Mounted By Her Weretiger Mate (Steamy Weretiger Paranormal Romance) (2 page)

Within the next hour, we were off toward what Jake informed us was an unused game trail that would lead us toward the center of Sasha’s proposed wildlife reserve. From there, Sasha would begin recording what species she could find and I would take pictures of the wildlife and the possible effects human development was having in the area. It didn’t seem exciting at first, but the more I thought about the good I would be doing with these pictures, the more excited I became.

But I couldn’t deny that I found our guide infinitely more interesting. The air of mystery and loneliness surrounding him made something within me yearn to comfort him, to soothe whatever ailed him. I needed to know his story.

“You don’t have to be by yourself, you know,” I said, sitting down beside Jake after we’d stopped to camp for the night. “It’s almost like you don’t like us.”

“I don’t
not
like you,” he said, tearing off a piece of beef jerky and starting to chew. “I just don’t get along well with other people. I don’t really get along with myself very well, either.”

“Well, let’s change that. I’m pretty easy to get along with. That’s what I’ve been told, anyway,” I said, holding out a hand. “So, let’s start over with a little less rudeness—I’m Lana.”

“Jake,” he said begrudgingly after a long moment of silence. “Nice to meet you, Lana.”

“You too,” I said, a grin spreading across my lips. “Not so hard, right? We’ll make a real person out of you yet.”

Jake scoffed, shaking his head before standing up. His movement was so sudden that I hardly registered it happening until he was a few feet away from me. How was he so fast?

“Great talk,” he said snidely. “Really feel improved as a person now. Thanks.”

“Dick,” I hissed, watching him move away through the trees in the dimming light of the evening.
Maybe I was wrong about him. Maybe he is that big of a jerk.

I tried not to think about Jake as I finished my meal and got ready for bed, which was fairly easy, because I hadn’t seen hide nor hair of him since we’d spoken ever so briefly.

As I prepared to get into my tent for the night, I felt the urge to answer the call of nature somewhere away from camp. I was sure we’d decided where something like that would happen, but I’d been far too busy ogling our guide’s corded arms to pay attention. As such, I simply wandered a few yards away from camp, hoping to find a spot suitable to my need for privacy.

I never found any privacy, but something else certainly found me.

I’d gone far enough away from camp that I was almost positive no one would disturb me when from the darkness between the slim trunks of the trees came a low, rumbling growl that shook me to my very core.

All at once, a primal fear awoke within me, my mind responding to a long-ingrained instinct passed down from our primordial ancestors. I wanted to run as fast as I possibly could in the opposite direction of the horrible growling, knowing that my only hope for survival lay in the strength of my legs.

But what if it caught me? What if it leapt at me as I tried to flee and tore me to shreds? I was frozen, locked in place by the paralytic effects of my own indecision and panic.

I turned, a morbid curiosity filling me, demanding to see the face of the monster that would rip me limb from limb in the dark shadows beneath the trees.

Between the leafy foliage of the underbrush, there sat two shining, reflective eyes, catching what little moonlight filtered through the canopy and magnifying it into a horrifying omen of my own demise. I knew instantly what had chosen me as its prey—a tiger.

A man-eater.

I couldn’t move, its eyes locking me in a terrified trance from which I couldn’t escape. My lip quivered and I felt tears welling up at the corners of my eyes. I didn’t know what to do. All I could think about was my impending and horrific death.

Until I heard yet another growl as something stalked to my side.

“When I move, get back to the camp, Lana,” came Jake’s voice beside me. I felt a rush of relief as I turned my eyes quickly toward him, only to find something utterly changed about him.

Before Jake had been tall, but now his silhouette seemed massive and hulking in the moonlight, his eyes burning and glowing in the darkness around the two of us. My heart skipped a beat and I knew something wasn’t right.

“O-okay,” I whispered, and as I stared at the tiger before me I could feel a blistering heat rolling off of Jake, my arms tingling with gooseflesh as I heard him growl so much like the predator hidden in the shadows.

“Now!” he roared, a dark orange blur moving past me at impossible speeds. I saw him only for a moment before he dove into the darkness, a pained yowl emanating from the shadowy foliage.

In that moment, I didn’t see the Jake I had known back at the camp. Instead, what had leapt farther than any human into the shadows to save me had been massive, powerful, and almost monstrous.

I ran as fast as I could, hoping that in my panicked state I could find my way back to the camp without running into either of the monsters terrorizing the jungle. To my relief my sense of direction didn’t fail me, and I collapsed onto my sleeping bag moments later in a crying heap. I could only hope that Jake made it back as safely as I did.

The rest of the camp awoke to the sounds of the beasts fighting deep into the jungle, but as the moments passed, the sounds faded. I did my best to hide my fear from the others, telling them that I’d awoken from a nightmare when the sounds of fighting began.

Some of our porters told us that two tigers were fighting out in the jungle over territory, and I only wished they knew how right they were—and how wrong at the same time.

It was hours before Jake returned, well after the rest of the camp had gone back to bed with a few people on watch for the fighting cats out in the jungle. Somehow Jake slipped past them all, and before I knew it, he’d snuck up behind me.

“Lana,” he whispered only inches from my ear, “I need to talk to you. Now.”

I jumped, and somehow managed not to scream my head off as I whipped around to face him. I wanted to smack him, to call for the people on watch, or kiss him for saving my life. I wasn’t sure which one I wanted to do more.

“What are you?” I asked, wrapping myself in my arms in a feeble defensive measure. I knew nothing would stop a monster like him if he wanted to kill me.

“Not here. Follow me,” he whispered, offering his hand.

I wasn’t sure why, but I slid my considerably smaller hand into his, letting Jake lead me farther from camp where no one could hear us talk.

“I’m not a normal person,” he began, drawing a scathing glance from me before he continued. “You probably figured that out, but I need to explain.”

“You’re some kind of monster,” I said, putting my back against a tree to keep my legs from shaking.

“I’m not a monster,” he growled, making me shrink back in fear.

“Then what are you?”

“Cursed,” he said, rubbing his hand over his face in frustration. “I was cursed for what I did a long time ago.”

“What did you do?” I asked, my brow furrowing. Now I was curious, despite how ridiculous this all sounded. Who believed in curses?

The same people who just watched their guide turn into a giant tiger monster,
I thought in reply.

“I used to be a hunter,” he said, looking up into the waning moonlight that drifted through the canopy. “A poacher.”

“You were a criminal.”

“That’s another word for it, yeah,” he said, sighing before turning toward me, a look of sadness I’d never expected to see covering his face. “I was hunting a tiger out in the jungle—alive. I had a client who wanted a pet, and I wanted a payout. So I tracked one, a huge tiger the likes of which I’d never seen out by a village, but when I finally had it cornered, all I found standing there was a man from the village I’d seen a hundred times.

“He told me that for what I was about to do, I’d be cursed for the rest of my life to become the animal I had been hunting. And ever since then, I’ve lived with a monster inside of me.”

“You kind of deserved it,” I said after a moment of silence, watching as Jake sat down on the trunk of a downed tree. “You were going to sell an endangered animal to some rich asshole as a pet.”

“Yeah,” he said, staring off into the trees. “I’m not disputing that. All I want to do now is live my life in peace, where I can leave all of that behind me—even if the curse haunts me forever.”

I sat down beside him on the tree trunk, feeling more pity than fear as he sat there so forlornly. I wanted to do something, those feelings of wanting to help him heal the wound he suffered for his own mistakes returning in full swing.

“You could always start over,” I said, looking up into that rugged face as he finally turned to me. “You could go back to the states and start a new life there.”

“A new life as a monster in a country full of people and nowhere to hide?” He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s an option.”

“I can help you,” I said, biting my lip as something more than pity rose up inside of me. “You don’t have to be alone, Jake.”

“You really think I have a chance?”

“We won’t know until you try,” I said, laying my hand on his arm gently.

A shock passed between the two of us as I touched his bare skin, the sensation running down my arm and all the way between my legs. I’d never felt anything like it in my life before than moment, a hunger inside of me awakening with the force of a freight train.

I heard Jake take in a deep breath through his nose, his eyes dilating as he shivered beneath my touch.

“Your scent,” he whispered, his mouth open as his breathing deepened. “I can smell your lust.”

“My—” I began, gasping as he moved so quickly against my body. “Jake!”

“It wants you,” he purred in my ear, his own strong scent filling my senses and overwhelming in one fell swoop. “Lana, it’s so strong…”

My gasp turned into a moan, his strong body pressing against mine as he laid me down on the jungle floor. To say I didn’t want him, didn’t lust for him, would have been the greatest lie I’d ever told—and in truth, I knew it was more than a simple matter of want. I
needed
him.

“Jake…” I gasped as I felt his lips pressing against my neck, his skin burning hot against mine as the full weight of his body was grinding against me. I was soaked, and I knew that deep down I’d craved this moment since I first laid eyes on him.

“Yes,” I whimpered, my eyes closing as I rejoiced in the sensation of his skin against my own. “Please, Jake.”

I felt him tearing my clothes, ripping them like wet paper with his unnatural strength. The warm jungle air clung to my skin as I watched him tear apart the fly of my jeans. He was so strong. I was almost scared of what that kind of strength might do to me, but the way he tore my clothes to get at my naked body only served to slicken my wanting sex even more.

I moaned, running my fingers through his hair as he pulled my pants off and ripped open my panties. I was soaked, and I fumbled to undo the clasp of my bra while Jake knelt down between my legs, his tongue sliding over the wet mire of my pussy.

I cried out as I felt his tongue caressing my clit. It felt so good to be touched there after so long.

“Holy fuck,” I whimpered, laying my hand on the back of his head to encourage him to get a much better taste of my slick lust. “That’s it. Oh, God!”

I closed my eyes and let out a muffled moan into the jungle night, drowned out by the multitude of animal calls permeating the air. Every pass of his tongue over my needy clit sent me into a spiral of ever growing ecstasy. My chest heaved as I felt myself beginning to sweat from more than just the humidity, my stomach muscles contracting with every flick of Jake’s tongue.