Tiger's Triumph (Veteran Shifters Book 4) Read online

  Pauline pulled back reluctantly. “Weren’t you enjoying it?” she said. It was a tease—she knew he’d been enjoying himself, and had the hint of salty pre-come still in her mouth to prove it. She’d never seen the point of teasing before.

  But now, he mock-growled and pulled her down, and she tumbled onto the bed next to him, laughing. “You know I was,” he said into her ear. “So much that I didn’t want to end things too soon.”

  “What did you want instead?” she asked, her eyes wide. Playing the ingenue.

  Another mock-growl—goodness, that sent a thrilling ripple through her lower abdomen—and he rolled them so he was on top of her, looking down at her, settling between her legs. His eyes softened as she met his gaze, though, and he leaned down and kissed her tenderly.

  Then not so tenderly. They tasted like each other, Pauline thought, and she tilted her hips up, asking without words.

  He reached down to feel her, and his fingers slipped in her wetness. She scrabbled at his shoulders. “Come on,” she moaned.

  He slid his cock inside her in a long, slow glide that stroked pleasure right into her, made her arch her back and gasp in a long, long breath. “Oh, God,” she murmured.

  He made a low noise of agreement and started to move. The world fell away—it was just the two of them, just the feeling of him moving in and out of her, the clench of her inner muscles around his thick cock, the way he stroked the hair off her face and leaned down to kiss her some more.

  Pauline had never felt this close to another person. She’d never known sex could be like this—something beautiful and close, as well as hot and physical. Something...almost sacred.

  Carlos caressed her side with one hand, slipping it down between them to brush over her belly and slide between her legs. He caught her clit between two fingers, and Pauline moaned in startled pleasure. It was like he’d caught the building pleasure and sharpened it into something imminent. She got a hand behind his head, fingers in his hair, and pulled him down for a fierce kiss as he thrust in and pressed down simultaneously—and she came.

  It felt like it went on forever. He kept moving inside her as she spasmed, prolonging the waves of pleasure until she wasn’t sure if it would ever end. She moaned and panted and clenched her fingers on his shoulders, and it just kept on going.

  Finally, finally, the tight spasms started to lessen, fade away. She was left with a warm golden sense of well-being, like her whole body was suffused with sunlight. She gentled the kiss, tasting her mate, and sighed into his mouth.

  Carlos seemed to relax, too. Had he been waiting for her to be done? He must have been, because the moment his grip eased, he was groaning deep in his chest as he gave himself up to his own climax. Pauline held him close as he shook through it, wondering if anyone had ever even discovered this kind of pleasure before.

  Afterwards, they lay together. Pauline took the opportunity to run her hands over him, marveling that this was her mate. These shoulders, they were hers. This collarbone—hers. The curve of his hip, the long line of his thigh. All hers.

  “What are you thinking?” he murmured as she touched him.

  She blushed. “It’s—possessive. Not very flattering.”

  “Say it,” he said into her ear.

  “You’re mine.” There was a fierceness to her voice that she wasn’t used to hearing in herself.

  “Yes,” he agreed. “All yours. Forever.”

  The words settled into her heart, and she pulled him close and shut her eyes.

  ***

  No one called before they got up.

  Pauline deliberately took her time, lingering with Carlos in bed, taking a long shower while Carlos stayed with the phone, and then switching out and waiting for him to clean up. Still nothing.

  Finally, it got late enough that it was time to go get the younger kids. Carlos pulled her into a close hug and said, “We’re going to be there for him no matter what happens.”

  That was somehow better than an, It’ll be fine, because...maybe it wouldn’t be fine. It was hard for Pauline to believe an empty assurance like that. But—she knew that they would be there for Drew. No matter what happened.

  She nodded gratefully. “No matter what,” she said.

  “And remember—we have a lot of resources right now. Really, no matter what, as long as he’s on board with accepting our help, we can make sure he comes out okay, lands on his feet.”

  “We,” Pauline repeated, marveling a little.

  Carlos nodded. “Not just me. Us.” He hesitated a little. “We could even make it legal.”

  It took her a second to realize what had just happened. She took a step back. “Carlos Gonzales, did you just propose to me?”

  He looked a little shamefaced. “I did. I should’ve waited until I had a ring and an occasion—”

  Pauline shook her head. “No. I want it, too. And what occasion could be better than talking about how we’re going to make the future as bright as it could be?”

  She didn’t mention that Gary had done up a fancy proposal, out in a park at sunset with a ring he’d saved up for. At the time, she’d been overwhelmed with joy, but in retrospect, she could see that he’d put more effort into the proposal than he had into their relationship.

  “Let’s get married,” she told him.

  Carlos leaned in and kissed her, long and lingering. “Okay,” he whispered against her mouth as he pulled back. Then he grinned. “I promise I’ll get you a ring.”

  “Nothing ostentatious,” Pauline said firmly.

  Carlos nodded, solemn. “I swear.”

  Pauline looked at the time. “Come on, we have to go get the kids.”

  They went. And it struck her that she couldn’t ask for a better promise of commitment, than right now, when they were teetering on the brink of possibly the greatest commitment a person could make: children.

  ***

  “Any news?” Stella asked quietly as they handed the kids over. “Eva hasn’t heard anything, and she’s going nuts.”

  Pauline shook her head regretfully. “I promise we’ll let you know as soon as we learn anything.”

  “Do you want to stay here? We could all make a slumber party out of it.”

  Pauline hesitated. The idea had such an appeal. It seemed so...pack-like, all of them camping together on a living room floor. Finally, though, she shook her head. “I want to be where Drew can find me if anything happens.”

  The idea was a little silly, maybe—what was going to happen? Anything that would happen would involve Drew being taken somewhere else, not finding his way home. But she could shake the idea that she needed to be there, just in case.

  And Stella just nodded. “I understand.”

  She hugged Pauline, then, and Pauline found her breath catching, tears prickling in her eyes, as she hugged back. When had she last had a close female friend? It felt like most of her friends had fallen away after the divorce—couples, all of them—and the rest had disappeared while Pauline was buried in the exhausting, depressing minutiae of caring for her dying parents.

  Now, though...maybe now she could have something like this again. Friends. More than friends—a pack.

  Stella let her go with a stern instruction not to leave them out of the loop, and Pauline promised faithfully to keep everyone apprised of what was happening. They took a chattering Troy and a sleepy Val back to her house.

  And when they arrived, Drew was sitting on her doorstep.

  Pauline was out of the car before it completely stopped moving. “Drew!” She ran forward and bent down to hug him. “Is everything...”

  “Everything’s okay,” he said immediately, standing up. “The interview went...really okay. The sheriff said there wouldn’t be any charges at all, and then she did what she said. Left me in the lobby and went to fill out some paperwork.”

  Carlos got out of the car with Val in his arms, while Troy barreled across the yard to give Drew a big, sticky hug. “Eva has a Nintendo DS,” he informed Drew.
r />   “I know,” Drew said. “It’s pretty cool, isn’t it?”

  Troy nodded vigorously. “She let me play for two whole hours.”

  “Wow, that’s a long time, dude!” Drew said. “She’s way nicer than I am.”

  Troy considered that. “Yup.”

  Drew snorted a laugh, and scooped Troy up in his arms. “I’m glad to see you, kid.”

  “Can we have dinner?” Troy asked, squirming to get down. “Pizza?”

  “You ate with Stella and Nate and Eva,” Carlos said. “They told me.”

  Troy opened his eyes wide. “There’s always room for pizza.”

  Pauline started to laugh. “No pizza,” she told him. “But you can have a snack. Come on, let’s all go inside.” She went forward to unlock the door, and added, “And you can tell us everything that happened.”

  Drew nodded.

  They all went inside, and Pauline found some crackers and applesauce and milk for Troy, who loudly informed her that pizza would’ve been superior.

  “That’s what there is, kid, so that’s what you’re getting,” Drew told him, and Troy settled in with only a little bit of a pout.

  Val got a few crackers, too, which occupied her immediately, and Pauline and Carlos sat with Drew on the couch, where they could see the kids but were mostly out of earshot. “What happened?” Carlos asked him.

  “Sheriff Dale made me tell the whole story, like, five times,” Drew said. “And she took all these notes, and she wouldn’t tell me anything about what she was going to do. And then she asked me a ton of questions about Mom and where she was, and about you guys and what you’d been doing, and all that.”

  “I hope you told her the truth,” Pauline said.

  Drew gave her a look. “Of course I did. I wasn’t going to lie after we went to all this trouble.”

  After seeing him so subdued earlier, Pauline reveled in this hint of teenage attitude. “Of course,” she murmured. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “And then she said I could go. I asked if we—the kids—could stay with you permanently, and she said she didn’t see why CPS wouldn’t approve you."

  Fear gripped Pauline’s heart. “They wouldn’t approve me as a foster mom before,” she said.

  Carlos took her hand. “Two things are going to override that now,” he said with confidence. “First, you’re the kids’ closest living relative. Second, your financial situation is about to be very different.”

  “And my married status,” Pauline realized, smiling at him. “Oh, yes.”

  “You guys are getting married?” Drew asked, looking back and forth between them.

  “As soon as possible,” Pauline told him. “I can’t remember how long it takes to get a license in Montana.”

  “We can get the ball rolling tomorrow,” Carlos said, leaning in to give her a quick kiss.

  “Ew,” said Troy, who had finished his snack and was coming over to see if anything interesting was happening. “Can we play a game or something?”

  “Sure,” Carlos told him. “What game do you want to play?”

  “Hide and seek!” Troy said immediately.

  “Sounds like fun,” Carlos said. “Who’s It first?”

  “You are!” Troy shouted, and ran off giggling. “Better start counting!” he called over his shoulder.

  Carlos looked at Pauline and Drew. “Maybe I should’ve asked if you had more to say before I agreed to this.”

  “Nope,” Pauline said, with a quick glance at Drew to confirm he was grinning. “Too late. You’re It, you can’t take it back.” She got up and looked at him. “Close your eyes and count!”

  Carlos smiled. “Okay then.” He covered his eyes and said loudly, “One...two...”

  Drew was on his way over to Val. “Val, want to hide with me?”

  “Hide seek!” Val said, squirming down from her chair.

  Pauline smiled to herself and went to find a hiding place.

  ***

  Carlos

  Carlos couldn’t remember the last time he’d played hide and seek. Especially if you didn’t count Marine stealth training exercises, which had sometimes been enjoyable, but weren’t quite the same thing.

  It was fun.

  “Ready or not, here I come!” he called to the empty room.

  Troy was immediately obvious, crouching in the space between the fridge and the back wall of the kitchen, but Carlos pretended not to see him. “Where are they?” he wondered out loud.

  A little high-pitched giggle sounded from Pauline’s room. Their room, Carlos corrected himself. He prowled inside, scenting the air. There was a toddler in here, all right.

  “Hmmm,” he said to himself. “Where are Val and Drew? Here?” He peeked in the closet. “No...here?” He looked in a dresser drawer. “No...”

  Another little giggle.

  “Here?” He looked behind the window curtain. “No....what about...here!” He dropped down to the floor, looking under the bed.

  Val burst into shrieks of laughter, scrambled out from under the bed, and made a break for the door. Carlos chased her out into the living room and caught her up, tossing her into the air. She giggled and screamed for joy.

  Drew followed more slowly, smiling. “Want me to take her?”

  “No way,” Carlos said. “Val and I are both It now. Let’s see. Where’s Troy?” He pretended to look in the hall closet, behind the couch, in the bathtub, and out the window, holding Val out to look first in each location. Finally, he came into the kitchen. “Man, he’s hiding really good. Let’s see. Could he be...here?” He jumped forward to the fridge.

  “You caught me!” Troy yelled. “Let’s play again!”

  “Wait, we haven’t found Pauline yet,” Carlos told him. “She’s really good at hiding.” He suspected he knew where she was, though. One of the windows was open.

  “Where is Pauline?” Drew asked, looking around.

  “Pauline!” Troy called, looking around. “She is good at hiding.”

  “I think I know where we might find her,” Carlos said. “Come on, let’s all go at once.” He led the kids over to the open window, in the bedroom—one of the several windows in the house without a screen. He hoisted Troy up in his free arm, and said, “One...two...three!”

  He leaned them all out the window at once, and stared up to where an owl was perched on the eaves.

  Pauline fluttered down, and Carlos took a step back from the window as she swooped inside and shifted back to human. “You caught me,” she said ruefully.

  “Shifting is cheating,” Troy told her.

  “Oh, I didn’t know!” She held a hand to her mouth. “No one told me the rules.”

  “That’s okay. You can be It this time, then.”

  Pauline smiled. “My pleasure.”

  ***

  Pauline

  Eventually, the younger children were put to bed, and Pauline, Carlos, and Drew sat down in the living room together.

  “Sheriff Dale really did seem like...like she cared a lot more about catching Ryan than about me,” Drew said finally.

  “Of course she does,” Carlos said. “Think about it from her perspective. Why should she arrest you? What would she get out of it? Especially when you’ve given valuable evidence against a truly dangerous man, one who could convince a lot more teenagers to break the law in his lifetime if he doesn’t get put away.”

  “I guess,” Drew said. He was looking a bit surprised and a bit thoughtful; Pauline wondered if the essential self-centeredness of youth had taken a more responsible turn in him. It seemed like it was hard for him to grasp the idea that his own transgressions weren’t more dire than they seemed.

  “We’ll talk to the sheriff ourselves tomorrow,” Carlos was saying. “And we’ll be putting ourselves forward as guardians for all of you.”

  “To which end we will be getting married as soon as possible,” Pauline put in.

  Carlos kissed her hand. “My fiancée is such a romantic.”

  Pauline b
lushed. “I didn’t mean—I mean, it’s to more ends than just that! We want to be married, it’s just—”

  Carlos was laughing, and even Drew had the ghost of a smile. “I was kidding,” Carlos told her, and then leaned in and murmured in her ear, almost silently, “I know that you really are a romantic.”

  She blushed harder. Because—oh, it was true. She’d tried so hard to be practical, all her life, and she’d succeeded pretty well, but all of this had proven that underneath, she’d contained such a deep well of longing, of the potential for love, of vulnerability...

  She’d always thought all of that was a weakness, because it had only given her pain. But now she was learning differently.

  A sudden, heavy pounding on the door interrupted her thoughts. Drew startled out of his chair as a deep male voice sounded outside.

  “I know you’re in there, kid!”

  It was Ryan. Here. At her house.

  Carlos was immediately on his feet. He tossed his phone to Drew. “Get in the bedroom with the kids and call the sheriff,” he growled. “You stay with them, you hear me? Make sure they’re safe and that they stay in the room and stay quiet.”

  Drew nodded, gone pale as milk, and scooted away, dialing the phone.

  Next Carlos looked at Pauline. “Call Nate.”

  Pauline nodded and dialed with shaking fingers. They had plenty of people to help them, she told herself.

  But what if they didn’t get here in time?

  ***

  Carlos

  Carlos hadn’t been in a fight since—well, since the last time he’d been here, in Glacier Park.

  And come to think of it, that had been with these exact same guys.

  What a nice, nostalgic moment this was going to be, then.

  Carlos stepped up to the door. “What the hell are you doing at my mate’s home?” he barked, in as deep and intimidating a voice as he could summon.

  There was a momentary pause. “We got no quarrel with you,” the voice said. “We just want the kid.”

  “Well,” Carlos said, “the kid’s under my protection. And if you are who I think you are, you got a taste of what my protection means a month or so ago, you and your whiny friend Todd. So you might want to just move along.”

  Another pause, and Carlos had a moment of hoping it might just be over, without any blood having to be shed.