Tiger Magic

Looking for someone. Her heart thumped. The officer hadn’t been about to tell her who. Obviously not Walker, because his name was on the registration. And not her. That left Tiger.

Carly sped up a little, making sure she didn’t exceed the limit enough to get pulled over again, and headed for the horizon and the city of El Paso.

* * *

Tigers liked water. When they reached the Rio Grande, Tiger had no problem wading into the muddy stream, the water cool under his paws. Scrub and trees were green here, fed by the main river and little rivulets that made the ground soggy.

Tiger came out the other side and shook himself off. Walker took more time, holding his belt above his head as he waded then swam the deepest parts. Tiger waited, the beast in him pleased by the open country, the vast sky overhead. In such a place he could run through the night, sleep under trees during the day. If bad men were out here hurting people, Tiger could take them out, as he had done the robber at the convenience store. That was what he was meant to do, he thought. Crush bad guys.

“This way,” Walker said once he was settled.

He led Tiger on across wild land, pushing through tough brush and trees to forge a path. They were going north and west, Tiger could tell, to meet Carly, which made his heart sing. She wouldn’t have been good on this cross-country walk, but she had the comfort of the SUV, and its relative safety. Tiger looked forward to seeing her again, if this all worked, if only for a little while.

They saw no one. Tiger had half hoped the hills would be teeming with people who needed taking down, but it wasn’t to be. His fighting blood was up, his need to run, strike, do what he was meant to do.

At one point a plane flew overhead, high enough up to be a small smudge against the late afternoon sky. Walker ducked under the spread of a tree, and Tiger lowered himself to the ground, letting shadows camouflage him. The plane went straight on, not circling or returning.

Tiger rose and moved on, following Walker’s guidance, feeling the mate bond pull him back to Carly.

* * *

Carly drove over one of the bridges that connected El Paso to the Mexican city of Juárez, crossing the border after a wait of about an hour or so. The sun was setting, and plenty of cars were on the streets on both sides, people going home or leaving the cities after the weekend.

Carly knew Walker had picked El Paso as the place she should cross because the cities on both sides were busy, plenty of Americans crossed back and forth daily, and families lived on either side, crossing one way or another for visits. She’d navigated crazy traffic in Juárez before, and she drove out of that city after a time, heading south for the town of Chihuahua.

Now she began to feel a bit uncomfortable. The afternoon was waning into evening, and she was alone, in another country, in a vehicle that was better than most she passed on the road. Carjackings weren’t unusual. She’d be safer not to stop until she reached the meeting point.

The sun sank as she drove south then turned down a lonely stretch of road that Walker had marked. Carly had to drive slowly, through ruts and along ungraded stretches, down dry washes where her tires spun in soft earth.

The thirty miles of this road took Carly well over an hour as the sun slipped over the horizon. Twilight didn’t linger long in the desert, and soon it was dark.

Carly parked at the designated meeting point and killed the engine and lights. She peered at the empty darkness, a flat plain of desert. In the dark, she could see no more than that, and she couldn’t see Tiger or Walker either.

No matter. She’d sit here until they came. Tiger and Walker were the kind of men who’d make double sure and triple sure the way was clear before they showed themselves.

Or, if they didn’t come by morning, Carly could turn around and head back to Austin. She knew why Tiger had agreed to split up—he’d been giving Carly the chance to go home and leave him if she decided that course was best. Splitting up also gave Tiger the choice whether or not to come back for Carly. As he’d told her, he could move faster without her.

The watch Carly kept in her purse let her keep track of time, which crawled slowly. Agony. The longest day of her life to this point had been the one when she’d realized her father had left for good. This one might just beat it.

Carly caught movement out the back window. Tiger? She turned to look, but remained inside the SUV. Could be anyone out here.

Her heart pounded until her head hurt as whoever it was moved slowly forward. Stealthily. Like a Shifter.

But the Shifter who looked into the window wasn’t Tiger. He had a shaved head and tattoos down his neck and a look of fury in his brown eyes. Spike.

Behind him was Sean, then Ellison with his cowboy hat. The large bear Ronan was approaching the other side of the SUV with Dylan, and Carly’s rearview mirror showed her Liam walking nonchalantly toward her out of the darkness.

* * *

Tiger stopped, scenting the Shifters well before he saw them surrounding the SUV that waited in the spot Walker had chosen.

Liam, Dylan, Sean, the trackers. Tiger also smelled an airplane, far away, but near enough for Tiger’s enhanced senses to catch the scent. That explained how the Shifters had managed to be there first, in the plane that had flown over them. Tiger hadn’t known enough about airplanes, and it hadn’t flown low enough, for him to recognize it as Marlo’s.

Tiger shifted to become his human form, sliding his now-loose belt from his waist. He went to Walker. “I need you to take care of Carly,” he said before Walker could speak. “And my cub.”