Turned by a Tiger Page 17

  Sherry tracked Talon as he barrelled into the group of hunters, only realising as he grabbed one and hurled him away from Byron that he was bare handed, his sword forgotten. Panic began to creep and curl through her as he fought, knocking the arms and wrists of any hunter with a sword to stop them from landing their attacks.

  He needed a weapon.

  Or to shift.

  Byron was fighting in his tiger form, Grey beside him now, both majestic and vicious tigers. Why wasn’t Talon joining them?

  “Shift, dammit,” she muttered.

  Maya paused and looked over at the fight, her voice laced with a sombre edge. “Oh, Talon.”

  What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  Before she could ask, Maya looked back at her, golden eyes awash with sorrow.

  “He has a thing about tradition… when… how long has it been since he escaped and Jayna died?”

  Sherry wracked her brain. “Two… maybe three days.”

  “Not long enough. He’s mourning Jayna… he can’t shift yet.”

  But Byron had shifted, and Jayna had been intended for him. Wasn’t he mourning her too? Did Byron care about her at all?

  “It’s a stupid tradition,” Sherry grumbled and grunted as she moved onto her knees and then slowly rose onto her feet, ignoring Maya as she tried to stop her.

  Damn, her leg hurt like a bitch. She put weight on it but fire screamed up her body and she barely stopped herself from crying out.

  Sword.

  She had to get the sword to Talon.

  She wasn’t strong enough right now to carry his broadsword, so she plucked her smaller blade from the dirt.

  “Get out of here,” she said, but Maya didn’t move. She looked at her, caught the concern in her eyes as she watched Talon, and Talon alone. She didn’t fear for her other brothers, because they were strong as tigers, swift and taking down hunters together. Talon was fighting alone, four on one, and with only his hands as weapons. Sherry placed her hand on Maya’s shoulder and gently squeezed, and Maya glanced at her. “Go. I’ll make sure he’s okay. I really like him too.”

  Maya managed a smile and nodded, and then she was gone, ducking past Iolanthe and Bleu where they were taking down the last of a group near the largest cabin and disappearing inside.

  Sherry clutched the blade and hobbled towards the centre of the village, her focus locked on Talon. She moved as quickly as she could, most of the hunters uninterested in fighting her because she was dressed like them and the tigers thinking twice the moment they neared her.

  Could they smell Talon on her?

  “Talon,” she whispered, heart screaming across the distance between them that she was coming.

  A shockwave of heat rolled over her and she swiftly turned to her left and staggered backwards, away from the nearest cabin as fire exploded from the front door and the small window, and licked up along the porch.

  The anger that had begun to blaze inside her earlier when Archangel had set the first cabin alight to flush out the women and children burned hotter.

  It became an inferno of fury as she spotted two male hunters and a female pulling three women from the next cabin along, and a fourth hunter outside it with a canister of gasoline.

  Bastards.

  A dark-haired and very naked man came out of nowhere and sliced the huntresses throat with his claws, freeing one of the women, and took on a hunter next, causing him to lose his grip on another. She ran straight towards Sherry.

  The hunter with the canister looked her way, and his eyes narrowed as he spotted her. “You… I saw you with one of them. Traitor! She’s working with them.”

  Sherry’s blood turned to ice.

  Someone roared.

  Everything slowed.

  He dropped the canister, turning at the same time, bringing his other hand up as the third hunter shoved the last woman away from him and reached for his hip.

  Both drew guns and had them aimed in an instant, one directly at Sherry and the other at the running woman as she passed her.

  Her heart missed a beat as both guns fired, a flash of light the only warning she had as her ears rang and she stared death in the face.

  A wall of darkness came down across her vision and she flinched away, heard a scream she thought might have been her own and smelled blood, thick and strong, choking her.

  Male screams joined hers, the scent of blood growing stronger, and then the sound of boots pounding the dirt. Wind whipped past her, something jostled her, and someone growled.

  When silence fell, and she could breathe again, awareness of the world gradually came back, little by little.

  Someone was holding her.

  Someone who smelled like Heaven.

  Sherry burrowed into him, wanting to be closer still, afraid she was about to lose him, because this was the end for her.

  Wasn’t it?

  “I want a fucking word with you,” someone snarled.

  With her?

  Talon moved back, a pained hiss leaving him. “Later.”

  “Now,” the man barked. “You fail to protect my future bride, lead Archangel to our pride, and then you insult me further by proving yourself incapable of protecting one of my current brides?”

  She cracked her eyes open and they widened when she saw the woman sprawled on the ground near her, her eyes sightlessly staring at her and a dark patch covering her back.

  Naked masculine legs filled the space just beyond her, and Sherry tracked them upwards, to their owner’s face.

  The black-haired male scowled down at her, eyes like fire in the low light.

  He sneered at Talon. “You certainly managed to protect your mate though.”

  Mate?

  Talon swallowed hard as she looked at him, but he refused to look at her, kept his profile to her and his eyes fixed on his brother.

  Those eyes slowly closed and he hung his head. “It’s true. I failed Jayna… and I failed Alicia… and I did choose to protect my fated one over her…” He lifted his head and fixed hard eyes back on his brother, and bit out, “But tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing if our positions had been reversed.”

  Hell.

  It was Sherry’s turn to swallow hard as her mouth dried out.

  She was Talon’s fated one?

  Working with Kyter and Cavanaugh had told her everything she needed to know about this particular aspect of shifter life. They could fall in love with anyone, but they all had a single fated mate, one they felt was made for them and with whom they could have a deep and powerful bond. She was human though. Sure, she felt connected to him, deeply drawn to him, but being his fated one? It seemed so impossible.

  Byron looked as if he might strike Talon for saying that, and then all the tension left his wide shoulders and he eased back a step.

  “It doesn’t excuse what you did.” Byron’s amber eyes lost only a drop of their iciness and his tone remained as frigid as the Antarctic. “You led them here.”

  “Jayna led them here,” Sherry blurted and flinched away when his cold eyes dropped to her.

  Talon growled, and she had the feeling it had been a warning to his brother because Byron shifted his eyes away from her. “It’s true. Jayna told Archangel our location. I didn’t know, or I would have come here sooner.”

  “You should have come home straight away.”

  Sherry wasn’t going to sit still and let him speak to Talon like that, treating him as if he had done everything wrong when he knew nothing about what had happened. “Talon couldn’t… Archangel were hunting him, and he was severely injured.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Kyter put in as he tugged on his trousers and buttoned them, seemingly oblivious to the black looks all the tigers gave him.

  Or ignoring them.

  Iolanthe stood at his side, cleaning her black blade and watching everyone closely, making it clear that if anyone dared to attack her mate just because he was a jaguar and not a tiger, she was going to skewer them.


  Sherry would be right there with her.

  Bleu too.

  He hadn’t taken his violet eyes off Byron the entire time he had been speaking with Talon.

  “Talon came to my nightclub for sanctuary,” Kyter said. “Sherry took him somewhere safe so he could heal.”

  “Once he was strong enough, we infiltrated Archangel.” Sherry needed that one out there, because no damn way she was going to let Byron get away with not knowing just how much effort all of them had put into protecting the tigers and all the immortal species. “We got all the information we could and that’s when we found out Archangel knew this location. As soon as I told Talon, we teleported here.”

  Byron looked down at Talon.

  “It’s true. We have to move.” The solemn edge to Talon’s deep voice, and the way his eyes drifted around their burning village, made Sherry want to hold him until his pain ebbed away and he found his strength again.

  They had won the fight against Archangel, had left none of the hunters alive by the looks of things, but they had lost tigers in the process, and their home.

  Byron growled. “I decide when we move. Not you.”

  Talon didn’t react to that. She felt a tremor run through him, swore she could feel a flicker of his emotions, his hurt, and she wanted to lash out at Byron and retaliate for him. She did her best to bite her tongue for his sake, aware it would only make the situation worse.

  And in a way, she couldn’t blame Byron for being angry.

  Or any of the tigers that surrounded her, licking their wounds, tending to each other, and to the dead.

  Archangel had attacked them, and Byron wanted to lash out at someone, needed to blame someone after their home had been violated and their pride members killed.

  By humans.

  Sherry became increasingly aware of the tigers that surrounded her, a wall of men hemming her and Talon, and her friends, in against one of the cabins.

  She became increasingly aware that she was human too, the only human left in the village now, and she was dressed like an Archangel hunter.

  Talon curled his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, as if he had felt her rising fear and had sensed the air shift, growing darker around them. His eyes didn’t leave his brother’s, held them calmly, a steely edge to his and the set of his jaw. His fingers flexed against her, muscles coiling in readiness as he waited for Byron to make a move.

  Byron stared him down.

  Raised his hand.

  Talon tensed.

  Byron growled.

  “Move it. We’re leaving, and we’re leaving tonight.”

  The group surrounding her splintered, everyone rushing into action, and the darkness lifted, drawing all of her fear out of her. She sagged against Talon and drew slow breaths to steady her pounding heart.

  Byron continued to stare down at Talon, silent so long she began to feel nervous again. A need grew inside her, a fierce desire to take hold of him and shake him until he said what was on his mind. She needed to know, because she feared it was something about her, and something that was going to hurt her.

  He glanced at the other tigers as they hurried around the village, and then looked back at Talon and softly said, “We’re leaving… you know what that means?”

  “I do,” Talon husked, his voice steady, filled with certainty that had those damned nerves rising swifter, flooding her head with painful images she didn’t want to see but couldn’t shut out.

  His brother huffed, pivoted on his heel and walked away.

  Sherry looked at Talon, not following. Why was Byron upset? Shouldn’t she be the one upset about what was going to happen? Talon refused to look at her. His eyes remained locked on his brother’s back.

  Byron stopped a short distance away, and looked back over his shoulder. “Someday… if she makes the leap… they’ll be ready then.”

  She still didn’t understand, but whatever was happening, it had gravity to it, weight that settled on her chest and pressed down on her.

  Iolanthe, Kyter and Bleu muttered something about Kincaid and disappeared, leaving her alone with Talon.

  Alone, but hurting.

  Unsure, yet afraid.

  “You’re leaving?” she whispered, and he finally looked at her. Her heart broke a little as his eyes said that he was, that she was the one who should be upset and not Byron, but she held it together, clutching the fractured pieces and refusing to let it fall apart.

  Refusing to let herself fall apart.

  Until he gently cupped her cheek, tilted her head up so their eyes met, and lowered his lips towards hers, and whispered against them, “I’m leaving with you.”

  She really didn’t understand now. “Your pride—”

  “The pride will still be a part of me… and I will still be a part of it… but right now… many of them will find it hard to trust humans.”

  Humans like her.

  Wait. Did that mean he wanted her to be with him?

  “What I did,” he started, sighed and tipped his head back, staring up at the stars as if they could guide him or give him strength. He lowered his head again, meeting her gaze once more. “You are my fated one… but it wasn’t the reason I chose to protect you over… it isn’t the reason I put you first.”

  His eyes told her the things he couldn’t find the courage to say, shone with the love he held in his heart for her, revealing it to her at last.

  She felt it too, that quickening of the pulse, that warming of her heart whenever she looked at him and he looked at her. It was more than desire. It was deeper than that.

  Deeper than love.

  Her gut whispered to her, telling her that she was Talon’s fated one and it didn’t matter that she was human. They were destined, made for each other. Soul mates. This time love would work out just fine, and it wouldn’t be messy and painful, it would be wonderful.

  All she had to do was give it a chance.

  Give Talon a chance.

  She just had to take that leap Byron had mentioned.

  Whatever the hell that was.

  Talon smoothed his fingers across her brow, distracting her before she could ask about it, and brushed them down her right cheek, his eyes holding hers. “It’s going to take a while before they’re ready.”

  “Ready for what?”

  “Ready to accept you,” he murmured and rubbed his thumb across her lower lip, making it tingle and sending a shiver of heat over her skin.

  He gathered her closer.

  Hissed.

  She quickly pushed back and ran her eyes over him, charting all the wounds that littered his chest. None of them looked deep.

  “Don’t fuss,” he said in a voice that made it clear she was going to fuss whether he commanded it or not. “It’s just a little hole.”

  A hole?

  Her eyes widened.

  “Fuck… the bullet.” She had forgotten about the bullet that had been aiming for her.

  A bullet that he had blocked.

  A bullet he had taken for her.

  “It’ll heal.” He swatted her hands away when she tried to get him to turn around so she could see his back and the wound. “Let me finish.”

  He sounded so serious that she stopped trying to see and stilled, her eyes leaping back to his, that strange gravity pressing down on her again.

  “When a tiger finds his mate… she becomes his home… she becomes his pride in part… a new pride… made up of just him and his mate. You’re my pride now, and my home is wherever you are… so one day… if you’re ready and you step into my world… and into the pride born of my blood, then it will become my home again. Fuck, this isn’t coming out right. I never figured I would have to make this speech.” He looked beautifully irritated, confused and afraid at the same time.

  “Why not?” She frowned at him. “Because it’s rare for tigers to find their fated one?”

  He shook his head.

  “Byron said something about making the leap… and now you’re talking about me
stepping into your world… but feline shifters… I know a few things, Talon, and I know cat shifters can’t turn people… you’re all born as shifters… but I’m confused because you sound as if you’re not talking about me joining the pride as a human.” Her voice shook and she cursed her nerves and how much this was affecting her, tearing her apart inside as she tried to figure everything out. She wanted to be with Talon, but how was that even possible? Unless. “If we mated… would I become immortal like humans do when they mate with demons or elves?”

  He looked away, sighed and solemnly shook his head.

  Sorrow arrowed through her, stronger than she had ever felt it, ripping into her as she thought about that and the fact she would only have a short time with Talon even if she did take the leap and they mated, that she would continue to age while he remained the same. She had foolishly started to dream of a life with him, one where they could be together forever, like Iolanthe and Kyter, and Cavanaugh and Eloise. She had wanted that for them. Maybe this love was fated to be messy and painful after all and her gut was wrong.

  Talon quietly turned to face her.

  Sucked down a deep breath.

  Rocked her entire world on its axis.

  “If we mated… you would become a tiger.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Twenty-three days, nineteen hours, forty-one minutes and seventeen seconds had passed since Talon had told his secret to someone for the first and last time.

  He paced the deserted village, working off some energy, trying to keep his head and his heart from twisting him in knots as he waited.

  She would come.

  He had risked everything for her, had told her the one thing he had felt sure would drive her away forever and could have ended up damning his pride.

  He hadn’t been able to stop himself though.

  The need to make Sherry his mate had been too fierce, was still too strong, easily stealing control of him and driving out all sense and reason, leaving him mastered by his feelings.

  He had sworn to give her a choice.

  He wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he had made her believe that nothing bad would happen if they mated and he bound them together with his bite.