The tiger had settled so much, feeling secure in being mated, that Aleksi had even managed to go for a run with his brothers in shifted form without fear of hurting them or trying to be dominant. It had been crazy to watch a saber-tooth tiger, a phoenix and an enormous king cobra playing tag in the woods. The minute his back was fully healed, he was going for a ride on Aleksi up into the mountains. They were both looking forward to it.
Over his brother’s shoulder, he spotted one of the big oaks swaying at the tree line. Aleksi was too good for the move not to be deliberate, so Kale dropped the label then patted his pockets, swearing. “Damn, I must have lost my phone when I was over by the trees. Can you do me a favor, Caleb, and go see if you can find it please? I want to unpack this before Aleksi gets back.”
His brother gave him a weird look as if to say Kale should get it his damn self, but Kale shrugged and did the pouty face that Caleb always teased him about, since it was usually the pose unimaginative directors wanted to lead with. It was guaranteed to get a laugh. Sure enough, Caleb snorted, turned, then jogged toward the trees, laughing. Since they’d come back from New York, Caleb had been bugging Aleksi for days to let him see Aleksi’s saber-tooth tiger. Kale just hoped Caleb knew what he was asking for. Either way, they were about to find out.
Scott shot him an inquisitive look and narrowed his eyes at the tree line. Kale knew the man had spotted something when he smiled widely and took out his cell phone, pointing the camera toward Caleb, who was probably going to kill him.
They didn’t have to wait long for the show. As soon as Caleb stood a few feet from the trees, Kale heard Aleksi roar and his mate burst from the woods, soaring over the top of Caleb’s head with ease. Caleb screamed and stumbled before running back toward the house. Suddenly his brother realized Aleksi stood between him and the promised safety.
“Kale!”
Kale had to take pity on his brother and quickly walked over to where Caleb was now crab-walking backward away from Aleksi, who sat watching them intently and making chuffing noises. Seeing a saber-tooth tiger laughing was the oddest thing he’d ever witnessed but it was also sort of endearing.
“Caleb, this is Aleksi’s tiger.”
Kale approached his mate slowly and reached out to hold one of his mate’s giant teeth. The tooth was so thick he couldn’t wrap his hand around it. Kale was glad he was never going to be on the bad end of those teeth. Aleksi dipped his big head for him to get a good angle to give him scritches.
“I hate you—both of you,” Caleb swore, shakily getting to his feet and storming back to the house. “If you think I’m carrying anything else up here for you, you’re delusional. That’s the last favor I do you for a while.”
Kale knew Caleb was just blowing off steam and later his brother would be back to bothering Aleksi to see the tiger again. That massive head shrank and a few seconds later, Aleksi stood in from of him, naked and aroused from the adrenaline rush of shifting quickly.
Kale shrugged out of his jacket, wadded it up and threw it at Aleksi. “Cover yourself up.”
“Kale—”
Kale raised his eyebrows at Aleksi and unbuttoned the first button of his shirt. “You either cover up or I’ll get naked too.”
Aleksi grabbed the shirt and held it over his growing erection with a sigh. “I hate it when we have guests.”
Sulky wasn’t exactly the mood Kale was going for here. If he had his way, Aleksi would be on edge until Scott and Caleb left then Aleksi would be so wound up by that time the shifter would just rip Kale’s clothes off and take him up against the wall, maybe even outside.
“I know, but think about how great it will be when they leave and we can test out what’s in the crate.” He traced his fingertips over Aleksi’s chest then dipped them low on Aleksi’s belly before turning to walk back to the house.
That immediately piqued Aleksi’s interest, as Kale knew it would. Aleksi walked faster and Kale almost had to run to match his strides. When they came to the crate, Kale waved a hand at it. “Be my guest.”
He laughed as Aleksi practically attacked the crate, sending bits of wood and splinters flying everywhere, which was going to be a bitch to clean up later. “It’s the chair—the one from the hotel in Milan.”
Kale nodded. “The chair we mated in. I called the manager and they agreed to ship it here if we promised to never go back there.” Really, the woman he spoke to had been less than pleasant but Kale couldn’t blame her after they had almost destroyed the hotel and terrified many of the guests with all the police tramping in and out—not to mention the obsessed killer roaming the halls.
Aleksi’s face softened and his piercing eyes pinned Kale again.
Since they’d finally gotten the all-clear from the hospital but on strict orders not to overdo it, Kale had discovered that the flashes of tiger in his lover were more than simply little losses of control. When he gazed into Aleksi’s eyes and the tiger looked back at him, Kale was just as in love with the animal as with the man, though obviously he expressed his feelings differently.
Even though Kale had gone out of his way to make sure the shifter knew that Kale didn’t regret agreeing to the bond, he also knew Aleksi was still wary. He’d wanted to do something that showed Aleksi that no matter what had happened, they were in it together.
The shifter stalked up to him, face unreadable.
“You really got the chair?” The growled tone sounded aggressive.
Out of the corner of his eye, Kale caught his brother stepping forward—maybe to intervene—but Kale quickly put his hand out and made a gesture to tell Caleb that he was okay.
“You said I could get furniture.” He laughed, trying to diffuse the sudden tension. Kale backed up as the shifter stalked him.
His breath caught as Aleksi kept coming at him and he kept stepping back. They continued the dance until Kale’s back met the wall of the house and he gulped, feeling trapped. It was interesting that he didn’t feel the need to get away, however.
Aleksi crowded him, leaning down until their faces were only an inch apart. “You bought
our
chair,” he whispered in a breath that blew across Kale’s cheek.
“I did,” Kale said with a smile.
“Why?”
He stopped the flirty reply ready to roll of his tongue and really thought about the question. “It was the beginning of us—like this. I wanted to remember the time when I decided to give you everything.”
Aleksi stepped the last few millimeters closer, their bodies flush against each other. “Everything?”
The Russian accent and the one-word questions growled in his heavy tone sent shivers down Kale’s spine. He couldn’t look away from the eyes of his lover, both cat and man. The significance of the simple question hit home. He still hadn’t told Aleksi much about his life when he was younger or about Garrick, dodging the questions and changing the subject whenever Aleksi asked.
It felt wrong to keep it from Aleksi when he knew any questions he asked the shifter would be answered honestly, even if it were painful. Some of the answers he wasn’t ready to hear. But soon he would be strong enough to handle them.
Something had to give. It was time for Kale to invest all of himself and stop giving it lip service. They were mated and he couldn’t go back—and he didn’t want to
He licked his lips and gently nipped Aleksi’s chin. “Everything.”
The bright gold glow in Aleksi’s eyes dimmed to leave Aleksi’s normal green-yellow stare. “Will you tell me about Garrick, the brother you lost?”
In the back of his mind, he registered Caleb’s gasp and the sound of Scott trying to usher his brother away. He’d forgotten that both their brothers were still close enough to overhear.
“Let’s go for a ride,” Kale suggested.
Aleksi shook his head but Kale grabbed his mate’s face and held him still. “I know my body. As long as you go slowly, I’ll be fine, but I want to go somewhere peaceful if we’re going to spill all these secrets.”
The shifter let him move away as Kale sidestepped and turned to Scott and his brother. “We’re going to be gone for a while. There’s roast beef in the oven and fresh rolls in the bread bin.”
Scott grinned and set off for the house, looking as if he would rip apart the kitchen to find the food. One would never know that Scott wasn’t a shifter from the way the man shoveled down food. But he supposed when Aleksi and the other bodyguards were regular additions around the dinner table it was eat fast or not eat at all.
Caleb looked taken aback. “You cooked?”
That made Kale laugh, despite the uneasy knots in his stomach. He was the person to admit he had no domestic skills and the first meal he tried to cook in years could have been used as a toxic weapon. He still couldn’t figure out how he’d managed to set the beef joint on fire.
“No. I followed directions and mostly passed Aleksi ingredients and plates. Mr. Bossy ran the kitchen like a military operation. There was garlic herb chicken and roasted sweet potatoes too, but we ate that,” he replied with a smile and pointed in Aleksi’s direction.
“I had to take charge. Otherwise, we’d be stuck eating some squishy green stuff you claim is in all the top restaurants.” Aleksi had gotten quicker with comebacks and he liked that he was rubbing off on the powerful man—in more ways than one, anyway.
Kale rolled his eyes. “It was kale. It’s healthy.”
“That’s not what kale tastes like. You’re much tastier,” Aleksi said in his ear too quietly for Caleb to hear—he hoped.
He made eye contact with his brother and saw the approval there. They’d never told anyone about Garrick. It meant a lot to him that Caleb supported his decision to share their past with Aleksi.
“Go grab some food before Scott eats so much that he won’t fit in his suit anymore.” Kale nodded reassuringly.
Caleb headed for the house after Scott.
* * * *
Hours later, Kale lay against Aleksi’s large, furry side, stroking his fingers through the bristly fur of Aleksi’s enormous paws. If someone had told him a month ago that he would be mated to a saber-tooth tiger shifter, sitting with his mate on a cliff edge after telling the man absolutely everything about himself, Kale wouldn’t have even given that person a second look. He’d have called a hospital for them.
Aleksi had been mostly silent as he told the shifter about his parents, who had become abusive after Garrick’s death until Caleb was old enough to leave with him and get custody. He’d even told Aleksi about the time he’d considered doing porn to make the rent and buy food but that his first modeling job had come through just in time.
Caleb had been ill with pneumonia and unable to keep his job as an office temp. The cost of medicine had wiped out their meager savings from his after-school job. Kale would have done whatever he had to do, but he was thankful the model recruiter had spotted him before he’d walked through the doors of the film studio. He hadn’t expected Aleksi to take that news well but the shifter just growled and rubbed against him, spreading his scent.
The only other time Aleksi had spoken had been to comfort him when Kale had raged at the memory of waiting for Garrick to come home. He also admitted to waking up for weeks after, thinking it had all been a nightmare and that his big brother would skid his motorcycle in over the gravel drive, kicking grit all over the windows.
After a few hours, the sun set and the remaining warmth of the hot day bled away. Kale shivered and snuggled closer to his mate, thinking they should get back soon but not wanting to leave yet.
Aleksi transformed into his human form, then he suggested heading home, but Kale’s lack of enthusiasm must have shown. Instead, Aleksi shifted back into his tiger form again and curled around him.
Kale leaned into Aleksi’s shoulder and lifted his head to plant a kiss on Aleksi’s pink nose. “I love you.” He smiled when Aleksi started purring and turned to watch the night birds take to the sky to hunt for their dinners.
Epilogue
George was out of breath by the time he got to the right office building. The men with guns were still following him and he was at his wits end. He didn’t know what to do. It wasn’t everyday people tried to kill him, blew up his car and sent a hit man to his apartment.
The secretary stopped typing on the computer and greeted him, “Hi, can I help—hey! You can’t go in there!” Her voice followed him as she shouted.
“Sorry!” George shouted an over his shoulder. He crashed through the door then took the first left, hoping that there would be someone in the office who could help him.
Somewhere close by, another door opened. Out of the corner of his eye, George saw something very big head down the corridor toward him.
As soon as he entered the office, the man inside talking on a phone dropped the device and shot to his feet. The man started toward George but he was too scared of who or what was behind to turn around now, even if it meant this man would beat him to a pulp.
“Please help me!” He could feel something big and dangerous behind him. He hoped like hell the puff of hot air on the back of his neck was just his imagination.
The man in the suit was drop-dead gorgeous and if he’d met him in a club, George would be on his knees begging the man to take him home so George could do unspeakable things to him. But George’s nerves were fried and he was too tired and worn down to do anything about his instant attraction.
George watched, still catching his breath, as the man stopped coming toward him and reached back to pick up the phone he’d dropped on the desk.
“I’ll call you back.” Then to someone behind George he said, “It’s okay. I’ll see him. Go back to whatever you were doing, Oscar.”
The presence behind him grunted but retreated. George was still too scared to look around to see what or who it had been.
“My
bear
of a friend doesn’t like people bursting in without an appointment. I wouldn’t advise that you ever repeat this dramatic entrance.”
George was grateful the man had called off whatever it was behind him. However, he figured the stunning man’s patience and leniency was only going to stretch so far. “The man who kidnapped and hurt that male model was killed yesterday and now there are people trying to kill me.” Saying it aloud was too much and he collapsed to his knees, breathing deeply as his hands shook uncontrollably.