A Healing Love (5 page)

Tigers didn’t howl, yet the sound Valeri made as he flooded her womb with his seed sounded suspiciously just like that. And damn if his cum didn’t make her orgasm all over again.

“Yesssss!!!”

Reaching behind her she clawed at his head, her body shaking down to her toes. So good, so right. For once and for all, Megan was finally whole.

            Gleb was having a hard time concentrating. The thoughts in his head swirled in an incoherent jumble. There was something he was supposed to be doing. What was it? Why couldn't he remember? There was some reason he had left Canada and come back to Alaska, but he couldn’t recall why. Maybe he was on his way back to Russia. Home. But he hated Siberia. That was where
she
had left him. His mate.

            Snarling, Gleb rolled in the snow, saturating his fur. The cold helped. It focused him a little. But the ghost of Katya would not stop haunting him. His beautiful, treacherous mate. How tenderly he had wooed her. In the brief five years they had together, he had been careful never to allow his animal out of the cage. Not too much. He’d believed she had come to grips with being mated to a shifter. But she never had.

            Two years after giving birth to his young, his beautiful Katya had walked off a cliff into Taui Bay. She had screamed at him that morning, claimed she was cursed because she had lain with an animal. No matter how much he had loved her, she could not accept him for what he was. She never accepted her own sons. Instead she had chosen death over an extended life, extended youth—with him.

            Somewhere along the line, Gleb had lost hold on his sanity. He’d known it, but couldn’t stop it. Day after day, year after year he’d suffered silently, the piece of his soul swept away in arctic waters while Valeri, the golden son, lived happily with his mate Lilya. It was Lilya who raised Gleb’s own sons, who had toweled their hair after they shifted for the first time, who made sure their bellies was full and their childhoods had laughter. All Gleb could do was watch, unable to express love, unable to tell them their mother really was a beautiful soul who had been warped by rigid ideals of right and wrong. He couldn’t tell his beautiful Ilya and Ivan it wasn’t their faults their mother had killed herself.

            It had been Valeri who had told them their mother had been killed in an accident. Smart. Gleb could’ve thought of that if given the chance. But instead the perfect Valeri with his perfect family had taken his sons and made them their own. All the while Gleb had been left to rot, to fester alone.

            Ahhh, but he had repaid Valeri! It had been so easy. Little Luka had found his mate far sooner than any tiger. It was such a simple thing to trick the little brat into a claiming bite long before it was time. Killing Lilya had been the icing on the cake. In one fatal move, Gleb had ensured at least one of Valeri’s sons would never mate, never have young, and had taken away Valeri’s own sanity at the same time. His brother was probably no better off than he was by now.

            How long had it been? He couldn’t tell. He had stayed away, knowing what time would do to Valeri. The loss would have eaten him alive. Now it was time to go witness Valeri’s fall. And possibly Luka’s. Annoying little cat hadn’t known to leave him alone in peace, always trying to make him smile, to bring him back into the fold of the family. Luka deserved what happened to him. And his mate. The beautiful doe-eyed little girl with a smile like fucking sunshine. Disgusting. She was dead now. As well she should be.

            Just beyond the ridge that led to the village in the territory where Teegrs wintered, Gleb shifted into his male form. Even through the heavy snowfall he could see his skin was pasty white. His hair hung to his shoulders. It had been far too long since he’d walked as a man. Clothes. He should’ve thought of clothes. No matter. All he had to do was pick up Valeri’s scent—

            What was that sound? It sounded like...mating. The cries of a woman in the throes of passion were unmistakable. But the smell was something he couldn’t place. It was a tiger, of that there was no doubt. One male and one
female
? But that wasn’t possible! There was no such thing as a female tiger shifter. Yet the smell, although he had never experienced it before, was unmistakable. That was a female feline. Feet moving of their own accord, Gleb was drawn to the smell. Surely he was mistaken. Maybe after staying in his tiger form for so long, his senses as a man were off. Just as the man bellowed his own completion, Gleb saw them.

            No! No, that just couldn’t be!

            And yet, right before his eyes was Valeri, completely sane and mating with a female tiger. A very gorgeous, dark female tiger. Her lines were as sleek as they were feminine. Instead of breaking apart and cuddling as Gleb had always thought was normal after a coupling, the female turned and sank her fangs into Valeri, before pushing him down and mounting him.

            A faint tingle assaulted Gleb’s groin as he watched her ride. Magnificent! And more than Valeri deserved. Damn it, his brother was supposed to be wild-eyed and crazy. Not undulating under the most gorgeous woman he had ever seen! Gleb dared to creep closer, as close he could without being detected. There was no way of knowing how much of a predator this female was. 

            The female could move. Her hips were hypnotic the way she rocked them down on his brother. His brother. Why did the good things always happen to Valeri? As much as Gleb wanted to attack, just tear them both into shreds, he couldn’t stop watching until the final screams stopped echoing and the woman collapsed on Valeri’s chest. Even then, Gleb found it difficult to move. A female tiger shifter. And she was amazing.

*****

            As satisfied as Megan felt, there was something not right. Being claimed by and in return claiming her mate—
her mate!
—was so far from anything she had ever dared to dream of. And yet, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something about this was drastically off. There was a smell in the wind, faint but there. It was almost like another shifter, but one that was very, very sick. Not physically either.

            “Be perfectly still,” Valeri whispered so low in her ear, she almost missed it. So he smelled it too. “It is my brother, Gleb. He is...he has lost touch with reality. He is not here for good. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”

            Like hell. The hair at the nape of her neck was standing straight up. Every protective bone in her body went on high alert. Whoever was out there, brother or no, was prepared to kill. No one threatened what was hers. Valeri had obviously never paid attention to the nature of a female predator. It didn’t matter that she knew Valeri could protect her; it was simply in her nature to hunt and kill any and everything that threatened what was hers.

            “You are going to have to explain this,” Megan murmured, lightly rubbing her lips against his. “Later.”

            There was no doubt her new mate was about to get all kinds of pissed at her, but she simply could not turn off who she was. Allowing her body to remain limp, she waited. Valeri was tense, ready to push her aside and spring into offensive. Well too bad. She was no shrinking violet; it was best her mate got to know that right away. She just hoped Valeri could understand this was who she was; a born warrior. The more alpha the male, the harder time they had dealing with the fact females were more ruthless than they could ever dream. Valeri was ultra-alpha. This was about to get tricky.

Before either male got the chance to make a move, Megan leapt up, changing midair and clashing with the tiger who had just sprang to attack them. His razor-sharp fangs narrowly missed her throat as she feigned to the right and managed to sink her own fangs into his foreleg. She felt Valeri behind her, felt his panic that she had engaged, but there was nothing he could do. They both knew if he intervened right now it would give Gleb the upper hand. Thank God Valeri was wise enough not to break her concentration. But he was most certainly pissed, and scared for her.

Awww, how sweet.

            She could have taken Gleb’s throat right then and there, but this tiger needed to be taught a lesson before she disposed of him. The deranged tiger was about to learn the true meaning of the phrase cat toy. And damn, did it ever feel good to let her full tiger free without fear of discovery!

            “Megan!” Valeri’s terrified warning couldn’t deter her. “Woman! I can handle this!”

            She never doubted Valeri for a minute. It wasn’t about whether or not Valeri could take his brother. But for crying out loud, it was his brother! This was obviously some deep-seated hatred/grudge thing. Well, it was going to end—and it would end today. The very least she could do was to take the burden of killing one's sibling from her mate.     

“So my brother has a woman fighting his battles. How sad.”

            It was beyond weird to hear a voice come out of the body of a feline. Megan had never spoken in tiger form, but she had never been around anyone when she shifted either. Could she speak too?

“What is sad is that you are about to die at this woman’s hands.” Cool! She could do it, too. She'd have to remember that. 

The crazy tiger must’ve thought she was distracted enough to let her guard slip, because he lunged in the direction of Valeri. So not going to happen. No way this tiger was in top form—no matter how huge he was, he was simply no match for her. Before he could get airborne, Megan was there, her paw swiping out to knock him back down into the snow. For shits and giggles she sliced at his underbelly then leapt back, watching the ruby red blood swell against his white coat of fur and dip into puddles into the snow.

Males always tended to underestimate females. Silly, silly males. Although the male was hurt, he still circled her looking for an opening.

“I will slice you up just like I did to Lilya.” The other tiger was foaming at the mouth, his eyes wild. He was insane, long past the point to be helped. There was no choice but to put him down. “And I will leave your
mate
,” he actually spit out the word, saliva projecting from his mouth, “wounded and suffering. Slowly, over time, the loss will drive him insane. Just as his precious son Luka is, probably. I hear on the wind the whelp has been tracking me. Probably half out his mind by now.”

Keeping her mate at her back was hard. The male was bound and determined to protect her. She had to make sure he didn't get a clear shot to leap into the fight while keeping the crazy tiger in front of her.  And neither male knew what she was doing.

“Luka is safe and sound with his mate,” Megan threw in the tiger’s face, watching his enraged reaction to her words with satisfaction.

The tormented cry of the insane creature in front of her was eerie. Would’ve been scary if she was the easily frightened type. Too bad for him she wasn’t.

“Megan, get out of the way,” Valeri growled, his anger beating at her in red hot waves.

Not a fucking chance.

“Come on, tiger,” she taunted. “Is that all you got?”

The tiger sprang, just as she thought he would. Megan crouched before she too sprang, but she didn’t leap. Instead she moved low, turning just as the tiger cleared her head, and grabbed him by the tail before he could reach Valeri, who had been waiting. With strength beyond any she had used before, she swung him into a tamarack tree, snapping the tree in two. Not giving the tiger a chance to regain his balance, Megan leapt onto his back, her claws sinking into his shoulder and ripping the muscle.

Just as quickly as she jumped on him, she bounced back to the ground, rolling to face him. His fur was now coated in blood and snow, his eyes panicked as he realized the end was near.

“I don’t know what you’ve done, but I have heard enough to know you dared to hurt my baby girl. For that alone I’m going to kill you. For the harm you have caused my mate and his son, I’m going to kill you. I hurt you first for daring to threaten me.” This snarling while wearing tiger fur was starting to feel nice. She would have to try it again.

“You can’t defeat me!” The tiger was dazed, unable to hold himself up on his forelegs. And still the male really thought he had a chance. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad.

“Okay, I can’t defeat you.” Just to insult him, just so he would know that it was a woman who put an end to his miserable days, Megan shifted. Standing over him completely unconcerned, gloriously nude, she shot him a rueful smile. A single claw was all she needed to lift up his chin for the perfect shot. “But you’re still dead.”

This time he wouldn’t be getting up; there was no recovering. Megan allowed all her claws to descend in his flesh and muscle just as she jerked his head up, tearing out his throat completely before snapping the heavy tiger head from the few muscles that remained with her other hand.