“You are my mate,” Tiger said to Carly. “Even if you run from me, if I never see you again, you will always be the mate of my heart.”
Carly’s face softened. She was looking at him as she had on the highway, one hand on her hip, her gaze roving him. Her eyes, so beautiful with their gray on green, met his. “You’re flattering, I’ll give you that.”
She came to him, her scent filling him, calming him. Tiger forgot about Liam trying to challenge him, Dylan ready to kill, even Connor waiting anxiously in the doorway. Carly was Tiger’s world.
He smoothed her hair and pressed a light kiss to her lips. Kissing was a fine thing.
“I really have to go,” Carly said. “Stay here and talk to Liam about whatever he needs to say to you, or he might burst a blood vessel. But I promise, I’ll come back, and we’ll have that long talk.”
Tiger touched her face. He didn’t want to let her out of his sight, not without protection. But he didn’t want the Morrissey brothers, or their dad, anywhere near her. “If I stay, Spike goes with you.” He gave Liam a hard look. “I trust him.”
Liam moved his hands out to his sides, though the grim lines didn’t leave his face. “At least you’re giving me that. Stay put, Tiger—please. There are some things you need to know.”
* * *
Tiger made sure Carly was safely away, driven by Spike in Dylan’s truck, with Connor on her other side. Tiger didn’t fully believe the two of them could keep her safe, but he also knew that the strike yesterday had been against him, not Carly. The man had shot at Carly so Tiger would protect her.
He thought of the way the man had stood next to Tiger after he’d fired the first shots, watching. The man had been waiting for something. Testing him. And he hadn’t killed Tiger, had left him and all the others alive.
“There’s no easy way to put this,” Liam said when they walked back into the house. Dylan followed them to the kitchen—Tiger knew the man would stay until satisfied that Tiger was no longer a threat. “The other Shifter leaders want me to put a Collar on you. A real one.”
Tiger touched the silver and black chain with the Celtic knot at his throat that Sean and Liam had manufactured. Unlike real Collars, this one wasn’t laced with Fae magic and microchips. Who the Fae was that had turned out the new Collars, happy to help the humans subjugate Shifters, Tiger had to wonder. And why someone like Dylan hadn’t killed him, Tiger wondered as well.
“I won’t wear the Collar.”
“You don’t have a choice,” Liam said. “They’re scared of you. They want you to take a Collar or else for us to kill you.”
“You can’t kill me.” Tiger knew that. None of them could.“I don’t want to,” Liam said. “I want to help you. But you have to cooperate.”
“I can’t take a Collar,” Tiger repeated. “I can’t do what I’m made to do if I have a Collar.”
Liam had been reaching for the refrigerator, probably to take the edge off their tension with Guinness, but he stopped. “Now that’s interesting. What were you made to do?”
“I don’t know. But I know the Collar will prevent me.”
“I see.” Liam opened the refrigerator and reached inside, coming out with, yes, a dark brown bottle with Guinness Stout on the label. “What do you think it might be?”
“They never told me. But the way I recovered from the shooting must be a part of it. The second time faster than the first. I’m changing.” He let out a breath. “It’s tiring. I’ve never felt this tired before.”
Liam lowered the beer, not drinking. “You also had a lot of sex, my friend. Hours of it. Can’t blame you—she’s a lovely lady. As far as I know, that’s the first sex you’ve had since you arrived. Sure you’re not just exhausted from pleasure? It can wipe you out—in a different way from fighting. And much more fun.”
“Being with Carly didn’t tire me.” Tiger warmed, remembering rolling her onto her back, still inside her, with her pliant to take him. He’d loved her slowly, kissing her while she kissed him. He’d never wanted to stop, never wanted to leave the bed. Real life had been far away, unimportant. “The healing though. That burned.”
“I’m sure.” Liam shook his head. “I wish we had a Shifter healer here to look at you. Andrea’s good, but her talent is natural, not learned. She hasn’t made a study of Shifters.”
“But we know someone who might tell us what’s going on inside him,” Dylan said. “If it’s magical.”
Liam flicked his gaze to his father, then his eyes took on a faraway look as he considered. “True. If he’ll talk to us. We’ll need Sean. And Andrea.”
“Good thing they stayed home,” Dylan said in his dry voice.
“Aye,” Liam said. “Tiger, there’s someone I want you to meet.”
* * *
Sean and Andrea met them on the strip of green behind the houses, in the clump of trees that Tiger avoided for some reason. He’d never thought about why he didn’t like to go there, but something in him made him steer around it whenever he walked down the long common ground.
Sean had brought his sword. Tiger eyed it in its sheath on Sean’s back. A few months ago, he’d watched Sean drive the blade of the sword into the body of an elderly Shifter, the man sighing in relief as his last breath went out of him. His body had crumbled to dust, and the Shifters who’d gathered for the parting ceremony had said prayers, both grieving and thanking Sean for freeing the man’s soul.