Page 13 of Protective Tiger's Curvy Girl Crush

Then we see another woman.

She looks lost and afraid and she starts yelling for help, begging us for a phone or some way to call for help. “Just come along with us, that’s all I can do for you.”

“You’ve done enough. You belong to the pack.” The woman growls it and then, she shifts. The girls with me start to scream as the wolf advances. I just get ready to do whatever I can to make it hurt before it kills me.

Then, the giant tiger I watched go after Maxwell the wolf lands on the bitch and sinks his teeth into her throat.

Her head whips back and forth as the tiger shakes her with his powerful jaws. Her mouth starts to foam blood and she whines in a way that makes my ears hurt. But then her struggling body goes limp and the tiger disappears into the trees with it.

But not before it seems to stop and stare directly at me.

I freeze. Only when it has disappeared up a tree do I regain my senses. I turn to the other girls, who have separated and tried to huddle into the ground and foliage. “Girls! Run! Just keep running, you hear me?! Run!!”

It takes a moment but then, a few of them head off, running like crazy. The rest don’t take too long to follow. I can hear roaring again and I’m guessing the girls hear it too. “Yes, yes, run! Keep going!”

I take a step to follow them. My adrenaline races through every nerve and every muscle. I’m giddy with the thought of escape.

And then that massive tiger drops to the ground directly in my intended path.

Chapter Ten

Toni

I stare at the giant monster, and I think my mind has finally received the final dose of stimulation that is too much for me to handle. The thing is a tiger but I stand in front of it and I feel like Tinkerbell. Size wise. I feel like this tiger is so gigantic that by comparison I’m a tiny pixie.

And I’m a pixie without any fairy dust to help me fly away.

I stare in horror but the truth is what really fills my being is sadness rather than fear. I’ll never see Vance again. I’ll never have the chance to hold him again or to feel safe in his arms again. I hope the women got away. The older one showed some life at the end. I hope that sticks with her. I hope the others get their lives back.

The tiger is terrifying. Its head is bigger than my torso. It’s… hell, it wouldn’t fit in the hotel room. I have no hope here at all. It seems distracted, though, in the way animals do. It looks left and right as though it’s checking to see if there’s anything around that will make a bigger mouthful. Then it turns and looks at me.

And I know in an instant.

I see it immediately behind the blood-spattered whiskers and the terrifying danger of the beast’s physicality. I see it immediately behind the eyes of the enormous cat. “Vance!” I whisper and before I can think better of it, I have my arms around the tiger’s face. I kiss the fur between its eyes and feel the emotions rise to the surface. I hold onto handfuls of fur as I keep repeating, “Vance…Vance…Vance…Vance.”

I don’t know exactly when it happens or how it happens but somewhere along the line, I’m not holding onto that giant tiger anymore. Instead, I’m holding onto Vance’s body. His incredible body. He’s actually naked in the forest. When I realize that, I back up and stare in shock.

Then I start laughing.

He looks at me with concern etched on his face and I lift up a hand and shake my head. “No. No. I’m not going gaga. I was just…” I start giggling again and fight to get control of myself. “I just found out there really are shifters. I just found out my boyfriend is a shifter.” I really laugh through the words it takes to finish up. “But what shocks me… what freaks me out is that you’re naked in the middle of the forest.”

He chuckles along with me but then I’m back to the waterworks and I’m in his arms again. I don’t really know how long I cry but by the time I pull away from her, there are a number of naked men and women there. I guess they’re all the tigers. All of the women are there, too. They look hopeless again. It occurs to me that all of them have seem shifters nude after shifting.

“No,” I say with more laughter and tears. “No! You’re not captured again. These are your rescuers and you’re safe now!” They look unsure and I say, “They’re let any of you leave right now if you want but you should stay because we’re going to get out of the forest.”

They look a little less hopeless but not completely. A lithe looking grey tiger appears suddenly carrying a huge duffel bag. It’s absolutely beautiful. But then, the tiger shifts into the most stunning woman I’ve ever seen in my life.

Jet black hair.

Deep, perfectly deep, blue eyes the color of midnight.

A face designed by a roman sculptor charged with carving the face of Aphrodite.

A body designed for one purpose and one purpose alone—to make men want it.

And the woman walks up to us and kisses Vance’s cheek.

And my world ends.

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