To Tempt A Tiger(42)

“I’ll get it worked out. You better warn your parents my brothers are coming again.”

“They’ll put them off and cover our backs. They’re so protective, they wouldn’t give anything away even if they knew all the details.”

He smiled a little. “I used to worry they were so protective of you they were going to try chasing me off before I could marry you.”

She snorted. “They’re more likely to chase you off now than they would have been back then.”

She stared at him for a long, silent moment as memories of better times mixed with the years of pain in between. Alexis cleared her throat, bringing them back to their surroundings.

“I don’t want to put you out or worry Zoe if she gets up early and spots a stranger on the couch, so I’ll head out. I’ll come back at a more reasonable hour and you can introduce us.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Rose waved off her offer. “You sound like Vlad. I’ll crawl into bed with Zoe. You can take my bed. You must be exhausted.”

“I’m okay. Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m probably not going to sleep much more tonight anyway.”

“Try,” Vlad said, putting a hand on her shoulder and squeezing lightly. “It’s going to be a big day.”

She stared up at him, worry clutching her stomach, overriding her reaction to his touch. “She’ll be all right?”

“She’ll be fine. I promise.”

She nodded, but his promise didn’t ease her worries at all. Not now. She motioned them all down the hallway to the bedrooms. After she’d seen Alexis into her room, she crawled into bed next to Zoe, snuggling up with her daughter. This wasn’t the first time she’d done this. Anytime Zoe had an episode, or Rose worried about an episode coming on, she shared a bed with her. It was worth the kicks and occasional punches from her restless daughter to know she was breathing through the night.

Despite her prediction, having the warm, sweet-smelling comfort of Zoe with her allowed Rose to drift back into sleep. All the worries and fear would wait until morning.



“I’m more nervous than she is,” Rose whispered to Vlad as they gathered in the living room after breakfast, readying for Zoe’s first lesson.

“Why you nervous, Mommy?”

Rose sighed. This little girl and her hearing. “I’m nervous to see your first lesson, baby. Just like I was nervous the first time you went to daycare, even though I knew you’d have fun. That was fun, right?”

“Yes.” She nodded with her entire upper body.

“This will be fun, too. I’m just excited for you.”

“Me, too. Wanna be a tiger.”

Alexis met Rose’s gaze and smiled. “This is a good start.”

Hopefully, Rose thought.

Alexis motioned everyone to sit, then settled on the floor, resting on her knees so her face was level with Zoe’s where she sat on the couch. “Okay, I’m going to show you how to turn into a tiger, but it’s going to take some time. So no rushing. This is very serious and important stuff.” She gave the little girl a level look and Zoe nodded solemnly.

Rose pressed her lips together so she wouldn’t grin.

“I need to show you how I turn into a tiger first. We call this shifting. Can you say that?”

“Ssshhhhifing.”

“Close enough. In order to shift, I have to take off my clothes.”

Zoe nodded, not even blinking at that. Yet another surprise reaction. Rose was starting to feel like she didn’t know her daughter at all.

“You are just going to watch at first. I’ll show you how I shift and then how I get back into a people body. This takes a little time and it can look pretty gross. How do you feel about gross things like frogs and slimy worms?”

“Yay, worms!”

Alexis laughed. “That’s what I thought.” She glanced at Rose. “This is a great age for her to learn, because everything is fun.”

Rose was still processing how easily Zoe had taken to Alexis. She just accepted her as one of Vlad’s friends and another person who could turn into a tiger. Rose was having a harder time with this new reality than her daughter.

In some ways, she was grateful for that. Especially since Zoe was the one who had to learn to become a tiger.

Alexis gave Zoe a few more details about the way her body would move and parts would look weird and fur would sprout up. Then she went into detail on how she triggered the shift.

“I picture my body feeling like a tiger. I feel my big, heavy paws. I feel the fur on my skin, the way my ears can twitch, the swish of my tail. I relax and…let my tiger out. Now, once my tiger starts to come out, I don’t resist or try to stop it. Okay? That just hurts. When I relax and let go, it doesn’t hurt. Does that make sense?”