Page 33

Tor

I loved it when a plan came together.

The tiger, he was a slow and methodical hunter. He could lurk in the grass for hours, coiled and ready to strike. I admit, my attention span was a little shorter, but still, I was willing to be patient, especially when it paid off like this.

After Harper spent the entire time on the dodgem cars ramming my butt, which turned into a joke about her riding my arse, followed quickly by a not-so-jovial conversation about pegging, I managed to redirect her towards the Ferris wheel.

A twenty slipped to the operator and he made sure we stopped here, at the top of the ride.

A panoramic view of the sea spread out before us, and at the sight of the twinkling lights and the last rays of the sun, Harper let out a sigh, settling back against the seat.

“OK, Kitty Cat.” She shot me a sidelong look and a smile. “You got me up here. Now what?” She glanced at the railing. “Tell me you aren’t going to re-enact the great roof jump of 2010.”

“Nope.” I swallowed hard, my throat suddenly dry. “Something a lot scarier.”

I’d watched movies, seen guys make their moves on the Ferris wheel, so why the hell was I freaking out way more than when I climbed that damn tree?

Maybe because when I was a kid, the worst that could’ve happened was I would’ve fallen or gotten grounded.

Now? I pushed her hair behind her ear, treasuring the silken slip of it between my fingers before I moved in closer.

Her smile faded, but what sunlight remained had her eyes glowing.

They stared into mine, right as I moved forward.

“I don’t want to rush you,” I said.

“Pretty sure I’ve been trying to get all of you to hurry things up, Tor,” she said, grabbing my shirt and pulling me closer. Our lips hovered over the other, but I wouldn’t kiss her again, not until I got this out. “If I have to sleep through one more sex dream…”

“What if it wasn’t a dream?” She glanced up, seeming to sense that this was different.

Not us tumbling into bed together like last time.

We still had a long way to go to prove our worth to Harper, but I needed…

I needed to know we were heading in the right direction.

“What if…?” My lips brushed against hers, unable to go a second longer without a taste. “What if we made a commitment?”

She went perfectly still, and the tiger let me know what was happening. The prey was on high alert, ready to bolt. I needed to move slowly, carefully, not send Harper running the moment she got off this Ferris wheel. When her hand clutched at my shirt, hope flared anew.

“No grand declarations, no mate bonds,” I said in my best reassuring tone.

“Yet.”

She growled that out, staring into my eyes.

“Yet.” I nodded. “But a commitment to being open to that idea. You, me, us, and the rest of the world a few hundred feet below.”

She shook her head with a smile.

“Dramatic much?”

My hand slapped down on my chest.

“Have you met me?”

“You’re a walking bad decision, you know that, right?’ she replied, her tone just a little too sharp.

“One you keep making.” My smile faded. “Want to keep making bad decisions with me, Harper? For worse or worserer.”

“Worserer is not a?—”

I silenced her with a kiss, unable to hold myself back.

Letting the other guys take her on their dates half killed me.

The tiger might be patient, but the human wanted her right fucking now.

Pulled closer, that little moan of hers everything as I kissed her harder, deeper.

The soft slick sensation of her tongue against mine making me remember the last time I felt that elsewhere.

Whatever thoughts I had were driven out of my head by her.

Of course, I wasn’t allowed to just lose myself in that. A sharp creak from above had us both looking up and then the carriage swung wildly as Mack appeared, obviously having climbed up from the one below ours.

“We’ve got company,” he said, the muffled chatter from the wheel operator barely registering. “Time to go.”

“Go how?”

The answer came quickly as the ride began to move. Mack jumped free as soon as he was close enough, meeting us at the stairs as soon as the harried looking operator released the bar enclosing our carriage.

“Where?” Kieran’s terse demand was at odds with his burden. His arms were stuffed with animal plushies.

“Coming in through that way,” Mack said, stabbing his finger at the path that led in from the beach.

“Then we’re heading this way.”

I ripped my shirt up and over my head, pausing for a split second to soak in Harper’s appreciative look. My shoes were kicked off and then my beast came, flowing out of me like a river until the tiger stood in front of her. We nodded to our back, making clear what we needed.

“You want me to… ride you?”

I forced the tiger to chuff, unable to stop the innuendo from making me laugh, even as my tiger senses made clear something that my human nose had missed.

There were wolf shifters close. Good ones, bad ones, cops or bikers, we didn’t know, but we wouldn’t stop to find out.

I let out a little growl and then sidled up to her, not stopping until she threw a leg over my back. Then we were off.

The tiger had come forward for a reason. Humans might know that shifters existed, but some primal part of them activated at the sight of a massive tiger loping across the sideshow grounds. People cleared the area, letting us pass easily so we reached the car in seconds.

“Here.”

Mack threw my clothes at me when I came back to skin as Kieran thrust the plushies into the back seat, then picked up Harper and placed her next to them. He took the seat closest to the exposed window as I climbed into the passenger side seat.

“Your family?” I asked him.

“Don’t know.” Mack revved the engine, then swung the car into reverse, peeling out of the car park. “Don’t want to stick around long enough to find out.”

“There were wolf shifters here?” Harper tried to crane her neck to look out the window, but Kieran blocked her view. “Like the ones that turned up at work?”

“What…?” The interior of the car dropped several degrees, and it wasn’t due to the air conditioner working overtime. Mack stared at the rear vision mirror way too long. “What do you mean, wolf shifters turned up at your work?”

“Ahh…” Our mate was far too pale, looking at each one of us in turn. “Didn’t I mention that?”

“No.”

Our reply was unanimous.

“Right, so I went outside?—”

“Harper…”

Kieran grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“I had to take the rubbish out.” Her tone was getting shriller by the second. “It’s part of my job.”

“Ring your dads,” Mack ordered Kieran. “Let them know we’ll be off site until this is sorted.” He refocussed on Harper. “We’ll be the ones taking the rubbish out going forward. Bugger it, quit your job and stay with us?—”

“That’s my life you’re talking about.” I turned around because her tone, her pained expression, made clear the sacrifice we were asking her to make. I’d said we wouldn’t push her, and yet here we were. “My job. My means to support myself.”

“We’ll get you another job,” Mack snapped. “One in a safer part of town, where there are other people’s mates that will protect and support you.”

“As long as I decide to accept the bond, right?” Her tone was as brittle as cracked glass, making clear she was just about to shatter completely. “And if I don’t, then what?”

“This conversation needs to be continued later.” Mack’s attention was entirely trained on the mirror. Something in the lights reflected there had his entire attention.

“Or not at all.” Harper sat back, arms crossed. “I appreciate that you want to keep me safe…”

Whatever else she had to say was cut off as Mack abruptly changed lanes, earning him a beep of someone’s horn and an irate muffled shout as they passed around us. He didn’t care, turning to the right abruptly, then left, screaming down suburban streets, to emerge out on a major road somewhere else.

“You’re not going home tonight,” Mack barked.

He was rushing her, pushing her recklessly, like he was the car, and for what?

I dared a glance at the side mirror, just seeing other cars travelling at a sedate pace behind us.

“Call your friend and tell her to stay somewhere else tonight and let her know you’re with us. ”

“Doing what?” She leaned forward, her arms resting on the backs of our seats. “What’re you going to do to convince me that’s a good idea?”

I stared at Mack, watching him fight a war inside himself, but I wasn’t about to fight by his side. When I turned around, the challenge was clear in Harper’s eyes.

“Whatever you want, my mate. You know that.”

Kieran’s hand rubbed small circles on her back and that seemed to ease some of the tension. She blinked and then sat back, nestling into his side. It wasn’t hard to see myself pressed in on the other side. We’d kiss those full lips until they were red and swollen and then…

“OK.” She nodded firmly. “Though pegging isn’t off the table.

I want that noted.” I grinned, never really having fantasised about the act before, but maybe…

With a bit of lube, some patience and my mate on the other end, maybe that was exactly what we needed.

“Pegging Mack. If he’s gonna be a pain in my arse, maybe I need to return the favour? ”

A short bark of laughter escaped all of us, defusing the tension as we sped towards our place.