The Tiger's Tale Page 11

  He sang his tiger song and a memory rose, three tigers in the river, the moon spotlighting their play. She remembered swirling water and the sweet weight of a male over her, the electric thrust of male tiger inside her. Her sheath contracted and moistened with the memory. She sang with Ean, the memory of them singing under the moon welling up in her.

  Energy buzzed through her body, moved up through the pads of her paws right out to the tips of her fur. When he stopped singing, she purred and slid her body along his. Something ancient guided her, a knowledge that seemed to creep up from the earth itself. She needed to rub against things, against the trees, slide her body through the snow, rub her cheek against Ean’s.

  He huffed affectionately.

  She mewed back.

  She needed to lick. He rolled onto his back and she licked his chest. The sensation of licking his belly was hypnotic. Each time she pulled her tongue back into her mouth it ached to stroke more fur. She could feel his heart thump under warm skin and solid bone. It beat like a drum skin, his life force singing its own song. When her tongue traveled lower to swipe over his genitals, he sprang away and she chased after.

  When he turned back on her, she dropped on her belly and he skidded to a halt in front of her, ears pricked forward. Lovingly he licked her face, then her ears and the top of her head. She trembled when he moved above her, continuing to give her head attentive licks while he moved behind her. That hot liquid craving burned in her sheath, the way it had when she was under him in a warm bed. Instinct glued her belly to the ground, tipped her hips to receive him, tail draped daintily to the side. She mewed. Ean got the message.

  She wouldn’t trade a warm bed for this moment, with the snow cool and soft beneath her, the wind ruffling her fur and Ean mounting her. He made her hot enough to melt snow.

  Love hummed in her. The weight on her back, the jet engine purr of her mate, shook loose the last doubts.

  She pressed back into him and sang her love song. His teeth clamped onto her neck, electric pleasure sizzled through her when his cock found her sheath. She squeezed him, welcoming the startled huff and then the deep-chested rumble that followed.

  Ean’s hindquarters drove like a piston. Thrusts rippled through her. She held tight each time he withdrew, reveling in the freedom. No vortex spinning, no force threatening to shatter her or snatch her away. His furred body sliding against her back made her arch hers, tip her head back and sing her pleasure to the sky while her lover’s cock jerked and filled her with his.

  * * * * *

  Adam created a new folder in the private area on Marie’s web space. He couldn’t explain the obsessive need to cover his tracks and leave no traces on his personal computer. It’s not like he was in danger of being arrested for impersonating a human. Still, better safe… If any of these files were discovered on the internet, no one would take a second look. He needed to leave her a message. He labeled the folder “waiting” and opened a fresh document. It wouldn’t be long before they could talk things over, but something pressed at him, a sense that he shouldn’t take opportunity for granted.

  For Marie,

  There are so many things I wish I could say, my love. I hate this wall between us. I don’t blame you for it. Never think that.

  I don’t know how you feel about this new body of yours. Proud I hope. Please be happy. You are glorious.

  What would make you love who you are, sweetheart? The babies grow stronger with each week. I sneak up close sometimes when you sleep and I can feel them there, bright little bundles of energy turning and tumbling. I long to lay my head against your side, feel them moving in you. It’s just about two more weeks now and we can hold them, look into their eyes, feel tiny fingers curl around our own, tickle rows of little pink toes.

  I love them fiercely already. I know this isn’t easy. You had no way to prepare. I only hope you can accept us. Too late, it has occurred to me you won’t want these babies of ours, you won’t want my babies. Will you hate us? Are we too alien? I will have to wait on your answer.

  Know this, I love you. Always.

  Adam

  He closed the file and pushed back from the desk. Lilly slept curled at his feet. He ran his hand over her soft fur and considered the other big source of his depression. Marie carried females. Six daughters. No sons.

  A rippling in the air around the mirror portal shook him from his thoughts. The drape fell away and a naked woman tumbled through. She stood, spun about in a tipsy circle then fell, landing on her backside with a thump. She pushed strawberry blonde hair from her eyes and looked up at Adam. Her eyes were a murky blue and her cheeks flushed. Her delicate fingers went to her head.

  “Oh…I think… Sorry my head is spinning.” She squinted at him, leaning a bit too far forward. “Adam?”

  * * * * *

  They kept hot peppermint tea, by the gallon, ready on the back of the stove.

  Adam set a cup on the table and sweetened it with honey while Maya went to splash cold water on her face in the powder room. She shuffled into the kitchen, her short hair curling in damp tendrils around her face. She was still naked.

  Adam yanked off his t-shirt and tossed it to her. He motioned toward the tea and turned away to make coffee for himself.

  “Are you okay, Adam?” The question was muffled by the shirt over her head. He kept his back to her.

  “Yes.” The answer came out sharper than he meant it. He poured the last of the coffee into his mug and gulped scalding brew.

  When he turned back, Maya was tugging the t-shirt low on her thighs, watching him cautiously, lips pursed.

  “What?”

  “That’s what I was wondering,” she said. “What happened to you?” Her eyes appraised, running from the top of his head down to his sweatpants and bare feet. And then back to his pants. “Turquoise sweatpants aren’t you. And those look a bit small.”

  He ran a hand over his rumpled hair and scrubbed at his whiskered face. It irritated him that she took a step back when he took one forward. Surely Ean looked worse than this most of the time.

  “I wasn’t expecting company.”

  She shrugged and pulled out a chair. “I’m looking for Ean. Have you seen him?”

  Her color was coming back. Crossing dimensions induced vertigo until you got used to it. And Maya wouldn’t be used to it.

  “He’s here.”

  “Really?” Her face lit. “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

  “We’ve been busy.” It was time to turn the conversation away from his personal life. “But more important, why didn’t you let me know you were coming? And how did you learn to travel through the mirror?” Only males possessed that skill. Females rarely left the homeland and never without a male to transport them.

  She poked her bottom lip out in a fake pout. Mischief danced in her eyes. There was something else, a weight to her mood. The mischief a cover for something else.

  “Keep talking like that and you’ll hurt my feelings. I thought you might have missed me.” There was a slight quaver in her voice. Adam sat up straighter, taking in for the first time the puffy eyes, dark circles, unusual thinness.

  “What’s up, My?” He used the nickname he’d used for her when she was a kid tagging after him with a fly’s persistence. Maya had never taken well to the restrictions that held her back from the adventures and knowledge reserved for males. Females were precious and scarce. Adam hadn’t always appreciated the tribal need to protect and guard them from all harm. He had helped Maya explore freedoms no one else would allow her, taught her more than he should have. Things changed.

  She shrugged. “A little tension with the folks. I thought Ean might let me hang out with him for a few weeks.” She blew on her tea. Her tone was too casual. “I didn’t realize he was here with you. I don’t want to intrude.”

  Adam flopped back in his chair, took a sip of coffee and considered. Maya didn’t want to intrude? Since when? All he needed was another bundle of problems. At the same time, an extra pair o
f hands could prove handy. He needed to get away and he didn’t want to leave the full weight of caring for Marie on Ean.

  Then again, Maya had shown up in a manner that suggested more than your ordinary family spat. And she’d acquired some skills she shouldn’t have.

  “Answer me about the mirror, Maya. It takes years of apprenticing to attain that skill.”

  “Maybe it does for a male,” she grumbled. “Who knows what a female can do? All they are allowed is the honor of birthing and raising babies.”

  Adam rolled his eyes and decided she’d bribed someone like Jake to guide her through. “You’re in luck. Ean and I could use an extra pair of hands.”

  He gave her an abbreviated version of events up to that point. Maya was quick to notice details he’d rather not think about.

  “Adam, that’s a violation of the reproductive code. You only get one wife. If your wife dies that’s it.”

  Another reason males didn’t allow females to travel alone. Maya should be in the care of loving mates by now. If she didn’t choose soon, some would be chosen for her. He tried to remember, did she pass the age of consent this year or next? He decided he didn’t want to know the answer to that question today. “Marie wasn’t raised in the tribe. They can’t apply laws to her that she didn’t know about.”

  “They could apply them to you. They could take your babies.”

  He looked up, his gaze held hers. “They won’t.”

  “Because you’re the magus’ son?”

  “They didn’t let that stop them when they took me from my mother. That law is meant to punish females for allowing an unsanctioned mating.”

  “It’s meant to terrify them into submitting to ridiculous rules, you mean.” Maya stirred her tea. The silver clanked sharply against the china. Adam regretted his bluntness. If anyone supported Maya’s crusade against the unfair restrictions on her sex it was Adam. It was only Adam for the most part. And on some things, he wouldn’t stand behind her either. He wondered how his daughters would change his opinions. He hoped he would have a chance to find out.

  “Her babies are female,” he said, the words like weights in his chest that took effort to drag out. “Six little ones and not one male.”

  Maya’s head snapped up. Her eyes glistened. He saw his own fear mirrored there. Daughters, longed for by the tribe, dreaded by the parents.

  She reached out and put her hand in his. “You said she is different, new blood. That might be a blessing. It might be enough to prevent the wasting sickness.”

  He squeezed her hand tight and closed his eyes. The odds of all six females surviving to maturity were impossible. They both knew that.

  “Does Ean know?”

  Adam shook his head. “I haven’t had the heart to tell him. And Marie knows nothing about life in the Pantherian world.”

  A commotion outside ended the conversation.

  * * * * *

  Ean opened the kitchen door and Marie bounced in shaking snow from her fur.

  A strange scent warned her even before her eyes focused on the young blonde woman. A pretty woman, wearing only Adam’s shirt.

  She looked at Adam. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. Her eyes narrowed.

  Ean grabbed his own pants from the back of a kitchen chair. “Maya? What and who brings us the pleasure of your company?”

  Marie’s fur rose. So, this was how they expected things to be? They could just bring in a strange woman and Marie would calmly accept it? Like she calmly accepted being turned into a tiger? Like she calmly accepted being held prisoner?

  A snarl swelled in her chest and ripped loose in a roar. The windows rattled.

  Marie was so furious she rattled.

  Adam looked shocked, then annoyed, then angry. He rose and shoved his chair back.

  “This is perfect. You can’t possibly think—” He jabbed a finger in the direction of the blonde’s chest. His hand shook. Then he yanked it back and ran both hands through his hair. He looked at Ean. “I have to get out of here. Maya will help you out.” He ducked down the stairs to his basement lab.

  “Adam,” Ean called after him. “Adam, wait…” He ran after Adam, leaving Marie to deal with Blondie.

  Blondie licked her lips and made a nervous little hiccup sound. The crooked grimace she pasted on her face was apparently her idea of a smile.

  “It was rude of them not to introduce us,” she said. She held out a hand, palm up.

  Marie softened. She would never have been so gracious if she’d been left alone with a strange tiger, or any tiger. She sniffed the offered palm.

  “I’m Maya, Ean’s sister. I’m kind of Adam’s sister too, but not by blood. That’s a long story.” Marie stared at her. Maya withdrew her hand, put it in her lap and took a sip of tea.

  Marie sat back on her haunches and looked around. She was never good at small talk and not being able to talk made her more self-conscious.

  Maya kept her eyes politely on her teacup and seemed quite comfortable with one-sided conversations. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to flap the unflappable Adam. It’s good to see his human side. But, tell me one thing. This has been bugging me since I got here. Is Adam wearing your sweatpants?”

  Chapter Nine

  Adam’s nerves were as jangled and twisted as the contents of the wasteland Jake called a living room. Computer cases spilled their innards across a couch that leaked stuffing. Cables snaked under chair legs and nested in corners. Manuals and note pads teetered in a heap that dangled over the edges of what Adam suspected was a table. He and his father circled the scrap pile, looking like black-robed monks come to say a blessing over the carcass-strewn aftermath of a robot war.

  “You called me here because you have a sudden burning desire to know about the parentage of a rabbit?” his father asked.

  That set Adam back. For unexplained reasons, the magus, Marcus St. Germain, millennial being, great leader, most revered of all Pantherians, appeared distracted and annoyed.

  People got distracted. Adam had a major distraction gnawing away at his own heart. People got annoyed. Ordinary mortals did. And while the magus insisted he was mortal (and just like anyone else over the age of a hundred, denied he was as old as he was), Adam’s father never got annoyed or distracted. It was the most annoying thing about him.

  Adam couldn’t afford to be distracted now. He needed to stick to the subject of the rabbit. “Among other things, yes. I need to know where the rabbit came from.”

  His own tone had an uncharacteristic bite that made his father turn and lift one dark brow. It was like looking into a mirror. No one knew how the magus retained youth. Jake said it had to do with crossing through dimensions and relativity. Adam thought it had more to do with genetics.

  Most people took them to be brothers—some had suggested twins. His father found the confusion amusing. Adam did not.

  “And I didn’t call you here,” he continued, “I asked Jake where I could find you and he sent me up the stairs to this.” Adam nudged a power supply with his toe. “I would have come to you.”

  His father looked uncomfortable. “Yes, well this is probably the better meeting place.” There was nowhere to sit. Adam was about to ask what Jake was working on when his father decided to answer the first question.

  “She came from a facility in Romania.” His father wandered toward Jake’s kitchen. “We might find an empty chair in here. We can talk over lunch.”

  Adam lifted his robe and stepped over a pile of tiny gears and motors. They were both dressed in black robes kept for guests dropping in through the dimensional portal. Adam tried to adjust the ill-fitting garment’s belt in a way that he wouldn’t trip over the dragging hem.

  “We need to come up with a method to transport inanimate objects through the portals. Starting with our own clothes.”

  “I think Jake’s working on that.”

  Adam glanced back at the scrap heap and thought maybe he preferred arriving naked.

  There was a pot of fresh coffee w
aiting for them but the magus filled the kettle and set it to boil. He made no explanation for why this apartment served better than his own house. Something unusual was going on. Another time, Adam might have pressed to find out what. The magus always engaged his apprentices in odd experiments—but he had no love for computers.

  For now, Adam was happy to turn his attention to finding a wedge of cheese and some apples in the fridge. His father sliced a loaf of dark bread he’d found wrapped in a clean towel on the counter.

  “So this Romanian facility specialized in genetics research?”

  “You didn’t have to come here to figure that out.”

  No, but Adam wasn’t ready to unwrap the secrets that brought him here.

  “You still have the other bunnies?” Adam found a knife in a drawer. The sharp blade parted the apples with crisp snapping sounds. He filled a plate with paper-thin apple slices and fat squares of cheddar. His father was melting butter in a skillet.

  “I gave all the bunnies away. And would you believe, everyone blessed by my generosity has returned to complain?”

  Adam layered apples and cheese between bread slices. “Their size is a bit of a shock. And I’m not sure Lilly is done growing.”

  His father eased the sandwiches into the sizzling butter and put a lid over the pan. “No one complained about size. It’s the teleporting. And while teleporting bunnies can be troublesome, I would think Pantherians could be more tolerant of such aberrations.”

  “Teleporting?” Adam rolled his eyes. Lucky for him, Lilly hadn’t inherited that talent. He didn’t want to think about explaining that to Marie.

  His father smiled and took plates from the cupboard.”I don’t think the teleporting was part of the protocol in the experiment that produced the bunnies. The researchers never discovered that bonus. I stole the rabbits to test and make sure no Pantherians were in the mix that created them.”