Her body thrummed with eager energy. Her skin tingled with excitement. She hadn’t played with a fellow shifter since she was nine.
Plus, she wanted to see what Alex’s tiger form looked like. Would he be bigger than her?
She turned on the radio to her favorite rock station, but left the music low, so they could talk, if he wanted to. She didn’t really have anything to say at the moment, too excited about playing to talk about mundane things. Her fingers drummed against the steering wheel to the beat of a familiar song. He’d replaced the pine scented air freshener in her car. The old one had lost its scent days ago, and he must have noticed. A new one dangled from the rearview mirror, giving off a forest fresh scent. She tapped it with her finger lightly and watched it spin with a smile. She was just about to thank him when he cleared his throat.
“Do you have an ambush?” Alex asked her, a dimple peeking out of his cheek with this soft smile.
She shook her head, putting both hands back on the wheel. “My parents preferred solitude and I stayed with them until I was eighteen.”
Then she’d joined the gang, which she’d told him about. Her hands gripped the wheel as she took a deep breath. He nodded, looking out the windshield with a distant look in his eyes.
“What about you?” she asked him. “Do you have one?”
“No. I used to, but got too busy with work to spend much time with them. I ultimately left, since I couldn’t spare the time to get to know them,” he explained.
“What’s it like, to have an ambush?” she asked in a near whisper. Family, gang, ambush. Was there really much difference when you didn’t feel like you belonged anywhere?
“It was nice. You always had someone to talk to who understood shifter problems. And, they helped each other out.”
They lapsed into silence again, which was okay with Tara. Being with Alex was comfortable, even when the subject of conversation wasn’t entirely. Finally, their turn for the Sanctuary turn came up. Barely a cloud overhead. At least they’d be able to play outdoors for the most part. She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact this was a shifter park. It had never occurred to her before. She parked in the lot and walked next to Alex as he led the way to the ticket counter.
The female attendant smiled wide at Alex, her dimples flashing and making her look like a girl next door country girl. All she needed were pigtails. “Alex,” she beamed. “I haven’t seen you in a while.”
He smiled back. “Hello, Alexa. I’ve brought a friend with me,” he said and put a hand at the small of Tara’s back. The warmth of his hand electrified her skin. She held in a purr.
The girl turned her smile on Tara. “Nice to meet you! Well, Alex knows where to go, so I’ll let him give you the tour and instructions.”
“Thanks, Alexa,” Alex said and handed her a twenty-dollar bill.
“Have fun!” Alexa called as they walked into the sanctuary.
Alex kept his warm hand on the small of her back while he guided her. They walked past several fields with lions or tigers lounging in the sun. Humans looked at them with wide eyes and smiles. It always pleased her how much humans seemed to revere the giant felines.
“This way,” Alex whispered, pulling his hand from her back and taking her hand in his. He pulled her to a door marked “Employees Only,” and glanced around, offering her a conspiratorial smile before pushing it open.
On the other side was a hallway that led to the back area where employees cut up meat and other items to feed the animals. The smells of animal musk and raw food heightened her senses.
“Do they feed us?” Tara asked in a whisper, overly focused on his hand holding hers.
“Sometimes,” he answered, but did not elaborate. He pushed open another door that led to a small room with lockers. “We can put our valuables in here and clothes too. Then, we shift and pull on one of those cords…” he indicated a set of three brightly colored cords. One green, one blue, and one red. “The cords notify them of which area we want to go into.”
“Which are we going to use?” she asked him.
“Green.”
He opened the closest open locker and took off his shoes.
She turned away, not embarrassed by nudity, but wanting to give him privacy. Quickly, she took off her clothing and put it in the locker, then shifted. The shift was painful, but the pain only lasted a moment and was eclipsed by a huge rush of adrenaline and joy. She never got tired of that feeling.
She turned her giant feline head and stared at Alex. A white tiger, just like her, but larger, stared back. His head was larger and the fur around his neck stuck out a bit more, making him look more male, in her opinion. Gorgeous. Simply gorgeous.
He walked by her and tugged on the green rope with his teeth. A bell sounded and then a square opened and he stepped inside, stopping to look back at her. She hurried after him, walking down the hallway behind him. His tail swayed in front of her and she had to resist the urge to swat at it or bite it.
Ahead, sunlight shone and they stepped into a huge grassy area with some low trees, hanging tires, and some ropes on the ground. A tiger lay on top of some rocks, sunning himself with his eyes closed. He opened one eye to look at them, then huffed and closed his eye again.
Alex stood silently, letting her take it all in.
On one side of the enclosure was a large glass window where half a dozen humans stood, snapping pictures and looking at them. This was one of the enclosures they had passed by earlier.
She walked to Alex, rubbed her head and body along his and purred at the same time. He smelled the same, but muskier in this form. Alex purred back and licked the side of her face when she came back.
She walked over to the closest tree and jumped up on the short trunk, using her claws to climb to the tallest branch. Playing it up for the humans, she roared and chuffed loudly while standing on the branch. Alex turned his back on the humans and rolled his eyes. Had she been human, she would have laughed.
She leapt down and pounced at him. He easily dodged her attack and swiped at her back, claws sheathed.
They chased each other around the enclosure a bit, then he grabbed a rope and started dragging it behind him. She pounced on the rope, using her claws to grab it, then her mouth. She pulled as hard as she could and he pulled back.
They tugged the rope, using their powerful legs to dig in and pull. He slowly, dragged her towards him and when he prepared to pull hard, his muscles bunching, she let the rope go, so he fell onto his butt.
The humans watching laughed loudly. She smiled a tiger smile, then leapt at him.
He dodged, spun around, and shoved her in the side with both of his front paws.
They wrestled a bit longer, then Alex pushed on Tara’s rump with one massive paw, making her sit.
She watched him trot off into another door on the far side, then heard a dragging sound. He dragged out a huge cardboard box.
She dashed across the opening and leapt into the box. His teeth tore through the box, since her weight made it impossible for him to pull it anymore. He caught himself before he fell, then peered in at her.
She swatted at his face and growled.
My box.
His head disappeared from Tara’s view.
Where’d he go?
She carefully raised her head enough to peer over the box, but he wasn’t there. She spun around just to see his massive chest slam into her.
She growled and struggled under his heavy weight, but the box confined her.
Hissing and yowling, she finally managed to roll over and kick him in the stomach to dislodge him. She leapt from the box and watched with wide eyes as he curled up inside, purring.
She stomped away from him, pouting, and curled up on a large boulder in the sun. The sun warmed her fur and drowsiness quickly set in.
Alex joined her, lounging at her side with closed eyes. The two tigers enjoyed a cat nap, but it didn’t last long. Tara felt her body trying to change. She leapt from the boulder and darted into the tunnel, her heart thundering in her eyes.
Once she sat safely in the locker room, she allowed her body to change back to human form. Dressing took a lot of effort and when she finished, she curled upon the floor, drained.
“What’s wrong?” Alex asked and placed a warm hand on her cheek. “Why’d you run off?”
“I couldn’t stop the change,” she admitted.
“You don’t take your tiger form much?” he guessed.
“No.”
She listened to him dressing, then he picked her up and carried her to her car. The sun overhead was just starting to color the sky with the first hints of dusk. How long had it been since she’d last spent so long in tiger form? She couldn’t really say for sure.
“You need to change more often,” he chastised her as he drove out of the parking lot.
“Sorry,” she whispered, trying to fight the heaviness of her lids. So weak.
He set his hand on her thigh, patted it gently, and said, “Take a nap. I’ll keep you safe.”
That was all her brain needed to hear.