Roar for Her: A BBW Paranormal Weretiger Shape Shifter Romance (Sassy Shifter Brides Book 4) (3 page)

“Hello, Teresa,” he said. She put her delicate hand in his and he squeezed it carefully, afraid that he might break it out of the sheer need to never let go again. As soon as their skin touched, sparks flew from where their hands had met.  A jolt of energy kicked him in the chest, and his fake smile turned into a real one. Though she was nowhere near close enough to him yet, at least she was there.

“Hi, Slate,” she replied, grinning. A blush lit up her cheeks.

This was going to be a damn difficult two weeks
.
 

CHAPTER THREE

Teresa wiggled nervously in the seat next to Slate as the airplane took off and left Boise Airport far behind. She kept throwing glances at the devastatingly handsome man, and every time she looked at him, he seemed to be getting more and more scrumptious. Okay, so she’d known he was going to be hot, but not
that
hot! How on earth was she supposed to stay in cramped lodgings in the middle of nowhere with him for weeks on end and
not
make a fool of herself with that level of panty-melting sizzle around? Ridiculous. Teresa tried to calm herself down, telling herself that the way her heart was beating out of her chest was just because of the fact that she was on yet another airplane. She’d never liked flying all that much, but this time she didn’t actually mind – must have been the quiet, stoic-looking man beside her.

They’d barely said a word to one another, and yet, it didn’t feel like there was much need for it. He had an ease about him that just made her settle and feel safe and secure. Slate could do barrel rolls with his tiny airplane and she would hardly bat an eye. Out of habit, Teresa thumbed the strap on her heavy photography bag, which she had kept on her person the entire trip. It represented just about every dollar she had ever made that hadn’t gone into feeding or clothing herself or keeping a roof over her head, so she’d been extra careful with it all through her long travels from Mississippi to Idaho. Glancing out of the window, she took in the wide-open plains of the flatlands and then the heavy, rolling mountains that took up the Northern side. Slate was flying them straight towards the magnificent mountains, and for a second, she let herself simply bathe in the beauty of the view, though her thoughts kept going to the tiger next to her and what he would look like shirtless. The second must have lasted longer than she thought as a chuckle from Slate finally brought her out of her reverie.

She felt a blush tint her cheeks as she glanced at the man. His voice made her tingle in just the right way. Honestly, she was yet to discover something about the man that didn’t make her feel all warm and happy inside.

“Enjoying the view, Teresa?” he asked, quirking a brow at her. Oh, that voice again.

“Yeah. I’ve never really been anywhere with mountains. I mean, I went on a trip to the Grand Canyon once, but I don’t think that really counts. It’s gorgeous,” she said wistfully, swallowing her nervousness and deciding to enjoy the conversation instead.
Remember, you’re supposed to just be working here. No handsy stuff!

“Well, there will be plenty more where that came from. We’re going to be poking around Bitterroot and the areas there. I have a cabin there that I barely ever make it to, and I swear, no one’s ever taken the time to actually figure out what mountains we have there – if there are any places to land a helicopter, whether anyone lives there… Well, you get the idea. I want to know where I’m staying, you know? I bought the place off of a grizzled old man, who couldn’t tell me much more other than the fact that there’s good hunting up there, and I never bothered to check either. The National Parks Service was really keen on having some more information on the area as well, so it seems like a win-win, you know?”

Teresa nodded. He’d explained it all in the messages they’d passed back and forth, but she didn’t mind listening to it all over again. Anything to hear his sexy voice, really. Could it be that he was a little bit nervous as well? No, definitely not… Why would a drop-dead gorgeous hunk of a man like Slate get worked up over a shy substitute teacher like her? Teresa scolded herself internally, batting away the insecurities. She was a curvy woman, who didn’t fit the bill of traditional, long-legged and wispy model of beauty, but she knew that she was smoking hot in her own right. It had taken time to come to terms with her body when she was growing up, but the older she got, the more at home she felt in her big-hipped, thick and saucy body. Teresa sat up a bit straighter. If a man didn’t want her it definitely wasn’t because she wasn’t attractive enough, and hell, if he was the kind of man to judge just based on appearances, she didn’t need him in her life anyway!

Okay, you’re definitely nervous,
she concluded after her rambling internal monologue. She knew that Slate had promised her that travelling with him would be purely professional, and as such, there was no need to worry herself about whether or not he thought she was as hot as she thought he was. Still, one thing was what they said when they had never met each other, and it was another thing entirely what she felt like doing now that she’d got a good hard look at the Grecian god of a man.
Not
touching him seemed like such a wasted opportunity.

“Have you always lived here?” she asked, trying to distract herself from the desire to tell him to land on a nice grassy hill somewhere and fuck her brains out.

“Nope. Moved about a year ago. I sort of happened upon Shifter Grove through an old friend, and it seemed like the perfect place for me. I haven’t been wrong about it yet,” Slate said, smiling slightly. She liked it when he smiled. He had this bubbling, ever-present strength and darkness about him that made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up in excitement, but when he smiled, his hazel, almost golden eyes shone with a warmth that made her all fluffy and happy inside.

“How so?”

“Well. You see, weretigers aren’t exactly the most… sociable or modern shifters around. We’re solitary creatures, and our clans usually take up vast territories and are only bound together by the knowledge that our combined power is stronger than each of us individually. You make a commitment not out of love for your kind but the necessity to survive and continue the race. For me, that was never the way I wanted to live. I wanted a community. I wanted to have people or shifters around me, who I wouldn’t have to construe as possible rivals. I wanted a life that was… maybe the word is ‘normal’. Though normal for a shifter is entirely abnormal to begin with.” He chuckled again, a rumbling purr that made Teresa’s toes curl. Was there anything about the man that didn’t spell out sex in big, bold, flashing letters?

“Shifter Grove gave me the chance to come and go as I pleased but still be supported by a group. Space along with commitment that was born from friendship, not a need to survive. I like being a part of that. What about you? Mississippi gal all your life?”

He gave her a sideways look, a smirk turning up the corner of his mouth. Ungh. If he wasn’t personally responsible for her survival during the flight, she might not have been able to control herself. No man before had had that kind of immediate, raw effect on her. There was something about him that drew her like a moth to a flame, and she didn’t even care if it was going to burn.

“Yes, Mississippi all my life. My aunt and mother moved there when mom was pregnant with me. She raised me and my four brothers and two sisters all on her own after my dad left. I’m the youngest.”

“Did you ever consider leaving?” he asked.

“Every day,” she replied immediately. Teresa clamped a hand over her mouth as soon as the words spilled forth, mortified by the violent response. Was she really that ready to leave home?

“How come?”

“I don’t have any prospects there,” she admitted, frowning as she listened to herself speak the words. She’d never really considered moving out of state as her family was all there, but the older she got, the less help her family required, leaving her drifting from town to town, hoping to land a permanent job somewhere that would give her a chance to inflict positive change.

“I feel like I can’t really help anyone there. I’ve gone through just about every school that has openings for teachers in the past few years, temping all over the state. I don’t think we ever recovered from Katrina, at least not the way we should have. There’s not enough money in education, there are a lot of broken, poverty-ridden families, and it just breaks my heart knowing that there are kids out there who could have a chance at a better life, and they’re just not given the opportunity to reach their full potential. I wish I could do more, but since I never stay anywhere for too long because of the short contracts, I feel like I might be doing more harm than good. I want to be somewhere where I could make a difference, you know?”

Looking at the man, she caught him staring at her, a faint smile on his lips. The sun was beginning to tick lower on the horizon, glinting off of her dark hair and filling the cabin with golden light. “What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious under his inquisitive gaze. “Is there something wrong?”

Oh god, please don’t let there be something stuck in my teeth!

Slate shook his head, grinning wider.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I was just thinking that Shifter Grove would be perfect for you.”

“Oh,” she replied, relaxing a little. Shifter Grove, huh? If that meant that she would get to spend more time with the tasty as sin weretiger, hell, sign her right up! Teresa clamped her fingers together in her lap, trying to hide the smile that kept creeping across her expression. She liked the fact that Slate would like having her closer to him – in fact, she didn’t mind it one bit.
 

CHAPTER FOUR

They reached the cabin up near the Bitterroot range late in the night. It had been a pretty time-consuming affair, landing at Talloway, parking the airplane and switching to the helicopter stacked with supplies for their stay and making it to the cabin. By the time Slate set the bird down on the makeshift helipad he’d constructed next to the cabin, it was so late that Teresa had nodded off. She fell asleep almost immediately after they started from Talloway, and he didn’t have the heart to wake her when they reached the cabin. She must have been exhausted from the long day of travelling if she could sleep in the far from quiet helicopter. Instead, after shutting off all the systems, Slate slipped out of the pilot’s seat and gently eased her out of her safety harness and set, picking her up in his arms.

He cradled her to his chest, loving the chance to hold her so close. The soft light of the motion detector lantern had kicked into life, showing him the path to the modest wood cabin. He opened the door (he never kept it locked when he was away anyway) and slunk in, his steps soundless. It was a combination of not wishing to stir the beauty in his arms, seeing as how his heart was beating loud enough to wake up an army, and his natural gait having that catlike grace that allowed big cats to move about soundlessly. He shared that trait with Rake, and it brought them endless amusement to royally peeve the bear shifters when they snuck up on them.

Slate carried Teresa to the only bedroom and set her down on the bed. He tucked her in carefully, though his hands were reluctant to let go of her. She did something to him. Rationally, he assumed it just had to be the Bonding that made his head spin in all the wrong directions, but with his heart and soul he couldn’t help but feel that there was more there. He’d never considered the possibility that anyone other than a weretigress could make him feel that way – possessive, protective, mad with lust. And yet, here she was, the diminutive human woman with her lush curves and soulful eyes, making him reconsider all of his earlier decisions. He hovered there, watching over her for a moment too long, and finally urged himself to move and give her the rest she deserved. As much as he hated leaving her alone, he didn’t want to scare her by giving in to his tiger and watching by her bedside, eager to make sure that nothing harmed her. His
mate
. Slate’s nose crinkled, and he bared his upper teeth slightly. There it was again. That word that he wasn’t supposed to think of for a few more weeks.

Resigning himself to his fate, Slate slunk out of the bedroom and closed the door behind him. Every step he took that led him further from Teresa saw his mood becoming more sour and dark. It was like she was the balm to his frazzled soul, and a cure he had not expected to encounter. He had looked for a person to spend time with for a few weeks, ticking away the days towards his inescapable mateless future, and instead he’d found a woman who seemed to defy all reason. He knew her kind heart from the letters they’d exchanged, and that feeling was reinforced by the long, easy conversations they’d had during the flights. And her body… Well, it was all he could do to keep from ravaging her. Slate, like most shifters, loved a woman with curves. To him, it read as sexy and confident, a woman who could love a man and care for his children without losing that certain
something
, that feminine blaze that sparked in every woman but burnt with a bright flame in the best of them. 

Slate stopped on the porch, looking out across the steep valley that opened down along the mountainside. Moonlight lit the dark treetops and made the river that snaked through the gorge twinkle. It looked peaceful and serene, but something about it made Slate bristle. The closer he had got to the mountains, the more on edge he had become. When he was next to Teresa or talking to her, he didn’t notice it as much, but now alone he could recognize the sensations for what they were – something was wrong. His tiger told him as much. Slate sniffed the air, the scent of pine, fresh air and a hint of spring flowers beginning to bloom filling his nostrils. Right on the tip of it, he could still smell Teresa, her scent now on his clothes. As much as he wanted to spend time on memorizing the way she smelled, he had to focus on the much more worrying note – there was danger in the air. To him, it was palpable.