Chapter One
“Are you sure about this?” Thomas asked, leaning down to whisper quietly in Kara’s ear.
“Stop asking!” she said, laughing while pushing him away playfully.
“I just want to be sure before we get on this plane. This is a bit of uncharted territory.”
“I doubt that. I’m sure the pilot has flown to India hundreds of times by now.”
“Ah, snarky!” he shot back with a grin.
“That’s me!” she replied.
“What are you two whispering about?” Josh asked as he and Barb joined them.
“Kara’s attitude problem.”
Thomas put on his most serious face, causing Josh and Barb to look at him for a moment, obviously trying to decide if he was being playful or if they were having some sort of spat. Kara tolled her eyes at Thomas, pointing her finger toward him.
“Keep it up and you’re going to have to fly beside the plane instead of in it, mister!”
They both broke into laughter, Josh and Barb joining them out of relief that there was no real tension to be dealt with on the flight and maybe beyond.
“I’ll consider myself warned,” he said with a smile, kissing her on the cheek.
Thomas had seemed surprised when Kara had told him she wanted to go to India to meet her father’s side of the family. He had shaken his head ruefully, immediately unhappy with the idea. She had only recently learned that she wasn’t a pure dragon shifter, and he was apprehensive about her need to explore the paternal ancestry that had now captured her interest. The discussion that had followed had been intense.
“Kara, they are tiger shifters. We know nothing about them!”
“They are my father’s ancestors! I want to meet them, to know about them.”
“What if they don’t want anything to do with a dragon shifter? You want to go all that way just to be turned back?”
“If I must. I have to try.”
“So, what do you plan to do? Just charge in there and start hugging them into submission?
She glared at him, his sarcasm not appreciated in the least. Taking a deep breath to calm down, rather than allowing this to escalate, she looked at him and shook her head.
“What do you suggest?”
“I don’t suppose you would listen if I said we just shouldn’t go?”
“I don’t suppose I would,” she replied.
“In that case, I think that we should maybe just go there and see the sights, get close to them without telling them who you are.”
“What purpose would that serve?”
“It would give us a chance to feel them out. We can see what sort of people they are before we risk being attacked as intruders.”
“How would we do that?”
“Let’s do some checking into them before we go. See if they run a business, or a hotel, or anything that we can visit as your average tourist.”
“Okay. Fair enough.”
Thus, they had begun researching the ancestry of her father’s ancestor, Khaleel, the original tiger shifter that had married the dragon shifter, Cassi. She knew he had come from India, but not much beyond that. From there, she had to then trace the lineage forward to now. Unlike dragon shifters, tiger shifters didn’t have as long of a lifespan, so it was a feat to track down the long line of lineage to find modern day relatives, but they finally managed.
“Look at this, Thomas,” Kara beckoned to him from her laptop almost two months into having begun looking.
Thomas walked over to where she sat and peered over her shoulder at the screen. She watched as he began to nod in agreement with what he was seeing on the screen.
“So, you want to go on a safari, then?” he asked.
“Looks like I do,” she replied.
“Okay. I’ll ask for a couple weeks off work.”
“Do you think Barb and Josh would want to go?”
“Taking backup with you?”
“Something like that,” she laughed.
“All right, we’ll ask them.”
Kara didn’t really need anyone else to go, but she thought that having Thomas’ brother, Josh, and his mate, Barb, along might make it a little more palatable for him. Plus, she had gotten close to Barb and thought they would enjoy the trip a little more with her always perky attitude.
Less than two weeks later, they were on their way to a foreign land to which they’d never been. It was all arranged–just a usual safari into a wildlife sanctuary for four ordinary travelers. It just so happened that there was nothing ordinary about them or the guides they had selected to be their escorts through the sanctuary.
“Isn’t this exciting?” Barb squealed as they finally made their way down the boarding gate and onto the plane.
“It’s something,” Josh laughed.
Though Josh had agreed to come with them on the journey–more at the behest of Barb than anything–he wasn’t completely sold on the idea, and that much was quite obvious. This was very much Kara’s adventure, and she was fully aware that they had only agreed to it in order to make sure she was safe. While a tiger shifter was no match for a dragon shifter in the open air, there were instances where they had a distinct advantage, and with the numbers that might still be present in India, that might be much more than a single dragon was equipped to handle. In fact, it might be more than three were equipped to handle.
“It’ll be fine,” Thomas said gently, squeezing Kara’s hand as a show of continued support.
She smiled up at him as they boarded the plane and took their seats, falling into silence as the plane filled and readied for takeoff.
Eleven hours of flight time–separated by a two-hour layover in Istanbul–later, they were landing in Mumbai, tired and very much ready to just get to their hotel and lie down for a bit. Stepping off the plane, Kara looked around slowly.
“Isn’t there supposed to be someone here to meet us?” Thomas asked.
“Yes. The guide service is supposed to be picking us up and taking us to our hotel,” she replied, still looking around for any signs of a limo driver or other such escort, but finding none.
“Miss Sheaver?” came a voice from behind them after they had all but given up and were discussing whether they should just call a taxi.
They all turned to find a young man in a pair of torn jeans and a worn shirt that read ‘Eye of the Tiger Tours.’ He looked incredibly disheveled, as if he had just rolled out of bed and ran to the airport on foot. It didn’t exactly inspire confidence in the trip they had ahead of them.
“I’m Kara Sheaver,” she replied uncertainly.
“Oh, good. I was afraid that I had missed you. My father would have had my hide. Don’t tell him, please?” the young man beseeched them. “My name is Khalib,” he added.
“It’s okay, Khalib. We still need to get our luggage,” Kara replied kindly, ignoring the scowls on the faces of the two Higgins men that flanked her.
The young man looked at the two of them and back at her, his eyes narrowing for a moment as he spoke. “You are here for the tour of the sanctuary, right?”
“Of course. Why else would we hire a tour guide for it?” Kara replied, not sure why he had asked the question.
“Because you’re-” he started to say then stopped. “Nothing. I’m sorry. I’m just tired. Let’s get your luggage and get you to your hotel.
The four travelers looked at each other curiously for a moment before following him toward the luggage carousel. There was something odd about the young man, and something about them that seemed to put him off, but they weren’t sure why. It didn’t become any clearer on the way to their destination. He seemed nervous, talking about the tour but in a way that seemed like he wasn’t really sure they should be taking it.
“All right, this is it,” he said a short time later as they arrived at the hotel. He pulled up to the curb, but didn’t offer to get out. When no one moved, he finally got out to open the doors and let them out, sitting their luggage on the sidewalk.
“You aren’t going to help us get our bags up to the room?” Kara asked.
“No. You should learn to pack a bit lighter. This isn’t a Las Vegas vacation,” he said flatly.
Kara watched him walk back around the vehicle in disbelief. Jumping behind the wheel, he started it up and took off down the road. What a complete jerk! She looked at Thomas, who was turning red in the face, but he said nothing. Instead, he picked up some of the bags and started toward the doors. He was immediately met by a bellhop who insisted on taking the bags and leading them into the lobby where they could check-in.
Things seemed to smooth out a bit after that. Within a matter of minutes, they were checked-in and headed for the large suite they would share with Josh and Barb. Though it was considered one room, it was private, being divided by a large common room.