Sassy Shifter Brides: Complete Series - BBW Paranormal Shapeshifter Mail-Order Romance (22 page)

“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.

Slate stilled, listening intently. Nothing struck him as off in the nighttime forest. An owl in the distance, the skittering of insects and a slight rustle in the underbrush, all normal sounds. His lips thinned, and he crossed his arms over his chest. Everything seemed fine but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something wrong. He could blame it on his hormones playing tricks on him, the haze of needing to mate clouding his judgment, but he doubted it was just that. No, something was amiss. Slate glanced over his shoulder at the closed door of the cabin. She would be sound asleep for hours. He leapt from the porch, transforming into a powerful tiger mid-leap.

His already tall and muscular body elongated even more before bursting with muscle and becoming covered with a thick coat of reddish orange and black. His determined jaw and curved lips turned into the fearsome maw of a Siberian tiger, growing huge teeth powerful enough to crush a skull. When he touched the ground, it was soundless, the seven hundred pound predator landing as softly as a housecat on paws the size of dinner plates. His whiskers twitched as the animal was allowed full reign, the human retreating into the parts where the beast usually resided. Instead of human sensibilities, his main reliance now was on his senses and his instincts. His golden eyes seemed to almost glow in the darkness as he disappeared into the forest with quick bounds, determined to check out the areas he could without straying too far from Teresa. Nothing was going to hurt her. He wouldn’t allow it.

***

Time spent with Teresa seemed easy, as if it drifted by. He couldn’t stop smiling when he explored the mountains with Teresa, giving her ample time to take pictures and catalogue the areas while he scouted for entrances and exits from the mountains and valleys and looked out for anything unusual. It wasn’t that he was expecting to see much, but the unease that had gripped him when they first approached the mountains still clung to him tightly. Each night he would patrol around the cabin, getting more and more restless and anxious, and every day he would make certain that Teresa didn’t stray too far from him. It was physically painful being away from her. His tiger knew exactly what that meant, but his human side could not yet accept the truth that seemed so evident to the beast. Could it be that the woman he was meant to bond with was not a weretigress at all, but a human?

It was a bright, sunshiny day, and Slate and Teresa had just sat down to enjoy a meal by a small bubbling stream. Teresa’s hair was tucked back into a loose bun, just a few strands framing her gorgeous face. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her.

“So, tell me something I don’t know yet,” Slate said, leaning back on his elbows on the blanket they’d brought to sit on. They had prepared a modest spread of sandwiches, fruit and juice, but the simplicity of it all had its charm. Slate had completely lost his appetite for anything other than the delicious woman in front of him from the first moment he laid eyes on her.

“Like what?” Teresa asked, cocking a brow at him in a teasing way. Just as Slate was pondering how best to define his question, looking a bit dopey and thoughtful, Teresa snapped a picture. She burst out in giggles when she looked at the picture, and a familiar warmth boiled at the pit of his stomach at the sound of her lovely voice. God, what he wouldn’t do to cover her mouth with his and drink in those giggles, kissing her senseless.

“Like what made you want to become a photographer. And a teacher,” he said, smiling slightly. She’d been so shy when they first met, but each day saw her becoming more open and comfortable around him. It didn’t matter much, he adored her either way, but it was nice seeing her laugh. She turned the camera around, and the face that looked back at Slate was not one of a proud, powerful tiger Alpha, but of a somewhat geeky, love struck cat basking in the sunlight.

“I got interested in photography so I could capture moments like that. Priceless,” she said, earning a playful scoff from Slate.

“You like getting compromising pictures of defenseless shifters, huh?” he teased.

“I’d hardly call
you
defenseless,” she shot back.

“Yeah? What would you call me then?” Slate asked. The purr slipped into his words before he could rein it in, and he immediately regretted it. Hell, it was hard to keep from flirting when she was around, and he was always so damn obvious about it. Slate had to suppress a groan, seeing the red flush that tinted her tan skin, making it glow a little. What her skin would feel like under his fingertips…

“Um. Not defenseless? I don’t know,” she sputtered, looking adorably flustered. It did nothing to soothe his need to kiss away that embarrassment of hers. “Anyway. I became a teacher because I’ve always loved kids. Being from a big family, I always wanted a house full of children, running around and laughing. I figured that until I found the man I wanted to settle down with, the best thing I could do was to give back a little. Teaching comes naturally to me. I adore seeing kids’ faces light up when they finally figure out something that had been giving them trouble. It’s the best feeling in the world, being able to shape the world to be a little better, one child at a time. And it’s the worst feeling in the world when you know you could have helped but didn’t have the means. Breaks my heart.”

She looked relaxed talking about her job, and he liked the way her face lit up when she talked about teaching. And wanting lots of kids? A woman after his own heart. He liked children and always wanted cubs of his own, just not the way his heritage told him to have them. But, it was the only way, as far as he knew. He bit his tongue as she leant forward a little, giving him a glimpse of her ample cleavage. He would
gladly
have cubs with a woman as caring, compassionate and drop-dead gorgeous as Teresa. Slate felt his world hazing over a bit, the need creeping to the forefront of his mind. He was nearing the peak of his desire, the point of no return, and it was getting nearly impossible to control himself around Teresa. It didn’t help that he didn’t
want
to control himself around her.

Her last words had turned her expression upside down, removing the joy and replacing it with an obvious tint of sadness. His tiger responded immediately. He sat up and inched closer to her, and before he knew what he was doing, he had caressed a hand across her cheek and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. Slate sucked in a breath, his heart beating a thousand beats a second. Her skin felt exactly as heavenly as he thought it would. She looked up at him, surprise in her eyes, the dark brown depths shimmering back at him.