The Seed of the White Tiger (7 page)

She didn’t want to be the reason this peace didn’t work, but knew that she still had a certain amount of freedom. “Fine, but you get this done as soon as possible.” Dom threatened. “I don’t want people hanging out on my property forever.” The thought of having people on her property just hanging around disturbed her.

“That’s fine. I’ll go back in there and arrange it.” Gregor bent in to kiss her check, but she froze so he pulled away. Public displays of affection made her a little nervous and she didn’t know how to respond to him at all. He backed away and left the room, leaving Dom to her thoughts.

She could hear him walk back into the room. The speaker started talking about arrangements that were to be made. They set up a schedule of guards; each tribe of shifters had a day to guard then a day off. They could send whomever they thought could do the job the best. Before they finished the conversation Gregor spoke again. He addressed the leader of the coyotes. “Be careful. They’ve threatened everyone else, and they might come after you next.”

“I know. I know. I’ll keep a look out. My mate died not long ago and we had no children, so they

have to figure out some other way to threaten me.” The coyote explained.

The wolf’s voice was thoughtful. “You might have an advantage with them.”

There was a moment of silence before Gregor spoke. “We still need to talk about the land.” His voice was firm, very obvious that he still wanted to get to the root of the matter.

“I know.” The wolf stated, his voice was terse, threatening to become unyielding. “For now, they can stay on the land.”

“Do they have anything that they could offer you, to make you more likely to give them the land?” He asked the wolf.

“I don’t know of anything that they could offer us. They’re scavengers that mostly work in junk yards and gather trash to sell online.

“
We’re great appraisers and can find a buyer for anything.” The coyote tried to defend himself. It was obvious that the wolves still thought that coyotes weren’t worth anything. Dom shook her head as she listened to the conversation. Both parties starting going round and round about the entire situation and even though there was a consensus on some parts, other parts were having trouble.

Chapter7

Dom was piling another plate of food when Gregor walked into the room, looking dire. “It’s done for today. I’m afraid I can’t find anything that the coyotes have to offer.” He paused and looked at her plate. The sight that he saw shocked him a little. He gawked for a long moment before he got the nerve up to ask her about the food that was on her plate. “Is that sausage?” He asked. “I thought you were a vegetarian.”

“I just wanted some meat. It’s ok for vegetarians to eat meat occasionally, as long as we don’t go crazy about it.” Dom defended her meal choice. Her cravings for meat had been getting worse and worse as time went on. She was sure it was the shifter that was growing inside of her. The child was making her crave meat.

“If you’re still hungry, we can wait.” Gregor grabbed another plate and started to fill it. “I’m a little hungry myself.”

“From the looks of the way you’re filling that plate, I would say that you’re more than a little hungry.” Dom teased him.

Gregor laughed. “That might be true, but I got a lot of exercise last night had hadn’t eaten a whole lot since I got here.”

“That’s not my fault.”

Gregor snickered once again. “Whenever you’re ready to go, let me know.” He looked at her as she piled her plate just as high as his was. It was obvious that the woman was hungry as well, and from the amount of sausage on the plate it looked almost identical to his.

They finished eating in silence; furtive glances were being shot at each other over the table. If the rest of the people in the room took notice, they were smart enough not to say anything in front of the shifter and the witch.

Dom picked up her bag and followed him out of the room. “What about the items that they find. Have they found anything that the wolves might want?”

“Not that I know of.” They walked into the cubicle room, still talking and discussing the matter.

“They might be able to buy the land from them, but I don’t know where they would get the money.”

“How much do they need again?”

“About one hundred and fifteen thousand dollars for eight acres with electricity hookups.” Gregor explained, still concerned about the entire situation. “I think that the coyotes might be able to come up with that kind of money.

“Will they let them stay in the meantime? Maybe they could make payments.” Dom suggested, hoping to solve the situation a little better.

“I’ll suggest that next time. Is the investigation at your house done yet?” Gregor asked. He was nervous about bringing her home. He liked the fact that she was safe in this building. He honestly didn’t want her to leave but he didn’t think that it would work. Nothing he did would convince her of what he wanted. He made up his mind anyway, he was going to try to convince her to go someplace safer.

“I gave them my key earlier, we can check to see if their finished.” Dom walked over to one of the investigators and asked if they were done checking for clues, when she got an informative answer she nodded to Gregor.

Before they left, Gregor stopped the young woman. “Are you sure you don’t want to go someplace safe?”

Dom stopped and looked at him like he had just suggested that she had two heads. “Aren’t we going to have guards?”

“Yeah, but I’m still not sure it’s the safest idea.” Gregor touched her and was encouraged when she didn’t pull away from him.

“I’ll be fine.” Dom insisted. “I’m not going to run away because of this. I’m not that type of girl.”

“I don’t think that it’s a good idea. Vampires aren’t the nicest people if they’re mad at you.”

“That’s putting it nicely. I know they’ll hurt me, but if I give in and run away, they’ll win.” Dom was insistent. She wasn’t going to run away from her home because of this.

Gregor’s voice held a deep concern, there was tension in it, a frustrated knowledge that he wasn’t going to win and she was just too strong. “I would hate to see your stubbornness get you killed.”

“My stubbornness isn’t going to get my killed. My house is safe, they couldn’t get inside and they had to do all of their damage outside of the house.” Dom’s stance grew firm, strong. She wasn’t going to give in.

“Maybe I want you to be safe.” Gregor pointed out.

The thought had crossed her mind, but she didn’t think that he would actually admit it. She took a moment to collect her thoughts. “It’s my life and I’m not going to let them run it for me. I make the decisions in my life, the rest of you don’t. It’s my life, and other people don’t get to make my decisions for me.”

Gregor wanted to shake her. “You are the most frustrating woman I’ve ever known.” Gregor announced to her. “You’re absolutely beautiful, but you are so damn stubborn.”

Dom stopped again; she needed a moment to find a retort to his sudden outburst. She looked him in the eyes. She saw nothing within them except for the deep concern he felt for her. She saw the pain her decision was causing him, but didn’t want to give up the only home she had ever known, even if it was just for a few days. For a moment, she thought about the baby, subconsciously touching her abdomen, and wondered if it would be better for the child if she didn’t put herself at risk like that.

A part of her knew that he was trying to do the typical shifter thing, protecting a mate, or a potential mate, but that part didn’t want to be subordinate to him, whether or not she was having his child. It took a moment for all of these thoughts to run through her head, before she was ready to respond. Gregor waited patiently for her to speak. “I’m not leaving.” Dom said once again. “I’m not leaving my home. That is my home and I have lived there my entire life. I’m not leaving because some thugs want to stop peace talks.”

Gregor threw his hands up in the air. “I give up. We’ll go back to your house, but I’m staying with you. You’re not going to be going anywhere by yourself.” It was very obvious that he wasn’t going to give in easily, either. Under the guise of laughter, his demeanor was hard as steel. He was tough and in that moment, he was taking advantage of his powerful nature.

Dom thought about it for a moment, before she could bring herself to agree with him. “I can deal with that.” She wasn’t exactly happy about it, but she would have to deal with it.

Gregor put his hand out, ready to shake. “That will work. It’s as good as I’m going to get, I guess. Shake on it?” He asked Dominique, hoping that she wasn’t going to get stubborn about this.

Dom shook his hand. If she was to tell the truth she was scared of the entire situation, but she wasn’t ready to give up all of her freedom over some vampire threatening her life. They didn’t even know how serious it was. For all they know it could just be one vampire who had a bug crawl up his butt and die. “I’m not going to give up my life.” Dom asserted herself once again.

“I know, I know, but I don’t have to like it.” Gregor told her as they headed out of the office, on their way to her house. Dom noticed that it was really dark outside, before she reminded herself that it was a full solar eclipse that was scheduled to happen today.

The pair climbed into the car in silence. Dom carefully drove out of the parking garage. As she turned the corner there was a sudden jolt on the side of the car. Panicked, she looked over to the passenger side of the car as she screamed. “My baby!” and clutched her hands over her stomach. Immediately after she let the words out of her mouth, she immediately regretted what she had said. She hoped for a moment while trying to recover from the wreck that was happening, that he wasn’t going to be able to identify the words she said during the fight.

Gregor reached over to her in the chaos to steady her as the car started to skid across the road. The car was reeling out of control. Dom continued to scream as the car felt like it was going to flip over. Half of the axle had been ripped off when the tire had been removed forcibly from the older model car. There was a horrible grinding sound as one of the axles struck the asphalt of the street and the car bounced a couple of times, still moving slightly forward in a rough jerking motion. She screamed again, louder as the car finally halted. “Stay in the car. I might be able to talk some sense into him.” The shifter told the woman carrying his child.

“OK” Dom responded nervously as Gregor threw the door open and burst out into the shadowed light. The man outside of the car was holding the wheel of her car as he smiled at them. In a flash the creature that had ripped the tire off of the car had thrown it at the shifter.

Gregor started to change forms, He dodged the tire before the realized the mistake. The tire flew into the car and struck Dominique in the side. She fell unconscious after she screamed once again. The sound startled Gregor. When he saw the woman he had grown to love over this short time he started to shout, cold blinding rage, burned inside him as he charged the vampire that had pulled the tire off of the car.

The vampire side-stepped the charge, bringing his elbow down into the shifter’s back. The cracking sound from Gregor’s ribs was almost deafening, but it was drowned out by his roar. His roar flew into the sky and even the vampire trembled. He reached up and clawed the vampire, digging his talons into the soft flesh. The flesh ripped in his hands, and the blood that he had taken from another not long ago streamed down onto the ground. The blood poured around the shifter’s feet and the smell of blood just encouraged his rage. He was a beast and as a beast, the blood brought out his predator nature, making it stronger, making him stronger.

The vampire struck back, frustrated and afraid of the powerful creature in front of him. The woman had been supposed to be alone and he hadn’t realized that it was a shifter with her as he struck before the car had truly rounded the corner. His fist connected with Gregor’s ribs and more cracking sounds penetrated the air. Gregor backhanded the vampire as his own bones started to snap back into place. The vampire’s head twisted almost all of the way around. The creature grunted as he moved to snap his neck back into place.

Gregor took advantage of the situation, striking him again, this time across the chest, dragging his sharp claws through the bloodsucker’s flesh once again, over the same spot where earlier wounds that he had inflicted earlier had already healed. This time the rake sliced through the ribs and grazed the creature’s heart. There wasn’t much blood left to fall to the ground, so the wound seemed dry and full of crackling skin. The truth was that he wasn’t going hurt him like this, he had to stab through the heart and leave it there when the sun struck him, but the roars and growls continued to form in the white tiger’s throat, hideous noises full of pain and vengeance. He wasn’t thinking about how to kill him, he was just flailing and raging.

The vampire paused for a moment as the strike grazed his heart, but since the shifter did not keep his claws in the vampire’s heart he was soon moving again, kicking at the shifter’s knee. His blow was filled with fear and connected soundly with the shifter. The crack was heard from blocks away as Gregor began to fall.

With a look to the sky, the vampire noticed that the solar eclipse was about to end and he was going to lose all of his strength. He took the moment of immobility in his victim to run up the side of a building and out of sight onto a roof. The shifter was stranded on the sidewalk watching the vampire escape.

Gregor put his knee back into place and limped over to the car, the rage fading from his eyes. He saw Dominique’s face glimmer in the shadows cast by the eclipse and the roof of the tiny car she drove. He removed the tire from her body. He looked at the bruises that were forming on her body and he grew sad, shifting back into his human form, naked in the street. He pulled the seat belt off of her and pulled her gently out of the car, holding her in his arms. Her arms were still clutching her midsection.

Gregor held her close, waiting for help to arrive. A single tear fell down his cheek. He was in a deep sense of mourning, his only comfort was the breath that was haggard and coming from her body. “Keep breathing, just keep breathing.” He told her, his arms gentle and strong wrapped around her.