Page 2 of Deadly Tiger's Single Dad Crush

I let out a long sigh and then, my mind immediately jumped right back to the image of Daniel, half naked and motioning me to his bed. The fantasy unfolds slowly, but my hands start moving faster as he approaches me in my fantasy.

He’s all mine in my imagination and I don’t want to share him.

Chapter Two

Daniel

The television says that tigers hunt using a variety of strategies. The announcer trying to sound dramatic says, “These giants of the cat world stalk, ambush, chase, and swim to catch their prey.” It’s an interesting thing for me to watch one of these nature shows. We’ve almost reached the point where natural science has gotten accurate. “Tigers are known for their stealthy approach, where they carefully stalk their prey from behind until they are close enough to pounce.”

I take a sip of my bourbon and let it burn its way down my throat. I have a nice house. All tigers have nice houses, I think. It’s part of our culture, an admiration for beauty and, I suppose, regality. The biggest problem is that our homes tend to stand out against others in the neighborhoods. This is why I have our house set very close to the front property line. This makes it seem like we have a small yard from the front.

The house sits on the lot in a way that the elevation of the front makes someone on the street unaware of how big it is. The backyard is landscaped like a king’s garden with fountains,topiary, and luxury. Only those I know get to see that sort of thing. Although shifters are known to the world, most people still don’t believe in our existence. Most shifters, me included, don’t want our personal nature to be common knowledge.

“Tigers use their powerful legs and sharp claws to hide and launch a quick attack on their prey. However, tigers only chase and pursue prey over short distances when the prey is already weakened.”

“Well, that’s not true,” a lovely, lilting voice says. I turn my head to see Samantha, who has a towel in her hand and wears a tee shirt and pajama bottoms. She’s dabbing at her beautiful hair. It’s like a princess’s, her hair, almost ringlets of natural curls.

“Why, hello,” I say with a smile. She smiles in return and, as always, I remind myself she’s twenty years younger than me and I have no business feeling how I feel about her. “I didn’t think you were home until I heard you in the shower.”

“Yep. I’m boring and have no nightlife,” she says with a giggle.

“So, what’s not true?”

She sits on the other end of the couch and says, “Only.”

“Only?”

“That word. Tigers indeed chase for short distances and they chase weakened or injured prey. But that’s true of every one of the big cats as well as the large cats.”

“Big and large cats?”

“Why do you sound like a professor trying to test me?” She asks, laughing. “A big cat belongs to the genus Panthera. That means they can roar. A large cat is just big.”

“So, a big cat has to be like a Cheetah?”

She smiles again and says, “I can’t shake the feeling you already know. Are you teasing me? No, not a big cat. Cheetahs are large cats. Bobcats and other wildcats are large cats. Lynxes,large cats. Cougars, large cats. The big cats are lions, jaguars, leopards, snow leopards, and tigers.”

“How do you know all this?” I ask.

She shakes her head. “No way, pal. I’m sure you already knew everything I’m saying and you didn’t get it from a television show. Did you do a safari or something?”

As if on cue, the television says, “Tigers have striped coats that help them blend into their surroundings. Tigers in savannahs have a lighter orange color to allow them to blend into the tall grasses.” On-screen, it shows a man in stereotypical safari khaki staring through binoculars.

“I haven’t made that big adventure, no. I don’t have much of a nightlife or any life, either, so no to the safari thing. I just find big cats fascinating, especially tigers.” I hope the goofy answer takes the heat off.

And it does. “Yeah, they’re pretty amazing animals. At the zoo, it’s part of my job to lead the guided tour to the tiger exhibit so, you know, I have all these facts pretty much ingrained in my brain.”

“Well, you do seem to know your stuff.”

She smiles at me and her eyes light up. I’m very aware of the distance between the two of us. The couch feels smaller.

She leans toward me a little and the distance shrinks again. “Hey, you should bring the boys to the zoo next time I’m working. I can get some behind-the-scenes stuff I think you’d really like.”

I cough and lean back a little. I hear the narrator shifting gears on the TV. The female tiger has entered the orbit of the male tiger. He may use many tactics to attract her, including vocalizing and chemical signaling, which might involve urine spray or gland secretions.

I’m suddenly thinking of Bridget. The narrator drones on. “The tigers will mate up to fifty times a week. They don’t mate for life and the male tiger will have many partners ...”

My wife was a rarity, a human, not another shifter, and she was my world. Tigers in the wild may go from female to female, but that isn’t how shifter culture usually operates. Bridget was meant to be my one and only.

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