Tamed by a Tiger

August was finding it impossible to concentrate on anything Cavanaugh was saying about prides and appropriate greetings that should happen at the start of a meeting with one.

He had been doing just fine, scribbling notes like a damn school kid in the pad opened on the round white plastic table in front of him, until forty-three minutes ago, when he had been talking to Cavanaugh about his failing sex life and waxing lyrical about all the females he had bedded in those halcyon days before he had become alpha.

He had caught the most bewitching scent he had ever smelled, an intoxicating blend of cinnamon and snow, spicy but soothing, and had turned his head in time to see the black-haired female from last night standing in the entrance of the kitchen.

Her striking amber eyes had been as round as twin suns as she had stared at him.

The big male who had been with her last night, a wall of muscle and menace with silver hair and icy eyes, had been swift to usher her away, and August had heard him mutter about finding somewhere else.

Ever since then, he had been wondering where this somewhere else was that he had taken her.

“Earth calling August.”

He blinked himself back to Cavanaugh, who sighed as he stood, the legs of his chair scraping on the tiles as he pushed it back.

“You need some coffee?” His cousin crossed the small distance between the table and the basic kitchen to August’s right, plucked the jug from the machine and frowned as he lifted it. It was almost empty. His dark grey eyes shifted back to August. “I can make a fresh pot.”

August didn’t think coffee was going to save him.

He had tried concentrating. Really tried. He looked down at the pad and grimaced at the doodles all over it. His fingers had obviously wandered as much as his mind. He hadn’t taken in anything Cavanaugh had told him.

“I think I need some air.” What he really needed to do was clear his head and evict the dark beauty from it, but that probably wasn’t going to happen.

Something about her had him fired up.

Which was a monumental fucking achievement given the recent death of his libido.

He pushed his chair back, stood, and scrubbed a hand across his tired eyes.

“Give me fifteen?” He looked to Cavanaugh, hoping his cousin would be alright with the break, because he wasn’t going to be much use to him if he couldn’t find his focus again.

Cavanaugh shrugged. “Go for it. I’ll check on Eloise.”

August wanted to pick him up on his choice of words. Check on Eloise? It was pretty crap code for fooling around with his mate. He couldn’t hold it against Cavanaugh though. His cousin should have been in bed, enjoying sleeping with his mate, but here he was teaching August the ABCs of running a pride. If Cavanaugh wanted to use the break to make out with Eloise, that was fine with him.

He nodded and walked out of the room, his feet heavy as he tried to figure out where to go and tried not to think about where Cavanaugh was going.

Five months without sex.

Hadn’t even thought about it.

Not a single urge.

He turned right and followed the corridor, intending to head up the smaller staircase to the roof.

The scent of cinnamon and snow teased his senses.

August followed it through the building, unable to stop himself from tracking her. It led him to the stairs and then downwards, towards the ground floor of the nightclub. Heat bloomed in his blood and his pulse quickened, his senses sharpening as he focused on her scent, homed in on it and ignored everything else.

Hunted her.

Five months, and now he couldn’t think of anything else.

Gods, he wanted her.

He had wanted her the moment he had set eyes on her.

It was just the sudden release from the pressure of being an alpha. That was all. Cavanaugh was right and being away from the pride was doing him good. He felt free again, energised, and back to his old self.

A player again at last.

That was the only reason he wanted the beautiful female who smelled of cinnamon and snow, who set his blood on fire and had his heart beating faster whenever he saw her, and a deep urge to seize her blazing through him.

Hell, if he headed into the club tonight, he would probably want any number of the females who lined the bar, could scratch this itch with his choice of them and be done with it.

Maybe he would scratch the itch a few times.

Make the most out of being away from the pride.

His libido was bound to take a hit again the moment he returned.

He might as well enjoy it.

His feet carried him downwards.

Towards her.

Did she belong to the male he had seen her with? The two were close, and the silver-haired male guarded her as if she was precious to him. It would be just his luck if she was. The first female he had wanted in months, and she belonged to someone else.

A door opened and closed off to his left as the large white room came into view and he glanced there.

The male.

He slowed his pace as the male approached, and nodded as he jogged up the stairs towards him.

The male suddenly stopped. “Have you seen Talon? We were looking for him but we can’t find him or Sherry.”

August had met Talon once, shortly after he had arrived. “The only time I’ve seen Talon, he was on the roof, sunbathing with the pretty bartender.”

The male snarled at him. “That bartender is my brother’s mate.”

Brother. Interesting.

He looked the male up and down, seeing the family resemblance. The male shared Talon’s features, smelled similar in a way, but the scent of the female lingered on him. He wanted to growl at that.

He held himself together, clamped down on that need, and said, “Did you bring your mate to meet your brother?”

The male’s silvery eyebrows rose high on his forehead and then dropped, a crinkle forming between them and a flicker of confusion crossing his pale blue eyes. “Mate?”

“The black-haired female I saw you with.” August tried to say that as casually as he could while the need to rip the male apart warred with a sudden bout of nerves that the male might see right through him and rip him apart instead.

His eyes turned a shade darker blue but shone a little brighter around his pupils. “My sister. We’re just stopping by to see Talon on our way through London.”

Through London?

“Where are you going?” August regretted that question the second it left his lips.

The tiger’s face darkened, his eyes narrowing as he frowned at August, and his voice became a low growl. “That’s none of your business.”

August stood his ground, unwilling to let the tiger intimidate him. The male stepped up to him, his eyes on August’s the whole time, and then huffed and moved on, heading up the stairs.

Moody son of a bitch.

It didn’t stop August from wanting to know where they were going.

He wasn’t sure why he needed to know.

Maybe it was just that itch to fuck she had ignited in him.

He wanted to know her schedule so he knew whether he had time to win her over and bed her.

He looked down to his left.

At a door in the white wall.

A door that would lead to her.

He kept his eyes locked on it as he took the last few steps, as he turned, and as he walked towards it, drawn to it, and to her.

He needed to see her again.

Needed her.

He reached out and gripped the steel handle, and paused, breathed through a sudden rush of feelings, a collision of fear and desire that was foreign and unsettling. Five months without sex wasn’t long enough to dampen his charm, and definitely wasn’t long enough to make him forget all the right moves to make, the ones that would ensure she fell into his arms and into his bed for one wild night with no strings attached.

So why the hell was he on the verge of having a panic attack?

It was just sex. That was all he wanted from her. All he wanted from anyone.

He shoved the door open.

Froze.

Gods.

She was beautiful.

The tiger standing opposite him in the makeshift gym lifted her head and stared at him through bright amber eyes, her pupils dilating as she spotted him.

That feeling ignited again, fiercer than before, sending a hot shiver over his skin.

She dropped the barrel she had been attacking in the middle of the large space and growled at him.

Fired every damn instinct he had and triggered a need to dominate her, to drive her into submission.

August bared his emerging fangs and growled right back at her.

He wasn’t sure whether she would understand the message—that he wasn’t going to submit to her.

She was going to submit to him.

She went deathly still, not a single muscle twitching, her eyes locked on him.

His heart accelerated, his breath coming quicker as he waited.

Waited.

Maybe this was going to be easier than he had thought and she was just going to roll over for him.

Two hundred pounds of tiger suddenly leaped at him.

Maybe not.