her eyes flicker across to the jump ramps. Two dark-haired, blue-eyed children, a boy and a girl, were egging each other on under Karen’s amused supervision.
They must be Toni’s niece and nephew
, he realized. And de Jager had freaked her out badly enough that she was worried about them.

A sudden protective urge rose up in him. Whatever reason de Jager had for coming here, Jack would deal with it, but he wouldn’t put up with his frightening Toni and her family.

“I’ll make sure the park rangers are on the lookout for him,” he said aloud. “And that they’re to throw him out on sight. If he wants to see me, he can make an appointment through my EA, like everyone else.”